WOODS HOLE, Mass.
Research vessel Knorr seaworthy until the end
A ship that sailed more than 1.3 million miles in the name of science is back at port for the last time.
The research vessel Knorr is being decommissioned after more than 40 years as the workhorse of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research fleet. It docked for good Wednesday to fireworks and a cannon salute.
The Cape Cod Times reports that the crew placed handmade farewell signs on the sides of the ship. One banner read: “1,360,630 miles for science.” Another said simply: “So long, old girl.”
The Knorr will be sold by the Navy, which owns it, and will be replaced next spring by a new $74 million research vessel, the Neil Armstrong.
“It’s very sad,” said Bob Pickart, a senior Woods Hole scientist who did four tours on the ship. “I’ve done such great science in such challenging conditions on the Knorr. We’re losing this first-class vessel.”
Rob Munier, the oceanographic institute’s vice president of marine operations, said most research ships are taken out of service after four decades.
Although the Knorr exceeded that by a few years, its patchwork of technology spanning the 1960s to the early 2000s made maintenance tricky, said Kent Sheasley, who has captained the ship since 2006.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Brothers sentenced for cooking-oil conspiracy
Two brothers in their 70s have been sentenced to home confinement and probation for conspiring to sell 200,000 gallons of used cooking oil stolen from restaurants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to a processing plant in New Hampshire.
Seventy-eight-year-old Andrew Jeremiah and 72-year-old Bruce Jeremiah were sentenced Thursday in federal court in Providence to two years of probation, with the first six months in home confinement. They pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to unlawfully transport stolen goods.
Prosecutors say the brothers, both from Cranston, Rhode Island, partnered with Anthony Simone Sr., also of Cranston. Simone awaits sentencing.
Authorities say the stolen oil was brought to the Jeremiahs’ business in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and taken to a company in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, for processing into animal feed and biofuel.
– From news services
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