Maritime Career
During the 1980’s and early 1990’s the Marine Systems Laboratory operated the 100-foot ex-tuna clipper R/V Marys Resolute throughout the western Atlantic and Caribbean. This work was supported by an Albatross amphibian which allowed custom aerial photography and the ability to rapidly transport specimens under environmental control to laboratory microcosms and mesocosms.
TOP IMAGE: Research vessel, Alca i in Labrador, anchored for Kingatok research stations.
The core of Captain Adey’s career has been extensive field work carried out to collect geographic scale data that were typically unavailable to coastal scientists. Since his days as a graduate student, he has operated small vessels with laboratories and SCUBA facilities to cover extended coasts mostly Arctic to tropics in the Atlantic and Caribbean.
Advancing Coastal Science Through Field Exploration
The ketch trimaran R/V Corallina on a reef station in St. Croix. As a lightweight, shallow draft and fast vessel, Corallina proved ideal for research throughout the eastern Caribbean.
Captain Walter Adey at the wheel of the R/V Alca i. Alca i’s pilot house provided state-of-the-art navigational gear and a full set of charts for close inshore work from Labrador to Cape Cod. Equally critical the pilot house provided protection from the often inclement weather of this region.
Alca i sailing in Lunenburg Bay, Nova Scotia. The sails provide comfort and additional speed in passage as well as being a safety device in a small vessel with a single engine. The Alca i is small enough to work closely inshore and yet has the capacity to make long offshore passages with considerable safety; it also provides enough electrical power to support crew and operations for weeks away from a shore base.
All frames are in place, bolted onto the floors, and I am nailing the first plank (the garboard strake) in place. Five-inch bronze ringed nails are used to nail the strakes to the keel and to each other. The rabbet, or groove in the keel, has been cut to allow "solid" placement of the first strake onto the keel. Five-inch bronze screws are also used to connect the strakes to the frames.
Laboratory of Alca i while on station quantitative collecting, identifying, sorting and weighing seaweeds in the warmer end of its range in the Gulf of Maine.