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168-602: The second USS Albatross , often seen as USFC Albatross in scientific literature citations, was an iron-hulled, twin-screw steamship in the United States Navy and reputedly the first research ship ever built especially for marine research. Albatross was laid down at Wilmington, Delaware by Pusey and Jones in March 1882. She was launched on 19 August 1882, and commissioned on 11 November 1882, with Lt. Zera L. Tanner in command. Tanner, who had superintended

336-458: A "major driver of the first wave of trade globalization (1870–1913)" and contributor to "an increase in international trade that was unprecedented in human history". Steamships were preceded by smaller vessels, called steamboats , conceived in the first half of the 18th century, with the first working steamboat and paddle steamer , the Pyroscaphe , from 1783. Once the technology of steam

504-610: A certain depth, however when the depth of the ship changed from added weight it further submerged the paddle wheel causing a substantial decrease in performance. Within a few decades of the development of the river and canal steamboat, the first steamships began to cross the Atlantic Ocean . The first sea-going steamboat was Richard Wright's first steamboat Experiment , an ex-French lugger ; she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth in July 1813. The first iron steamship to go to sea

672-454: A confiscated sailing schooner to Sitka, Alaska, on 11 August and, while there, steamed out to sea and rescued the drifting whaling bark Lydia . Following yard work at Mare Island which lasted into the spring of 1893, Albatross returned to Aleutian waters and resumed her duties in connection with the Alaskan fur seal and fishery investigations. In addition, she carried out patrols as part of

840-443: A day when travelling at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). Her maiden outward voyage to Melbourne took 42 days, with one coaling stop, carrying 4,000 tons of cargo. Other similar ships were rapidly brought into service over the next few years. By 1885 the usual boiler pressure was 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) and virtually all ocean-going steamships being built were ordered with triple expansion engines. Within

1008-566: A demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy. Thousands of Liberty Ships (powered by steam piston engines) and Victory Ships (powered by steam turbine engines) were built in World War II. A few of these survive as floating museums and sail occasionally: SS  Jeremiah O'Brien , SS  John W. Brown , SS  American Victory , SS  Lane Victory , and SS  Red Oak Victory . A steam turbine ship can be either direct propulsion (the turbines, equipped with

1176-430: A few further experiments until SS  Aberdeen  (1881) went into service on the route from Britain to Australia. Her triple expansion engine was designed by Dr A C Kirk, the engineer who had developed the machinery for Propontis . The difference was the use of two double ended Scotch type steel boilers, running at 125 pounds per square inch (860 kPa). These boilers had patent corrugated furnaces that overcame

1344-520: A few weeks of voyage repairs, on 30 December began a provisional examination of the fishing grounds off the coast of Los Angeles County , Monterey , and in the vicinity of the Farallon Islands , to gather data for consideration in weighing the desirability of extending the limits of the offshore fisheries. Upon finishing this work on 25 April 1897, the ship began upkeep at San Francisco. Dedicated exclusively to fishery work on her next cruise,

1512-551: A few years, new installations were running at 200 pounds per square inch (1,400 kPa). The tramp steamers that operated at the end of the 1880s could sail at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) with a fuel consumption of 0.5 ounces (14 g) of coal per ton mile travelled. This level of efficiency meant that steamships could now operate as the primary method of maritime transport in the vast majority of commercial situations. In 1890, steamers constituted 57% of world's tonnage, and by World War I their share raised to 93%. By 1870

1680-473: A given distance, but fewer firemen were needed to fuel the boilers, so crew costs and their accommodation space were reduced. Agamemnon was able to sail from London to China with a coaling stop at Mauritius on the outward and return journey, with a time on passage substantially less than the competing sailing vessels. Holt had already ordered two sister ships to Agamemnon by the time she had returned from her first trip to China in 1866, operating these ships in

1848-510: A head wind, most notably against the southwest monsoon when returning with a cargo of new tea. Though the auxiliary steamers persisted in competing in far eastern trade for a few years (and it was Erl King that carried the first cargo of tea through the Suez Canal ), they soon moved on to other routes. What was needed was a big improvement in fuel efficiency. While the boilers for steam engines on land were allowed to run at high pressures,

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2016-403: A long bush of soft metal was fitted in the after end of the stern tube. SS  Great Eastern had this arrangement fail on her first transatlantic voyage, with very large amounts of uneven wear. The problem was solved with a lignum vitae water-lubricated bearing, patented in 1858. This became standard practice and is in use today. Since the motive power of screw propulsion is delivered along

2184-489: A man whose rowboat had overturned some 400 yards astern of where the ship lay at anchor. Soon after the United States declared war on Spain , Albatross was turned over to the commandant of the navy yard at Mare Island on 21 April 1898 for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser. Her dredging and collecting equipment landed and stored at the yard, the ship underwent conversion at Union Iron Works , San Francisco, over

2352-494: A month at Woods Hole, Albatross proceeded via Washington to Norfolk, whence she got underway on 21 November 1887 to begin the long voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Albatross arrived at Punta Arenas , Straits of Magellan , on 23 January 1888 and remained at anchor there until 1 February, when she cleared the port to resume her circumnavigation of South America . During the voyage north, she briefly touched eight islands in

2520-559: A month later, the ship sailed for the Farallons on 5 December and, the following morning, planted a shipment of eastern lobster and tautog, received by rail from the east coast, in the waters off those islands. After returning to San Francisco the same day, she operated from that port from 20 December 1897 to 6 April 1898, as she served as a base for a survey of the San Diego County fisheries. On 27 March 1898, her crewmen rescued

2688-771: A most circuitous route for the Far East . Over the next few months, again with Alexander Agassiz embarked, she ranged into the South and Central Pacific, visiting the Marquesas , Paumotu , Society Islands , Cook Islands , Tonga , Fiji , Ellice , Gilbert , Marshall Islands , Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands . During the course of this cruise over a vast ocean basin, which Alexander Agassiz named "Moser Deep" in honor of Albatross' captain, her distinguished passenger made thousands of dredgings, and soundings of

2856-747: A number of continental shelves , including the Canadian Arctic shelf, underlying the Canadian Arctic Archipelago , and the Russian continental shelf , which is sometimes called the "Arctic Shelf" because it is larger. The Russian continental shelf consists of three separate, smaller shelves: the Barents Shelf, Chukchi Sea Shelf and Siberian Shelf . Of these three, the Siberian Shelf is the largest such shelf in

3024-502: A number of inventions such as the screw propeller , the compound engine , and the triple-expansion engine made trans-oceanic shipping on a large scale economically viable. In 1870 the White Star Line ’s RMS  Oceanic set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water. The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet

3192-458: A particularly compact compound engine and taken great care with the hull design, producing a light, strong, easily driven hull. The efficiency of Holt's package of boiler pressure, compound engine and hull design gave a ship that could steam at 10 knots on 20 long tons of coal a day. This fuel consumption was a saving from between 23 and 14 long tons a day, compared to other contemporary steamers. Not only did less coal need to be carried to travel

3360-523: A physical and natural history survey of the latter, as well as of the Cortez and Tanner banks offshore. From 20 to 26 April, the ship took part in "La Fiesta de Los Angeles." On 17 and 18 May she took part in the official speed trials of the new battleship USS  Oregon out of San Francisco. On 19 May 1896, Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Franklin Moser assumed command of Albatross . After investigating

