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Little Alvin

To keep busy after he retired, professional deep-sea diver Tom Ryder (center) launched into a three-year project to build a 1/8-scale, fully operational, radio-controlled model of Alvin. When Alvin pilot Bruce Strickrott (right) heard that Ryder was interested in selling it, he bought it. Ryder and his wife Marcy (left) drove from their home in Illinois in February 2013 to deliver it in person. They arrived to see the real Alvin in the final stages of its recent upgrade, which included a new personnel sphere (background). Ryder’s model is currently at the WHOI Ocean Science Exhibit Center, which will open to the public in mid-April.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)