Michelson was one of three survey ships put in service in late 1958. All were Victory class cargo vessels (VC-2) converted in much the same way with similar deep ocean survey equipment and electronics. All were dedicated to the same project. The Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), now known as Military Sealift Command (MSC), operated them with merchant marine crews, US Navy detachments and civilian oceanographers.
Initially, USNS Bowditch (TAGS-21), USNS Dutton (TAGS-22) and Michelson (TAGS-23) operated out of Norwegian ports, principally Bergen, surveying in the Norwegian Sea.
Bowditch and Dutton were named for the authors of the two standard American textbooks on shipboard navigation. Michelson’s name commemorates the discoverer of the speed of light, Albert Abraham Michelson (1852-1931), a Polish immigrant who became a US Navy commander and professor of physics at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Both USNS Bowditch and USNS Dutton had long survey careers, steaming until 1988 and 1989, respectively. Michelson was found unseawothy by the US Coast Guard and was taken out of service in 1975. It was replaced by USNS H. H. Hess (TAGS-38), a C4 hull (ex. SS Canada Mail) in 1978. Hess suffered a boiler meltdown and in 1992 it too went out of service.
