APPENDIX C— STATUS OF THE FEDERALLY 

 SUPPORTED FLEET 



Table C-1 summarizes Federal fleet size and funding over a4-year 

 period. Overall, the fleet will have declined in size by eight ships 

 from fiscal years 1973 through 1976, significant loses being 

 sustained by the Navy in particular, and the academic fleet and the 

 USCG fleet, to a lesser extent. The actual count will drop from 85 to 

 n ships in operation. During this same period, funding to support 

 the Federal fleet will have increased $16.4 million, or an average of 

 6.8 percent per year. This rate of increase in support dollars has been 

 insufficient to match the rapidly inflating costs of ship operations. 

 Three-fold increases in fuel and overhaul costs have been particular- 

 ly notable contributors to these rising costs over the past 2 years and 

 to the resultant decline in number of ships in operation. 



The fleet support picture has, nonetheless, improved substantially 

 over the projections made in the 1974 Federal Ocean Program. At 

 that time it was expected that the fiscal year 1975 fleet would decline 

 to 71 ships and that funding would be no more than about $85.9 

 million. The most significant change affecting those earlier projec- 

 tions occurred in the NOAA fleet. Three temporarily out of service 

 (TOS) ships, MilJer Freeman, Discoverer, and SuvvQyov, were 

 reactivated during fiscal year 1975, by means of a special energy- 

 related appropriation to NOAA. The reactivation of these ships was 

 specifically authorized for their use in environmental surveys 

 related to offshore resource exploration. In addition, two TOS 

 fisheries ships, X^e\a\N(\ve II and Cromwell, were also brought back 

 into service in 1974 and 1975; Kelez, which had been on loan to 

 USGS, was restored to service in the NOAA fleet. 



The count of Navy ships will decline from 16 to 11 over the period 

 reported here. Navy does, however, plan to replace one ship now 

 permanently out of service (POS) because of poor material 

 condition, Michelson, with a converted ship, Canada Mail. This ship 

 will be ready for use on deep-ocean surveys in the Atlantic in fiscal 

 year 1977. By the end of fiscal 1976 two Navy ships, Wilkes and 

 Harkness, will be in TOS status, reducing, temporarily, the total 



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