Last week's sinking of the Explorer

[MarleysGh0st]

When I heard the story about the sinking in the Antarctic last week, it gave me a start--I was relieved to hear that the ship was the Explorer and not the one that I've sailed on, Lindblad Expedition's National Geographic Endeavour. Still, there are some coincidences here. The NYT says that the Endeavour was one of the first two rescue ships to arrive on the scene (although the article identifies it as "a small research vessel" instead as another adventure cruise ship).

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/24/world ... 4ship.html

And another article mentions that the Explorer was originally the Lindblad Explorer, their first ship for Antarctic cruising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/world ... 6ship.html

And for a final coincidence, when I arrived home on Friday, there was a brochure from Lindblad about their newest ship being launched next year, named after their first...the National Geographic Explorer.

Talk about timing...

[andrewjackson]

Only a slightly related note, last night an NTN question came up about a space shuttle mission. The correct answer was Atlantis but the extra factoid said that the shuttle was not named for the mythical land but another ship. I tried to remember a ship called the Atlantis but couldn't come up with one. It seemed like a strange name for a U.S. naval ship.

So I looked it up. The space shuttle Atlantis was named for the R/V Atlantis, a research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The original sailboat R/V Atlantis was in service from 1931 to 1966. The third R/V Atlantis is now in service for Woods Hole and is the host vessel of the underwater vehicles Alvin and Jason.


But the U.S. Navy did have an Atlantis. The U.S.S. Atlantis was a section patrol boat in service from 1917 to 1919 mostly in the harbors of New York, New Haven, and the Great Lakes. It was a 60 ft wooden motor boat that would never have inspired a space shuttle name.

[Bob Juch]

Only a slightly related note, last night an NTN question came up about a space shuttle mission. The correct answer was Atlantis but the extra factoid said that the shuttle was not named for the mythical land but another ship. I tried to remember a ship called the Atlantis but couldn't come up with one. It seemed like a strange name for a U.S. naval ship.

So I looked it up. The space shuttle Atlantis was named for the R/V Atlantis, a research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The original sailboat R/V Atlantis was in service from 1931 to 1966. The third R/V Atlantis is now in service for Woods Hole and is the host vessel of the underwater vehicles Alvin and Jason.

But the U.S. Navy did have an Atlantis. The U.S.S. Atlantis was a section patrol boat in service from 1917 to 1919 mostly in the harbors of New York, New Haven, and the Great Lakes. It was a 60 ft wooden motor boat that would never have inspired a space shuttle name.

I had a lucky SWAG on that last night. I associated water with both which was really just a coincidence.

[MarleysGh0st]

So I looked it up. The space shuttle Atlantis was named for the R/V Atlantis, a research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The original sailboat R/V Atlantis was in service from 1931 to 1966. The third R/V Atlantis is now in service for Woods Hole and is the host vessel of the underwater vehicles Alvin and Jason.

Huh. That sounded so unlikely I had to double-check that. NASA confirms it.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shu ... -info.html

I wonder how many lobbyists Woods Hole has to get a shuttle named after a sailboat, when all the millions of Star Trek fans couldn't get the Enterprise launched into orbit?

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/res ... prise.html

[MarleysGh0st]

Lindblad posts "Daily Expedition Reports" from each of their ships. These are written by staffers and have a certain travel brochure air about them, so I wasn't sure if they'd want to mention this incident, talk of sinkings being bad for business and all.

But I give them credit for posting the following DER:
http://www.expeditions.com/DER_Details1 ... ort=146115

[tanstaafl2]

So I looked it up. The space shuttle Atlantis was named for the R/V Atlantis, a research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The original sailboat R/V Atlantis was in service from 1931 to 1966. The third R/V Atlantis is now in service for Woods Hole and is the host vessel of the underwater vehicles Alvin and Jason.

Huh. That sounded so unlikely I had to double-check that. NASA confirms it.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shu ... -info.html

I wonder how many lobbyists Woods Hole has to get a shuttle named after a sailboat, when all the millions of Star Trek fans couldn't get the Enterprise launched into orbit?

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/res ... prise.html

The first shuttle really should have been able to keep its original name and not been changed to Enterprise. But it wouldn't have matched the later theme for shuttle names. A later ship could have been named Enterprise, and named after the long line of ships previously named that, and not for the pop culture fictional ship it was theoretically named for. It probably still doesn't fit as well with the theme of other shuttle names though.

Of course had it been the second shuttle it would have been the one that crashed over Texas...