High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The USS Hydrographer (PY-30), originally classified PY-30 before commissioning, was built in 1928 by the Spear Engine Works in Norfolk, Virginia, and operated as a survey ship along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Acquired by the US Navy in April 1942, she was converted for US Navy service by the Choctaw Boat Works in Alabama and commissioned as AGS-2 at Mobile, Alabama on 20 May 1942, with Commander W. M. Scaife, USCGS, in command.