USC&GS Lester Jones (ASV-79)

USC&GS Lester Jones (ASV-79)
Career (United States)
Name:	E. Lester Jones
Namesake:	Ernest Lester Jones
Owner:	Summer Wind Enterprises
Operator:	Summer Wind Charters
Port of registry:	USA
Route:	Pacific Coast
Builder:	Astoria Marine Company, Astoria, Oregon
Completed:	1940
Commissioned:	1940
Decommissioned:	1967
Maiden voyage:	1940
In service:	1940
Out of service:	1967
Renamed:	MV Summer Wind
Homeport:	Seattle
General characteristics
Type:	Survey ship
Tonnage:	128
Length:	88 ft (27 m)
Beam:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Draft:	8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion:	Twin Cooper Bessemer EN-6 medium speed diesel engines

USC&GS Lester Jones (ASV-79) was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1940 to 1967.

Lester Jones was built by Astoria Marine Company at Astoria, Oregon in 1940 and entered Coast and Geodetic Survey that year. She served in the Pacific during her Survey career, mostly in Alaskan waters.

Lester Jones was retired in 1967 and sold at auction. Since that time, she has been in private hands and operated as a liveaboard and cruising yacht. She is currently based in Seattle and is called the Summer Wind. The original Cooper-Bessemer direct reversing main propulsion engines are still operating and in excellent shape.

References

• NOAA History, A Science Odyssey: Tools of the Trade: Ships: Coast and Geodetic Survey Ships: Lester Jones

Lester Jones underway.

Lester Jones aground on the mudflats of the Nushagak River in Alaska ca. 1950.