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The second USS ''Albatross'', often seen as ''USFC Albatross'' in scientific literature citations,〔http://acsmith.si.edu/emuwebpalweb/pages/nmnh/pal/Display.php?irn=3512397&QueryPage=%2Femuwebpalweb%2Fpages%2Fnmnh%2Fpal%2FDtlQuery.php | Catalog Number - USNM SD 59154.0000〕 was an iron-hulled, twin-screw steamer in the United States Navy and reputedly the first research vessel ever built especially for marine research. ''Albatross'' was laid down at Wilmington, Delaware, by Pusey and Jones in March 1882; 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, would command ''Albatross'', a Navy-manned vessel assigned to the United States Fish Commission, a civilian government agency, for nearly 12 years. ==Early years== 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 would serve as 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 steamer 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'' participated 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 vessel served as 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 steamer ''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. Then, following a month at Woods Hole, she 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 touched briefly at Wreck Bay, Chatham Island, in the Galapagos group on 4 April. Ultimately, the steamer 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 llth 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 steamer entered the Mare Island Navy Yard and commenced 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 Division of 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 steamer 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. Cpmdr. F. J. Drake relieved Lt. Comdr. Tanner, who had been in continuous command of the research vessel since she had been first commissioned. Into the autumn of 1894, the marine research vessel 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." Later that spring, on 17 and 18 May, she participated in the official speed trials of the new ''Oregon'' (Battleship No. 3) out of San Francisco. Then, 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 F. 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 marine research vessel 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Albatross (1882)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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