USNS ''Bartlett'' (T-AGOR-13) was a

oceanographic research ship Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynami ...

acquired by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

(USN) in 1969. She was named after oceanographer Captain John R. Bartlett of the USN. ''Bartlett'' was one of the ships under the technical direction of the

Naval Oceanographic Office The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), located at John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi, comprises approximately 1,000 civilian, military and contract personnel responsible for providing oceanographic products and services to al ...

(NAVOCEANO) operating as an Auxiliary General Oceanographic Research (AGOR) program "pool" ship for support of Navy laboratories on each coast as well as NAVOCEANO projects. The ship was first assigned to support laboratories on the West Coast with last operations in similar support on the East Coast and Atlantic. In 1993 the ship was transferred to the

Royal Moroccan Navy ber, ⴰⴷⵡⴰⵙ ⴰⴳⴻⵍⴷⴰⵏ ⵏ ⵢⵉⵍⴻⵍ , image = , caption = Royal Moroccan Navy Seal , start_date = active since: 11th century current form: 30 Apr ...

U.S. service

Construction

''Bartlett'' was built by the Northwest Marine Iron Works

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

as hull number 54. was hull number 53. The contract was awarded 12 July 1965 with the keel laid 18 November 1965 and launch on 24 May 1966. The ship was turned over to the Navy's

Military Sea Transportation Service Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US m ...

(MSTS) 31 March 1969. ''Bartlett'' was placed in service with MSTS in a ceremony on 15 April at the Oregon Mast, the foremast of , on the seawall in Portland.

Service history

''Bartlett'' was placed in service as a West Coast AGOR pool ship under the technical direction of the Naval Oceanographic Office. Later the ship was transferred for similar operation in the Atlantic. The ship, one of the last two of the type, had an active rudder in addition to a bow thruster. The ship is mentioned in oceanographic reports and literature regarding the various projects of the laboratories which retained collected data and published their own reports from ship operations. In addition to the Navy laboratories universities or civilian laboratories with Navy contracts could utilize the ship through the Office of Naval Research (ONR). For example, the ship's use in planting two acoustic sources onto the top of

Cobb Seamount Cobb Seamount is a seamount ( underwater volcano) and guyot located west of Grays Harbor, Washington, United States. Cobb Seamount is one of the seamounts in the Cobb–Eickelberg Seamount chain, a chain of underwater volcanoes created by the ...

between 25 and 30 July 1973 for an experiment is covered in a report of the

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

. During October and November 1981 the ship did deep water trawls in the Venezuela Basin along with other observations and found some rare specimens that were deposited in a number of notable museums. In 1990 the ship spent some time in the North West Atlantic Ocean according to a data set of temperature and salinity measurements collected using CTD/XBT.

Royal Moroccan Navy service

After being struck from the

Navy List A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...

on 30 August 1993. ''Bartlett'' was approved on 26 July 1993 under the terms of the Security Assistance Program for a transfer to

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, where she then entered into service with the Moroccan Navy as ''Abou El Barakat Al Barbari''.

Footnotes

References

External links

NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - T-AGOR-13 Bartlett
Robert D. Conrad-class oceanographic research ships Research vessels of the United States Navy Ships built in Portland, Oregon 1966 ships Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the Royal Moroccan Navy Auxiliary ships of the Royal Moroccan Navy {{US-mil-ship-stub