(Paul M. Fye (Auth.), Mary Sears, Daniel Merrim

Proceedings of the
Third International Congress on the

History of Oceanography
held September 22-26, 1980, at the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA on the
occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of ",oc~~"OG"~"'Iy~
the founding of the Institution (' ~.~)
~~f
OCEANOGRAPHY:
THE PAST
Edited by
M. Sears and D. Merriman
With 111 Figures
Springer-Verlag
New York Heidelberg Berlin
MARY SEARS
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543,
USA
DANIEL MERRIMAN
Professor Emeritus of Biology, Yale University
298 Sperry Road, Bethany, Connecticut 06525, USA
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

International Congress on the His.tory of Oceanography.
3d, Woods Hole, Mass., 1980
Oceanography, the past.
"This volume . . . represents the proceedings of the Third International
Congress on the History of Oceanography, organized under the auspices of the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to be held at Woods Hole, Mas-
sachusetts, U.S.A., September 22-26, 1980."
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Oceanography-History-Congresses. I. Sears,
Mary. II. Merriman, Daniel. III. Woods Hole, Mass. Oceanographic
Institution. IV. Title.
GC29.157 1980 551.46'009 80-16940
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form without
written permission from Springer-Verlag. The use of general descriptive names,
trade names, trademarks, etc. in this publication, even if the former are not
especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood
by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used
freely by anyone.
© 1980 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1980
9 8 7 6 543 2 I
ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-8092-4 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-8090-0

DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4613-8090-0
Preface
This volume, "Oceanography: The Past," is the Proceedings of the Third Inter-
national Congress on the History of Oceanography, organized under the auspices
of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
USA, September 22-26, 1980.
The Congress is a part of the year-long celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary
of the founding of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It will be followed
by an Assembly, September 29 - October 2, in which invited speakers will address
the question, ''Will we use the oceans wisely-the next SO years in oceanogra-
phy?" The papers from the Assembly will also be published by Springer-Verlag
as "Oceanography: The Present and Future," a companion volume to this book.
The First International Congress on the History of Oceanography was held at
the Musee Ocean~graphique in Monaco, December 12-17, 1966. It coincided
with the centennial of the beginning of the distinguished career of Prince Albert I
as a student and patron of oceanography, for it was in 1866 that he first went to
sea-on the armored frigate Tetuan of the Royal Spanish Navy. The results of
this Congress were published as 57 papers in the Bulletin de l'Institut Oceanogra-
phique (special no. 2, vols. 1-3, pp. XLII + 807, 1968).
The Second International Congress on the History of Oceanography followed
in Edinburgh, September 12-20, 1972. It marked the H.M.S. Challenger Expe-
dition (1872-1876) centenary, and the results appeared as 87 papers published at
the time of the Congress in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
(section B (Biology), vols. 72 + 73, pp. xvi + 897, 1972}.
During the Second Congress the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution offered
to host the Third Congress in 1980, and preliminary arrangements were made
VI Preface
with the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science; subse-
quent approval was obtained from the Centre International d'Histoire de l'Ocean-
ographie. The Organizing Committee took form in late 1977 and was subsequent-
ly composed of the following members: Honorary, Jacqueline Carpine-Lancre
(Monaco) and William H. Rutherford (Edinburgh); Chairman, Daniel Merriman;
and Peter G. Brewer, Harold L. Burstyn, Kenneth O. Emery, Paul M. Fye, James
R. Heirtzler, John L. Heyl, Charles S. Innis, Jr., Bostwick H. Ketchum, Roger R.
Revelle, Susan Schlee, Mary Sears, John H. Steele, H. Burr Steinbach and Richard
C. Vetter. It met in part or in whole 12 times in 1978-1980. The preliminary
work was carried out almost entirely from the Chairman's home in Bethany,
Connecticut. In the initial stages Daniel Merriman was fortunate in having Mrs.
Arnold Pfenninger, Jr., to lend a hand. In the later phases, particularly with re-
spect to editorial matters, Mrs. Philip K. Bondy was an ever-present and efficient
colleague. Throughout the whole endeavor Mrs. Daniel Merriman was a wise, tol-
erant and encouraging spirit, helpful in myriad matters. In Woods Hole, where
the volume was chiefly edited and assembled, Mrs. Jane Zentz gave unstintingly
of her time to provide the editors with neat copy and Mr. Charles S. Innis was
most helpful in making arrangements for prompt publication.
Despite the constraints of time and space, the editorial process has been a
gratifying experience, in large measure owing to the general understanding and
cooperation of the authors. Manuscripts were due at the end of August 1979 and
they were completely edited and in the hands of the publisher by February 1,
1980. For want of time, proof reading will be done entirely by the editors who
bear full responsibility for any inaccuracies or oversights. The index was com-
piled by Mary Sears.
Because of the diversity of subject matter, it was not always possible to group
the individual papers in convenient categories and their arrangement in this book
follows the sequence in which they will be given at the Congress. It should also
be noted that many more excellent papers were submitted than could be incor-
porated in the open afternoon sessions. The selection was made by a committee
of seven, with each member rendering his or her individual judgment and the
whole giving rise to a composite from which the contents of the Congress was re-
solved. It is regretted that limitations in the time available for paper presentations
made such selection necessary. The morning symposia were organized in consul-
tation with their respective chairmen.
Support for various aspects of the Congress was provided by the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, the
Marine Biological Laboratory, the Northeast Fisheries Center of National Marine
Fisheries Service, NOAA, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Summer, 1980 MARY SEARS AND DANIEL MERRIMAN

Contents
1 The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: A Commentary

PaulM. Fye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 The Oceanographic and How It Grew

Roger Revelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: An Expanding

Influence
George E. R. Deacon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4 Changing Concepts of the Sea, 1550-1950: An Urban

Perspective
Josef w. Konvitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5 The 1959 Oceanographic Congress: An Informal History

Dael Wolfle : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6 The R/V Atlantis and Her First Oceanographic Institution

Susan Schlee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............... . 49
7 Reviving American Oceanography: Frank Lillie, Wickliffe

Rose and the Founding of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution
Harold L. Burstyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
VIII Contents
8 Growth of an Oceanographic Institution
Richard L. Haedrich and Kenneth O. Emery. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
9 Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910) and the Financial Support

of Oceanography in the United States
Donald J. Zinn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10 The Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory of Alpheus Hyatt,

Predecessor of the Marine Biological Laboratory at
Woods Hole, 1880-1886
Ralph W. Dexter . ................................ 94
11 Some Aspects of Anglo-American Co-operation in Marine

Science, 1660-1914
Margaret Deacon. . . . . . . .......................... 101
12 Edward H. Smith and the 1928 Marion Expedition Revisited:

A Compilation
V. Wendell-Driggers . .............................. 114
13 The Role ofT. Wayland Vaughan in American Oceanography

Elizabeth N. Shor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. 127
14 A Brief History of the Tortugas Marine Laboratory and the

Department of Marine Biology, Carnegie Institution of
Washington
Patrick L. Colin. . . . . . . . . . . . ...................... 138
15 Some Aspects of the History of Oceanography as Seen

through the Publications of the International Hydrographic
Bureau 1919-1939
G. S. Ritchie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 148
16 The Plan for an International Oceanographic Congress

Proposed by H. S. H. the Prince Albert lst of Monaco
Jacqueline Carpine-Lancre . .......................... 157
17 Oceanographic Prescience: The Deliberations of the First

U.S. Interagency Conference on Oceanography, July 1,1924
Stewart B. Nelson . ............................... 168
18 Some Historical Backgrounds for the Establishment of the

Stazione Zoologica at Naples
Jane M. Oppenheimer. ............................. 179
Contents IX
19 A Review ofWtist's Classification of the Major Deep-sea
Expeditions 1873-1960 and Its Extension to Recent
Oceanographic Research Programs
Matthias Tomczak, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 188
20 The Role of Instruments in the Development of Physical

Oceanography
Myrl C. Hendershott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 195
21 Meso-scale Spatial Distribution of Plankton: Co-evolution

of Concepts and Instrumentation
Alex Herman and Trevor Platt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 204
22 Some Origins and Perspectives in Deep-ocean

Instrumentation Development
Fred Noel Spiess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 226
23 The Historical Development of Tidal Science, and the

liverpool Tidal Institute
D. E. Cartwright. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 240
24 Six's Thermometer: A Century of Use in Oceanography

Anita McConnell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 252
25 North Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Observations:

A History
Kern E. Kenyon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 267
26 Some Aspects of the Historical Development on the

Studies of the Kuroshio and the Oyashio
Kiyomitsu Kitano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 280
27 Seasonal Changes in the Suez Canal Following Its Opening

in 1869; Newly Discovered Hydrographic Records of
1870-1872
Selim A. Morcos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 290
28 The First Geological-Oceanological Studies of the Black Sea

(N. F. Andrusov, A. D. Arkhangel'sky, N. M. Strakhov)
v. V. Tikhomirov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 306
29 The First Deep Ocean Drilling

Willard Bascom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 316
x Contents
30 Geological and Oceanographical Studies in the Caspian
Sea and Problems of Oil and Gas Deposits
Sh. F. Mekhtiyev and Z. A. Buniat-Zade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 325
31 The Development of Marine Chemistry until 1900

William 1. Wallace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 336
32 Physical Oceanography of the Chilean Sea:

An Historical Study
Guillermo Ba"os G.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 344
33 From the Physiology of Marine Organisms to Oceanographic

Physiology or Physiological Oceanography
Maurice Fontaine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 353
34 Alexander Agassiz, Carl Chun and the Problem of

the Intermediate Fauna
Eric L. Mills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
35 The British Association Dredging Committee:

A Brief History
A. L. Rice and 1. B. Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. 373
36 Development of Knowledge of the Correlation

between Land and Sea in Historical Times
I. A. Fedoseyev . ................................. 386
37 A Commemoration on the 50th Anniversary of the

William Beebe-Otis Barton Bathysphere Dives
Kenneth Gold and Jacqueline C Warsaw. . . . . . . . . ........ 393
38 Marine Industrial Pollution

Bostwick H. Ketchum . . . . . . . . . . . .................. 397
39 The History of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pollution

in the Marine Environment
Arne Jemel6v. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................ 414
40 Artificial Radionuclides in the Oceans

William L. Templeton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 420
41 The Royal Society and the Study of Coral Reefs

C. Maurice Yonge ................................ 438
Contents XI
42 Early 19th Century Oceanography around Terra
Australis
Ian S. F. Jones and J. E. Jones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 448
43 The Plankton-Expedition and the Copepod Studies

of Friedrich and Maria Dahl
David M Damkaer and Tenge Mrozek-Dahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 462
44 Studies on Estuarine-Marine Dependency

Gordon Gunter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 474
45 History of Polish Biological Oceanographic Research

Kazimierz Wincenty Siucizinski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 488
46 On the Environment and Unity in Marine Research

C. E. Lucas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 496
47 Phytoplankton Ecology before 1900: Supplementary

Notes to the "Depths of the Ocean"
F. J. R. Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 509
48 The Victorian Aquarium in Ecological and Social

Perspective
Philip F. Rehbock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 522
49 The Development of Biological Studies in the Ocean

Environment
T. R. Parsons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 540
50 Physical Oceanography in India: An Historical Sketch

Sucharit Markanday and P. S. Srivastava. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 551
51 Switzerland's Contributions to the Aquatic Sciences

over the Centuries
Hennann Heberlein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 562
52 Traditional Chinese Ichthyology and Its Encounter

with Jesuit Science: An Historical Survey
Elleanor H. Crown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 572
53 On the History of Arab Navigation

A. A. Aleem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 582
54 Vila do Infante (Prince-Town), the First School of

Oceanography in the Modem Era: An Essay
James H. Guill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 596
XII Contents
55 King Carlos of Portugal, a Pioneer in European
Oceanography
Luiz Saldanha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 606
56 Studies of the Acceptance of Plate Tectonics

J. L. Lemke, M H Nitecki and H Pullman . .............. , 614
57 How Secure is Plate Tectonics?

A. Hallam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 622
58 Early Observations and Investigations of El Nino:

the Event of 1925
Wa"en S. Wooster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 629
59 Oceanography Development in Peru

S. Zuta and L. A. Flores. . . . . . . . .................... 642
60 Oceanography and Geophysical Theory in the First

Half of the Twentieth Century: The Dutch School
Rachel Laudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............ 656
61 Belgium and the Early Development of Modern

Oceanography, Including a Note on A. F. Renard
Guy T. Houvenaghel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 667
62 The Forsters' Offenses against Convention during and

after Capt. Cook's Second Voyage around the World
and the Governmental Reprisals
Walter Lenz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 682
63 The Meteor Expedition, an Ocean Survey

William J. Emery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
64 The Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger Charts

of the Gulf Stream
Philip L. Richardson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 703
65 William De Bralun's "Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot,"

an Empirically Supported Eighteenth-century Model of
North Atlantic Surface Circulation
Louis De Vorsey, Jr. . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 718
66 Considerations on the Medical Use of Marine Invertebrates

Jean Theodorides ................................ 734
Contents XIII
67 The Siting and Development of Mediterranean Harbors in
Antiquity
Avner Raban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 750
68 Sebastos, the Harbor Complex of Caesarea Maritima,

Israel: The Preliminary Report of the 1978 Underwater
Explorations
Robert L. Hohlfelder and John P. Oleson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 765
69 Gondwanaland in Ancient Indian literature

K. Krishnamurthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 780
Contributors and Their Affiliations
A. A. ALEEM Oceanography Department, University of Alexandria, Egypt.
GUILLERMO BARROS G. Vice Admiral, Technical Advisor for Scientific Pro-

grams, Hydrographic Institute of The Chilean Navy, Valparaiso, Chile
WILLARD BASCOM Director of Southern California Coastal Water Research

Project, 646 West Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, California 90807, USA
Z. A. BVNIAT-ZADE Institute of Cosmic Exploration of Natural Resources,

Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR, USSR
HAROLD L. BURSTYN U. S. Geological Survey, USA
JACQUELINE CARPINE-LANCRE Musee Oceanographique de Monaco,

Monaco
D. E. CARTWRIGHT Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Bidston, Birken-

head rA3 7RA, United Kingdom
PATRICK L. COLIN Mid-Pacific Research Laboratory, Hawaii Institute of

Marine Biology, Box 1346, Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744, USA
ELLEANOR H. CROWN Department of Near Eastern and Asian Studies,

Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202, USA
XVI Contributors and Their Affiliations
DAVID M. DAMKAER Department of Oceanography, University of Washing-
ton WB-lO, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
GEORGE E. R. DEACON Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, near

Godalming, Surrey GU8 SUB, United Kingdom
MARGARET DEACON Flitwick, Portsmouth Road, Milford, Surrey GU8,

5DS, United Kingdom
LOUIS De VORSEY, JR. Department of Geography, University of Georgia,

Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
RALPH W. DEXTER Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State Universi-

ty, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA
WENDELL V. DRIGGERS Captain, U. S. Coast Guard, Washington, D.C.

20590, USA
KENNETH O. EMERY Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole,

Massachusetts 02543, USA
WILLIAM J. EMERY Department of Oceanography, University of British

Columbia, Vancouver, B. C., V6T lW5, Canada
I. A. FEDOSEYEV Institute of History of Natural Sciences and Technique,

USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR
L. A. FLORES Instituto del Mar del Peru, Callao, Peru
MAURICE FONTAINE Institut Oceanographique, 195 Rue Saint-Jacques

75005 Paris, France
PAUL M. FYE Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachu-

setts 02543, USA
KENNETH GOLD Osborn Laboratories of Marine Sciences, New York Aquar-

ium, New York Zoological Society, Brooklyn, New York, USA
JAMES H. GUILL Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., Inc. (66-10/538), P. O.

Box 504, Sunnyvale, California 94086, USA
GORDON GUNTER Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Ocean Springs, Missis-

sippi 39564, USA
RICHARD L. HAEDRICH Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland,

AlB 3X9, Canada
Contributors and Their Affiliations XVII
A. HALLAM Department of Geological Sciences, University of Birmingham,
Box 363, Birmingham B15 2TJ, United Kingdom
HERMANN HEBERLEIN Ch. 6932, Breganzona, Lugano, Switzerland
MYRL C. HENDERSHOTT Ocean Sciences Division A-030, Scripps Insti-

tution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, Wolla, Cali-
fornia 92093, USA
ALEX HERMAN Atlantic Oceanographic Laboratory, Bedford Institute of

Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4A2, Canada
ROBERT L. HOHLFELDER Department of History, University of Colorado,

Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
GUY F. HOUVENAGHEL Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Faculte des Sciences,

C. P. I. 160,50 Av. F. D. Roosevelt, B-I050 Bruxelles, Belgium
ARNE JERNELOV Swedish Water and Air Pollution Research Institute, Box
21060, S-lOO 31 Stockholm, Sweden
IAN S. F. JONES RAN Research Laboratory, Box 706, Darlinghurst, N.s.W.

2010, Australia
J. E. JONES Coffs Harbour, N.S.W. 2010, Australia
KERN E. KENYON Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Cali-

fornia, San Diego, LaJolla, California 92093, USA
BOSTWICK H. KETCHUM Senior Scientist Emeritus, Woods Hole Oceanogra-

phic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
KIYOMITSU KIT ANO Hokkaido Regional Fisheries Research Laboratory,

Katsurakoi 116, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan
JOSEF W. KONVITZ Associate Professor of History, Michigan State Universi-

ty, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
K. KRISHNAMURTHY Center of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, An-

namalai University, Parangipettai, 60852, Tamil Nadu, India
RACHEL LAUDAN Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pitts-

burgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
J. L. LEMKE 2606 James Hall, School of Education, Brooklyn College of the

City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York 11210, USA
XVIII Contributors and Their Affiliations
WALTER LENZ Sonderforschungsbereich 94, Meeresforschung, Hamburg,
Universitat Hamburg, Germany
C. E. LUCAS 16 Albert Terrace, Aberdeen ABI lXY, Scotland
SUCHARIT MARKANDAY Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR,

New Delhi, 110012, India
ANITA McCONNELL Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Science

Museum, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD, United Kingdom
SH. F. MEKHTIYEV Institute of Geology, Academy of Sciences of the Aver-

baijan SSR, USSR
ERIC L. MILLS Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax,

Nova Scotia B3H 4Jl , Canada
SELIM A. MORCOS Division of Marine Sciences, United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 75700, Paris, France
TENGE MROZEK-DAHL Department of Oceanography, University of Wash-

ington WB-lO, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
STEWART B. NELSON Naval Oceanography Command, NSTL Station, Bay

St. Louis, Mississippi 39529, USA
M. H. NITECKI Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 60605, Illinois,

USA
JOHN P. OLESON Department of Classics, University of Victoria, Victoria,

B. C. V8W 2Y2, Canada
JANE M. OPPENHEIMER Program in History and Philosophy of Science,

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010, USA
T. R. PARSONS Department of Oceanography, University of British Columbia,

Vancouver, B. C. V6T 1W5, Canada
TREVOR PLATT Marine Ecology Laboratory, Bedford Institute of Oceanogra-

phy, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4A2, Canada
H. PULLMAN Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio 44555, USA
AVNER RABAN Department of Maritime Civilization and the Center for

Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31999, Israel
Contributors and Their Affiliations XIX
PHILIP F. REHBOCK Departments of History and General Science, University

of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
ROGER REVELLE University of California San Diego (B-031), LaJolla, Cali-

fornia 92093, USA
A. L. RICE Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, near Godalming,

Surrey GU8 SUB, United Kingdom
PHILIP L. RICHARDSON Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods

Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
G. S. RITCHIE Rear Admiral, President of the Directing Committee, Inter-

national Hydrographic Bureau, Monaco
LUIZ SALDANHA Centro de Fauna Portuguesa das Universidades de Lisboa-

PL2, Faculdade de Ciencias-Museu Bocage, Rua Escola Politecnica, Lisboa 2,
Portugal
SUSAN SCHLEE Guest Investigator, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods

Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
ELIZABETH N. SHOR Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of

California, San Diego, LaJolla, California 92093, USA
KASIMIERZ WINCENTY SIUDZINSKI Head, Fisheries Hydrobiology Center,

Oceanographic Museum and Marine Aquarium, Sea Fisheries Institute, Al.
Zjednoczenia 1, 81-345, Gdynia, Poland
FRED NOEL SPIESS Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of

Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California 92152, USA
P. S. SRIVASTAVA Engineers India, Ltd., New Delhi, 110001, India
F. J. R. TAYLOR Departments of Oceanography and Botany, University of

British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C. V6T lW5, Canada
WILLIAM L. TEMPLETON Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Battelle Memorial

Institute, Richland, Washington 99352, USA
JEAN THEOOORIDES 16 Sq. Port Royal, 75013 Paris, France
V. V. TIKHOMIROV Geological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, Mos-

cow, USSR
xx Contributors and Their Affiliations
MATTHIAS TOMCZAK, JR. Department of Oceanography, University of
liverpool, Box 147, liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom. Present address:
CSIRO, Division of Fisheries and Oceanography, P. O. Box 21, Cronul1a NSW
2230, Australia
WILLIAM J. WALLACE Department of Natural Science, San Diego State

University, San Diego, California 92182, USA
JACQUELINE C. WARSAW Warsaw Associates, New York, New York, USA
J. B. WILSON Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, aear Godalming,

Surrey GU8 SUB, United Kingdom
DAEL WOLFLE Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Washington,

Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
WARREN S. WOOSTER Institute of Marine Studies HA-35 , University of

Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105, USA
C. MAURICE YONGE Zoology Department, The University, 13 Cumin Place,

Edinburgh 9, Scotland
DONALD J. ZINN Department of Zoology, University of Rhode Island, King-

ston, Rhode Island 02881 (Box 589, Falmouth, Massachusetts 02541), USA
S. ZUT A Instituto del Mar del Peru, Callao, Peru

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
A Commentary
PaulM. Fye
In the fifty years prior to the founding of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution in 1930, the village of Woods Hole had already been established as a
center of world renown in fisheries and marine biology. Two distinguished scien-
tists instrumental in establishing, during the period immediately following the
Civil War, the Woods Hole area as a center for marine studies were Spencer F.
Baird, the first U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, and Louis Agassiz, a Harvard
professor and eminent teacher.
The influence of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) was strongly felt in
the establishment of the Institution. The President and former Director of the
MBL, Frank R. Lillie, who also served as Chairman of the Department of Embry-
ology at the University of Chicago, chaired the Committee on Oceanography of
the National Academy of Sciences which recommended that there be a major
oceanographic center on the east coast of the United States and then, specifical-
ly under Frank Lillie's strong influence, that it be located in Woods Hole. Others
involved in the planning were William Bowie, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey;
B. M. Duggar, plant physiologist from the University of Wisconsin ; E. G. Conklin,
Professor of Zoology at Princeton, and Wickliffe Rose, President of the General
Education Board. The author of the report and secretary of the Academy com-
mittee was, of course, our own Founder-Director, Henry Bryant Bigelow of
Harvard.
Folklore has it that a few of our founding fathers had lunch at the Rockefel-
ler Foundation one day and the outcome was a grant of three million dollars to
start the new Institution. The record shows that the negotiations were somewhat
more complicated than this; in fact, the initial grant was only two million dollars
with a commitment for operating money over the next ten years. This commit-
2 P. M. Fye
ment was replaced with a second grant of one million which showed the faith
that the Foundation had in this fledgling research center.
But the Institution did get off to a fast start. The Board of Trustees had its
fIrst organizational meeting on January 15, 1930, elected Bigelow the Director,
and initiated a building program and the recruiting of Staff. By 1931 the fIrst
laboratory (the present Bigelow Laboratory) was completed, and in August of
that year Atlantis arrived on this side of the Atlantic from Copenhagen where
she was built. Early trustees included Seward Prosser and Newcomb Carlton,
who were summer residents of Woods Hole; Charles Francis Adams, a neighbor
and life-long friend of Henry Bigelow, who had served as Secretary of the Navy.
His son carries on the tradition of strong support of the Institution by men of af-
fairs, currently as our Chairman of the Board. In addition, the heads of the U. S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey, the U. S. Coast Guard, and the U. S. Navy's Hydro-
graphic Office were ex-offtcio trustees. This practice of having heads of Federal
agencies as trustees was dropped in 1940 when the Institution became heavily
involved in war research.
The Academy committee was wise in recommending Woods Hole as the site
for the east coast marine center. The new staff came to a community already
dedicated to and well known for outstanding scientific research. The library fa-
cilities of the MBL were unusually good. These were made available to the
Oceanographic staff and in turn the Institution augmented the library by contri-
butions of journals and funds for support of the library. The location has access
to a wide continental shelf and the deep sea beyond as well as contrasting con-
ditions harboring cold and warm marine forms north and south of Cape Cod.
The small but deep-water port provides the best harbor on the Cape. The prox-
imity to several great universities was and continues to be a great advantage for
the development of the staff and the scientific program.
In describing Henry Bigelow, the Director until 1940 when his student
Columbus Iselin succeeded him, Alfred Redfield, a life-long friend and associate,
characterizes him as the complete Yankee with a delightful affectation of speak-
ing like a New England countryman. He also called him shrewd, wise, well-
informed, a pragmatic realist, widely traveled, and the best informed naturalist
that he had ever met.
Columbus O'Donnell Iselin followed Bigelow as Director serving between
1940 and 1950, and again for 21 months in 1956-58. He was a benevolent and
kind man who in his words "was meant to be a banker", but fell in love with the
sea instead. The endowment and Federal monies coming to the Institution were
largely controlled by Columbus and he became the Father image for everyone
(including his successor) who worked at the Institution. He once told me that he
never recruited anyone and only let those come in who knocked hardest at the
door. He also never got rid of anyone who wanted to stay -a philosophy which
was incompatible with the later-adopted tenure policy of ''up or out" for those
in a scientiftc career pattern.
Admiral Edward H. Smith, Director from 1950-56, was very much a military
man even though he had good training in oceanography, both practically with
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: A Commentary 3
the U. S. Ice Patrol and academically with a Ph.D. in oceanography from Har-
vard. His directorship was noted for bringing more order to the Institution even
though his proposal for a departmental organizational structure was turned
down by the Board of Trustees. He initiated the Associates Program which has
brought many friends to the Institution and provided more than 19 million dol-
lars of support in its first 25 years of existence. Smith was known for his "white
glove" inspections of the Institution's shops and ships on Friday afternoons and
we have never been done up in such Bristol-fashion either before or since.
When I became Director in 1958, I was returning to the Institution after an
absence of ten years. I had worked here between 1942 and 1948 as a chemist
helping to develop underwater explosives for the United States Navy. I suc-
ceeded Bright Wilson (Harvard University) and Paul Cross (Brown University) as
Director of the subsidiary laboratory and thus got to know Columbus Iselin
quite well. No doubt our relationship led to his strong persuasive argument ten
years later that I should succeed him in office.
In my first Director's Report for the 1958 Annual Report, I summarized
some of the changes that had taken place during the ten years in which I had
only visited the Institution from time to time.
The most obvious of these changes, and perhaps the most predictable, has
been the introduction of many new techniques and new instrumentation. The
use of drift buoys and neutrally buoyant floats permitting a recording of data
in the absence of an observer, the use of the tow chain permitting the virtual-
ly continuous recording of the thermal structure from a vessel underway at
speeds up to 12 knots, and the use of an airplane as a research vessel from
which oceanographic observations are made are examples of such new tech-
niques in physical oceanography.
A second and perhaps more significant change relates to the type of
thinking which is being done today. The use of models, particularly in large-
scale circulation studies and in wave investigations, and a much greater accep-
tance of theoretical studies are examples of such changes. The recent success-
ful prediction by theory of the deep-water circulation pattern is perhaps one
of the few examples of modern oceanography where theory has preceded ex-
periment. This represents a degree of sophistication not previously available
in oceanography and may indicate that we are about to evolve out of the
descriptive phase of the science into one in which the scientific methods will
have more application. Finally, the inclusion on the staff of the excellent
groups engaged in beach studies, marine meteorology, hydrodynamics and
theoretical work is undoubtedly the most significant change which has oc-
curred during the past decade.
One of my first official acts as Director was to establish a Staff Committee,

chaired by Bostwick Ketchum, to re-examine the Institution's role in higher edu-
cation. The Institution had always been involved in the education of graduate
students. Between 1930 and 1958 we had awarded 320 fellowships and in the
next three years, at an accelerated pace, 141 more. The typical pattern was for
the university to send a graduate student here to do research through an in-
4 P. M. Fye
fonnal arrangement with one of the staff members who was willing to sponsor
the student. The degree was awarded by the home university with little credit
other than a footnote to the Institution. By 1961 there was a slight trend to
fonnallze some of these arrangements by having ftfteen of our senior staff also
holding faculty appointments at eight universities. The committee, not surprising-
ly, endorsed this infonnal arrangement and urged that we continue the pattern
of the past.
But we did not anticipate the rapid growth of graduate departments of marine
science. The national excitement created in the field by the National Academy
of Sciences Report "Oceanography 1960-1970" and the U. S. Navy's ten year
TENOC program resulted in 100 universities establishing graduate schools or de-
partments of oceanography. It soon became apparent that the best students
would go to those schools having degree programs and that our traditional source
of young talent would dry up if we continued only our infonnal program. In
1964 the Board of Trustees became alerted to the significance of the changing
pattern in education and a Trustee committee was appointed. This committee
consisted initially of Dr. James S. Coles, President of Bowdoin College, Dr.
Arnold B. Arons, Professor of Physics at Amherst College, and Professor Carroll
Wilson of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Dr. Detlev W. Bronk,
President of Rockefeller University and Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, Provost (and
later President) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology being added later.
In June of 1966 after an intensive study by this committee, the Board of
Trustees unanimously approved a committee recommendation to establish a
joint doctoral program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
and to arrange for the necessary changes in the Institution's charter to permit
the awarding of graduate degrees. On 8 May 1968 the officials of the Institution
and of MIT, onboard the research vessel Chain, formally signed a covenant estab-
lishing the joint program. This program has had a significant impact on the de-
velopment of the Institution and on the lives of 97 young people who have been
awarded degrees in the program between 1970 and 1979. The foresight of the
Trustees in adopting a fonnal degree program probably did more to assure the
continuing flow of students and thus maintain a stimulating environment for the
pursuit of significant and exciting research than any other step they could have
taken. I consider this step, which was opposed by some of the research staff, as
one of the most important in the two decades of my directorship.
We have held that an oceanographic career is best approached by way of
thorough academic training in one of the basic scientific disciplines with concen-
tration on the marine aspects of that discipline beginning at the time actual re-
search is started. This opinion is based on the interdisciplinary nature of ocean-
ography and on the research performance and leadership in the field by many
scientists with various educational backgrounds. We have further held the phi-
losophy that oceanography is not a unique basic scientific discipline but rather
an interdisciplinary area of research which should draw the attention of investi-
gators trained in each of the fundamental sciences. These investigators chal-
lenged by oceanic problems use their special knowledge and training to explore
the problems of the ocean systems which involve the tools and methods of
physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. Other interdisciplinary areas of
research such as geology, meteorology, and engineering are also drawn upon in
the pursuit of oceanographic studies. We believed that it would be most unwise
to disregard the true nature of oceanography in the development of our edu-
cational program. The formal education of research oceanographers should not
consist of a smattering of each of the basic sciences, but rather should be based
on the rigorous background in one scientific discipline. It appeared to us that
this path provided the most satisfactory basis for a career of original research.
Two other aspects of our educational program have had a profound influence
on the Institution. In 1959 a summer course in "Theoretical Studies in Geo-
physical Dynamics" started an activity that has continued for 21 years and
which has involved some of the most distinguished theoretical oceanographers in
the world. Key individuals in a group of planners who have kept the momentum
of the program going have included Willem Malkus, George Veronis, Louis
Howard, Henry Stommel, Melvin Stern and Edward Speigel, with Mary Thayer
acting as the ever present "Den Mother". No problem in the dynamics of the
oceans, the atmosphere, or the solar system has been too complicated to chal-
lenge this group. They have added distinction to the summer population each
year since 1959. It has been one of those enterprises for which the Director only
had to provide a minor assist in the beginning and an occasional nudge from
time to time. Other than that, it has been a pleasure to sit back and watch it
flourish.
Another aspect of our educational activities has been the Marine Policy and
Ocean Management Program. This program resulted more specifically from the
initiative of the Director than most. It has represented essentially the only time
the Institution has ventured outside the domain of pure science. I proposed to
the Board of Trustees at their Annual Meeting in June 1970, that we should
broaden our base of investigations to include the study of man's interaction with
the ocean and to emphasize, as a primary goal, the necessity for man "to use the
oceans wisely." There were three reasons why we should involve ourselves with
Marine Policy. First, oceanographers share with many others throughout the
world the strong desire to assist in improving cooperation among nations. I
thought we had an opportunity to do this. Antarctica remained the only portion
of the world not claimed by individual nations. As information about the seas
expands and as technology grows, governments are increasingly tempted to make
claims of ownership or control over large areas of the ocean. The history of
world conflict provides many examples when conflicting claims and the urge for
expansion have developed into major differences among nations. At that time I
thought there existed an unprecedented opportunity for international cooper-
ation in developing a regime to govern the development of the seabed. The Gen-
eral Assembly of the United Nations had just approved the "Declaration of
Principles" and called for a Conference on the Law of the Sea. Clearly, marine
scientists would have to playa prominent role in any such conference. Today,
ten years later, many of the dreams about international cooperation through a
6 P. M. Fye
Law of the Sea Treaty have been demolished, but the challenge remains and we
must continue to strive to meet it.
A second reason for the Institution to have an interest in the development of
marine policy is that we had a unique responsibility to do so. Having contributed
significantly to the understanding of the ocean, we shared a responsibility that
this knowledge be used in the best interest of mankind. We, more than most,
were daily confronted with the evidence that the oceans, although perhaps less
visibly affected than the rest of the environment, were already being changed by
man's activities. At the same time, we were among the few who can make reason-
ably enlightened estimates of the impact of these changes. The increasing pres-
sure being generated for development of the seabed could well lead to man's de-
spoiling the oceans in the same reckless way that large parts of the continents
have been denuded.
Third, the Institution was interested in the development of sensible policies
for the oceans because bad policy, or the absence of policy, made oceanographic
research very difficult and sometimes impossible. (n recent years there have been
too many occasions when bad policy or unilateral action by one nation has inter-
fered with planned investigations, sometimes preventing them entirely.
The Marine Policy Program contributed Significantly to the Law of the Sea
Conference in the early years of the program. More recently, contributions have
been made in the fields of ocean transportation, fisheries management, use of
aquaculture throughout the world, legal and management aspects of the coastal
zone, ocean dumping and pollution, Soviet science policy and the impact of off-
shore drilling.
Of the sixty-odd participants in the program to date, law has represented the
largest number (approximately' 25%) with strong representations from anthro-
pology and social and political science. In my opinion, this program has been
highly successful and has had a healthy impact on the Institution.
One of the most significant changes in oceanography in the two decades that
I was Director has been the change in the size of scientific projects. Much has
been written about the onset of big science during the 60s. There has been a
continuing discussion among the Staff and Trustees about the optimum size for
the Institution. In answer to questions raised by the U. S. Commission on
Marine Science, Engineering and Resources chaired by Julius A. Stratton, I sug-
gested that we needed a variety of types of laboratories in the United States con-
cerned with ocean studies. Some should be matched in size and complexity with
the problems to be investigated in the oceans. Many of the important problems
worthy of solution are at least as large and complex as an entire ocean basin and
can only be solved by teams of scientists and engineers involving many disci-
plines and talents, using highly sophisticated (and often large and specialized) re-
search tools, such as large ships and specialized computers. Consequently, some
of the oceanographic laboratories must also be large and complex enough to
tackle these problems. Some of these will be involved in obtaining a better funda-
mental understanding of ocean phenomena and with basic problems about life in
the sea. These should be funded on a continuing stable framework and given a
great deal of freedom in planning programs.
The Stratton Commission report, itself, stated,
The need for such major centers is the result of the very nature of the seas.
One of the most demanding tasks of marine science is to conduct large, multi-
disciplinary efforts far from bases of logistic support and often in hostile envi-
ronments. The growing sophistication of research techniques under such diffi-
cult conditions requires large complex facilities, well-equipped ships, large
stable platforms, deep-drilling vessels, deep submersibles, underwater labora-
tories, large arrays of buoys, experimental structures of several kinds, ex-
tensive shore facilities, and open areas where experiments in environmental
modification and control may be conducted.
Creation of big science capability in a few efficient centers is more eco-
nomical than pursuing the major scientific tasks on a scattered project-by-
project and facility-by-facility basis.
It seemed apparent that if we wanted to remain a leader and a center of excel-

lence in ocean science, it was essential to be able to manage and tackle some of
the large, complex tasks which were dictated by the nature of the oceans. The
multi-national, multi-institutional International Indian Ocean Expedition start-
ing in 1963 was an effective introduction to big science for many oceanographers.
The requirement to undertake big science changed the nature of the facilities
needed to carry out these studies. The decades of the 50s and 60s saw a change
from such beautiful sailing ships as Atlantis, Caryn, and Aries, to such motor-
powered work boats as Atlantis II, Chain, Knorr and Oceanus. By 1979, Atlantis
II had equalled total miles sailed by Atlantis (638,000 miles) and the entire re-
search fleet flying the Woods Hole flag totaled over 2.6 million miles in 8000
cruises, with over 34,000 days at sea. The number of scientific berths increased
from about seven on Atlantis to a total of 73 in the whole fleet. On shore labora-
tory space increased 11.5 fold fi'om about 30,000 square feet in the Bigelow
Laboratory to 345,000 square feet. The addition of the Quissett Campus pro-
vided the needed breathing space beyond the village and simultaneously
broadened the horizons of the whole institution.
Along with the growth of facilities, both ashore and afloat, the total number
of employees grew from 242 in 1958 to almost 1,000 in 1979. The paper by
Haedrich and Emery which will be presented later in the Congress gives many
pertinent statistics about the growth of the Institution during this period.
This growth resulted in an urgent requirement for greater organizational
structure within the Institution. The days when each scientist and almost every
employee reported to the Director necessarily had to end. The introduction of a
tenure system, of scientific departments, and of administrative responsibility,
were changes that did not come easily. The period 1961-1962 saw some rough
weather in adjusting to new management techniques both inside the Institution
and outside in the science as a whole.
A new experience for the Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution, which had no precedence under previous directors, was the activity
which one college president has called "passing the begging bowl." In fact, I
told the Board of Trustees before accepting their offer that I had no experience
8 P. M. Fye
or interest in raising money and was assured that this was not considered an ap-
propriate activity for the director.
This attitude was bound to change, and did. Within the Board of Trustees
there was a strong feeling in the 50s and early 60s that the Institution was grow-
ing fast enough, if not too fast, under government funding. Hence, there was no
inclination to try to raise money privately and thus enhance an undesired growth
rate.
My introduction to soliciting help from the private sector was a visit to
Sapelo Island with Dr. Alfred Redfield in 1958 to see Mr. R. J. Reynolds of the
tobacco family. During this visit we arranged for a transfer to oceanographic
service, at no cost to the Institution, of Mr. Reynold's beautiful yacht the Aries.
The Aries was successfully used for several years by Henry Stommel and John
Swallow studying deep currents in the vicinity of Bermuda. This was one of our
few successful conversions of a yacht to a research vessel.
Our first serious look at what needed to be done to raise money from the pri-
vate sector was the hiring in 1959, at Dr. James S. Coles suggestion, of Mr. H. W.
"Doc" Peters as a consultant in this area. His report, "The Coming Decade of
Progress," pointed out the importance of greatly increased private support to
prevent further imbalance of government and private support which could ef-
fectively destroy our existence as a private non-profit organization. He proposed
a minimum goal of 11 million dollars and a desirable goal of 33 million dollars
for a ten-year development campaign. A resolution of the Board of Trustees in
August 1959, requested the Director to develop a plan and organization to raise
the funds necessary to support a significantly expanded program of "free re-
search in oceanography."
In spite of this early action by the Trustees, very little happened until June
1966 when a Trustee's Development Committee was appointed with Howard C.
Johnson as chairman and included the current Chairman of the Board (Noel
McLean) and the future Chairman (Charles Adams). Both have been active all
the succeeding years with Noel McLean serving as Development Committee
chairman today, under Mr. Adams as Chairman of the Board. At the Annual
Meeting in June 1967, the Committee's first report set forth a requirement of
30 million dollars to be raised and recommended that we proceed expeditiously
to provide a qualified staff for this purpose. The decision to develop an in-
house capability for raising money was an important one. Mr. Frederick A.
Mangelsdorf started us off effectively and Mr. John Heyl carries on this assign-
ment with great skill.
To raise its confidence level in this activity which was new to the Institution,
the committee turned to professionals (G. A. Brakley and Co.) in the field to
evaluate the Institution's capability to launch such a program. After interview-
ing many trustees and examining the needs and the potential, this group recom-
mended that we adopt the recommended 30 million dollar goal. Even though
this review resulted in a six-month delay in getting started, it did build the neces-
sary confidence and enthusiasm for the task ahead. After further review in 1970,
the goal was increased to 38 million dollars.
The rationale behind the new enthusiasm for fund raising resulted from the de-
sire to formalize the graduate education program. It was appreciated that a sound
education program could only be based on a greatly increased endowment and a
targer fellowship and teaching budget. The desire to escape becoming a wholly
captive organization funded solely by federal agencies was also a strong motivat-
ing force. In 1964, the Director had presented well-defmed projections concern-
ing the needs of the Institution for the coming decade and it was abundantly
clear that these requirements could be met only through a successful develop-
ment program in addition to maintaining our success with Federal funding.
The largest boost for the Development goal came in September 1969 with the
simultaneous gifts of eight million dollars from Mr. J. Seward Johnson and five
million dollars from Mr. and Mrs. W. Van Alan Clark.
In the ten years following the appointment of the Trustees' Development
Committee in 1966 $33.7 million had been raised. Of this total about 52 percent
came from individuals, 45 percent from foundations, and three percent from in-
dustry. While I was Director, the endowment increased more than eight-fold
from about $4.5 million in 1957 to over $37 million in 1976. For a small staff
and an organization with no history or experience in fund raising, this was a
surprisingly commendable record.
Two aspects of related activity must not be forgotten. First, the Associates
Program started by Admiral Smith in 1952, with a dozen members, has grown to
almost 1,000. This has been a key family of friends providing invaluable help not
only in raising money, but in advice and help in all aspects of the Institution's
operations. The other is the Ocean Industry Program through which ocean re-
lated industries have given unrestricted money totaling almost two million dol-
lars since 1971.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to our Board of Trustees and Members of
the Corporation who have provided such strong and valuable support all the
years that I was Director. I have come to appreciate, in a very special way, the
importance and the selfless dedication of these distinguished men and women
who have cared enough to lend their vision, their character and wise counsel on
behalf of this Institution. The service they have rendered is unique. They have
held in their hands one of the most precious and perhaps most fragile of our
Nation's ocean assets, the future and well-being of this Institution. To all of
them we express our sincerest appreciation and gratitude.
The Oceanographic and How It Grew
Roger Revelle
1 Introduction
Fifty years is a mighty long time in the life of an individual, but a short time in
the life of an institution, hardly enough for it to reach young institution-hood.
Although the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is celebrating its Fiftieth
Birthday, I cannot think of it as being 50 years old-rather it is 50 years young.
It is still youthful, still changing, still fIlled with hopefulness for the future. The
people who give it life and meaning are as eager as they have always been to
meet new challenges, to find new ways to serve the twin causes of understanding
and using the oceans. Nevertheless, we can all be thankful that the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution was born 50 years ago. During most of the intervening
years, from 1930 until today, it would have been necessary to invent it if it had
not already existed.
During these 50 years, the sciences of the sea have radically changed: in the
instruments and methods of observation; the level of theoretical understanding;
the quantities of money and the numbers of scientists involved; and the con-
ditions under which oceanic research can be done. All of these changes have had
an impact on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and it has played a
leading part in bringing about many of them.
We used to say there should be less than one vacuum tube per oceanographic
instrument. Now, with the rise of solid state electronics, there are, of course, no
vacuum tubes at all. But sophisticated electronic instrumentation has greatly ex-
panded the kinds of measurements that can be made and their degree of detail.
Although there is no satisfactory theory for many-phenomena in the ocean-
and for this reason, oceanography is still largely a descriptive science-it is never-
The Oceanographic and How It Grew 11
theless now possible to construct theoretical models of the major ocean currents,
the behavior of the mixed layer and the thermocline, the effects of wind stress
on the sea surface, and the thermohaline circulation in deep water. Each gener-
ation of these models bears an ever-closer relationship to reality.
During the last 50 years, financial support of oceanographic research has
been multiplied a hundred-fold, even in uninflated dollars, and the numbers of
oceanographers have increased by two orders of magnitude. But the nature of
fmancial support and the conditions for research have recently begun to deterio-
rate. Short-term fmancing of individual projects has become the norm, rather
than long-term institutional support. The new concepts of national jurisdiction
over the continental shelf and the "economic zone" have greatly limited the
freedom of oceanic research within 200 miles of the shoreline throughout the
world ocean, especially off the coasts of the less-developed countries.
2 The Oceanographic before World War II
As is well-known to many of you, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution did

not slowly evolve from small beginnings as did the Scripps Institution, which be-
gan as the Marine Biological Association of San Diego with a gift of $1300 from
interested San Diego citizens, and was still relatively impoverished when it be-
came the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1924. Instead, from a financial
point of view, at least, the Oceanographic sprang full-blown into existence like
the goddess Pallas Athena, during the year 1930.
There is some question as to the Zeus from whose head the Institution sprang.
In fact, like most human enterprises that turn out to be highly successful, the
Oceanographic had several fathers.
Frank Rattray Lillie, who was for 34 years Director or President of the
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and President of the National Acade-
my of Sciences from 1935 to 1939, says in his book about the laboratories at
Woods Hole (1) that the idea for an oceanographic institution first arose in con-
versations he had with Wickliffe Rose of the Rockefeller-fmanced General Edu-
cation Board, beginning in 1925. Others might claim that the Committee on
Oceanography of the National Academy of Sciences, which was appointed in
1927 and convened a Summer Study on Oceanography at Woods Hole in July
and August of 1928, was the progenitor of the Institution. Actually, appoint-
ment of the Academy committee was Lillie's idea, as a device to give respecta-
bility and credibility to his proposed creation of a new institution, and he
served as chairman of the committee. Its report was a fine example of the ef-
fectiveness of the "old boy network" in science. Predictably enough, the report
recommended establishment of a major institution on the east coast of the
United States which would be "committed to oceanographic investigations as
its exclusive field." This institution would be able "to supply necessary facili-
ties for research and education, hitherto lacking, and to encourage the establish-
ment of oceanography as a university subject. Such a central institution would
12 R. Revelle
contribute to the advancement of oceanographic research, not only by the pro-
ductivity of its staff but also by the impetus it would give to studies in the
field in various universities ... [it] would also serve a most important purpose
by providing facilities for visiting investigators, and by coordinating the scat-
tered interests of numerous governmental agencies and private organizations al-
ready active in parts of the field (1)."
After an ostensibly objective examination of all possible sites for the new in-
stitution, no one was surprised when the committee settled on Woods Hole as
the best location. The outcome was that the Rockefeller Foundation granted
$2 million outright-"$1 million for buildings and other construction and
$1 million for endowment of the station"-plus $50,000 per year for a ten-
year period. This annual sum was replaced in 1935 by an additional $1 million
endowment from the Rockefeller Foundation.
The Member Secretary of the Academy committee was Henry Bryant Bigelow.
He had been chairman of a previous committee on oceanography of the Acade-
my's National Research Council, which was appointed in 1919 to "undertake a
cooperative survey of ocean life" and expired in 1923 for lack of funds (2).
During 1928-29, Bigelow wrote a report for Lillie's committee, "On the Scope,
Problems and Economic Importance of Oceanography, on the Present Situation
in America, and on the Handicaps to Development, with Suggested Remedies
(3)." The committee based its recommendations on this report. Looking back on
those days 20 years later (4), Bigelow said "the time was ripe ... during the
late 1920s when the results of the Gulf of Maine investigations had been pub-
lished, when the Navy was interested, when work was actively being done on the
Pacific Coast, when, in a word, oceanography seemed to be stirring in the U.s."
The Gulf of Maine investigations were the studies carried out by Bigelow, almost
single-handedly, on a series of small, uncomfortable vessels belonging to the U.S.
Fish Commission between 1912 and 1924. These led to three volumes, describ-
ing with precision and detail the physical and chemical oceanography, the fishes
and the ecology of plankton in the Gulf of Maine. In several ways, this was the
first genuinely oceanographic study to be completed in North America (5)a.
Bigelow was certainly one of the fathers of oceanography in the United States
in general and of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in particular (7)
through his pioneering Gulf of Maine studies, his broadly-based, persuasive re-
port to the Academy, and his work as the first Director of the Institution. In this
last capacity, he had two basic concepts which have had a great influence on
~n a recently published memoir qf Columbus Iselin (6), I wrote that in the middle 1920s,
Bigelow had been thinking of "a great project," namely the establishment of an oceanogra-
phic institution. Although memory is tricky, I was sure that Columbus, himself, had told
me this. On reading the Memoir, however, Alfred Redfield wrote me a letter in which he ex-
pressed his doubts that Bigelow had ever thought of establishing an institution until Lillie
came forth with the idea, because, unlike Lillie, he would never have conceived of institution-
building as a way to advance science. After reading Bigelow's "Memoirs of a Long and
Active Life" (8), I am convinced that Redfield was right. Moreover, in his brief address at
the Lillie Memorial Meeting in 1948 (4), Bigelow implied that Lillie first had the idea, but
kept it to himself until "the time was ripe."
American oceanography. The first was that a well-found research ship, capable
of working on the high seas in almost any weather, must be the central facility
of an oceanographic institution, just as a telescope is central for an astronomical
observatory. Second, he thought that the scientific staff should be drawn from
many different scientific disciplines in many universities. In his own words:
I had been working on boats of one sort or another for many years and felt
that an oceanographic institution could not be operated to any advantage
without a seagoing vessel. At that time, the foundations were quite accustomed
to being asked for money for buildings, for personnel, and for libraries, but
not to being asked for $200,000 for an oceanographic ship. In fact, no pri-
vate institution in the world possessed such a vessel. [Dr. Lillie] knew very
well that the only way he could put the idea over was for someone who had
had practical experience with oceanographic work at sea to provide him, as
ammunition, not only with a thought-out statement as to why a ship was
needed, but also with all details as to the type of vessel needed, its size, its
cost of construction, and its cost of operation. With this in hand, he could
proceed. The result was Atlantis (4)b
Concerning the staff, he wrote:
The next task was to select a staff. This, however, was not a simple one, for
there was very little raw material from which to draw, apart from my much
younger colleague, Columbus Iselin, who today is one of the world's most
eminent physical oceanographers. A primary object being encouragement
of oceanographic studies in the universities, it seemed necessary to educate
a new generation, drawn from physical chemists, meteorologists, physiolo-
gists, bacteriologists, and people interested in fishes, whoever could be per-
suaded that they could find scope for their skills studying the sea (8).
Bigelow'S idea was that scientists trained in the basic disciplines could easily
become oceanographers by the simple process of doing some of their scientific
work on a ship, and in the early days, every member of the staff took at least
one short cruise on Atlantis every year. Columbis Iselin carried this idea one
step further. In his view, even scientific training was not necessary. What was
needed were inspired amateurs, young men like Alfred Woodcock, one of the
seamen on Atlantis, who possessed imagination and a seeing eye-the ability to
bIn his autobiography, Bigelow gave his specification for an ocean-research vessel. "In plan-
ning for a ship for oceanographic research, we resolved that she would be small enough for
the Institution to be able to afford to run her but large enough to accommodate several
scientists as well as the'ship's officers and crew, that she would be able to stay at sea for
long periods, that she have a diesel, rather than a gasoline engine, for safety's sake, that
she should have a "torpedo" stern so she could run safely before a heavy breaking sea,
that she should have a long, straight keel so she would "lie to" well on occasions, and that
she should have so large a sail plan that she could continue the work without interruption if
her engines were to break down or her propeller to be damaged, as it happened on one oc-
casion (8)."
14 R. Revelle
see things that others didn't-who were also willing and able to work long and
hard and who loved the sea (6).
Before the founding of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, most
oceanographic work on the high seas had been conducted on long expeditions.
After the ship returned home, the data and collections were analyzed and
studied over periods of many years by some of the scientists who had been on
board, and by colleagues whom they recruited. With the coming of Atlantis to
Woods Hole, investigations could be conducted in the deep sea far from shore
on a year-round basis, year after year. It was possible to think of the Institution,
itself, as a continuing expedition (6).
In order to achieve a balance between the work ashore and the work at sea,
Atlantis investigations throughout the 1930s were concentrated on repeated
measurements of temperature, salinity, and a few other chemical properties of
the subsurface waters, although some biological and geological studies were
undertaken in the summertime. Even with the cumbersome computing methods
of the time, the data could be worked up, plotted, and interpreted about as
rapidly as they were collected.
The Academy report had recommended that two of the purposes of the
"central" oceanographic institution should be giving an "impetus to studies in
the field in various universities ... and coordinating the scattered interests of
numerous governmental agencies." Bigelow's policy of recruiting his staff from
university departments served the first of these objectives. Even as late as 1941,
17 of the 20 scientific staff members were also faculty members in 11 different
universities. Beside the scientists, the Institution employed five scientific tech-
nicians, a part-time business manager (who collaborated in his spare time with
Dr. Bigelow on monographs about fish especially sharks), and three secretaries,
none of whom could spell any better than could Columbus (1). The 25 trustees
outnumbered the scientific staff. Three of the Trustees represented "the scat-
tered interests of various governmental departments." They were the Navy's
Hydrographer, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, and the Director of the
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
3 Woods Hole Contributions to Oceanographic

Research
During its 50-year lifetime, the scientific output of the Oceanographic has been
enormous. By the end of 1977, over 3800 published scientific papers had been
listed as Contributions from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Any
selection of the most impressive research results must be largely a matter of taste
and judgment, and different critics would differ in their selection. I present the
following short list mainly to emphasize the great diversity of the work that has
been done.
Description and Theoretical Understanding of the Gulf Stream
From the very first days of the Institution, Atlantis, under the leadership of
Columbus Iselin, made a systematic series of repeated cruises with the objective
of obtaining a quantitative description of the Gulf Stream and the physical char-
acteristics of the western North Atlantic (6). This work has been carried on up
to the present day by his co-workers and successors, notably Fritz Fuglister,
Valentine Worthington and many others. They were able to show that the Gulf
Stream is not a "river of hot water in the sea," as Benjamin Franklin and other
early observers had thought. Instead, it is a deep, narrow, ribbon-like boundary
zone between a huge lens of water at an average temperature of 18'"C in the
Sargasso Sea, down to depths of about 600 meters, and the much colder waters
along the continental slope. The current keeps the warm Sargasso Sea water
from overflowing the colder, denser slope water.
The quantity of water carried by the Gulf Stream between Cape Hatteras and
the Tail of the Grand Banks is very large, of the order of 100 million cubic
meters per second-about 100 times the combined flow of all the rivers on
earth. But the transport varies from season to season and from year to year, be-
ing about 20% greater during spring and summer than in the fall. The causes of
this variation are still not known, and, indeed, there is still considerable dispute
as to the nature of the general circulation. In Worthington's latest monograph,
two separate, clockwise-rotating gyres are postulated, one south and one east of
the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. But as Worthington points out, there is a
serious discrepancy between the currents calculated from the distribution of
density and the circulation he has deduced from the distribution of the water
masses (9).
The description of the waters and their motions has been based on a vast
quantity of careful, precise measurements, data of a quality unsurpassed any-
where in the oceansc . At the same time, theoretical models have been constructed
of ever-increasing sophistication and interest.
A major theoretical contribution was made by Henry Stommel in 1948 (10),
when he showed that the currents on the western sides of oceans must move
with very high velocity and therefore, in order to maintain the continuity of
flow in the oceanic gyres, must be very narrow. This westward intensification of
wind-driven ocean currents must hold for both the Northern and Southern hemi-
spheres, no matter whether the currents are flOwing to the north or to the south
in either hemisphere. The reason is that the frictional stress of the current against
the continental slope, which depends on the square of the velocity, must be
high in order to balance both the wind stress and the Coriolis "force" on a rotat-
ing sphere. On the eastern sides of oceans, the change of the Coriolis "force" with
latitude balances the wind stress, and currents can be slow and broad.
cColumbus Iselin once said to me, "I don't know much about that part of the ocean; I've
never been there."
16 R. Revelle
Later, Stommel and Arnold Arons (11) showed that the average currents in
the oceanic abyss, which are driven by the differences in temperature and salini-
ty of the water masses-the so-called thermohaline circulation-must also exhibit
a marked westward intensification of north-south flows and that much of what
has been observed about the deep circulation can be explained in terms of only
two or three loci where water sinks at the surface, or sinks and spreads out from
intermediate depths. The theory indicates that the thermohaline flow in some re-
gions can be, on the average, in a direction opposite to the wind-driven current
near the surface. But, as John Swallow found on the Woods Hole Aries cruises,
this effect can be completely obscured by much more powerful variable currents,
and it is evident that there is still a long way to go in constructing satisfying theo-
retical models d .
The Invention of the Bathythermograph
Until the mid-1930s, oceanographers had to content themselves with measure-

ments of sub-surface ocean water temperatures (and most other ocean properties)
at a series of discrete points. True, the measurements at so-called hydrographic
stations were very precise, perhaps within two hundredths of a degree Centigrade,
but the work was extremely slow, and consequently the observation points were
relatively far apart vertically and much more so horizontally.
Working at Woods Hole in 1934 (13), Carl-Gustaf Rossby designed and tested
an unwieldy "oceanograph" with which he attempted to obtain a continuous
record of the water temperature from the surface down to depths of several
hundred feet. After a frustrating struggle with this contraption, he asked Athel-
stan Spilhaus to redesign it, and by 1939, Spilhaus produced an instrument he
called the Bathythermograph. In this device, a sharp stylus scratched a profIle of
water temperature against pressure (in other words, depth) on a smoked-glass
slide, as the instrument was lowered on a sounding wire from a stationary ship to
a depth of several hundred feet. Maurice Ewing and Allyn Vine streamlined the
BT, as it was soon called, and shortened its response time, so that it could be
lowered and raised from a fast-moving vessel. Ewing and Iselin showed how the
records could be used to determine the performance of submarine-detecting
sonar gear. The result was that by the end of World War II, thousands of bathy-
thermographs had been built and distributed to naval anti-submarine ships in
both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands of BT slides (only a
few of which had been created by imaginative quartermasters scratching a trace
on the smoked glass by hand) were collected and sent to Woods Hole and
Scripps for analysis. Although limited to the upper water layers, these records
dStommel says, in his magnificent book, The Gulf Stream (12), "too much of the theory of
oceanography has depended on purely hypothetical physical processes. Many of the hypoth-
eses suggested have a peculiar dream-like quality, and it behooves us to submit them to
special scrutiny and to test them by observation."
represented a much larger volume of ocean data than had ever been obtained
before. After the War, physical oceanographers were able to use the BT as an in-
valuable tool to obtain a detailed time and space picture of variations in the ocean.
The Discovery of the Mesoscale Eddies
With the bathythermograph, a great increase in the continuity of observations

became possible after World War II. Fritz Fuglister and others were able to show
that the narrow, high-velocity zone of the Gulf Stream is not straight, but me-
anders and sheds large eddies with horizontal dimensions of 100 to 200 kilo-
meters (6). Hydrodynamically, these eddies are the counterparts of the cyclonic
storms in the atmosphere of mid-latitudes. But their horizontal dimensions are
only about one-tenth as great as those of the disturbances in the atmosphere,
and they persist for many months, rather than for only a few days.
Most of the kinetic energy of the ocean circulation exists in these eddies, and
they have been the focus of much physical oceanographic research in recent
years (14). This has involved coordinated activities of the research ships of
several nations, extensive use of tightly-moored buoys from which sets of record-
ing or telemetering instruments are suspended, and use of other types of con-
tinuously-recording or integrating devices. Much of the equipment was designed
at Woods Hole.
Because of their comparatively small size, maps of the mesoscale eddies com-
parable to weather maps in the atmosphere would appear to be nearly impossible
with present oceanographic technology. But the development of orbiting satel-
lites capable of accurate measurements of surface temperatures and of differ-
ences in sealevelrelative to the geoid may make it possible to map the sea-surface
expression of the eddies in the same way that the distribution of surface atmos-
pheric pressure and temperature are used in making weather maps (15). And
measurements of sound velocity beneath the surface from sufficient numbers of
suitably-spaced transponders may give a third dimension somewhat comparable
to that given by radio-sondes in the atmosphere (16). The first successful attempt
to measure differences in sea level in the open sea was made by the Oceanogra-
phic's W. S. von Arx in 1966 (16a).
The Songs of Whales
Far from being a silent world, the ocean is a noisy place. Even when no ships are
present, the waters are filled with the crackles, clicks, whistles, moans, groans,
and grunts of marine animals. Many fishes and crustaceans make a variety of
noises, but the most interesting sounds are those of whales, porpoises and seals.
Bill and Barbara Schevill and their associates at Woods Hole have been listening
to these distant relatives of ours for over 30 years, and they have been able to
record the characteristic underwater sounds made by more than 40 species of
marine mammals (17). These animals use sound for different purposes-for echo-
18 R. Revelle
location to fmd food and each other, and apparently also for communication.
Their big brains may be in large part sonar analyzers.
Sperm whales give out short sequences of clicks when they meet under water.
At other times, they produce longer series of pulses, with particular rhythms
that are unique to individual animals. Sometimes they are silent for a consider-
able time, then begin to click noisily. Just as with human beings, some individu-
als in a pod of sperm whales are much more talkative than others.
The Schevills have been pioneers in a new science which might be called acous-
tic cetology, and their studies have been taken up by scientists in other insti-
tutions. But no one has yet been able to learn what the whales are saying to each
other. Among the sea's many mysteries, this is certainly one of the most intrigu-
ing.
The Proof of Sea-floor Spreading
"At 0800 hours on 1 December 1968, the Glomar Challenger departed Dakar,
Senegal to commence Leg 3 of the Deep Sea Drilling Program (18)." So Arthur
Maxwell, Richard Von Herzen, and their colleagues described the beginning of
the epochal cruise in which they obtained the physical evidence that trans-
formed the hypothesis of sea-floor spreading to a generally accepted theory.
Eight holes were drilled through the sea floor into the underlying basalt along a
1500 kilometer section across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Each hole was located
over a strip of volcanic rock whose age of formation had been estimated by
James Heirtzler, by counting the number of strips of normal and reversed rema-
nent magnetism between that location and the center of the ridge. It was as-
sumed that the volcanic materials had been extruded and cooled sufficiently to
become magnetized on the top of the ridge with a polarity determined by the
Earth's magnetic field at the time and had subsequently moved downslope to
their present positions. If that assumption was correct, the sediments just above
the basalt should be progressively older going away from the ridge. Examination
of the foraminiferal tests and other microfossils in the cores showed that this
was so, and indeed, the ages determined from the microfossils coincided almost
exactly with Heirtzler's predictions of the ages of the underlying rocks from the
magnetic data. These covered a time-span of more than sixty million years at
distances from the ridge center of 220 to nearly 1700 kilometers. Thus, the
average rate of movement of volcanic rock away from the ridge in this region of
the sea floor has been 2 cm per year since Middle Cretaceous time, and the At-
lantic Ocean has widened by about 3500 km (19).
Hot Springs and Spreading Centers
A temperature increase with depth of a few degrees was noted near the bottom
of the Red Sea by the SwedishAlbatross Expedition of 1947-1948 and by Woods
Hole and British research vessels in 1958 and 1963, but'the oceanographers
aboard apparently thought that the observations could be due to faulty ther-
mometers. In 1964 and 1965, however, the British Discovery, the German
Meteor, and Atlantis II out of Woods Hole all found highly saline, extremely hot
water-up to 56°C-in depressions in the Red Sea floor (20). Sediment cores
taken a year later by Woods Hole's Chain proved, when dried, to consist of ap-
proximately 90% metal oxides and sulfides, chiefly of iron, manganese, zinc and
copper (21).
In the rubric of plate tectonics, the deeps in the Red Sea are part of a rift in
an incipient mid-ocean ridge, that is, a spreading center in which lava upwells
from the mantle and after it has solidified, moves outward under the sea floor.
The Chain observations indicated that hot, highly metalliferous brines may ac-
company the vulcanism. If this were so, similar phenomena should occur at other
spreading centers. The hypothesis was tested by Alvin, Woods Hole's pygmy sub-
marine, on the East Pacific spreading center near the Galapagos Islands, with the
remarkable result that a complex faunal assemblage of large mollusks and other
invertebrates was found living in the abyssal darkness near the pipes of hot
springs (22). Harmon Craig, at Scripps, has shown that methane is being released
at these sites (23). The food supply for the invertebrates probably comes from
bacteria which, in turn, gain their energy by oxidizing the reduced material rising
from beneath the sea floor. These discoveries could revolutionize our ideas of
the history of the ocean waters.
4 The Oceanographic in the Service of Science

and the Nation
In addition to the tangible research results published in scientific papers, the

