Melville's Voyage of Discovery

R/V Melville departed San Diego, Calif., on March 22, 2006, and journeyed to 17 ports and 10 countries including Hawaii, Japan, Samoa, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the Philippines to explore the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean. The ship, operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego, steamed more than 100,000 nautical miles during the two-and-a-half year Magellan Expedition, which took it away from its homeport on San Diego Bay, in Point Loma, Calif., for 49 scientific research missions.

R/V Melville serves as a seagoing laboratory with state-of-the-art sensing systems and instruments for scientists studying global climate change, ocean circulation, plate tectonics and earthquakes, marine biodiversity and biomedicine, and seafloor processes. Students and scientists from Scripps Oceanography and other research institutions rely on the Scripps research fleet and its skilled crews and technical support teams for their seagoing research.

Built in 1969 for the U.S. Navy, and refitted in 1992, R/V Melville is the oldest active vessel in the U.S. academic research fleet and remains one of the most capable general-purpose global-class ships in the world. With generous laboratory and deck space on seven floors, as well as modern communications and navigation electronics, R/V Melville is equipped with a variety of advanced research gear to assist its long-duration science missions.

Scripps Oceanography invites you onboard R/V Melville for a two-and-a-half year voyage of discovery.

— Annie Reisewitz