RV Atlantis

For other ships with the same name, see List of ships named Atlantis.

RV Atlantis in 1955 near the Virgin Islands [1]
History
United States
Name	RV Atlantis
Owner	Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Ordered	1930
Builder	Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, Denmark
Yard number	596
Laid down	1930
Launched	December 1930
In service	1931
Out of service	1966
Argentina
Name	El Austral
Owner	Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (CONICET)
Acquired	July 1966
Identification	MMSI number: 701006249 Callsign: L2EF
Fate	Transferred to PNA
Argentina
Name	Dr. Bernardo Houssay (MOV-1)
Owner	Prefectura Naval Argentina
Acquired	1996
Status	Active
General characteristics
Tonnage	312 grt
Displacement	334 tons
Length	43.5 m (142 ft 9 in)
Beam	8.6 m (28 ft 3 in)
Draft	3.6 m (11 ft 10 in)
Propulsion	MTU 1084 HP
Sail plan	Marconi Ketch

RV Atlantis was a ketch rigged research vessel operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1931 to 1966. The Government of Argentina's National Scientific and Technical Research Council acquired her in 1966 and renamed her El Austral, transferring her to the Argentine Naval Prefecture in 1996 as the training and survey ship PNA Dr. Bernardo Houssay (MOV-1). In 2005 it was decided that a replacement vessel with modern capabilities and equipment was required, and a new ship was built in Argentina with a hull and rig along similar lines. Ceremonially incorporating some small parts of the original, she was completed in 2009 and put into full service in 2011, again as Dr. Bernardo Houssay.

Woods Hole history

Atlantis was the first research vessel of the American Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the first ship built specifically for interdisciplinary research in marine biology, marine geology and physical oceanography. The 460-ton Marconi-rigged ketch originally carried a crew of 17 and had room for 5 scientists. ^[2] Columbus Iselin II, her first master and a major influence in her design, felt that steadiness, silence and cruising range were of greater importance than speed. After her construction was complete, WHOI searched for an appropriate name for the new vessel. Alexander Forbes (1882–1965), a trustee of WHOI, had recently bought a schooner named Atlantis from Iselin. Forbes rechristened his schooner so the new research vessel could be named Atlantis.

Use of a continuously recording fathometer on Atlantis cruise No. 150 enabled Ivan Tolstoy, Maurice Ewing, and other scientists of the Institution to locate and describe the first abyssal plain in the summer of 1947. ^{[3] [4]} This plain, located to the south of Newfoundland, is now known as the Sohm Abyssal Plain. ^[4] Following this discovery many other examples were found in all the oceans. ^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9]}

Atlantis made 299 cruises and covered 700,000 miles, carrying out all types of ocean science.

Argentine service

In 1964, Atlantis was offered to the government of Argentina and refurbished for the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas - CONICET). She entered service in 1966 as the research vessel El Austral with CONICET, operated by the Argentine Navy as ARA El Austral (Q-47) and carrying our important investigations in the Argentine Sea. After the purpose-built ice-strengthened research ship ARA Puerto Deseado (Q-20) took over as the platform for CONICET's projects in December 1978, El Austral was decommissioned from the navy and laid up with a skeleton crew at Puerto Madryn. ^[10]

In 1995, CONICET reached agreement to transfer El Austral to the Argentine Naval Prefecture (Prefectura Naval Argentina - PNA) and renamed PNA Dr. Barnardo Houssay (MOV-1), after the eminent physiologist and director of CONICET. ^[10] However, she remained berthed in Dock E, Buenos Aires, out of use, until 2005, when she was moved to the nearby Tandanor shipyard with a view to restoring her to active service as a training ship. ^[10] The PNA reached the conclusion that the ship's condition, after the long periods laid up, could no longer meet its developing requirements, including modern safety and navigation standards, and they decided to build a new ship, albeit largely to the same design, and incorporating some components from the 1930 ship. ^{[10] [11]}

Tandanor built the new hull, with lower draught incorporating a much increased accommodation for scientists, between 2007 and 2009 at the Tandanor shipyard in Buenos Aires. Also fitted were a new main engine, generators, shaft and propeller, safety equipment, air-conditioning, and all safety and navigation equipment ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} The new ship was commissioned into PNA service in 2011. ^[10]

References

1. "Historical Photos". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
2. Jenkins, Dennis R. (2007). Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System . Voyageur Press. ISBN   978-0-9633974-5-4.
3. P.P.E. Weaver; J. Thomson; P. M. Hunter (1987). Geology and Geochemistry of Abyssal Plains (PDF). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. p. x. ISBN   978-0-632-01744-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
4. Ivan Tolstoy & Maurice Ewing (October 1949). "North Atlantic hydrography and the mid-Atlantic Ridge". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 60 (10): 1527–40. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1949)60[1527:NAHATM]2.0.CO;2.
5. Bruce C. Heezen, Maurice Ewing and D.B. Ericson (December 1951). "Submarine topography in the North Atlantic". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 62 (12): 1407–1417. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1951)62[1407:STITNA]2.0.CO;2.
6. Bruce C. Heezen, D.B. Ericson and Maurice Ewing (July 1954). "Further evidence for a turbidity current following the 1929 Grand banks earthquake". Deep-Sea Research. 1 (4): 193–202. doi:10.1016/0146-6313(54)90001-5.
7. F.F. Koczy (1954). "A survey on deep-sea features taken during the Swedish deep-sea expedition". Deep-Sea Research. 1 (3): 176–184. doi:10.1016/0146-6313(54)90047-7.
8. Bruce C. Heezen; Marie Tharp & Maurice Ewing (1962). H. Caspers (ed.). "Heezen, Bruce C., Marie Tharp, and Maurice Ewing: The Floors of the Oceans. I. The North Atlantic. Text to Accompany the Physiographic Diagram of the North Atlantic. With 49 fig., 30 plates. – New York, N.Y.: The Geological Society of America, Special Paper 65, 1959. 122 p. $10.00". Internationale Revue der Gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie. 47 (3). Weinheim: WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Company: 487. doi:10.1002/iroh.19620470311 . Retrieved 26 June 2010.
9. Bruce C. Heezen & A.S. Laughton (1963). "Abyssal plains". In M.N. Hill (ed.). The Sea. Vol. 3. New York: Wiley-Interscience. pp. 312–64.
10. Amendolara, Ignacio; Mey, Carlos J. "MOV-01 GC "Dr Bernardo Houssay"". Historia y Arqueología Marítima (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Fundación Histarmar. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
11. "Dr. B. Houssay Vessel". Buenos Aires: Tandanor. Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
12. "Un barco con historia, remodelado para investigar el mar" (in Spanish). Clarin.com. 21 October 2009.
13. "Prefectura launched 'Dr. Bernardo Houssay' oceanographic vessel". Prefectura Naval Argentina (Argentine Coast Guard). Retrieved 28 October 2009.

Bibliography

• Susan Schlee (1978). On Almost Any Wind: The Saga of the Oceanographic Research Vessel "Atlantis" . Cornell University Press. ISBN   978-0-8014-1160-1.
• Wallace O. Fenn (1969). Alexander Forbes (1882–1965): A Biographical Memoir (PDF). Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences.