RV Atlantis

---

title: "RV Atlantis" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["woods-hole-oceanographic-institution", "research-vessels-of-the-united-states", "tall-ships-of-argentina", "training-ships-of-the-argentine-navy", "research-vessels-of-argentina", "ships-built-by-burmeister-&-wain", "1930-ships"] description: "Research vessel" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_Atlantis" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Research vessel ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox ship"]

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	RVAtlantis.jpg
image_caption	RV Atlantis in 1955 near the Virgin Islands
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	United States
flag
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
section3	{{Infobox ship/career
hide_header	title
country	Argentina
flag
name	El Austral
owner	Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (CONICET)
acquired	July 1966
identification	*
fate	Transferred to PNA
section4	{{Infobox ship/career
hide_header	title
country	Argentina
flag
name	Dr. Bernardo Houssay (MOV-1)
owner	Prefectura Naval Argentina
acquired	1996
status	Active
section5	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
displacement	334 tons
tonnage	312 grt
length	43.5 m
beam	8.6 m
draft	3.6 m
crew	53
propulsion	MTU 1084 HP
sail_plan	Marconi Ketch
::

|section1={{Infobox ship/image | image = RVAtlantis.jpg | image_caption = RV Atlantis in 1955 near the Virgin Islands

|section2={{Infobox ship/career | country = United States | flag = | 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

|section3={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = Argentina | flag = | name = El Austral | owner = Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (CONICET) | acquired = July 1966 | in_service = | identification = *

• Callsign: L2EF | fate = Transferred to PNA

|section4={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = Argentina | flag = | name = Dr. Bernardo Houssay (MOV-1) | owner = Prefectura Naval Argentina | acquired = 1996 | in_service = | identification = | status = Active

|section5={{Infobox ship/characteristics | displacement = 334 tons | tonnage = 312 grt | length = 43.5 m | beam = 8.6 m | draft = 3.6 m | crew = 53 | hold_depth = | 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. 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.{{cite book |title = Geology and Geochemistry of Abyssal Plains |author1 = P.P.E. Weaver |author2 = J. Thomson |author3 = P. M. Hunter |year = 1987 |publisher = Blackwell Scientific Publications |location = Oxford |page = x |isbn = 978-0-632-01744-7 |url = http://sp.lyellcollection.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/31/1.pdf |access-date = 18 June 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101224060317/http://sp.lyellcollection.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/31/1.pdf |archive-date = 24 December 2010 |df = dmy-all |author1=Ivan Tolstoy |author2=Maurice Ewing |name-list-style=amp |title=North Atlantic hydrography and the mid-Atlantic Ridge |journal=Geological Society of America Bulletin |volume=60 |issue=10 |pages=1527–40 |date=October 1949

|doi=10.1130/0016-7606(1949)60[1527:NAHATM]2.0.CO;2 |author=Bruce C. Heezen, Maurice Ewing and D.B. Ericson |title=Submarine topography in the North Atlantic |journal=Geological Society of America Bulletin |volume=62 |issue=12 |pages=1407–1417 |date=December 1951

|doi=10.1130/0016-7606(1951)62[1407:STITNA]2.0.CO;2 |author=Bruce C. Heezen, D.B. Ericson and Maurice Ewing |title=Further evidence for a turbidity current following the 1929 Grand banks earthquake |journal=Deep-Sea Research |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=193–202 |date=July 1954 |doi=10.1016/0146-6313(54)90001-5 |author=F.F. Koczy |title=A survey on deep-sea features taken during the Swedish deep-sea expedition |journal=Deep-Sea Research |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=176–184 |year=1954 |doi=10.1016/0146-6313(54)90047-7 |author1=Bruce C. Heezen |author2=Marie Tharp |author3=Maurice Ewing |title=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 |name-list-style=amp |journal=Internationale Revue der Gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie |editor=H. Caspers |publisher=WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Company |location=Weinheim |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=487 |year=1962 |doi=10.1002/iroh.19620470311 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/iroh.19620470311 |access-date=26 June 2010|url-access=subscription |author1=Bruce C. Heezen |author2=A.S. Laughton |name-list-style=amp |title=The Sea |chapter=Abyssal plains |editor=M.N. Hill |publisher=Wiley-Interscience |location=New York |volume=3 |pages=312–64 |year=1963

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.

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. 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. 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.

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 The new ship was commissioned into PNA service in 2011.

References

Bibliography

• {{cite book |author=Susan Schlee |title=On Almost Any Wind: The Saga of the Oceanographic Research Vessel "Atlantis" |year=1978 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-1160-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/onalmostanywind00susa
• {{cite book |author=Wallace O. Fenn |title=Alexander Forbes (1882–1965): A Biographical Memoir |year=1969 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |location=Washington DC |url=http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/aforbes.pdf

References

1. "Historical Photos".
2. Jenkins, Dennis R.. (2007). "Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System". Voyageur Press.
3. "MOV-01 GC "Dr Bernardo Houssay"". Fundación Histarmar.
4. "Dr. B. Houssay Vessel". Tandanor.
5. (21 October 2009). "Un barco con historia, remodelado para investigar el mar". Clarin.com.
6. "Prefectura launched 'Dr. Bernardo Houssay' oceanographic vessel". Prefectura Naval Argentina (Argentine Coast Guard).

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::