3528-474: A reduction gear, rotate directly the propellers), or turboelectric (the turbines rotate electric generators, which in turn feed electric motors operating the propellers). While steam turbine-driven merchant ships such as the Algol -class cargo ships (1972–1973), ALP Pacesetter-class container ships (1973–1974) and very large crude carriers were built until the 1970s, the use of steam for marine propulsion in

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3696-426: A sailing vessel. The steam engine would only be used when conditions were unsuitable for sailing – in light or contrary winds. Some of this type (for instance Erl King ) were built with propellers that could be lifted clear of the water to reduce drag when under sail power alone. These ships struggled to be successful on the route to China, as the standing rigging required when sailing was a handicap when steaming into

3864-399: A shaft that is positioned above the waterline, with the cylinders positioned below the shaft. SS  Great Britain used chain drive to transmit power from a paddler's engine to the propeller shaft – the result of a late design change to propeller propulsion. An effective stern tube and associated bearings were required. The stern tube contains the propeller shaft where it passes through

4032-691: A special expedition authorized by President Benjamin Harrison to explore the waters off the coast of Mexico, Central America , and the region around the Galápagos Islands . Agassiz disembarked at Guaymas , Mexico, on 23 April; and Albatross returned to San Francisco on 5 May. That summer, she left San Francisco on 16 July 1891, bound for the Pribilof Islands , with Thomas Corwin Mendenhall and Clinton Hart Merriam — members of

4200-472: A study of the marine biology and fishery resources in the waters of Monterey Bay and south of Point Conception . The ship did not conduct another expedition until the autumn of 1904, when she sailed from San Francisco on 6 October for Panama . With Professor Agassiz again embarked, Albatross cruised the tropical waters of the eastern Pacific, visiting the Galapagos Islands ; Callao , Peru ;

4368-442: A two-cylinder compound steam engine . Between them, her twin engines were rated at 109 NHP and gave her a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Following trial operations between Wilmington and Washington, D.C. from 30 December 1882 to 13 February 1883, Albatross returned to her builder's yard for engine alterations. While steaming back to Washington, the ship experimented with her dredging equipment, and arrived at

4536-716: Is Molloy Hole in the Fram Strait , at about 5,550 m (18,210 ft). The two major basins are further subdivided by ridges into the Canada Basin (between Beaufort Shelf of North America and the Alpha Ridge ), Makarov Basin (between the Alpha and Lomonosov Ridges), Amundsen Basin (between Lomonosov and Gakkel ridges), and Nansen Basin (between the Gakkel Ridge and the continental shelf that includes

4704-414: Is a section referred to as the sub-surface layer. It is a product of Atlantic water that enters through canyons and is subjected to intense mixing on the Siberian Shelf. As it is entrained, it cools and acts a heat shield for the surface layer on account of weak mixing between layers. However, over the past couple of decades a combination of the warming and the shoaling of Atlantic water are leading to

4872-791: Is also seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing world ocean . The Arctic Ocean includes the North Pole region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere and extends south to about 60°N . The Arctic Ocean is surrounded by Eurasia and North America, and the borders follow topographic features: the Bering Strait on the Pacific side and the Greenland Scotland Ridge on the Atlantic side. It

5040-477: Is cloudy year-round, with mean cloud cover ranging from 60% in winter to over 80% in summer. The temperature of the surface water of the Arctic Ocean is fairly constant at approximately −1.8 °C (28.8 °F), near the freezing point of seawater . The density of sea water, in contrast to fresh water, increases as it nears the freezing point and thus it tends to sink. It is generally necessary that

5208-509: Is contained in a polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges. Winters are characterized by the polar night , extreme cold, frequent low-level temperature inversions, and stable weather conditions. Cyclones are only common on the Atlantic side. Summers are characterized by continuous daylight ( midnight sun ), and air temperatures can rise slightly above 0 °C (32 °F). Cyclones are more frequent in summer and may bring rain or snow. It

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5376-451: Is mostly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter . The Arctic Ocean's surface temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation , heavy fresh water inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. The summer shrinking of

5544-677: Is predominantly cyclonic on the Eurasian side and anticyclonic in the Canadian Basin . Water enters from both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and can be divided into three unique water masses. The deepest water mass is called Arctic Bottom Water and begins around 900 m (3,000 ft) depth. It is composed of the densest water in the World Ocean and has two main sources: Arctic shelf water and Greenland Sea Deep Water. Water in

5712-495: Is the highest volumetric inflow to the Arctic Ocean, equalling about 10 times that of the Pacific inflow, and it creates the Arctic Ocean Boundary Current. It flows slowly, at about 0.02 m/s. Atlantic Water has the same salinity as Arctic Bottom Water but is much warmer (up to 3 °C [37 °F]). In fact, this water mass is actually warmer than the surface water and remains submerged only due to

5880-496: Is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions . It spans an area of approximately 14,060,000 km (5,430,000 sq mi) and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea . It has also been described as an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean . It

6048-571: The Bering Sea , but – nearly 650 miles out – suffered a breakdown of her port engine on 7 August and returned to port on the 11th for repairs. Upon completion of that work on 22 August, the ship returned to sea and resumed her fishery investigations off the coast of the Pacific Northwest and California. In Portland, Oregon , during this period, between 28 September and 9 October, Albatross drew between 24,000 and 30,000 visitors during

6216-697: The Bering Sea Commission charged with preparing America's case to take before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris — embarked. Later, between 27 August and 14 September, Albatross carried out hydrographic work in the Strait of Juan de Fuca . Over the next few months, Albatross operated out of San Francisco . Placed under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, she plied the Pacific between

6384-528: The Board of Trade (under the authority of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854 ) would not allow ships to exceed 20 or 25 pounds per square inch (140 or 170 kPa). Compound engines were a known source of improved efficiency – but generally not used at sea due to the low pressures available. Carnatic (1863) , a P&O ship, had a compound engine – and achieved better efficiency than other ships of

6552-458: The Cold War (eg. Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov ), because of needs of high power and speed, although from 1970s they were mostly replaced by gas turbines . Large naval vessels and submarines continue to be operated with steam turbines, using nuclear reactors to boil the water. NS Savannah , was the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, and was built in the late 1950s as

6720-608: The Cretaceous period, the Canadian Basin opened, and tectonic activity due to the assembly of Alaska caused hydrocarbons to migrate toward what is now Prudhoe Bay. At the same time, sediments shed off the rising Canadian Rockies built out the large Mackenzie Delta. The rifting apart of the supercontinent Pangea , beginning in the Triassic period, opened the early Atlantic Ocean. Rifting then extended northward, opening

6888-585: The East Coast to the West Coast of the United States began on 28 February 1849, with the arrival of SS  California in San Francisco Bay . The California left New York Harbor on 6  October 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco, California, after a four-month and 21-day journey. The first steamship to operate on the Pacific Ocean was

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7056-574: The Easter and Gambier Islands before she disembarked the distinguished zoologist on 24 February 1905 at Acapulco. Albatross then returned to San Francisco, arriving on 5 April 1905. During this voyage, Agassiz had used Albatross as the base for his study of the Humboldt Current , the most extensive explorations made in those waters up to that time. Later that spring, the ship left San Francisco on 18 May, bound for Alaskan waters, and, over

7224-614: The Eurasian Basin , which is 4,000–4,500 m (13,100–14,800 ft) deep, and the Amerasian Basin (sometimes called the North American or Hyperborean Basin), which is about 4,000 m (13,000 ft) deep. The bathymetry of the ocean bottom is marked by fault block ridges, abyssal plains , ocean deeps , and basins. The average depth of the Arctic Ocean is 1,038 m (3,406 ft). The deepest point

