Posted by: Editor on Jan 22, 2007 – 11:19 AM
newsandinfo A piece of history has arrived on the shores of Grand Bahama. Atlantis II, the same vessel famous for assisting with artifact retrieval and deep-sea imaging of the Titanic in 1986, arrived in Grand Bahama in late 2006, and is now undergoing restoration.
After being saved from a shipyard in Louisiana and surviving Hurricane Katrina, the ship and its new crew endured the 5 day trip across the Gulf of Mexico to The Bahamas, which will become its new home.
Atlantis II was named for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (W.H.O.I.) first research vessel, Atlantis, a 142-foot steel-hulled sailing vessel depicted in the Institution’s logo which sailed from 1931 to 1964. NASA named their space shuttle ATLANTIS after this same ship.
The Atlantis II was built for the W.H.O.I. at the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Baltimore, MD under a $5 million grant from National Science Foundation, was considered the flagship of their fleet and was their first vessel to get the RV designation. The ship is 210 feet long with a beam of 44 feet and a draft of 17 feet. It cruised at 12 knots, and could stay at sea for 45 days. It could accommodate 25 scientists and had a crew of similar number.
The ship traveled around the world many times and was involved with every type of ocean science exploration. No other research vessel has covered a much of the ocean as Atlantis II. It has sailed more than 1 million miles (1,006,912) on 458 cruises and spent 8,115 days at sea in every ocean of the world, a record unequaled by any other research vessel. The Atlantis II visited 112 ports in 78 nations and hosted thousands of visitors from many nations, including notables such as Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1967, Japan’s former Crown Prince and now Emperor Akihito in 1987, and the explorer Jacques Cousteau.
In 1979 Atlantis II underwent a major mid-life refit. The conversion of the vessel’s power source from steam to diesel reduced the vessel’s operating cost, increased its range of travel, and increased its selection of ports. In 1983 a deck hanger and A-frame were installed enabling her to handle the launch and recovery of the submersible oceanographic vehicle, Alvin. Atlantis II served as Alvin’s tender from 1984 to 1996.
A notable point of interest is that Atlantis II was one of the first research vessels to take women scientists to sea, as well as the first to employ female officers and crew. It also set the Institution’s record for number of days at sea with one particular voyage of 575 days and 73,907 miles covered.
Decommissioned in 1996 after a remarkable 33 year career, she sat quiet for a number of years changing hands several times without realizing any significant new purpose. That has changed!