Michelson seemed to have been a test bed for electronics that might have been useful to its mission but for whatever reasons just didn't work. Perhaps all three of the ships were like that. Some 1962-63 examples:Doppler Sonar: Located on the fourth deck, two levels below the navy living area, this was an expensive looking effort to determine velocity (ground speed) and perhaps lateral displacement as well. It was contained in four or five racks including top of the line built in test equipment. Doppler sonar was never operational. The space containing it was used a a gym.
OC Hoist: Presumably for oceanographic hoist. I don't think the other ships had this thing. No matter because it was never used. Installed at the stern, the OC hoist had coiled on a huge drum a chain with dozens of oval shaped sensors. This cable could be payed out and lowered behind the ship. The steel platform directly aft of the drum was a good place to relax and watch the albatross and sea gulls. Unless it had rained recently, it was always kind of dirty from the stack gas.
SINS: A Mark 1 SINS (ship's inertial navigation system) was installed in an air conditioned room inside yet another air conditioned space, the navigation information center (NIC). The original model of an inertial system, grandfather to all since, this SINS also didn't work. It's amazing how the sensors developed for SINS have been miniaturized for use in the iPhone. A device like SINS is really an elegant means of navigating by dead reckoning.
Star Tracker: This was supposed to do what the name implied. Located in the NIC with SINS, it also was never used during my tenure aboard Michelson.
