Diesel electric, twin screw, length 303 feet, beam 52 feet, draft 19.8 feet. Built at Aerojet General Shipyards, Jacksonville, Florida, 1964-1966. In service 1966-1996. Served throughout world oceans studying all aspects of oceanography, transited from East Coast of United States to West Coast via North Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific making many good-will stops along the way in 1967 and then completed its circumnavigation when it returned to the Atlantic Ocean in 1969. Highlights of the Oceanographer’s career include: taking part in the BOMEX study, the first large-scale coordinated air-sea interaction study in 1969; conducting environmental base-line studies on deep ocean mining (DOMES); and being the first American Government vessel to be allowed into a port of the Peoples’ Republic of China in 1980 since the Communist revolution in 1948. The ship worked world-wide and was the flagship of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and then NOAA fleet for many years.