Namesake:
Portrait of
Capt. Benjamin Dutton, Jr., USN (1883-1937). This is the portrait
which hung aboard USNS Dutton T-AGS-22. The photo of the portrait was taken in
1962. USNS Dutton was named in honor of Capt. Dutton, the author
of
Navigation and Nautical Astronomy,
1926.
From the Preface to the 15th Edition:
"When Commander Benjamin Dutton, U.S. Navy, wrote his first edition of
Navigation and Nautical Astronomy, it
probably did not occur to him that his book would become one of the
greats of navigation, continuing on for more than three-quarters of a
century and enjoying a reputation exceeded only by that of the
two-hundred-year-old American Practical Navigator
by Nathaniel Bowditch."
(Courtesy of Paul Rokoff.)
This photo was taken from a post card.
(Courtesy of Phil Brooks.)
(A copy of the photograph was provided to this site by the Naval Oceanographic Office on 4/11/2007).
Date and location are unknown but the photo is probably after 1976. Thanks to Edward Alford for the photograph.
In these later photographs, it is obvious that MSC in the 1970s and 1980s had more money for maintenance--or at least for painting--than MSTS in the 1960s and early 1970s. Railings and hatch covers are nicely detailed in white, and not a single spot of rust is visible. Perhaps the Navy also finally ran out of WWII surplus lead-based paint and red-lead primer.
Lin Combs comments on this photo
here.
Dutton underway, from http://www.briem.photosite.com/Navy/scan0087.html (dead site). The caption reads: "This is the USNS Dutton, formerly the merchant ship Tuskegee Victory which my father served on at the end of WWII as a member of the ships' Naval Armed Guard." No contact information is given, so I was unable to contact the person who posted the photo. The photo has an official look to it. Antennae place it before the photos above and below, but after 1972 (see Bowditch photos).
The story of the WWII Navy Armed Guard is worth reading. Go here for the veteran's site: http://www.armed-guard.com/index.html .
Date and location unknown. I have found the photo at numerous locations on the web, so I do not know its origin, but it has the look of an official USN product.
The discussion thread that led me to this photo is interesting, in that it illustrates the fascination that people have for these ships, and the corresponding misinformation about the ships' mission.