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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USNS Mizar (T-AGOR-11)
ex
USNS Mizar (T-AK-272) (1958 - 1964)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Golf - Echo - Juliet NGEJ

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

National Defense Service Medal

Eltanin Class (Ice-breaking) Cargo Ship:

Laid down, 1 January 1957, as a Maritime Administration type (C1-ME2-13a) hull, under Maritime Administration contract (MA hull 48), at Avondale Marine Ways, Inc., Avondale, LA.

Launched, 7 October 1957

Acquired by the Navy and placed in service by the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) as USNS Mizar (T-AK-272), 7 March 1958

Reclassified as Oceanographic Research Vessel (T-AGOR-11), 15 April 1964

Placed out of service, reverted to (AK-272) and struck from the Naval Register, 16 February 1990

Transferred to the Maritime Administration, 7 February 1992, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Fort Eustis, VA.

Final Disposition, sold 8 July 2005, for scrapping to Bay Bridge Enterprises, Chesapeake, VA., removed from the National Defense Reserve Fleet, 16 August 2005

AGOR Specifications:
Displacement 1,850 t.(lt) 3,886 t.(fl)
Length 266'
Beam 52'
Draft 18'
Speed 13 kts.

Complement

Civilian Mariners 18

Scientific Party 15

Navy 6

Propulsion

two 12cyl Alco Diesel electric engines

two propellers, 3,200shp

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Source
USNS Mizar (T-AK-272)
	160k	*Mizar* (MA hull 48) launching, 7 October 1957 at Avondale Marine Ways, Inc. Avondale, LA.	Carl R. Friberg Jr
	46k	USNS Mizar (T-AK-272) underway circa 1960, location unknown. Photo courtesy Mr. W. H. Davis from "Jane's Fighting Ships" 1961-62 edition.	Robert Hurst
USNS Mizar (T-AGOR-11)
	81k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)*, middle or later 1960s. US Navy photo # NH 79130*, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center
	96k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)**, underway in icy waters, during the middle or later 1960s.US Navy photo # NH 97572, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center
	72k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)*, departing Boston, 24 June 1964. Note notch in her stern, a design feature intended to assist pushing by another ship during ice navigation. US Navy photo # NH 97573*, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center
	68k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11) with USCGC Edisto (WAGB-284)** in Arctic ice, post 1968. Note the hovering HH-52A in arctic operations coloring. US Coast Guard photo.	US Coast Guard Historian's Office
	139k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)*, photo circa 1970, by the US Naval Research Laboratory, for which the ship was operated by the Military Sealift Command. The original caption, received with this photograph under date of October 1970, states: "... The ship has been used to investigate the ocean depths and to locate lost ships and, most recently, to find the site of the scuttled Liberty Ship Le Baron Russell Briggs* which sank during August 1970 in 16,000 feet of water about 230 miles off the coast of Florida with 418 concrete and steel coffins of nerve-gas rockets aboard." US Navy photo # NH 97574, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center
	124k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)*, photographed by one of her crewmen, while she was moored at NAS Adak, Alaska, during the 1980s. Photographed by Bob Borden, MSCPAC. US Navy photo # NH 97575*, from the Military Sealift Command Collection at the Naval Historical Center	US Naval Historical Center
	107k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)*, circa 1980s. US Navy photo # NH 97576-KN*, from the Military Sealift Command Collection at the Naval Historical Center	US Naval Historical Center
	46k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)** under way, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from DANFS	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
	67k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)** underway, date and location unknown.	Robert Hurst.
	105k	*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)** under way, date and location unknown. AP Wirephoto caption - "Research ship Located USS Scorpion hull -- The USNS Mizar. an Oceanographic ship of the Navy confirmed by means of remotely controlled underwater photography that portions of the hull of the USS Scorpion have been located off the Azores in more than 10,000 feet of water." Phot0 caption dated New York, 15 October 1968	David Wright
	119k	On 31 October 1968 the US Navy announced that *USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11) had photographed objects identified as portions of the hull of the missing U.S. submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-689) in 10,000 feet of water 400 miles southwest of the Azores. Scorpion** has been missing since 27 May 1968, when she was due at her homeport of Norfolk, VA. US Defense Department photo.	Robert Hurst
	93k	Ex-*USNS Mizar* (T-AGOR-11)** moving up the Elizabeth River at Portsmouth, VA. on 16 August 2005 for the last time as she is being maneuvered by a tug from the National Defense Reserve Fleet to Bay Bridge Enterprises, Chesapeake, VA. for scrapping.	Photo by Mabel Clark