DAVIDSON
NOAA
Ship DAVIDSON
|
Twin
diesel, length 175 feet, beam 38 feet, draft 13.3 feet. Built by Norfolk
Shipbuilding and Drydock, Norfolk, Virginia, in 1967. Pacific service,
Alaska and West Coast. Named for the great Coast Surveyor George Davidson
(1825-1911), pioneer Coast Surveyor who came to California in 1850,
geodesist who observed and planned the 39th Parallel Survey from north
of San Francisco through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, observer of
the great Davidson Quadrilateral, measurer of the Yolo Baseline considered
the most accurate baseline of the Nineteenth Century, President of
the California Academy of Sciences for 16 years, member of the National
Academy of Sciences, Regent 1877-1884 and Professor at the University
of California until his death, author of the Pacific Coast and Alaska
Coast Pilots, founder and first President of the Pacific Seismological
Society forerunner of the Seismological Society of America, instrumental
in convincing James Lick to endow the Lick Observatory, one of three
Commissioners of Irrigation of the State of California, and many other
significant positions and accomplishments.
