Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D147882-12
Date(s)
- 1966-02-19 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The "Alpha Helix" commenced its trial runs on February 19, 1966. Martinac Shipbuilding built the 133-foot research vessel for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, as a floating experimental biology laboratory. It had a 31-foot beam and displacement of 512 tons, carried a crew of 12 and could berth a scientific party of ten. The $2,225,000 floating lab was skippered by Capt. James Faughn.The "Alpha Helix" made news on the day of its launching, June 29, 1964, when she broke away from fastenings on the Martinac ways and launched itself. She was spared damage when boom men alertly kept her from smashing into broken pilings. In 1980, the vessel was sold to the University of Alaska's Institute of Marine Science. Photograph ordered by J.M.Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. ( TNT 2-20-66, A-15; scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/archives/siohstry/alphahelix-hist.html; sea.edu/SEA2000/NewsUpdates2000/ShipyardNews/MartinacShipbuilding.htm)
Boat & ship industry--Tacoma--1960-1970; Ship trials--Tacoma--1960-1970; J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. (Tacoma);