7392-655: The Franz Josef Land ). The crystalline basement rocks of mountains around the Arctic Ocean were recrystallized or formed during the Ellesmerian orogeny, the regional phase of the larger Caledonian orogeny in the Paleozoic Era. Regional subsidence in the Jurassic and Triassic periods led to significant sediment deposition, creating many of the reservoirs for current day oil and gas deposits. During

7560-556: The Galapagos group for specimens; this included Wreck Bay on Chatham Island (now San Cristóbal Island ) on 4 April and Charles Island (now Floreana Island ) on 8 April. The ship reached San Francisco on 11 May 1888, having completed a 15,957-mile voyage. For much of the remainder of the year, she operated between San Francisco and Alaska, exploring the waters to the south of the Alaska Peninsula and, later, in examining

7728-544: The Gulf of California and back between 23 February and 28 April 1911, to carry out a scientific expedition to Lower California and adjacent islands in cooperation with the American Museum of Natural History . The ship left San Francisco on 17 May 1911 and proceeded to Alaskan waters, to examine the existing halibut and cod fishing grounds and to search for new ones. She operated off the territory's southeast coast and in

7896-584: The Independence I and Independence II cultures of northeastern Canada and Greenland ( c.  2400–1800 BC and c.  800–1 BC ); and the Groswater of Labrador and Nunavik . The Dorset culture spread across Arctic North America between 500 BC and AD 1500. The Dorset were the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture in the Arctic before the migration east from present-day Alaska of

8064-594: The Mediterranean and then through the Red Sea . While this worked for passengers and some high value cargo, sail was still the only solution for virtually all trade between China and Western Europe or East Coast America. Most notable of these cargoes was tea , typically carried in clippers . Another partial solution was the Steam Auxiliary Ship – a vessel with a steam engine, but also rigged as

8232-642: The Northern Pacific Industrial Exposition . Reaching San Francisco on 25 October 1889, the ship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard and began a general overhaul that continued until 5 March 1890. She resumed her active work soon thereafter, carrying out investigations between Point Arena and Point Concepcion, seining and sending ashore collecting parties. On 5 May 1890, Albatross sailed from San Francisco to carry out "fishery investigations in Alaskan waters and

8400-670: The Northwest Passage , to " Cathay " ( China ) caused water to win out, and by 1723 mapmakers such as Johann Homann featured an extensive "Oceanus Septentrionalis" at the northern edge of their charts. The few expeditions to penetrate much beyond the Arctic Circle in that era added only small islands, such as Novaya Zemlya (11th century) and Spitzbergen (1596), though, since these were often surrounded by pack-ice , their northern limits were not so clear. The makers of navigational charts , more conservative than some of

8568-511: The Pribilofs , on an inspection trip of the fisheries of central and western Alaska that lasted from 12 June to 22 August. Returning to San Francisco on 15 September 1914, she resumed her work off the Oregon and Washington coasts the following summer, clearing her home port on 6 July 1915. Over the ensuing months, she resurveyed the grounds she had studied during her cruises in 1888 and 1889. From

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8736-519: The Puget Sound region. During this period, on 1 May, Lt. Comdr. F. J. Drake relieved Lt. Comdr. Tanner, who had been in continuous command of the research ship since she had been first commissioned. Into the autumn of 1894, the ship alternately patrolled the Bering Sea and operated in the western Aleutians, as her embarked resident naturalist, fishery expert, and scientific assistant studied

8904-643: The Thule people , ancestors of the modern Inuit . The Thule Tradition lasted from about 200 BC to AD 1600, arising around the Bering Strait and later encompassing almost the entire Arctic region of North America. The Thule people were the ancestors of the Inuit, who now live in Alaska, Northwest Territories , Nunavut , Nunavik (northern Quebec), Labrador and Greenland. For much of European history ,

9072-590: The United States Treasury , and two seal hunters, one of whom was an "interpreter of Chinook jargon ." In July 1892, however, leaky boilers compelled the ship to transfer the fishery expert and one seal hunter to the revenue cutter Corwin , and the resident naturalist and the other hunter to the revenue cutter Rush , to carry out what remained of her assignment as she began her return to San Francisco for repairs. En route, despite being hampered by steaming on one hastily repaired boiler, she brought in

9240-696: The reciprocating steam engine , and was far easier to control. Diesel engines also required far less supervision and maintenance than steam engines, and as an internal combustion engine it did not need boilers or a water supply, therefore was more space efficient and cheaper to build. The Liberty ships were the last major steamship class equipped with reciprocating engines. The last Victory ships had already been equipped with marine diesels, and diesel engines superseded both steamers and windjammers soon after World War Two. Most steamers were used up to their maximum economical life span, and no commercial ocean-going steamers with reciprocating engines have been built since

9408-401: The 1960s. Most steamships today are powered by steam turbines . After the demonstration by British engineer Charles Parsons of his steam turbine-driven yacht, Turbinia , in 1897, the use of steam turbines for propulsion quickly spread. The Cunard RMS Mauretania , built in 1906 was one of the first ocean liners to use the steam turbine (with a late design change shortly before her keel

9576-677: The Arctic Ocean as mafic oceanic crust material erupted out of a branch of Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Amerasia Basin may have opened first, with the Chukchi Borderland moved along to the northeast by transform faults. Additional spreading helped to create the "triple-junction" of the Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge in the Late Cretaceous epoch . Throughout the Cenozoic Era, the subduction of the Pacific plate,

9744-427: The Arctic Ocean has a uniquely complex system of water flow. It resembles some hydrological features of the Mediterranean Sea , referring to its deep waters having only limited communication through the Fram Strait with the Atlantic Basin , "where the circulation is dominated by thermohaline forcing". The Arctic Ocean has a total volume of 18.07 × 10 km , equal to about 1.3% of the World Ocean. Mean surface circulation

9912-403: The Arctic Ocean. Much of the Arctic ice pack is also covered in snow for about 10 months of the year. The maximum snow cover is in March or April—about 20–50 cm (7.9–19.7 in) over the frozen ocean. The climate of the Arctic region has varied significantly during the Earth's history. During the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 million years ago, when the global climate underwent

10080-402: The Arctic Ocean: Different authorities put various marginal seas in either the Arctic Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean, including: Hudson Bay , Baffin Bay , the Norwegian Sea , and Hudson Strait . The main islands and archipelagos in the Arctic Ocean are, from the prime meridian west: There are several ports and harbours on the Arctic Ocean. The ocean's Arctic shelf comprises

10248-422: The Atlantic Ocean on a scheduled liner voyage before she was converted to diesels in 1986. The last major passenger ship built with steam turbines was the Fairsky , launched in 1984, later Atlantic Star , reportedly sold to Turkish shipbreakers in 2013. Most luxury yachts at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries were steam driven (see luxury yacht ; also Cox & King yachts ). Thomas Assheton Smith

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10416-422: The Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean . Before 1866, no steamship could carry enough coal to make this voyage and have enough space left to carry a commercial cargo. A partial solution to this problem was adopted by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), using an overland section between Alexandria and Suez , with connecting steamship routes along

10584-444: The Bering Sea . . . defining the fishing grounds and determining the physical and natural history features" of the region. She remained at that task through mid-September, before she resumed her labors off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. Continuing to operate out of San Francisco early the following year, 1891, the ship sailed on 30 January for Panama , where she embarked the noted zoologist , Alexander Agassiz , for

