Chandelier
"I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier
I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist
Like it doesn't exist
I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry
I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier"
- "Chandelier" by Sia
For my shipwreck project this summer, we're going out for opportunistic day-trips anytime the weather is good enough. This weekend, we capitalized on two days with blue skies and calm seas for sampling. Currently, we're working on an unidentified shipwreck that we call the "Mystery Collier," and later in the summer, we're planning to re-visit the steamship Portland.
I want to tell you about some of the methods we're using for our research, because they're pretty cool. The shipwrecks we're sampling are between 80 and 150 m deep and about 30 miles from shore. They actually fall into this weird gap between nearshore and the deep sea - they're too deep for SCUBA diving but not far enough offshore to justify the use of a large research vessel. We're filling that gap with day-trips on a small boat (the Catapult) and a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Pixel.
I'll admit, it's nice to be able to come home at night, but the work is still incredibly challenging. Our shipwreck sites have high currents and low visibility. By virtue of their depth and the characteristic turbidity of New England waters, our shipwrecks lie essentially in darkness. Pixel carries some of her own lighting, but just to be safe, we decided to add another piece of technology to our kit this year: the chandelier.
The chandelier is a metal frame outfitted with underwater lights galore. It hovers above Pixel in the water column and serves a dual function: first, it acts as a depressor weight to keep Pixel's tether line straight and vertical in the water column (a loose tether is a tangled tether), and second, it illuminates the shipwreck and Pixel from above.
So far, the chandelier has helped a lot during ROV dives. It's more complicated to deploy than the depressor weight we were using last year (which was literally a mesh bag full of dive weights), but it's been worth it. If you've ever worked on a small boat before, you know the name of the game is Line Management. Everything on a boat is secured with a rope, and keeping those lines separate, untangled, and organized is 99% of your job. Small boat work is actually very democratic, because everyone, regardless of job, rank, or title, instantly becomes a deckhand. And every deckhand has one job: line management.
After a couple of day-trips, we're getting into a rhythm with our operations. I really enjoy going out on Catapult and look forward to seeing where the research takes us!
I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist
Like it doesn't exist
I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry
I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier"
- "Chandelier" by Sia
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| The chandelier on board R/V Catapult |
I want to tell you about some of the methods we're using for our research, because they're pretty cool. The shipwrecks we're sampling are between 80 and 150 m deep and about 30 miles from shore. They actually fall into this weird gap between nearshore and the deep sea - they're too deep for SCUBA diving but not far enough offshore to justify the use of a large research vessel. We're filling that gap with day-trips on a small boat (the Catapult) and a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Pixel.
I'll admit, it's nice to be able to come home at night, but the work is still incredibly challenging. Our shipwreck sites have high currents and low visibility. By virtue of their depth and the characteristic turbidity of New England waters, our shipwrecks lie essentially in darkness. Pixel carries some of her own lighting, but just to be safe, we decided to add another piece of technology to our kit this year: the chandelier.
The chandelier is a metal frame outfitted with underwater lights galore. It hovers above Pixel in the water column and serves a dual function: first, it acts as a depressor weight to keep Pixel's tether line straight and vertical in the water column (a loose tether is a tangled tether), and second, it illuminates the shipwreck and Pixel from above.
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| Pixel turned around to face the chandelier and got this shot of it illuminating the seafloor. Kind of looks like a spaceship! |
After a couple of day-trips, we're getting into a rhythm with our operations. I really enjoy going out on Catapult and look forward to seeing where the research takes us!
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