АҚШ кемесі "Альбатрос": Теңіз зерттеулеріне арналған алғашқы ғылыми кеме

The second USS Albatross, often seen as USFC Albatross in scientific literature citations, was an iron hulled, twin screw steamship in the United States Navy and reputedly the first research ship ever built especially for marine research.

Albatross was laid down at Wilmington, Delaware by Pusey and Jones in March 1882. She was launched on 19 August 1882, and commissioned on 11 November 1882, with Lt. Zera L. Tanner in command. Tanner, who had superintended the ship's design and construction, commanded Albatross, a Navy crewed ship assigned to the United States Fish Commission, a civilian government agency, for nearly 12 years. Albatross had an iron hull with a registered length of 60.96 m, 8.41 m beam and 5.06 m depth. Her tonnages were , and displacement. She had two screws, each powered by a two cylinder compound steam engine. Between them, her twin engines were rated at 109 NHP and gave her a speed of .

Following trial operations between Wilmington and Washington, D. C. from 30 December 1882 to 13 February 1883, Albatross returned to her builder's yard for engine alterations. While steaming back to Washington, the ship experimented with her dredging equipment, and arrived at the nation's capital on 25 March 1883. She left the Potomac River on 24 April and proceeded to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which was her base for several months of operations investigating the "migrations of mackerel, menhaden, and other migratory species." During this period, she also made shorter dredging trips out of Woods Hole to the Gulf Stream and the tilefish grounds. Over the first months of 1884, the ship operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, and, at the Navy's request, conducted hydrographic work in the Caribbean, carrying out "biological investigations" afloat and ashore. From 12 July to 23 October 1884, she operated principally between Woods Hole and the nation's capital, but also ranged from the Virginia capes to the Gulf of Maine. As she plied these waters, her embarked scientists observed the movements of surface fish, examined the former tilefish grounds, and studied the "influence of the Gulf Stream on bottom fauna." While underway, she also made dredge hauls and conducted fishing trials. "At (the) service of the Secretary of the Navy" between 26 August and 2 September, Albatross took part in the review of the North Atlantic Squadron. The ship spent the first half of 1885 making cruises from Washington to Pensacola, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to look into the red snapper banks and fisheries of the gulf. While visiting New Orleans from 20 February to 1 March 1885, the ship was a major attraction in the Fish Commission exhibit at the International Exposition then being held in that city. For the latter part of the year, she cruised from Washington to Woods Hole, investigated the Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, and looked into the fishing banks off the Virginia and Delaware capes. Early in 1886, Albatross proceeded to the Bahamas on a fishery and hydrographic survey; then spent the latter part of the year examining the cod and halibut banks off the Canadian Maritime provinces and dredging off Woods Hole. For much of 1887, Albatross lay in port at either Washington or Baltimore, readying herself for a cruise to the Pacific. Only one brief cruise interrupted these preparations. From 5 to 9 April, she steamed to Norfolk from the nation's capital to familiarize officers assigned to the steamship Thetis with the dredging equipment that their ship would carry in her voyage to the frigid waters of the North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In the autumn, Albatross conducted a trial trip to test her newly installed boilers and then carried out sounding and dredging operations along the inner edge of the Gulf Stream.