10752-495: The Bering Sea fleet. She also kept an eye on the fur seals and fishing grounds, and carried out hydrographic investigations. En route home, Albatross visited New Whatcom, Washington , and was on exhibit at the state fair there, hosting visitors on 18 September 1895 and for days following. She then spent nearly a month investigating the Puget Sound salmon fisheries. Through the first four months of 1896, Albatross operated locally between San Francisco and San Diego Bay , conducting

10920-404: The Bristol-New York route. The idea of regular scheduled transatlantic service was under discussion by several groups and the rival British and American Steam Navigation Company was established at the same time. Great Western's design sparked controversy from critics that contended that she was too big. The principle that Brunel understood was that the carrying capacity of a hull increases as

11088-408: The Canadian Archipelago. As noted, the process of ice formation and movement is a key driver in Arctic Ocean circulation and the formation of water masses. With this dependence, the Arctic Ocean experiences variations due to seasonal changes in sea ice cover. Sea ice movement is the result of wind forcing, which is related to a number of meteorological conditions that the Arctic experiences throughout

11256-404: The Commandant of the 12th Naval District on 19 November 1917, Albatross was placed under the command of Lt. Comdr. John J. Hannigan. Following repairs and alterations at Mare Island, Albatross – her armament consisting of four 6-pounders and a Colt automatic gun – departed San Francisco on 14 January 1918 and reached Key West, Florida , on 14 February. Assigned to the American Patrol Detachment,

11424-408: The European region of the Arctic Ocean was heavily contested : the Allied commitment to resupply the Soviet Union via its northern ports was opposed by German naval and air forces. Since 1954 commercial airlines have flown over the Arctic Ocean (see Polar route ). The Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,056,000 km (5,427,000 sq mi), almost

11592-410: The Fram Strait is what allows for both inflow and outflow on the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean. Because of this, it is influenced by the Coriolis force , which concentrates outflow to the East Greenland Current on the western side and inflow to the Norwegian Current on the eastern side. Pacific water also exits along the west coast of Greenland and the Hudson Strait (1–2 Sv), providing nutrients to

11760-454: The Gulf Stream between 30 October and 15 December 1919. The following year, Albatross departed Baltimore on 16 February 1920 and proceeded to the waters off New England . She then operated out of Boston into the spring, carrying out hydrographic work in the Gulf of Maine . She returned to Baltimore on 30 May. Albatross was decommissioned at Woods Hole on the morning of 29 October 1921. Minus her equipment, instruments, and library, she

11928-472: The Gulf of Alaska before returning home on 2 September 1911. Found unseaworthy upon her return to San Francisco, Albatross' sphere of operations was limited to the San Francisco Bay , and during 1912, 1913 and 1914, the ship carried out a biological survey of that body of water. Late in this period, during the fiscal year 1913, Albatross underwent a major refit at Mare Island that altered her rigging from brigantine to schooner and enlarged her deckhouse, as

12096-527: The Liverpool to New York route. RMS  Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912; a subsequent major sinking of a steamer was that of the RMS ; Lusitania , as an act of World War I . Launched in 1938, RMS  Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever built. Launched in 1969, Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was the last passenger steamship to cross

12264-669: The Lomonosov Ridge, which appears to be continental crust separated from the Barents-Kara Shelf in the Paleocene and then starved of sediment. It may contain up to 10 billion barrels of oil. The Gakkel Ridge rift is also poorly understand and may extend into the Laptev Sea. In large parts of the Arctic Ocean, the top layer (about 50 m [160 ft]) is of lower salinity and lower temperature than

12432-776: The North American polar region goes back at least 17,000–50,000 years, during the Wisconsin glaciation . At this time, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land bridge that joined Siberia to northwestern North America (Alaska), leading to the Settlement of the Americas . Early Paleo-Eskimo groups included the Pre-Dorset ( c.  3200–850 BC ); the Saqqaq culture of Greenland (2500–800 BC);

12600-524: The Secretary of the Treasury, Albatross departed San Francisco on 19 March 1892, bound for Unalaska, Alaska , the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands , to conduct fur seal investigations and gather ". . . information on questions at issue between the United States and Great Britain ." Among her special passengers on this cruise were a resident naturalist, a fishery expert, a special agent of

12768-426: The United States naval force in the Bering Sea. Returning to San Francisco at the end of September 1893, the ship departed that port on 2 January 1894, and conducted a biological survey of San Diego Bay before returning to San Francisco on 30 March. Albatross sailed from her home port on 14 April, bound for the Pacific northwest and, from 19 April to 5 May, assisted in the investigation of seal and salmon fisheries in

12936-678: The Virginia and Delaware capes. Early in 1886, Albatross proceeded to the Bahamas on a fishery and hydrographic survey; then spent the latter part of the year examining the cod and halibut banks off the Canadian Maritime provinces and dredging off Woods Hole. For much of 1887, Albatross lay in port at either Washington or Baltimore , readying herself for a cruise to the Pacific . Only one brief cruise interrupted these preparations. From 5 to 9 April, she steamed to Norfolk from

13104-595: The area off the coasts of Washington and Oregon . Departing San Francisco on 3 January 1889, Albatross proceeded via San Diego to the Gulf of California , exploring the waters between Point Concepcion and the U.S.-Mexico border and subsequently sounding the depths off lower California and examining the fishery resources in the Gulf of California and the oyster beds off Guaymas , Mexico . Returning to San Francisco on 25 April, she later proceeded to Seattle , whence she conducted fishery and hydrographic investigations off

13272-717: The average winter value of 15,600,000 km (6,023,200 sq mi). The seasonal variations are about 7,000,000 km (2,702,700 sq mi), with the maximum in April and minimum in September. The sea ice is affected by wind and ocean currents, which can move and rotate very large areas of ice. Zones of compression also arise, where the ice piles up to form pack ice. Icebergs occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island , and icebergs are formed from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada. Icebergs are not sea ice but may become embedded in

13440-593: The benefit of a party of students from the Tokyo Imperial University . Ultimately departing Yokohama on 2 June, the ship visited Hakodate , Japan, and Kamchatka , north of the Aleutian Islands , and collected biological specimens in the North Pacific. That summer, she ranged into the Bering Sea, and ultimately returned to San Francisco on 30 October 1900 after a cruise of 14 months. The following year, 1901, Albatross continued her work in

13608-557: The coast of Washington and Oregon between 6 and 29 June. Between 8 and 28 July, Albatross operated from Tacoma, Washington , with four members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs embarked: Senators Henry L. Dawes , Francis B. Stockbridge , Charles F. Manderson , and John P. Jones , as the lawmakers "visited the principal Indian settlements in southeast Alaska as far north as Sitka and Juneau ." Albatross cleared Port Townsend, Washington , on 1 August, bound for

13776-629: The collision of India with Eurasia, and the continued opening of the North Atlantic created new hydrocarbon traps. The seafloor began spreading from the Gakkel Ridge in the Paleocene Epoch and the Eocene Epoch, causing the Lomonosov Ridge to move farther from land and subside. Because of sea ice and remote conditions, the geology of the Arctic Ocean is still poorly explored. The Arctic Coring Expedition drilling shed some light on

13944-426: The commercial market has declined dramatically due to the development of more efficient diesel engines . One notable exception are LNG carriers which use boil-off gas from the cargo tanks as fuel. However, even there the development of dual-fuel engines has pushed steam turbines into a niche market with about 10% market share in newbuildings in 2013. Lately, there has been some development in hybrid power plants where

