USC&GS Thomas R. Gedney, originally USCS Thomas R. Gedney, was a survey ship in service in the United States Coast Survey from 1875 to 1878 and in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1878 to 1915.

Thomas R. Gedney was a composite wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 steamship built by C. H. Decameter at New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1875. She entered service with the Coast Survey that year. When the Coast Survey was reorganized in 1878 to form the Coast and Geodetic Survey, she became part of the Coast and Geodetic Survey fleet. She served along both the United States East Coast and United States West Coast, and operated a great deal in the waters of the Territory of Alaska. Future rear admiral

Rear Admiral

Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...

 Uriel Sebree

Uriel Sebree

Uriel Sebree was a career officer in the United States Navy. He entered the Naval Academy during the Civil War and served until 1910, retiring as a rear admiral. He is best remembered for his two expeditions into the Arctic and for serving as acting governor of American Samoa...

 briefly served as her commanding officer

Commanding officer

The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...

 in 1879.

In October 1903, Thomas R. Gedney was operating 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...

 when found the steamer

Steamboat

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

 Farallon anchored in Frederick Sound

Frederick Sound

Frederick Sound is a passage of water in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska that separates Kupreanof Island to the south from Admiralty Island in the north....

 with a broken propeller

Propeller

A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...

 shaft and more than 100 passengers were on board. She towed Farallon to Touka Cannery in Wrangell Narrows

Wrangell Narrows

The Wrangell Narrows is a winding, 35-km-long channel between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. The Wrangell Narrows is one of the six Listed narrows in Southeast Alaska. There are about 60 lights and buoys to mark it because of its winding nature...

, where Farallon transferred her passengers and got further assistance.

On 12 July 1905, Thomas R. Gedneys chief writer, P. H. Coning, drowned when the ships whaleboat

Whaleboat

A whaleboat is a type of open boat that is relatively narrow and pointed at both ends, enabling it to move either forwards or backwards equally well. It was originally developed for whaling, and later became popular for work along beaches, since it does not need to be turned around for beaching or...

 capsized off the coast of Alaska. She suffered another tragedy on 30 May 1908 when a Quartermaster

Quartermaster

Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...

 Gunderson fell overboard and drowned.

Thomas R. Gedney twice came to the assistance of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company

Pacific Coast Steamship Company

The Pacific Coast Steamship Company was an important early shipping company that operated steamships on the west coast of North America.-Organization and operations:...

 steamship SS Curacao in 1913. On 29-30 April she joined the Coast and Geodetic Survey launches

Launch (boat)

A launch in contemporary usage refers to a large motorboat. The name originally referred to the largest boat carried by a warship. The etymology of the word is given as Portuguese lancha "barge", from Malay lancha, lancharan, "boat," from lanchar "velocity without effort," "action of gliding...

 USC&GS Cosmos

USC&GS Cosmos

USC&GS Cosmos was a survey launch in service in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1887 to 1927.Cosmos was built in 1887 by the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California. She entered service with the Coast and Geodetic Survey that year...

 and Launch 117 in helping to pull Curacao off Boulder Spit on Fish Egg Island, Alaska. On 21 June, Curacao was wrecked on an uncharted rock at Tonawek Bay in Alaska; Thomas R. Gedney rescued her passengers and crew and took them to Ketchikan

Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan is a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States, the southeasternmost sizable city in that state. With an estimated population of 7,368 in 2010 within the city limits, it is the fifth most populous city in the state....

, Alaska, 140 nautical miles (260 kilometers) from the scene of the wreck.

On 16 January 1915, Thomas R. Gedney was at Seattle

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, Washington when a fire broke out on the docks

Dock (maritime)

A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...

 there. She assisted in fighting the fire, but suffered slight damage and was unable to move because she did not have steam up. The Coast and Geodetic Survey survey ship USC&GS Explorer, which had steam up, towed both Thomas R. Gedney and the survey ship USC&GS McArthur

USC&GS McArthur (1874)

The first USC&GS McArthur, originally USCS McArthur, was a steamer that served as a survey ship in the United States Coast Survey from 1876 to 1878 and in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1878 to 1915....

 to a safe location.

On 12 June 1915, Thomas R. Gedney came to the assistance of the fishing schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 Polaris, which had run aground
on Klawack Reef at the north end of Fish Egg Island in Alaska, and helped to refloat Polaris.

Thomas R. Gedney was retired from service later in 1915.