Following a month at Woods Hole, Albatross proceeded via Washington to Norfolk, whence she got underway on 21 November 1887 to begin the long voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Albatross arrived at Punta Arenas, Straits of Magellan, on 23 January 1888 and remained at anchor there until 1 February, when she cleared the port to resume her circumnavigation of South America. During the voyage north, she briefly touched eight islands in the Galapagos group for specimens; this included Wreck Bay on Chatham Island (now San Cristóbal Island) on 4 April and Charles Island (now Floreana Island) on 8 April. The ship reached San Francisco on 11 May 1888, having completed a 15,957 mile voyage. For much of the remainder of the year, she operated between San Francisco and Alaska, exploring the waters to the south of the Alaska Peninsula and, later, in examining the area off the coasts of Washington and Oregon. Departing San Francisco on 3 January 1889, Albatross proceeded via San Diego to the Gulf of California, exploring the waters between Point Concepcion and the U. S. Mexico border and subsequently sounding the depths off lower California and examining the fishery resources in the Gulf of California and the oyster beds off Guaymas, Mexico. Returning to San Francisco on 25 April, she later proceeded to Seattle, whence she conducted fishery and hydrographic investigations off the coast of Washington and Oregon between 6 and 29 June. Between 8 and 28 July, Albatross operated from Tacoma, Washington, with four members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs embarked: Senators Henry L. Dawes, Francis B. Stockbridge, Charles F. Manderson, and John P. Jones, as the lawmakers "visited the principal Indian settlements in southeast Alaska as far north as Sitka and Juneau." Albatross cleared Port Townsend, Washington, on 1 August, bound for the Bering Sea, but – nearly 650 miles out – suffered a breakdown of her port engine on 7 August and returned to port on the 11th for repairs. Upon completion of that work on 22 August, the ship returned to sea and resumed her fishery investigations off the coast of the Pacific Northwest and California. In Portland, Oregon, during this period, between 28 September and 9 October, Albatross drew between 24,000 and 30,000 visitors during the Northern Pacific Industrial Exposition. Reaching San Francisco on 25 October 1889, the ship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard and began a general overhaul that continued until 5 March 1890. She resumed her active work soon thereafter, carrying out investigations between Point Arena and Point Concepcion, seining and sending ashore collecting parties. On 5 May 1890, Albatross sailed from San Francisco to carry out "fishery investigations in Alaskan waters and the Bering Sea . defining the fishing grounds and determining the physical and natural history features" of the region. She remained at that task through mid September, before she resumed her labors off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. Continuing to operate out of San Francisco early the following year, 1891, the ship sailed on 30 January for Panama, where she embarked the noted zoologist, Alexander Agassiz, for a special expedition authorized by President Benjamin Harrison to explore the waters off the coast of Mexico, Central America, and the region around the Galápagos Islands. Agassiz disembarked at Guaymas, Mexico, on 23 April; and Albatross returned to San Francisco on 5 May. That summer, she left San Francisco on 16 July 1891, bound for the Pribilof Islands, with Thomas Corwin Mendenhall and Clinton Hart Merriam — members of the Bering Sea Commission charged with preparing America's case to take before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris — embarked. Later, between 27 August and 14 September, Albatross carried out hydrographic work in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Over the next few months, Albatross operated out of San Francisco. Placed under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, she plied the Pacific between the west coast of the United States and the Hawaiian Islands, working towards determining "a practicable route for a telegraphic cable" between San Francisco and Honolulu. During the course of this hydrographic work (which took place between 9 October 1891 and 16 January 1892), Albatross also made a few dredge hauls and took some plankton samples. Next, temporarily assigned to the Revenue Marine Service under the Secretary of the Treasury, Albatross departed San Francisco on 19 March 1892, bound for Unalaska, Alaska, the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, to conduct fur seal investigations and gather ". . information on questions at issue between the United States and Great Britain." Among her special passengers on this cruise were a resident naturalist, a fishery expert, a special agent of the United States Treasury, and two seal hunters, one of whom was an "interpreter of Chinook jargon." In July 1892, however, leaky boilers compelled the ship to transfer the fishery expert and one seal hunter to the revenue cutter Corwin, and the resident naturalist and the other hunter to the revenue cutter Rush, to carry out what remained of her assignment as she began her return to San Francisco for repairs. En route, despite being hampered by steaming on one hastily repaired boiler, she brought in a confiscated sailing schooner to Sitka, Alaska, on 11 August and, while there, steamed out to sea and rescued the drifting whaling bark Lydia. Following yard work at Mare Island which lasted into the spring of 1893, Albatross