JAMES M GILLISS T-AGOR 4

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Robert D. Conrad Class Oceanographic Research Ship Keel Laid 31 May 1961 - Launched 19 May 1961 Delivered to the Navy 5 October 1962 USNS JAMES M. GILLISS T-AGOR-4 Placed in Service 5 November 1962 Placed out of Service (Date Unknown) Laid up in Reserve 18 March 1980 Withdrawn from Reserve 14 June 1982 for removal of equipment ALTAIR H-05 Transferred to Mexico 9 December 1996 and Renamed Current Disposition, active in Mexican service as a Oceanographic Research Ship

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USNS James M. Gilliss T-AGOR-4 Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 2(n) USS Fulton AS 11

1963-10-11

N/A

Note:

 

Other Information

USNS JAMES M. GILLISS earned the National Defense Service Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Captain James Melville Gilliss, USN (6 September 1811 - 8 February 1865)
        Gilliss entered the Navy as Midshipman at the age of 15. From the beginning of his service, he was active in scientific work and in improving the quality of navigation in the Navy. He was placed in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments at Washington, D.C., in 1837, and in the 1840's was instrumental in establishing the famed Naval Observatory there. In 1846 he published Astronomical Observations, a pioneer work in the field; and, from 1849 to 1852, he led an astronomical observation expedition to South America where he established an observatory at Santiago, Chile. Continuing his important astronomical and meteorological work, Captain Gilliss replaced Matthew Fontaine Maury as head of the Naval Observatory at the beginning of the Civil War. During the war he equipped Naval vessels with charts and instruments and directed important scientific work at the observatory.

The ships sponsor was Mrs. Hubert H. Humphrey, wife of Hubert H. Humphrey, Senator from Minnesota.

Two ships of the US Navy have been named in his honor - USS James M. Gilliss MHC-13 and USNS James M. Gilliss T-AGOR-4

 

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