“The single biggest challenge is the ocean itself,” says Brett Phaneuf, Co-founder of ProMare, a marine research and exploration organization. “No ship has ever been built that can survive whatever the ocean could throw at it.”
In 1620, despite the vast challenge ahead, 102 passengers of the original Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England on a hazardous voyage to the New World, inspired by hopes for a better future. And in 2016, when the Plymouth community met and discussed how to commemorate the upcoming 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s journey, the age-old challenge of the sea and a new inspiration for discovery prompted Phaneuf to stand up and ask, “Why not use this opportunity to advance into the future, rather than reminisce about the past?”
Phaneuf had moved to the UK some years earlier to establish MSUBs, a firm that that designs and builds mini submarines, primarily for the security and defense industries. He had long been interested in autonomous systems but hadn’t yet turned his hand to an autonomous surface vessel. Now, he saw his opportunity.
“When the city of Plymouth talked about building a replica of the original Mayflower, I told them, ‘There already is one in Massachusetts — I grew up not too far from it,’” says Phaneuf. “Instead, we should speak to the next 400 years of the maritime enterprise. Let’s be inspired by what the Pilgrims did and jump off into a new beginning.”
The timing was perfect for Phaneuf to pitch his idea: an autonomous, crewless vessel that would cross the Atlantic, trace the route of the original Mayflower, and perform vital ocean research during the voyage and well into the future. “That was when the idea of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship was born,” Phaneuf says. “We now call it MAS for short.”
Driving Phaneuf’s vision for MAS is the growing need for more scientific knowledge about the ocean. “Despite two-thirds of our planet’s surface being covered in water, we’ve explored less than 5%,” he says. “That ignorance should scare us because the ocean controls the entire climate of our planet.”