NOAAS ''Thomas Jefferson'' (S 222) is a

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) hydrographic

survey vessel 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 ...

in service since 2003. The ship was built for 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 ...

as USNS ''Littlehales'' (T-AGS-52) serving as one of two new coastal hydrographic survey vessels from 1992 until transfer to NOAA in 2003 when it was named after

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

and third U.S. president,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

USNS ''Littlehales''

The thirdTh
first ''Littlehales''
was the former USS ''PCS-1388'' launched in 1943, named and designated AGS-7 in 1945. That ship supported landings from Iwo Jima through Okinawa and then surveyed world wide until decommissioned 12 October 1949

was the converted lighter ''YF-854'' built at the end of the war and activated and commissioned as USS ''YF-854'' until renamed and redesignated 14 February 1959 as ''Littlehales'' (AGSC-15). That vessel surveyed the Atlantic coast until being assigned to the

Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center The United States Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) is a laboratory that performs integrated three-dimensional hydrospace/aerospace trajectory measurements covering the entire spectrum of undersea simulated warfare ...

(AUTEC) from 1962 until decommissioned in 1968. hydrographic survey vessel to be named for mathematician, oceanographer, and civil engineer George Washington Littlehales, was laid down as the

USNS ''Littlehales'' (T-AGS-52) on October 25, 1989, by Halter Marine, Inc., at Moss Point,

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 ...

. Launched on February 14, 1991, she was delivered to the Navy on January 10, 1992. The ship was operated by 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 ...

with a contract crew for the

Naval Oceanographic Office The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), located at John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi, comprises approximately 1,000 civilian, military and contract personnel responsible for providing oceanographic products and services to all ...

which assigned a military and civilian hydrographic detachment to conduct coastal surveys. The ship was the second hydrographic survey ship of the type, the first being . The two ships were replacements for the much larger

coastal hydrographic survey vessels and . The new vessels were about half the length of those large survey ships with two rather than four survey launches. Contract crew size was 24 instead of 70 for the larger ships and the military and Naval Oceanographic Office civilian hydrographic detachment could be decreased from 80 to 10. With reliance on the

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

(GPS) for navigation and modern multibeam shallow-water sonar (SIMRAD EM100) and updated computer hardware and software for data processing the ships were expected to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week collecting more soundings per mile than the older ships in coastal areas at depths up to .

Operations

''Littlehales'' conducted hydrographic surveys in domestic waters in support of Navy missions and in international and foreign waters in support of the Mapping, Charting, and Geodesy (MC&G) requirements of the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

and its predecessor organization the Defense Mapping Agency. Those MC&G requirements support all military operations and also civilian mariners with products outside the U.S. territorial waters that are the charting responsibility of NOAA. Examples of such hydrographic surveys that involve collection of tide and current information as well as depths include completion in 1994 of surveys of the coast of

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

that proved valuable for naval operations during the wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1999 the ship surveyed the

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

ian coastline including detailed surveys of the

Port of Aqaba The Port of Aqaba is the only port in Jordan, and is owned by Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) and has 12 terminals operated by five operators: the Aqaba Company for port management and operation; Aqaba Container Terminal; Industrial Port Co ...

. During 2001 ''Littlehales'' surveyed the harbor and approaches

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 20 ...

and experienced petty piracy early in the morning of 14 May when the watch noticed a small boat with eight persons which sped off with subsequent discovery that six mooring lines were missing. Examples of operations in domestic waters include surveys from 29 October 2001 to 28 January 2002 of the area of King's Bay, Georgia and St. Marys River approaches. Unclassified extracts of the classified surveys done for the

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is a base of the United States Navy located adjacent to the city of St. Marys in Camden County, Georgia, on the North River in southeastern Georgia, and 38 miles (61 km) from Jacksonville, Florida. The Submari ...

were provided to NOAA which surveyed to fill gaps. The ship was also involved in test and evaluation of new systems. An example is work involving the Deep Ocean Logging Platform with Hydrographic Instrumentation and Navigation (DOLPHIN), a diesel powered semi-submersible for surveying. The

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

(NRL) was tasked to evaluate the vehicle in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Naval Oceanographic Office and the Canadian Hydrographic Service. ''Littlehales'', NOAAS ''Whiting'' (S 329) and DOLPHIN surveyed parts of the Norfolk Canyon off Cape Charles, Virginia.

