Photo c/o John Dyke, WHOI.
The R/V Atlantis is one of the most sophisticated Global Class research vessels that operates in all of the world’s oceans. The ship is owned by the U.S. Navy and is operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS).
It is the only vessel in the U.S research fleet that is specially designed to support the Alvin human occupied submersible, other vehicles of the National Deep Submergence Facility and general oceanographic research. Because the Atlantis is constantly going where Alvin is needed for ocean exploration, the ship is rarely seen in Woods Hole.
The ship is built with 6 science labs, precise navigation systems and seafloor mapping sonar which includes a Kongsberg Maritime EM122 Multibeam Echosounder that is designed to perform seabed mapping to full ocean depth, with full resolution, coverage and accuracy.
For more information about the R/V Atlantis, please visit: http://www.whoi.edu/main/ships/atlantis