User:DaveMarr/sandbox/test2

USNS Silas Bent (AGS-26), was the first of a new class of oceanographic survey ships specifically designed for oceanographic and hydrographic work. She was built by the American Ship Building Co. at Lorain, Ohio, and launched on 16 May 1964. She is named for a 19th-century US naval officer who worked on oceanographic and hydrographic matters during his 25-year career. Sponsored by Miss Nancy M. McKinley and Mrs Jeffrey R. Grandy, the Bent was delivered to the Military Sea Transportation Service (now the Military Sealift Command) in July 1965.

Function
Silas Bent gathered oceanographic, hydrographic, and bathymetric data for various US Navy projects, including SOSUS. She had a bow propulsion unit to permit precise maneuvering and station keeping, and a collection of computerized sonars and data-acquisition systems.

Career
Silas Bent completed her shakedown cruise during the winter of 1965-1966. She then began conducting oceanographic research, primarily in the Pacific, and continued to do so for many years.

In May 1968, after only six days on station, she located an ammunition-laden Liberty ship sunk in the North Pacific. In 1972, she visited Japan and, in connection with an international scientific conference, briefed many ocean scientists on the ship's capabilities for measuring bathymetric depth, magnetic intensity, gravity, surface temperature, seismic reflection, sound velocity, ambient light, and salinity.

Missions took her to various parts of the Pacific, Northern Pacific, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea, Sea of Japan, and late in her career, to the Persian Gulf. In late 1999, Silas Bent was stricken from the US Navy register and transferred to the government of Turkey, where she is now operating as the Çeşme.