Image

Anton Dohrn

March 15, 2014

After arriving at WHOI in 1940, the research vessel Anton Dohrn made at least 40 cruises from Maine to New Jersey, testing bathythermographs, underwater cameras, and other newly-designed instruments. Scientists also used Anton Dohrn for underwater sound transmission experiments and harbor studies. Opinions of the vessel, said to require eight bilge pumps to keep afloat, varied wildly. “Able and economical,” said WHOI director Columbus Iselin. “She had all the sea-keeping qualities of an old fashioned, round bottomed bathtub,” said biologist Gordon Riley. Engineer Dutch Wegman, who recently admired a photo of the vessel that still hangs in the WHOI Port Office, said “it really was a pretty boat.” (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)