French ship Pourquoi Pas? (2005)

For other ships of the same name, see French ship Pourquoi Pas?.

The Pourquoi Pas? in Brest after its delivery
Career (France)
Namesake:	Pourquoi Pas ? IV
Launched:	14 October 2004
General characteristics
Class and type:	research vessel
Displacement:	6600 tonnes
Length:	107 metres
Beam:	20 metres
Draught:	6.9 metres
Propulsion:	Diesel-electric with a Class II dynamic positioning system.
Speed:	14.5 knots
Endurance:	64 days at 11 knots
Boats and landing craft carried:	ROV
Capacity:	1000 m² laboratory, 40 scientists
Complement:	18 to 33 men
Sensors and processing systems:	Dual multibeam sonars capable of mapping seafloor up to 6000 metre depth with a swath width of up to 20 km 2 Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) capable of measuring currents at depth of up to 1000 metres Sub-bottom profiler for study of the upper layers of seafloor sediment

Pourquoi Pas? (English: Why Not?) is a research vessel built in Saint-Nazaire, France by Alstom Marine for IFREMER and the French Navy. It is currently primarily used by SHOM (Service hydrographique et océanographique de la Marine). It was ordered in December 2002 and completed in July 2005. The 66 million euro cost was financed by IFREMER (55%) and the French Navy (45%). It is named after explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot's famous ship.

Pourquoi Pas? is used 150 days per year by the Navy and 180 days per year by IFREMER. It was designed for hydrography, geoscience, and physical, chemical and biological oceanography, as well as to launch small submarines such as the manned submersible Nautile and the ROV Victor 6000.

Notably, the Pourquoi Pas? has been used for the 2007 deployment and connection operations for the ANTARES neutrino telescope.

In 2008, the Pourquoi Pas? was used for the initial testing and operations of the PERISCOP, a pressurized deep sea fish recovery device.

In June 2009 it assisted in the recovery of Air France Flight 447.

The ROV aboard the Pourquoi-pas?

External links

• (French) Pourquoi-Pas? site at IFREMER
• (French) Netmarine

BBC article about the PERISCOP

This article was translated from the original article from the French Wikipedia, on 4/29/06.