The RRS James Cook

Since arriving at the National Oceanography Centre on 31 August 2006, RRS James Cook has undertaken research expeditions focusing on a range of scientific disciplines in some of Earth’s most challenging environments, from tropical oceans to the edge of ice sheets.

The RRS James Cook is fitted with cutting edge scientific instruments and hosts a wide array of scientific investigations on-board, making her one of the most advanced research vessels currently in service.

• Single and multi-beam echo sounder surveys
• Seismic surveys
• Clean seawater sampling
• Remotely Operated Vehicle operations
• CTD surveys
• Deep-water coring, trawling, and towing
• Integrated data logging
• Adaptable laboratory space

Dimensions

• Length: 89.2 metres
• Beam: 18.6 metres
• Maximum draft: 6.315 metres
• Gross tonnage: 5,401 tonnes
• Nett tonnage:1,620 tonnes
• Average operating speed: 10 knots

Scientific facilities

Handling equipment

The RRS James Cook is the most capable ship in the NERC fleet in terms of over-the-side handling capability with both the stern and mid-ships’ ‘A’ frames built with safe working loads of up to 30T. In addition, the ship has a comprehensive winch suite capable of supporting all current and anticipated future scientific operations.

Laboratories

The ship contains a range of laboratory spaces that can be flexibly configured to support multiple scientific activities on each expedition. RRS James Cook has plentiful laboratory spaces sub-divided into ultraclean, clean, normal, and temperature-controlled areas, with sufficient flexibility to be used for multiple needs. There is also the option to configure the lab spaces to ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ labs, depending on the nature of the science being undertaken. Container labs enable scientists to work on samples they have collected in controlled conditions, which may involve the use of radioactive substances or may entail ‘clean chemistry’ procedures. The RRS James Cook has 278m² of laboratories, as well as positions for up to seven 6 m (20 ft) container laboratories on deck.

Permanently fitted sensors and instrumentation

Research ships come with a range of inbuilt equipment that scientists use on an expedition. The systems enable a wide variety of parameters to be continuously logged whether the ship is stationary or carrying out scientific work.

Hydroacoustic suite

The RRS James Cook is fitted with a complex and highly capable suite of acoustic instruments designed to:

• map the seabed, both coastal and deep ocean;
• measure currents;
• measure the abundance of fish and other biomass; and
• accurately position scientific platforms and sensors deployed by the vessel.

Bridge equipment and propulsion

Bridge equipment

The RRS James Cook has modern bridge equipment including a dynamic positioning system.

Propulsion

The ship is configured with a novel azimuth thruster propulsion system configuration compared to a conventional fixed shafts/propellers and rudders. The thrusters can be independently rotated through 360° which will make the vessel extremely manoeuvrable.

On-board equipment

RRS James Cook has a range of in-built equipment, enabling scientists to collect unique samples and undertake specialist measurements during oceanic research expeditions. An overview of capabilities and technical specifications are given below.

Timing and Positioning Systems

There are two independent GPS systems installed for science. The accuracy of these acquired positions are further augmented by the supply of correction data from the CNav system which provides differential GPS data to the two systems. The ship is fitted with a satellite timeserver (a Network Time Protocol clock) which receives high-accuracy time updates via satellite. This is fed into the ship’s network to provide an accurate time reference for all computer systems.

Applanix PosMV

Kongsberg 300+

Oceaneeering C-Nav 3050

Meinberg LANtime M300

Air and Surface Water Sampling

The Surface Water and Meteorological monitoring system (SurfMet) utilises scientific instruments to continuously measure surface water properties and the meteorology. Scientists use these measurements to aid regional and global climate models. A wave radar is used to monitor ocean waves; this is located half-way up the main mast.

Surface water: temperature, salinity, chlorophyll and particulate matter.

SeaBird SBE38

SeaBird SBE45 MicroTSG

WetLabs WS3S

Wetlabs C-Star Transmissometer

Meteorology: temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure and light (port and starboard). All instruments are located on the forward mast.

