R/V Robert D. Conrad, 1963

USNS Robert D. Conrad (T-AGOR-3) was an oceanographic research ship that served the U.S. Navy from 1962 to 1989. During that period – while operated by Columbia University -- she provided valuable ocean-bottom information and underwater test data to the U.S. Navy and other U.S. agencies.

Robert D. Conrad was laid down in January 1961 by Gibbs Shipyards, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida; launched on 26 May 1962; sponsored by Mrs. Edmund B. Taylor; and completed and delivered to the Navy in November 1962. After delivery, the single screw, diesel-electric, oceanographic research ship was assigned to the Lamont Geological Observatory, Columbia University, for operation.

Much of her work has been in cooperation with the Office of Naval Research and, during the spring and summer of 1963, Submarine Development Group 2 as that group searched the ocean floor for traces of the submarine Thresher (SSN-593). The ship collected gravity and magnetics data on the seafloor; created seismic images of rock layers below the ocean floor; dredged rock samples; took ocean-floor sediment cores (creating what is now a collection of over 13,000 cores); mapped the ocean floor with sonar; and collected water samples to explore ocean currents, temperature, salinity, marine life and other data for a wide range of oceanographic research.

Robert D. Conrad went out of service and was struck from the Navy list on 4 October 1989. The old research ship was disposed of through scrapping 27 April 2004.

[Taken from the entry on Robert D. Conrad in Wikipedia.]