The Research Ship

Mostly salt water comprises two thirds of the earth's surface, and the sea might be thought of as the final terrestrial frontier. The fact is that mankind has explored only a relatively small part of its depths. Research ships might be thought of as marine platforms for scientific exploration and the pursuit of knowledge about the sea and its inhabitants.

Research ships come in all shapes and sizes. There are vessels built for polar research, designed to carry scientific expeditions into high latitudes, and which are high powered and well equipped icebreakers, complete with helicopter platforms and aircraft hangars. There are oceanographic research vessels designed to probe the depths with submersibles and capable of retrieving samples from sea-beds many miles down in the oceanic deeps.

There are ships equipped with the most elaborate laboratories and delicate instrumentation, able to tow arrays capable of analysing the sea bottom profile or even determining the geological sub-strata of the ocean bed.

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