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RV Calypso
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RV_Calypso
RV Calypso is a former British Royal Navy Minesweeper converted into a research vessel for the oceanographic researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau, equipped with a mobile laboratory for underwater field research. She was severely damaged in 1996, and is undergoing a complete refurbishment in 2009. The ship is named after the Greek mythological figure Calypso.
World War II British Minesweeper (1941–1947)
Calypso was originally a wooden-hulled minesweeper built for the British Royal Navy by the Ballard Marine Railway Company of Seattle, Washington, USA. She was made from Oregon pine.
She was a BYMS (British Yard Minesweeper) Mark 1 Class Motor Minesweeper, laid down on 12 August, 1941 with the yard designation BYMS-26 and launched on 21 March, 1942. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in February 1943 as HMS J-826 and assigned to active service in the Mediterranean Sea, reclassified as BYMS-2026 in 1944, laid up at Malta and finally struck from the Naval Register in 1947.
Maltese Ferry (1947–1950)
After World War II she became a ferry between Malta and the island of Gozo, and was renamed after the nymph Calypso, whose island of Ogygia was mythically associated with Gozo.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau's Calypso (1950–1997)
The Irish millionaire and former MP, Thomas Loel Guinness bought Calypso in 1950 and leased her to Cousteau for a symbolic one franc a year. Cousteau restructured and transformed her into an expedition vessel and support base for diving, filming and oceanographic research.
Career (United Kingdom)
Class and type: British Yard Minesweeper
Mark 1 Class Motor Minesweeper
Name: HMS J-826
Builder: Ballard Marine Railway Company, Seattle, Washington, USA
Laid down: 12 August 1941
Launched: 21 March 1942
Commissioned: February 1943
Recommissioned: BYMS-2026 (1944)
Decommissioned: 1947
Renamed: Calypso (1947)
Reclassified: Research vessel
Refit: for Cousteau (1950)
Fate: sunk and raised (1996)
Status: Being refurbished under the direction of the Cousteau Society
General characteristics [1]
Displacement: 360 tons
Length: 139 feet (42 m)
Beam: 25 feet (7.6 m)
Draft: 10 feet (3.0 m)
Decks: Three
Installed power: 2× 580 hp (430 kW) diesel engines
Speed: 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew: 27 in Captain's Quarters, Six Staterooms & Crew Quarters
Notes: Photo & Science Labs
Underwater observation chamber
Helicopter landing pad
Yumbo 3-ton hydraulic crane
Minisub storage hold
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