NOAA Ship Rainier is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration survey vessel. She was built at the Aerojet-General Shipyards in Jacksonville, Florida. She was launched in March 1967 and commissioned in October 1968. It is the sister ship of the NOAA Ship Fairweather and retired NOAA Ship Mount Mitchell. Rainier is named for Mount Rainier in the state of Washington. The ice-hardened hull of the ship is 231 feet (70 m) long. The ship has a total of 79 bunk spaces. Capacity for 59 people to eat at time can be found in the three mess rooms and officer's wardroom. She carries a complement of 10 NOAA Corps officers, 39 crew, including 4 licensed engineers and a maximum of 4 scientists. Seven of the crew are certified NOAA divers. The deck equipment features one winch, two fixed cranes, and an A-frame. This equipment gives the Rainier a lifting capacity of up to 5,000 pounds (2,200 kg) as well 30,000 feet (9,100 m) of cable that can pull up to 1,000 pounds (453 kg). She has one 240 foot² (22 m²) lab. The ship is equipped with an intermediate depth multibeam swath survey system. The vessel carries six aluminum survey launches equipped with multibeam swath and single beam echo sounders and a hydrographic data acquisition system. There are an additional three small support boats. Among the scientific equipment are five Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) sensors, one side-scan sonar unit, and sediment sampling equipment.
External links
- NOAA Ship RAINIER (May 5, 2004). Retrieved on May 9, 2006.
