One of the big diesel engines that generate all the power for the ship . @ Jeremy Young
The ship also generates its own fresh water supply . It pumps up seawater and then boils the seawater under vacuum to make it fresh . This is then used in cooking and cleaning and is purified further to make ultra-pure deionised water . This is very important for us scientists as we use it to make up chemicals for analysis of seawater , and cleaning all our glassware so it is uncontaminated . However this system gets shut down whenever we go into sea ice ( as otherwise it might suck up ice and damage the system ). This means the engineers always have enough seawater on board to supply us scientists with the water for our experiments just in case we hit ice unexpectedly .
This water is stored in three tanks around the ship and is used for ballast and in anti-heeling . This anti-heeling mechanism is very appreciated by us scientists ( especially me !) as it helps stop the ship rolling too much when the seas are rough ( such as the other day ). The tanks are filled with valves that open and close as the ship moves through the water , and the water is manipulated from one side of the boat to the other . The weight of the water moving helps counteract the movement of the ship from the waves making the rocking we feel less . A similar trick is used to help the ship wiggle through the ice .
One of the most used parts of the ship by us scientists is the winch rooms . This where all the cables and wires we use to deploy the CTD ’ s , Go-Flows , SAPs and Bongo nets are run from and they are filled with hydraulic and electric pumps and big drums containing the
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