The Origins and Early History of the Steamer Albatross, 1880-1887 - Statistical Data Included

The Pusey and Jones Shipyard in Wilmington, Del., which previously built Baird's Fish Hawk, received the Albatross contract on 28 March 1882. Charles Copeland supervised the yard's work. He was assisted by Lieutenant Commander Zera L. Tanner, U.S. Navy, the prospective commander of the ship's Naval crew. That officer had considerable experience with marine exploration as the first commander of the Fish Hawk and through an earlier assignment with the Navy's Hydrographic Office.

Tanner was primarily responsible for selecting and installing--and in some cases personally designing--the trawl nets, rake and grapnel dredges, tangles, surface nets, and other collecting devices, as well as the ship's thermometers, salinometers, and sounding equipment (Fig. 8, 9) (Tanner, 1885; USFC, 1884b). According to Baird's associate, George Brown Goode (Goode and Bean, 1895: I,vi), the trawl nets carried by the Albatross were of particular importance since they represented a major advance in the ability to collect deep-sea specimens, a task previously undertaken with metal dredges.

Commissioned on 11 November 1882, the Albatross had her trial run from 30 December 1882 to 1 January 1883. She was the first large vessel specifically designed as a research vessel to be built anywhere in the world (Coker, 1949:43; Cotter, 1967:301). Writing in 1888, Alexander Agassiz (I, 51) noted another superlative of the ship. Pointing out that the vessel allowed the Fish Commission's exploration to extend "to the deepest waters along the American coast," Agassiz concluded that the Albatross was "the best equipped dredger for deep-sea work in existence."

The Albatross had an overall length of 234 feet, a maximum beam of 27.5 feet, and a displacement of 1,074 tons (Fig. 10). Her crew, minus the ship's scientific staff, numbered about 60 officers and men provided by the U.S. Navy. Constructed of wrought iron, the Albatross had twin screws and a maximum speed of 10 knots (Fig. 11). At her economical cruising speed of 8 knots, her maximum steaming radius was 3,200 miles. As was typical of oceanic ships in an era when steam plants were still highly inefficient, she carried an auxiliary set of sails. The ship's deck logs show that sails were used frequently in the 1880's. In addition to her brigantine rig, a freshwater distilling plant allowed for prolonged maritime operations.

The Albatross had two relatively commodious laboratories (Fig. 12a, b, c), one on the main and the other on the berthing deck. She also had a pair of powerful dredging engines carrying 4,500 fathoms of 3/8-inch steel rope. Finally, her sponsors claimed that the ship was the first U.S. government vessel to be fully electrified (Fig. 13). This feature, as Lieutenant Commander Tanner pointed out, was especially important during prolonged deep-water dredging since these operations often could not be completed during daylight hours (Tanner, 1885:31-33; Tanner, 1895:107-124; Hedgpeth, 1945:6-8). Views of the cabin, chart room, pilot house, ward room, and berth deck are shown in Figures 14-18.