USNS ''Adventurous'' (T-AGOS-13) was a ''Stalwart''-class modified tactical auxiliary general

ocean surveillance ship ''Stalwart''-class auxiliary general ocean surveillance ships ( T-AGOS) were a class of United States Naval Ship (USNS) auxiliary support Ocean Surveillance Ships commissioned between April 1984 and January 1990. Their original purpose was to co ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in service from 1988 to 1992. She was in non-commissioned service in the

Military Sealift Command Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US m ...

from 1988 to 1992, operating during the final years of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. She was transferred to the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

(NOAA) in 1992 and in 2003 was commissioned into service with NOAA as the

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

research ship A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

NOAAS ''Oscar Elton Sette'' (R 335).

Construction

The U.S. Navy awarded the contract to build ''Adventurous'' to

VT Halter Marine, Inc. VT Halter Marine, Inc. is a shipbuilding company and an American subsidiary of ST Engineering. It is located in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It specializes in ship design and construction and serves both public and private clients, including the Unit ...

, on 5 April 1985. She was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on at VT Halter Marines shipyard at

Moss Point Moss Point is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,147 in 2020, a decline from the figure of 13,704 in 2010. The Moss Point Historic District and several individual buildings are ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, on 19 December 1985 and launched on 23 September 1987. VT Halter Marine delivered her to the Navy on 19 August 1988.

U.S. Navy service

The U.S. Navy placed the ship in non-commissioned service with the

upon delivery as USNS ''Adventurous'' (T-AGOS-13). Designed to collect underwater

acoustical data Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

in support of

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

operations, ''Adventurous'' spent the final years of the Cold War towing

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

equipment to hunt for Soviet Navy

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. She operated with a mixed crew of Navy personnel and civilian merchant mariners. The Cold War ended with the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in late December 1991. The Navy withdrew ''Adventurous'' from service on 5 June 1992 and struck her from the Naval Vessel Register the same day.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration service

Acquisition and conversion

On the same day the Navy took her out of service, the ship was transferred to the

(NOAA). NOAA originally intended to assign the ship the hull number R 331 and to convert her for use as a

survey ship A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

, but after a stint as a platform for basic training in 1993 she was laid up without having undergone any modifications. She remained inactive until October 2001, when she arrived at Jacksonville,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, to undergo conversion at the Atlantic Dry Dock Corporation for use as a

. Her conversion was completed in October 2002, and she proceeded to

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, where she was commissioned on 23 January 2003 as NOAAS ''Oscar Elton Sette'' (R 335). She replaced the decommissioned fisheries research ship NOAAS ''Townsend Cromwell'' (R 443).noaa.gov NOAA Ship ''Oscar Elton Sette''
/ref>Wertheim, p. 1006.

Characteristics and capabilities

''Oscar Elton Sette'' has an oceanographic

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attache ...

with a maximum pull weight of which can deploy up to of 3/8-inch (9.5-mm) conductor cable. She also has a CTD winch with a maximum pull weight of which can deploy of 3/8-inch (9.5-mm) conductor cable, and two hydraulic

trawl Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

winches, each with a maximum pull weight of and capable of deploying of 5/8-inch (15.9-mm) steel wire. She has an articulating crane with a maximum lifting capacity of and a lifting capacity of at full extension. She has a movable A-frame with a maximum safe working load of and two movable J-frames each with a maximum safe working load of .noaa.gov NOAA Ship ''Oscar Elton Sette'' General Characteristics
/ref> ''Oscar Elton Sette'' has a 150-square-foot (sq. ft.) (13.9-square-meter) (m²)

wet laboratory A wet lab, or experimental lab, is a type of laboratory where it is necessary to handle various types of chemicals and potential "wet" hazards, so the room has to be carefully designed, constructed, and controlled to avoid spillage and contamination ...

, a 100-sq.-ft. (9.3-m²) dry

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

, a 100-sq.-ft. (9.3-m²)

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

and

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

laboratory, and a 50-sq.-ft. (4.6-m²) hydrographic laboratory. She also has a 50-sq.-ft. (4.6-m²) scientific freezer and a 50-sq.-ft. (4.6-m²) store room. ''Oscar Elton Sette'' carries a SOLAS-approved rescue boat with a 315-

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

(235-

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

) motor and a capacity of six people, two 17-foot rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs), each with a 115-horsepower (86-kilowatt) motor and a capacity of seven people, and three 18-foot inflatable boats, each with a 50-horsepower (37-kilowatt) motor and a capacity of 11 people. To enhance the safety of underwater diving operations in remote areas, ''Oscar Elton Sette'' has a

recompression chamber A diving chamber is a vessel for human occupation, which may have an entrance that can be sealed to hold an internal pressure significantly higher than ambient pressure, a pressurised gas system to control the internal pressure, and a supply of ...

to allow immediate treatment of divers showing symptoms of decompression sickness ("the bends"). In addition to her crew of 22, ''Oscar Elton Sette'' can accommodate up to 20 scientists.

Service history

From her home port of Honolulu, ''Oscar Elton Sette'' operates throughout the central and western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in support of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, also located in Honolulu and a component of NOAAs

National Marine Fisheries Service The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stew ...

(NMFS). She conducts fisheries assessment surveys, physical and chemical

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reli ...

projects, and

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

research, collecting

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

and

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s using bottom trawls, longlines, and fish traps. She uses plankton nets and surface and mid-water laval nets to collect

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

, fish larvae, and eggs. She also routinely supports underwater diving operations.NOAA Ship ''Oscar Elton Sette'' flier
/ref> ''Oscar Elton Sette'' also is actively involved in NMFS Honolulu Coral Reef Restoration cruises, which concentrate scientific efforts on removing discarded

marine debris Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created waste that has deliberately or accidentally been released in a sea or ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, frequently washing ...

and

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

gear from fragile coral reefs, as well as on classifying and analyzing the density of the debris and discarded gear.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Wertheim, Eric. ''The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, 15th Edition: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2007. .

External links

*
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: T-AGOS-13 Adventurous; NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette (R-335)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventurous (T-AGOS-13) Stalwart-class ocean surveillance ships Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States Ships built in Moss Point, Mississippi 1987 ships Ships of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA ex-U.S. Navy Stalwart-class oceanographic research ships Fisheries science