R/V Thomas G. Thompson (AGOR-23), an oceanographic research vessel and lead ship of her class, is owned by the United States Office of Naval Research and operated under a bareboat charterparty agreement by the University of Washington as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet.
Construction and characteristics
The Navy issued bid solicitations to the shipbuilding industry for a new oceanographic ship on May 27, 1987. Halter Marine, Inc. won the contract for the construction of Thomas G. Thompson in June 1988. Her original contract price was $20.9 million. She was built in Moss Point, Mississippi. Her keel was laid down on March 29, 1989, and she was launched on July 27, 1990. Thomas G. Thompson was christened by Dr. Dora Henry, Oceanography Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. The ship was completed and delivered to the Office of Naval Research on July 8, 1991.
Thomas G. Thompson is long, with a beam of and a full-load draft of . The hull is of welded steel plate construction. She displaces 3,051 long tons at full load. Her gross tonnage is calculated at 3,095 and her net tonnage is 928. She is classed by the American Bureau of Shipping.
She has a cruising speed of 12 knots and a maximum speed of 15 knots. She has six diesel generators, three 1,500 kW and three 750 kW, which provide electrical and propulsion power to the ship. The generators, in turn, power two 3,000 hp DC electric motors which provide the ship's main propulsion. The DC motors power two 360-degree azimuth z-drives with four-bladed fixed-pitch propellers. The ship also has a 360-degree azimuth Tees White Gill water jet bow thruster driven by a separate 1,100 hp DC motor. Controls are installed to integrate the z-drives and bow thruster into a dynamic positioning system. Engineers can select fuel-efficient combinations of generators to power the ship whether she is towing an instrument at 1 knot, transiting at 15 knots, or anywhere in between. Her fuel tanks can hold up to giving her an unrefueled range of 12,000 miles at 15 knots.
Thomas G. Thompson normally sails with 21 civilian officers and crew, 2 marine technicians, and up to 36 scientists. The crew is unionized, represented by the Inland Boatmen's Union of the Pacific.
To support her research activities she has 4,000 square feet of wet and dry laboratory space, multi-beam mapping sonar and other sensors, and a number of cranes and winches to lower and tow various instruments. The A-frame on her stern, the largest crane aboard, is rated for a 15-ton static load.
The University of Washington won the right to operate Thomas G. Thompson through a competitive bidding process. Invitations to bid were issued on June 5, 1987. Among the qualifications for bidders specified by the Office of Naval Research was the return of an earlier generation AGOR-3 class oceanographic vessel that the Navy could retire when the new ship was delivered. As a practical matter, this limited bidding to the University of Washington, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University. The Office of Naval Research announced in November 1987 that it had selected the University of Washington to operate the then unnamed AGOR-23. Contacts were signed with the Navy in June 1988.
The ship is named for Thomas Gordon Thompson, who founded the University of Washington's Oceanographic Laboratories in 1930. The ship is designated by the Navy as an AGOR or "Auxiliary General-purpose Oceanographic Research" ship. She is the second research vessel named after Dr. Thompson. The first, USNS Thomas G. Thompson (T-AGOR-9), also operated by the University of Washington, was launched in 1963.
Sister ships
Thomas G. Thompson is the lead ship in her class which also includes , operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, , operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and , operated by NOAA. The first three are owned by the US Navy while the last ship is a NOAA-owned vessel.
Operating history
Thomas G. Thompson is designed for long-endurance research missions in deep ocean waters and typically spends 260 to 300 days a year at sea. While she has sailed around the Earth on almost every sea and ocean, she has spent the bulk of her career in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The hull is not ice-strengthened,