High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Navy returned Surveyor to the Department of Commerce on 31 March 1919 so that she could resume service in the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Departing the United States East Coast, she proceeded to the United States West Coast via the Panama Canal in 1919. For the next 36 years, Surveyor operated almost exclusively in the Territory of Alaska, working in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. During her caeer, she had occasion to assist mariners in distress. On 25 May 1929, she rescued about 150 passengers and crew of the steamer Aleutian, which had struck a rock and sunk in Uyak Bay, Alaska; she transported them to Seward, Alaska.