Opinion: A Call for the USNS Walter Munk to Honor America’s Greatest Oceanographer
In the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress established a commission to rename several military bases and ships that commemorate members of the Confederacy. One of these is the Naval oceanographic ship USNS Maury (T-AGS 66), named after oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury, who resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy to join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War. The USNS Maury is an asset of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC), which I led from 2014-2017. I attended the ship’s commissioning in 2017, where I praised Maury’s
US Navy's New Oceanographic Vessel Sets Sail
unique capabilities will provide our surveyors the opportunity to support the warfighter using the latest and greatest technology, and ultimately lay the foundation for the next class of survey vessels,” said NAVOCEANO Executive Officer, Capt. Nick Vincent. Maury, named for Cmdr. Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as the “Pathfinder of the Seas” and father of modern oceanography, is the last of the Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ships and is paving the way for a new class of ships better equipped to support AUV survey operations. The ship is 353-feet-long, 24 feet longer than
Navy Christens, Launches New Oceanographic Survey Ship
;s oceans, collecting ocean data, for Navy operations, continuing the work in the 21st century that Matthew Maury started in the 19th. The ship will be operated by the U.S. Military Sealift Command (MSC) for the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NAVMETOCCOM). “If Matthew Fontaine Maury was here today to see this ship and to see the character of the people who built it, there is no doubt he would say, ‘all’s well.’” NAVMETOCCOM directs the Navy's meteorology, oceanography and hydrography programs, operates the Navy’s atomic clock for
Oceanographic Survey Ship Christened at VT Halter Marine
the ocean environment. The ship’s sponsor is the Honorable Lisa P. Jackson, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who as Administrator focused much of her efforts on the BP oil spill that ravaged the Gulf Coast area. T-AGS 66 was named in honor of Cmdr. Matthew Fontaine Maury, nicknamed “Pathfinder of the Seas,” and also known as the “Father of Modern Oceanography.” The vessel is 353 feet in length with an overall beam of 58 feet, and will be operating under the Military Sealift Command
February 2024
