Refitting a Stalwart

In 1989, the 20-year-old WHOI-operated research vessel Knorr went through maintenance and upgrades at a shipyard in Amelie, Louisiana. During the refit (shown here), the vessel was cut in half and a 34-foot section added. In 2006, the ship was refit again to support a new long coring system that extracts 150-foot plugs of ancient sediment from the seafloor. In the past year, scientists have used the versatile Knorr for work in waters near Greenland, Iceland, Florida, Canada, and Bermuda. The vessel is schedule to retire in 2014 after WHOI takes delivery of the newest ship in the oceanographic research fleet (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)