14112-436: The competing problems of heat transfer and sufficient strength to deal with the boiler pressure. Aberdeen was a marked success, achieving in trials, at 1,800 indicated horsepower , a fuel consumption of 1.28 pounds (0.58 kg) of coal per indicated horsepower. This was a reduction in fuel consumption of about 60%, compared to a typical steamer built ten years earlier. In service, this translated into less than 40 tons of coal

14280-435: The cube of its dimensions, while water resistance only increases as the square of its dimensions. This meant that large ships were more fuel efficient, something very important for long voyages across the Atlantic. Great Western was an iron-strapped, wooden, side-wheel paddle steamer, with four masts to hoist the auxiliary sails. The sails were not just to provide auxiliary propulsion, but also were used in rough seas to keep

14448-444: The early 1850s. This was superseded at the beginning of the 20th century by floating pad bearing which automatically built up wedges of oil which could withstand bearing pressures of 500 psi or more. Steam-powered ships were named with a prefix designating their propeller configuration i.e. single, twin, triple-screw. Single-screw Steamship SS , Twin-Screw Steamship TSS , Triple-Screw Steamship TrSS . Steam turbine-driven ships had

14616-486: The ensuing months, investigated the fish and other aquatic resources of the Hawaiian Islands, ultimately returning to San Francisco on 1 September. The following spring, the ship embarked members of the special commission appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to investigate the conditions and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, with an eye towards conserving this important resource, and transported them to

14784-501: The explorers who travelled closer and closer to the pole reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick and persists year-round. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to make a nautical crossing of the Arctic Ocean, in the Fram Expedition from 1893 to 1896. The first surface crossing of the ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard , with air support. The first nautical transit of

14952-411: The first screw propeller to an engine at his Birmingham works, an early steam engine , beginning the use of a hydrodynamic screw for propulsion. The development of screw propulsion relied on the following technological innovations. Steam engines had to be designed with the power delivered at the bottom of the machinery, to give direct drive to the propeller shaft . A paddle steamer's engines drive

15120-500: The fishing grounds of that region and the "pelagic habits of the fur seals and their rookeries on the Pribilof Islands." Then, her mission completed, she returned to San Francisco on 17 October 1894. Departing San Francisco on 18 May 1895, Albatross sailed again for the Bering Sea, where, over the ensuing months, she helped to enforce "regulations governing vessels employed in fur seal fishery," but operated independently of

15288-634: The formation of Atlantic Deep Water. The overturning of this water plays a key role in global circulation and the moderation of climate. In the depth range of 150–900 m (490–2,950 ft) is a water mass referred to as Atlantic Water. Inflow from the North Atlantic Current enters through the Fram Strait, cooling and sinking to form the deepest layer of the halocline, where it circles the Arctic Basin counter-clockwise. This

15456-535: The gunboat protected tankers transporting important oil and petroleum cargo in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean . While working with the American Patrol Department, she took part in the search for the Navy collier Cyclops which, after departing Barbados on 4 March 1918, had disappeared without trace in the spring of 1918. On 21 November 1918, 10 days after the armistice stilled

15624-652: The guns of World War I, the Chief of Naval Operations directed that Albatross , upon the completion of repairs at New Orleans , be released from duty with the American Patrol Detachment. Reaching Norfolk on 30 May 1919, the ship was turned over to the Bureau of Fisheries on 23 June 1919. The following autumn, Albatross resumed her scientific work, cruising from Norfolk to the Gulf of Mexico and Havana , Cuba , conducting hydrographic investigations of

15792-425: The hull as waves pass beneath it—becomes too great. Iron hulls are far less subject to hogging, so that the potential size of an iron-hulled ship is much greater. In the spring of 1840 Brunel also had the opportunity to inspect SS  Archimedes , the first screw-propelled steamship, completed only a few months before by F. P. Smith's Propeller Steamship Company. Brunel had been looking into methods of improving

15960-429: The hull structure. It should provide an unrestricted delivery of power by the propeller shaft. The combination of hull and stern tube must avoid any flexing that will bend the shaft or cause uneven wear. The inboard end has a stuffing box that prevents water from entering the hull along the tube. Some early stern tubes were made of brass and operated as a water lubricated bearing along the entire length. In other instances

16128-456: The ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) uses satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years, showing a continuous decline in sea ice extent. In September 2012, the Arctic ice extent reached a new record minimum. Compared to the average extent (1979–2000), the sea ice had diminished by 49%. Human habitation in

16296-497: The increasing influence of Atlantic water heat in melting sea ice in the eastern Arctic. The most recent estimates, for 2016–2018, indicate the oceanic heat flux to the surface has now overtaken the atmospheric flux in the eastern Eurasian Basin. Over the same period the weakening halocline stratification has coincided with increasing upper ocean currents thought to be associated with declining sea ice, indicate increasing mixing in this region. In contrast direct measurements of mixing in

16464-612: The islands of the north Pacific and Bering Sea. In addition to carrying members of the United States Fur Seal Commission (whose membership included the commanding officer of the Albatross , Lt. Comdr. Jefferson Franklin Moser ), she also transported two members of an independent British Commission and a photographer to the Pribilofs. Albatross returned to San Francisco on 11 December 1896 and, after

16632-483: The more fanciful cartographers, tended to leave the region blank, with only fragments of known coastline sketched in. This lack of knowledge of what lay north of the shifting barrier of ice gave rise to a number of conjectures. In England and other European nations, the myth of an " Open Polar Sea " was persistent. John Barrow , longtime Second Secretary of the British Admiralty , promoted exploration of

16800-632: The movements of surface fish, examined the former tilefish grounds, and studied the "influence of the Gulf Stream on bottom fauna." While underway, she also made dredge hauls and conducted fishing trials. "At (the) service of the Secretary of the Navy" between 26 August and 2 September, Albatross took part in the review of the North Atlantic Squadron . The ship spent the first half of 1885 making cruises from Washington to Pensacola, Florida , and New Orleans , Louisiana, to look into

16968-538: The nation's capital on 25 March 1883. She left the Potomac River on 24 April and proceeded to Woods Hole, Massachusetts , which was her base for several months of operations investigating the "migrations of mackerel, menhaden, and other migratory species." During this period, she also made shorter dredging trips out of Woods Hole to the Gulf Stream and the tilefish grounds. Over the first months of 1884,

17136-407: The nation's capital to familiarize officers assigned to the steamship Thetis with the dredging equipment that their ship would carry in her voyage to the frigid waters of the North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In the autumn, Albatross conducted a trial trip to test her newly installed boilers and then carried out sounding and dredging operations along the inner edge of the Gulf Stream. Following

17304-402: The needs of the human migration to the United States and Australia. RMS  Umbria and her sister ship RMS  Etruria were the last two Cunard liners of the period to be fitted with auxiliary sails. Both ships were built by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1884. They were record breakers by the standards of the time, and were the largest liners then in service, plying

17472-577: The newly formed Blue Funnel Line . His competitors rapidly copied his ideas for their own new ships. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave a distance saving of about 3,250 nautical miles (6,020 km; 3,740 mi) on the route from China to London. The canal was not a practical option for sailing vessels, as using a tug was difficult and expensive – so this distance saving was not available to them. Steamships immediately made use of this new waterway and found themselves in high demand in China for

17640-457: The next few months. During this alteration, her pilot house was raised to permit construction of two additional staterooms beneath it, she received a new upper bridge, and her coal bunkers were enlarged to increase her steaming radius. In addition, the ship received a battery of two 20-pounders, two 37-millimeter guns, one 53-millimeter gun and two Gatling guns. On 11 August, the auxiliary cruiser sailed for Acapulco , Mexico, as Spanish resistance on