Oceanographic has contributed in many less obvious ways to development of the
modern science of oceanography and to the security of the United States. We
shall discuss a few of these contributions, beginning with the transformations
brought about by World War II.
The Second World War profoundly changed the character of the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution. Prior to the War, it could be described as a small
research station, occupied mainly in the summertime by faculty members from
several universities. Except for A tlantis, it was much like its cousin, the Marine
Biological Laboratory. During the winter in the early days, Columbus Iselin was
sometimes alone in the Laboratory. Most of the staff were, in a sense, part-time
amateurs whose principal jobs were elsewheree. After the War, the Institution
had turned into a huge laboratory with a permanent staff of several hundred
people, including many professional research oceanographers, and a fleet of ships.
But if the Institution was radically changed, so was the science of oceanogra-
e"The first winter I was at Woods Hole," Iselin said, "I was the only person in the building
except the janitor. I came in one morning in a northwest gale. I got off my boat, went into
the office and put my pants on the radiator to dry. That was the day that A. Lawrence
Lowell, the president of Harvard, walked in for a visit (20)."
20 R. Revelle
phy in its relationship to the government and the American people. In this trans-
formation, the Oceanographic played a central role, in part because of its lo-
cation, on the open sea but near the seat of government and the great eastern
centers of science, and in part because of the patriotism and vision of Columbus
Iselin. Before the War began, naval officers testing the new acoustic echo-ranging
gear for detecting and tracking submarines had found that this equipment was
very effective at night and in the early morning, but in the afternoon the range
at which a submarine could be detected diminished to a few hundred yards.
These officers thought that the cause might be biological. Columbus sentAtlantis
down to the Caribbean to exchange sonar pings and echos with the Navy's test
destroyer, and he and Maurice Ewing soon demonstrated that the "afternoon
effect" resulted from the downward-bending of the sound rays and the for-
mation of an acoustic "shadow zone" because of the heating of the surface
waters during the daytime. They produced a seminal report on the transmission
of sound in the sea in which they showed that the afternoon effect and many of
the other vagaries of the sonar gear could be detected and allowed for by using
the newly-developed bathythermograph.
As American participation in the War came closer, Columbus persuaded the
Trustees to turn the entire Institution into a laboratory for naval oceanographic
research. The top floor was soon occupied by a group of researchers, including
Paul Fye and James Coles, who studied underwater explosives and were known
locally as the 'bang boys'. Maurice Ewing brought his graduate students, Allyn
Vine, Lamar Worzel, Brackett Hersey, and Albert Crary from Lehigh University.
Alfred Redfield, Jeffreys Wyman, Jr., George Clarke and William Schevill came
down from Harvard on a full-time basis. They were joined by members of
other universities, including some of the Institution's previous summer staff,
and by many younger men who rapidly became and remained marine scientists.
Other staff members like H. R. Seiwell and Mary Sears went on active duty as
reserve officers.
The oceanographers attacked numerous problems that seemed to have mili-
tary importance, such as the behavior of smoke at sea and the drift of life rafts,
but they contributed most to the effectiveness and safety of American sub-
marines. They invented a submarine bathythermograph which gave a continuous
plot of the ocean water temperature against depth as the submarine dove. They
then installed these instruments and showed the submariners how the tempera-
ture traces could be used to find an acoustic shadow zone, and ocean layers
where the water density rapidly increased with depth. The submarine could float
on these layers for hours with its engines off, not making a sound.
Walter Munk spent a year at Woods Hole during the War, working with George
Clarke and Maurice Ewing on instruments to measure waves in shallow water. He
remembers the winter as a magic time in the isolated little town. A large number
of people had never spent the winter in Woods Hole before; the wooden houses
most of them lived in were not winterized, and it was cold. But the physical dis-
comfort only added to the excitement of the work and the feeling of mutual
.dedication to a righteous cause. In his own words, "in that freezing, shivering
community, both men and women soon became very close to each other. As is
typical of New England, many of them were related or had been friends in
school, but they took in a stranger in a way that made him feel completely at
home." It must have been much the same kind of community, though on a
smaller scale, as the one at Los Alamos that the Manhattan Project scientists
still remember with such nostalgil.
Because of the experience of World War II, the Navy and other government
agencies became convinced that much more needed to be learned about the
oceans, if new and rapidly changing technologies were to be utilized effectively.
For example, many members of the Woods Hole staff took part in scientific in-
vestigations at Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, the first post-war test
of atomic weapons. Generous support from the Office of Naval Research, the
Navy Bureau of Ships, and, later, the National Science Foundation, made it pos-
sible for the Oceanographic to maintain much of the dramatic growth that had
occurred during World War II. Woods Hole, Scripps, and the newly-established
Lamont Geological Observatory became the first of the modern, multidisci-
plinary oceanographic institutions which take the world ocean as their object of
study.
Many groups of full-time investigators were organized, each concerned with a
set of related problems that involved both sea-going and shore-based research.
These groups were capable of using the ship facilities on a full-time basis, and, in
fact, it became necessary for the Institution to acquire a small fleet.
Another means of analyzing the information collected at sea and publishing
the results in real-time soon evolved. This depended on the development of com-
puters with self-recording instruments, which made it possible not only to speed
up the analyses but also to increase the volume of data collected by an order of
magnitude, particularly when the computers were installed on shipboard.
The Oceanographic continued its service to academic science and took on
new responsibilities. In the mid-1970s none of the 205 members of the resident
scientific and technical staff were full-time university faculty members, although
several held adjunct or part-time positions at ten different universities. But there
were 33 post-doctoral investigators and 103 visiting lecturers, scholars and inves-
tigators. Together they represented 44 United States universities and nearly 30
foreign institutions (24).
Under Paul Fye's leadership, the Institution also launched a graduate teaching
program in marine science, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and it received authorization from the Commonwealth of Massa-
fI was the Bureau of Ships Project Officer for the Oceanographic, as well as several other
laboratories. I used to come up on the overnight Federal Express to Boston or Providence
about once every two months, and make my way as best I could to Woods Hole. The memo-
ry of those visits still fills me with a warm glow. We did things somewhat informally in those
days. I remember once telephoning Columbus from Washington, asking him to start his
people going immediately on a project that would cost "about $250,000." We would get the
money to the Institution when we could get the paperwork done. He accepted the job as a
matter of course.
22 R. Revelle
chusetts to grant masters' and doctors' degrees (25). In 1976-1977,81 graduate
students, with undergraduate degrees from almost as many universities and col-
leges, were registered at Woods Hole. One of the most significant teaching pro-
grams was conducted during the summertime, when Willem Malkus and others
led advanced seminars in geophysical fluid dynamics.
In every great institution such as the Oceanographic, there are wheels within
wheels-smaller institutions that are part of the whole, special groups with special
objectives. One such institution-within-an-institution at Woods Hole consists of a
single person who is at the same time many people, a politician, an educator, a
scientific editor, a biologist, and a physical fitness buff. I refer, of course, to
Mary Sears. For 20 years, as founding editor of Deep-Sea Research, she was the
conscience of oceanography who initiated and maintained an uncompromising
standard of excellence in scientific publications about the ocean. As the princi-
pal organizer of the First International Oceanographic Congress at the United
Nations in 1959, she played a major role in creating the present world communi-
ty of oceanographers from numerous countries and almost as many specialties.
Many of these scientists met each other and exchanged ideas for the first time at
that Congress.
Because the Federal Government has very little memory, it is generally for-
gotten that the first Oceanographer of the Navy in modern times was a short,
rather shy and prim WAVE lieutenant, j .g., who organized and led a new Ocean-
ographic Unit of the Navy Hydrographic Office during World War II. At that
time, the Hydrographic Office was a macho organization mainly engaged in
making and printing navigation charts. They were not quite sure what they were
doing with a small group of mostly biological oceanographers led by a woman.
But they underestimated the powerful natural force that is Mary Sears. That tiny
Oceanographic Unit soon became a Division, and finally the entire Hydrographic
Office evolved into the Naval Oceanographic Office, headed by an admiral with
the proud title of Oceanographer of the Navy.
At Woods Hole, summer studies of scientific and technical problems are as
common as seagulls, mainly because the National Academy of Sciences makes its
summer headquarters there. But the most important summer study ever held was
convened in the mid-1950s by Columbus Iselin, the director of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution. It was called Project Nobska, after the lighthouse just
east of the village, and it was attended by a mixed group of Naval officers, physi-
cists, engineers and oceanographers. They concluded that it should be possible
for a nuclear-powered submarine to carry, and to launch from well below the sea
surface, a battery of long-range, inertially-guided ballistic missiles, provided these
missiles were not too large and were propelled by solid state fuels. Out of this
study came the Polaris submarines, and later, their Russian opposite numbers,
that were able to roam at will, with little fear of detection, deep within the
oceans. Because they are nearly invulnerable and are capable of submerged oper-
ation for months on end, the Polaris submarines and their successors, with their
terrible weapons, have probably more to do with keeping the peace between the
Soviet Union and the United States in the past 20 years than all the diplomats
and politicians put together.
5 An Afterword
Every knowledgeable person would agree, I think, that the Oceanographic is a

great institution-indeed, it is a super institution-but there would be much less
agreement about its being the greatest. Since its founding in1930, several other
major, multidisciplinary oceanographic institutions have appeared in North
America and Europe (including the Soviet Union), and the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography has burgeoned mightily. Like Avis and Hertz, Scripps and Woods
Hole each try hard to keep from being No.2. The tension thereby created has
been healthy for both of them. Fortunately, the Federal Government seems to
feel an obligation to keep the two institutions on an even footing. Every good
thing that happens to Woods Hole eventually comes to Scripps and vice versa.
Many scientists at each Institution feel equally at home in La Jolla and at Woods
Hole. The comradeshipg and mutual respect that has grown among these staff
members is one of the happiest outcomes of these 50 years.
References
I. Lillie, F. R. 1944. The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. Chap. 9,

pp. 177-191 and Appendix IX A3 and IX A4, pp. 267-269, Univ. Chicago
Press, Chicago.
2. Cochrane, R. G. 1978. The National Academy of Sciences, the first hundred
years, 1863-1963. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., p. 499.
3. National Academy of Sciences. 1929. Report of the Committee on Ocean-
ography, on the scope, problems and economic importance of oceanography
on the present situation in America and on the handicaps to development,
with suggested remedies, by Henry B. Bigelow. National Academy of
Sciences, Washington, D. C., 164 pp. (mimeographed).
4. Bigelow, H. B. 1948. Dr. Lillie and the founding of the Woods Hole Ocean-
ographic Institution. Address at Lillie Memorial Meeting, Woods Hole, April
11,1948. BioI. Bull. 95(2),157-158.
5. Bigelow, H. B. and Welsh, W. W. 1925. Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. Bull.
U. S. Bur. Fish., 40(1),1-567.
Bigelow, H. B. 1926. Plankton of the offshore waters of the Gulf of Maine.
Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., 40(2), 1-509.
Bigelow, H. B. 1927. Physical oceanography of the Gulf of Maine. Bull. U.S.
Bur. Fish. 40(2), 511-1027.
6. Revelle, R. 1978. Columbus O'Donnell Iselin, II (1904-1971). Yearbook
Amer. Phil. Soc., 1977,61-71.
7. Graham, M. 1968. Henry Bryant Bigelow (3 October 1879 -II December
1967). Deep-Sea Res. 15, 124-132.
gA poignant demonstration of this comradeship occurred in March, 1960. The Woods Hole
ship Crawford had come into port from a foreign cruise with its then-customary load of rum
and other beverages, in addition to the usual complement of scientists, crew members, sam-
ples, instruments and records. It was cleared by customs inspectors from New Beford, but
on Sunday morning, while the contraband was being unloaded during local church services,
10 customs agents suddently swooped down upon the ship and impounded a vast quantity
of liquor (26). A message was immediately sent to Scripps (and presumably to Lamont
and elsewhere) telling of the catastrophe. The Scripps vessels then at sea were warned in
good time.
24 R. Revelle
8. Bigelow, H. B. 1964. Memories of a long and active life. Cosmos Press, Cam-
bridge, Mass., 41 pp.
9. Worthington, L. V. 1976. On the North Atlantic circulation. Johns Hopkins
Oceanographic Studies, No.6, 110 pp.
10. Stommel, H. 1948. The westward intensification of wind-driven ocean cur-
rents. Trans. Am. Geophys. Un., 29, 202-206.
II. Stommel, H. and Arons, A. B. 1960. On the abyssal circulation of the world
ocean. Deep-Sea Res., 6,146-154,217-233.
12. Stommel, H. 1965. The Gulf Stream: a physical and dynamical description.
Univ. California Press, Berkeley, p. 178.
13. Schlee, S. 1973. The edge of an unfamiliar world, a history of oceanography.
New York, E. P. Dutton and Company, pp. 189-193.
14. MODE Group. 1978. Mid-Ocean Dynamic Experiment. Deep-Sea Res., 25,
859-910.
IS. Tapley, B. D., Born, G. H., Hagar, H. H., Lorell, J., Parke, M. E., Diamante,
J. M., Douglas, B. C., Goad, C. C., Kolenkiewicz, R., Marsh, J. G., Martin,
C. F., Smith, S. L., III, Townsend, W. F., Whitehead, J. A., Byrne, H. M.,
Fedor, L. S., Hammond, D. C., and Mognard, N. M. 1979. Seasat altimeter
calibration: initial results. Science, 204 (4400), 1410-1412.
16. Munk, W. and Wunsch, C. 1979. Ocean-acoustic tomography, a scheme for
large-scale monitoring. Deep-Sea Res., 26, 123-161.
16a.Von Arx, W. S. 1966. Level surface profiles across the Puerto Rico Trench.
Science, 154, 1651-1684.
17. Schevill, W. E. and Watkins, W. A. 1976. Animal sounds. Ann. Rep. Woods
Hole Oceanog. Inst., 15-16.
18. Maxwell, A. E., Von Herzen, R. P., Andrews, J. E., Boyce, R. E., Milow,
E. D., Hsu, K. J., Percival, S. F., and Saito, T. 1970. Shipboard site reports
covering Leg 3 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel, Glomar Challenger,
Dakar, Senegal to Rio de Janeiro, December 1968 to January 1969. Initial
Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, Wash., D. C., U. S. Government
Printing Office, 3, p. 8.
19. Maxwell, A. E., Von Herzen, R. P., Hsu, K. J., Andrews, J. E., Saito, T.,
Percival, S. F., Milow, E. D., and Boyce, R. E. 1970. Deep sea drilling in
the South Atlantic. Science, 168(3935), 1047-1059.
20. Behrman, D. 1969. The new world of the oceans. Little Brown and Co.,
Boston and Toronto, 290, 260-361.
21. Degens, E. T. and Ross, D. A. 1967. Hot brines and heavy metals in the
Red Sea. Oceanus, June 1967.
Degens, E. T. and Ross, D. A. (editors). 1969. Hot brines and recent heavy
metal deposits in the Red Sea. Springer-Verlag, New York, 600 pp.
22. Kerr, R. A. 1978. Seawater and the ocean crust: the hot and cold of it.
Science, 200(4346), 1138-1141,1187.
23. Welham, J. A. and Craig, H. 1979. Methane and hydrogen in East Pacific
Rise hydrothermal fluids. Geophysical Research Letters, 829-831.
24. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 1977. Personnel as of 31 December
1976. Ann. Rept., 1976, Appendix II, 46-55.
25. Morse, R. W. 1978. Dean's Report. In: Steele, J. H., The Director's Forty-
Ninth Annual Report to the Members and Trustees, Woods Hole Ocean-
ographic Institution, 1-13.
26. Schlee, S. 1978. On almost any wind, the saga of the Oceanographic Re-
search Vessel Atlantis. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, pp. 278-
279.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
An Expanding Influence
George E.R. Deacon
For as long as most of us can remember Woods Hole has looked out across science
as well as the ocean. Henry Bigelow, whose penetrating study of the scope, prob-
lems, and economic importance of oceanography helped to found the new Insti-
tution, emphasized the value of interdisciplinary and international studies, and
promised that American activity would have world-wide significance. He encour-
aged exchanges with other laboratories, maintaining what has been affectionate-
ly described as an open-door policy; when Mary Sears edited the 1955 volume
commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Institution
she collected half the papers from overseas scientists.
1 The Early Years
One of the earliest ventures to capture international attention was the provision
of scientific equipment for the Nautilus submarine expedition to the Arctic in
1931 under the command of Sir Hubert Wilkins. Harald U. Sverdrup was scien-
tific leader, and Floyd M. Soule (afterwards at Woods Hole while oceanographer
for the International Ice Patrol) was magnetician and assistant oceanographer.
Their farthest north was 81 0 50', north of Spitzbergen, but the temperature and
salinity measurements and echo soundings proved a useful addition to previous
work. The Yening Meinesz gravity meter and some of the deep-sea thermometers
were donated to the Geophysical Institute at Bergen; the thermometers were af-
terwards used on the 1932-34 Norwegian Thorshavn expeditions to the Antarctic
Ocean. The building ofthe Atlantis in Copenhagen in 1930-1931, and her voyage
across the Atlantic Ocean under Columbus Iselin was another head-line activity.
26 G. E. R. Deacon
We are fortunate in having several of the ship's company still with us, among
them Daniel Merriman, George Clarke and Raymond Montgomery, all makers
and teachers of oceanographic history.
The early work at the Institution had strong international links, particularly
that of Carl Rossby, who while building up the new department of meteorology
at MIT, found the Institution a congenial environment for his systematic efforts
to introduce the new progressive methods of experimental fluid mechanics
into oceanography as well as meteorology. He brought to the Institution a great
store of experience gained from V. Bjerknes and the Geophysical Institute in
Bergen. His studies of atmospheric and oceanic turbulence, and, with Raymond
Montgomery, on the frictional relationships between wind and currents, spread
growing realism in new approaches to physical oceanography throughout the
world. Even after he made his home in Stockholm in 1949 he used to make ex-
tended visits to work at Woods Hole, and is remembered here with great af-
fection. The advances made by Clarke, Iselin, Rakestraw, Redfield, Seiwell,
Stetson and Waksman also attracted well-known visiting workers from abroad.
Bigelow's studies of the Gulf of Maine had already led to co-operation with
Canadian scientists and to a continuing friendship with A. G. Huntsman, for
many years Chairman of the Biological Board of Canada; he had friendly contacts
with many leading European marine biologists and fishery scientists. (The Atlan-
tis made eel tows for Johannes Schmidt.) He gave an early account of the new
Woods Hole laboratory when he attended the International Council for the Ex-
ploration of the Sea in 1931, as representative of the North American Fisheries
Investigations. As scientific adviser to the International North Atlantic Ice Patrol
he took an active part in planning the oceanographic programs, particularly in
encouraging the application of the hydrodynamic principles used so effectively
by J. W. Sandstrom on the Canadian Fisheries Expedition, 1914-15. Floyd M.
Soule and E. H. Smith, senior officers in the Patrol, had facilities in the Insti-
tution for analyzing their data, and Smith was Director from 1950 to 1956. Pro-
cessing of continuous recordings of surface temperature made from merchant
ships was a promising activity. Phil E. Church, covering the western half of the
North Atlantic, found warm water of the Gulf Stream and evidence of tempo-
rary migrations of the current, an early indication of the complexity that proved
so important later on.
After settling down, theAtlantis looked farther afield, working sections across
the Gulf Stream from Nova Scotia to Bermuda, and three surveys of the Carib-
bean Sea in co-operation with the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory. The re-
sults, including Iselin's study of the Gulf Stream, and A. E. Parr's investigation
of the life history and distribution of Sargassum weed, aroused very wide inter-
est. During the same period the Institution was adding to world interest in other
aspects of marine science, including marine bacteriology, and making systematic
studies of the waters, plankton and fishes of the coastal region. Among the pro-
jects helped were Kurt Buch's studies of carbon dioxide equilibrium, Charles Pig-
got's development of a deep-sea corer, Henry Stetson's studies of marine sedi-
ments, Maurice Ewing's pioneering in underwater seismic exploration and Athel-
stan Spilhaus's development of the bathythermograph. The sampling reliability
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: An Expanding Influence 27
of plankton nets was improved: B. B. Leavitt pioneered quantitative studies of
the vertical distribution of the deep zooplankton and developed a release to
open and close nets at particular depths. The Institution gave valuable help to
the Bermuda Biological Station.
2 The War Years
During the war the Institution's work was concentrated on defense problems
such as temperature structure in relation to underwater explosions, sound scat-
tering, noise made by marine animals, and anti-fouling research. It made a major
contribution to the war effort, particularly to the success of submarine and anti-
submarine warfare. The wartime demands for more precise information about
the sea led to rapid expansion of staff and facilities and to widening co-operation;
many of the visiting scientists from defense laboratories and industry, new to
marine research, gained valuable experience from men well steeped in it. They
included visitors from allied countries as well as nationals.
3 Post-war Activity
Some of the post-war programs emerged from the wartime studies, taking advan-
tage of the recent progress and new facilities. Fritz Fugiister found evidence of
variability in the Gulf Stream in the accumulated bathythermograph slides. A
rocket-range survey led to profitable exploration of the ocean south of Bermuda.
Some 40 members of the Institution's staff were concerned in one way or an-
other with studies of the possible effects of atomic testing on the marine environ-
ment. Six months survey of the Mediterranean Sea included studies of phyto-
plankton productivity as well as hydrography and mapping the sea floor. One of
the most notable and wide-reaching consequences was the emergence of a strong
team devoted to underwater acoustics under Brackett Hersey. Other striking de-
velopments, less directly traceable to the war-time researches but rising from the
enlarged staff and capabilities, soon followed.
4 The Past Thirty Years
Henry Stommel's (1948) reasoning on the westward intensification of wind-

driven currents proved to be a remarkable growing point, attracting the attention
of experts in fluid mechanics all over the world. It was followed by a notable era
of progress in the study of the combined effects of wind-stress and density pat-
terns, and of the increasing effect of the earth's rotation with latitude. New ob-
servations of the complexity and variability of the Gulf Stream, and the first
multiple ship survey Operation Cabot in 1950, led to widespread investigation of
current meandering and the formation of eddies. Experiments with rotating
models of oceans and geometrically simple basins helped in the development of
28 G. E. R. Deacon
theoretical models, and experiments with stratified fluids suggested new factors
likely to influence mixing and layering. The physics of the ocean was linked with
that of the atmosphere, and measurements of vertical exchanges of heat and
water made during Woods Hole ship and aircraft expeditions became the pri-
mary source of material for air-sea interaction studies. The development of radi-
ation thermometry from aircraft, affording unique opportunities for synoptic
study of extensive areas, was another landmark. Joanne Malkus, dedicating an
account of large-scale interactions to Columbus Iselin, wrote "His efforts have
provided a stimulating atmosphere of broad inquiry into the earth sciences and a
group of lively and productive interacting colleagues without whose experience
and participation such an ambitious endeavor could not have been undertaken."
The facilities provided by the Aries in 1959-60 for John Swallow and James
Crease from the U. K. to co-operate with Woods Hole scientists in tracking
neutrally-buoyant floats drifting with the currents at depths of 2,000 and
4,000 m in the ocean north of Bermuda, demonstrated the remarkable variabili-
ty of deep-water movements, and began to indicate that water transport over
long distances might have to be regarded as the resultant of a succession of rela-
tively fast eddy-like circulations 100-300 km across. The Institution then began
its ambitious development and deployment of moored current meters to obtain
continuous recordings at all depths. Experience gained from studies of tensions
in mooring lines, testing of components, experiments with buoys, laying and re-
covery techniques, acoustic releases and methods of processing the records, was
shared immediately with other laboratories, so that collective progress was re-
markably rapid. The Institution went on to foster the development of new
methods of float-following using the deep sound channel, and new techniques
for measuring vertical movement. It also investigated the possibilities of satel-
lite tracking.
Extensive ocean surveys in the Indian and Pacific oceans as well as the Atlan-
tic Ocean provided basic data for studies of ocean circulation, of the distant
Somali, Kuroshio and equatorial currents, as well as the Gulf Stream, Greenland
and Labrador currents nearer home. The Institution's Atlantic and Mediterrane-
an atlases are standard works of reference. Continual refmement of measuring
techniques, using thermometers with very open scales, and electrical-conductivity
salinometers added to the potentialities of the data and together with current-
measuring skills they played an obvious part in raising the world standards, and
allowed the Institution to make very effective contributions to recent inter-
national programs such as MODE, POLYMODE and GEOSECS.
Biological studies at the Institution, including identification of species, their
physiology, behavior and distribution have done much to extend our knowledge
of the marine plants and animals. Henry Bigelow'S studies of the Gulf of Maine
and Selman Waksman's pioneering work on marine bacteria have grown, in close
collaboration with physicists and chemists, into world-wide ecological studies
and a rapidly developing effort in marine microbiology, which can be seen as a
spearhead in world-wide determination to substitute the benefits of aquaculture
for the dangers of pollution. It is a far cry from the few who laid the foundations
50 years ago to today's large environmental systems and aquaculture teams, but
there seems to have been a continuous thread of purpose and endeavor. Compa-
rable growth in marine chemistry from the early work of Rakestraw and Red-
field has carried the Institution to a leading position in inorganic and organic
geochemistry. It has played an important part in the planning and execution of
the co-operative Geochemical Sections Study, a new world-wide effort to gain
more understanding of the formation, transport and mixing of water masses in
the ocean, and the probable path of chemicals, including wastes, present or intro-
duced into the ocean. Studies of interactions between the water and sediments
at the bottom of the sea have brought results of universal interest, those of the
anaerobic conditions in the Black Sea and the "hot holes" in the Red Sea being
particularly exciting. Geophysics like the other sciences has grown in collabo-
ration with other laboratories at home and abroad. After the pre-war Atlantis
was used to help Piggot, Stetson and Ewing, Hersey's team extended the practi-
cability and applications of underwater acoustic and seismic reflection tech-
niques, until the Institution became one of the main centers of progress in
geophysics. It has published a wealth of information about the topography,
transport and deposition processes on continental margins and the deep-sea floor
throughout the world. It takes an active part in the Deep Sea Drilling Project and
in contemporary research on ocean structure, continental movements and past
climates and glaciations.
Fruitful collaboration between Woods Hole scientists and engineers has given
the world many new oceanographic tools such as long-life neutrally buoyant
floats tracked from shore stations or moored buoys, methods of measuring verti-
cal as well as horizontal water movement, convenient instruments like the geo-
magnetic electrokinetograph, sophisticated tools like the vector-averaging cur-
rent meter and continually improving temperature, conductivity and depth re-
corders. The deep-submarine research program, especially theAlvin has furthered
most aspects of marine science ranging from microbiology to ocean structure,
and compelled world-wide interest. Every new wonder she sees-like the hydro-
thermal vents and their remarkable fauna in the Galapagos Rift-is a curtain-
raiser.
5 Education
One of the main difficulties that faced the new Institution 50 years ago was the
scarcity of marine scientists. Now Woods Hole trained people are found working
almost everywhere. The Institution has always been a good place to learn. Al-
though incomers, especially the large influx during the war years, seem to have
found oceanography something to be picked up by apprenticeship rather than
learnt in formal courses, many of them are now well known for their achieve-
ments a . Continuing growth led inevitably to more organized educational facili-
ties. By 1956 there was an increased budget for training and lecturers; 14 visitors
aOne of the most remarkable is A. H. Woodcock who, starting as an assistant to Iselin in the
very early days, has been pUblishing penetrating studies of everyday things for the past 40
years. He finds sermons in soaring seagulls, salt spray and rain drops.
30 G. E. R. Deacon
from overseas had grants and fellowships; formal and informal seminars became
more frequent, and there were regular meetings with the ocean-circulation group
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There were also more uni-
versity affiliations. By 1960 there was a formal summer course in geophysical
fluid dynamics which continues as an influential annual event with a majority of
participants from other laboratories, many of them overseas. Visiting workers,
amounting to more than a third of the payroll in summer, found remarkable op-
portunities for discussing their work with leading scientists. By 1964 the annual
Collected Reprints, a fair summary of the Institution's learning, had to expand
into two volumes.
Continuing conviction that research and education belong together led in
1966 to a formal arrangement with MIT for a joint Ph.D. degree course. This
was followed by further special agreements for co-operative graduate study with
Harvard, Brown and Yale universities, and, for special marine topics, the Insti-
tution can provide its own courses and degree. The Institution has always had a
stimulating intellectual atmosphere, and it was, no doubt, the continuing progress
and valuable new facilities that prompted the late W. Van Alan Clark when,
opening the Clark Laboratory, to say "If you want to plan for the future, plant
men and women in an environment where they can grow and bear fruit for the
common good."
6 The Future
The world must continue to look to enterprising marine laboratories. Columbus

Iselin, at the 25th Woods Hole Anniversary, said "only during the past year have
most of us begun to realize that 25 years from now the Institution and science
of oceanography will still be in their infancy" and "it has become clear that the
prospects are exciting." We have learned much in those 25 years, and our grow-
ing understanding of what goes on in the ocean shows that our continuing re-
searches do much towards meeting the requirements of advancing technology
and the needs of our growing populations to make fuller and better use of the
sea. But although we are making positive contributions to immediate problems,
and more of our scientists want to be involved in such profitable activity, there
is continuing need for long-term research, which tends to be labelled "academic"
and is not easily funded. There is another danger. Paul Fye has repeatedly em-
phasized that we have to face growing hindrance and restrictions in widening off-
shore areas of national jurisdiction, well beyond the continental shelf, even
though our object is demonstrably basic study for the common good. It is to be
hoped that it turns out to be only a growing-pain.
I must conclude my talk by emphasizing that the expanding influence of
Woods Hole has been due to outstanding men and women working in partner-
ship. Some of its contributions to international programs sometimes show the
mark of individuals, but it is clearly the collective experience and capabilities of
the Institution, built up over the years, that has such promise for the future.
Acknowledgments
My brief essay is based mainly on impressions gained when I was Director of a

smaller U. K. marine laboratory often co-operating with Woods Hole. I have also
used the Woods Hole Annual Reports, the annual Bibliographies of Reports and
commemorative articles in Oceanus, especially vols. 1 and 6, and gratefully
acknowledge much help received from Mary Sears, editor of the proceedings.
References
Iselin, C. O'D. 1956. Woods Hole Annual Report, p. 10.

