That’s Heavy, Man

Representatives from WHOI and Detyens Shipyard in Charleston, South Carolina, watch as the beefed-up A-frame and new winch of R/V Atlantis are put through their paces. The lifting equipment was strengthened to handle the research sub Alvin, which gained about 9,000 pounds during its recent upgrade. The yellow tube is a specially designed piece of steel (nicknamed “the yellow submarine”) that allowed testers to place concrete blocks at different positions to mimic the distribution of weight on the sub. The A-frame and winch held 100,000 pounds during a static load test—more than twice the sub’s weight.(Photo by Dutch Wegman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)