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Open data · every figure carries its source

Largest in this registry
#48,525
of 84,014 with a recorded tonnage
Largest research / survey
#153
of 483 of this type with a recorded tonnage
Largest in its fleet
#1
of 3 in this fleet with a recorded tonnage
In brief
RV Marcus Langseth is a research vessel operated by the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University as a part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet. The Marcus G. Langseth was dedicated on December 4, 2007, came into service in early 2008, replacing the RV Maurice Ewing.
Marcus G. Langseth is intended primarily to collect multichannel seismic data, including 3-D surveys. The ship was purchased from the geophysical survey company WesternGeco in 2004, having previously been named Western Legend. The Marcus G. Langseth was named for Marcus G. Langseth, a Lamont scientist.
In March 2009, Chinese authorities denied the vessel permission to pass between Taiwan and China. In August 2009, Marcus G. Langseth was named in a Canadian lawsuit seeking to halt its seismic tomography experiment. The lawsuit was dismissed, diplomatic clearance was issued and the ship sailed after a delay of a day.
Vessel particulars
Every value is as recorded in the source. Blanks are values the source does not hold — none is estimated from a sister ship or a class average.
Identification
Construction
Measurements
In context
Every figure in this section is a count, a rank or a percentile over vessels actually held in this registry — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.
At 3,834 gross tons, RV Marcus G. Langseth is the 48,525th largest of the 84,014 vessels in this registry that report a tonnage. The median across that set is 5,994 GT, so this hull is about 1.6 times smaller than the typical vessel on record here. The largest measures 499,167 GT.
Among the 612 research / surveys held here, it ranks 153rd by tonnage — larger than 68% of that group. Their median tonnage is 2,180 GT, and the largest tenth begin at 9,452 GT. The flag most often flown by this group is United States (90 ships). The yard that appears most often against it is Wärtsilä, with 36 hulls on record.
United States is the country of registry for 2,278 vessels in this directory, of which RV Marcus G. Langseth is the 485th largest by tonnage. The most common class under that flag is vessels this registry holds no type classification for (977 ships), and the median vessel measures 1,706 GT. Browse every ship flagged United States.
Narrowing to both dimensions at once, this registry holds 90 research / surveys flying the United States flag, of which 12 are larger by tonnage.
RV Marcus G. Langseth was built in 1991, making it 35 years old. It is one of 1,166 hulls in this registry delivered that year, a cohort whose median tonnage is 2,997 GT; within it this ship is the 496th largest. Across the whole of the 1990s the registry holds 12,006 vessels, median 4,956 GT. The median build year across the entire registry is 1995.
The registry attributes 105 vessels to Ulstein Verft, with a median tonnage of 4,157 GT, delivered between 1959 and 2021. See the rest of that yard’s output.
At 71.5 m overall, RV Marcus G. Langseth is within a metre of the 71.0 m median length for research / surveys on record, with a beam of 17.0 m and a draft of 5.9 m.
IMO numbers are issued in broadly chronological blocks. Within 500 either side of 9010137 this registry holds 69 other vessels, whose median build year is 1990 and which range from 1989 to 2017. That places this hull’s registration in the same part of the series, consistent with its recorded build year of 1991.
Its IMO number, 9010137, carries its own check digit. The first six digits are weighted seven down to two and summed — 9×7 + 0×6 + 1×5 + 0×4 + 1×3 + 3×2 = 77 — and the last digit of that total, 7, must equal the seventh digit, 7. It does, so this number is well formed.
Nearest by tonnage among research / surveys
| Ship | Built | Gross tonnage |
|---|---|---|
| Planet | 2005 | 3,859 |
| CCGS Ann Harvey | 1987 | 3,854 |
| RV Dr. Fridtjof Nansen | 2017 | 3,853 |
| RV Marcus G. Langseth (this ship) | 1991 | 3,834 |
| CCGS Martha L. Black | 1986 | 3,818 |
| CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier | 1986 | 3,812 |
Same yard, same years
No ship class is recorded for this vessel, so these are not asserted to be sister ships — they are contemporaries from the same builder, shown because that is what the data supports.
Same fleet
Provenance
Vessel recordWikidata, released under CC0, keyed on this ship’s IMO number.
Written summaryQuoted from RV Marcus G. Langseth on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
PhotographBy Office of Marine Operations, LDEO, reused under GFDL.
| CCGS George R. Pearkes |
| 1986 |
| 3,809 |