returned to Aleutian waters and resumed her duties in connection with the Alaskan fur seal and fishery investigations. In addition, she carried out patrols as part of the United States naval force in the Bering Sea. Returning to San Francisco at the end of September 1893, the ship departed that port on 2 January 1894, and conducted a biological survey of San Diego Bay before returning to San Francisco on 30 March. Albatross sailed from her home port on 14 April, bound for the Pacific northwest and, from 19 April to 5 May, assisted in the investigation of seal and salmon fisheries in the Puget Sound region. During this period, on 1 May, Lt. Comdr. F. J. Drake relieved Lt. Comdr. Tanner, who had been in continuous command of the research ship since she had been first commissioned. Into the autumn of 1894, the ship alternately patrolled the Bering Sea and operated in the western Aleutians, as her embarked resident naturalist, fishery expert, and scientific assistant studied the fishing grounds of that region and the "pelagic habits of the fur seals and their rookeries on the Pribilof Islands." Then, her mission completed, she returned to San Francisco on 17 October 1894. Departing San Francisco on 18 May 1895, Albatross sailed again for the Bering Sea, where, over the ensuing months, she helped to enforce "regulations governing vessels employed in fur seal fishery," but operated independently of the Bering Sea fleet. She also kept an eye on the fur seals and fishing grounds, and carried out hydrographic investigations. En route home, Albatross visited New Whatcom, Washington, and was on exhibit at the state fair there, hosting visitors on 18 September 1895 and for days following. She then spent nearly a month investigating the Puget Sound salmon fisheries. Through the first four months of 1896, Albatross operated locally between San Francisco and San Diego Bay, conducting a physical and natural history survey of the latter, as well as of the Cortez and Tanner banks offshore. From 20 to 26 April, the ship took part in "La Fiesta de Los Angeles." On 17 and 18 May she took part in the official speed trials of the new battleship Oregon out of San Francisco. On 19 May 1896, Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Franklin Moser assumed command of Albatross. After investigating the oyster grounds of San Francisco Bay and the suitability of that body of water for oyster cultures, Albatross headed back to the northern Pacific. For the next six months, the ship ranged from San Francisco to the Pribilof Islands, and from the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands back to San Francisco, via Hawaii. During this cruise, she investigated the condition of the fur seal herds on the islands of the north Pacific and Bering Sea. In addition to carrying members of the United States Fur Seal Commission (whose membership included the commanding officer of the Albatross, Lt. Comdr. Jefferson Franklin Moser), she also transported two members of an independent British Commission and a photographer to the Pribilofs. Albatross returned to San Francisco on 11 December 1896 and, after a few weeks of voyage repairs, on 30 December began a provisional examination of the fishing grounds off the coast of Los Angeles County, Monterey, and in the vicinity of the Farallon Islands, to gather data for consideration in weighing the desirability of extending the limits of the offshore fisheries. Upon finishing this work on 25 April 1897, the ship began upkeep at San Francisco. Dedicated exclusively to fishery work on her next cruise, the ship stood out of San Francisco on 8 May and operated in the waters of Puget Sound and off Cape Flattery until heading further north on 29 May. Attempting to locate new halibut banks en route, she systematically studied the "streams of southeast Alaska to determine their resources, and the abundance, movements, and habits of their fishes," before ultimately returning to San Francisco on 2 November 1897. A little over a month later, the ship sailed for the Farallons on 5 December and, the following morning, planted a shipment of eastern lobster and tautog, received by rail from the east coast, in the waters off those islands. After returning to San Francisco the same day, she operated from that port from 20 December 1897 to 6 April 1898, as she served as a base for a survey of the San Diego County fisheries. On 27 March 1898, her crewmen rescued a man whose rowboat had overturned some 400 yards astern of where the ship lay at anchor.

Soon after the United States declared war on Spain, Albatross was turned over to the commandant of the navy yard at Mare Island on 21 April 1898 for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser. Her dredging and collecting equipment landed and stored at the yard, the ship underwent conversion at Union Iron Works, San Francisco, over the next few months. During this alteration, her pilot house was raised to permit construction of two additional staterooms beneath it, she received a new upper bridge, and her coal bunkers were enlarged to increase her steaming radius. In addition, the ship received a battery of two 20 pounders, two 37 millimeter guns, one 53 millimeter gun and two Gatling guns. On 11 August, the auxiliary cruiser sailed for Acapulco, Mexico, as Spanish resistance on the war's last front was collapsing. On the night of 12–13 August, news was received of the signing of the peace protocol. Albatross returned to the Mare Island Navy Yard on 8 September and landed her guns a week later. She was then returned to the United States Fish Commission under the terms of a Presidential order dated 25 August 1898.