Vaisala HMP45

Gill Windsonic

Vaisala PTB110

Skye PAR SKE510

Kipp & Zonen TIR CM6B
 

Wave radar:

Ocean Waves WaMoS II

Furuno FR-1500 MkIII
 

Echo Sounders and Sound Velocity

RRS James Cook has several echo sounder transducers built into her hull. These emit pulses of sound through the water column, which bounce back when they hit an object. Echo sounders are used for navigational purposes, seafloor mapping and detecting fish or other objects in the water column. The accuracy of all acoustic systems depends on the knowledge of the speed of sound through the water column. The Kongsberg system gets the speed of sound at the echo sounder from a probe which is installed in the port drop keel.

Kongsberg EA640 10/12 kHz single beam echo sounder

Kongsberg EM122 Multibeam echo sounder

Kongsberg SBP120 Sub-bottom profiler

Kongsberg Simrad EK60 Fish Finder

Kongsberg K-Sync Unit

AML Micro-X Sound Velocity probe

Ultra Short Base Line

Ultra Short Base Line (USBL) is a technique used to measure the distance of an underwater object relative to the ship. Using sound, the USBL beacons communicate with transducer heads which are deployed through the hull of the ship. Beacons are placed on remotely operated vehicles, towed vehicles and drills to determine their location to a high degree of accuracy when they are deployed.

Sonardyne HPT5000/7000 USBL Transceivers

Sonardyne NSH

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) are used to measure the velocity (speed and direction) of the water column. They emit sound waves and use the Doppler effect to detect the current over a range of depths, giving a two-dimensional profile.

Teledyne RD 75 and 150kHz ADCPs, measuring to depths of 700 and 400 m respectively.

Geoscience Systems

A gravity meter is installed to measure the relative change in gravity. This instrument is cradled in an actively-compensated gimbal in a shock-mounted frame, allowing the meter to stay level as the ship moves around it. The gravity data needs to be grounded against an absolute gravity measurement on land. This measurement is taken at each end of the ship’s passage, using a land gravity meter to take readings at a known Gravity Base Station. The ship also has the capability to deploy a towed magnetometer. The magnetometer is ~1.5m long with fins and is typically deployed using the port-side aft boom, with a 300m layback from the ship.

Micro g LaCoste Air-Sea System II Gravity Meter

Marine Magnetics SeaSPYII Marine Magnatometer

Computing, Network and Data Acquisition Network

Two data acquisition systems work in parallel on RRS James Cook. Raw, unprocessed data are recorded by the NMF Research Vessel Data Acquisition System (RVDAS). Ifremer’s TECHnical and Scientific sensors Acquisition System (TECHSAS) is configured with a range of modules that are programmed to parse and build structured data as it is received. Data from the acquisition systems, hydro-acoustic suite and other sources are aggregated by a central file system server which stores it onto a multi-redundant (RAID) network storage system. Data from this is backed up to hard disks which are provided to the scientists at the end of each cruise.

Satellite Internet and Phones

RRS James Cook is fitted with a C-band VSat antenna which is subscribed to a time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) internet connection service over satellite. This provides the ship with a guaranteed download speed of 1.5Mbps (~183kB/s), a guaranteed upload speed of 1.5Mbps (~183kB/s) and four telephone lines when a stable link has been established. The TDMA allows bursts of up to 10Mbps, depending on whether there are other ships using the same satellite. The ship is also fitted with a pair of Thrane&Thrane Cobham Sailor 500 antennae which provide up to 256 kbps (~32kB/s) internet and a satellite phone.

IT Provision on NMF-Operated Ships

Winch systems

Scientific winches are used to:

• Lower sensor packages such as Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) sensors through the water column;
• Lower coring systems to the seabed to obtain samples from the seabed and sub-seabed;
• Tow platforms such as the Towed Ocean Bottom Instrument (TOBI) for seabed mapping;
• Tow undulating sensor platform to measure water properties while underway;
• Tow deep-sea trawling and net systems.

The permanently fitted winches live in the bottom of the ship, where the wire is fed up to the gantries on deck. The table below shows the types and properties of the permanently fitted winches found on our ships.