USNS Wyman (T-AGS-34)

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USNS Wyman T-AGS-34.jpg
NAVOCEANO (Naval Oceanographic Office) Bulletin, March 1994 photo of USNS Wyman (T-AGS-34) captioned: "Refurbishments provides ship with extensive shallow-water survey capability"
Career
Name: USNS Wyman
Builder: Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Laid down: 18 July 1968
Launched: 30 October 1969
Acquired: 3 November 1971
Struck: 3 May 1999
Fate: Unknown
General characteristics
Class and type: Wilkes-class hydrographic survey ship
Displacement: 2,596 long tons (2,638 t) light
Length: 286 ft 7 in (87.35 m)
Beam: 48 ft (15 m)
Draft: 15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion: ALCO diesel engines, General Electric electric drive, 3,000 shp (2,237 kW), single shaft
Speed: 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph)
Complement: 12 officers, 30 crew, 28 survey party
Armament: None

USNS Wyman (T-AGS-34) was an oceanographic survey vessel laid down on 18 July 1968 by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company of Bay City, Michigan. Launched on 30 October 1969, sponsored by Mrs. Francis J. Blouin, wife of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral F. J. Blouin; she was accepted by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) on 19 November 1971 at the Boston Naval Shipyard. J. H. Blythe was the ship's first civil service master.

Wyman, designed and built to conduct hydrographic and oceanographic studies and operated by a civilian crew, served with MSC under the technical direction of the Oceanographer of the Navy. Initially assigned to MSC Atlantic, Wyman was transferred to MSC Pacific on 16 November 1974 for a brief tour of duty that lasted into the summer of 1975. She was returned to MSC Atlantic at Port Canaveral, Florida, on 21 August 1975 and remained active with that fleet into 1979.

The ship's original echo sounding equipment and Hydrographic Dataa Acquisition System (HYDAS)[1] was replaced in the mid 1970s by a new narrow beam swath system. The swath array, replacing the single beam system, was the Bottom Topography Survey Subsystem (BOTOSS) and the processing system, replacing HYDAS, was the Bathymetric Survey System (BASS)[2]. The initial BOTOSS hull mounting was subject to air bubble interference so that a new arrangement on a fairing and foil mounted on the keel was required to house the array elements[3] during a 1974-1975 period in a West Coast yard.

Wyman was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 3 May 1999, and transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) for disposal. Currently laid up at the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) at Suisun Bay, CA.

References

  1. http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/10/09103404.jpg | NavSource: Wyman Welcome Aboard brochure, inside pages (image)
  2. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA024853 | ARL Technical Support during BOTOSS (abstract)
  3. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA055014 | Flow Observations and Speed Loss Prediction for USNS WYMAN (T-AGS-34) with an External Bottom Topological Survey System (BOTOSS) (abstract)

External links