RV Investigator

RV Investigator is an Australian marine research vessel which was designed by RALion (joint venture between Robert Allan Ltd. and Alion Science and Technology). It was constructed in Singapore and is owned and managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), through Australia's Marine National Facility, with its operations funded by the Australian Government to undertake oceanographic, geoscience, ecosystem and fisheries research. In May 2009 the Australian Government allocated A$120 million for a new ocean-going research vessel to replace the 1972 built RV Southern Surveyor, which has served as the principal research ship for Australia's Marine National Facility since 1988. RV Investigator was transferred from Sembawang Shipyard to the delivery crew on 5 August 2014 for pre-departure testing and setup. The vessel arrived at its home port of Hobart on 9 September 2014 and was officially launched on 12 December 2014.

The RV Investigator is able to accommodate up to 40 scientists, go to sea for up to 60 days at a time and spend up to 300 days of the year at sea on research voyages. Special features of the ship are a "gondola", similar to a winged keel, mounted 1.2 m below the hull, and two drop keels (which can be lowered to a maximum of 4m below the hull), to carry scientific instruments below the layer of microbubbles created by the movement of the ship’s hull through the water. Such instrumentation includes acoustic mappers and a pelagic sediment profiler to produce maps of the sea floor. The hull and the machinery of the ship have been designed to operate as quietly as possible to enhance its scientific capabilities.

Investigator

Investigator may refer to:

See also

Investigator (magazine)

The Investigator (ISSN 0021-0013) is a quarterly magazine published by the Geelong Historical Society in March, June, September and December each year. The journal is named for the ship HMS Investigator of explorer Matthew Flinders, who was the first to set inside Port Phillip Bay and see the site of the future town of Geelong.

There is a cumulative index for 1965 - 1984 and an updated digitised index on CD from 1965 up to 2009. Issued from Vol. 1 no. 1: (Sep 1965) to date. The Investigator includes articles on general history of Geelong and District, but also specialist research and history from a number of expert contributors including Norm Houghton an authority on timber tramways and sawmills of the district, and former engineer, the late Peter F. B. Alsop.

References

External links

HMS Investigator (1801)

HMS Investigator was the mercantile Frum, launched in 1795, which the Royal Navy purchased in 1798 and renamed HMS Xenophon, and then in 1801 converted to a survey ship under the name HMS Investigator. In 1802, under the command of Matthew Flinders, she was the first ship to circumnavigate Australia. The Navy sold her in 1810 and she returned to mercantile service under the name Xenophon. She was probably broken up c.1872.

Background

Frum was built in Sunderland as a collier. She operated off the north-east coast of England before the Royal Navy purchased her in 1798. Pitcher, of Northfield refitted her between 27 April and 24 May 1798. She then went to Deptford Dockyard on 6 August. The Navy armed her with 22 carronades to serve as an escort vessel, and renamed her HMS Xenophon.

Commander George Sayer commissioned Xenophon as an armed ship for the North Sea. In 1799 he brought the Irish rebel James Napper Tandy and some of his associates as state prisoners from Hamburg to England. Around February 1800 Sayer removed to HMS Inspector.