The second USS Albatross, often seen as USFC Albatross in scientific literature citations, was an iron-hulled, twin-screw masted steamship in the United States Navy and reputedly the first research ship ever built specially for marine research. She was named for the albatross.
Construction Albatross was laid down in March 1882, by Pusey and Jones, in Wilmington, Delaware. 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.
Design Albatross had an iron hull with a registered length of , a beam, and draft of . 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 and gave her a speed of .
Service history Early service 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 World Cotton Centennial 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 Washington, to familiarize officers assigned to the steamship , 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.
Service in the Pacific 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, in the 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 voyage. For much of the remainder of the year, she operated between San Francisco, and the Territory of 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 1889, bound for the Bering Sea, but nearly out, she suffered a breakdown of her port engine, on 7 August, and returned to port on 11 August, 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, Orgegon, during this period, between 28 September and 9 October 1889, 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, 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, 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 , and the resident naturalist, and the other hunter, to the revenue cutter , 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, 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.
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 , out of San Francisco. 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.