Albatross (VIII)

Colin Levings states "The United States Fish Commission Steamer Albatross is renowned in the history of oceanography and conducted extensive research around the world. Built in Wilmington, Delaware this vessel was launched in 1882 and commissioned into the United States Navy in November of that year, under the command of Lt Zera L. Tanner USN, but assigned to the United States Fish Commission. Driven by a 200 hp steam engine the twin screwed vessel could make 10 kts and was also rigged as a brigantine. This vessel was apparently the first vessel built especially for marine research by any government and served over 40 years as a patrol cutter, research vessel and also saw military service in 1898 (Spanish-American War) and 1917-1918 (World War I). At 71 m length and 384 registered net tonnage the vessel had a complement of 110 personnel. The ship was decommissioned in 1921 at Woods Hole, MA and later served as school ship.

In 1927 this vessel was tied up at Hamburg Germany "under attachment for indebtedness" but her final fate is unknown. The Albatross conducted numerous voyages around the US and Canadian coasts, South America, the Philippines, Japan and elsewhere. When stationed on the US west coast this vessel routinely travelled through BC’s Inside Passage en route to Alaska for fisheries patrols or oceanographic research in the north Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Between 1889 and 1914 the ship had at least 12 transits of the BC inner coast and also surveyed waters in Juan de Fuca Strait and off Barkley Sound. Two of her regular ports of call on the way to Alaska were Departure Bay, near Nanaimo, and Union Bay, near Comox, for coal. It usually took two or three days to load coal and during these harbour days the scientists aboard ship sampled the local beaches and waters, collecting numerous specimens of fish and invertebrates which were sent to specialists in the USA and archived especially in the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Biologists on the Albatross contributed to our knowledge of BC waters and helped establish baseline ecological data for our region through their publications and the ship’s annual reports, all archived and available on the Internet. As but one example on a 1903 trip Albatross conducted oceanographic research in the southern Strait of Georgia (off Nanaimo and Bowen Island) as well as in Queen Charlotte Strait (off Fort Rupert), obtaining some of the earliest bottom water temperature records in the region. Fishery experts on the Albatross, many from Stanford University in California, frequently collaborated with fish and invertebrate specialists in the BC Provincial Museum in Victoria (now the Royal B C Museum) and at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo."