Oceanus's was the first of three in a class
that was funded by the National Science Foundation and built in the mid 1970s
and operated initially by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
So it was part of the academic research fleet for about 35 years.
And then about ten years ago, a decision
was made during Oceanus around to be operated by Oregon State.
I was on the first
Oceanus cruise for OSU, which was in April of 2012,
and now I'm on the last one.
From the last chief engineer
on the Oceanus, and it captured my heart.
It's really a beautiful vessel.
There's a certain relationship a chief engineer has with the vessel,
and you'll see chief engineers walk around and touch their engines.
And it's the heartbeat of the ship.
By the way, all the equipment on the ship has been named.
The main engine is Brunnhilde.
Yes, it is steel and copper.
And at some level it it was alive, wasn't it?
That's why we name them.
I was part of the transition team
when OSU received Oceanus from Woods Hole,
and I wanted to get out to sea and get reconnected
to what I used to do.
It felt like a fitting cruise to get out and get reacquainted with things
and also be on Oceanus last cruise.
This is the oldest vessel in the fleet at this point.
So there's a lot of emotional stuff that goes along with it as well.
It's such a sweet dynamic on board.
It's a very respectful dynamic.
And and we know each other. We know the boat.
So I'm going to miss all of that.
All ships start out as just platforms
and they may have lots of special tools and bells and whistles,
but it's really the crew that makes them
a working environment, a living environment,
and determines whether their successful in their missions or not.
I think the crew is very
welcoming to the scientists and we do a lot of these state cruises.
So we know Claire and we know her science party and it's small enough to where,
you know, we're all actively involved and keeps the productivity up.
You know, you're spending more time with the people out here than your own family.
So, yeah,
you want to get them excited about this new vessel you're bringing online.
I think it's very critical to get them involved and vested in the process.
The RCRV is just going to expand out the capabilities of supporting science.
Tanni is going to be great.
The level of automation will be something new to me, but it'll be very exciting
and I think we're going to be able to be more efficient
and cut down on some of the turnaround time.
It's going to be overall probably a bit safer and more reliable.
We're all going to have to learn new techniques,
technologies, some of which will be much safer, but will also permit
much more expanded operations
so you can work under higher sea states,
things like we're experiencing tonight
This ship.
It served its mission, but we all have to retire
sometime.
You know, they they're good old boats.
They did a good job for a lot of years.
It's just time for a new era of doing oceanography.
Especially for OSU.
I think we both know that it's it's the last trip.
But she wants to go out with a little bit of pride.
I'm really actually starting to cheer up here, but all like my son.
Right. Even if it's mechanical.