As we ran into some technical problems and had to cut our last few Jason dives from the cruise, the Jason pilots unexpectedly found themselves with a little bit of free time.  Lisa Mayhew, a graduate student from the University of Colorado, took this opportunity to talk with a few of them to get an idea about what it is like to be part of the Jason team.

Jason is an important part of the science team on the MAR08 research cruise.  Without the vehicle we couldn’t do the majority of the work we do as scientists.  To get a better understanding of Jason and the people who make him work I conducted a few interviews with members of the Jason team.  It didn’t take me long to figure out how little I actually knew about Jason operations.   It was apparent in the responses to the first few questions I asked for this interview.  For example, there aren’t distinct and different responsibilities for each member of the Jason team.  As Jimmy Varnum put it, “Everybody wears many hats and does what needs to be done”. 

Whenever Jason is out of the water, there is a job list that consists of such things as mounting sonar equipment, repairing the arm, fixing lights, mounting science gear and integrating the experiments with the vehicle itself.  The Jason team consists of mechanical and electrical engineers who work their way through the job list making sure everything gets done so a successful dive can take place.  However, the role of ‘expedition leader’ does carry some extra responsibilities and rotates between employees of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.  This person, Phil in our case, must look out for Jason, all of the equipment, and science that needs to get done as well as interact with the shore.  He needs to make logistical and safety decisions.  This might include deciding whether or not to put Jason in the water when rough weather has been predicted. 

Will Handley
Will Handley is one of the co-pilots on the Jason team who started working at WHOI as a Res Tech on the R/V Knorr.  He’s been working for the Deep Submergence Laboratory since 1994 when he sailed as a navigator on a trip to TAG hydrothermal field.  Besides working with Jason II he has also worked with Jason I, Magellan 725, and Isis, which is the equivalent to Jason II out of Southampton, UK.  A lot of the work he’s done has been investigations of ship wrecks including the HMS Hood and the Bismarck both battleships from World War II, and the Derbyshire, a bulk carrier (FIGURE 1).  He’s also investigated the Liberty Bell 7, a Mercury capsule that was lost on recovery and is now standing right way up on the ocean floor.  When not on the water, Will does a lot of work with cameras including mounting them on helicopters for use in feature films and for surveying.  He would someday like to see HiDef cameras be a permanent feature on Jason.

FIGURE 1: Photo mosaic of the bow of the Derbyshire.  Each individual photo is 5x7m.  Photo mosaic constructed by Jon Howland with pictures taken with Argo by DSL

FIGURE 2: Undersea volcano erupting near the Marianas Arc along the Ring of Fire.  Photo courtesy of Jimmy

Will Sellers
Will Sellers has worked with Jason for longer than anybody else on the Jason team.  He’s been working for WHOI since 1982 and with Jason since 1988.  Before working with Jason, he spent 4 ½ years as part of the Alvin group.  He began with WHOI after finishing 8 years with the Navy.   When he was looking for a new job, the unemployment office sent him to look for work at WHOI and now he’s been piloting Jason for 20 years and has trained most of the pilots since the mid 1990s. As a pilot himself, Will enjoys any work where he gets to use the manipulator, but says the simple tools are the best especially the things they come up with on the fly.  He made a coffee can scooper when they were out at the Marianas Arc and needed a way to sample molten sulfur (FIGURES 3 & 4).  It was in this same area, along the Marianas Arc on the Ring of Fire, where Will watched a volcanic eruption, one of the most interesting things he’s seen on the seafloor (see FIGURE 1).  Will sees Jason as an eye on the bottom of the sea and believes that Jason has helped hugely to advance the scientific study of the deep sea because people get to see so much and everyone gets to see it at the same time.  Seeing the same thing at the same time means that people can have conversations and debates about what they’re seeing while they’re seeing it.  Jason has provided a dimension of flexibility to seeing the bottom of the ocean that didn’t exist before.  When not observing the sea floor, Will enjoys traveling, (his favorite port in the south is Easter Island, in the west New Zealand, in the east the Seychelles, and in the north Woods Hole, MA), wood working, mostly making built-ins for his home, and spending time with his wife.

FIGURE 3: Will S. with the coffee can scooper he built for sampling sulfur from the molten sulfur pool

FIGURE 4: The molten sulfur sample

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