US FWS Pribilof was an American refrigerated cargo ship in commission in the fleet of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) from 1964 to 1970 and, as NOAAS Pribilof, in the fleet of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration′s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from 1970 to 1975. She ran a cargo service between Seattle, Washington, and the Pribilof Islands – the last of the United States Government "Pribilof tenders" to carry out this function – and also made USFWS and NMFS research cruises in the Pribilofs. Prior to her USFWS service, Pribilof was the United States Army cargo ship FSR-791. After the NMFS decommissioned her, she operated as a commercial cargo ship and later as a commercial factory ship.
Construction and U.S. Army service The Alden firm designed the vessel as a steel-hulled coastal refrigerated cargo ship. Higgins Industries constructed her at New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1953–1954, and delivered her to the United States Army in 1954. The U.S. Army placed her in service as the "refrigerated freight and supply" vessel United States Army FSR-791, and later placed her in reserve.
Fish and Wildlife Service On 21 April 1910, the United States Congress assigned the responsibility for the management and harvest of northern fur seals, foxes and other fur-bearing animals in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands to the United States Bureau of Fisheries. The Fish and Wildlife Service – renamed the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) after a 1956 reorganization – assumed these responsibilities when it replaced the Bureau of Fisheries in 1940. Since 1917, the Bureau of Fisheries and Fish and Wildlife Service had operated a "Pribilof tender" – a dedicated supply vessel used to transport passengers and cargo to and from the Pribilof Islands – and by 1962 the Fish and Wildlife Service had deemed the most recent tender, US FWS Penguin II, too small to continue in the role and in need of replacement. In October 1962, the U.S. Army agreed to loan FSR-791 to the USFWS's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF). The BCF renamed the reactivated ship Pribilof and placed her in service in 1963 as the newest Pribilof tender, basing her at Seattle and assigning her to support the USFWS's Marine Mammal Resources group. The USFWS found Pribilof well-suited to the role of transporting passengers and cargo to and from the Pribilofs and permanently removed Penguin II from service in 1963. In 1964, the Army transferred Pribilof to the USFWS.
Pribilof usually made three to four voyages to the Pribilofs each year, and during visits to the islands she made shuttle trips between Saint Paul Island and St. George Island and conducted offshore pelagic fur seal research cruises. She also participated in search-and-rescue efforts during her voyages; notably, after the American Liberty ship Oduna was wrecked at Cape Pankof on Unimak Island in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska on 26 November 1965, Pribilof came to her assistance. and aided in the rescue of 37 survivors from Oduna. Around 1968, a proposal was made to retire Pribilof and turn over her duties to chartered vessels as a means of saving the USFWS an estimated US$100,000 per year. A USFWS study of the idea concluded that the retirement of Pribilof would result in the loss of essential services, including the end of her support to pelagic fur seal research, the loss of an ability to transport doctors. medicines, and patients to and from the United States Public Health Service hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, and the loss of transportation services between Saint Paul and St. George Islands for outgoing United States Mail, incoming U.S. Mail that included breakables that could not be delivered via airdrops, perishable goods, emergency repair of equipment, emergency services, United States Government officials, teachers, students, and people involved in cultural and recreational exchanges. The ship remained in service.
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