USNS Silas Bent
I spent six months aboard the USNS Silas Bent. This was an Oceonographic Research vessel owned by the US Navy and crewed by civilians.The work was done by the Naval Oceanographic Office. I was signed on as an A.B. but as the mates did not get paid for overtime, I spent time on the bridge as mate and over Christmas, I took the place of the C/M between the relief of the old and new C/mates.
I joined the ship in Pareus, Greece in September, 1994. The ship spent the next three weeks there in the shipyard as nothing worked. As you can see from the picture, the ship was not painted in a while. This picture was taken after the top half of the ship was washed to remove the rust stains. Were could not paint the ship as there was no paint on board, or even in the ship yard. Eventually paint was flown in from the US.
Countries visited included Djibuti, Oman, United Arab Emerates, Bahrain, and Singapore. While port visits would last from five days to three weeks, Sea time normally lasted three weeks as that was as long as we could sail without refueling.