The Rachel Carson Scuba Corps takes its name from the Research Vessel Rachel Carson, which was named after Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964). Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist and highly acclaimed and prolific author on ecological themes. Her most popular book, "Silent Spring" (1962), questioned the use of chemical pesticides and awakened the world to the importance of preserving our delicate ecology. Born in Springdale, Penn., she attended the former Pennsylvania College for Women and John Hopkins University and taught zoology at the University of Maryland from 1931-36. She then accepted a position as an aquatic biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, now the Fish and Wildlife Service, where she worked until 1952. She wrote three books about the sea: "Under the Sea Wind" (1941), "The Sea Around Us" (1951), which won the 1952 National Book Award for nonfiction, and "Edge of the Sea." All were praised for the beauty of the language and scientific accuracy.
The RV Rachel Carson did not always have a
peaceful mission. The 152-foot long, aluminum-hulled vessel
started as an Asheville Class gunboat in the Vietnam War.
Although notorious among their crews for poor design and
mechanical snafus, the big turbine
engines moved the Asheville boats so fast that they could throw a
fantail as high as the vertical stabilizer of a Boeing 747. After
returning to the United States and being decommissioned, the
gunboat was turned over to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA removed her giant turbine engines and converted the
turbine room into a maritime research lab. She was renamed the RV
Rachel Carson and used as a reseach vessel on Lake Michigan for
five years. She was later given to the Great Lakes Naval and
Maritime Museum, which also owned the USS Silversides, a WWII
submarine that was used as a tourist attraction. The Carson was
docked at Navy Pier, astern of the Silversides and used as the
original meeting location of the Rachel Carson Scuba Corps in
1988. She was later moved up to Muskegon, Michigan, along with
the Silversides, as part of the Silversides Museum. Age and
mechanical problems took their toll and, in the spring of 1995,
she was dismantled, and her aluminum hull was melted down into
ingots and sold for scrap. It's very likely that thousands of
people have sipped their favorite beverages from the remains of
her hull.