USC&GS A. D. Bache (1871)
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.
Alexander Dallas Bache was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mideastern United States coastline. Originally an army engineer, he later became Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, and built it into the foremost scientific institution in the country before the American Civil War.
A 19th century illustration of Bache and his signature
Bache's gravesite at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
