NOAAS Peirce

USC&GS Peirce (CSS 28) is launched by the Marietta Manufacturing Company at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in October 1962.

Peirce was built a cost of $2,300,000 (USD) as a "coastal survey ship" (CSS) for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey by the Marietta Manufacturing Company at Point Pleasant, West Virginia.[1] She was launched in October 1962 and delivered in May 1963.[2][3] The Coast and Geodetic Survey commissioned her on 6 May 1963[4] at the Alabama State Docks in Mobile, Alabama,[4] as USC&GS Peirce (CSS 28),[2][3][5] the first and only Coast and Geodetic Survey ship of the name. When the Coast and Geodetic Survey and other United States Government agencies merged to form NOAA on 3 October 1970, Peirce became a part of the NOAA fleet as NOAAS Peirce (S 328), thus far the only NOAA ship to bear the name.

Peirce had a two-drum oceanographic winch with a maximum pull of 1,500 pounds (680 kg). The upper drum had 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) of 0.3-inch (7.62-mm) electrical cable, while the lower drum had 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) of 5/16-inch (7.9-mm) cable. She had a 27-foot (8.2-meter) telescoping boom with a lifting capacity of 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) and a 27-foot (8.2-meter) articulating boom with a lifting capacity of 2,768 pounds (1,256 kg), as well as a movable A-frame.[3]

For acoustic hydrography and bathymetry, the ship had a deep-water echosounder, a shallow-water echosounder-lOOKhz, and a hydrographic survey sounder. To process data, she had the National Ocean Service's Hydrochart system, which employed a PDP/8E computer to acquire and process hydrographic data in real time, generate a real-time position-corrected plot of sounding data, provide steering commands to the helmsman, and generate a punched paper tape for shore-based processing of sounding dara.[3]

Peirce had an ice-strengthened steel hull.[3]

Peirce carried two 29-foot (8.8-meter) aluminum-hulled diesel-powered Jensen survey launches, each equipped with the same Hydrochart system as aboard Peirce. For utility and rescue purposes, she also carried two open boats with gasoline-powered outboard motors, a 16-foot (4.9-meter) Boston Whaler fiberglass-hulled boat and 17-foot (5.2-meter) Monark aluminum-hulled boat.[3]

From her home port at Norfolk, Virginia, Peirce conducted hydrographic and bathymetric surveys involving nautical charting and ocean mapping, primarily along the United States East Coast and United States Gulf Coast and off territories of the United States in the Caribbean.[1][3]

NOAA decommissioned Peirce on 1 May 1992.[5]

In 1992, Peirce was donated to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. The museum acquired her for use as a floating classroom and archaeological research ship and renamed her MV Elizabeth M. Fisher in 1993. In 1999 the museum sold her for private use, and in 2000 she returned to the name MV Peirce. By 2001 she was operating as the private yacht MV Avedonia.[5][6][7][8]

• NOAA ships and aircraft

• Ships of the NOAA Fleet, Rockville, Maryland: United States Department of Commerce, June 1989
• "NOAA History, Coast & Geodetic Survey Ships", United States Department of Commerce