USNS ''Mary Sears'' (T-AGS 65) is a oceanographic

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 ...

. It is the sixth ship of its class. ''Mary Sears'' is named after Commander Mary Sears of the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...

, who was instrumental in the development of the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...

and is regarded as one of the initial oceanographers in 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 ...

. The ship has sonar, underwater metal detection and satellite imagery capabilities. In mid January 2007, ''Mary Sears'' deployed to

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

, Indonesia to aid in the search for the missing

Adam Air Flight 574 Adam Air Flight 574 (KI574 or DHI574) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Adam Air between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya and Manado that crashed into the Makassar Strait near Polewali in Sulawesi on 1 January 2007. All 102 ...

. On 24 January 2007, it was reported by the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta that ''Mary Sears'' reported detecting pinger signals, at a depth of on the same frequency as those of the lost aircraft's cockpit voice recorder, located in the area where the aircraft is believed to have gone down. ''Mary Sears'' had also detected "heavy debris scattered over a wide area".

References

External links

*
Biography of Mary Sears at Naval History and Heritage Command
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) Pathfinder-class survey ships Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi 2000 ships