You know . . . the charts that keep a vessel in waters deeper than you require, so long as you know how to derive that info from said charts.

As of this posting, S-222 is about to leave Cape Cod Bay and enter the Gulf of Maine.

If you do FB, they have their own page. See photos of past missions, the helm, and more. She was delivered to the USN in 1992 as USNS Littlehales (T-AGS-52), transferred to NOAA in 2003.

Predecessor agencies for NOAA go all the way back to Thomas Jefferson’s tenure.

More about NOAA Thomas Jefferson can be found here and here. To read the NOAA blog, click here.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

For a bowsprite drawing of Jefferson, click here.

On a separate issue, today’s NOAA might not be the same as next week’s NOAA.