RV Southern Surveyor: 2003-2013

[Music plays]

(Bronte Tilbrook) Hi, I’m Bronte Tilbrook. I’m an oceanographer and I work for CSIRO. I go out on this ship, the Southern Surveyor, to measure how much carbon dioxide’s in the ocean. The level of carbon dioxide in the ocean is really important because it affects our Earth’s climate and it also affects how a lot of important organisms in the ocean grow including corals. The thing I like about being a research scientist is that I get to work on really interesting problems and I also get to work out on the ocean. The Southern Surveyor is the Marine National Facility and any scientist in Australia can ask to use the ship for research, so let’s go on board and I’ll show you around.

[Music plays]

[Subtitle: Storm Step]

(Bronte Tilbrook) Watch your step here. This is a storm step and it’s what keeps the water out of the ship in rough weather. Even though the ship’s really big it only handles 14 research crew at any one time, and the walkways are really narrow and the doors are very heavy.

[Subtitle: Bow]

(Bronte Tilbrook) At the front of the ship which is called the bow there are cabins for sleeping, so let’s go and have a look.

[Subtitle: Cabins]

(Bronte Tilbrook) Most cabins on the ship have two bunks and see this piece of material up here, this is what stops us rolling out in rough seas, and over here we have the bathroom and it’s just like a bathroom you’d have at home so you’ve got a shower, a toilet and a sink. We get our fresh water from a reverse osmosis machine which turns salt water into fresh and we also have hot water just like you would at home.

(Dave) G’day, Bronte.

(Bronte) Oh, g’day, Dave.

(Dave) I’ve got top bunk this trip.

(Bronte) Yep, that’s right.  The worst thing about the top bunk is that it’s a long way to the toilet if you get seasick, and I once spent a whole week in the bunk being seasick between Hobart and Fremantle, it was awful. So let’s go for a quick tour of the ship before breakfast. I don’t know about you but I’m starving. Down the hallway from the cabins is the laundry and we have to do all our own cleaning of our cabins and we have to do our own laundry. So if you’re on the ship for a long time it’s hard to get exercise so we have a gym where we can do little workouts. So when we have some free time there’s a recreation room where we can read books and watch videos and play darts.

[Subtitle: Fridge Pantry]

(Bronte Tilbrook) This is a fridge on the ship, it has to be really big to hold a lot of food for long sea voyages and it contains things like milk and vegetables. This is the ship’s pantry. It’s where a lot of the other food’s held and it has really big, sturdy shelves so when the ship rolls the food won’t fall out.

[Music plays]

(Bronte Tilbrook) Hi, Eric.

(Eric) Hey, Bronte.

[Subtitle: Mess Room]

(Bronte Tilbrook) This is the mess room. This is where we have our meals. We have three meals a day, so for breakfast we might have bacon and eggs and French toast, and for lunch and dinner we have things like steak and pasta, and the food’s really good, and the desserts are also excellent.

(Bronte Tilbrook) Hi, Dave.

(Dave) Hi, Bronte.

(Bronte) Hi, Lee.

(Lee) Hi, Bronte.

(Bronte) Life on board the Southern Surveyor’s really comfortable and I’m just going to eat my breakfast now, so thanks for coming on board with me.

[Music plays]