Malkus, J. S. 1962. Large-scale interactions. Pages 88-294 of The Sea. vol. 1,
Interscience Publishers.
Clark, W. Van Alan. 1974. Speech at the dedication of the Clark Laboratory,
quoted in a memorial notice. Woods Hole Annual Report 1976. p. 10.
Changing Concepts of the Sea, 1550-1950:
An Urban Perspective
Josef W Konvitz
1 Introduction
Sea myths have always proved to have greater appeal than the realities of com-
mercial and military sea power. When England, France, the Netherlands and
America began to operate commercial and military systems on the North Atlan-
tic in the seventeenth century, the scale of sea power increased rapidly. But
changes in attitudes about the sea and seafaring in the societies responsible for
and benefiting from that increase lagged. In a sense they have never caught up.
America's dependence in the mid-1970s on imported supplies of energy and
on exports of agricultural commodities, mostly seaborne, has been a widely
publicized and highly politicized fact of national life. Yet the nation's involve-
ment is not necessarily a problem per se; what is a problem is the way in which
decisions ranging from Navy procurement to harbor construction are often
made. Today, knowledge of commercial and military maritime affairs circulates
in largely privileged, specialized networks that are opened to the public only
when politicians and journalists initiate investigations, as after a supertanker
disaster. It would seem that knowledge of maritime affairs is specialized because
much of it is highly technical, such as knowledge about disarmament, energy
supplies, unemployment and other topics whose complexities confuse decision-
making in a democracy. The role of specialized professional groups in the di-
rection of maritime affairs has the effect of inhibiting a widespread interest in
and understanding of maritime affairs by the rest of society and government.
And one consequence of this is that the land culture, which includes most of
society and government, conceptualizes and acts upon the maritime world with-
out recognizing how little it actually knows about it. This condition is in fact
Changing Concepts of the Sea, 1550-1950: An Urban Perspective 33
much older than the professional groups active in maritime affairs today, most
of which are less than a century and a half old. The way in which concepts of
the sea have been shaped during the past three centuries and more can be illus-
trated with a closer look at the historical development of port cities.
2 1550-1800
Maritime realities were not easily understood in the early modem era because
philosophical and scientific concepts t~tmade the sea appear foreign and hostile
enjoyed great prestige and authority. People outside the maritime world made
little effort to explain and interpret the expansion of sea power. The great
voyages of discovery of that time barely affected ideas about and attitudes to-
ward the sea, even in an elite culture. Voyages of discovery did little to dispel
the richly textured, highly structured traditional image of the sea as a place
where man ventures at grave peril and whence he returns by the grace of God,
because that image was conditioned by theological and philosophical issues that
were hardly accessible to empirical control. Sources of information about the sea
that were not biased by pre-established philosophical and theological values cir-
culated only among seafaring groups, themselves marginal in social terms, in a
largely oral tradition. Because practical knowledge about the sea was transmitted
orally, because it was applied by relatively few people, and because seafaring
enterprises were small, familial and operated in remote regions, empirical infor-
mation about the sea was not codified and structured according to the intellectu-
al rules and systems that the land culture respected.
The one aspect of early modem European culture to have been profoundly af-
fected by the growth of sea power was city planning (Konvitz 1978). Sixteenth-
century maritime exploitation had been based in Mediterranean cities, most of
which were already well developed by that time; but when initiative in commer-
cial and military affairs passed into the hands of northern Europeans in the
seventeenth century, urban bases in England, France, the Low Countries (with
the exception of Antwerp) and Scandinavia had never before been used to sus-
tain sea power on the new scale. City planning provided a context for Northern
Europeans to express a new, affirmative reliance upon sea power. Because the
planning process involved a variety of approaches to port-city space which would
affect the cost and efficiency of port operations as well as political and social
control over sea power (local merchants or mercantilist state administrators), it
reflected conflicting ideas about how the problems associated with the exercise
and extension of sea power, and with the growth and development of port cities,
might be alleviated. People often arrived at radically different judgments about
the relationship between maritime expansion and city space, while agreeing that
the relationship was critical. The planning process brought forth ideas, sharpened
perspectives and clarified issues that pre-established attitudes toward the. sea
could not have recognized.
It also produced some masterpieces of urban design. In 1607 the City of Am-
sterdam selected "a plan of three rings", composed around three canals encircling
34 J. W. Konvitz
the city's historic core, an enlarged port, and a district for workers. While con-
ceiving the entire area for growth as a complete unit, the city planners designed a
plan that would be constructed in stages, as the city grew. The plan's success lay
in the way in which urban improvements came with an understanding of the
practical needs of those who used the city as a maritime base. In Amsterdam the
diverse activities of the port city were enclosed within a single form, including
both the activities and their connections. Amsterdam's extended waterfront also
offered the city's residents multiple opportunities to witness maritime activities
as a part of everyday life. Even if such activities were only incidental to their
own occupations, they could have no illusions about the basis for the city's
growth and the reasons for its appearance. This access to 'and familiarity with
waterways encouraged Amsterdamers, like Dutchmen in other cities and like
Venetians as well, to develop a sense of play about their environment. At a time
when no one visited the seashore for pleasure, they made the city's waterways
into a public arena for social life and for the aesthetic enhancement of the city's
domestic architecture. In Amsterdam the waterfront developed as a civilized and
domesticated space, while at the same time fulfilling the primary economic and
political goals that had justified constructing a city as waterscape in the first
place (Konvitz 1978, pp. 36-37).
Europeans from the Russo-Swedish frontier to the Mediterranean coast of
France had trouble translating the Dutch record into planning formulae that
were as successful, but nevertheless, they wrestled with the problems of sea
power in the spatial terms of the city planning process with great tenacity and
inventiveness. But in the eighteenth century, the spatial aspect of port cities no
longer seemed relevant to the success of maritime affairs. Political and economic
theory, creative writing and the fme arts began to articulate the meanings of the
sea and the issues of sea power in traditional cultural modes. The spatial aspect
of port cities no longer seemed relevant to the success of maritime enterprise.
Planners projects for city space became rhetorical, academic exercises in monu-
mentality and impracticality. When that happened, responsibility for the urban
setting for building, outfitting and coordinating the movements of large fleets of
ships passed from the hands of planners into the hands of engineers.
3 The Nineteenth Century
The decline of port-city planning in the eighteenth century should not be inter-
preted to mean that culture and society evolved a more comprehensive and co-
herent understanding of the sea. On the contrary, artists, theoreticians and
writers often continued to simplify and stereotype the maritime world and what
reliance upon sea power involved, albeit with greater sophistication. The public
still saw the sea as a vast, magnificent, obscure space, of which man ought to be
afraid (LoomiS 1978). The situation of the shipwreck completely met the needs
of the Romantic imagination, for it allowed writers and artists to explore the
meaning of life in terms of crisis. Turner had grown up near London's docks,
and Constable spent a month on a merchant ship, making 130 sketches of ships
and weather conditions, but the public ready to acquire and appreciate realistic
paintings of ships at sea and of their ports of call was as small as the number of
artists capable of executing such works. When Gericault painted "The Raft of
the Medusa," he interviewed survivors, reconstructed a raft in his studio, and
collected bodies from the morgue. Using such motifs as drifting on the waste
ocean, the moment of shipwreck, the recognition of survivors, and the lessons
learned by castaways, Romantics explored the meaning of being at sea as a
supremely illuminating trial. This imagery was carried inland in the nineteenth
century as cities themselves were imagined to be threatening oceans of humanity,
in whose midst the individualloses his way, and even his identity (Landow 1972).
If anything, the changes effected in the structure of port cities in the nine-
teenth century only made the land culture's observation and appreciation of
maritime affairs more difficult. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, ware-
houses, docks and the movement of men, ships, and cargoes were all close at
hand to the pedestrian in the city center, but by the middle of the century, the
intimacy between port-city dweller and the activity of the port was destroyed.
As shipping increased, the scale of the land-based infrastructure that took shape
alongSide the port increased even more, thanks to the railroad. Railroads made
possible the construction of port facilities which could be isolated physically and
socially from the rest of the city, and even where the port came close to the city
center, the railroad's ribbons of steel surgically severed the waterfront from the
pUblic.
No one has described the mental confusion and ignorance caused by the
spatial isolation of the busy port better than H. M. Tomlinson. Beyond the dingy
platforms of London's Fenchurch Street Station, Tomlinson wrote,
... the metal track which contracts into the murk is the road to China,
though that is, perhaps, the last place you would guess to be at the end of it.
The train runs over a wilderness of tiles, a grey plateau of bare slate and rock.
The train roars unexpectedly over a viaduct, and below is a deep hollow filled
with light, with a surprise of ships ... The crust of roofs ends abruptly in a
country which is a complexity of gasometers, canals, railway junctions ...
The journey ends, usually in the rain, among iron sheds that are topped on
the far side by the rigging and smoke-stacks of great liners. What we remem-
ber of such a day is that ... those ships were phantom and monstrous. They
seemed on too great a scale to be within human control. We felt diminished
and a little fearful, as among the looming urgencies of a dream. The forms
were gigantic but vague, and they were seen in a smother of the elements;
and their sounds, deep and mournful, were like the warnings of something
alien, yet without form, which we knew was adverse (Tomlinson 1921,
pp.20-23).
In the nineteenth century, specialization of functions and the railroad com-

bined to produce two separate ports for the public, the commercial port where it
ventured only on business, or to begin or end a journey, which was viewed as an
36 J. W. Konvitz
alien environment, and the seaside resort, where it ventured only for pleasure. As
Tomlinson commented in the 1920s, it is easier to see the Riviera in winter than
the somber and impressive show of London and its river from Gallions Reach at
sunset. The playful use of seaport space had previously included the observation
of commercial shipping activities by city residents in the city center; it became
limited to the observation by city residents of each other on crowded resort
promenades and beaches, or of the sea itself from places far removed from com-
mercial harbors. Resort towns, specializing in different social sets and classes,
closely replicated the social life of the great cities (Gilbert 1939). Seaside resorts
began as watering-places where doctors could send their patients in need of a
change of regime and climate; as such, Margate and Scarborough belonged to the
same category of eighteenth-century towns as Tunbridge Wells and Bath. Medical
advice occaSionally sanctioned limited swimming and walking along the seaside,
activities that were normally prohibited or discouraged. In the nineteenth cen-
tury, these and other resorts such as Blackpool, Southport, Nice, Cannes, Palm
Beach and Asbury Park grew as rapidly and unpredictably as the great industrial
and mercantile centers where their residents and visitors made their money. In-
novations such as long weekend and annual vacations, and a retirement age, en-
couraged members of every social stratum to seek the pleasures of the season ac-
cording to intense seasonal and generational rhythms. Being at the seaside,
however, still did not bring people into contact with the sea: swimming did not
become popular until sport competition, and military and educational programs,
made it so in this century. Meanwhile, as port cities grew, the casual use of the
waterfront or of the waterway as a practical element in a city's transport system
became increasingly distasteful as a waste of time and energy that could be bet-
ter spent in a tunnel or on a bridge: by the 1960s hardly a single port city in the
western world still offered boat travel to its residents as an everyday means of
travel. Henri Prost, winner of an international architectural competition early in
the twentieth century for a planned enlargement of Antwerp, included a port-
side structure of railroads and docks with a park promenade above, supported on
concrete pillars, to bring pedestrians within easy sight of commercial port activi-
ty. In the 1930s Prost composed a farsighted regional plan for the Var depart-
ment in southern France that interwove recreational and commercial uses of,
and provided for visual and physical access to the waterfront. But his plans had
little impact then or subsequently.
The growth of the modern port city and the dependence of industrial civili-
zation on the smooth operation of mercantile commerce together facilitated the
absorption of the maritime world into the nation-state's economic and political
system. Because the land culture had represented the maritime world as alien
and dangerous, the increased leverage of the industrial state over the maritime
world promised to make the seas safer for civilization: one set of mythical, ro-
mantic views was exchanged for another. Around the middle of the nineteenth
century many governments enacted legislation regulating such diverse aspects of
the maritime world as standards for officers, working conditions for seamen and
vessel seaworthiness. As shipping passed from a highly decentralized, small-scale
individualistic type of organization owned locally in the seacoast regions, into a

highly centralized, rationalized, and concentrated type owned by a corporation,
the legal framework governing sea transport evolved, no doubt making it safe
and more comfortable. These efforts culminated in the three international
safety conferences held in 1913-14, 1929 and 1948, which were matched on the
commercial scene by the formation of shipping conferences of owners which
produced de facto cartels on the major shipping routes. In fact, the political re-
lations between port cities and centralized government evolved along lines that
reflected and reinforced this redistribution of control over the maritime world.
liverpool, Marseille, Genoa, Naples, Barcelona, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Hamburg
all discovered that their growth was increaSingly a function of national politics in
an industrial-imperial age. In order to produce policies favorable to their inter-
ests, port cities were obliged to make political alliances within the framework of
the nation-state that had coopted their privileges.
4 The Twentieth Century
The land culture in the modem era conceptualizes and acts upon the maritime
world without recognizing how little it actually knows about the conditions the
sea imposes on maritime affairs, as even the evolution of passenger ship design il-
lustrates. Until the late nineteenth century, whether at sea under sail or steam
propulsion, travelers endured crowded, unventilated rooms, bad water, unpalat-
able food, upsetting motions, maddening noises and strongly disagreeable odors.
When changes in steel technology made increases in the size and speed of ships
possible, shipping companies and ship builders redesigned the interior spaces, to
exploit the prejudices and fears of passengers for commercial advantage. Electric
lights came on board in the l880s to show off the glorious panelling and carving
and plush upholstery that made salons, smoke rooms, dining rooms and state-
rooms resemble nothing so much as the houses and hotels the well-heeled traveler
had left on land. Passengers in steerage, of course, could still experience the sea
in more elemental terms. As builders and owners vied to outdo each other, they
turned to the best designers on land. Charles Mewes and Arthur Davis, creators
of the Ritz hotels, designed the great HAPAG ships. In 1922, addressing the
Royal Institute of British Architects, Davis said, " ... the people who use ships
... want to forget when they are on vessels that they are on a ship at all ... If
we could get ships to look inside like ships, and get people to enjoy the sea, it
would be a very good thing; but all we can do, as things are, is to give them gi-
gantic floating hotels (Maxtone-Graham 1972, pp. 113, 117)." The most ex-
treme case of an unseaworthy interior was that of the Queen Mary, whose de-
signers had omitted railings from the corridors and dining tables on the as-
sumption that such a large ship did not need them; they were installed after
25,000 dishes were broken in a single season. By the late 1920s, ship deSign,
especially in France, began to change: in 1927 lie de France broke with conven-
tional taste and embraced the avant-grande; in 1935 Orion, a P & 0 liner, made
38 J. W. Konvitz
the sight of the sea accessible to the public rooms; and the Normandie, launched
in 1934, combined the most thoroughly researched hull before Cox's United
States with a deck design that emphasized the presence of the sea. The Nor-
mandie's tragic end, however, is a reminder of what can happen when people
who do not know how to run a ship take charge of it as if it were a building.
That is what designers had been doing, however, since the 1870s. Le Corbusier
was right to study the exterior design of a liner as a source of a machine for liv-
ing; but Le Corbusier made a mistake when he thought that the design of liners
was entirely submitted to engineering and science. The Normandie came closest
to expressing engineering in aesthetic terms, but its third funnel was nonetheless
a dummy, erected because the public expected three on a great ship. Designers
numbered, shaped, spaced and raked smokestacks with only a slight functional
basis; sterns, bows, hulls, windows and superstructures were all abused in the
same way. The public's impression of what a ship should look like had little to
do with what makes a vessel seaworthy (Braynard 1966).
Today museums of art that proudly display seventeenth-century marinescapes
scorn contemporary paintings of tankers, liners and aircraft carriers that are as
well conceived and executed. Modern paintings in art museums that represent
harbors, ships and the sea are usually by artists such as Dufy, Marquet, Boudin
or Monet, who are not thought of as marine artists, and in whose works marine
elements appear fortuitously. In the past century several important persons who
have combined professional knowledge of the maritime world with successful
careers as writers have also suffered from critical distinctions which limit the
maritime genre to a specialized audience. The fame of Samuel Eliot Morison was
exceptional. Library holdings of others are deplorably thin: who knows any-
thing much about Sir James Thurfield (1840-1923), co-founder of the Times
Literary Supplement, confidant of successive First Lords, publicizer of Mahan;
his son Henry (1882-1963), naval correspondent for the Times and editor of
Brassey's Naval Annual; Louis Lacroix (1877-1958), commander of sailing ships
at age 26, author of a dozen books and recipient of a prize awarded by the
Academie Franryaise; Sir Clements Markham (1830-1916), explorer, secretary of
the Royal Geographical Society, author of over fifty books; Henry Dorling
(1883-1968), commander of the Harwich destroyer forces in the First, and press
officer for Admiral Cunningham in the Second World War, and author of several
books about warfare at sea; or about Alain Bompard, physician, sailor and adven-
turer whose books virtually created the field of survival medicine in France?
These individuals have been awarded honors, to be sure; but on the whole their
peculiar ability to write brilliantly about the maritime world has not provided
them with a lasting audience and reputation (Kemp 1976).
Oceanographers understand that the seas are whole, divided only by land
masses; but the societies on land treat the seas as if they are divisible. And as the
seas are divided up, so are the groups competing for access to the seas increasing-
lyat odds with each other (Ketchum 1972, Wenk 1974). Whether government,
which has taken over so much of the policy making in both maritime and urban
affairs, can sort out the issues affecting both, is a dubious matter. Increasingly,
changes in shipping technology and the demographic, social and economic de-
velopment of urbanized coastal regions have produced situations of conflict. The
expansion of container ports and of offshore oil extraction and processing facili-
ties, for example, is necessary in order to meet the needs of very large and com-
plex economies that evolve without taking the demands of their development on
shipping technology and port expansion into account. To adjudicate between
competing claims on coastal space, various technology assessments are now com-
monly required. These are themselves costly, and produce delays in the execution
of projects which are also inflationary. There are other side effects that have
gone unnoticed: environmental impact statements encourage the belief that
secondary growth problems (population expansion, land use changes, pollution,
etc.) are uncontrollable, unpredictable and often undesirable. Because planning
mechanisms are much less sophisticated and much more localized in the United
States than they are in many European countries, or than the operations of
many maritime-oriented corporations, it has become easier in America to limit
the scale of new port projects than to develop new spatial forms and planning
concepts appropriate for coastal growth. Studies of onshore development related
to offshore exploitation has revealed "an expanding information gap between
planners, private industry and the public (Marcus and Pattison 1978, p. 4)."
Social and economic growth in the land economy, and the adaptation of mari-
time technology to keep pace with that growth, occur at a faster rate than govern-
ment and planning can respond to. Efforts to slow growth and adaptation down
to the pace of government are potentially counter-productive, but are likely to
continue as long as efforts to impose objective criteria on coastal development
appear rational.
Lack of national goals and a fragmentation of power are frequently cited in
government studies of government; more than forty federal organizations deal
with port development, often duplicating each other, often working at cross pur-
poses (D. S. Department of Transportation 1977, U. S. Department of Com-
merce 1978a and b). There is a lack of focus at the federal level, and uncertainty
about whether the ocean is important enough to justify reorganization, because
only a small body of professional interests and experts sees coastal and maritime
issues as autonomous factors, and not merely as dependent variables of land
society development and growth. Given this state of affairs, it seems to me
ill-advised to consider government action, either legislative or executive, as part
of the solution; for it is in fact part of the problem. There must be frank and
honest recognition that conflicts involving coastal space and maritime resources
cannot be satisfactorily adjudicated within a governmental, economic and social
system that was organized to promote and sustain the settlement of the land. As
the response of the French government to the Amoco Cadiz disaster off Brittany
reveals, government will increase its regulation of the maritime world in order to
protect the land from undesirable aspects of maritime exploitation, especially as
that exploitation is itself only a response to the desires and needs of the land
society.
40 J. W. Konvitz
5 Looking Toward the Future
Having come to take the seas for granted, we make demands upon them without
calculating whether maritime technologies and oceanographic science can deliver
the benefits we expect. When Harold Ickes, acting as Secretary of the Interior,
promoted the twelve-mile limit from 1933 until the Truman Proclamations were
issued in 1945, he displayed a complete disregard for the impact such a move
would have on maritime affairs which is typical of modem choices about the
seas. California at that time claimed jurisdiction over offshore oil reserves and
the revenues they would produce. Ickes wanted federal sovereignty for those
waters so that Washington, not Sacramento, would tax and administer the leases.
Lacking legal authority to do that, Ickes sponsored the twelve-mile territorial
limit. In order to solve a problem in federal-state relations to Washington's bene-
fit, Ickes rewrote one part of the international law of the seas (Hollick 1976,
1977). Today the entire law of the sea and existing patterns of maritime exploi-
tation are being reordered simultaneously. In the United States, at least, the
arguments over revisions are no better or more broadly understood inside or out-
side the government than they were thirty years ago. Thus one is disturbed to
find in the growing contemporary literature devoted to marine science, technol-
ogy and policy little recognition of the fact that critical choices over maritime
uses are all too often made on the basis of insufficient knowledge, misapplied
information and irrelevant criteria.
The significance of contemporary developments in maritime affairs cannot be
exaggerated. The rate and scale of change today can be easily grasped. The first
successful traverse of the Northwest Passage from west to east was made in 1940
by the St. Roch, a Canadian police schooner, displacing 323 tons; its voyage real-
ized an ambition that had outlived its original political and economic value dat-
ing from the Renaissance. More recently, in 1969, the Manhattan, an oil tanker
of 150,000 tons, made the same crossing to test the practicality of economic and
political ambitions that were inconceivable in 1940. The Manhattan's transit pro-
voked the Canadians to revise the legal status of the Northwest Passage unilateral-
ly, a foreseen consequence that produced serious diplomatic tensions between
Canada and the United States and restructured Canada's role in the Law of the
Sea negotiations. Paradoxically, now that the dangers of being at sea are suffici-
ently reduced to tempt us all to become weekend watermen we frod that we are
in danger of losing the sea itself; some scientists have begun to wonder whether
the seas are dying.
This situation endows the historical process by which concepts of the sea are
composed with particular relevance. During the last four centuries, cultural and
conceptual barriers have separated the public on land from much direct know-
ledge of the conditions that the sea imposes on the maritime application of tech-
nology, politics and commerce. Until recently, the evolving concepts of the sea
which document the secularization of the sea, its urbanization, and politicization,
have been worked out in the land culture with minimal damage to the sea itself.
The apparent persistence of cultural barriers between land and sea cultures in the
new maritime age is disquieting because choices about the uses of the seas now in-
volve the risk of catastrophe to both civilization and nature. Forhow much longer
can society or the sea survive such misunderstanding of their interdependence?
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this paper was presented to an affiliated society luncheon

sponsored by the Society for the History of Discoveries at the Ninety-Third
Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, in San Francisco in
1978. The interest of the Society, and the critical comments of Douglas Marshall,
Map Librarian at the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan,
and of the participants in the Atlantic Seminar at The Johns Hopkins University,
are gratefully acknowledged. The earlier, longer version, printed in Terrae Incog-
nitae, 11 (1979), lacks the specific urban focus of this paper.
References
Braynard, F. O. 1966. Steamships of the Atlantic seas. In: G. Frere-Cook: Deco-

rative arts of the mariner. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 65-74.
Gilbert, E. W. 1939. The growth of inland and seaside health resorts in England.
Scot. Geogr. Mag., 55,16-34.
Hollick, A. L. 1976. U. S. oceans policy: the Truman proclamations. Virginia J.
Internat. Law, 17,23-55.
Hollick, A. L. 1977. The origins of 200-mile offshore zones. Am. Internat. Law,
71,494-500.
Kemp, P. 1976. The Oxford companion to ships and the sea. Oxford University
Press, London and New York.
Ketchum, B. H., ed. 1972. The water's edge: critical problems of the coastal
zone. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Konvitz, J. W. 1978. Cities and the sea: port city planning in early modern
Europe. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.
Landow, G. P. 1972. Shipwrecked and castaway on the journey of life: An essay
towards a modern iconography. Revue de litterature comparee, 46, 569-98.
Loomis, C. C. 1978. Arctic sublime. In: U. C. Knoepflmacher and G. B. Tenny-
son, Nature and the Victorian imagination. University of California Press,
Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Marcus, P. A., and Pattison, M. L. 1978. Onshore planning for offshore oil and
gas development. Environmental Comment (February 1978).
Maxtone-Graham, J. 1972. The only way to cross. Macmillan, New York, 112-
117.
Tomlinson, H. M. 1921. London River. Cassell, London.
U. S. Department of Commerce. 1978a. Effect of Federal standards of U. S.
public port development. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
U. S. Department of Commerce. 1978b. U. S. Ocean Policy in the 1970s. U. S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.
U. S. Department of Transportation. 1977. Federal port policy in the United
States. U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.
Wenk, E. 1974. The politics of the ocean. Univ. Washington Press, Seattle.
The 1959 Oceanographic Congress: An Informal History
Dael Woljle
The 1950s saw a great upwelling of interest in international cooperation on

oceanographic research. IGY-the International Geophysical Year-brought
many scientists from many countries together for cooperative work. UNESCO's
International Advisory Committee on Marine Sciences (IACOMS) and the Special
Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) of the International Council of Scien-
tific Unions were established and held their first meetings in 1956 and 1957.
Oceanographers from several countries were planning joint studies of the Indian
Ocean. New discoveries of mid-ocean ridges were stimulating much rethinking
about the history of the world's oceans and land masses. It was a good time in-
deed for scientists of all disciplines interested in the oceans to come together to
review progress and to think about future work.
But why should the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) have sponsored and managed the first international oceanographic con-
gress? The answer to that question came from an unlikely source: the Sonoran
and Chihuahuan deserts of the Southwest.
The Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division of AAAS had a strong inter-
est in problems of arid lands. Scientists around the world with similar interests
had no union to arrange international meetings. We discussed the matter with
UNESCO, and together decided to hold an international arid lands conference in
Albuquerque and Socorro, New Mexico in 1955. That meeting turned out to be
a well-attended and scientifically productive conference. AAAS and UNESCO
were both pleased with the outcome. By common consent, we said to each
other "Let's do it again when there is a good opportunity." Oceanography pre-
sented that opportunity.
Discussions within the AAAS Board of Directors, with William Rubey as one
The 1959 Oceanographic Congress: An Informal History 43
of the leaders, discussions with oceanographers and members of the committee
responsible for the International Geophysical Year, and discussions with mem-
bers of SCOR and UNESCO's Advisory Committee all lent support to the idea of
trying to do for oceanography what we had earlier done for arid lands. In the
Spring of 1957, the AAAS Board of Directors voted to convene an international
conference on oceanography in the fall of 1959.
1 Committee on Arrangements
The first major step was to appoint a Committee on Arrangements. We asked

Mary Sears to serve as chairman. We could not have picked more wisely, and I
doubt that anyone could have served more effectively. To work with her, we ap-
pointed Gustaf Arrhenius, John Cushing, Fritz Koczy, Gordon lill, George
Myers, Roger Revelle, Henry Stomrnel, and lionel Walford, and I served as an
ex-officio member.
The committee held its first meeting in August 1957. I did not attend that
meeting, but it must have been an exciting one. The committee threw away the
letter I had written Mary Sears describing the size, cost, duration, and conduct
of the arid lands conference; expanded that more modest proposal into a two-
week long Congress; decided the Congress should be held at the United Nations
Building in New York; blocked out the program that with subsequent refme-
ments was actually followed two years later; and started a world-wide flood of
letters and announcements intended both to arouse interest and to assess the
amount of interest. Later, Dr. Sears wrote me "Our plans are on a more grandi-
ose scale than you contemplated." Indeed they were, but they were on what
proved to be the right scale, and most of the credit for the successful future of
the Congress clearly belongs to the Committee on Arrangements.
2 Help and Support
The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and SCOR both quickly en-
dorsed the planned Congress. UNESCO's Advisory Committee also endorsed the
plan and decided not to sponsor any other meetings for three years so they would
have approximately $15,000 to help defray expenses.
UNESCO and SCOR went beyond endorsement; both agreed to be listed as
cosponsors. In those years I was in Paris from time to time as a consultant to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and on several trips
visited UNESCO to discuss Oceanographic Congress matters. I well remember be-
ing told on one of those visits "UNESCO is delighted to cosponsor the Congress,
as long as you do all the work." Thathad been the arrangement for the arid lands
meeting, and I was glad to continue it; doing the work gives one control.
The committee's correspondence with hundreds of individuals brought much
evidence of interest. AAAS and the National Academy of Sciences wrote to their
44 D. Wolfle
sister organizations in other countries to stimulate their interest. Foreign embas-
sies in Washington, D. C. were informed. The State Department sent a message
to our diplomatic posts in 76 other countries asking that information be dis-
tributed locally, and that assistance be given to anyone requesting a visa to at-
tend the Congress. Significantly, the message added that if a visa was requested
by anyone who for political reasons might not be admissible to the U. S. the re-
quest should not be denied, but the case should be referred promptly to Wash-
ington, D. C. for decision.
The possibility of political difficulties was further eased by the committee's
decision that there would be no resolutions or recommendations; the meeting
would be a purely scientific one for exchange of information and discussion of
scientific problems and discoveries.
3 The Congress Program
By the end of the committee's second meeting, plans for the Congress were well
set. The purpose was defined in these words: " ... the Congress is to provide a
common meeting ground for all sciences concerned with the oceans and their
contained organisms" and it was agreed that "the meeting [WOUld] be limited to
basic rather than applied research."
The Congress was planned to last for two weeks, with two days allotted to
each of five themes that were carefully chosen to facilitate cross-fertilization
among the fields of science. The themes were: History of the Oceans, Popu-
lations of the Sea, The Deep Sea, Boundaries of the Sea, and Cycles of Organic
and Inorganic Substances in the Sea. Each morning, three addresses on that day's
theme would be given in plenary session. Each afternoon there would be several
(usually four) concurrent sessions for submitted papers and further discussion of
particular aspects of the day's theme. Responsibility for selecting and inviting
speakers for the morning sessions was divided among committee members, and
other scientists were appointed as conveners of the afternoon sessions. All
speakers were requested to discuss contemporary advances in the marine sciences
rather than to review earlier work or applied technologies.
During the intervening weekend of the Congress period, the committee
planned to hold field trips, and trips were then arranged to the Lamont Geologi-
cal Observatory, the New York Zoological Garden, and the Fish and Wildlife
Service's Biological Laboratory at New Milford, Connecticut.
Several evening programs were also arranged, including an address by Colum-
bus O'D. Iselin and a ftlm session by Jacques Cousteau.
Remembering the gracious hospitality of international meetings held in
Europe, the committee included a sizable sum for entertainment in its first bud-
get. Arrangements were later made for an opening reception, a celebratory ban-
quet at the end, and several parties in between, including receptions at the
American Museum of Natural History and the Columbia University Faculty Club.
Of the parties, one of the memorable ones was a reception aboard the Lomonosov.
If some who attended have only hazy memories of the occasion they can blame
the liquid refreshments of their generous hosts.

The committee elected Roger Revelle as President of the Congress. He was
our roving ambassador, serving not only on the AAAS committee but also on
SCOR and UNESCO's Advisory Committee. In that triple capacity he kept both
of the other groups informed of plans and helped enlist their cooperation.
Proceedings of the Congress were published in two volumes, both edited by
Mary Sears. The 30 morning addresses were included in a symposium volume
published later by AAAS (Sears 1961). At the time of registration, participants
were given a volume-running over 1000 pages-containing summaries of the af-
ternoon papers in English and an abstract of each in French, German, or Russian
(Sears 1959).
4 Physical Arrangements
A stimulating program is essential for a successful congress, but it is also neces-

sary to have meeting rooms, interpreters, microphones, hotel rooms, a published
program, facilities for duplicating and distributing printed material, and a host of
other supporting services and facilities. Responsibility for all of these matters
was turned over to Dr. Raymond Taylor, my associate on the AAAS staff who
had much experience in managing the large annual meetings of AAAS.
Our cosponsor UNESCO made the formal request to the United Nations for
permission to hold the Congress in the UN Building. UN agreed, but warned us
that all arrangements could be cancelled in case of an emergency, if an extraordi-
nary session of the General Assembly had to be called, or if the regular session
had to be advanced in time.
With agreement in principle on the site, Dr. Taylor went to New York to ar-
range details and to try to reduce the estimated costs. He arranged for us to use
every morning the General Assembly Hall with its excellent facilities for simul-
taneous translation into several languages, and to use the required number of
conference rooms each afternoon. When he returned, I asked about the possibili-
ty of cancellation. He said he had raised that question, and had been told with a
grin "If there should be an international crisis calling for a meeting of the Gener-
al Assembly, the crisis will be in the afternoons."
As Congress headquarters, Dr. Taylor chose the Commodore Hotel, a few
blocks from the UN building. He reserved office space there and a hospitality
room; reserved the ballroom for as many evenings as we needed it; negotiated
rates of $8 to $10 a night for single rooms and $13 to $15 a night for twin-bed
rooms; and made all the other behind the scenes arrangements that are necessary
if a large meeting is to go smoothly.
Sensitive Areas and Political Tensions
At the scientific level, relations were cordial across political boundaries, but
tensions existed at the governmental level. In addition to other problems that
sometimes strained East-West relations, there had recently been specific ocean-
46 D. Wolfle
ographic difficulties. The U. S. had opened the harbors of Honolulu, San Fran-
cisco, and San Diego to Russian research vessels, but when the National Acade-
my of Sciences wanted to send one oceanographer to visit installations in the
USSR, the Soviet side refused to grant permission. In view of this history we
wanted to work with the State Department to forestall possible difficulties in
issuing visas and to make the best arrangements we could for visitors from the
Soviet Union.
The State Department told us that Soviet visitors could not visit certain areas
-just as Americans were barred from some areas of the USSR-and that the visi-
tors had to be in the care of a host-representative who would know at all times
where they were. We solved that problem by employing as our host-representative
a man who was fluent in Russian and accustomed to that type of duty. For a
while it seemed there might be several groups of Russian visitors and that we
might need several host-representatives. However, the USSR delegates all arrived,
and lived, aboard the Soviet oceanographic ship Lomonosov, which berthed in
New York for the duration of the Congress. During the two weeks of their visit,
I was formally responsible to the State Department for all 63 visitors from the
USSR. Fortunately, they and our host-representative played their roles well and
we had no international incidents.
5 Costs and Financial Support
The Committee on Arrangements planned a budget of $105,000 divided as

follows:
$35,000 for transportation and expenses of invited speakers and chairmen

from other countries
$25,000 to help pay transportation and living costs of younger oceanogra-
phers from abroad. In this and other ways special efforts were made
to attract younger oceanographers.
$ 8,000 for interpreters and translators
$20,000 for secretarial and duplicating services
$15,000 for entertainment
$ 2,000 for publicity
$ 5,000 for committee meetings and travel of conveners
The total of $105,000-in 1958 and 1959 dollars-sometimes did not seem as
ifit would be enough, and in any event we did not yet have it. Nevertheless, plans
and arrangements had to go forward, and the minutes of several committee meet-
ings reflect uncertainties as to whether we would be able to cover the costs we
were incurring. The minutes of one meeting report that "Dr. Walford stated that
the conveners are troubled by the possibility of inadequate funds. Dr. Ull recom-
mended that the committee members reassure the conveners." Those were the
formal words in the minutes; my unverified memory is that Gordon Ull said
something like "Tell 'em to relax. Dael and I will get the money."
We did, helped mightily by a grant of $50,000 from the Office of Naval Re-
search, much the largest single contribution we received. Other grants came from
the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation, the Inter-
national Oceanographic Foundation, and theEDO, Arthur D. Little, Rockefeller,
and Sloan foundations. We also turned to industry. Letters to 91 industrial
firms and oil companies brought contributions from 14, totalling over $10,000.
A $10 registration fee added $11,750, and this amount plus the contributions
totalled $128,560 well above the budgeted $105,000.
However, this sum does not include all of the costs or all of the support.
UNESCO funds covered travel costs of members of SCOR and its own Advisory
Committee, and UNESCO paid UN for the use of the building in New York, at
rates the UN generously reduced from early estimates. UN made no charge for
use of their skilled interpreters. The Military Air Transport Service brought a few
participants from abroad with no charge to them or us. Led by Dr. Hans Nuss-
baum, several members of the AAAS staff devoted much time that was not
charged to the Congress budget, most notably in copying summaries and abstracts
of afternoon papers and readying them for publication in the preprint volume
that was given to each registrant on arrival. All told, the costs turned out to be a
little above the budget, but we had more money than budgeted and ended with
a few thousand dollars left over.
News Coverage
The Congress was of wide interest to the news media. Dr. Sidney Negus, who for
years had managed the press room at AAAS meetings, was in charge of the press
room, where he had notable help from several of the UN press people. His
records showed that 142 editors and reporters registered there. Most came from
the United States, but 25 represented foreign news media, and 40 more in other
countries covered the Congress through the facilities of the UN press services.
Newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, the United States Information Agency, and
Radio Free Europe were represented.
News conferences were held twice a day, with selected speakers and partici-
pants of the preceding half day's program in attendance. Roger Revelle attended
many of the conferences to answer questions and help translate technical lan-
guage and details into terms appropriate for general news media.
Looking back at newspapers of those days it is interesting to see what stories
were featured. Examples included the mid-ocean ridges, changes in sea level dur-
ing the past 400,000 years, homing of salmon, speculations about the origin of
life, the Mohole, the possibility of fish farming, and the biological location of
the equator with a sedimentary record showing that the equator had remained in
its present location during the geological past. If these stories did not make the
first page, they were in tough competition; papers were giving much space to
President Eisenhower's visit to Europe and Premier Krushchev's visit to Washing-
ton, an Iowa farm, and the meeting of the UN that convened shortly after the
Congress adjourned~
48 D. Wo1fle
6 Epilogue
This has been an administrative history of the 1959 Congress, an informal ac-
count of how it was planned, staged, and fmanced. All of the administrative ar-
rangements were for the purpose of putting on a meeting with important scien-
tific consequences. It is for oceanographers to decide how successfully the Con-
gress met that goal, but the interest and excitement at the time and the enthusi-
astic recollections of participants even now indicate that it was a success. Statisti-
cally, too, it was a success. Early planning assumed there might be as many as
500 in attendance, with perhaps 200 from other countries. The actual count
turned out to be 1175 registrants from 54 countries. The US led, with 840. The
USSR came next with 63. Then followed, in order, Canada, England, Japan,
France, Germany, and all the rest, down to 15 countries, from Ghana to Viet
Nam, with one each.
In another sense too the Congress succeeded. AAAS was glad to convene the
first Congress, but we hoped we would not have to do it again, for we hoped
that oceanographers would generate the international arrangements under which
such congresses are normally held.
With that idea in mind, after all the accounts had been settled, I wrote to
each of the donors explaining that we had some money left over, that I would re-
turn each donor's pro-rated share if requested, but that if a donor cared to leave
the share in our account we would preserve the fund and use it later in ways con-
sistent with the purpose for which the monies had originally been given to us.
We hoped that use would be to help start the next oceanographic congress.
Some donors requested that their shares be returned; most left them with us.
We put the resulting $14,722 into the AAAS investment portfolio where it grew
year by year. When time came to start planning the next Congress, we were
happy to help 26 oceanographers from 17 countries attend the Congress held in
Moscow in 1966.
There was one other aftereffect. Ten years after New York, in 1969, UNESCO
and AAAS again joined hands in arranging an international meeting. We returned
to the Southwestern desert for a second international conference on arid lands
research. The ground rules were familiar: UNESCO would be the cosponsor, and
AAAS would do the work.
References
Sears, M. (ed.). 1959. International Oceanographic Congress, 31 August-12 Sep-

