The Captain Who Thinks Europe Is Buying the Wrong Boats

NATO’s quietest research ship, NRV Alliance, almost lost a critical day of science to an unexpected noise. Captain Olaf Steckstor describes how, after shutting down everything and maintaining “silence,” a phone call on the bridge revealed that measurements were ruined. Investigators found a faulty component: a small gear in a 19-inch rack of magnetic tape recorders spinning at more than 12,000 rpm, detected by hydrophones from 600 meters astern at a depth of 100 meters. Alliance was built to keep hull-generated noise from contaminating acoustic research. Measuring 93 meters and about 3,180 gross tonnes, it was built by Italy’s Fincantieri in 1985–1987, delivered in April 1988, and transferred flags in 2016. Steckstor later co-founded Ultimate Maritime Solutions.