US FWS Hugh M. Smith

US FWS Hugh M. Smith

US FWS Hugh M. Smith anchored in Kihei Bay off Maui, Territory of Hawaii, ca. 1950
United States Navy
Name	USS YP-635
Builder	Ballard Marine Railway Company, Seattle, Washington
Completed	1945
Commissioned	May 1945
Stricken	1963
Honors and awards	American Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal
Fate	Transferred to Fish and Wildlife Service November 1948 Transferred to U.S. Navy 1963 Transferred to Government of American Samoa
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Name	US FWS Hugh M. Smith
Namesake	Hugh McCormick Smith (1865–1941), U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries (1913–1922)
Acquired	November 1948
Commissioned	1949
Decommissioned	June 1959
Homeport	Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii (1949–1958) Honolulu, Hawaii (1958–1959) San Diego, California (Scripps, 1959–1963)
Fate	Transferred to U.S. Navy 1963
Notes	Leased to Scripps Institution of Oceanography 23 June 1959–4 November 1963
United States
Name	MV Hugh M. Smith
Namesake	Previous name retained
Operator	Government of American Samoa
Homeport	American Samoa
Fate	Transferred to Philippine Merchant Marine Academy 1965
Philippines
Name	RPLS Habagat ("South Wind")
Namesake	Habagat, the southwest monsoon[1]
Operator	Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
Acquired	1965
Fate	Capsized at pier in storm, late 1970s
General characteristics (as U.S. Navy vessel)
Type	Patrol vessel
Displacement	403 tons
Length	117 ft (36 m)
General characteristics (as FWS fisheries research vessel)
Type	Fisheries research ship
Tonnage	550 GRT
Length	128 ft (39 m)
Beam	29 ft (8.8 m)
Draft	15 ft (4.6 m)
Installed power	2 x 125-kW diesel–electric generators
Propulsion	560 hp (420 kW) diesel engine
General characteristics (as Scripps Institution research vessel)
Type	Research ship
Length	128 ft (39 m)
Beam	29 ft (8.8 m)
Draft	14 ft (4.3 m)
Speed	9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) (cruising)
Range	10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi)
Endurance	45 days
Crew	14, plus up to 8 embarked scientists

US FWS Hugh M. Smith was an American fisheries science research vessel in commission from 1949 to 1959 in the fleet of the United States Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service. She was among the first U.S. fisheries science vessels to explore the central Pacific Ocean in search of commercially valuable populations of fish.

Prior to her time in the Fish and Wildlife Service, the vessel was in commission in the United States Navy as the patrol vessel USS YP-635. After her Fish and Wildlife Service career ended, she was leased to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1959 to 1963, then operated in American Samoa during the mid-1960s, and finally served the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy as the laboratory training ship Habagat from 1965 until she capsized in a storm in the late 1970s.