The R/V 'Cape Hatteras' is for sale after 31 years service to Duke-University of North Carolina Oceanographic Consortium (DUNCOC).
Currently on the market with an asking price of $1.25 million, the ship's future owner will acquire a legendary craft highly respected by the international scientific community.
The 135-foot R/V Cape Hatteras is perhaps best known for work in 2010 after the deadly Deepwater Horizon accident jetted oil and natural gas into the Gulf of Mexico. During cleanup efforts, some on-sight researchers announced that the bulk of pollutants had already dissipated naturally and largely dismissed the predicted devastating environmental disaster.
Consequently, some research efforts were scaled back. However, the DUNCOC crew and scientists aboard R/V Cape Hatteras continued to systematically explore the Gulf waters surrounding the burning rig. Drawing on three decades of expertise in sensitive core sampling and water column analysis, those aboard the research ship discovered vast amounts of oil deposits on the seafloor. Soon afterwards, the oil deposits were fingerprinted and undeniably identified as coming from the Deepwater Horizon. The world was watching - including journalists from the BBC, NBC Nightly News, the New York Times and USA Today - and the work of R/V Cape Hatteras was shared with the world.
Rebecca Stephens Smith, Marine Superintendent with DUNCOC, said "In its history the R/V Cape Hatteras spent a total of 5,401 days (14 years, 10 months) at sea collecting data and specimens along the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to the Caribbean. Beyond the public eye, research aboard the vessel has helped to expanded human knowledge and understanding of the ocean, the ocean floor, the water column, and the many living things calling the ocean home."