&sq=&lang=&file=File:Corsair_(American_Steam_Yacht,_1899).jpg) Corsair III (American Steam Yacht, 1898) prior to her World War I Naval service. Built in 1898 for financier J.P. Morgan, this yacht served as USS Corsair (SP-159) during World War I and as USS Oceanographer (AGS-3) during World War II
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name |
|
| Builder | T. S. Marvel Shipbuilding, Newburgh New York |
| Launched | December 1898 |
| Christened | Miss Louise Morgan |
| Acquired | 15 May 1917 |
| Commissioned | 15 May 1917 |
| Decommissioned | 9 June 1919 |
| Stricken | 9 June 1919 |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Flag_of_the_United_States_Coast_and_Geodetic_Survey.svg){kind=small} United States | |
| Name | USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS-26) |
| Operator | United States Coast and Geodetic Survey |
| Acquired | 2 January 1930 |
| Fate | Transferred to U.S. Navy 7 April 1942 |
| United States | |
| Name | USS Oceanographer (AGS-3) |
| Namesake | Oceanographer, a scientist in the field of oceanography, the study of the world's oceans |
| Acquired | 7 April 1942 |
| Commissioned | 15 August 1942 |
| Decommissioned | 22 September 1944 |
| Stricken | 14 October 1944 |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| as Corsair (SP-159): | |
| Type | patrol yacht |
| Tonnage | 1,136 grt |
| Length | 304 ft (93 m) |
| Beam | 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m) |
| Draft | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
| Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Armament | 4 × 3"/50 caliber gun mounts |
| as Oceanographer (AGS-3): | |
| Type | Survey ship |
| Displacement | 1,963 t. |
| Length | 293 ft (89 m) |
| Beam | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Draft | 17 ft (5.2 m) |
| Speed | 14.7 knots (27.2 km/h; 16.9 mph) |
| Complement | 146 |
| Armament | 2 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber gun mounts |
USS Oceanographer (AGS-3) was a survey ship of the United States Navy during World War II that produced charts chiefly of passages in the Solomon Islands area of the Pacific Ocean. Upon transfer to the Navy, she had initially briefly been named and classed as gunboat USS Natchez (PG-85). Before her World War II Navy service, she had been USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS-26), a survey ship with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1930.
From her launch in 1898 to 1930, she had been Corsair III, a private steam yacht of American industrialist J. P. Morgan,[1] except for a brief period during World War I. During that conflict, the United States Navy chartered her as patrol vessel USS Corsair (SP-159). She accompanied the American Expeditionary Force to France in 1917 and patrolled off the west coast of that country.
After putting in for needed repairs in June 1944, Oceanographer, after further inspection, was instead decommissioned in September and broken up for scrap.
- ^ "Raising the mainsail". J.P.Morgan. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
In 1882, Morgan acquired his first personal yacht, the Corsair I, a 185-foot steam-powered vessel. He later bought the Corsair II, a 241-foot yacht, which the United States Navy conscripted into service as a gunboat during the Spanish–American War. The 304-foot Corsair III, the last yacht he owned, included a library, player piano and humidors stocked with Cuban cigars.