RV ''Rachel Carson'' is a research vessel owned and operated by the

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) is a multi-university scientific Research institute, research center within the University System of Maryland dedicated to environmental science, estuarine studies, and Oceanog ...

, named in honor of the marine biologist and writer

Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) are credited with advancing mari ...

. The 81-foot aluminum-hulled vessel is an extended and modified Challenger class fast research vessel, designed by marine architect Roger Long. It is equipped with twin 1,200 horsepower diesel engines and water jet drives which give a maximum speed of 24 knots. A

dynamic positioning system 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 ...

automatically maintains the vessel's position. The ship was built by Hike Metal Products of

Wheatley, Ontario Wheatley is a community in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, within the municipality of Chatham-Kent. It lies about east of Leamington. Nearby parks include Two Creeks Conservation Area, which has 15 km of hiking and bicycling paths, Kopegaro ...

, at a cost of $4.6 million, and christened by Katie O'Malley on November 16, 2008, at

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

. The ''Rachel Carson'' has operated in

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...

since early 2009, teaching estuarine sampling techniques, carrying out water quality surveys,

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

collection, box coring operations, and deploying instrument packages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rachel Carson (2008) 2008 ships Environmental science Research vessels of the United States Ships built in Ontario University of Maryland, College Park RV 2008