USNS Maury (T-AGS-66)
USNS Maury on 2 November 2017
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USNS Maury |
Namesake | Matthew Fontaine Maury |
Owner | United States Navy |
Operator | Military Sealift Command |
Awarded | 22 December 2009 |
Builder | VT Halter Marine |
Laid down | 1 February 2011 |
Launched | 27 March 2013 |
In service | February 2016 |
Identification |
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Status | In Service |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Pathfinder-class survey ship |
Displacement | 5,000 tons full 3,019 light |
Length | 353 ft (108 m) |
Beam | 58 ft (18 m) |
Draft | 19 ft (5.8 m) |
USNS Maury (T-AGS-66) is a Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship operated by the Military Sealift Command of the United States Navy. The seventh ship in her class, Maury is named after Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, the "Father of Modern Oceanography" who infamously resigned from a 36-year career in the US Navy to accept a command in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Maury was the first oceanographic survey ship built since USNS Mary Sears was launched in 2000. At approximately 350 feet (110 m), Maury is 24 feet (7.3 m) longer than her other sister ships in the same class. This modification is to accommodate a 300-square-foot (28 m2) moon pool for unmanned vehicle deployment and retrieval.
Maury's keel was laid on 1 February 2011 in a ceremony at the VT Halter Marine shipyard in Moss Point, Mississippi. The hull was launched on 27 March 2013 and the ship was delivered on 16 February 2016. Maury completed her maiden voyage in June 2016.
Maury is currently the only US Navy vessel named after a Confederate military officer and diplomatic envoy and is on a list, with another Navy ship named for a battle with a Confederate victory, that are being considered for renaming to non-Confederate-based names by The Naming Commission. Also on the list are ten Army posts, nine named for Confederate officers and one for a slave plantation. In September 2022 The Naming Commission recommended the renaming of Maury and cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62), with the new names to be decided by the Secretary of the Navy .