USNS Sands

USNS Sands (T-AGOR-6) was a Robert D. Conrad-class oceanographic research ship operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) for the Naval Oceanographic Office from 1965 to 1973. During that period she provided ocean-bottom information and underwater test data to the U.S. Navy and other U.S. agencies. The ship was the second naval vessel to be named for Rear Admiral Benjamin F. Sands and his son Rear Admiral James H. Sands, the first being the destroyer Sands (DD-243). The ship operated in the Atlantic on oceanographic and geophysical assignments for the Oceanographic Office and other agencies. In 1974 the ship was leased to Brazil, renamed Almirante Camara and in 1990 Brazil purchased the ship under the Security Assistance Program. Almirante Camara was engaged in oceanographic work for Brazil in the South Atlantic until retirement in 2003.