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| 1. Scientist Margaret Tivey and Alvin pilot Dudley foster look out of Alvin's portholes during a 2005 dive. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 2. Alvin's mechanical arm and samplers, underwater. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 3. "Most octopuses will let you get close, maybe even touch them, but normally they'll try to run once the manipulator gets close," said Alvin pilot Bruce Strickrott, of his encounter with a deep-sea octopus 2,300 meters down (about 7,500 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico. This female was docile and, instead of swimming away, grabbed the submersible's robotic manipulator arm, used for picking up samples of seafloor rocks and organisms. |
| 4. When Mark Spear stepped out of the submersible Alvin as WHOI's newest deep-sea pilot, fellow pilot Gavin Eppard greeted him with a traditional baptism on the deck of R/V Atlantis. Spear is the 36th person to complete pilot training in the 42-year history of the submersible. (Photo by Jeremy Potter, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration) |
| 5. After five months in overhaul in a nearby facility, the submersible Alvin was lifted April 12, 2006 by crane onto support vessel R/V Atlantis at the WHOI dock. (Photo by Terry Rioux, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 6. The submersible Alvin surfaces after a dive as support vessel Atlantis moves into position for recovery. A typical dive is 8-10 hours. Alvin has made more than 4,000 dives since 1964. (Photo by Amy Nevala, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 7. R/V Atlantis Steward Carl Wood leaps from DSV Alvin during a recent launch of the sub. Swimmers help secure the vehicle for each launch and recovery. (Photo by Amy Nevala, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 8. Swimmers prepare DSV Alvin for retrieval aboard R/V Atlantis at the end of another dive to the bottom of the sea. The ship and sub are currently at work in the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Shelley Dawicki, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 9. The human occupied submersible Alvin rests in its hangar aboard research vessel Atlantis. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 10. The submersible Alvin is framed by its launch/recovery system in a stern view of R/V Atlantis during a cruise off San Diego near San Clemente Island to study seafloor formation. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 11. Graduate students Sigrid Katz (University of Vienna) and Carly Strasser (WHOI) greet Alvin pilot Pat Hickey after he completed his 600th dive in the submersible on November 12, 2006. Hickey has now made more dives than any pilot in the sub's four-decade history. Hickey and fellow pilot Dudley Foster (recently retired) have made more than one-quarter of all of Alvin dives. (Photo by Lauren Mullineaux, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 12. The new Sentry autonomous underwater vehicle meets the submersible Alvin during a testing expedition off Bermuda in April 2006. Sentry is a robotic underwater vehicle used for exploring the deep ocean; it will often be used to complement Alvin by surveying large swaths of ocean floor to determine the best spots for close-up exploration. Sentry is slated to join the National Deep Submergence Facility in 2008. (Photo by Chris German, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 13. Engineering tech Andy Billings (left) and Alvin pilot Anthony Tarantino finish securing the submersible on the deck of the research vessel Atlantis. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 14. In forty years of operation, the deep submergence vehicle Alvin has evolved and changed its look several times (oldest version at the top right, current version at bottom left, and a future conception of the next Alvin vehicle at the bottom right). In fact, the sub has been completely disassembled every three to five years so engineers can inspect every last bolt, filter, pump, valve, circuit, tube, wire, light, and battery—all of which have been replaced at least once in the sub's lifetime. (Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
| 15. Carl Wood (left), R/V Atlantis steward, and Ken Feldman, a shipboard technician, are also certified swimmers who help launch and recover the WHOI-operated deep-diving submersible Alvin. In the famed submersible's 41-year history, only 35 people—with an underwater brand of the "right stuff"—have become Alvin pilots. (Photo by Mark Spear, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) |
