Abstract: A submarine deployed sea-state sensor includes an elongated housing having nose cone and an aft end. The housing having a forward buoyant chamber for receiving an accelerometer and for causing the sensor to be buoyed up to the surface, where it will thereafter float in a spar buoy fashion. The housing has, aft of the buoyant chamber, a damping assembly including a longitudinally extending motion damping body, a communication link deployment subassembly and a lifting body, with both the damping assembly and the lifting body attached to a communication link interconnecting the accelerometer and a submerged platform so that, when the subassembly deploys a portion of the communication link between the lifting body and a submerged submarine and this portion of the communication line becomes taught, the lifting body is pulled from the housing and the motion damping body is pulled by the lifting buoy into a distended position from the main portion of the spar buoy.