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ning, you can carry on a quiet conversation next to the engine until you open the access door when it becomes too loud to communicate. The secondary gas turbine propulsion system generates mounted in a sound-proofed housing above the waterline makes even less noise. Where many naval ships use gas turbines to achieve high speeds, Alliance is the opposite. The gas turbine operation is used for silent towing speeds up to 6 kts. You can hear a pin drop down here when we go to gas turbine,? says Neil Macdonald, the chief engineer and a member of the Alliance crew since the beginning. Even the air conditioning operates at a whisper,? says Sage. This is why its so important to keep up with the maintenance.?When stationary, we can use batteries instead of any other propulsion source to induce a state of absolute quiet,? Wrage says. The ship has comfortable accommo- dations for the 24 ship crew members and up to 24 mem- bers of a science party. Most of the cabins are single suites, with the exception of four double cabins. Each cabin has individual bathroom facilities. The galley and mess hall serves three meals a day. There is an officers and a crew lounge, and the ship has video, television, and stereo entertainment, games, a library, and a gymnasium. Even the workout and entertainment room is sound- proofed.There is no doctor on board, but there is med- ically trained staff and a fully equipped sick bay. High speed digital data exchange, including extensive telemetry facilities, is available. Alliance features separate communications for the ship and scientific trials, albeitwith some overlap. Communications include HF, VHF and UHF, Inmarsat A, B and C systems, data transfer, including voice, teletype, telemetry, E-mail, fax, and HSD link via Inmarsat B, Globalstar and Celnet phones. We are capable of classified work,? says Wrage. We have military radios. But everything else is what you would find in a modern merchant ship radio room.? Captain Edward Lundquist , a retired U.S. naval officer, vis- ited the NATO Undersea Research Centre for MTR and filed this report on the ultra-quiet research ship Alliance when it was in port at La Spezia, Italy. Parties interested in chartering the vessels should con- tact SMO by Email smo@ nurc.nato.int www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 35
