Revised 20 January 2002
USNS Mizar (T-AGOR 11)
Mizar (C1-ME2-13a type) was built as a cargo ship (AK-272) capable of ice work. She has double hulls with a passage between (right),
an ice breaker bow and was by far the most "interesting" of the ships I knew. NavSource has a pre launch photo showing the ice breaker bow and a good frontal view of the ice conning tower. She and Eltanin (ex AK 270), also converted to "AGOR," were sisters.
See the NavSource Mizar page for some excellent full ship photographs. The most interesting shot is of her launch ("photo" link above) where details of the ice hull are clear. NavSource also provides a link to her DANFS history. That history is updated on the Naval Historical Center's Mizar page. That page also includes a color shot in the configuration I last knew. I called it the "Japanese carrier look" for the "flight deck" over the main deck somewhat similar to some of the Japanese carriers of the Second World War. It made for a great place to sun or "observe" fog. It also provided excellent shelter from rain for taking air on the main deck in downpours.
In the early days Mizar had an ice conning tower (below left) on the foremast. I believe Eltanin really used hers since she was one of the real polar explorers and was converted into an Antarctic laboratory vessel for the National Science Foundation. I never went up in Mizar's tower. I was told it had complete duplicate bridge controls .
Mizar was also famous. She found USS Thresher, USS Scorpion and the nuclear weapons off Spain. The following is from a transcription of USS Scorpion (SSN-589) - Court of Inquiry Findings at a Scorpion memorial web site:
"19. That at about 03002 on 30 October 1968 while viewing films on board USNS MIZAR Captain James T. Traylor USN Commander Submarine Squadron TEN and Commander Task Unit 4.2.1 Senior Officer Search Force) detected what he considered what was later identified as portions of SCORPION."She had been modified after the ice days with a hole in the middle, sometimes termed a "moon pool," that we called it the "well." About mid ships was a hanger like "building." Inside were huge hydraulic doors in the deck that opened to the sea. It was on these doors the sleds or other equipment could be maintained in shelter, raised, then lowered. NHC Photo # NH 97577 shows the sled used in the Scorpion search sitting on the doors.
We had to live with constant heavy breathing as a result of this arrangement. Mizar heaved and "inhaled" to relieve suction built up in the well's air space below the doors. As she went down, exhaling a truly huge breath, most air went out the relief vents that were about 10 inches deep by 18 wide. I believe the rectangular object rising behind the left portion of the sled in NH 97577 is one of the "breathers" leading from the well to the deck outside.
The vents didn't do the whole job in rough weather. When that happened the doors would rise an inch or so then slam tight. There was a hole, about five inches in diameter in the center of the door seam. It was rumored that one could get in some trouble if a foot happened to be over the hole when Mizar sucked hard. Anyway, the breathing, whistling and slamming could keep some people up at night. One person once spent a whole trip arranging baffles around the seam to stop the loud whistles, even shrieks, that had started as the rubber seal went bad. There was no solution if part of the vent system ran through your quarters, as it did in those I usually had, where you had to learn to live with heavy breathing even in mild seas. Even worse, something had gotten down into that vent, apparently on a string. That vent had all the breathing with what I used to think of as death rattles. Above the well was the winch gear linked to large winches located just forward of our quarters. It is hard to imagine the noise and vibration when breathing, rattling, whistling and roaring winches combined.
Our quarters were arranged around the "well" which formed the inner wall of the passage outside. Our working spaces were further below and also arranged around the "well." The early conversion did little externally other than add a large boxy deck structure (NHC Photo # NH 79130) to house the machinery and cover the workshops and well. After witnessing launch of sleds and other heavy equipment from the stern "U" frames of Bent class ships with people and equipment soaked by rain, salt spray or even seas or baked in the sun I could truly appreciate this arrangement. It allowed maintenance of the "fish" in workshop conditions rather than exposed deck conditions that at times were severe enough to prohibit maintenance. One does so much better doing that work dry and warm rather than soaked, cold and dodging green water.
Some of the worst ship noise I've ever endured was during operations with the winches going. It allowed oceanographic casts in bad weather while not exposing people to open decks, but the noise was enough to keep everyone else on edge. During my first trip, when she was "flying" a deep instrument "fish" in Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) days, the noise was especially constant. I could sleep, but my teeth and jaws ached. That was partly from clenching, but I also believe partly from the vibration. That was so bad that nothing stood still. Things "walked" off desks and even out of lockers.
The view down the well was beautiful in tropical seas, often the clear blue of snorkeling. When the well was open, the entire tank was like a glowing blue swimming pool. Actually, the thing was about the size of many small motel pools.
