NOAA Davidson (CSS 31), originally the second USC&GS Davidson, was a survey ship in service with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1967 to 1970 and with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...

 (NOAA) from 1970 to 1989.

Davidson was launched

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

 by the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Norfolk

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, on 7 May 1966. She entered service with the Coast and Geodetic Survey on 10 March 1967. When the Coast and Geodetic Survey merged with other agencies to form NOAA on 3 October 1970, Davidson became part of the NOAA fleet.

With her home port

Home port

A vessel's home port is the port at which it is based, which may not be the same as its port of registry shown on its registration documents and lettered on the stern of the ship's hull...

 at Seattle, Washington, Davidson, along with her only sister ship McArthur, spent her career conducting hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore oil exploration/drilling and related disciplines. Strong emphasis is placed on soundings, shorelines, tides, currents, sea floor and submerged...

s along the United States West Coast, in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 waters, including Prince William Sound (1974), Tracy and Endicott Arms (Southeastern Alaska), Skagway Harbor, San Diego Bay (1975), and in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. She had a Bathymetric Swath Survey System (a stabilized deep-mapping sonar

Sonar

Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

) and a Hydroplot data-recording system.

After being decommissioned in 1989 and stricken by 1996, the Davidson was operated for many years by a company in Seattle and home ported in Sitka, Alaska. She was used as a survey and research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Alaska, and various locations in the Pacific. She was eventually sold to interests in Nigeria and is currently operating there as a security vessel in the Nigerian offshore oilfields.