USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS 01) was commissioned as an "ocean survey ship" (OSS) with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., on 13 July 1966[1] under the command of Captain Arthur L. Wardwell, USESSA.

During her 30 years of service, Oceanographer sailed over 2,000,000 nautical miles (3,700,000 km) in every major ocean.

In 1967 she departed Jacksonville on 31 March on a "world science and ambassadorial cruise" which took her from the United States East Coast to the United States West Coast via the North Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean, making many good-will stops along the way before concluding the voyage by arriving at Seattle on 11 December.

After G Shipping Ltd., a Malta-based company controlled by Italian race-car driver and hotelier Emanuele Garosci, purchased Protector for US$6.5 million, Protector was renamed MV Sahara in August 2005 and towed to a Seattle, Washington, shipyard to be refitted at a projected cost of US$10 million as a luxury floating hotel which could travel from port to port.

[9][10] A poor economy resulted in the postponement of the major renovation phase of the project, but a small work crew began tearing out small cabins that had housed embarked scientists during the ship's time with NOAA to clear the way for the eventual construction of restaurants and luxury hotel rooms.

[10] On 21 October 2010, a member of the crew, 33-year-old Lia Hawkins, disappeared while working aboard Sahara while going to dump scrap metal into a recycling container.