tember 1959: Pre prints of Abstracts of Papers to be Presented at Afternoon
Sessions. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington,
D.C.
Sears, M. (ed.). 1961. Oceanography: Invited Lectures Presented at the Inter-
national Oceanographic Congress held in New York 31 August-12 September
1959. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington,
D.C.
The R/V Atlantis and Her First Oceanographic Institution
Susan Schlee
Anyone who gives much thought to the first 10 or 12 years of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution's operation soon realizes that RjV Atlantis was the tail
that wagged the entire dog. Her capabilities (which were by no means clear at
the time of her launching in 1930) determined to a significant extent the kinds
of work undertaken at the Institution. In addition, her living conditions influ-
enced the types of scientists who chose to work for the Oceanographic. Thirdly,
and this is less obvious, her very conception seems t,o have initiated the organi-
zation of the Oceanographic Institution. Put another way, it was not the Insti-
tution that needed and therefore commissioned A tlantis, but Atlantis that gener-
ated the Institution.
To see how this came about, it is necessary to step back a few years. When
America's foremost oceanographer, Alexander Agassiz, died in 1910 and the
schooner Grampus and the research vessel Albatross were retired in 1916 and
'21, this country's privately fmanced programs in oceanography all but expired.
On the west coast there was the still struggling Scripps Institution of Oceanogra-
phy, trying to negotiate the Scylla and Charybdis of federal disinterest and pri-
vate penury by allying itself to the University of California. But on the east
coast there was no laboratory and no state or federal programs dealing with
basic oceanographic research. There was only Agassiz' protege, Henry Bryant
Bigelow, and he, having relied upon vessels such as Grampus and Albatross for
making his classic survey of the Gulf of Maine, was now stranded on the fifth
floor of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology without a ship. This dis-
tressing combination of a lively interest in the little-known dynamics of the sea
and the absence of a vessel had faced Bigelow when he started his Gulf of Maine
work in 1912. Not being in a position to really solve the problem then, he had
50 S. Schlee
nevertheless managed to get around it by borrowing a wide selection of ill-
equipped vessels on a temporary and precariously informal basis. With the re-
tirement of Albatross, however, and the Bureau of Fisheries' sorrowful admis-
sion that no replacement for her or for any of their vessels would be forth-
coming, Bigelow set out again to borrow a ship. Learning that the Rockefeller
Foundation's General Education Board was interested in supporting an effort
to put American fisheries on a more scientific basis, he visited the Board's presi-
dent, Wickliffe Rose in 1925.
Rose saw Bigelow's need for a vessel in a very different light. Bemg an older
man and more familiar with the powers and possibilities of wealth, he realized
that if Bigelow were to have an expensive, specially equipped research vessel,
the ship would need a long-term schedule so that it could be used efficiently
during the times when Bigelow didn't need her. In other words, if a long-range
plan were drawn up consisting of biological, physical, chemical and even geologi-
cal surveys, it would be, in fact, a blueprint for an institution's research program.
Furthermore, an oceanographic research vessel would need a berth, maintenance
facilities, a corps of technicians, scientists and an administrator or two to fit all
the parts together-in short, an entire oceanographic institution.
Rose therefore requested Bigelow and his companion, Willis Rich, Summer
Director of the Bureau of Fisheries Laboratory at Woods Hole, to prepare a plan
for oceanographic research and to estimate its cost. It was to extend over a period
of ten years. Rose then went on a tour of American and Canadian fisheries labo-
ratories to see for himself how research was being conducted. Predictably, he re-
turned with the sense that the four publicly supported Canadian labs were better
run and far ahead of those in the United States (Burstyn 1976).
In the fall of 1925 Rose received Bigelow's ideas "on work in Oceanography
which can be accomplished by a suitably equipped ship," but he did not act on
them until 1927 when a Committee on Oceanography was set up within the
National Academy of Sciences essentially to recommend the establishment of a
ship-cum-institution somewhere on the east coast (quoted in Burstyn 1976). The
rest of the story is well known: in January 1930, the Woods Hole Oceanogra-
phic Institution was incorporated and plans were immediately made to build a
laboratory and a research vessel that would be the envy of oceanographers on
both sides of the Atlantic.
, On the last day of December 1930, A tlantis was launched at the Burmeister
and Wain shipyard in Copenhagen. She was a double-ended, steel-hulled ketch,
the largest such vessel in the world. She had a length overall of 142 feet, a beam
of 29 feet and a draft-once her ballasting problems were settled-of 18 feet. She
displaced 460 tons. Rigged as a ketch, A tlantis could carry 7,200 square feet of
canvas which was not enough to give her a reputation for speed, but was ideally
suited for heaving to on scientific stations. She had a 280 horse-power diesel
engine which drove her along at seven or eight knots and which also powered a
trawl winch carrying some five miles of half-inch steel cable. A smaller diesel
provided power for light, refrigeration and a hydrographic winch. As originally
equipped, she had no radio and no sonic sounding gear. Without the latter it was
The RjV Atlantis and Her First Oceanographic Institution 51
impossible for her scientists to make deep Nansen casts or in fact to send any
breakable equipment close to the bottom.
Atlantis was designed by Owen and Minot, but it was the Institution's first di-
rector, Henry Bigelow, who made the decision to build a sailing ship rather than
a fully-powered, trawler type of vessel. His reasons were primarily economic.
With the Institution's endowment yielding a fixed sum of $35,000 a year for the
maintenance and operation of a research vessel, Bigelow could see no way of sup-
porting a bluewater ship, capable of working anywhere in the world, unless she
sailed. Not only would the range of a sailing vessel be greater and her fuel bill
less, but she would also be steadier which was a help to anyone trying to use a
microscope or chemical apparatus. Furthermore, a sailing vessel appealed to the
aristocratic preferences of men like Bigelow, Columbus O'Donnell Iselin-the
ship's first master and the Institution's second director-and the rest of the staff
who were sometimes referred to as "the Harvard yacht clUb." This is not to say
that Atlantis was luxurious. Quite the opposite. But paradoxically, Harvard
students and others on the staff were comfortable with the upper-class tradition
of "roughing it" on an adventurous scientific expedition. William Beebe, the
popular marine scientist of bathysphere fame, had started his oceanographic
career in just this way and men like conservationist Gifford Pinchot, A&P mil-
lionaire George Huntington Hartford III, writer Zane Gray, and publisher George
Palmer Putnam had all chartered sailing vessels to capture everything from plank-
ton to polar bears for museums and private collections. These vacations were
fairly brief affairs-"adventure seasoned with science is the very best kind," wrote
Pinchot (1930)-and living conditions were expected to be primitive. Atlantis fit
right in. She was so rustic in fact, that she had only two heads, both notoriously
unpleasant, neither of which had tub or shower. These primitive sanitary con-
ditions helped abbreviate the sailing careers of several men who were unusually
prone to seasickness and effectively barred women from using the ship. In at
least one instance, a young woman applied for a position at the Oceanographic,
was accepted, then rejected when it was learned that she expected to go to sea
on Atlantis. Understandably she and other women were more attracted to the
University of Washington's oceanographic program with its ship Catalyst, which
routinely took women aboard, and to William Beebe's program on Bermuda
where women were welcomed.
In spite of Atlantis' lack of amenities, both personal and to some extent scien-
tific, the ship was well adapted for the needs of the Institution during the 1930s.
Throughout the decade WHOI was a summertime laboratory with a staff of
some 10 to 12 scientists who arrived some time in June with their students, as-
sistants and families and left after Labor Day. Bigelow steered their research pro-
jects toward the open ocean by making sure that each scientist had a week or 10
days on Atlantis whether he wanted it or not.
In 1934, to take a typical year, the Bureau of Fisheries used Atlantis for a
survey of Georges Bank in May before the summer season got underway. By
June, Alfred Redfield, Carl Rossby, and others had turned the ship into a float-
ing weather station. Sending their instruments up the 140-foot mainmast, they
52 S. Schlee
took readings of temperature and humidity at three different levels. Bigelow then
made one of his infrequent cruises aboard Atlantis for routine plankton and hy-
drographic work, and his was followed by a short trip of only two anchor
stations. By July, George Clarke and his group were using the ship for an ongo-
ing study of the diurnal migration of plankton, and in August, Selman Waksman
endured his second and last bout of endless seasickness while his students col-
lected mud samples for bacteriological studies. Also in August, Henry Stetson
used At/antis to take cores and make dredge hauls in the newly discovered can-
yons off Georges Bank. Two hydrographic cruises followed, and the season ended
with a chemical and hydrographic survey of the Gulf of Maine and two more
Bureau of Fisheries cruises.
Although each of these cruises was largely controlled by the chief scientist
whose research was being advanced, Bigelow did try to get his staff to co-ordinate
their efforts. In his opinion pure "fact-catching ... [was] a bit sterile and bore-
some ..." and he maintained from the beginning that "our main purpose at
Woods Hole will be to seek some synthesis of the world's present knowledge of
the sea-to fit the facts together, so far as possible, in a unified pattern" (Bige-
low 1967).
His attempts to realize this synthesis were not altogether successful, mainly
due to the small size of the Institution. His first idea was to resurvey the Gulf of
Maine, the area he had studied so carefully himself. Plans were made to sail At-
/antis north every six weeks in all but the coldest weather. Seven or eight of
these cruises took place (and many independent ones to the Gulf as well) but
they did not adhere to a strictly standardized routine and did not involve the
kind of truly close, interdisciplinary co-operation that Bigelow had envisioned.
Shortly before World War II a second attempt was made, this time on Georges
Bank. Eleven standardized cruises were made during all seasons of the year, and
although the series was cut short by the war, it did produce one of the first de-
tailed description of a marine ecosystem.
Early studies of the Gulf Stream also required careful co-ordination, and
Columbus Iselin, who was both physical oceanographer and administrator in
charge of schedulingAtiantis, came up with a plan for surveying the Stream at all
times of the year and from three different angles. A tlantis thus sailed across the
Gulf Stream between the tip of Long Island and Bermuda, Bermuda and the
offing of the Chesapeake Bay, and between Nova Scotia and Bermuda. Iselin's
papers on the Stream soon showed how much more complex this great current
system was compared to earlier conceptions based largely on isolated surveys.
The summer schedule of Atlantis remained pretty much the same throughout
the '30s. Every spring a slowly growing number of scientists came winding down
the narrow road from Boston, Providence or New York and as they came into
Woods Hole there was the big brick laboratory waiting for their samples and re-
agents and there was the freshly painted Atlantis waiting to take them to sea.
"We thought that we were rich," wrote Iselin many years later. "No other
marine laboratory had such an adequate budget. No other marine laboratory had
such a versatile and prudent director. These were exciting days ..." (Iselin 1962).
The R/V Atlantis and Her First Oceanographic Institution 53
Figure 1. Henry Bigelow and

Columbus Iselin on deck of
A tlan tis. (Kindness of Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institu-
tion).
Summer, however, was not the only season that Bigelow and A tlantis had to
cope with. How was the ship to be used in the frigid New England winters when
ice froze along her decks and her lines became too stiff to handle? The answer
was found in a series of co-operative cruises to southern waters, first with the
Bingham Oceanographic Foundation of Yale University and later with the univer-
sities of Harvard and Havana. The first series consisted of four long winter cruises
to the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Work focused on the hydrography of the
region with studies of fish, sargasso weed, plankton and sediments added as time
allowed.
Albert Eide Parr, curator of the Bingham Foundation, directed these cruises.
On the first, he experimented with an enormous new trawl which was almost as
long as the ship herself and had a triangular opening 50 feet on a side. Although
it was a brute to handle and was soon wrecked, on one haul it brought in 491
fish of 47 different varieties. Twelve were new to science.
A year later, 1934, the second co-operative cruise sailed southward, and this
time the collection of sargasso weed and flying fish was added to the hydrogra-
phic program (Schlee 1978). Eventually this amounted to "the first absolutely
quantitative study [of sargasso weed] ," according to Parr, and confirmed the hy-
pothesis that the weed was able to grow and reproduce at sea. The Washington
Post ran a story on the cruise which quoted one of the scientists as saying:
54 S. Schlee
We're home from the seas,
A most studious crew
Of data we bring back a mass-o.
We sailed at our ease,
Having little to do
But study what's in the Sargasso.
The third cruise in the series was so successful from a scientific point of view
that the final voyage was postponed a year to give Parr more time to examine
the hundreds upon hundreds of samples already collected.
From a different perspective, however, these winter cruises were becoming
rather tense affairs with an increasing amount of friction among crew members,
trouble in the galley, and failure of the ship's equipment.
"Because the cruise is so long, you are cautioned to keep a sharp watch on
the crew's behavior and try to forestall any petty quarrels ... " Iselin warned
Captain Frederick McMurray as the last cruise got under way in December 1936.
But by the middle of February the cook had become so unpopular for his lazy
ways (and the Institution's frugality) that he was assaulted by two of the crew as
he lay in his bunk.
"He narrowly missed being choked to death," wrote McMurray who then re-
placed the cook with a "regular bum" who could cook only when sober and who
had hidden an inexhaustible supply of rum on the ship.
When Parr joinedAtlantis in Jamaica, ate meat that glowed in the dark, gagged
over conditions in the heads, wrestled with a decrepit current meter, and came
up against the sullen, unco-operative attitude of the crew, he was appalled.
"I am now considering the advisability of resigning my association in explicit
protest against conditions on board the Atlantis . .." he wrote Iselin.
There were several reasons for this decline, which of course adversely affected
the efficiency of the ship. For one thing, while the endowment still provided
$35,000 a year for the ship's operation, prices and wages were rising. Bigelow
could not bear to see the scientific portion of the vessel's program suffer-
although he inadvertently borrowed some very poor equipment from the Bureau
of Fisheries-and therefore tried to control costs by keeping the crew's wages
low, putting a ceiling of 80 cents per day per person on food, and assuming that
emergency rations, fire fighting equipment and the like did not have to be re-
newed. The ship's problems were further compounded by the reluctance of any-
one at the Institution to assume full responsibility for her operation. Details
were left to chance or to Captain McMurray.
''The sad fact remains that nobody in a position of authority at this institution
likes administrative work," Iselin wrote back to Parr, "and until we fmd some-
one who does, we are never going to be particularly efficient in the running of
our ship."
Despite her fluctuating levels of efficiency (which, after all, were not the ulti-
mate measure of success in those less pressured days), Atlantis continued to be
the Institution's major tool for marine research. As such, her proven capacity to
sail anywhere in the western North Atlantic gradually drew the Institution's re-
The R/V Atlantis and Her First Oceanographic Institution ss
search projects further away from coastal regions and out across the Gulf
Stream. In 1935, for example, work at the Oceanographic was nearly equally di-
vided between open-ocean studies and coastal-plus-laboratory projects (WHO!
1935). Three years later blue-water oceanography made up more than 70% of
the projects (WHO! 1938).
One way to gain a rough idea of how important Atlantis was in enabling re-
search to move seaward is to compare papers published by scientists at the
Oceanographic in 1938, for example, with those published in the same year at
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. At Scripps there was no blue-water re-
search vessel until 1937 when a pleasure yacht was acquired for conversion.
In 1938 there were 42 scientific papers published in Scripps' collected re-
prints (SIO 1938). Slightly over 10%, or five of them dealt with open-ocean re-
search. Roughly 20% of the papers reported on coastal studies, such as a sur-
vey of the sediments in Santa Monica Bay, and fully 40% described laboratory
work including taxonomic studies and observations of animals' life cycles.
In contrast, of the 33 papers coming out of Woods Hole, approximately
72% dealt with open-ocean research (including the Gulf of Maine). Only 4%
reported on coastal studies and the same number described laboratory work
including chemical tests and the design of equipment (WHO! 1938). Studies of
the migration of plankton, both vertical and horizontal, got the most attention.
(Approximately half the staff were biologists which was typical of marine labs
prior to World War II.) Hydrography was the second most popular field of re-
search. These broad topics were open to scientists on the east coast in a far
more extensive way than they were in the West because of Atlantis, and the
emphasis placed on open-ocean research in Woods Hole reflected this.
When Atlantis was being fitted out in Copenhagen in 1931, Henry Bigelow at-
tended a meeting on the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
there and being so close to the shipyard, "of course I spent some time on the
ship .... She is a beauty ..." "I had not realized how important a develop-
ment all [the marine scientists] on the other side consider us," he continued. We
must make the maiden voyage "a truly productive one Scientifically for the re-
pute of WHO! abroad" (Bigelow 1931).
In Bigelow's mind the reputation of the Oceanographic Institution was al-
ready bound to the future accomplishments of Atlantis. During the ten years he
was Director, he made sure that the good works of both prospered together.
References
Anonymous. 1967. New York Times obituary, Dec. 12.

Bigelow, H. B. 1931. Letter to F. R. Lillie, March 8 (sic). Should be March 28.
Marine Biological Laboratory files.
Burstyn, H. L. 1976. American oceanography in the twentieth century. Prepared
for the annual meeting AAAS.
Iselin, C. O'D. 1962. History and development of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. Unpublished, WHOI archives.
Pinchot, G. 1930. To the South Seas. The John C. Winston Co., Chicago.
56 S. Schlee
Schlee, S. 1978. On Almost Any Wind, the Saga of the Oceanographic Research
Vessel Atlantis. Ithaca: Cornell U. Press. (Quotations and descriptions of the
co-operative cruises are taken from Chapter 3.)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 1938. Collected Reprints.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 1935. Collected Reprints.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 1938. Collected Reprints.
Reviving American Oceanography: Frank Lillie,
Wickliffe Rose, and the Founding of the \\bods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
Harold L. Burstyn
On the fifth of October in 1927 two men met for lunch at the Hotel del Prado in
Chicago. As they conversed in the quiet tones of men of affairs-alluding to pos-
sibilities, deferring to their absent associates who would have to be consulted be-
fore decisions could be made, the nearest ocean lay more than a thousand miles
away. Yet their conversation centered on that three-quarters of the earth's sur-
face that was least known, as the two men considered how the United States of
America, untouched by the devastation of World War I and enjoying unparal-
leled prosperity, should contribute to increasing the world's stock of knowledge
about the ocean.
There had been a time, two or more generations before, when the United
States was in the forefront of research into the mysteries of the sea. The Coast
Survey under its second superintendent, Alexander Dallas Bache, was the fore-
most scientific institution in America before the Civil War. Under its auspices
J. W. Bailey of West Point began the study of marine sediments and Louis
Agassiz collected marine fauna. After the Civil War, Agassiz's student Count
Pourtales continued the research on sediments. Adding his own substantial re-
sources to those of the Coast Survey and the Fish Commission, Louis Agassiz's
son Alexander roamed the world's oceans in the name of American science. And,
though he never went to sea, William Ferrel of the Coast Survey and the Signal
Service was the world's leader, for a generation after the Civil War, in physical
oceanography, the study of currents and tides (1).
Though these men established in the nineteenth century America's reputation
in the science of the sea, that reputation had languished in the twentieth century.
Science done at sea is expensive; as one of its pioneers, L. F. de Marsigli, pointed
out as early as 1725, only governments can really afford it (2). Yet the agencies
58 H. L. Burstyn
of the U. S. Government were in the 1920s too restricted to carry out broad pro-
grams of scientific research. Their narrow missions, codified by law, and their
annual appropriations both discouraged a search for fundamental knowledge.
Was it likely that a society suspicious both of public servants and of intellectuals,
hence doubly suspicious of those who claimed to be both, would ever furnish
from the public purse resources adequate to the task?
Two distinguished foreigners had argued for greater American contributions.
In 1911, visiting the United States to eulogize his friend Alexander Agassiz (who
had died the year before), the British oceanographer Sir John Murray spent
several months in Washington. Vainly he tried to convince the U. S. Government
to do for the western North Atlantic what the European governments were do-
ing, through the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, for the
eastern North Atlantic. In 1918 Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer and
oceanographer, also advocated in Washington a stronger American effort in ocean-
ography. He, too, got no immediate response (3).
Private philanthropy had done little better. On his way back to Edinburgh
from Washington, Sir John Murray dined in New York City with "fourteen mil-
lionaires" to persuade them to found an American institute for oceanographic
research (4). The dinner did not achieve its aim. With public programs of ocean
research restricted and private programs nearly non~xistent, what was to be
done to re~stablish American oceanography? This was the question facing the
two men dining in Chicago.
One of these men called Chicago home-in the wintertime. He was Frank R.
Lillie, chairman of the Department of Zoology at the University of Chicago,
where he had taught for twenty~ight years. Born and educated in Toronto, Lillie
had come to the United States in 1891 as a new graduate of the University of
Toronto. He came to study with C. O. Whitman, and, when Whitman in 1892
migrated with most of his colleagues from Clark University to the newly-founded
University of Chicago, Lillie went along. There he completed his doctorate in
1894.
Whitman was Chicago's first chairman of zoology. In 1900 he brought his
student Lillie back to take over the department's administration, though Whit-
man remained nominal chairman until 1910. As talented in research as he was in
administration, Lillie was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1915
for his studies of cleavage and early development in the eggs of invertebrates and
of fertilization in sea urchins and worms. At the time of his election to the
Academy, Lillie was working on his major contribution to biology, the theory of
the freemartin (5).
With the formation in 1916 of the National Research Council, the Academy
acquired an operating arm charged with organizing, however loosely, scientific
research in America. In 1919 the American Society of Zoologists chose Lillie as
its representative in the Division of Biology and Agriculture of the National Re-
search Council (NRC). Immediately he was chosen a member of the Division's
executive committee; in 1921 he became vice-chairman; in 1922, chairman.
Then in his early fifties, with a reputation for research that was still growing,
Reviving American Oceanography 59
lillie had arrived at the center of the American scientific community. If he had
ideas about how better to organize science in America, now was the time to
carry them out.
Frank Lillie did indeed have such ideas. What is more important, he had both
a clear sense of the order in which they might best be accomplished and the
skill to get others to share his vision. The first problem was what to do about the
Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, where he had arrived, in the sum-
mer of 1891, to begin his work with C. O. Whitman, the founding director.
The Marine Biological Laboratory was (and is) a unique institution. Founded
in 1888 by students of Louis and Alexander Agassiz under the auspices of the
Women's Educational Association of Boston, the Laboratory under Whitman be-
came within a decade entirely independent of outside control. Convinced that
only scientists should run scientific institutions, Whitman eliminated from the
laboratory's governance both the women who helped to establish it and the
fmanciers who kept it going. Without a sound financial base, the Laboratory
nearly lost its independence in 1902 to become one of the specialized research
units that the Carnegie Institution of Washington was setting up around the
country. Lillie, by then the assistant director, shared Whitman's vision of an in-
dependent institution. The Laboratory was open only in the summer, and those
researchers who came received little or no stipend. Hence, unlike an institution
with a permanent staff, at the Marine Biological Laboratory a researcher's status
could mirror his or her accomplishments in science. Vested interests other than
research could be minimized and research productivity reach the highest level (6).
Such an establishment could be financed only with private philanthropy. In
the crisis of 1902 Ullie turned to his wife's favorite brother, Charles R. Crane,
the plumbing supply magnate, whose generous support enabled the Laboratory
to remain independent. Lillie's success at maintaining the freedom of the labora-
tory's scientists made him the natural successor to Whitman. In 1908, two years
before he took over the Zoology Department at Chicago from his teacher, Lillie
became director of the Marine Biological Laboratory.
Yet the laboratory's independence would be hollow without adequate facili-
ties, and the old wooden buildings of the Laboratory were fast becoming inade-
quate. In 1921 Lillie got the National Research Council to endorse the Labora-
tory's program. Then, working through Vernon Kellogg, permanent secretary of
the Council, who was a member of the Executive Committee of the Rockefeller
Foundation, Lillie got that Foundation to contribute to his building program. It
did not hurt his cause that the Rockefeller Foundation's president, George E.
Vincent, had been Lillie's colleague at Chicago and later his dean (7).
With the Marine Biological laboratory's building program under way, Lillie
turned to another project, controlling the rapidly expanding literature of biology
through a journal of abstracts and finding endowment for journals of research so
that they might continue to expand. Here his interests came together with those
of his companion at lunch on that October afternoon of 1927 in Chicago.
The visitor to Chicago was Wickliffe Rose, President of the General Education
Board, one of the oldest Rockefeller philanthropies. At 65, eight years older
60 H. L. Burstyn
than Lillie, Rose was shortly to retire after almost two decades of managing
Rockefeller benefactions. He had been born and educated in Tennessee, where
he served George Peabody College for Teachers as Professor of Philosophy and as
Dean before becoming director of the Peabody Education Fund itself in 1907.
As a southerner who had managed the most successful of the charities established
by northerners to heal the wounds of the Civil War, Rose, who had studied
several summers at the University of Chicago, was an excellent choice to lead the
program to eradicate hookworm from the American south begun in 1910 by the
Rockefeller Sanitary Commission. From hookworm Rose moved to disease eradi-
cation on an international scale and, with World War I, to war relief. Then, in
1923, he left public health to direct two other Rockefeller philanthropies, the
General Education Board, whose domestic programs had begun in 1902, and the
International Education Board, a comparable organization which Rose persuaded
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to establish (8).
Rose's first task as President of the latter Board was to travel for five months,
visiting more than fifty institutions in nineteen countries. He returned to New
York with two goals for his philanthropy: to make agriculture more scientific
and to ameliorate the effects of the war on institutions of learning.
One of the people Rose consulted on his trip abroad was William Bate Hardy,
F.R.S., a biophysicist who served Britain's Department of Scientific and Indus-
trial Research as both director of food investigation and superintendent of the
Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge. An outstanding sailor who at
one time turned his yacht into a floating laboratory for marine biology, Hardy
was chairman of the United Kingdom's advisory committee on fisheries. Hence
he was able to persuade Rose both of the importance of fisheries to agriculture
and of fundamental science to fisheries (9).
On his return to the United States, Rose began to consult various people
about the way in which the General and International Education Boards might
help fishery science and other areas of applied biology. The first subject to re-
ceive a sustained evaluation was forestry. Early in 1924 the National Academy
of Sciences appointed a committee. Meeting at the expense of the General Edu-
cation Board, the committee reported to the Academy that the time was ripe for
a full-scale investigation and urged that funds be sought for one. The unspoken
premise was that the General Education Board would provide them (10).
For Rose had changed the direction of the Rockefeller philanthropies. Scien-
tific research rather than general education had become the principal object of
support. Under Rose's leadership, the General Education Board in the United
States and the International Education Board abroad (chiefly in war-ravaged
Europe) were making large contributions to support pure scientific research in
universities. In addition to giving capital grants, such as those to the Marine Bio-
logical Laboratory (an independent research station for university faculty), the
Rockefeller philanthropies supported a substantial fellowship program admin-
istered by the National Research Council. As chairman of the fellowship board
in biology and agriculture, Lillie was an obvious person to give Rose advice on
animal biology. The two men met for the first time when Rose visited lillie at
Chicago in June 1924 to solicit suggestions. They met again the following month
in Woods Hole, when Lillie called a group of twenty biologists to his house to
discuss with Rose the literature problem in biology. From this discussion came
Rockefeller grants to establish Biological Abstracts (11).
Though marine biology was only the third of the areas of research suggested
by lillie to Rose in June 1924, it was closer to Rose's concern for fisheries than
the others. Rose began to concentrate on fisheries after a visit to him in 1925 by
two of Lillie's friends from Woods Hole, Willis H. Rich, Director of the Bureau
of Fisheries Laboratory that had established Woods Hole as a scientific center,
and Henry B. Bigelow, a student of Alexander Agassiz who had continued at the
Agassiz Museum the program of oceanographic research begun by his teacher.
Bigelow's studies in the Gulf of Maine provided the only substantial American
contribution to the oceanography of the North Atlantic that was made in the
1920s. Now his cruises had come to an end, for the miserly response of the
Coolidge administration to growing American prosperity had been to refuse to
repair the aging fisheries vessel Albatross. It had been sold late in 1924; Bigelow,
the leading American oceanographer on the east cost, was without the means to
go to sea.
Rose's reaction to his visitors was uncharacteristically enthusiastic. As a per-
son upon whom many more supplicants called than he could supply with the
means to carry their life's work forward, Rose was unfailingly warm, polite-and
discouraging. To Bigelow and Rich, however, he was most encouraging. They
were asked to prepare a plan for a ten-year oceanographic program that included
a budget (12).
In order to make himself familiar with fisheries research, especially the pros-
pects for improving its stock of basic knowledge, Rose spent July 1925 travelling
all over the United States and Canada, more than 6,000 miles in just over three
weeks (13). First he headed north, to the Bureau of Fisheries laboratory at
Woods Hole, where he found the work on a "meager scale," so "poorly sup-
ported" that the scientists there were best described by their "narrow out-
look (14)." They lacked the broad vision, the insights into research that charac-
terized the academic scientists who advised him, such as Frank Lillie. From
Woods Hole Rose went to the Biological Board of Canada's Atlantic Biological
Station at st. Andrews, New Brunswick. Here he found a great contrast with the
United States. In Canada public funds had established four laboratories, one on
each coast for basic and applied research, respectively. As a result, Canada was
far ahead of the United States in developing oceanography, the background for
any serious work in fisheries. Rose was also most impressed with the director of
the St. Andrews station, A. G. Huntsman.
Returning to New York before beginning the transcontinental part of his
journey, Rose visited the Mt. Desert Biological Laboratory at Bar Harbor, run
like the Marine Biological Laboratory by some of the same biologists, but much
more limited in its facilities. On his way to the Pacific coast, Rose stopped at the
government's biological station in Fairport, Iowa, which had been established in
1910 for purely political reasons to serve the pearl industry around Muscatine,
62 H. L. Burstyn
which made buttons from the shells of fresh-water mussels. Should the station
have been set up at all, Rose wondered, and what was its future, with a budget
sufficient for only three scientists though there was space for twenty (15)?
On the west coast Rose travelled from south to north, visiting first the
Scripps Institution for Biological Research of the University of California, located
along the shore in the northernmost part of San Diego, La Jolla. There about
1906, with the financial support ofE. W. Scripps and his sister Ellen, William E.
Ritter founded a marine biological station. Like Whitman and Bigelow, Ritter
had worked at the Museum of Comparative Zoology with Alexander Agassiz and
taken his Ph.D. at Harvard. Returning to California, where he had migrated from
Wisconsin in the 1880s, Ritter became chairman of zoology at Berkeley. In 1925
he was recently retired from the Scripps Institution. Ritter's successor there was
T. Wayland Vaughan, who had been a student of Agassiz's at the same time as
Ritter and then joined the U. S. Geological Survey (16). A physicist turned geolo-
gist, Vaughan at the time of Rose's visit to La Jolla was embarking on a program
at Scripps to strengthen physical oceanography, which at that· time included
marine geology, and to change the institution's name to the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography (17). An expansive Texan, Vaughan was full of advice for Rose.
Bigelow's work in the Gulf of Maine was excellent, as was the earlier work off
the coast of Florida by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Vaughan told Rose, but
there had been no sustained program for any part of America's oceans. Hence a
comprehensive plan for physical oceanography was the "most important step in
the field of fisheries." For Vaughan, such a plan would begin on the Pacific coast,
where a number of institutions could cooperate. Once cooperation had been
shown to work on the Pacific, a similar program could be developed for the At-
lantic and Gulf coasts (18).
From San Diego Rose went to Los Angeles, where the acting director of the
California State Fisheries Laboratory praised Vaughan as "perhaps the foremost
man in the country" in oceanography (19). Then Rose continued north to Friday
Harbor, the University of Washington's biological station on Puget Sound. Here
the University's president and two trustees tried to persuade Rose of their need
for research facilities at a station designed for the summer instruction of under-
graduates who lived in tents. Rose was skeptical that a laboratory belonging en-
tirely to a single university could attract faculty from other institutions to do
their research at Friday Harbor. Wasn't the Marine Biological Laboratory at
Woods Hole a better model? President Henry Suzzallo assured Rose that the uni-
versity was willing that its station be run by a board of biologists from other in-
stitutions (20). Rose came away more than ever convinced that physical ocean-
ography formed the background necessary for the solution of any specific fisher-
ies problem.
After a brief visit to the Canadian laboratory at Nanaimo, British Columbia,
just beginning as the Pacific counterpart to st. Andrews on the Atlantic, Rose re-
turned to New York. In the fall Henry Bigelow sent him the plan that he had
asked for "on work in Oceanography which can be accomplished by a suitably
equipped ship." The theme of Bigelow's program was the importance of ocean-
ography to fisheries. Conservation of fish resources was impossible unless one

