Technical research ships were used by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

during the 1960s to gather

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

by monitoring, recording and analyzing

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

electronic communications of nations in various parts of the world. At the time these ships were active, the mission of the ships was covert and discussion of the true mission was prohibited ("

classified information Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or ...

"). The mission of the ships was publicly given as conducting research into atmospheric and communications phenomena. Their designation was AGTR – Auxiliary, General, Technical Research – but it was more or less an

open secret An open secret is information that was originally intended to be confidential but has at some point been disclosed and is known to many people. Open secrets are ''secrets'' in the sense that they are excluded from formal or official discourse, b ...

that this was a euphemism and they were commonly referred to as " spy ships".

Function

These ships carried a crew of U.S. Navy personnel whose specialty was intercepting wireless electronic communications and gathering intelligence from those communications (

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

, communications intelligence, and electronic signals intelligence (

SIGINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

)). In the 1960s those personnel had a U.S. Navy

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...). Rating or rating system may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...

of Communications Technician (later changed to

Cryptologic Technician Cryptologic technician (CT) is a United States Navy enlisted rating or job specialty. The CT community performs a wide range of tasks in support of the national intelligence-gathering effort, with an emphasis on cryptology and signal intell ...

), or CT. In order to transmit intelligence information that had been gathered back to United States for further processing and analysis, these ships had a special system named Technical Research Ship Special Communications, or TRSSCOM (pronounced tress-com). This Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communications system used a special

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining Orientation (geometry), orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in ...

-stabilized

parabolic antenna A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or p ...

, which can be seen aft of the main

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

in the accompanying photographs of ''Belmont'' and ''Liberty''. Radio signals were transmitted toward the Moon, where they would bounce back toward the Earth and be received by a large parabolic antenna at a Naval Communications Station in Cheltenham, Maryland (near

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

) or Wahiawa,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Communications could occur only when the Moon was visible simultaneously at the ship's location and in Cheltenham or Wahiawa. The gyro stabilization of the antenna kept the antenna pointed at the Moon while the ship rolled and pitched on the surface of the ocean. These ships were classified as naval auxiliaries with a hull designation of AGTR, which stands for Auxiliary, General, Technical Research. Five of these ships were built with hull numbers of 1–5. The first three ships of this type (''Oxford'', ''Georgetown'', and ''Jamestown'') were converted from World War II-era

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...

s. The last two ships (''Belmont'' and ''Liberty'') were converted from

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by American shipyards during World War II. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engin ...

s. The former Liberty ships' top speed of limited the first three AGTRs to missions of slow steaming on station with a minimum of transits. Victory ships' sustained speed of enabled ''Belmont'' to shadow

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

operations of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

helicopter carrier in 1969. All of the technical research ships were decommissioned and stricken by 1970. One of these ships' crew received a Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in combat. was attacked, severely damaged and 34 crew members killed by shelling,

napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated aluminium ...

bombing and torpedoing from Israeli jet fighter aircraft and motor torpedo boats on June 8, 1967. was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation along with . The citation reads (in part) "For meritorious service from 1 November 1965 to 30 June 1969 while participating in combat support operations in Southeast Asia. Through research and the compilation of extremely valuable technical data, USS ''Jamestown'' and USS ''Oxford'' contributed most significantly to the overall security of the United States and other Free World forces operating in support of the Republic of Vietnam. Signed E.R. Zumwalt, Admiral, USN,

Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an Admiral (United States), admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the United States Secretary ...

." For specifications of these ships, see Liberty ship and Victory ship.

Ships of the AGTR type

:(dates of commissioning–decommissioning) * (Liberty ship type) ** • 1961–1969 ** • 1963–1969 ** • 1963–1969 *''Belmont'' class (Victory ship type) ** • 1964–1970 ** • 1964–1968

Environmental research ship (AGER)

Three smaller ships, former Army Freight Supply (FS) ships converted by Navy to Light Cargo Ship (AKL) vessels and then to Banner-class environmental research ships (AGER) had a similar mission. In contrast to the high freeboard of the AGTR Liberty and Victory hulls, the AGER decks were low and vulnerable to boarding from small craft. , technically still in commission, has been held by

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

since its attack and capture by on January 23, 1968.

Ships of the AGER type

* (redesignated from AKL-25/T-AKL-25, ex Army FS-345) * (redesignated from AKL-44, ex Army FS-344) * (redesignated from AKL-45, ex U.S. Army FS-217)

Auxiliary General (AG) USNS ships

Three technical research ships were operated as USNS ships with a Military Sea Transportation Service civilian crew and a Navy detachment conducting the mission operations. Two ships were Maritime Commission C1-M-AV1 types. One, , was a VC2-S-AP2 (Victory) type that operated in this role December 1962-April 1964 before being reclassified AK‑274 and resuming cargo operations. * (Maritime Commission C1-M-AV1 type) * (Maritime Commission VC2-S-AP2 (Victory) type) * (Maritime Commission C1-M-AV1 type)

Function

Ships of the AGTR type

Environmental research ship (AGER)

Ships of the AGER type

Auxiliary General (AG) USNS ships

See also

References

External links