Transfer to NOAA

The ship was stricken from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

on February 27, 2003, and transferred to NOAA on March 3, 2003.

NOAAS ''Thomas Jefferson''

The ship was commissioned into the NOAA Atlantic Fleet as NOAAS ''Thomas Jefferson'' (S 222) on July 8, 2003, at

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, as a replacement for the NOAA survey ship NOAAS ''Whiting'' (S 329). ''Thomas Jefferson''s home port is Norfolk. ''Thomas Jefferson'', "The Most Productive Survey Vessel In The World", is designed to collect hydrographic data from depths of between 10 meters (33 feet) and 4,000 meters (13,123 feet). She has of

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 ...

space and of scientific storage space. She carries

and

Loran-C Loran-C is a hyperbolic radio navigation system that allows a receiver to determine its position by listening to low frequency radio signals that are transmitted by fixed land-based radio beacons. Loran-C combined two different techniques to p ...

receivers and a

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 ...

ized data-collection system. She has a roll stabilization tank and a

collision avoidance system A collision avoidance system (CAS), also known as a pre-crash system, forward collision warning system, or collision mitigation system, is an advanced driver-assistance system designed to prevent or reduce the severity of a collision. In its ...

. ''Thomas Jefferson'' has of deck working space. Her deck equipment features two

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 ...

es; two fixed, telescopic, 7-

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

-capacity cranes; and a C-frame. ''Thomas Jefferson'' is equipped with an intermediate depth multibeam swath survey system. The vessel carries two aluminum survey launches equipped with multibeam swath and single-beam echo sounders and a hydrographic data acquisition system. There is an additional

rigid-hulled inflatable boat A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are ...

which serves as a fast rescue boat. Among the scientific equipment are conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensors, three

side-scan sonar Side-scan sonar (also sometimes called side scan sonar, sidescan sonar, side imaging sonar, side-imaging sonar and bottom classification sonar) is a category of sonar system that is used to efficiently create an image of large areas of the sea ...

units, and

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

sampling equipment. ''Thomas Jefferson'' utilizes Kongsberg EM2040, EM710, and Klien 5000 Side Scan Sonar The ship has a total of 36 bunk spaces. Capacity for 22 people to eat at time can be found in the mess rooms.

Operational history

In April 2003, after her transfer from the Navy to NOAA but before being commissioned into the NOAA fleet, the ship conducted surveys of the approaches to the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

. In 2004, ''Thomas Jefferson'' deployed her survey launches to participate in a

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

of the sedimentary characteristics of Great Round Shoal at the far eastern edge of

Nantucket Sound Nantucket Sound_(geography), Sound is a roughly triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean offshore from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is long and wide, and is enclosed by Cape Cod on the north, Nantucket on the south, and Martha's Vineyard on ...

. ''Thomas Jefferson'' got underway from Norfolk in 2005 for the

United States Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...

, where she played an active role in the response to

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

and

Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the top ten L ...

by surveying

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

areas for obstructions. She surveyed the approaches to the

Pascagoula The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an indigenous group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River. The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Mobilian Jargon term meaning "bread people". Choctaw na ...

and Gulfport, Mississippi, ship channels, and repaired the

tide gauge A tide gauge is a device for measuring the change in sea level relative to a vertical datum. It its also known as mareograph, marigraph, sea-level recorder and limnimeter. When applied to freshwater continental water bodies, the instrument may ...

at Pascagoula. She then conducted post-Rita surveys of the approaches to

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, and Port Arthur,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. In 2006, ''Thomas Jefferson'', in collaboration with the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

and the Institute for International Maritime Research, conducted a ten-day marine archaeological survey in a 74-square nautical mile (254-square kilometer) area off the coast of the Virginia-

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

border, employing

, a multibeam

echosounder Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and return of a pulse; ...

