The Killer Whale

Voyage 1

• About Us

  We are sophomores at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, Connecticut. We have experience building an ROV with our teacher Mr. LaPrad, and now are building our own miniboat, The Killer Whale. We named our boat after its coloration: its hull is painted black with some parts left white. This is different from our sister-ship M/B Booyah (built by another group of students) that is painted red.

  During our project we have been learning the basics of naval architecture and all the components that go into making a boat fast and withstand the elements when faced out in the ocean. We hope our miniboat travels anywhere on the other side of the Atlantic. Our goal is for her to land in an area that we would be able to connect with others and recover it from later on!
  

• May 2026: The M/V Bermuda Islander Connection

  On May 18th, we took a field trip down to the The Bermuda International Shipping Company in Salem, New Jersey to tour the M/V Bermuda Islander. This is the cargo ship who will be deploying our miniboat! Our team’s boat, The Killer Whale (black and white), is pictured on the left with our sister boat, Boo-yah (red), on the right.

  

  The next day, the two miniboats were launched together on the east side of the Gulf Stream. Thank you to the Captain and crew for setting another adventure out to sea for us all.

  

  Sensor Data

  The boat has two tracking systems: 1. The main GPS reports to the map above, and 2. A student-installed secondary GPS tracks location, air and water temperature, orientation, and even has a camera, with the map below showing only the last 7 days of sensor data. Contact us for more information or access to the full dataset.