Buying the ocean research vessel RV HSBC Atlantic Explorer, with the sponsorship of HSBC Bank of Bermuda, six years ago was a $7 million investment that has paid off in spades, said the Director of BIOS, Dr Tony Knap.

Tomorrow, HSBC and BIOS are inviting the public to explore the ship while it is docked in the City of Hamilton to learn more about BIOS' research and achievements.

Dr. Knap said before the current research vessel, BIOS went through a number of smaller boats, but they were just not big enough, and couldn't handle Bermuda's rough winter seas.

"We had a little ship and we needed a bigger ship," said Dr. Knap. "We went out and bought the Weatherbird. It was an oil rig supply vessel, and we converted it to oceanographic research vessel. Then it became clear that it was still not big enough. It is very rough out on the ocean in the winter, and it was too small. So we needed to get an even bigger ship."

Buying their own large enough research vessel would mean it wouldn't cost $27,000 a day to bring a big enough ship out from the United States when they had large parties of scientists to take out. It could cost as much as $150,000 just to send a big enough research vessel from the East Coast of the United States to Bermuda and back. And there was no discount or money-back-guarantee if weather stopped scientists from going out while the ship was in Bermuda.

Dr. Knap looked around and found that the The Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Florida were selling a research vessel called Seward Johnson II named for the former CEO of the Johnson & Johnson company.

"They wanted to sell it for $3.5 million," said Dr. Knap. "Having our own large enough ship here at the dock would mean the clock wouldn't start ticking until the ship went out, and no one would have to pay for loading time. So scientists could come here, if they got blown out, they could come back in and go out another day."

Dr. Knap put the idea to the BIOS board, but there was concern.

"They said we were in debt for new buildings," said Dr. Knap. "We'd had assessments done by people in the field, and they had said our vessel was not big enough. The board asked me what would happen if we did not get the new ship, and I said, we might as well close up shop."

The solution to the problem came to him one day when he landed in London at Gatwick Airport after a flight from Bermuda.

"I looked around at the airport and saw the HSBC logo everywhere," he said. "Then I got an idea. I approached someone I knew at HSBC about sponsoring our ship."

HSBC and the Bank of Bermuda Foundation went on to help BIOS purchase the vessel and refit for another $3.5 million. The National Science Foundation picked up the cost of running the ship on a daily basis which is twice that of running the old Weatherbird.

"It was a massive gamble for a little organisation like this to spend $7 million on a ship, but it has completely paid off," said Dr. Knap. "It is now considered to be one of the best ships in the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet. It has tons of work. Build it and they will come is true."

The vessel is equipped with navigational, laboratory and mechanical facilities to support biological, geological, chemical and physical oceanographic research and offers a range of education programmes onboard for both local and overseas students.

"Most of the reviews we have had from scientists say this is one of the most stable ships that exists," said Dr. Knap. "The thing that is ideal about it is, normally a ship its size would have a deeper draft, but it is only 11 feet deep. That is perfect. That is the largest ship we can get in here during high tide. The normal ship would have a 14 foot draft and we wouldn't be able to bring it in. So we can operate it from our dock which makes everything easier."

It is also much faster than any of their previous ships. An 18-kilometre trip to an ocean research spot called Hydrostation S, previously took six hours, but now takes about two hours.

Part of the $3.5 million dollar refitting of the ship involved installing a classroom on the ship.

"We cut the wheelhouse off, spun it around and turned it into a classroom," said Dr. Knap. "It is the only UNOLS ship with a classroom on it."

"Among others training at sea with BIOS, for the last three years, we have all these students from developing nations take an intensive training course with us as part of the Partnership for the Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) programme. They go out to sea all the time and learn what it is like to be an oceanographer. We think they will all go on to become key scientists in their country. They tend to be people who are already in oceanography. The idea is they are let off their jobs for ten months. They come here and they have to go back to their home country to utilise what they have learned. Often when students from other countries study at big universities like Oxford University or Harvard University, they never go home again. This programme requires them to return home.

"Next week we will be meeting in London with the students "We are under a lot of pressure all the time to take the best students, but we also have to have a diverse group of students. We get hundreds of applications from Brazil every year that are fantastic, but we also take students from countries like Iran, Tunisia and Pakistan. These are not people who just come from one or two places. So BIOS is influencing the future of oceanography in many different countries. We competed for the POGO programme against the top oceanography places in the world. One of the reasons we got it was because we had the ship. Other places have ships, but they don't control the schedule of the ship.

"So students can come out here to the dock, go out for four days, learn what it is like to be a principal investigator and come back in. The other ships might leave port, and go out to do different projects, and not come back for two years. That is not very convenient. So this works really well. We have had students coming from Oceanography programmes at Oxford University, the University of Southampton and Princeton University, amongst other places. They all come and have the opportunity to go out on the ship."

BIOS uses the ship to study many different important projects, the most important of which involve the effects of climate change on the ocean and the absorption of CO2 emissions into the ocean.

"Research at BIOS is finding that CO2 is increasing in the ocean and the rate of uptake is changing, the heat balance of the ocean is increasing. The more we find out the more there is to know," said Dr. Knap.

"Today BIOS still has a significant debt burden but it is manageable as a result of our strong success in winning United States government grants," said Dr. Knap. " We are also building increasing support from Bermuda institutions and individuals which shall reduce our reliance on debt financing."

The HSBC RV Atlantic Explorer will be open to the public on October 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the #1 Dock, on Front Street, across from HSBC Habourview Centre.

Please wear close-toed, soft shoes.