The Albatross IV Retirement Party

I got some news the other day that caused much reminiscing. This was one party I wished I'd been able to attend.

Some of my faithful readers know that in an earlier life, I was a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Narragansett, RI and Galveston, TX. I spent a lot of time in Woods Hole, MA as well, where we'd meet the ships that took us out to Georges Bank, Gulf of Maine and the Scotian Shelf for surveys, and where I worked on my master's thesis one summer. Woods Hole was also the home port of the Albatross IV.

I made my first trip on the Alb IV in 1973, while I was a Northeastern University coop student working at the Narragansett Lab. It was a groundfish survey, so we'd sort, weigh and measure the fish that came up in the trawls, and take various samples like gonads, otoliths, and stomachs. It was great fun, exhausting, and exciting at times, especially when the weather turned bad. I loved doing 'surgery' on the fish. We worked 6 hour shifts. I loved the 'dog watch', 12-6, because I loved watching the sun come up. I loved the cameraderie of the crew, and our trips of 2-3 weeks bonded us in a way that is hard to explain. Did I use the word 'love' too much here? I must have moved on before I stopped loving it!!!!

On this first trip, I met another young woman named Linda, who worked at Woods Hole in the Groundfish Survey Unit. I worked in the plankton group at Narragansett, but I dreamed about working in Groundfish Survey. Linda and I had some great adventures in our younger days. We both loved working on the RV Wieczno when she came for herring surveys twice a year from Gdynia, Poland. We even went on vacation to Poland in 1977 and visited many of our shipmates. We had some memorable times, Linda and I. Some have no details in print. Oral history only! Here's Linda being interviewed by CapeCast:



Linda eventually became Chief Scientist on the Alb IV, and was Chief on the last cruise this month. It was wonderful to see this video and my old friend. I haven't seen her in many years. The NMFS website also has some history on the seafaring women aboard the Albatross, including the first woman from Woods Hole Lab, Ruth Stoddard, in 1964. Ruth was my supervisor when I was a student coop in the plankton lab. She'd started as a clerk, but became a technician and paved the way for all of us women to follow. I never truly appreciated Ruth and all she accomplished at the time. Such is youth!

Another interesting fact, Linda owns the record for days spent on the ship- 972 over 34 years. In my 8 years there I amassed a mere 109 days. I did not know that. The program includes the names of 178 people who sailed over 100 days, so I just made it. I'm so proud to have made that list after being gone so long! Thank you Linda for putting together such a great program and posting a link for it. And for listing all the old crew members. I've had quite the trip down memory lane today.

Now I must confess, I stole a piece of the ship. The Albatross went in to the shipyard in Boston for a face lift back in the late 70's. She got new labs, new communications, new gear...and I went to the shipyard with a few coworkers to do a test run. In a bucket of trash I found a small wall plate from the old 'Sci Chart Rm' with the thirteen phone numbers for the ship's important areas. I kept it all these years. I don't have a lot of 'stuff' from my past lives, because I've moved too much. But I still have my bit of the Albatross IV. It's on a blank electrical plate cover in my kitchen. I recently put it back up after painting, so I was thinking about the Albatross about the time of this event. ESP.

The decommissioning of the Albatross IV killed one plan. My friend Robin will be retiring from the lab in RI in 2009. We'd talked about one last reunion cruise. Robin still works offshore several times a year after nearly 40 years in NMFS. We mused that those of us who are no longer around would volunteer to work on that last cruise of hers. We mused too long. Now Albatross IV is gone. I wish her well in her next life. Robin meanwhile is preparing to go out on the Oleander. It's November. I don't envy her. But I would have volunteered for the Albatross one last time...