NOAAS Mount Mitchell (S 222)

NOAAS Mount Mitchell (S 222)

NOAAS Mount Mitchell (S 222), previously USC&GS Mount Mitchell, was a survey vessel which served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1968 to 1970 and in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration survey vessel from 1970 to 1995.

Mount Mitchell was built at the Aerojet-General Shipyards in Jacksonville, Florida. Launched on 29 November 1966, she was commissioned into the Coast and Geodetic Survey in March 1968 as USC&GS Mount Mitchell. When the Survey merged with other organizations to form NOAA in 1970, she became part of the NOAA fleet as NOAAS Mount Mitchell (S 222). She was the sister ship of the NOAAS Fairweather and NOAAS Rainier, which are both still in service.

Mount Mitchell operated as a multipurpose vessel. She had an oceanographic laboratory, several echosounders, and an oceanographic winch. She also had a hydroplot data-processing system, as did two of her survey launches.

Mount Mitchell conducted hydrographic surveys on the United States East Coast and in the Caribbean, and served as an oceanographic vessel throughout much of the North Atlantic Ocean on various projects. In the late 1980s she was fitted with a multi-beam sounding system for hydrographic work related to establishing the maritime exclusive economic zone of the United States and discovered Mitchell Dome among other large, economically significant undersea features in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1992 she proceeded to the Persian Gulf to study the effects of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War oil spills into the Gulf. After returning to the United States, she resumed operations as a hydrographic survey vessel until decommissioning in 1995.