could predict how abundant a particular species would be, for which existing
knowledge was totally inadequate. Though the major American fisheries were in
the North Atlantic, the demise of the Fish Commission's Albatross had ended
the one American oceanographic program there-Bigelow's. What was needed
was a new vessel, which would cost about a quarter of a million dollars (21).
Rose sent Bigelow's proposals for comment to John C. Merriam, Director of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, whose vessel Carnegie had been roaming
the oceans to chart variations in the earth's magnetism. So persuaded was Merriam
by Bigelow's thinking that Carnegie was refitted for oceanographic work (22).
Once more Rose sought the advice of Lillie. Lunching at the Quadrangle Club
of the University of Chicago on the 9th of October 1925, the two men discussed
three issues. Would it be possible, Rose wanted to know, to establish in the
United States a central 9rganization, modelled on the Biological Board of Cana-
da, in which university, government, and commercial interests might join to ad-
vance research? His second suggestion was for the equivalent of Woods Hole on
the Pacific coast, a single location where scientists from all over the west might
gather to conduct their experiments. Finally, Rose came to what was closest to
Lillie's heart: the development of oceanography in the United States (23).
Here Lillie had a specific plan. In his letter to Rose responding to the ques-
tions raised at their lunch, lillie turned aside the first two. Concerning a bio-
logical board, the American situation was "relatively complex" compared to
the Canadian. "It would be much more difficult for us either to limit the organ-
ization or to make it effective." As to "cooperation between biological stations
on the Pacific Coast and the regional universities and research establishments,"
the first move would have to be made from there. Only the third issue, "the
promotion of oceanography ... on the Atlantic Coast" was ripe for "direct ap-
proach": the establishment of an oceanographic institution in Woods Hole as
an offshoot of the Marine Biological Laboratory (24).
Though the need was urgent for a new ship for Bigelow, more than a year
passed without further efforts to meet it. Nothing could happen until all the
influential scientists were agreed, and Merriam, though he had changed the pro-
gram of his own vessel, was reluctant to support Lillie's broader effort (25). So
Lillie cemented his ties to Rose by spending a month in Europe in 1926 visiting
biological stations and university departments for the International Education
Board (26). Fortified with $50,000 from the General Education Board, the
Forestry Committee of the National Academy was preparing a comprehensive
report. Convinced that ocean rather than fresh-water fisheries demanded sup-
port, Rose denied a similar request from the National Academy's Committee
on Acquiculture (27).
Early in 1927, as the forestry report neared completion, Frank lillie found
the consensus he needed to organize oceanography. More than a ship was neces-
sary, for a ship required a formal program, which in turn required an organi"
zational structure to carry it out. The Marine Biological Laboratory did not have
such a structure. Rather it accommodated individuals who brought with them to
64 H. L. Burstyn
Woods Hole their own independent research problems. For shipboard research,
scientists would have to sacrifice their customary individualism in favor of con-
certed scheduling. Though their problems might remain individual, they would
have to be integrated into a program that took the ship from one part of the
ocean to another (28). Moreover, so little was known about the North Atlantic
that the ship would for the first few years spend much of its time in routinely
gathering descriptive data. Such a program could not interest the scientists who
came to the Marine Biological Laboratory. If Lillie's ambition was to base the
new vessel in Woods Hole, some institution other than the Marine Biological
Laboratory or the Bureau of Fisheries would have to operate it.
Arriving in Washington for the meeting of the National Academy late in
March 1927, Lillie met with Merriam and Vaughan to plan a campaign. The
first step was to follow the example of forestry. Before the meeting ended, the
Academy had authorized a Committee on Oceanography with Lillie as chairman.
In addition to Vaughan and Merriam, the members were William Bowie of the
Coast and Geodetic Survey, Edwin G. Conklin of Princeton, and Benjamin M.
Duggar of Wisconsin. The three biologists, Conklin, Duggar, and Lillie, all had
long associations with Woods Hole. In May Lillie inquired of Rose whether the
General Education Board might help the Committee meet its expenses (29).
From this request came the luncheon engagement in Chicago two weeks be-
fore the fall meeting of the Academy in Urbana, Dlinois. Rose began by review-
ing the possibilities for the "satisfactory organization of oceanographic work in
America." First, Lillie's Committee would offer central direction. Second, the
expensive, large-scale projects ought to be the responsibility of the Federal
government and organized internationally. Third, "there should be an Atlantic
Coast Station, preferably at Woods Hole to be established and endowed."
Though none of this would happen unless the National Academy of Sciences
recommended that it should, Rose pressed Lillie for details, since the General
Education Board would require a precise plan. As Lillie put it in the memoran-
dum he wrote for his mes, "The discussion assumed more concrete form than
anticipated (30)."
By the time lunch was over and the two men went their separate ways, they
had agreed in outline on the building of a ship and a "central oceanographic in-
stitute on the Atlantic Coast" to operate it (31). Though other locations would
be canvassed, Woods Hole seemed the likeliest to be chosen. The Marine Biologi-
cal Laboratory had land there on the waterfront on which a building might be
erected for half a million dollars. A ship, wharves, and equipment would take
another half million. Two million dollars more would provide an adequate en-
dowment of $100,000 a year. By operating year round with a small permanent
staff and emphasizing the two sides of the subject that his Committee had identi-
fied, marine biology and physical oceanography, the institute would, Lillie told
Rose, stimulate the subject all over the United States. Of course, the institute as
Lillie envisaged it would be established only if the Academy, as a result of the
efforts of its Committee on Oceanography, so recommended, but Lillie as the
Committee's chairman could already foresee what its recommendations were
likely to be. He knew he could rely on the Academy's president-elect, his neigh-
bor in Woods Hole, Thomas Hunt Morgan.
Though three years went by between that historic luncheon and the incorpo-
ration of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the tacit agreement reached
that October day in Chicago assured the result. By grants from the Rockefeller
Foundation, to the Bermuda Biological Station, the Scripps Institution, and the
University of Washington as well as to Woods Hole, American oceanography re-
gained some of its earlier strength. As a result of the Rockefeller largesse, the re-
search capability required by the United States at war was in place. Though the
Second World War brought American oceanography into the front rank, as it
brought other branches of American science, the foundation was laid earlier, in
the program of Frank Lillie's Committee on Oceanography. To his vision and to
the capacity of Wickliffe Rose to share it, we owe the proud place of American
oceanography in the twentieth century.
References
1. Schlee, S. B. 1973. The Edge of an Unfamiliar World (New York), chapters

1, 4, 7; Burstyn, H. L. 1975. Seafaring and the emergence of American
science, The Atlantic World of Robert G. Albion, Labaree, B. W., ed. (Mid-
dletown), 76-109, 223-228, and articles on Ferrel (volume 4) and Pourtales
(volume 11) in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 15v. (New York,
1970-1978).
2. de Marsigli, L. F. 1725. Histoire physique de la mer (Amsterdam), 47. I take
"government" to be the modern equivalent of Marsigli's "Prince."
3. Vaughan, T. W. 1936. Response of the Agassiz medallist. Science 83, 475-
477.
4. Murray to Sir William Herdman, quoted Ibid., 476.
5. Watterson, R. L. 1973. Lillie, Frank Rattray. Dictionary of Scientific Biogra-
phy, 8, 354-360; Willier, B. H. 1957. Frank Rattray Lillie. National Acade-
my of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, 30,179-236; Harrison, R. G. 1948.
Frank Rattray Lillie. American Philosophical Society, Year Book 1947
(Philadelphia), 264-270.
6. Lillie, F. R. 1944. The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory (Chicago);
Scudder, S. H., et aI., 1897. A Statement concerning the Marine Biological
Laboratory. Science, 6,529-534.
7. Lillie, F. R. 1921. Marine Biological Laboratory-Buildings and Endowment,
August 1921 (Rockefeller Archive Center). Vincent, G. E., 1921. Memoran-
dum on the Marine Biological Laboratory (Rockefeller Archive Center).
Lillie, Marine Biological Laboratory, passim.
8. Flexner, S. 1932. Wickliffe Rose. Science, 75, 504-506; Wickliffe Rose
1862-1931 (N.Y., 1932); Coben, S. 1976. Foundation officials and fellow-
ships: innovation in the patronage of science. Minerva 14, 225-240.
9. Max Mason diary, 27 December 1928 (Rockefeller Archive Center). A. V.
Hill. Sir William Bate Hardy. Dictionary of National Biography, 1931-1940,
397-398; E. C. Bate-Smith, 1965. Sir W. B. Hardy, Biologist, Physicist and
Food Scientist (Cambridge).
10. General Education Board file 906 (Rockefeller Archive Center).
II. F. R. Lillie to Wycliffe (sic) Rose, 17 June 1924 (Lillie papers, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution). Wickliffe Rose diary, 16 July 1924 (Rockefeller
Archive Center).
66 H. L. Burstyn
12. Wickliffe Rose diary, p. 225 (7 May 1925).
13. Ibid., 230-244 (2-25 July 1925).
14. Ibid., 230 (2 July).
IS. Ibid., 236-238 (10-11 july).
16. Raitt, H. and Moulton, B., 1967. Scripps Institution of Oceanography. First
Fifty Years (Pasadena). Sumner, F. B., 1944. William Emerson Ritter,
Science, 99, 335-338.
17. Vaughan, T. W. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography-its present work
in oceanography and suggestions for its future development, June 1924
(Rockefeller Archive Center).
18. Rose diary, 239-240 (14 July 1925).
19. Ibid., 241 (16 July 1925).
20. Ibid., 242-243 (21-22 July 1925).
21. Bigelow, H. B. On work in Oceanography which can be accomplished by a
suitably equipped ship, Fall 1925 (Rockefeller Archive Center).
22. J. C. Merriam to Wickliffe Rose, 16 October 1925 (Rockefeller Archive Cen-
ter). J. C. Merriam to H. B. Bigelow, 31 October 1928 (Lillie papers, Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution).
23. Lillie, F. R., Memo-Conference with Dr. Wicliffe (sic) Rose (written Oct.
20-'25); Dr. Rose-Conference-Oct. 9-'25-Lunch (Lillie papers, Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution); Lillie, F. R., History of the establishment
of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 7 October 1939; Lillie to
H. B. Bigelow, 4 September 1935 (Lillie papers, Marine Biological Labora-
tory, Woods Hole).
24. F. R. Lillie to Wicliffe (sic) Rose, 3 December 1925 (Lillie papers, Woods
25. Lillie to Bigelow, 3 September 1935.
26. International Education Board file 74 (Rockefeller Archive Center); Lillie,
History of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, p. 3.
27. General Education Board file 910 (Rockefeller Archive Center).
28. Redfield, A. C., Anniversary address at Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution, 17 June 1970.
29. F. R. Lillie to Wickliffe Rose, II May 1927 (Rockefeller Archive Center).
30. Lillie, F. R., Oct. 5, 1927 Conference with Dr. Wicliffe (sic) Rose on subject
of oceanography (Lillie papers, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).
Wickliffe Rose diary, p. 338 (5 October 1927). The quotes are from Lillie,
whose account is fuller and more open.
31. F. R. Lillie to Wi cliffe (sic) Rose, 24 October 1927 (Lillie papers, Woods
Growth of an Oceanographic Institution
Richard L. Haedrich and Kenneth O. Emery
1 Introduction
The first 50 years of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution span a sequence
of political, scientific, and socio-economic changes that have influenced its work
and its growth. The situation is not unique to Woods Hole, but applies widely.
These changes have influenced other oceanographic institutions, oceanology as a
whole, and science in general. We view what has happened at Woods Hole as a
microcosm of the growth and behavior of science in a changing world. Because
its growth has been so rapid and has taken place mostly within the lifetimes of
its present practitioners, and because good and fairly complete records have been
kept since the Institution's founding, its history provides a useful object lesson.
Insights into the past suggest courses for the future.
Our data are derived from the Institution's Annual Reports, records in the
Personnel and Education Offices, the statistical section of the 48th Report of
the Director (Fye 1977), and conversations with long-time staff members-in
particular Mary McGilvray-for more complete knowledge of the years prior to
1957 when the annual reports were less comprehensive. Early versions of portions
of this paper appeared in the Reports of the Staff Committee for 1971 and 1976.
68 R. L. Haedrich and K. O. Emery
2 Phases of Growth
Summer Institute-1930 to 1941
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was incorporated on 6 January 1930,

the result of considerable activity and urging by Frank R. Lillie, then director of
the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. A National Academy of Science
committee under his chairmanship, with Henry Bryant Bigelow of Harvard Uni-
versity as secretary, in 1927 recommended expansion of the American effort in
oceanography by supplementing the three largest oceanographic stations (Uni-
versity of Washington, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the Bermuda
Biological Station), and by establishing another at Woods Hole (Schlee 1972).
These recommendations were acted upon by the Rockefeller Foundation, which
provided the Institution with $580,000 for its first building and two vessels,
$1,419,000 endowment, and $50,000 operating funds for several years, which in
1935 was changed to an additional $1,000,000 endowment. Interest and divi-
dends from this endowment, plus gifts from other organizations and individuals,
wholly supported the Institution and its work until 1940. Bigelow became the
Institution's first director.
By design, the Institution from its very beginning embarked upon a general
oceanographic program of physical, biological, geological, and chemical studies
of the ocean. During 1932, Atlantis made a cruise to northern South America,
but for the rest of the 1930s she remained in the western North Atlantic with
only occasional voyages as far as the Caribbean Sea and Bermuda. The objective
was to learn the physical and chemical properties of the water, its plant and
animal inhabitants, and the nature of the ocean floor in what is now known as
the continental margin.
The operating budget averaged about $100,000 (Fig. 1), and the full-time
year-round staff was small but supplemented by university professors who left
their classes for a summer of novel research. This institute followed the pattern
of the Marine Biological Laboratory and the earlier Penikese Station, where the
efforts of summer were bent towards field work, winter being the time when re-
ports would be written. The system, as had been envisaged by the founders,
worked well. The field was a new one, and productivity was high (Fig. 2). Since
many investigators were supported for most of the year by their home university,
the cost per publication was low. Support was virtually all from private sources,
and in this important regard and in others the first ten years of the Institution
were reminiscent of marine studies at the end of the 19th century (Bigelow 1964).
World War 11-1942 to 1945
At the beginning of World War II, the U. S. Navy had little understanding of the
environment in which it operated. Among the problems requiring study were di-
rections and drift rates of downed airmen, submarine ballasting, acoustic de-
tection of submarines, ambient noise in the ocean, behavior of explosives in
Growth of an Oceanographic Institution 69
1
I "-
..
I ~o
I
1 ~o
20 I 1
(}o
OPERATING BUDGE T I 0 0
I I I 0
"~1 5 I
... 1
I
:
1
~ 1967
01
$
1 I
10 1 I
1 I
I 1
1 :
1 I
I I
I 200
I UJ
I --'
I 1 I 150 :5
w
SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL STAFF 0..
I I
100 :5
a::
UJ
50 ~
z=>
(/) o
~ 6.000 , , I
....
RESEARCH SHIPS
1
I
I
I
I
Figure 1. Relationships of operating budget (not including institutional funds

for new buildings and new ships) with the number of Scientific and Technical
Staff and with the tonnage of research ships at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. Dashed vertical lines denote beginning and end of major phases of
Institutional development. The budget shows actual amounts (empty circles)
and constant dollars (solid line) with 1967 as the standard, the common cor-
rection used by economists.
water, ship-bottom fouling, wave prediction for amphibious landings, and a host
of other practical matters. The Woods Hole staff soon became occupied with such
investigations and was greatly augmented by university, industrial, and naval
people working on classified research for military purposes full-time and year-
round (Fig. 1). The period was a significant one for Woods Hole and for ocean-
ology in general, for during it occurred the first major involvement of the govern-
ment in the funding of science. The Navy, with its direct interests at stake, be-
came a major benefactor of oceanographic science and has remained so.
The budget during these years was not precisely recorded, either because of
military classification or because the Institution considered the government
funding only a temporary aberration not worthy of formal detailing. The fact
that the work was classified reduced the productivity of the staff in terms of
published articles (Fig. 2), so much so that the Collected Reprints for 1943,
100r-----,~'l;""'il-,._---TT"r_:_-____,~--.....,
I 10
I
I
I
I
PUBLICATIONS IN COLLECTED
REPRINTS PER MEMBER OF
SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL STAFF
I ' I
I I
I I
I I
1 I
r--£'C"'...-.. I
r-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-4 0
I I I I
11:::1 I~ I I I ~
Ill: 1<:tQ::1 I I ll.~
I <:t IS <:(1 I I a~
SUMMER I S ::2S :BROADENING I GIANT I ~~
INSTITUTE: Cl 1~t1 1 VISTAS I OCEAN-I ~~
1 ct 19=;;0.":1 IOLOGY I ~ ....
a I~QI I ll.«
I ~ It:; I I I 1<1 ....
I Ill: 1 I I ....
I 1 I I g
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980
Figure 2. Costs of publications in Collected Reprints (main product of Insti-

tution) and productivity of Scientific and Technical Staff during the different
phases of Institutional development. Cost = total annual budget divided by num-
ber of publications; productivity =number of publications divided by number of
staff members.
1944, and 1945 were bound in a single thin volume. Atlantis moved to the Carib-
bean Sea and Gulf of Mexico to work, but war-time dangers caused her to be
laid up in the Gulf from late 1942 to early 1945.
Attempted Return to Pre-War Normalcy-1946 to 1949
The end of the war brought an attempt to return to pre-war research. Almost at
once, however, the government mounted an enormous effort to evaluate the ef-
fects of atomic bomb blasts on naval ships and the environment in general at
Bikini Atoll, and turned again to Woods Hole and other oceanographic insti-
tutions for scientists. The scientific appeal was the opportunity to use many
ships and expensive facilities to investigate the physical, biological, geological,
and chemical characteristic.;s of a broad oceanic region. The objective was a com-
prehensive understanding, and thus scientists from many disciplines were brought
together to work for the first time in a large interdisciplinary investigation.
Although most of the university and industry wartime staff at Woods Hole
soon dispersed, the by-now professional and full-time oceanographers who re-
mained retained much of their broadened viewpoints and consideration for the
importance of aspects of oceanography beyond their own fields. In tum, the
Navy did not forget the importance of a knowledge of its operating medium,
and began to establish its own oceanographic facilities. At the same time, it con-
tinued its support of institutions such as Woods Hole through the newly-
established Office of Naval Research.
The immediate post-war years were difficult ones, and the staff soon realized
that it could operate neither on the high-budget wartime level where cost was
secondary, nor on the low-budget pre-war one where time was secondary. Both
the budget and the staff size were intermediate between those of the two pre-
vious phases of growth, but the number and size of the ships were little changed
(Fig. 1). However, staff productivity was somewhat increased owing to the writ-
ing and publication of research that had lain dormant during the war, or had
been initiated by wartime research (Fig. 2).
Broadening Vistas-1950 to 1962
Post-war growth began in earnest about 1950 with increasingly large contracts
from the Navy, mainly through the Office of Naval Research, and with the
founding of the National Science Foundation. By 1962, Navy-funded research in
all fields of oceanography amounted to more than $4,000,000 per year, about
three-quarters of the Institution's total operating budget. More ships were needed
and a large one, Chain, was supplied from the Navy (Fig. 1). The year 1952 had
the first cruise to the South Atlantic, and 1955 the first to the Pacific Ocean.
This expansion from the Gulf of Maine and the western North Atlantic into the
world ocean has been maintained as the. staffs interests grew to include studies
of the world circulation patterns at top and bottom of the water, zoogeography,
and structural history and origins of the different oceans.
A major factor in the rapid growth that began in this period was the creation
of the National Science Foundation with its mandate to fund basic science.
With this step, the government formally recognized the importance of basic re-
search and committed itself to supporting it. The oceans were clearly regions
where enormous gaps in understanding existed. The advent of the National
Science Foundation meant that oceanographers could pursue the sorts of questions
that had intrigued them during the summer institute phase, but with support
that allowed much broader efforts.
Growth of the staff at Woods Hole during this broadening phase required ad-
ministrative changes both for internal and external reasons. A full-time and con-
stantly growing scientific staff, large government contracts, and the mere fact of
more people led to increasingly formal organization. Research assistants, book-
keepers, managers, secretaries, and marine personnel were added. Requirements
to meet government regulations and reporting added administrative staff beyond
those needed internally. Although the percentage of people not directly engaged
in science had grown since the Institution's very earliest period, it had not, as is
30,------.------~----_.--_,
I Figure 3. Parallels between Scien-
I tific and Technical Staff, total
I
OPERATING BUDGET
I
year-round staff (omitting guest
10
I and post-doctoral investigators
I and students), and budget in con-
I stant (1967) dollars. Note semi-
I log plot (unlike Figs. I and 2) for
I better showing parallelism in
I
I growth of budget and staff.
1,000
I
TOTAL YEAR-ROUND
STAFF
lL
I lL
«
I 300t;j
I 0::
I W
I co
~
I 100~
I
I
I
I
1950 1960 1980 30
1970
often believed in such cases, accounted for the major growth. No massive bu-
reaucracy has been imposed. In fact, the ratio of total Institution population to
scientific staff has remained fairly constant, 3.1 to 3.8, since 1954 (Fig. 3).
A natural consequence of the necessity for increased administration as the
Institution grew was the eventual recognition of formal departments. These, now
Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Geophysics, Ocean Engineering, and Physical
Oceanography, grew from and replaced the more informal interdisciplinary work-
ing groups that were the heritage of the immediate post-war era. Groups working
on problems related to atomic fallout, for example, were resolved into biologists
and chemists, and groups working on acoustic phenomena were resolved into bi-
ologists, engineers, and physicists. Departmentalization, a mixed blessing, allowed
and encouraged increased specialization so that questions could be examined in
fmer and fmer detail. In so doing, however, it diminished the concept of ocean-
ology as a unified and essentially interdisciplinary field.
Giant Oceanology-1963 to 1970
The broadening phase continued imperceptibly into a phase that we term giant
oceanology, whose beginning and end are only vaguely demarked. It was and con-
tinues to be a time of world-wide, multi-disciplinary, multi-national, multi-
institutional programs, financed mainly by the National Science Foundation.
The phase included activities that led toward the use of national facilities such as
Glomar Challenger to learn the origin and history of ocean basins and their ad-
jacent continents, and DSRV Alvin for direct examination and precise sampling
of the ocean floor and its organisms. These special ships and the regular fleet
later came under the general and country-wide governmental jurisdiction of
UNOLS (University National Oceanographic Laboratory System). Atlantis II and
Kno" were built (Fig. 1) and immediately embarked upon worldwide studies of
many kinds. This included studies that led to the giant programs of the 1970s-
ocean chemistry in GEOSECS (GEOchemical SECtions Study), ocean-atmosphere
phenomena in GARP (Global-Atmosphere Research Program) and MODE (Mid-
Ocean Dynamics Experiment), and many kinds of broad-scale long-term ocean-
ography in mOE (International Decade of Ocean Exploration). The institutional
budget rose to more than $12,000,000 per year, total staff to 570, and profes-
sional staff to 182. Funding by the Office of Naval Research continued, but by
1970 nearly equal support came from the National Science Foundation. Other
agencies contributed too, including the Energy Research and Development
Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National In-
stitutes of Health, U. S. Geological Survey, and Sea Grant. Income from endow-
ment and gifts was and is relatively minor.
The phenomenal growth of oceanography since 1950, an almost five-fold in-
crease at a time when science budgets in general only doubled, attracted students
who saw the field as one having golden opportunities. The period thus included
an expansion in oceanographic curricula. New departments of oceanography were
set up in universities and colleges having no previous relationship or experience
with the oceans. Political pressures to distribute government funding for ocean-
ography equitably, rather than to just a few centers, may have abetted this ten-
dency. There were two perhaps unforeseen results. One was that a system and
apparatus was set up to train students in numbers that exceeded the strictly
oceanographic jobs available. The second was that colleges and universities pre-
viously uninvolved gained experience and capabilities in oceanography to the
extent that their faculties could successfully compete for government research
grants. At the end of this period, aspects of oceanography were practiced in
many diverse institutions; no longer was oceanographic research the private do-
main of a handful of large dedicated laboratories.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution participated in the educational ef-
fort. From its founding, the Institution's special facilities had been available for
graduate research by students from elsewhere, although usually through faculty
who held some sort of joint appointment. In 1968, the Institution began its own
formal graduate education program in oceanography jointly with the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology.
At the same time, there had developed in academic circles particularly a con-
cern with the social and political environment within which science operated and
to which it contributed (King and Melanson 1972). This added yet another di-
mension to oceanography, and the Institution established in 1971 a program in
Marine Policy and Ocean Management. This program and the one in education
came about mainly at the instigation of the then director, Paul M. Fye.
Effects of Dollar Inflation-1971 to Present
Between 1930 and 1967 the purchasing value of the dollar dropped an annual
average of about 2%, but the rate sharply increased (when the U. S. went off the
gold standard) to about 9% by 1978. The effect is such that the 1978 dollar had
the purchasing power of $0.51 in 1967. Even though operational funds at the
Institution nearly doubled in terms of current dollars between 1971 and 1979,
funding was little changed in terms of constant (1967) dollars, averaging
$13,140,000 per year (Fig. 1). As salaries adjusted to the decreased purchasing
power, the number of professional staff and of total year-round staff remained
closely parallel to the budget in constant dollars but not to that in current dol-
lars (Figs. 1, 3). The same is true for the tonnage of research ships and probably
for most other items in the budget.
The development phase termed giant oceanology continues past its indicated
end in 1970 (Fig. 2), but that approximate date marks a point of increasing con-
trol exerted upon staff size and activities by dollar inflation. History provides
no optimism that the inflationary trend can be reversed, because its political-
social cause is deeply rooted. Even to stop the inflation will require such an
enormous effort by the government that it seems remote. The effect on the In-
stitution's budget of continued inflation at the present rate is such that to main-
tain a budget of $13,000,000 (the average of 1971-1978) will require current
dollars of $50,000,000 by 1987 and $100,000,000 by 1997.
The usual governmental, industrial and institutional response to budgetary
stress is to reduce the effort in the least visible and least cost-accountable portion
of the work, namely basic research. Furthermore, with so many other demands
on government money, there can be made no compelling argument that the basic
aspects of oceanographic science should be supported to the extent that ocean
scientists would like (Weinberg 1963,1964). We expect that continued inflation
will put increased pressure upon funding agencies to reduce, or at least not to in-
crease, current dollars for research budgets. This means diminished constant dol-
lars and diminished oceanographic staffs and work accomplished. Others have
called attention to this trend already as it pertains to university research in gen-
eral (de Solla Price in Walsh 1978, Handler 1979). It is likely to cause the clos-
ing of departments of oceanography in the smaller and less dedicated universities,
particularly ones that depend heavily upon research grants. The first effects on
larger oceanographic institutions, including Woods Hole, most likely will be the
reduction of funds for ship operations followed by little replacement of aging
fleets, failure of many large broad-scale programs to originate, reduction of
long-term basic research in favor of shorter-term applied research, diminution of
staffs at most levels, and increasing specialization by researchers. It is clear that
some of these effects already are being felt. A measure of breadth of interest and
co-operation between disciplines is the percentage of multi-authored publications
written by people from different departments. At the Institution this figure was
5.4% for the five-year period ending with 1955, then 6.4% to 1960, 6.0% to
1965,15% to 1970, 12.9% to 1975, and down to 9.2% for 1976-77.
The period since 1971 represents a coming of age for the Institution. For the
first time, clear limits to growth are apparent, and the problems of coping with
a steady-state situation must be faced. Many of the remaining original staff mem-
bers have reached retirement age, and a second generation of people trained
particularly in oceanography is taking over. This is a new phenomenon at the
Institution, and retirements will temper the diminution of staff that can be
expected to result from dollar inflation.
The scientific questions of the 1980s are potentially on a level well above
those of the past, founded as they are upon accumulated knowledge. They in-
clude questions concerning total energy flow through the ocean life system, the
nature of the continental crust-oceanic crust contact, ocean climate and circu-
lation during the past, the history of oceans prior to the present ones, the move-
ment of weather fronts through the oceans, future sea levels, management of
ocean food and mineral resources, and an understanding of energy sources in the
ocean. Such practical matters as effects of deep mineral exploitation, ocean
waste disposal (particularly of nuclear wastes), and increasing food supplies must
be addressed.
Whether such questions are tractable, however, remains to be seen. Some of
them are uniquely oceanic in scope, and economics ultimately may thwart their
solution. Others, in particular those dealing with biological principles and eco-
system dynamics, might much more soundly and with much lesser cost be dealt
with in large freshwater systems. We believe that the future will see increasing
application of oceanographic thinking and approaches to phenomena in the Great
Lakes, and that much good science will come of this.
3 Population Structure
Proposals from the Scientific and Technical Staff at the Woods Hole Oceanogra-
phic Institution generate the operating funds and determine the nature of the re-
search program. Staff composition changes with recruitments, departures, and
promotions, with probably some of the greatest changes occurring between the
different phases of development. There are three levels in the Scientific Staff-
Senior, Associate, and Assistant Scientist-and three in the Technical Staff-
Senior Research Specialist, Research Specialist, and Research Associate.
Longevity at the Institution varies between 0 and 40 years, with the longest
half-lives for the highest levels (Table 1). Thus most senior people have worked
their way up through the levels during long stays at the Institution rather than
being recruited into high levels from elsewhere. The same is true for Senior Re-
search Assistants, ship's officers and chiefs, and top management, all of which
have a median half-life of 14 years. In contrast, the median half-life for total
employees is slightly less than 5 years.
Within the three levels of the Scientific Staff there are actually four grades,
two of which are tenured and two of which are not. Age structure and lifetime
production of articles by grade varies between the major scientific departments
Table 1. Number of professional staff at each level, and the half-lives for each at
the end of 1977, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Level Number Half-Life
(yr)
SCIENTIFIC STAFF:
Senior Scientist 30 17
Associate Scientist 47 10
Assistant Scientist 23 3
TECHNICAL STAFF:
Senior Research Specialist I 15
Research Specialist 35 14
Research Associa te 64 8
(Fig. 4). In Chemistry and in Geology and Geophysics, age increases fairly uni-
formly with grade, and suggests a slow but steady progression of individuals
through the grades. In Biology and Physical Oceanography, however, there is no
such uniformity. The two untenured grades are essentially the same ages, and so
are the two tenured grades. These departments, the oldest and most established
ones, represent a fairly stagnant situation as far as promotions go. Since mean
age to retirement for all senior people is ten or more years away, the steady
state that must result from economic considerations will not easily be achieved
in the scientific grades. lifetime production of articles (Fig. 4), when corrected
for age, shows that Senior Scientists (Grade IV) on the average write more
articles than other grades, with differences being most pronounced in Chemistry
and least in PhYSical Oceanography. The largest jump in productivity occurs be-
tween Grades I and II (promotion from Assistant to Associate Scientist).
The period of stress during the present phase of development is a particularly
interesting one in which to examine the population dynamics of departments.
Aspects of leadership and activity in two departments are contrasted (Fig. 5).
Biology, an established department and discipline, has an imbalanced age struc-
ture, and Chemistry, a younger department and discipline, has a balanced age
structure. During the period the ratio of Grades I and II to Grades III and IV in-
creased in Biology and decreased in Chemistry. Similarly, leadership in writing
for publication, as chief-scientist on cruises, and in classroom teaching increasing-
ly fell upon junior members in Biology, but were erratically but roughly equally
shared in Chemistry, with perhaps more of a trend toward teaching by senior
members. Part of the apparently erratic pattern in Chemistry is due to pro-
motion of active untenured members to tenure during the period (Fig. 6). This
did not happen in Biology. Patterns in the two other science departments of the
Institution are intermediate.
Most people enter at the lowest grade and work their way upward (Fig. 6), a
trend also apparent in the data of Table 1. Only 14% of the scientists and 8% of
the technicians entered from outside the Institution at any other than the lowest
grade during the period. At the first level, additions to the scientific staff were
BJOLOGY CHEMJ,sTRY G&.G Po.
s:-s:-g~ ~ Q
C'I>
C'I> <19. 8"
7 8 4 9 5 3 4 5 5 9 7 4 6 7 6
~~fj~C::
° o
::s C'I> C'I> '" ..... ~
60 60 60 60 .....
'" ::s C'I> "" C'I>
t:t=~<;<
::r
2~,-,::r0 - o
...,
c,o.ooa 50 50 50 ,.,
o",~~,<
::s ..... ., 0 =
." 0 "" o
."
::s
;: C3
~
::;>
0
0-<'
::r
e:
-.
=-. g-
(r~ ~
+t 40
t 401- m tl 40 r ()
C'I>
§
::r""s~o.
0'" ...... 301- f 30
t f 301- 111
ill- 30 I- -lit -$-
~g-ge:g-
~,.,
{/.l t"""'+- ~ r-+ "0
II ill N II ill TIl II ill N II ill TIl
S ...... f!J. 0. ~ e:
...... 0 . " ' 0 ()
Cl ...... o ..... o 260
"" ." • ~ ::s 120r,-----------------, 120r,- - - - - - - - - - , 120, T-, 120r,- - - - - - - - - - , til
=
.,,~0-30,o
o. ..... ::r 0. 0
o "":::l 0 ~ 0
-
::to
.....
:::
...... <::;0.0-'0 100 100 100 100 .....
;'-'~ S. (D o·
~ @ ~ ..... ::;> - =
..... ::r ~80 80 80 80
::;> ." S 0 °S i:::
\..l
~ g aE ° ~60 60 60 60
,..... '" '" o' s=
'-1.1 M- ~ ""1 ~
t-; ('t) ""1 ............
~
~a°-<g- 2:: 40 40 40 40
('I) -. ~. 0
~iis-,§
0-3 '< ~ 0. s:- 20 20 tiB- 20 20
::r::;>""o-o
o 0 - ...... 0
o ~ ::s 0
g-Cl::r::s§"
~
. . . . ;:l(""t-g.. 0' -W-
i·
II ill
GRADE
TIl 0'. II ill TIl 0' ':'
tt
II ill TIl 0'
....... t
II
GRADE
it
ill TIl
"""I
""1 ~ ...... () GRADE GRADE
0. ~ ." ~. S
o 0 0. ::s ""
. . . e:"'e:.
]..... ~"'...-.. Figure 4. Age structure and life-time publication records of scientists in departments at the Woods Hole Ocean-
S· ographic Institution. For horizontal scale, I = Assistant Scientists, II = Associate Scientists with term appoint-
S
. . . ~_. ::so· s<» -<
('I) r-+ fJ'J j...t.. ("0 ments, III = Associate Scientists with tenure appointments, and IV = Senior Scientists. Horizontal line = average,
ae: . . . a~ bars = standard deviation, and dots connected by vertical line = extremes. The Department of Ocean Engineering -...J
til l:j 0 ~ 7° -...J
was omitted because of its relative youth, small scientific staff, and more applied nature.
PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE -..J
PERCENTAGE 00
~ g; Ui 8 N '"
... 8 ~ ~ ~ 8
~ ~ ~ 8 I i I I I I
'"I a '" I i i i i I
i I I
cflilHiWilHi ili l I VI cflmllHlll l::j cf m!i:mm:mm I~ cf !iH!li HHimmmiUlnn I~
. ~~---- n n ••.• !'1
i l:!HHU jVl ~ j pm:::!i!:1 Ia; '"(] r j Hii iHi iHHiHiHH'i:i:! I <.:i ~

