Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution chartered Captain Bill III from Henry Klimm, Jr., of Falmouth, MA. The vessel was used mainly in the shelf waters south of Nantucket, through the south channel, and into the Gulf of Maine. Captain Bill III was used for plankton tows bathythermograph lowerings, tracking by radar and collecting drift buoys, for collecting marine life specimens in the Gulf of Maine, and for the recovery of Richardson toroidal buoys.

Captain Bill IV was chartered by WHOI during 1969 for setting, tending, and retrieving buoys in the experimental “buoy farm” off Martha’s Vineyard.