(Commemorated by Guide Seamount on California coast)

Characteristics: Steamer, built by New Jersey Drydock & Transportation Company, Elizabethport, New Jersey in 1918 as Bird-class minesweeper USS Flamingo, cost $500,000, 187ft long x 35ft beam x12ft draft. Along with Discoverer 1 and Pioneer 1, known as "Bird-boats" in C&GS service.

Log Period and Areas of Service: 1923-1941, Pacific coast.

Summary of Service

1923 - Transferred to C&GS.

to 1941 - Carried out many early bathymetric surveys off West Coast in company with USC&GSS Pioneer. Radio acoustic ranging navigation developed onboard.

1924 - Sound signal observed over 200 miles off Oregon coast, identifying the SOFAR (Sound Fixing and Ranging) sound layer.

Fate: 1941 - Returned to Navy, converted to rescue and salvage ship, ARS-1, renamed USS Viking.

Links: DANFS, NOAA History site, Wikipedia

Pioneer with Guide 8

Sister ships Guide and Pioneer, bow to bow and alongside each other (right) at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island, 1940. Guide believed on the left in above image.

Pioneer with Guide 7

A general note on the sources.