the boat underwent advanced sea trials in 2016. its maiden voyage was on 3 april 2017, to research how antarctic bottom water leaves the weddell sea and enters the southern ocean through orkney passage, south of chile. during this expedition, which was part of a project with the university of southampton, the national oceanography centre, the british antarctic survey, woods hole oceanographic institution, and princeton university, it traveled at depths of up to and collected data on the water's temperature, salinity, and turbulence. combined with measurements collected by rrs "james clark ross", the data suggest that as winds over the southern ocean have strengthened, driven by the hole in the ozone layer above antarctica and increases in greenhouse gases, they have increased the turbulence of deep ocean waters, leading to increased mixing of cold and warm water. according to national oceanography centre oceanographer eleanor frajka-williams, "this was the unique new process that rapidly exchanges water between the cold and the warm and then spreads the effect of the different water properties over a larger area," more efficiently than the better-known processes that mix warm surface waters with cold water from the deep sea. this action rapidly warms the cold water, which contributes to rising sea levels, as water becomes less dense as it warms. this newly discovered action has not yet been included in models for predicting sea level rise and the effect of climate change on the ocean. the results were published in the "proceedings of the national academy of sciences."