i'i
"T! ;i1!!Wmrm:r:iii!i1iil "T! \J
;i mi:m:!!1!mi1HiWmW1i!Hi!!1 VII I", C
~ C/I
:: :: r
N ~ ::::,::.:.:.:.:.,.:.:.:.: Q
tTl
~ j ·;::;m:!:ili i:li1i!:il!i:;iil!!;:m;ii:i!;: i:i;1m:; ;iml i'inC/I ~ ; :; :; !;~; ;: :;:; !;I ~ ~ '". . ; FFi'?F!:F!",:n ,... ~~:;:i;:i :;: :;i;:;i;:;i:;il ~
i lHHHHI VI I -{z i liwmmm:mmil I(:;i ~ i IHrmmmm] I~ 5
z
1ii
<if m::mmmmmimiJ I'" (ij i:i FmnHii:i:iii:J I(;i ~~: ;~:~:~:l;: rl :: ~ <if IHmiwmmim:mil I~
() of !:iW:;HiWi iHid I~
ofl!Wim! VI I of wmmmmmwiWiI I(;i ofH!Hwl I'"
I ([J
fTI o
~ r
PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE PERCENTA"GE PERCENTAGE oG)
n1 g Ul 8 Dl g Ul ~ Dl g Ul Dl g Ul g
j I I ::0 -<
8I i i i i I
I I I I
• i I ( I
8I
-<
cfHr1n I~ <f !ii::imimA IDl cjiHimimim::::m:::m;imi:iHiWHWH - cJ b:i:i!:ii)i:i::immHi:ml IQj
.".".d
:fIHi}i:i:! ~ j Imimimmmmmi IQj ~ kW:!iim:mmill IN ?t'
-{ -
rj-l IN ITl i\ll IN -{tTl I~ ~ r"
~ - > ~ - > ::t:
I~: :~:~:~: :~: ~ml I'>
VI 0 ~ <;l l (l)
~ <;l mWimiwnmimmH
~~ :(,J Ub::,::)1 II",: ~ IN g mm---==- It; 5-{
::0 [" ::0 P-
I ITl2
UI :=!.
(>
i nmH:!!t:1:!:ili:i:1::i!i!ii:!!:iii!iii:i:ij ::0C/I N i tmmiwmmmmH I~ C/I ;:£1 IN ~ i FH:iril I~ ::r
I'>
<If lHilmm:!H1 I'" uf H:i!1ii!t!tiiWiiHI I~ <;II I'" uf IHHiWilili HnH:l I~ =
P-
af W:Hi!HimmmSmmmmrmmm (,J of wmrimW1i1 I0 aflmml I... of Wi:i:I l::l ~
o
Figure S. Population and activity of scientists in the Departments of Biology and in Chemistry, for the period 1970-1976. Clear por- tTl
tion of bar = Grades I and II (untenured); stippled = Grades III and IV (tenured). Numbers at the tops of the columns are the num- ~
bers of staff members who were involved in each activity. Authors = first author of papers in Collected Reprints ~
SCIEi'HIPIC STAFF TECHi'iiCAL STAFF
~ t.I.l 0 ........ RETIRED 85-98 85-9\
I:::g~....., Q
r:+:. .... ~Ij;j ....
;:r 0 en .-. TENURED STAFF 2_ _8
o _ o
(1) ..... ° /42-51/ -0 SENIOR RES. SPEC ~
.....
Q..~>-30 EJ ::r
(1) < J:l"0Cl o
'0 (1) (1) '< 15 t It ....,
p»rcn p:I
5 _ I»
~ '" (1) ::;l _ 8 _ 10 ::s
3 ::;l ...... Q.. ASSOC SCI. (TERM) 5 - RES. SPEC
(1)Q..~'"t:1 o
()
("I)
ae.°J:l"
B
29
t
B
16 t I»
Y' ~ ~ 1i. ::s
£ 20 _ _ 22 46 _ _ 58
oQ..
°~J:l"'"2
~ ... ASSIST. SCI RES. ASSOC. ~
1
27 - 20 1
1 68 - 63 1
'" 30 '0
~ So (1) g
t t ()
(1)
a n~ POST DOCS (HIRED) 24 23 PROMOTED FROM RES ASSIST
~ ° en ::;l ::s
~ ::;l J:l" ° BiOLOGY CHfl';i isTHY G&G 0.£ P.O -
~.
17-13 2-6 19-24
23-28 24-27
'".....
Q.. '"
.J:l". . .z"'~
(1) @3 'g.. :::.....
3~ (1)~ ° '< o·
::s
~ J:l"
o o -B~~ o
...
n ::;l
~ .....,
° .....~ 0 -B~ -6~c -8~
gfZSo°
en,-.,(1)~
(J) f"""+- .-. ('0
-8- o
t 4
t t 8
t o
t
~ ~ .... ~
_2 o _2 _0
CD 2 2
'"~. ° '"~. P.'" -8 -8 - EJ - 0-8 - EJ -
(1) ~ a §: t
s·e ~ o· 8 t 5 t t 7 t
....., en ::;l
r:+:. .... '"
4 - 6 -8 _5 6 - 7 -8 _3 I
::;l ......
;-..... °S g s·
::;l ..... n
Bt - t
B - -8
t
-
° J:l" (1) ..... ° t t
10
° (1)~ ....a (1)J:l"
~ 0Cl ~ ::: Figure 6. Movement through the various grades of the Scientific and Technical Staff for the entire Institution (top)
~ ;;l 8..::g and for scientists in the five departments (bottom), for the period 1970-1976. The arrows from the left show the
~ ~
'0~
'"...... ~
S number hired into a grade from outside; arrows to the right are departures from the Institution. Vertical arrows are
a0 So ~ promotions to a higher grade; the curved uppermost arrows show retirements. The first number in each box is the --J
1~('I)f"""+-
~
number of scientists in that grade at the beginning of 1971; the second number is for the end of 1976. Overall num-
bers of scientists are at the very top.
moted to tenure. Interestingly, Physical Oceanography was the most successful
at recruiting from outside to the higher levels. In all departments except Physical
Oceanography the largest number of departures are from Grade I, largely from
failure to be promoted in an ''up-or-out'' environment.
One might classify the departments of Biology and Physical Oceanography as
being in late maturity, Geology and Geophysics as being in early maturity, Chem-
istry in youth, and Ocean Engineering in early youth. Mature departments add
permanent people slowly, rely on considerable turnover at the lower levels, and
have an imbalanced age structure. Whether the less mature departments will in-
evitably evolve to this state remains to be seen. Without careful planning, we ex-
pect that they will. It is possible that relative ages might change over time, and
would be particularly sensitive to the removal or addition of large programs.
The future stressed steady-state phase of the Institution means that new per-
manent staff will be added far less rapidly than during the past except where re-
tirements make room. But, as seen in Fig. 4, these may not be expected for some
while. Because of increased turnover, opportunities certainly will continue at the
lowest levels, but chances for promotion cannot be great and mobility in all de-
partments will be slow.
4 Discussion
The picture we have sketched for the growth of oceanology and an oceanographic
institution is, we believe, a general one. Similar patterns can be seen in consider-
ation of a single branch of science (e.g., Emery 1975) and in science as a whole
(de Solla Price 1963). Within oceanology, the growth stages at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution must approximate those at other now large institutions,
with differences related mainly to dates of founding and the extent of integration
of disciplinary subfields. Growth patterns for the entire spectrum of oceanology
are the sum of the growth in the separate institutions. At the same time, basic
differences do exist between institutions. It would be very interesting to see what
the growth patterns have been at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, an older
and larger laboratory than the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and one
that has always been a part of a large university.
During the past century, oceanology has come to be recognized as an entity
unto itself, but it is nonetheless a compound field, a composite of biology, chem-
istry, geology, and physics. Each of these different disciplines has had its own
separate development and growth. Within oceanology each has separate para-
digms in the sense of Kuhn (1962). In Biology, an important paradigm is the
origin of species, in Chemistry it is the similarity of composition of seawater in
all oceans, in Physical Oceanography it is the prediction of residual currents
from dynamic topography, and latest, in Geology it is plate tectonics. Each
paradigm led to new thoughts, new work, new relationships, and new paradigms.
As a result, the number of practitioners and progress in the sub fields have grown
at different rates. For the oldest (Biology) the field can be considered mature
with a large and only slowly growing number of people and output of publi-
cations; for the youngest (Geology and modern Chemistry) the workers are few
in number but their literature is growing rapidly (Menard 1971). The mix of
mature and young fields is reflected in the exponential growth of oceanography
as a whole, with essentially the entire significant part of the growth curve occur-
ring during the time since the founding of the Woods Hole Oceanographic In-
stitution.
Scientific growth is influenced very much by changes in funding and by other
political-sociological factors-thus the reality and importance of the phase
changes in oceanology (Figs. 1-3). The latest phase is a belt-tightening one, for
exponential growth cannot go on forever, and the same trends are apparent in
other laboratories and in education (Menard 1971, Handler 1979). The timing
and depth of this particular phase is controlled by an external factor, the in-
flation in the dollar and in nearly all other world currencies. The effects of this
stress are beginning to show within population dynamics of the different depart-
ments at Woods Hole (Figs. 4-6), and probably at many other places, and these
present effects can serve as a basis for extrapolation into the immediate future.
Eventually, even the present-far reaching phase will come to an end. Then,
the future of oceanology (its population, products, and new methods and dis-
coveries) must depend upon a new evaluation of its importance to mankind rela-
tive to other professions. Because the ocean is important to man for material
purposes (food, minerals, transportation, warfare), and for more philosophical
ones (literature, history, and human relations), we can expect that interest in
the oceans will neither diminish very far during a stress phase nor lag very much
during a later growth phase. Probably the renewed thrust will have some new
aspects, one of the most important of which we see as a much greater appreci-
ation for the whole of ge~eral oceanology, rather than of its specialized parts.
Only by true integration of oceanography can we expect to make real progress
in our understanding of the oceans. Fortunately, the best interests of both
science and scientists are served by co-operation (Hull 1978).
Despite all the changes, pressures, and varying stresses that have taken place
over the years, the scientific work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution goes on. Indeed, it is quite remarkable that the rate of publication has
been almost constant for the past 30 years (Fig. 2). The influx of money and
of new ships and facilities neither increased it, nor have new responsibilities,
for example in the Education Program, and financial uncertainties diminished it.
References
Bigelow, H. B. 1964. Memories of a long and active life. The Cosmos Press, Cam-
bridge, 41 pp.
de Solla Price, D. 1. 1963. Big science, little science. Columbia Univ. Press, New
York, 119 pp.
Emery, K. O. 1975. Perspectives of shelf sedimentology. Chap. 25, pp. 581-592,
Marine sediment transport and environmental management, D. 1. Stanley and
D. J. P. Swift (eds.), John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Fye, P. M. 1977. Forty-eighth report of the director to the members and trustees.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 33 pp.
Handler, P. 1979. Basic research in the United States. Science, 204,474-479.
Hull, D. L. 1978. Altruism in science: a sociobiological model of co-operative
behavior among scientists. Anim. Behav., 26, 685-697.
King, L. R. and Melanson, P. H. 1972. Knowledge and politics: some experiences
from the 1960's. Public Policy, 20(1), 83-101.
Kuhn, T. S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Univ. Chicago Press,
Chicago, 172 pp.
Menard, H. W. 1971. Science: growth and change. Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, 215 pp.
Schlee, S. 1972. The edge of an unfamiliar world, a history of oceanography.
E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 398 pp.
Walsh, J. 1978. Historian of science states case for catching up on basic research.
Science, 199, 1188-1190.
Weinberg, A. M. 1963. Criteria for scientific choice. Minerva I, 159-171.
Weinberg, A. M. 1964. Criteria for scientific choice II: the two cultures. Minerva
III,3-14.
Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910) and the Financial Support
of Oceanography in the United States
Donald J. Zinn
1 Introduction
Roy's observation (1979) that "historians of science record that great science'is
built around key individuals, small groups, or a special 'bunch of people,' in
Lewis Thomas' felicitous phrase, not around elaborate proposals," applies in
great sense to the contributions of Alexander Agassiz and his academic progeny
to the oceanography of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The nineteenth century was a period of growth in marine science among the
maritime nations of the European continent as well as in America. Both Yonge
(1972) and Deacon (1971) suggest that in the former case, it followed years of a
pattern of long slow increases of participation leading to relatively short periods
of intense activity and terminating in sudden loss of interest.
According to Reingold (1978):
If one admits the topics [patterns of human behavior J excluded by Merz

[ 1965 J, then the origins, elaborations, diffusions, and differential receptions
of scientific advances in the United States of America and elsewhere display
dependence upon particularities of time and place.
In this country, an expansion begun following the Revolution was maintained at

a low but steady rate, and mostly in the application of physical sciences to the
sea, where the scientific horizon, spurred in great part by commerce along the
coasts and across the oceans, expanded quite rapidly. The arrival of Jean Louis
Rodolphe Agassiz (1807-1873), the famous Swiss naturalist, in 1846, brought
breadth to American eighteenth century marine science, and speeded its develop-
84 D. J. Zinn
ment through personal involvement, generations of students and his son, Alex-
ander. With his familial background, excellent education, colleagues in science
and social contacts, Alexander provided an auspicious catalyst for the develop-
ment of oceanography to a top position among the sciences in the last half of
this century. He accomplished this by stressing communications between special-
ists in various branches of science and other professionals in and out of govern-
ment, giving marine research a platform of significance, emphasizing efficient
organization of oceanographic expeditions and generating an active and genuine
interest in private financial support for marine research. He recognized that work
could not be carried out and continued on important and relevant ocean prob-
lems without fmancial and institutional resources, and that such support was in-
deed necessary if oceanography was to maintain the proper identity amo£.g the
sciences. One of his more famous students, Henry B. Bigelow (1879-1967) could
have been echoing this philosophy whe~ he wrote (1931):
... it is certain that, today, the most rapid approaches toward an understand-
ing of events in the sea are being made by orderly, intensive, and concerted
attacks upon one or another phase, via definitely stated and apparently illus-
trative problems, rather than by haphazard accumulation of unrelated facts,
gathered in the hope that somehow, sometime, these may be fitted together
by someone.
Taking off in a slightly different direction, Ross (1977) believes that the study
of the sea in man's early history was usually motivated by a practical rather than
by an abstract curiosity about the ocean. It became apparent late in the nine-
teenth and early in the twentieth century with increased sophistication in tech-
nology, and with the development of the basic natural sciences of the ocean,
that advances in the science of the sea depends equally on progress in other
sciences.
2 Federal Support to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
It is difficult to trace the Federal Government financial support of the marine

sciences up to about the last decade of the nineteenth century. In this paper, re-
liance is mainly on the printed Treasury Department reports of annual receipts
and disbursements supplemented by the published annual reports of the various
departments where virtually of necessity one is confined to line items in ex-
penses, appropriations or estimates of budgets. While this procedure may not re-
sult in precise data, it permits the emergence of several patterns. Another diffi-
culty is that of overlapping categories, where administrative units included under
one category may in fact have been engaged in a variety of activities. Equally
serious is the determination of what was.considered "science" before 1900, and
where both the nature of reporting procedures and the actual categories used
were entirely different from those in use today. The modern classifications to
Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910) 85
which we are accustomed, as for example, "research and development," are rela-
tively recent.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Government agencies mainly con-
cerned with observations, investigations, and applications and uses of the sea (in-
cluding commerce, fISheries and naval services) were the U. S. Coast and Geo-
detic Survey, the U. S. Geological Survey, the U. S. Fish Commission, the U. S.
Navy Exploring Expedition, the U. S. National Museum, the U. S. Navy Hydro-
graphic Office and the Nautical Almanac.
In brief, the Coast and Geodetic Survey came into existence in 1878 as the
renamed Coast Survey, authorized by Congress in 1807, and organized in 1816.
Dissolved in 1818, and reestablished in 1832 in the Treasury Department, it was
transferred to the Commerce Department under its 1878 title at the beginning
of this century. Although its work was primarily geophysical, its marine activities
included hydrography, tidal studies, and geodetic surveying (Weber 1973). The
United States Fish Commission was established by the Congress in 1871, and
connected with its charge to investigate and to promote the American fisheries,
was the conduct of research in ichthyology and marine biology. The merger of
the geological and geographical surveys of the Territories (Hayden), the Rocky
Mountain Region (powell) and of the 100 Meridian (Wheeler), in 1~79, resulted
in the formation of the U. S. Geological Survey. The work of the United States
Navy Exploring Expedition under the direction of Lt. Charles Wilkes (1838-
1842) was continued in such activities as reports and the preservation of col-
lections through 1860. Similarly, the National Museum, assigned to the Smith-
sonian Institution at its founding in 1846, started receiving federal appropri-
ations for the preservation of the collections made by the exploring expeditions
of the Government in 1858. Until 1866, the Naval Hydrographic Office and Ob-
servatory was a single unit; after separation, the expenses for nautical instruments
were budgeted by the Naval Observatory. The Nautical Almanac, although legal-
ly provided for in 1849 does not appear in the expenditures of the accounts
until 1851.
The appropriations of these agencies during the last decades of the 19th cen-
tury are summarized in Table 1 (with the caveats noted above). However, a
slightly more detailed examination of the appropriations of the oldest and pos-
Sibly more influential of these agencies in terms of its contributions to marine
science, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, reveals more clearly the uneven flow of
public fmancial support (descriptive catalogue, etc.).
As Reingold (1978) explains it,
A similar broad definition of mission [to the Smithsonian Institution] char-
acterized the Coast and Geodetic Survey-the physics of the earth, not simply
an assignment to produce useful charts. By 1900, its budget was down from
that of a quarter of a century before, reflecting more the vagaries of adminis-
trative history than the coming of a post-classical physics. The U. S. Geologi-
cal Survey now had pride of place in Washington ... measuring and under-
standing the land was a great preoccupation in the United States of the last
century. Using it and the resources of plants and animals was a great eco-
nomic activity, one particularly sanctioned by national ideologies.
86 D. J. Zinn
Table 1. Approximate Federal Marine Agency Appropriations from 1850-1900
(Bodansky 1966)
1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900
Fish
Commis- 136,000 311,000 522,000
sion
Coast &
Geodetic 235,000 497,000 507,000 559,000 449,000 528,000
Survey
Wilkes
Explor. 15,000 5,000
Exped.
Hydro-
graphic 96,000 60,000 41,000 60,000 97,000 143,000
Office
Naval
Observa- 85,000 67,000 196,000 81,000
tory
Nautical 16,000 23,000 26,000 30,000 28,000
Almanac
Totals $346,000 $578,000 $664,000 $848,000 $1,083,000 $1,302,000
Over the years, the federal appropriation for the U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey as revealed in the annual reports of this agency and the reports and docu-
ments of the U. S. Congress (Table 2) hit peaks and troughs until about 1900
when it started a steady climb. Although the reasons for this are varied and rela-
tively complex, in part, it may have reflected Agassiz's influence, however indi-
rect, in diversifying the jurisdiction of the Survey and in increasing general inter-
est in its work, and by his out of pocket contributions to the exploration of the sea.
The situation at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) in a sense was
similar. When Alexander Agassiz took over the actual directorship as a member
of the Trustees of the MCZ after the death of his father in 1873, the annual ex-
penses were based on an income of about $100,000. When he resigned as Director
(he remained as honorary director), in 1898, the Annual Report for that year
(Ann. Rept. MCZ 1897-1898) shows the invested funds of the Museum at
$585,737.11, with a larger share of it than ever before going to MCZ support of
marine work: the laboratory at Newport, R. I., the U. S. Fisheries Commission
at Woods Hole, Mass., as well as for a substantial increase in the publication of
reports on oceanographic expeditions and on collections of marine organisms.
The difficulty with the Fisheries Commission was that it was obliged more
and more to become involved in the application of science at the expense of
basic research to the point where Agassiz complained (Schlee 1973): "The Fish
Commission is hardly in condition to do more than attend to the problems that
Table 2. Approximate Appropriations of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey

by five-year intervals 1855-1930
Year Director Appropriation
1807 Hassler $ 50,000
1855 Bache 772,000
1860 Bache 497,000
1865 Bache 552,000
1870 Pierce 507,000
1875 Patterson 825,000
1880 Patterson 560,000
1885 Thorn 554,000
1890 Mendenhall 449,000
1895 Duffield 464,000
1900 Tittman 528,000
1905 Tittman 864,000
1910 Tittman 997,000
1915 Tittman 1,040,000
1920 Jones 2,041,000
1925 Jones 2,328,000
1930 Patton 2,726,000
they have in hand." Schlee indicates that" ... his statement was equally appli-
cable to the Depot and the Survey as well."
Burstyn (1966) feels that American science prior to the Civil War is the
science of an undeveloped country struggling to get on its economic feet, and it
was not until science began to stimulate technology by providing research and
development services to ocean shipping, that jobs became available for those
who wanted to work in this kind of marine science. The replacement of sailing
vessels by steamships for both commerce and fisheries lessened Government in-
terest in studying winds, currents and bottom topography to the point where ap-
propriations for investigations in marine science fell into a decline. It was in this
way that private institutions largely took over and retained for nearly forty years
the support of oceanography in the United States until nearly the beginning of
the second World War.
3 Alexander Agassiz-European Connections
An important result of the early visits of Alexander Agassiz to England, Scotland

and the Continent starting in the 1860s was the strengthening of an impression
inherited from his father that Americans were ready to learn about the natural
history of marine organisms and about the shoreline habitat in which they lived.
As Hedgpeth (1978) has indicated, by about 1730 the Europeans and, in particu-
lar, the English, had developed an interest in visiting the seashore for health and
recreation. By the mid-nineteenth century, attendance at seaside resorts became
88 D. J. Zinn
a popular summer diversion for English families (Marsden 1947). Both Hern
(1967) and Howell (1974) have noted that this led to the publication of several
manuals and guides concerning the diversity, kinds and habitats of intertidal and
subtidal marine organisms. Agassiz certainly must have known the more popular
books about the English seashore, especially those of Philip Henry Gosse (1810-
1888) whose Manual of Marine Zoology (1854) was a standard reference, as was
also Harvey's Manual of British Marine Algae (1841) for marine flora. In this
way, inspired by his father, influenced deeply by his cultural contacts and visits
with British colleagues, especially Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (1830-1882)
and Sir John Murray (1841-1914), and stimulated by his rapidly developing inter-
est in research in marine zoology, or as he liked to call it, thalassography, he and
his stepmother, Elizabeth Carey Agassiz (1823-1907) published Seaside Studies
in Natural History in 1866. This was the first American book about life at the
seashore. It was quite popular, and undoubtedly had considerable influence in
increasing general public interest in the potential of activities at the seaside and
support for the eventual establishment .of marine stations along American coasts.
4 Alexander Agassiz-Academic and Economic Background
Alexander Agassiz graduated from Harvard in the Class of 1855; and from the
Lawrence Scientific School, where he devoted himself to engineering, zoology,
chemistry and geology, from 1855 to 1862, and received two baccalaureate de-
grees, in 1857, and again in 1862. Although he wanted to become a railroad
engineer, he responded to his father's request by working as an assistant at the
MCZ, and obtaining a job at the U. S. Coast Survey.
His assignment at the MCZ was more than that of an assistant, it was, in a
sense, anticipation of responsibilities in the years to come. George Agassiz, his
son, writes (1913):
Alexander Agassiz's position ... included the general charge of the work and
business of the institution ... and the disentanglement of the financial diffi-
culti~s into which ... his father constantly plunged not only the museum,
but also the family purse.
In 1866, on the invitation of his brother-in-law, Quincy A. Shaw, he moved to

Calumet, Michigan to develop and superintend the then unprofitable Calumet
and Hecla copper mines at Lake Superior. On the eve of this venture, Eliot
(1910) records Agassiz's comment just before he started West. "Eliot, I am going
to Calumet, Michigan, for some years as superintendent of the Calumet and
Hecla mines. I want to make money. It is impossible to be a productive natural-
ist in this country without money. I am going to get some money first, if I can;
and then I will be a naturalist." It was a prophetic statement. He became presi-
dent of the Calumet and Hecla mines and developed them through intelligent
management, business ability, determination and capacity for organization into a
highly profitable enterprise. He remained president until the time of his death.
5 Alexander Agassiz-Businessman
After the Civil War was over, copper producers in the United States were in
quite difficult straits. In 1866, the copper industry was in crisis in a period of
managerial and financial disorganization. Concerning Agassiz's appearance on
this scene, Gates (1969) notes that
Alexander Agassiz, the brilliant young scientist who came out from Boston in
1867 to save the infant Calumet and Hecla companies, found the managerial
class of the district in a completely disorganized state of mind and so di-
vorced from Eastern controls that profitable operation had almost ceased to
be a mining aim.
By 1875, Agassiz and his financier brothers-in-law, Shaw and Henry Lee Hig-
ginson, owned 27,176 of the 80,000 shares of Calumet and Hecla stock (7,802
in his own name). Since a 20 percent interest in the company was more than
enough to make a multimillionaire, by 1884 such an investor would have made
$5 million in dividends, and his shares would have been worth nearly $5 million
in the market.
At the same time he was managing the affairs of the mines from Boston, he
accepted the office of Curator of the MCZ shortly following the death of his
father in 1873, and remained its active head until 1904 and nominally its Di-
rector until 1910. By 1900, Alexander Agassiz had spent over one million dol-
lars of his own resources in enlarging and maintaining the Museum in expeditions
that added to its collections, and in printing its professional publications.
6 Alexander Agassiz-Oceanographer
His scientific expeditions, beginning in 1875 and continuing more than three
decades, made contributions to oceanography which according to Eliot (1910)
justified Major Leonard Darwin's characterization: "He has done more for
oceanographic research than any other single individual."
Alexander Agassiz's oceanographic expeditions worldwide were carried out
on chartered yachts or Government vessels, and represented most of the activity
in this field in the United States at the turn of the century. An example was his
fmancing in 1904 of the refitting of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries' 234-foot
Steamer Albatross, designed and launched in 1882 as an oceanographic research
vessel by the Fish Commission under the leadership of Spencer Fullerton Baird
(1823-1887). The Albatross had been permitted to become less active in the years
following Baird's death in 1887, and needed refitting for the work Agassiz had
planned.
Schlee (unpublished MS) notes that up to 1904:
... Agassiz had already spent about $364,500 on oceanographic explorations

