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Research barge?

A barge may be an unconventional platform for oceanographic mooring work, but members of the Physical Oceanography and Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering departments  — John Kemp, Jim Ryder, Paul Bouchard, Jason Smith, and Tom Farrar — recovered and deployed a surface mooring in the Red Sea from a barge in November 2009.   A truck-mounted crane, winch, generator, and laboratory van were welded to the deck of the 26-meter barge, which was maneuvered by a tugboat for the mooring operations.  The 700-meter mooring is designed to study air-sea interaction in the Red Sea and is equipped with instruments for measuring meteorology and water temperature, salinity, and velocity.  The project is funded by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, and KAUST personnel played a large role in planning the operation.

(Photo by J. Tom Farrar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)