17808-425: The next several months installed a salmon hatchery at Yes Bay and, later, carried out several plankton tows in the waters between Puget Sound and Wrangell Island . She returned to San Francisco on 16 November 1905. As the ship was preparing for her next cruise, a violent earthquake shook San Francisco on 18 April 1906, and a disastrous fire ensued. Albatross assisted greatly in the relief efforts. Underway on 3 May,

17976-497: The north polar regions remained largely unexplored and their geography conjectural. Pytheas of Massilia recorded an account of a journey northward in 325 BC, to a land he called " Eschate Thule ", where the Sun only set for three hours each day and the water was replaced by a congealed substance "on which one can neither walk nor sail". He was probably describing loose sea ice known today as " growlers " or "bergy bits"; his "Thule"

18144-400: The north pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus , and the first surface nautical transit occurred in 1977 by the icebreaker NS Arktika . Since 1937, Soviet and Russian manned drifting ice stations have extensively monitored the Arctic Ocean. Scientific settlements were established on the drift ice and carried thousands of kilometres by ice floes . In World War II ,

18312-419: The operating costs of steamships were still too high in certain trades, so sail was the only commercial option in many situations. The compound engine, where steam was expanded twice in two separate cylinders, still had inefficiencies. The solution was the triple expansion engine, in which steam was successively expanded in a high pressure, intermediate pressure and a low pressure cylinder. The theory of this

18480-513: The oyster grounds of San Francisco Bay and the suitability of that body of water for oyster cultures, Albatross headed back to the northern Pacific. For the next six months, the ship ranged from San Francisco to the Pribilof Islands, and from the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands back to San Francisco, via Hawaii. During this cruise, she investigated the condition of the fur seal herds on

18648-578: The pack ice. Icebergs pose a hazard to ships, of which the Titanic is one of the most famous. The ocean is virtually icelocked from October to June, and the superstructure of ships are subject to icing from October to May. Before the advent of modern icebreakers, ships sailing the Arctic Ocean risked being trapped or crushed by sea ice (although the Baychimo drifted through the Arctic Ocean untended for decades despite these hazards). The Arctic Ocean

18816-401: The paddle steamer Beaver , launched in 1836 to service Hudson's Bay Company trading posts between Puget Sound Washington and Alaska . The most testing route for steam was from Britain or the East Coast of the U.S. to the Far East . The distance from either is roughly the same, between 14,000 to 15,000 nautical miles (26,000 to 28,000 km; 16,000 to 17,000 mi), traveling down

18984-453: The performance of Great Britain ' s paddlewheels, and took an immediate interest in the new technology, and Smith, sensing a prestigious new customer for his own company, agreed to lend Archimedes to Brunel for extended tests. Over several months, Smith and Brunel tested a number of different propellers on Archimedes in order to find the most efficient design, a four-bladed model submitted by Smith. When launched in 1843, Great Britain

19152-495: The pilot house was extended to provide two offices and a new stateroom for the executive officer. In addition, a radio "shack" was built forward of the mainmast. Albatross subsequently departed San Francisco on 12 April 1914 and set course for the coasts of Washington and Oregon, but interrupted her survey of the fishing grounds off the coasts of Washington and Oregon, to take the Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries to

19320-795: The port of Savannah, Georgia , US, on 22 May 1819, arriving in Liverpool , England, on 20 June 1819; her steam engine having been in use for part of the time on 18 days (estimates vary from 8 to 80 hours). A claimant to the title of the first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power is the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao , a wooden 438-ton vessel built in Dover and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis , near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo , Surinam on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on

19488-576: The prefix TS . In the UK the prefix RMS for Royal Mail Steamship overruled the screw configuration prefix. The first steamship credited with crossing the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe was the American ship SS  Savannah , though she was actually a hybrid between a steamship and a sailing ship, with the first half of the journey making use of the steam engine. Savannah left

19656-604: The red-snapper banks and fisheries of the gulf. While visiting New Orleans from 20 February to 1 March 1885, the ship was a major attraction in the Fish Commission exhibit at the International Exposition then being held in that city. For the latter part of the year, she cruised from Washington to Woods Hole, investigated the Grand Banks , off Newfoundland , and looked into the fishing banks off

19824-527: The region from 1818 to 1845 in search of this. In the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, the explorers Elisha Kane and Isaac Israel Hayes both claimed to have seen part of this elusive body of water. Even quite late in the century, the eminent authority Matthew Fontaine Maury included a description of the Open Polar Sea in his textbook The Physical Geography of the Sea (1883). Nevertheless, as all

19992-520: The rest. It remains relatively stable because the salinity effect on density is bigger than the temperature effect. It is fed by the freshwater input of the big Siberian and Canadian rivers ( Ob , Yenisei , Lena , Mackenzie ), the water of which quasi floats on the saltier, denser, deeper ocean water. Between this lower salinity layer and the bulk of the ocean lies the so-called halocline , in which both salinity and temperature rise with increasing depth. Because of its relative isolation from other oceans,

20160-434: The return leg of the voyage, her captain, Lt. Comdr. LeRoy M. Garrett , was washed overboard in rough seas on 21 November 1906. The ship, under the command of Lt. (later Admiral) Arthur J. Hepburn ultimately reached San Francisco on 10 December 1906. Following upkeep and voyage repairs, the ship left San Francisco on 16 October 1907, beginning what became her longest cruise. Steaming by way of Hawaii , Midway , and Guam ,

20328-539: The revolutionary SS  Great Britain , also built by Brunel, became the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship to cross the Atlantic. SS Great Britain was the first ship to combine these two innovations. After the initial success of its first liner, SS  Great Western of 1838, the Great Western Steamship Company assembled the same engineering team that had collaborated so successfully before. This time however, Brunel, whose reputation

20496-663: The role of salinity in density. When water reaches the basin, it is pushed by strong winds into a large circular current called the Beaufort Gyre . Water in the Beaufort Gyre is far less saline than that of the Chukchi Sea due to inflow from large Canadian and Siberian rivers. The final defined water mass in the Arctic Ocean is called Arctic Surface Water and is found in the depth range of 150–200 m (490–660 ft). The most important feature of this water mass

20664-476: The salmon fisheries of southeast Alaskan waters, departing San Francisco for that region on 23 April. During her homeward voyage in September and October, she investigated the waters off the Pacific Northwest and California to determine their suitability for the introduction of eastern lobsters and crab, and to study the movements of salmon at sea. On 11 March 1902, the ship sailed for Hawaii, and over

20832-462: The sea that sink over the continental shelf into the western Arctic Ocean and create a halocline. This water is met by Greenland Sea Deep Water, which forms during the passage of winter storms. As temperatures cool dramatically in the winter, ice forms, and intense vertical convection allows the water to become dense enough to sink below the warm saline water below. Arctic Bottom Water is critically important because of its outflow, which contributes to

21000-437: The sea yielded siliceous sponges from 4,173 fathoms. During this voyage Harry Clifford Fassett , captain's clerk and photographer, recorded people, communities and scenes during this voyage using a glass-plate camera . After disembarking Agassiz upon arrival at Yokohama , Japan , on 4 March 1900, Albatross operated out of that port into June. During this period, from 4 to 8 May, she conducted several short dredging trips for

21168-478: The shaft, a thrust bearing is needed to transfer that load to the hull without excessive friction. SS  Great Britain had a 2 ft diameter gunmetal plate on the forward end of the shaft which bore against a steel plate attached to the engine beds. Water at 200 psi was injected between these two surfaces to lubricate and separate them. This arrangement was not sufficient for higher engine powers and oil lubricated "collar" thrust bearings became standard from

