Research Ship

The modern research ship takes its origins from the early exploration voyages such as HMS Endeavour and HMS Challenger, both of which were converted vessels, fitted with a range of research facilities to sample and measure across a range of disciplines in extreme environments. Early research vessels were fairly basic and simplistic compared to the state-of-the-art ships we see being developed today. Gradually, the trend of converting other vessels into research ships 1 by the challenging demands of investigating increasingly complex areas of oceanographic research, such as physical, biological and chemical oceanography; marine geology and geophysics; ocean engineering and atmospheric science in one expedition. In order to carry 2 multi-disciplinary research in extreme environments, specially designed research vessels became a requirement. Research ships are the primary source of oceanographic observations and 3 so for the foreseeable future. As time 4 ,science is likely to be conducted in increasingly remote and environmentally challenging areas, including the polar seas, so the ability to operate with minimal interruptions from the natural elements remains unchanged from the days of the Challenger Expedition.