A Piece of the Past

In January, WHOI Scientist Emeritus Sandy Williams presented the Institution’s President and Director Susan Avery with a small, wooden crucifix, given to him by an Argentinean naval architect. The architect told Williams that the cross was carved out of oak framing taken from the stern of the Dr. Bernardo A. Housay, an Argentine Coast Guard vessel he was refitting. The Houssay, Williams learned, was formerly the Atlantis–the 142-foot ketch commissioned by WHOI and first put into service in 1931. In 1966, Argentina purchased the Atlantis, renamed it El Austral, and commissioned it into the Navy. It was later transferred to the Argentine Coast Guard and renamed the Houssay in honor of a famous Argentinean scientist and Nobel Prize winner. The ship is currently used for oceanographic research and for training students. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)