21336-467: The shelf region that begins as inflow from the Pacific passes through the narrow Bering Strait at an average rate of 0.8 Sverdrups and reaches the Chukchi Sea . During the winter, cold Alaskan winds blow over the Chukchi Sea, freezing the surface water and pushing this newly formed ice out to the Pacific. The speed of the ice drift is roughly 1–4 cm/s. This process leaves dense, salty waters in

21504-541: The ship at a succession of ports on the ship's final voyage — Cork , Le Havre , and Amsterdam — with the result that only 21 remained on board when she arrived at Hamburg . The ship's crew insisted that she be auctioned off to satisfy their demand for wages. On 18 October of the same year, the ship was reportedly tied up at Hamburg, "under attachment for indebtedness." She was sold at auction in Hamburg for $ 10,800, but her ultimate fate remains unknown. The Albatross and

21672-537: The ship on an even keel and ensure that both paddle wheels remained in the water, driving the ship in a straight line. The hull was built of oak by traditional methods. She was the largest steamship for one year, until the British and American's British Queen went into service. Built at the shipyard of Patterson & Mercer in Bristol, Great Western was launched on 19 July 1837 and then sailed to London, where she

21840-467: The ship operated out of Norfolk, Virginia , and, at the Navy's request, conducted hydrographic work in the Caribbean , carrying out "biological investigations" afloat and ashore. From 12 July to 23 October 1884, she operated principally between Woods Hole and the nation's capital, but also ranged from the Virginia capes to the Gulf of Maine . As she plied these waters, her embarked scientists observed

22008-682: The ship proceeded to the Philippine Islands and, over the next two and a half years, surveyed the fisheries and aquatic resources of the Philippines and neighboring regions before returning home on 4 May 1910. That summer, Albatross returned to the waters off Alaska, and the Pribilof Islands, on an inspection tour of various "government activities in which the Department of Commerce and Labor" harbored an interest. After returning to San Francisco on 20 September 1910, she cruised to

22176-548: The ship sailed for the familiar climes of the Aleutians, and, during the cruise, ranged as far as the Commander Islands (Komandorskis) and the Sea of Okhotsk , and even visited the coasts of Japan and Korea . She investigated the salmon fisheries, the distribution of the various types of fish which inhabited the waters she traversed, and conducted scientific explorations of the northern Pacific Ocean. Tragically, on

22344-428: The ship stood out of San Francisco on 8 May and operated in the waters of Puget Sound and off Cape Flattery until heading further north on 29 May. Attempting to locate new halibut banks en route, she systematically studied the "streams of southeast Alaska to determine their resources, and the abundance, movements, and habits of their fishes," before ultimately returning to San Francisco on 2 November 1897. A little over

22512-550: The ship's design and construction, commanded Albatross , a Navy-crewed ship assigned to the United States Fish Commission , a civilian government agency, for nearly 12 years. Albatross had an iron hull with a registered length of 200.0 ft (61.0 m), 27.6 ft (8.4 m) beam and 16.6 ft (5.1 m) depth. Her tonnages were 691  GRT , 470  NRT and 638 long tons (648 t) displacement. She had two screws , each powered by

22680-411: The size of Antarctica . The coastline is 45,390 km (28,200 mi) long. It is the only ocean smaller than Russia , which has a land area of 16,377,742 km (6,323,482 sq mi). The Arctic Ocean is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia (Russia and Norway), North America ( Canada and the U.S. state of Alaska), Greenland, and Iceland . Note: Some parts of the areas listed in

22848-563: The smaller Fish Hawk were credited with being the first large ships built specifically for marine research. A Smithsonian tribute notes: "The Albatross, designed to go anywhere in the world and work in the greatest depths, contributed more to our knowledge of marine fishes than any other ship" noting that "the number of scientific papers based on the ship's work has never been counted but it runs into many hundreds". Steamship As steamships were less dependent on wind patterns, new trade routes opened up. The steamship has been described as

23016-477: The spring of 1916 into the autumn of that year, Albatross operated in the waters off southern and Lower California, to learn of the "distribution and migration of tuna." Due to lack of funding the ship was inactive from October 1916 to April 1917. She was transferred to the Navy for war service on 2 May 1917, within a month of the United States' declaration of war against the Central Powers. Taken over by

23184-521: The start of the 1870 tea season. The steamships were able to obtain a much higher rate of freight than sailing ships and the insurance premium for the cargo was less. So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that, in 1871, 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade. Throughout the 1870s, compound-engined steamships and sailing vessels coexisted in an economic equilibrium:

23352-640: The steam turbine is used together with gas engines. As of August 2017 the newest class of Steam Turbine ships are the Seri Camellia -class LNG carriers built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) starting in 2016 and comprising five units. Nuclear powered ships are basically steam turbine vessels. The boiler is heated, not by heat of combustion , but by the heat generated by nuclear reactor. Most atomic-powered ships today are either aircraft carriers or submarines . Arctic Ocean Main five oceans division: Further subdivision: The Arctic Ocean

23520-478: The summer months. There is also evidence that the drift is associated with the phase of the Arctic Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation . Much of the Arctic Ocean is covered by sea ice that varies in extent and thickness seasonally. The mean extent of the Arctic sea ice has been continuously decreasing in the last decades, declining at a rate of currently 12.85% per decade since 1980 from

23688-664: The summer, the SLP contrast is smaller, producing weaker winds. A final example of seasonal pressure system movement is the low pressure system that exists over the Nordic and Barents Seas. It is an extension of the Icelandic Low , which creates cyclonic ocean circulation in this area. The low shifts to centre over the North Pole in the summer. These variations in the Arctic all contribute to ice drift reaching its weakest point during

23856-632: The table are located in the Atlantic Ocean . Other consists of Gulfs , Straits , Channels and other parts without specific names and excludes Exclusive Economic Zones . The Arctic Ocean is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea and Labrador Sea . (The Iceland Sea is sometimes considered part of the Greenland Sea, and sometimes separate.) The largest seas in

24024-612: The time. Her boilers ran at 26 pounds per square inch (180 kPa) but relied on a substantial amount of superheat . Alfred Holt , who had entered marine engineering and ship management after an apprenticeship in railway engineering, experimented with boiler pressures of 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) in Cleator . Holt was able to persuade the Board of Trade to allow these boiler pressures and, in partnership with his brother Phillip launched Agamemnon in 1865. Holt had designed

24192-475: The upper 100–150 m (330–490 ft) of ocean water cools to the freezing point for sea ice to form. In the winter, the relatively warm ocean water exerts a moderating influence, even when covered by ice. This is one reason why the Arctic does not experience the extreme temperatures seen on the Antarctic continent . There is considerable seasonal variation in how much pack ice of the Arctic ice pack covers

24360-404: The voyage was actually made under sail. The first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power may have been the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao , a wooden 438-ton vessel built in Dover and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis , near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo , Surinam on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on

24528-520: The war's last front was collapsing. On the night of 12–13 August, news was received of the signing of the peace protocol. Albatross returned to the Mare Island Navy Yard on 8 September and landed her guns a week later. She was then returned to the United States Fish Commission under the terms of a Presidential order dated 25 August 1898. Following repairs and alterations, Albatross sailed from San Francisco on 23 August 1899, bound by

