The photograph shows the non-propelled barge Ready off the Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, lowering the Bathysphere of Charles William Beebe during his deep sea researches for the New York Zoological Society in 1934.
The barge Ready was originally a Royal Navy gunvessel, the HMS Ready, of the 4-ship Frolic class. She was launched on Sept. 24th, 1872 by the Royal Dockyard Chatham and had a displacement of 620 ts, and was measured with 462 tons burthen. Dimensions: 155 x 25 x 11 ft. Ready was powered by two John Penn & Sons compound trunk steam engines with 891 iHP, giving a speed of 11 kn. HMS Ready was armed with 1 x 7-in gun, 1 x 64-pdr. gun and 2 x 20-pdr. guns.
HMS Ready was commissioned in 1873 for the South East coast station of America and remained on that station until 1878 when she was commissioned at Sheerness for the East India service. In Jan. 1884 assigned for the North American and West Indies station at Bermuda. In 1894 the Ready was converted into a dockyard tank vessel by the Jamaica Dockyard. She was renamed Drudge in Oct. 1916 and on Febr. 25th, 1920 the vessel was sold to private owners at Bermuda.
The tank vessel, almost 50 years old, was converted into a lighter, renames back Ready, and used for local transportation at Bermuda by Capt. Harry Sylvester. In 1930 and 1934 she was chartered by Charles William Beebe to lower his 5000 lbs. bathysphere from the deck for his deep sea researches off Bermuda. For that purpose she was fitted with a strong winch as seen on the photograph. On Aug. 15th, 1934, William Beebe dived to the record deep of 3030 ft (923 meter), a half nautical mile below the surface. This record lasted until 1949.
Little is known about Ready's further service, another photograph, taken in 1939, shows her at Hamilton pier, still wearing to the heavy derrick. Her ultimate fate is unknown, according to unconfirmed web-site data her remains still rot in St Georges Harbour, Bermuda, as of 2008.
The bathysphere, built in 1930 and property of the New York Zoological Society, still exists to this day, being on display at the National Geographic museum.

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