People of R/V Endeavor: Steven “Oscar” Sisson

June 23, 2026
Oscar Sisson standing on the stern of a ship, wearing safety vest, hard hat and sunglasses.
Oscar Sisson aboard R.V Endeavor.

Bosun

Organized and Prepared for Anything, Anytime

I’ve been working on boats for over 40 years and for the last 16 years, I’ve been on R/V Endeavor. When I was 18, I moved from Connecticut to Block Island to work as a fisherman. It was enjoyable work but eventually I decided to earn my maritime credentials to keep working on boats but do something different. I went to the Northeast Maritime Institute in Fairhaven, Mass. and became certified as an able-bodied seaman (AB). Soon after, a friend of mine was talking to his friend, the late Donna Perreault, who was working at the GSO Marine Office, and she needed an AB for R/V Endeavor. GSO’s Marine Superintendent Sam De Bow reached out to me and then I was on a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa to meet Endeavor in Walvis Bay, on the coast of Namibia, to start working as a deckhand!

What I like best about working on Endeavor is that each trip is so different. Going to Iceland was cool, no pun intended. There were several Navy-funded trips there, studying acoustics in different water temperatures or places with different bottom types. I enjoyed talking to GSO Professor Tom Rossby about the work. We have had some repeat customers, but in different seasons, such as the Northeast U.S. Shelf Long Term Ecological Research cruises with Chief Scientist Heidi Sosik. In 2010, Endeavor went to Haiti after the devastating earthquake and brought tents that could be temporary housing but also did sediment coring and water sampling. A month after that, Endeavor was in the Gulf of Mexico with Chief Scientist Chris Reddy, Ph.D. ’98, taking samples after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. That was like something out of a Mad Max movie because when we got there, the wellhead was still gushing oil. We had a number of cruises there over the next 5 years. Most of that work was done with Joe Montoya, from Georgia Tech, as chief scientist, who was looking at how the Mississippi River was interacting with the Gulf of Mexico.

View of the research vessel Endeavor during a sunny day. Three people are on board, including Oscar Sisson who is preparing to cast a line to the pier.
Sisson (center) prepares to cast a line while approaching the Narragansett Bay Campus pier.

I’ve been Endeavor’s bosun since 2015, it’s the position that oversees the deck department. You are on call 24/7. The science work starts with reviewing daily plans with the chief scientist, planning the stations, the people, the equipment, and the sampling. You must be well organized because time is money on a cruise. We’ll discuss everything that’s going to happen, the things that could happen, and the things that we don’t want to happen before we put anything over the side. I also oversee the crew and lines involved with the ship’s arrival and departure at a pier. You have to pay attention and watch for anything unusual. Safety is our number one priority.  On Narragansett Dawn there will be dynamic positioning which will allow us to stay on station for a long time and will make arrival and departure easier so I’m looking forward to that.

And in case you were wondering, I was nicknamed “Oscar” at the age of 5, after Oscar Robertson, because I liked to play basketball.