Mizar also burned a lot. Most were galley fires and no fire at sea is "minor," but too many for comfort were more serious engine room fires. We had frequent fire drills and took them much more seriously after she almost burned far from help. A colleague said they were on the last CO2 bottle when they got it under control. Here are some casualties I pulled some time ago from a listing at a Greenpeace site (apparently no longer available) on accidents at sea:
Arctic 10/05/72: The USS Mizar (T-AGOR-11) [A common mistake. This ship was never commissioned and designated as "USS." A WW II era cargo ship was USS Mizar (AF-12).] and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Edisto collide about 720 miles north of Iceland in the Greenland Sea, as the Edisto tows the disabled Mizar. Both are disabled and are in danger of being beset by ice.
Indian 01/02/77: The USS Mizar (T-AGOR-11) suffers a casualty to the port main propulsion drive shafting while en route to Karachi, Pakistan, to participate in Arabian Sea survey
Indian 05/19/77: The USS Mizar (T-AGOR-11) suffers an engine room explosion and fire while west of Sumatra, Indonesia. The ship proceeds on one engine to Singapore for repairs.
She also had an unfortunate habit of breaking down. My last trip on Mizar was out of Oakland where we broke down and were within minutes of colliding with a Bay Bridge pier. The tiny little tug, either named or a model called "Wildcat," got a line secured and began braking and turning us. We'd been delayed for days and I remember standing on the deck with several other people when this happened. We were peacefully watching the city lights set off against a great moon over a fog bank when all the alarms went off. The little tug was nearby only to take the Coast Guard inspector and shore based engineers off, but probably saved the day. A while later several big tugs came toward us after apparently getting word of the breakdown. One secured alongside the little tug and led us back in. It was a sad little end to a really spectacular San Francisco Bay departure. I began joking about some sort of annual "Towing of the Mizar Spring Ritual" and picturing tugs lurking all about to begin the race for the prize. This led to little stories about previous years by the other three people who had all done this exercise before. After a frustrating day hanging about in the immediate vicinity of the ship we got underway the next night -- with a big tug standing by.
It was another memorable night and one of the ship departures that stick in memory. San Francisco is not quite Rio or Hong Kong, but it is one of the better ports for memorable arrivals and departures. The moon and fog bank were not quite as perfect, but still the city lights were set against a lesser fog bank. The combination of approach to the Alcatraz fog horns, gradually picking up the big horns on the Golden Gate Bridge and listening to all of them change aspect and volume as we sailed by is still one of the best departure memories I have from anywhere. The memory of passing the city and then picking up the first ocean swell as the Golden Gate horns became dominant is something I can almost feel a decade and a half later. I have a sound clip of foghorns (189 k .wav) from tape made that night. Louder, paired horns are Golden Gate. Natural cycle between sounding is missing as I've removed long periods of ship, sea and wind noise for a smaller file.
An unpleasant Mizar feature was sewage. Sewage in the shower, sewage in the room, sewage spilling out into passageways. The toilet for the working area was literally sitting atop the main sewage holding tank that was installed to meet pollution requirements (before then flushing was right to sea). You walked out onto the rounded tank top to get to it. You got a great view of the problem if you sat and observed. The rise from the tank to the spaces above (our quarters) was a nice gentle 20 or 25 degrees. With a sloshing tank, poor (or no) check valves and 35 degree rolls -- guess could happen! It came up the shower drains! It was always cute to find your flip flops floating around in sewage tank stuff. Once in a while (not during my trips) it came over the sill into the rooms. That was bad! I could smell the result on one trip a month or so after an episode.
NRL operates in a true R&D environment and had Mizar configured for quick experimental uses and configurations. In those days Mizar was the "Washington, D.C. ship," home ported on the Potomac and often seen alongside the NRL facility. She took on a less expeditionary and experimental configuration after NRL relinquished operational control. My first sight of what was appropriately called the "lab," before the change in operational control, was of cables everywhere. They were like snakes in trees. As an aside, "lab" is often used for work spaces on university or research institution sponsored ships, but not generally for main work spaces on survey or even large oceanographic ships where the those spaces are for computers and navigation control. The latter do have "wet labs" for intake and work with instruments working over the side or work with truly wet samples.
After transfer from NRL operational control Mizar settled down to steady less varied business. The ice tower was removed and modifications were made to increase both open and sheltered deck space. Despite all the "interesting" problems she was a pretty good ship. Not particularly comfortable, but one with character. Despite the breakdowns and fires, Mizar generally got the job done. For my usual reasons, I liked this ship better than the more modern, built for the purpose Bent class. One thing was certain; I had no doubt upon waking in the middle of the night which ship I was on. She was no pea in any pod.
MARAD Reserve Fleet Inventory (2/28/01) shows Mizar "MIZAR TAGOR11 1957 C1- ME2- 13a James River, VA (RF) Ready for Disposal Non- Ret" and with recent legislation accelerating scrapping contracts I expect she will be soon gone.
Copyright © 1999, 2001 by Ramon Jackson
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