24696-480: The waters of the Pacific northwest and of Alaska. During the course of the cruise, Albatross enabled the members of the commission to visit "numerous salmon streams, canneries, and salteries" in Alaska. She returned to her home port on 24 September 1903. Early in 1904, Albatross operated locally between San Francisco and San Diego, working jointly with Stanford University and the University of California , in

24864-479: The way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS  Royal William in 1833. The British side-wheel paddle steamer SS  Great Western was the first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings, starting in 1838. In 1836 Isambard Kingdom Brunel and a group of Bristol investors formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build a line of steamships for

25032-504: The way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS  Royal William in 1833. The first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings was the British side-wheel paddle steamer SS  Great Western built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838, which inaugurated the era of the trans-Atlantic ocean liner . SS  Archimedes , built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith ,

25200-562: The west coast of the United States and the Hawaiian Islands , working towards determining "a practicable route for a telegraphic cable" between San Francisco and Honolulu . During the course of this hydrographic work (which took place between 9 October 1891 and 16 January 1892), Albatross also made a few dredge hauls and took some plankton samples. Next, temporarily assigned to the Revenue Marine Service under

25368-422: The western Arctic indicate the Atlantic water heat remains isolated at intermediate depths even under the 'perfect storm' conditions of the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 . Waters originating in the Pacific and Atlantic both exit through the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard Island, which is about 2,700 m (8,900 ft) deep and 350 km (220 mi) wide. This outflow is about 9 Sv. The width of

25536-418: The world; it holds large oil and gas reserves. The Chukchi shelf forms the border between Russian and the United States as stated in the USSR–USA Maritime Boundary Agreement . The whole area is subject to international territorial claims . The Chukchi Plateau extends from the Chukchi Sea Shelf. An underwater ridge , the Lomonosov Ridge , divides the deep sea North Polar Basin into two oceanic basins :

25704-426: The year. For example, the Beaufort High—an extension of the Siberian High system—is a pressure system that drives the anticyclonic motion of the Beaufort Gyre. During the summer, this area of high pressure is pushed out closer to its Siberian and Canadian sides. In addition, there is a sea level pressure (SLP) ridge over Greenland that drives strong northerly winds through the Fram Strait, facilitating ice export. In

25872-503: Was an English aristocrat who forwarded the design of the steam yacht in conjunction with the Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier . By World War II , steamers still constituted 73% of world's tonnage, and similar percentage remained in early 1950s. The decline of the steamship began soon thereafter. Many had been lost in the war, and marine diesel engines had finally matured as an economical and viable alternative to steam power. The diesel engine had far better thermal efficiency than

26040-417: Was at its height, came to assert overall control over design of the ship—a state of affairs that would have far-reaching consequences for the company. Construction was carried out in a specially adapted dry dock in Bristol , England. Brunel was given a chance to inspect John Laird 's 213-foot (65 m) (English) channel packet ship Rainbow —the largest iron- hulled ship then in service—in 1838, and

26208-433: Was by far the largest vessel afloat. Brunel's last major project, SS  Great Eastern , was built in 1854–1857 with the intent of linking Great Britain with India, via the Cape of Good Hope , without any coaling stops. This ship was arguably more revolutionary than her predecessors. She was one of the first ships to be built with a double hull with watertight compartments and was the first liner to have four funnels. She

26376-402: Was established in the 1850s by John Elder , but it was clear that triple expansion engines needed steam at, by the standards of the day, very high pressures. The existing boiler technology could not deliver this. Wrought iron could not provide the strength for the higher pressures. Steel became available in larger quantities in the 1870s, but the quality was variable. The overall design of boilers

26544-452: Was fitted with two side-lever steam engines from the firm of Maudslay, Sons & Field , producing 750 indicated horsepower between them. The ship proved satisfactory in service and initiated the transatlantic route, acting as a model for all following Atlantic paddle-steamers. The Cunard Line 's RMS  Britannia began her first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship in 1840, sailing from Liverpool to Boston. In 1845

26712-504: Was improved in the early 1860s, with the Scotch-type boilers – but at that date these still ran at the lower pressures that were then current. The first ship fitted with triple expansion engines was Propontis (launched in 1874). She was fitted with boilers that operated at 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) – but these had technical problems and had to be replaced with ones that ran at 90 pounds per square inch (620 kPa). This substantially degraded performance. There were

26880-405: Was laid down) and was soon followed by all subsequent liners. Most larger warships of the world's navies were propelled by steam turbines burning bunker fuel in both World Wars, apart from obsolete ships with reciprocating machines from the turn of the century, and rare cases of usage of diesel engines in larger warships. Steam turbines burning fuel remained in warship construction until the end of

27048-486: Was mastered at this level, steam engines were mounted on larger, and eventually, ocean-going vessels. Becoming reliable, and propelled by screw rather than paddlewheels, the technology changed the design of ships for faster, more economic propulsion. Paddlewheels as the main motive source became standard on these early vessels. It was an effective means of propulsion under ideal conditions but otherwise had serious drawbacks. The paddle-wheel performed best when it operated at

27216-417: Was probably Norway , though the Faroe Islands or Shetland have also been suggested. Early cartographers were unsure whether to draw the region around the North Pole as land (as in Johannes Ruysch 's map of 1507, or Gerardus Mercator 's map of 1595) or water (as with Martin Waldseemüller 's world map of 1507). The fervent desire of European merchants for a northern passage, the Northern Sea Route or

27384-461: Was sold on 16 June 1924 to Thomas Butler and Co. of Boston , who then refitted her "as closely possible along her old lines" as a school ship. In 1927 her owner was a James A Ross and she was registered in Boston . Fitted out as a training ship for "nautical students or cadets," she left Boston on 12 July 1927 under the auspices of the American Nautical School, Inc., with 119 pupils on board, bound for European waters. The students, however, departed

27552-416: Was soon converted to iron-hulled technology. He scrapped his plans to build a wooden ship and persuaded the company directors to build an iron-hulled ship. Iron's advantages included being much cheaper than wood, not being subject to dry rot or woodworm , and its much greater structural strength. The practical limit on the length of a wooden-hulled ship is about 300 feet, after which hogging —the flexing of

27720-476: Was the 116-ton Aaron Manby , built in 1821 by Aaron Manby at the Horseley Ironworks , and became the first iron-built vessel to put to sea when she crossed the English Channel in 1822, arriving in Paris on 22 June. She carried passengers and freight to Paris in 1822 at an average speed of 8 knots (9 mph, 14 km/h). The American ship SS  Savannah first crossed the Atlantic Ocean arriving in Liverpool, England, on June 20, 1819, although most of

27888-456: Was the biggest liner throughout the rest of the 19th century with a gross tonnage of almost 20,000 tons and had a passenger-carrying capacity of thousands. The ship was ahead of her time and went through a turbulent history, never being put to her intended use. The first transatlantic steamer built of steel was SS  Buenos Ayrean , built by Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers and entering service in 1879. The first regular steamship service from

28056-399: Was the change from the paddle-wheel to the screw-propeller as the mechanism of propulsion. These steamships quickly became more popular, because the propeller's efficiency was consistent regardless of the depth at which it operated. Being smaller in size and mass and being completely submerged, it was also far less prone to damage. James Watt of Scotland is widely given credit for applying

28224-464: Was the world's first screw propeller -driven steamship for open water seagoing. She had considerable influence on ship development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy , in addition to her influence on commercial vessels. The first screw-driven propeller steamship introduced in America was on a ship built by Thomas Clyde in 1844 and many more ships and routes followed. The key innovation that made ocean-going steamers viable

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