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Toasting a new ship

Donor Hope Smith christens the R/V Tioga on March 29, 2004, as then-WHOI Director of Marine Operations Dick Pittenger looks on. The name Tioga comes from the Iroquois for “swift current”; it is also a Seneca word meaning “the meeting of two rivers.” Construction of Tioga began in April 2003 and it was completed a year later. It was designed to meet the needs of WHOI investigators working in coastal waters, in part, by Roger Long Marine Architecture, Inc. of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, with more detailed design and engineering done by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corp, of Somerset, Mass. The boat enables scientists to conduct research on marine mammals, “red tide,” coastal erosion, and oil spills, among other topics, and has made dozens of trips to WHOI’s Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory. (Photo by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)