NOAA ship Rude - the hydrographic survey ship that located the wreckage of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s aircraft on the sea floor - was in New York through Oct. 17 to survey the Hudson River, south of the George Washington Bridge to 55th Street. Rude (pronounced Rude-dee), which uses sonar technology to locate sea floor obstructions and other navigational hazards for nautical charts, conducted the survey at the request of the New York Harbor Safety, Navigation and Operations Committee and the U.S. Navy for the safety of ships transiting the river, and to ensure the safety of vessels participating in the OpSail 2000 event next year. These high-resolution surveys will be used to update the nautical charts of the area, which are currently based on surveys from 1939.
