USCS Robert J. Walker (1844)

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 to 1860.

Robert J. Walker was built in 1844 by Joseph Tomlinson at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She entered Coast Survey service in 1848.

Robert J. Walker suffered deaths among her crew in 1852 when two men—her second and third assistant engineers—died of disease during an epidemic along the United States Gulf Coast.

On the night of 20 January 1858, Robert J. Walker was at Pensacola, Florida, when a major fire broke out at the United States Army's Fort Pickens. Her men and boats, along with the hydrographic party of the Coast Survey steamer USCS Varina, promptly assisted in fighting the fire. The next day, Robert J. Walker's commanding officer received a communication from Captain John Newton of the Army Corps of Engineers, commanding the harbor of Pensacola, acknowledging the important firefighting service rendered by Robert J. Walker.

On 21 June 1860, Robert J. Walker collided with another ship and sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey approximately 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) southeast of Absecon Inlet Light, with a loss of twenty of her crew. It was the greatest disaster ever to occur in any ancestor agency of the modern-day National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. No inquiry was ever conducted into the cause of the Robert J. Walker disaster.

Rediscovery
The wreck was found by fishermen in the 1970s, 10 miles off the New Jersey coast in 85 feet of water, but was not identified until 2013, when NOAA announced that a positive identification had been made based on data collected by a NOAA survey ship in June of that year and by a NOAA dive team. NOAA has no plans to raise the wreck. NOAA used several key clues to confirm the identity of the ship including the size and layout of the iron–hull, unique engines, and rectangular portholes.