On July 26, 1997 the U.S. Navy cargo vessel USNS Watson was launched at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company shipyard in San Diego. (The vessel’s prefix USNS stands for “United States Naval Ship” – this designation is used to identify non-commissioned ships owned by the Navy but operated by one of the primarily civilian crews of the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, or MSC.)
The ship’s keel was laid down on May 23,...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-usns-watson-launched-25-years-ago