U.S. Army and U.S. Navy FS-400, was placed in service with the
United States Army Transportation Corps during
World War II with a
United States Coast Guard crew. The ship operated in the
Central Pacific Area calling at ports such as
Noumea,
Guadalcanal, and, after the end of the war,
Wake Island. On 1 July 1950, she was transferred from the U.S. Army Transportation Corps to the
United States Navy′s
Military Sea Transportation Service, entering noncommissioned service in the U.S. Navy as
USNS AKL-30 (T-AKL-30). and the ship carried a plaque – read aloud at the ceremony – that read: United States Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
Motor Ship George B. Kelez To inspire those who man her and those who follow her course in the great international seas, this research ship is hereby dedicated to the honor of George B. Kelez, Fishery Research
Biologist and Alaska Fishery Administrator of the
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and Fish and Wildlife Service from 1930 to 1954. This ship and her scientists will further the research ideals and objectives on the high seas and in Alaskan waters which motivated his entire career. Wherever this living ship goes, there goes also the spirit and faith of George B. Kelez, who dedicated his life to conservation of our fishery resources. We are proud of the name, proud of the vessel and proud of the crew. May
our Lord protect and guide you. Signed by Samuel J. Hutchinson, Regional Director, 20 July 1962. and ships of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries fleet joined those of the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in forming the new
NOAA fleet. At first, the major ships that were to constitute the new fleet reported to separate entities, with former Coast and Geodetic Survey ships subordinate to the National Ocean Survey (the Coast and Geodetic Survey's successor organization within NOAA), while former BCF ships like
George B. Kelez reported to the BCF's successor within NOAA, the
National Marine Fisheries Service. During 1972 and 1973, however, the ships of the National Ocean Survey and National Marine Fisheries Service, as well as those of the Environmental Research Laboratories, integrated to form a consolidated and unified
NOAA fleet, operated by the National Ocean Survey's Office of Fleet Operations.
George B. Kelez officially became part of the new NOAA fleet in 1972. In the summer of 1972, she made a cruise in the Gulf of Alaska to study the distribution and abundance of
Pacific salmon. NOAA had limited funding during its first three years of existence between 1970 and 1972, forcing it to reduce ship operations and oceanographic studies. This led NOAA to
decommission George B. Kelez near the end of 1972, and she never returned to fisheries research work. However, in March 1973 NOAA recommissioned her and loaned her to the
United States Geological Survey for use in
Southern California. In late 1974, NOAA moved her to a new home port, NOAA's Atlantic Marine Center at
Norfolk,
Virginia, and on 6 December 1974 opened bids for repair work to the ship. With her repairs completed,
George B. Kelez returned to service, focusing on oceanographic research. She spent the years from 1976 to 1980 primarily operating in connection with the
Marine Ecosystems Analysis (MESA)
New York Bight Project, which used
benthic sampling to monitor and research the short-term ecological effects of ocean dumping. During this time, she was assigned to the support of NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories from 1976 to 1977 and to the support of NOAA's Office of Marine Pollution Assessment from 1978 to 1979. In January 1980, 35 scientists from 13 countries taking part in an intergovernmental project to gather oceanographic data on the effects of common pollutants conducted open-ocean sampling aboard
George B. Kelez in the
North Atlantic Ocean off
Bermuda. NOAA decommissioned her by the end of January 1980 and eventually put her up for sale.
Later career In April 1982 the Seafarers Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship of
Brooklyn,
New York, purchased the ship and renamed her '
MV Earl "Bull" Shepard
. The school, which moved to Piney Point, Maryland, in 1991 and simultaneously renamed itself the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education, used her until February 1994, when it sold her to foreign buyers, who renamed her MV Croyance
. She was renamed MV Rest Express
in 1997, MV Mon Repos
in 1998, and MV Monrepos Express
. In 1999, she again was named MV Croyance'''
. In 2005, Croyance
was spotted tied up in a rusty condition at Moss Point, Mississippi, bearing a port of registry of San Lorenzo, Honduras. In 2006, the Omega Protein Corporation of Reedville, Virginia, acquired her, registered her in the United States, renovated her for use as a menhaden fishing vessel, and renamed her 'MV ''Smuggler's Point'''
. As of 2016, Smuggler's Point'' remained in commercial service. == Footnotes ==