Sword Knot (T-AGM 13) Class: Photographs
| These photographs were selected to show the original configuration of this class and major subsequent modifications. For more views see the former NHHC (now Hyperwar) Online Library of Selected Images and the NavSource Photo Archive. |
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USAFS Sword Knot (E-45-1852, later USNS T-AGM 13) With USAFS Rose Knot (E-45-1850, later USNS T-AGM 14) behind her at Trinidad after a mission. Like their smaller predecessors on the Eastern Range, six ex-Army FS ships, these "Cimavis" had an antenna under a small dome above each bridge wing. Rose Knot also has a single helix telemetry antenna on top of her foremast. Photo No. USAF 160874 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USAFS Sampan Hitch (E-45-1861, later USNS T-AGM 18) As an Air Force ship with the original two antennas under small domes above the bridge wings. She also has a raised deck and deckhouse above the stern, possibly inherited from earlier service. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USAFS Coastal Crusader (E-45-1851, later USNS T-AGM 16) USAF telemetry ship Coastal Crusader on 14 November 1962. She has added a linear quadruple telemetry antenna on the foremast and a small dish on the after end of the superstructure to her two original domes. Photo No. USAF 171348 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USAFS Rose Knot (E-45-1850, later USNS T-AGM 14) A NASA photo of the "tracking ship" Rose Knot in 1963 while serving as a mobile telemetry station in support of manned space flight (Mercury) missions. She had both reception and "command" capabilities thanks to two quadruple helix telemetry antennas, one on the midships mast and one on a new mast aft of the superstructure, and two broadband HF discage transmitting antennas, one at each end. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (L-file) |
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USNS Timber Hitch (T-AGM 17, ex USAFS E-45-1848) Now USNS, a linear quadruple helix telemetry antenna has been added on the foremast as in Coastal Crusader, above. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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USNS Coastal Sentry (T-AGM 15, ex USAFS E-45-1849) Photographed on 5 August 1965 in the updated configuration for mobile telemetry stations supporting Gemini manned spaceflight missions, which consisted of a square quadruple helix telemetry antenna on each cargo mast along with two broadband HF discage transmitting antennas, one at each end of the ship. Photo No. KN-11982A Source: Shipscribe |
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USNS Rose Knot (T-AGM 14) Photographed on 28 July 1965 configured like Coastal Sentry, above, as a mobile telemetry station supporting Gemini manned spaceflight missions. She has a square quadruple helix telemetry antenna on each cargo mast and a broadband HF discage transmitting antenna at each end of the ship. Photo No. KN-11901 Source: Shipscribe |
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USNS Sword Knot (T-AGM 13) As refitted around 1965 to track unmanned projects, particularly deep space probes, she added to her linear quadruple helix telemetry antenna on the foremast a large air-inflated radome over the bridge housing a telemetry antenna and a square quadruple helix telemetry antennas on the second mast. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (L-file) |
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USNS Coastal Crusader (T-AGM 16) An Air Force photo of the ship at Port Canaveral, Fla., on 12 August 1965. The second mast may hold a diamond-shaped acquisition antenna instead of a square quadruple helix telemetry antenna. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (MSC) |
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Ex-USNS Sampan Hitch (T-AGM 18) In MARAD layup at Suisun Bay after removal of all antennas. The photo is dated 1971 on the back but may be earlier. She may be alongside the former USS Audrain (APA 59), by 1966 the last of her two-funneled class at Suisun and finally sold in 1972. The other ships are unidentified. Photo No. None Source: Shipscribe |
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