USC&GS A. D. Bache, the second steamer of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, was named for Alexander Dallas Bache, a former superintendent of the Survey. She was launched in August 1871 at Wilmington, Delaware, and was in commission from 1871 to 1900.
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ship A.D. Bache, 1889
Results of first deep sea dredging cruise conducted by the Commissioner of Fisheries off the Coast Survey Steamer A. D. BACHE. The results of this first deep sea work by the forerunner of today's NMFS was published in: "Report on the Dredgings in the Region of St. George's Banks, in 1872" by S. I. Smith and O. Harger. Trans. of the Connecticut Academy, Vol. III., Part I, 1874.