The first USC&GS Guide was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1923 to 1941.

Construction and United States Navy service

Guide was laid down as the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 minesweeper

Minesweeper (ship)

A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...

 USS Flamingo (Minesweeper No. 32) by the New Jersey Drydock and Transportation Company at Elizabethport

Elizabethport, New Jersey

A neighborhood in the City of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Formerly home of the Singer Manufacturing Company, makers of Singer Sewing Machines....

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, on 18 October 1918. She was launched on 24 August 1918 and commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 on 12 February 1919.

Flamingo assisted in sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage in 1919. She was placed in ordinary

In ordinary

In ordinary as a phrase has two technical meanings recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary:# In relation particularly to the staff of the British royal household, and more generally to those employed by the Crown, it is used as a suffix showing that the appointment is to the regular staff, for...

 in November 1920 and decommissioned

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

 in May 1922.

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey career

The Navy transferred Flamingo to the Coast and Geodetic Survey for use as a survey vessel at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery

Kittery, Maine

Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,543 at the 2000 census. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals...

, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

, on 23 January 1923. She was renamed USC&GS Guide on 1 March 1923. She and survey ships USC&GS Discoverer

USC&GS Discoverer (1918)

The first USC&GS Discoverer was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1922 to 1941.-Construction and United States Navy career, 1919-1922:...

 and USC&GS Pioneer, also former Navy minesweepers, were known as the "Bird Boats" in the Coast and Geodetic because all had been named after birds -- Guide had been USS Flamingo, Discoverer had been USS Auk (AM-38)

USS Auk (AM-38)

USS Auk was an Lapwing-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy after World War I for the task of removing mines that had been placed during the war.The first ship to be named Auk by the Navy, Minesweeper No...

, and Pioneer had been USS Osprey (AM-29)

USS Osprey (AM-29)

USS Osprey was an commissioned by the United States Navy for service in World War I. She was responsible for removing mines from harbors, and, in her role as rescue and salvage ship, she was responsible for coming to the aid of stricken vessels....

 -- while in Navy service.

Late in 1923, after she had been converted and fitted out

Fitting-out

Fitting-out, or "outfitting”, is the process in modern shipbuilding that follows the float-out of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her owners...

 as a survey ship on the United States East Coast, Guide departed New London

New London, Connecticut

New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, bound for her new home port

Home port

A vessel's home port is the port at which it is based, which may not be the same as its port of registry shown on its registration documents and lettered on the stern of the ship's hull...

, San Diego

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

; she transited the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 on 8 December 1923. On her voyage to the United States West Coast, she made history by becoming the first Coast and Geodetic Survey vessel to use a sonic depth finder to measure and record the depth of the sea at points along her course. Before she reached San Diego, she had accumulated much data beneficial to the study of the movement of sound waves through water and measuring their velocity under varying conditions of salinity

Salinity

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...

, density

Density

The mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...

, and temperature

Temperature

Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

.

Based at San Diego and conducting hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore oil exploration/drilling and related disciplines. Strong emphasis is placed on soundings, shorelines, tides, currents, sea floor and submerged...

s off the U.S. West Coast, Guide performed Coast and Geodetic Survey duties for over 17 years. In company with Pioneer, she conducted many early bathymetric

Bathymetry

Bathymetry is the study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry. The name comes from Greek βαθύς , "deep", and μέτρον , "measure"...

 surveys on the U.S. West Coast. Under the direction of Captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 Nicholas Heck, Captain Robert Luce developed the radio acoustic ranging method of navigation

Navigation

Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...

 aboard Guide. And in 1924, Guide observed a sound signal from a distance of 206 nautical miles (382 kilometers) off the Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 coast, the first observed indication of the sound layer that was later called the sound fixing and ranging (SOFAR

Sofar channel

The SOFAR channel , or deep sound channel , is a horizontal layer of water in the ocean at which depth the speed of sound is minimal. The SOFAR channel acts as a waveguide for sound, and low frequency sound waves within the channel may travel thousands of miles before dissipating...

) channel or deep sound channel (DSC).

On more than one occasion, Guide assisted mariners in distress. On 3 June 1927, she came to the assistance of the lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 City of Nome, which was on fire; Guide stood by City of Nome until 5 June 1927, pumped water into the schooner, and helped retard the fire sufficiently to allow salvage

Salvage

Salvage means 'rescue' and as such may refer to:* Marine salvage, the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo and sometimes the crew from peril* Salvage tug, a type of tugboat used to rescue or salvage ships which are in distress or in danger of sinking...

 of City of Nomes cargo

Cargo

Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

. On 4 February 1933, she rendered assistance to the fishing boat Giuseppina, which had broken down with engine trouble in Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....

, California.

As tensions mounted in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

 in the late 1930s, the U.S. Navy expanded to meet the emergency, especially after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 began in Europe following the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 invasion of Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 on 1 September 1939. The Navy needed auxiliary vessels of various types, and cast a wide net in looking for them. One of the ships identified for transfer to the Navy was Guide, and, on 27 June 1941, she was transferred from the Coast and Geodetic Survey to the Navy.

Return to U.S. Navy service

The Navy converted Guide into a rescue and salvage ship

Rescue and salvage ship

Rescue and salvage ships in the United States Navy were common during World War II. Their purpose was to come to the rescue of stricken ships, usually because of their towing ability, and to tow away ships damaged because of enemy action or engine failure....

 and commissioned her as USS Viking (ARS-1)

USS Viking (ARS-1)

USS Flamingo was a built for the United States Navy near the end of World War I. After service overseas clearing mines after the Armistice, the ship was laid up until 1922 when it was transferred to the Commerce Department for use by the United States Coast & Geodetic Survey...

. Based at San Diego, Viking operated in the 11th Naval District off Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 and in the eastern Pacific Ocean until 1953, when she was decommissioned and sold for scrapping.

Commemoration

An underwater geographic feature of the Pacific Ocean, Guide Seamount

Guide Seamount

Guide Seamount is a seamount in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 16.6±0.5 million years old. It is similar in shape and orientation to the nearby Davidson, Pioneer, Rodriguez, and Gumdrop seamounts. It is named for the U.S. National Geodetic Survey survey ship the US&GS Guide.Guide Seamount is...

off the coast of California, is named for Guide.