RV ''Knorr'' was a

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

formerly owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it ...

for the U.S. research community in coordination with and as a part of the

University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System The University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is a group of academic institutions and National Laboratories organized in the United States to coordinate research vessel use for federally funded ocean research. Authority The UNOLS ...

(UNOLS) fleet. On March 14, 2016, ''Knorr'' was officially transferred to the Mexican Navy and renamed '' Rio Tecolutla''. She was replaced at Woods Hole by the . ''Knorr'' is best known as the ship that supported researchers as they discovered the wreck of the RMS ''Titanic'' in 1985. R/V ''Knorr'' (AGOR-15) has traveled more than a million miles—the rough equivalent of two round trips to the Moon or forty trips around the Earth. Her sister ship is the RV ''Melville''.

Ship

R/V ''Knorr'' was named in honor of Ernest R. Knorr, a distinguished hydrographic engineer and cartographer who was appointed Chief Engineer Cartographer of the U.S. Navy Hydrographic office in 1860. Chief Engineer Knorr was one of the leaders of the Navy’s first systematic charting and surveying effort from 1860 to 1885. She was launched on August 21, 1968 at the

Defoe Shipbuilding Company The Defoe Shipbuilding Company was a small ship builder established in 1905 in Bay City, Michigan, United States. It ceased to operate in 1976 after failing to renew its contracts with the United States Navy. The site of the former company is ...

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metrop ...

, ''Knorr'' was delivered to

Woods Hole Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at ...

on April 15, 1970. The ship was built with Cycloidal propulsion that was replaced during a 1989-1991 midlife refit at which time propulsion was changed to two azimuthing stern thrusters and a retractable bow thruster as well as the hull being lengthened from to . The overhaul between 1989 and 1991 added of length to her midsection. In 2003 a Dynamic Positioning System capable of holding the ship in position within one meter was installed providing capability for ocean drilling and other precise operations. During a 2005–2006 refit a long coring system capable of , longest in the U.S. research fleet, deep cores was installed. The ship has anti-roll tanks and an ice-strengthened bow enabling her to work in all of the world’s oceans. She can take a crew of 22 and a scientific party of 34 to sea for as long as 60 days. ''Knorr'' was designed to accommodate a wide range of oceanographic tasks, with two instrument hangars and eight scientific work areas; a fully equipped machine shop; three oceanographic winches; and two cranes. ''Knorr'' is equipped with sophisticated navigation and satellite communication systems, as well as a

dynamic positioning Dynamic positioning (DP) is a computer-controlled system to automatically maintain a vessel's position and heading by using its own propellers and thrusters. Position reference sensors, combined with wind sensors, motion sensors and gyrocompass ...

system that allows the ship to move in any direction and to maintain a fixed position in high winds and rough seas. In 2005–2006, the ship was refitted to support a new “long-coring” system that can extract plugs of ancient sediments from the sea floor. Weighing nearly 25,000 pounds, the new piston-coring system is the longest in the U.S. research fleet (twice as long as existing systems). ''Knorr'' and its long-corer will allow scientists to sample deep, ancient sediments that are rich with historical information about the ocean and climate.

Role in search for ''Thresher'', ''Scorpion'', and ''Titanic''

In 1985, operated by the

, she was the ship that discovered the wreck of the RMS ''Titanic'', using

side scan sonar Side-scan sonar (also sometimes called side scan sonar, sidescan sonar, side imaging sonar, side-imaging sonar and bottom classification sonar) is a category of sonar system that is used to efficiently create an image of large areas of the sea ...

. The

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

was interested in finding out what happened to their missing nuclear powered attack submarines, the USS ''Scorpion'' and the USS ''Thresher'', which sank in the 1960s.

Robert Ballard Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is an American retired Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology o ...

approached the Navy about using his new deep sea underwater robot craft, the ''Argo'', to search for the ''Titanic''. The Navy agreed it would finance use of the RV Knorr for Ballard's ''Titanic'' search only if he first searched for and investigated the two sunken submarines, and found out the state of their nuclear reactors after being submerged for such a long time, and whether their radioactivity was impacting the environment. When they searched for the two submarines, Ballard and his team discovered that they had imploded from the immense pressure at depth. It littered thousands of pieces of debris all over the ocean floor. Following the large trail of debris led them directly to both and made it significantly easier for them to locate them than if they were to search for the hulls directly. Using that lesson, they had ''Argo'' sweep back and forth across the ocean floor to find the ''Titanic's'' debris trail, following the trail to the wreckage of the ship itself.

Decommissioning

It was announced on December 4, 2014, that the research vessel ''Knorr'' is being decommissioned after more than 40 years as the workhorse of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research fleet. It was transferred to the Mexican Navy in 2016, and was replaced by a new $74 million research vessel, the RV ''Neil Armstrong''.

Specifications

*Built: 1969 *Length: 279 feet (85 m) *Draft: 16.5 feet (5 m), with bow thruster lowered – 23 ft (7 m) *Displacement: 2,685 LT *Range: 12,000 NM *Laboratories: 2,756 sq. feet (256 sq. m) *Speed: 11.0 knots cruising *Endurance: 60 days *Fuel Capacity: 160,500 gallons *Mid-Life Overhaul: 1989–1991 *Beam: 46 feet (14 m) *Gross Tons: 2,518 T *Complement: **Crew – 22 **Scientists – 32 **Technicians – 2 *Propulsion: Two Lips diesel-electric azimuthing stern thrusters, 1500 SHP each *Bow Thruster: Lips retractable azimuthing 900 SHP *Ship Service Generators: 3 @ 1,110 KW 600 VAC, 1 @ 560 KW 600 VAC *Portable Van Space: At least six 20-ft. vans *Winches: **Trawl – 30,000' 9/16" wire **Hydro (2) – 30,000' 3-cond. EM or 1/4" wire *Heavy Equipment: **Cranes – two 60,000 lbs. capacity **Midships hydro boom **HIAB crane *Sewage System: **3,600 gallons/day **7,000 gal. holding capacity Ownership: Title held by U.S. Navy; Operated under charter agreement with Office of Naval Research Other Features: Two instrument hangars, fully equipped machine shop, dynamic-positioning system, four transducer wells, one rigid-hull inflatable rescue/work boat.

References

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