NOAAS McArthur
McArthur-class hydrographic survey ship
NOAAS McArthur (S 330), was an American survey ship in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 2003. Prior to her NOAA career she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1966 to 1970 as USC&GS McArthur (CSS-30).
In 2007, the ship went into private service with Blackwater Worldwide (later known as Blackwater USA, Xe Services LLC, and Academi) as the maritime security and training ship M/V McArthur
Construction and commissioning
Constructed as a "coastal survey ship" (CSS) for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, McArthur was laid down on 15 July 1965 by the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Norfolk, Virginia, and launched on 15 November 1965, sponsored by Mrs. Jack K. Bennett. The Coast and Geodetic Survey commissioned her on 15 December 1966 as USC&GS McArthur (CSS 30). When the Coast and Geodetic Survey merged with other United States Government agencies to form NOAA on 3 October 1970, McArthur became part of the NOAA fleet as NOAAS McArthur (S 330).
McArthur had one sister ship, NOAAS Davidson (S 331).
Service history as USC&GS and NOAAS McArthur
With her home port at Seattle, Washington, McArthur spent her career operating along the United States West Coast, in Alaskan waters, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. She began her career operating as a hydrographic survey ship, but later became primary U.S. West Coast current survey vessel. She engaged in measurements of chemical, meteorological, and biological sampling for several large-scale programs within NOAA. Her work was focused primarily on the exclusive economic zone of the United States off the U.S. West Coast, especially in several of the National Marine Sanctuaries there.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “NOAAS McArthur” as mcArthur-class hydrographic survey ship. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as mcArthur-class hydrographic survey ship. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q168165. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970, 2003, 1966 and 2007.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “NOAAS McArthur” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.