NOAAS Murre II (R 663), previously NOAAS Murre II (FRV 63), was an American research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1970 to 1989. Prior to her NOAA career, she operated under the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1949 to 1956 and under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service′s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1956 to 1970 as US FWS Murre II. The ship originally operated as a self-propelled barge, first as BSP-1915 for the United States Army during World War II and then for the Fish and Wildlife Service before undergoing conversion into a research ship in 1963.
Construction The Maritime Shipyards of the United States Army Corps of Engineers built the vessel at Seattle, Washington. She was launched in 1943.
Service history
U.S. Army Upon completion, the vessel entered United States Army service as the self-propelled barge BSP-1915 during World War II. She operated in the Aleutian Islands, hauling passengers, mail, fuel, and freight.
Fish and Wildlife Service On 14 May 1949, the U.S. Army transferred BSP-1915 to the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) at Kodiak, Alaska. The FWS renamed the barge US FWS Murre II and assigned her Juneau, Alaska, as her home port. The FWS continued to operate her as a self-propelled barge, using her to haul cargo and personnel to stream watchmen at stream guard camps and to the FWS field station at Little Port Walter in Port Walter, Alaska. She also served as a floating base for FWS surveillance aircraft and their crews. In 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Service underwent a major reorganization in which it was renamed the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and its ocean-going ships like Murre II were consolidated under USFWS's new Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF). Later that year, on 11 November 1956, Murre II suffered minor damage due to a blow-back in her engine room furnace which caused an explosion and fire. As late as 1963, only cursory oceanographic studies of the waters of Southeast Alaska existed. Murre II's shallow draft made her ideal for operating in the region's shallow waters, and in that year the USFWS installed research equipment aboard her to address shortfalls in understanding of the oceanography of Southeast Alaska. In her first assignment in her new role as a multipurpose oceanographic research vessel, Murre II conducted a preliminary survey of Auke Bay. As she continued her work, an estimated 80 percent of Southeast Alaska's first recorded identifications of marine zooplankton came from samples taken by scientists aboard Murre II. In May 1964 a crankshaft broke in one of Murre II's main engines, forcing her to cut short her monthly oceanography cruise – in which plans had called for her to conduct both an oceanographic survey of Traitor's Cove and midwater trawling operations – and return to port. Repairs took several months, during which the USFWS research vessel Heron took over her duties, but Murre II eventually returned to her oceanographic operations.
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