and a

magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...

in the hope of discovering the wreck of a ship that sank in the area in the early 17th century, the existence of which had been suggested in 1983 when

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...

hauled up a 400-year-old

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

in the area. The team identified approximately 200 targets in all, with 20 to 50 having the most promise of being the remains of a wooden ship from that period. It also documented numerous previously unknown dangers to navigation, including three unidentified

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

s. In the autumn of 2006, ''Thomas Jefferson'' conducted hydrographic survey operations in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

, deploying her two survey launches to update the

nautical chart A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land (topographic map), natural features of the seabed, details of the coa ...

s for the area. Most of the project area was previously surveyed prior to 1982 and parts had not been surveyed since 1927. The work was challenging for the launches because of the busy shipping traffic in the harbor and currents from the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

, and

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. ''Thomas Jefferson''s survey resulted in the discovery of many unknown and forgotten small wrecks in

Rockaway Inlet Rockaway Inlet is a strait connecting Jamaica Bay, wholly within New York City, with the Atlantic Ocean. It separates the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens from the Floyd Bennett Field (formerly Barren Island) in Brooklyn. Rockaway Inlet is bounded ...

. On 6 April 2010, ''Thomas Jefferson'' departed Norfolk bound for the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

to conduct a five-month-long effort to map the seafloor, searching for hazards to navigation. On 26 May 2010, ''Thomas Jefferson'' was underway on a mission to deploy United States Navy ocean monitoring instruments near the

BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered ...

. On 21 June 2013, ''Thomas Jefferson'' held a wreath-tossing ceremony on the 153rd anniversary of the sinking of the

United States Coast Survey United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

steamer USCS ''Robert J. Walker'', which had sunk after a collision on 21 June 1860 in the Atlantic Ocean off

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. It was the first commemoration ever held for the 20 men lost in the sinking, the largest loss of life in a single incident in the history of NOAA and its ancestor agencies. Lacking exact locating data for the wreck, ''Thomas Jefferson'' held the ceremony in the general area where ''Robert J. Walker'' had sunk. Later in the day, ''Thomas Jefferson'' used multibeam sonar and sidescan sonar to identify with 80 percent certainty the exact location and identity of ''Robert J. Walker''s wreck for the first time. NOAA divers confirmed the wrecks identity on 23 June 2013.noaa.gov U.S. Coast Survey Steamer Robert J. Walker
/ref> On September 20, 2017

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Saffir–Simpson scale#Category 5, Category 5 Tropical cyclone, hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the wo ...

made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm after ravaging the U.S. Virgin Islands. As the storm passed to the north, ''Thomas Jefferson'' transited from Port Everglades, Florida, to these islands. There the ship’s 38 officers and crew conducted multibeam echo sounder (MBES) and side scan sonar (SSS) hydrographic surveys in the island ports and bays. Survey data helped inform U.S. Coast Guard and other national/regional authorities on decisions to allow and/or restrict commerce. Over three weeks the crew surveyed 13 areas and no fewer than 18 individual port facilities, as well as conducted emergency repairs to three tide and weather stations. NOAA Ship ''Thomas Jefferson'' returned to Puerto Rico in August 2018 to conduct seafloor surveys and observe and possible shoreline changes. The ship also hosted 80 local high school students and gave them an in-depth look at the technology and capabilities of the ship.https://noaacoastsurvey.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/tj_mariaresponse_poster-2017-2.pdf Due to her unique build the ship is condered the greatest asset to the nation in regards to her service to the great lakes.

Footnotes

Notes

References

*NOAA Marine Operations, "NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson
http://www.moc.noaa.gov/tj/index.html
*NOAA Marine Operations, "NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson: All Ship Specifications
http://www.moc.noaa.gov/tj/apr_2004_tj_specs.pdf

*United States Navy, "Littlehales (AGS 52)," Naval Vessel Register, . *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. . ISSN 1057-4581.

External links

at NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas Jefferson (S 222) 1991 ships Ships built in Moss Point, Mississippi Ships of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Survey ships of the United States Virginia-related ships