High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! NOAAS Ronald H. Brown (R 104) is a blue-water research vessel of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was launched on May 30, 1996 at Halter Marine`s Moss Point shipyard in Pascagoula (the keel being laid in February 1995) and then commissioned on July 19 in Charleston. She was NOAA`s first newly built oceanographic research vessel in 17 years.