USCS Robert J. Walker (1844)
An 1852 pairnting of Robert J. Walker by W. A. C. Martin in the collection of the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Robert J. Walker |
| Namesake: | Robert J. Walker (1801–1869), United States Senator from Mississippi (1836–1845), Secretary of the Treasury (1845–1849), and Governor of Kansas Territory (1857) |
| Builder: | Joseph Tomlinson, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Completed: | 1844 |
| Acquired: | 1848 |
| In service: | 1848 |
| Fate: | Sunk in collision 21 June 1860 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Survey ship |
| Length: | 133 ft (41 m) |
| Beam: | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft 3 in (2.82 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine, sidewheel |
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| NRHP Reference # | 14000064 |
| Added to NRHP | March 19, 2014 |
USCS Robert J. Walker was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast Survey, a predecessor of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, from 1848 until sinking in 1860 after a collision at sea. Her loss resulted in the death of 20 men, the greatest loss of life in single incident ever to befall the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or any of its ancestor agencies.
Robert J. Walker was a sidewheel steamer built in 1844 by Joseph Tomlinson at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as one of the United States Government's first iron-hulled steamers. She was among eight steamers originally intended for the United States Revenue Cutter Service, but the Revenue Cutter Service had decided that the steamers were too expensive to maintain and operate, and she instead entered Coast Survey service in 1848.
Robert J. Walker's first operations involved surveying the waters of Mobile Bay in 1848, and her first commanding officer, Carlile P. Patterson, reported that year on her performance and capabilities compared with those of sailing ships.
Robert J. Walker spent the 1850s charting the waters of the United States Gulf Coast. She suffered deaths among her crew in 1852 when two men—her second and third assistant engineers—died of disease during an epidemic along the Gulf Coast.
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