... according to his own calculations, he had spent $1,162,500 on science as
of 1901.
90 D. J. Zinn
'The bulk of these expenses,' he wrote, 'have been incurred since 1877, and
while the sum total seems a huge expenditure ... I hope that my influence on
science at Cambridge will not always be measured by the dollar standard as it
is so apt to be.' (Letter # 151. Agassiz to Sir John Murray, 29 April 1911.
MCZ Collection).
It seems fairly obvious that Agassiz felt keenly the lack of Government sup-
port of oceanography when he pointed out (1907) in his presidential address to
the VII International Zoological Congress,
It will undoubtedly seem strange to my European hearers to be informed that

the publication of the 'Albatross' expeditions have not been cared for by the
Federal Government ... This neglect is the more strange as, with the exception
of the 'Princess Alice' [under the Prince of Monaco 1 [it lis the only Govern-
ment vessel which has been built for deep sea work and kept in constant
commission for a period of twenty-five years.
When he died (1910), although there were stirrings in Europe pushing ocean-
ography along systematic surveys of seas important for the value of their com-
mercial fisheries instead of the long independent voyages that were the custom
in the United States, the field remained status in quo. Lacking government inter-
est and support as well as Agassiz's financial backing, collecting expeditions re-
mained the order of the day in this country.
One of his students was William E. Ritter (1856-1944), who, previous to be-
coming chairman of the Department of Zoology at the University of California
in Berkeley, with Agassiz's personal help interested newspaper publisher and
owner, E. W. Scripps (1854-1926), and his half-sister Ellen, in founding in 1903
the Scripps Institution of Biological Research (Burstyn 1976). Under Ritter's
successor T. Wayland Vaughan (1870-1952) (also a student of Agassiz), this be-
came the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which is, as Shor (1978) notes,
the oldest and one of the largest and best endowed institutions in the United
States. Ritter saw to it that his mentor was fittingly memoralized by insisting
that the twenty-six meter research ship built for the Institution in 1907 be called
the Alexander Agassiz. It was Ritter and his colleagues, especially G. F. McEwen
(1882-1972) and E. H. Smith (1889-1962), who understood the importance of
the new methods being used by the Scandinavians to study current and other
physical aspects of the seas so important both in themselves and in comprehend-
ing problems in the biology of salt waters, and introduced them to American
oceanography (Raitt and Moulton 1967). This was possibly the basic force that
started an upward trend and pushed this country toward its present position of
leadership in the field.
Of Alexander Agassiz's accomplishments in oceanography, Coker (1954)
noted that
His personal achievements in the field of oceanography were not of the kind
that is easily pictured to the general public; but oceanographers of the highest
rank appreciated his service.
In a similar vein, Kofoid had pointed out earlier (1911) that
He was the first to use steel cables for deep-sea dredging, on the Blake in
1877. This and all his subsequent expeditions on the Albatross and other ves-
sels were noted for the foresight with which they were planned with reference
to all possible contingencies at sea, the perfection with which the plan was
carried out, and the success with which the results were secu£ed.
To Herdman, his significance in the field resulted in great part from his
background and training (1923).
Agassiz's knowledge and experience were of the greatest value on board the
Blake in devising apparatus for deep-sea work. He substituted steel-wire rope
for dredging in place of hemp, and invented mechanical contrivances for ...
the hoisting in of the apparatus. He and Captain Sigsbee together devised a
... double edged dredge ... the 'Agassiz' or the 'Blake' dredge or trawl; and
also a very ingenious closing tow-net (called the 'gravitating trap') ...
Perhaps still more significant was the appraisal of Alexander Agassiz by Sir
John Murray of Challenger Expedition fame, and foremost promotor of ocean-
ographic research in England, as quoted by Herdman (1923).
If we can say that we now know the physical and biological conditions of the
great ocean basins in their broad general outlines-and I believe we can do so
-the present state of our knowledge is due to the combined work and obser-
vations of a great many men belonging to many nationalities, but most prob-
ably more to the work and inspiration of Alexander Agassiz than to any other
man.
7 Alexander Agassiz-Oceanographic Economic Postscript
The money to pay for broad programs of oceanography in the years following
Agassiz's death, and for at least a decade beyond, was not forthcoming from a
government whose annual appropriations discouraged any sort of basic research.
Indeed the well remained dry until Frank R. lillie (1870-1947) and Henry B.
Bigelow, each operating in his own biopolitical sphere, fmally managed to secure
the necessary private philanthropy to keep Agassiz's enterprise afloat. Although
there were other contributors, the Rockefeller Foundation took the lead in giv-
ing two million dollars (plus $50,000 for ten years-later adjusted to make a
total of three million dollars) to found the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution, and in making additional grants to the Bermuda Biological Station for
Research, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Wash-
ington. The Federal Government built on the largesse of the private foundations
so that by the Second World War, American oceanography had reached the front
rank. Vaughan (1937) lists 237 institutions working in oceanography worldwide,
21 of them in the United States. The budget of these non-government institutions
92 D. J. Zinn
for 1937 totaled more than $885,000, while the Federal Government budgeted
over $5,400,000 for marine studies by its agencies.
Today the picture is quite different. In addition to the contributions of scien-
tists, academe, industry and the states toward better understanding and use of
the sea, the Government has taken a far more vital and creative part. The Inter-
agency Committee on Oceanography of the Federal Council on Science and
Technology has, since 1959, brought together programs of Government agencies
into the framework of a National Oceanographic Program. This has been brought
about by Federal Government recognition that our national interest lies in sup-
porting the diversity of broad economic, social, political and scientific goals that
can be served by the sea. Its promotion of this interest is seen, for example, in
the 1968 estimate of $462.3 million for Federal agencies for marine sciences and
technology, of which $278 million was for the National Oceanographic Program
(Marine Science Affairs, etc., 1967).
References
Agassiz, A. 1907. Address of the President. Proc. VII Int. Congo Zool., 1, 55-59.
Agassiz, G. R. 1913. Letters and recollections of Alexander Agassiz with a
sketch of his life and work. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston.
Annual Report of the Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Har-
vard College for 1897-1898. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts.
Bigelow, H. B. 1931. Oceanography: its scope, problems and economic impor-
tance. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, vii + 263 pp.
Bodansky, J. N. Unpublished. Appendix to Reingold, N.: Official support of the
sciences 1850-1900: Germany, Great Britain, the United States.
Burstyn, H. 1966. Premo Conf. Int. Hist Oceanogr., Monaco. Communications
1, 160.
Burstyn, H. L. 1976. American oceanography in the twentieth century. Paper
delivered at the Bicentennial Meeting of the A. A. A. S. in Boston, Massachu-
setts, 24 February 1976.
Coker, R. E. 1954. This great and wide sea. University of North Carolina Press,
Chapel Hill, viii + 325 pp.
Deacon, M. B. 1971. Scientists and the sea 1650-1900: a study of marine science.
Academic Press, New York, xii + 395 pp.
Descriptive catalogue of publications relating to the U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey, 1807-1896, and to U. S. Standard Weights and Measures, 1790-1896.
1898. Treasury Department, Special Publication, No.2, U. S. Gov't. Printing
Office, Washington, D. C.
Eliot, C. W. 1910. Alexander Agassiz. The Harvard Graduates' Magazine XVIII
(LXXII),598-608.
Gates, W. B. Jr. 1969. Michigan copper and Boston dollars. Russell and Russell,
New York City, x + 301 pages.
Hedgpeth, J. W. 1978. Man on the seashore. Pages 163-195 in Wildlife in Ameri-
ca, Brokow, H. P. (ed.), Council on Environmental Quality. U. S. Gov't.
Printing Office, Washington, D. C.
Herdman, W. A. 1923. Founders of oceanography and their work: an introduc-
tion to the science of the sea. Edward Arnold & Co., London.
Hem, A. 1967. The seaside holiday: the history of the English seaside resort.
The Cresset Press, London, xiii + 209 pp.
Howell, S. 1974. The seaside. Studio Vista (Cassell and Collier Macmillan Pub-
lishers), London, 208 pp.
Kofoid, C. A. 1911. Contributions of Alexander Agassiz to marine biology. Int.
Rev. der ges. Hydrobiol. Hydrogr., 4, 40.
Marine Science Affairs-a year of transition. February 1967. 1st Report of the
President to Congress on Marine Resources and Engineering Development.
No. 0-242-086. Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., 157 pp.
Marsden, C. 1947. The English and the seaside: Britain in pictures. Collins,
London, 48 pp.
Merz, J. T. 1896-1912. A history of European thought. 4 vols. (Citations are to
the Dover edition of 1965, N. Reingold, vol. 1, pp. 14-15.)
Naval Hydrographic Office. 1830-1930. Special notice to mariners, one hundredth
anniversary number.
Proceedings of the Second International Congress on the History of Oceanogra-
phy. 1972. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., Sect. B, 72,1472.
Raitt, H. and B. Moulton. 1967. Scripps Institution of Oceanography: first fifty
years. Ward Ritchie Press, San Diego, xix + 217 pp.
Reingold, N. 1978. National style in the sciences: the United States case. In:
Human implications of scientific advance, E. G. Forbes, pp. 163-173. Proc.
XVth Int. Congr. History of Science, 10-19 Aug. 1977, Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Univ. Press.
Ross, D. A. 1977. Introduction to oceanography. 2nd edition. Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, vii + 384 pp.
Roy, R. 1979. Proposals, peer review and research results. Science, 204 (4398),
1154-1157.
Schlee, S. 1973. The edge of an unfamiliar world: a history of oceanography.
E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City, 397 pp.
Shor, E. N. 1978. Scripps Institution of Oceanography 1903-1978. A special
publication in connection with the seventy-fifth anniversary. Scripps Insti-
tution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, 92093, 21 pp.
U. S. Congress. House. House Reports [and] U. S. Congress. Senate. Senate
Documents. for 1807, 1855, 1860, 1865, 1875, 1880, 1885, 1890, 1895,
1900, 1905, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930. U. S. Gov't. Printing Office,
Washington, D. C.
Weber, G. A. 1973. The Coast and Geodetic Survey: its history and activities and
organization. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, vii + 110 pp.
Yonge, M. 1972. The inception and significance of the Challenger Expedition.
In: Proc. 2nd Int. Congr. History of Oceanography. 1972. Proc. Roy. Soc.
Edin., Sect. B, 72,1-472.
The Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory of Alpheus Hyatt,
Predecessor of the Marine Biological Laboratory at
Woods Hole, 1880-1886
Ralph W. Dexter
1 Introduction
Alexander Agassiz (1892) pointed out that John Anderson, who subsidized the
Anderson School of Natural History established on Penikese Island for Louis
Agassiz, refused to move the summer school of marine biology to Woods Hole.
After the second session of the Penikese laboratory in 1874, it was permanently
closed. Other naturalists, especially some of the students of Louis Agassiz, estab-
lished summer marine laboratories at various places over a period of time, but it
remained for Alpheus Hyatt to found a summer sea-side laboratory at Annisquam
on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, which grew into the most famous marine institution
on the east coast-the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole,
Massachusetts (Dall1902, Conklin and Lillie 1928, Dexter 1974).
2 Hyatt's Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory
Alpheus Hyatt (1838-1902) was one of the most notable students of Louis
Agassiz at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) of Harvard University.
He devoted his life to research and teaching of the natural sciences, serving as
Custodian (later, termed Curator) for the Boston Society of Natural History and
part-time professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston Uni-
university. He also had charge of the fossil cephalopod collection at the MCZ. He
initiated and directed the Teachers School of Science in connection with the
Boston Society of Natural History. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, how-
ever, was to establish under the sponsorship of the latter society and the Women's
The Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory of Alpheus Hyatt 95
Educational Association of Boston, a summer marine laboratory at Annisquam

which in time metamorphosed into the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods
Hole. Brooks (1909) has published a synopsis of Hyatt's life and work, and
Dexter (1952, 1957) has outlined some features of the Annisquam Sea-side
Laboratory .
It all began in 1880 when Hyatt set up a small marine laboratory in two rooms
of his summer home situated on a point of land between Lobster Cove and Goose
Cove in the suburban village of Gloucester, Massachusetts, known as Annisquam.
The rambling house was built by Francis Norwood in 1664 and purchased by
Hyatt in 1878. All that remains today reminiscent of the laboratory is an oil por-
trait of frogs painted by a student on the back panel of a door, and a bronze
plaque mounted on a granite boulder behind the house prepared by Mrs. Alfred
G. (Harriet Hyatt) Mayor which reads:
Alpheus Hyatt as Curator of the Boston Society of Natural History insti-

gated and directed the Teachers School of Science of Boston. Aided by
this society and the Women's Educational Association he established a Sea-
side Laboratory that had its birth in his house at Annisquam 1880. The
Marine Biological Laboratory of Woods Hole is an outgrowth from this
laboratory and Alpheus Hyatt was its first president in 1888-90.
Born I 838-Died 1902.
Following the informal gathering of advanced students Hyatt had invited to

his home in 1880 (and possibly the preceding year as well), a formally organized
summer school, the Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory, was established the follow-
ing year as a department of the Boston Society of Natural History in connection
with the Teachers School of Science. The Women's Educational Association do-
nated $400 for expenses and circulated announcements. Hyatt and one of his
assistants at the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, Balfour H.
Van Vleck (1851-1931), a student of Louis Agassiz and a graduate of the Law-
rence Scientific School of Harvard, were the instructors for the 22 students
(10 women) enrolled. like his mentor Louis Agassiz, Hyatt encouraged women
to attend the sea-side laboratory and prepare for careers in the teaching of science.
For the season of 1882 a small building on the shore of Lobster Cove was ob-
tained and converted into a marine laboratory with an adjacent windmill to
pump sea water into the building. The windmill was provided by the Women's
Educational Association (see illustrations in Dexter 1952, Burbank and Dexter
1954, those in Dexter 1957 are reproduced here as Figures 1 and 2). That year
14 students (8 women) and one independent investigator were in residence. At-
tendance dropped to only 10 (5 men, 5 women) the following year, but then in-
creased to a total of 26 (half were women) by 1886, the last and most successful
season for the summer school. J. S. Kingsley served as an instructor in 1884, re-
placing Van Vleck while he was away (Kingsley 1884). Hyatt published an annu-
al report on the Annisquam Laboratory in the Proceedings of the Boston Society
of Natural History (Hyatt 1880-88). Altogether, a total of 102 students, about
half of them women, were served by this pioneer marine laboratory.
96 R. W. Dexter
Figure 1. Exterior view of Hyatt's Sea-side Laboratory with students who at-
tended in the season of 1886. Reprinted from The Biologist with permission.
The student who became most famous in later life, Thomas Hunt Morgan of
Columbia University, was present at the final session of the laboratory (Conklin
1947) and may be in the photograph shown here as Figure 1. Other students who
became well-known biologists were Herman C. Bumpus, Edward G. Gardiner,
Jennie Arms Sheldon, and Adele M. Fie1de. Hyatt, Morgan, Gardiner and Fielde
all became officers of the MBL at Woods Hole in later years.
For his private research on marine life, expeditions to collect specimens of
fossil cephalopods and sponges, and for student field trips, Hyatt used his patri-
mony to obtain a schooner-yacht he named Arethusa (after the wood-nymph
Arethusa who was pursued by the river-god Alpheus). It was built at Bucksport,
Maine, in 1880, was 58 feet long, and weighed over 17 tones. Gilbert Davis of
Annisquam served as captain of the vessel, and Edward G. Gardiner (1854-1907),
another assistant to Hyatt at the Boston Society of Natural History, was usually
in charge of navigation and was second-in-command to Hyatt on expeditions. In
addition to dredging studies along the coast of New England, extended trips over
several months' time, to collect fossil cephalopods especially, were made to Anti-
costi Island, Newfoundland, and Labrador (Hyatt 1880-88, 1885, 1886; Bur-
bank and Dexter 1954, Dexter 1957). Outside of the fossil cephalopods, Hyatt's
main interest in marine biology was the classification of sponges (Dexter 1968,
1973).
Figure 2. Interior view of laboratory showing work tables, aquaria, equipment.

Seawater was circulated by means of a windmill. Reprinted from The Biologist
with permission.
The summer students enjoyed their dredging parties on the Arethusa. Hyatt
wrote to his colleague Samuel H. Scudder at the Boston Society of Natural
History in 1884, "Have the Arethusa in commission notwithstanding my avowed
determination not to run her this year. The students have shown such a desire
for dredging, that it overcame my impecuniositious feeling, and we shall probab-
ly use the boat considerably." With his vessel and equipment, dredging could be
carried out to a depth of 100 fathoms.
3 Formation of the Marine Biological Laboratory

at Woods Hole
The policy of the Women's Educational Association, founded in Boston in 1869,

was to support new and promising educational projects until they could become
self-supporting. In 1887 it was decided by Hyatt and the Association that the
Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory should become incorporated as an independent
organization under the control of a Board of Trustees. Also, Hyatt wanted to
98 R. W. Dexter
move his laboratory to an area of less polluted water, and preferably to Woods
Hole, where staff members and students could work closely with the fisheries
laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission established by Spencer F. Baird in
1882. Dr. Baird had long been interested in Hyatt's summer school and for some
time had tried to get Hyatt to move it to Woods Hole (Hyatt 1888). Baird also
tried to interest Hyatt in becoming his successor as U. S. Commissioner of Fish
and Fisheries. Upon the advice of his physician, Hyatt did not seek the position,
but he was finally convinced that Woods Hole would be the ideal site for his
transplanted laboratory (information from Harriet Hyatt Mayor).
An organizing committee of the Women's Educational Association sent ap-
peals to its members for contributions and to use their influence in seeking fi-
nancial aid. Hyatt was chosen as chairman and Miss Anna D. Phillips as secretary
for the subscription committee which had powers to establish a Marine Biologi-
cal Laboratory. Its goal was to raise $15,000 (circulars from the Association on
these matters are in the archives of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College).
The first Board of Trustees was created by the Association to serve during
1888-90 with Hyatt as president, and the Association agreed to aid in raising
money to establish and operate the new station for five years. In March, 1888,
Hyatt called a meeting to organize and incorporate as the Marine Biological
Laboratory. Other trustees were William G. Farlow, Professor William T. Sedg-
wick, Dr. Charles S. Minot, Samuel Wells, Miss Susanna Minns, and Miss Florence
M. Cushing. Hyatt was then elected as president of the Corporation. Two other
incorporators were also from the Annisquam Laboratory-B. H. Van Vleck and
E. G. Gardiner. Gardiner was clerk of the corporation 1895-1902 and 1906.07,
and served on the Board of Trustees for life, being secretary of the board 1896-
1902 and 1907 (Anon. 1908). In later years T. H. Morgan and Miss A. M. Fielde,
former students at Annisquam, also served as trustees.
Equipment at the Annisquam station was transferred to Woods Hole, and
Van Vleck continued as instructor at the new location. Charles o. Whitman, who
had been a student under Agassiz at Penikese, was chosen as the first director of
the Marine Biological Laboratory which he developed into the leading marine
center for research and instruction on the east coast. Some years later Whitman
(1898) wrote, "Our own sea-side schools, introduced by Louis Agassiz at Penikese
and continued by Professor Hyatt at Annisquam, combined instruction with re-
search, and this plan was adopted at Woods Holl (sic-the original spelling) in
1888." At the dedication exercises for the new MBL building and endowment
held 3 July 1925, the creation of the laboratory was briefly sketched (Crane,
lillie, Wilson, and Conklin 1925). Three years later a bronze memorial tablet
was installed in the reading room with the inscription:
A1pheus Hyatt
First President of the Woods Hole Laboratory, 1888. He also founded its
prototype at Annisquam, Massachusetts, established in 1880 with the aid
of the Woman's Educational Association and the Boston Society of
Natural History
1838-1902
At the dedication, E. G. Conklin traced the history of the Annisquam Labora-
tory and its evolution into the MBL. F. R. lillie, then' president of the corpo-
ration, said in accepting the tablet, "I express to the artist and donor, Professor
Hyatt's daughter, our appreciation of her gift for its beauty and its significance,
and pledge enduring memory of him who transmitted the influence of Louis
Aggasiz from Penikese to this place (Conklin and Lillie 1928). Conklin also
wrote popular articles (Conklin 1927) and the chapters on the early history in
the volume on The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory published by Lillie
(1944).
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to the descendants of Alpheus Hyatt for the privilege of studying

and quoting from his personal papers now deposited in the Peabody Museum of
Salem, and for their encouragement in my research on his life and career. I am
especially indebted to Hyatt's daughter, the late Harriet Hyatt Mayor, for per-
sonal information she gave me concerning her father's sea-side laboratory. Also,
to the archives of the Museum of Science, Boston, Mass., and the archives of
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass., for the use of their
documents on Alpheus Hyatt.
References
Agassiz, A. 1892. The abandonment of Penikese. Pop. Sci. Month., 42, 123.
Anon. 1903. Edward Gardiner Gardiner. Science, 27,153-155.
Brooks, W. K. 1909. Biographical memoir of Alpheus Hyatt, 1839-1902. Biog.
Mem., Nat. Acad. Sci., 6, 311-325.
Burbank, J. B. and R. W. Dexter. 1954. Excerpts from Alpheus Hyatt's log of
the Arethusa. Essex Insti. Hist. Coll., 90, 229-260.
Conklin, E. G. 1927. The story of Woods Hole. II The beginning of biology at
Woods Hole. Collecting Net, 2(2),1-6; (3),7.
Conklin, E. G. 1947. Thomas Hunt Morgan, 1866-1945. Biol. Bull., 93,14-18.
Conklin, E. G. and F. R. Lillie. 1928. Memorial of Alpheus Hyatt. Science, 68,
291-292.
[Crane, C. R, F. R. Lillie, E. B. Wilson, and E. G. Conklin]. 1925. Marine Bio-
logical Laboratory dedication exercises, July 3, 1925. Science, 62, 271-280.
Dall, W. H. 1902. Alpheus Hyatt. Pop. Sci. Month., 60, 438-441.
Dexter, R. W. 1952. The Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory of Alpheus Hyatt.
Sci. Month., 74,112-116.
Dexter, R. W. 1957. Views of Alpheus Hyatt's Sea-side Laboratory and excerpts
from his expeditionary correspondence. Biologist, 39, 5-11.
Dexter, R. W. 1968. Historical aspects of systematic studies on sponges by
Alpheus Hyatt. Biologist, 50, 25-29.
Dexter, R. W. 1973. Historical aspects of Alpheus Hyatt's work on fossil cepha-
lopods. Malacol. Rev., 6,38-40.
Dexter, R. W. 1974. From Penikese to the Marine Biological Laboratory at
Woods Hole-the role of Agassiz's students. Essex Insti. Rist. Coll., 110, 151-
161.
Hyatt, A. 1880-88. Report of the Custodian (Curator). Proceed. Boston Soc.
Nat. Hist., 21, 9, 175-194; 22, 9-13,353; 23, 139,234-235,314-319,371.
100 R. W. Dexter
Hyatt, A. 1885. Cruise of the Arethusa. Science, 6, 384-386.
Hyatt, A. 1886. Expedition [to Newfound1andl. Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.,
23, 315-319.
Hyatt, A. 1888. Sketch of the life and service to science of Prof. Spencer F.
Baird. Ibid., 23, 558-565.
Kingsley, J. S. 1884. The Annisquam Laboratory. Bull. Essex Inst., 16, 149-151.
Lillie, R. R. 1944. The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. Univ. Chicago
Press, Chicago, Ill., 284 pp.
Whitman, C. O. 1898. Some of the functions and features of a biological station.
Science, 7, 37-44.
Some Aspects of Anglo-American Co-operation in
Marine Science, 1660-1914
A1argaretL>eacon
It might be thought anachronistic to speak of co-operation dating from the time

of the scientific revolution of the 17th century in a science in name barely 100
years old. During the 200 years that preceded the establishment of oceanogra-
phy as a separate discipline from time to time scientists in different countries,
often working alone, occasionally in informal groups, for reasons which varied in
emphasis from one age to another, attempted to found a science of the sea. By
no means all would have recognized such an aim, but the very newness of their
numbers, combined with the, in those days, supra-national content of their
studies, meant that, save for individuals so isolated from their own national, let
alone the international, scientific community as to make contact impossible, it
was by no means unusual even in very early days for scientists to seek exchange
of information and assistance from like-minded workers in other countries.
Between Britain and America such an interchange was fostered by the early
links between the two countries, the common language and shared institutions
and, later, when formal ties between the two countries were severed, by com-
mon interests in the navigation and scientific study of the Atlantic Ocean. This
paper looks at a few episodes, some well known, some less so, in the light of this
trans-Atlantic exchange. It is in no sense a complete account of what is a very
large subject. Also, for practical reasons, it was necessary to concentrate mainly
on sources in Britain, at the risk of being one-sided. While looking at the impact
of Maury on the other side of the Atlantic, little has been said about the impact
of the Challenger Expedition in America.
The first example comes from the earliest days of marine science when the
Royal Society in London was at work on the apparatus and methods for re-
search at sea which resulted in 1666 in the Directions for Seamen (1). Scientists
102 M. Deacon
hoped that by accumulating information they could contribute to greater safety
at sea, as well as to a more basic understanding of the processes at work there (2).
Unable ,themselves to undertake deep-water voyages, they sought assistance from
those .whose affairs took them across the Atlantic and beyond.
On 18 March 1663, the Society asked John Winthrop, Governor ofConnecti-
cut, who had been in London to obtain a charter for his colony, to undertake ex-
periments during his homeward voyage (3). He was to be given a copy of the
Directions, a dozen sounding leads, 3 or 4 floats and a cylindrical vessel with
valves for fetching up water. In July a letter came saying that both experiments
had failed, the sounder because there was too much wind and the water sampler
because it leaked (4). Apparently the float had become detached from the
sounder's lead in rough water (5). Henry Oldenburg wrote back on 5 August:
I did impart to our Society your tryals at sea, and your offer to contribute in
your parts what may be for the service of their desseins. They charged me to
give you their thanks, and were of opinion that the sounding trials ought to
be made in calme weather, for which purpose they have recommended the
like to one Captain Silas Taylor, also an ingeneous and knowing person, who
is now going to Virginia for his privat occasions, and hath promised us to re-
iterate many sea experiments ... One of our number hath proposed other
wayes of sounding depths, as also other vessels to fetch up water from the
bottom of the sea, which, when come to perfection, shall also be sent to you
(6).
We do not know whether Taylor carried out the work, but, because of the reli-
ance on wooden floats to give the times for soundings and to bring back appara-
tus to the surface, the North Atlantic was bound to prove a graveyard to a device
that worked deceptively well in shallow water. This was the fate that overtook
Stephen Hale's sounder, put overboard near Bermuda 70 years later (7). He was
more fortunate with his water sampler (8) because this was used with a rope.
The 18th century saw interest on both sides of the Atlantic in attempts to
solve a practical problem. Following the identification and naming of the Gulf
Stream (9), the question arose, how far did its influence extend and what effect
did it have, if any, on shipping in the North Atlantic? Benjamin Franklin's con-
tribution to the charting of the Gulf Stream is well known but Louis De Vorsey
has recently called attention to the earlier work of William Gerard De Brahm
(9). De Brahm (10), who began his career as a military engineer under the Austri-
an Empire, settled in Georgia in 1751. In 1764 he was appointed Surveyor-
General of the Southern District of North America and in 1765 undertook a sur-
vey of the Gulf Stream. He published his results in London in 1771 and 1772
(11) and on his return to America in 1775 carried out further investigations in
H.M. armed vessel Cherokee. Franklin's chart of 1768 was based on information
given him by a distant cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket whaling captain (12).
It was republished later in France and America. The history of the Franklin
charts of the Gulf Stream has been studied by Dr. Philip L. Richardson of this
Institution (13). There appears to be no evidence that Franklin and De Brahm
Some Aspects of Anglo-American Co-operation in Marine Science 103
exchanged ideas or even that they knew of each other's work (14). The author
of yet another chart of the Gulf Stream, Thomas Pownall, however, made a
warm acknowledgment of the assistance he had received from Franklin in bring-
ing his work to a conclusion.
Thomas Pownall (1722-1805) went out to America as secretary to the gover-
nor in 1753 (15). Though his stay in the colonies was barely 7 years, his energy
and ability led to his rapid rise to the position of Governor of Massachusetts,
which he held from 1757 to 1760. His pamphlet entitled "Hydraulic and nautical
observations on the currents in the Atlantic Ocean, forming an hypothetical
theorem for investigation. With a corresponding chart of that ocean" was not pub-
lished unti11787. He tells us, however, that "the line of service in which he was
employed in the early part of his life, led him ... to make these observations."
He further tells us that:
Some of these observations arose from his comparing notes (if he may so ex-
press himself) with several of his Majesty's Commissioned and Warrant Of-
ficers, in the frequent passages he hath had occasion to make across the At-
lantic in his Majesty's ships: other remarks, and the observations thereon,
have arisen from the reports of American masters of trading and fishing ves-
sels with whom he hath talked on the subject; and whom he found to under-
stand the navigation of this Ocean better than the European masters seem to
have done; and who in consequence of that knowledge made shorter and bet-
ter passages over it ( 16).
Pownall's experience was clearly similar to that of Franklin, who in 1768, as

Deputy Postmaster-General for the American Colonies, had found the English
packet captains unaware of the existence of the Gulf Stream and skeptical of its
influence (17). There is no suggestion that Pownall ever made any firsthand ob-
servations of the current but he showed his paper to Franklin, an old friend of
hiS, while visiting him at Passy, in October 1784. Franklin's additions and cor-
rections are noted in the text of Pownall's pamphlet.
The possibility of defining the extent of the Gulf Stream through the distinc-
tive temperature of its water was something that Franklin returned to on several
occasions during his long life; however, the first public suggestion that the ther-
mometer might be useful as a navigational aid seems to have come from Sir
Charles Blagden. He observed the Gulf Stream's temperature in 1776, during his
outward voyage as physician to the British army in North America, and again in
1777 . Presenting his results to the Royal Society in 1781, he wrote:
I hope the observations which have been here related are sufficient to prove,
that in crossing the Gulf-stream very essential advantages may be derived
from the use of the thermometer: for if the master of a ship, bound to any
of the southern provinces of North America, will be careful to try the heat of
the sea frequently, he must discover very accurately his entrance into the
Gulf-stream, by the sudden increase of the heat; and a continuance of the
same experiments will shew him, with equal exactness, how long he remains
104 M. Deacon
in it. Hence he will always be able to make a proper allowance for the number
of miles that the ship is set to the northward, by multiplying the time into
the velocity of the current (18).
The example of Blagden and Franklin in recording temperatures was followed

by many others, too numerous to mention here (2, p. 233).
Disappointing though Franklin must have found the British seaman's response
to his work on the Gulf Stream, not all were so indifferent to another idea de-
signed to assist the mariner. During his long residence in England, which lasted
until 1775, he made numerous observations of the effect of oil on calming
waves in various ponds and lakes. At one of his demonstrations there was present
Captain John Bentinck, of the Royal Navy. Franklin mentioned to him
A thought which had occurred to me in reading the voyages of our late cir-
cumnavigators, particularly where accounts are given of pleasant and fertile
islands which they much desired to land upon, when sickness made it more
necessary, but could not effect a landing through a violent surf breaking on
the shore, which rendered it impracticable (19).
Franklin wondered if by sailing off a lee shore, pouring oil on to the sea, they
would be able to "abate the height and violence of the surff, and permit a land-
ing." Bentinck was interested and Franklin accordingly went down to Ports-
mouth in October 1773. He was disappointed in that, as he recorded: "The ex-
periment had not, in the main point, the success we wished, for no material dif-
ference was observed in the height or force of the surff upon the shore" when
the oil was poured on the waves some distance out to sea. As well as Bentinck,
he thanked
Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, General Carnac, and Dr. Blagden, who all assisted
at the experiment, during that blustring unpleasant day, with a patience and
activity that could only be inspired by a zeal for the improvement of know-
ledge, such especially as might possibly be of use to men in situations of
distress (20).
Opportunities for such amicable gatherings were soon to be curtailed by the

outbreak of war. When seeking additional material on the Gulf Stream 40 years
later Rennell was still obliged to rely almost entirely on British sources. These
left some parts of the ocean uncovered and it occurred to Rennell that the infor-
mation he needed could be obtained, if not from American books of sailing di-
rections, certainly from the logs of ships bound for the East Indies from Ameri-
can ports. To ask for information of this kind was still rather a delicate matter
and in April 1819 Rennell asked his friend Sir Joseph Banks if he would con-
sider making an approach on his behalf (21):
I purposely avoid any mention of Gulf Stream as hitching too much on Poli-
tics; both to avoid the hazard of a total failure, in the first Instance, & in
the hope of getting Information on that Subject, from American Books of
Directions, which may be in existence at present, altho' we know so little

about them. That part of the Stream, that ranges along the American Coast,
from Florida to Nantucket, I regard as the same to them, that the English
Channel is to us.
It looks as though the proposal got no further. At any rate when he came to
write his second essay on the Gulf Stream, from 1821 onwards, Rennell makes
no mention of having obtained access to American sources. Instead, for further
discussion of the subject he relied on lines of observations, or traverses as he
calls them, made across the Gulf Stream by British voyagers. In 1822 he wrote
to Sabine:
I have received several additional Traverses across the Gulf Stream. They prove
incontestibly, that it not only varies most wonderfully in its breadth in the
same place, at times but also in the Parallel, thro' which it passes across the
western part of the Atlantic. It also divides into Branches, which have cold
water between them (the same happens in the Lagullus stream). During three
of these Traverses, Mr. Napier, Master of H.M.S. Newcastle took the tempera-
ture every hour (22).
However, by 1835, it was possible for Whewell to obtain American participation

in joint tidal observations with Britain and other European countries (2, p. 260).
In the autumn of 1852, H.M. Survey Ship Herald called at Rio de Janeiro on
her way to the Pacific. There she found an American squadron under Commo-
dore M'Keever in the U.S.S. Congress. M'Keeverinterested H.M. Denham, Captain
of the Herald, in deep-sea sounding and gave him 15,000 fathoms of line. With
this, on 30 October, in Latitude 36° 49'S., Longitude 37° 6'W., Denham obtained
an apparent depth of 7,706 fathoms (23). Both British and American surveyors
had been experimenting with sounding since the early 1840s and a good many
exaggerated depths were obtained. Though Sir James Clark Ross was remarkably
successful at timing the speed at which the rope ran out, so that the moment it
reached the bottom could be identified, it was the American hydrographer Mat-
thew Fontaine Maury whose published method was employed on both sides of
the Atlantic. In discussing Maury's work, and his researches on currents, the Edi-
tor of the Nautical Magazine remarked that the Americans "have taken the lead
of us in this matter (24)."
Maury was undoubtedly best known in Britain for his Wind and Current
Charts and for his role in the International Conference on Maritime Meteorology
of 1853 (25). It was ironic that this conference, which established a uniform
code for meteorological observations at sea, should have arisen out of a British
proposal for co-ordinating observations on land. Maury had long been convinced
of the benefit of international co-operation in forwarding all the maritime
sciences and already corresponded extensively with British and other European
scientists. In 1845 he wrote a long letter to Sabine urging that the British Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Science should continue with its work of magnetic
observations and proposing a plan which foreshadowed the scheme for joint
106 M. Deacon
systematic meteorological observations in naval ships adopted at the Brussels
conference at his suggestion:
In case of the continuance of the "Magnetic Observatories" beyond 1845, I

would recommend particular attention to "floating Observatories." Leaving
the fixed establishments in active operation, I would suggest the propriety of
representing to the Governments of the two Countries, the expediency of
procuring such magnetic Instruments as the association may decide upon, to
be put on board all the public Cruisers of each nation (26).
Even at this juncture he was not unaware that valuable results might also be ob-
tained for marine research:
The practical advantages of the observations here suggested would, it may be

safely inferred, not only result in a Chart of great importance to magnetic re-
search and navigation, but in giving us a better knowledge of a collateral sub-
ject of great importance. I refer to currents at sea.
In compiling the Wind and Current Charts Maury soon realized that he would
need information not just from American ships, but from those of other countries
as well, and an application to this effect was made to the United States govern-
ment by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1848. In
1853, following the Brussels conference, he wrote to James Buchanan, United
States envoy in Britain: "as these American materials are not sufficient to
enable us to construct wind and current charts for all parts of the ocean, it has
been judged advisable to enlist the cooperation of the other maritime powers in
the same work (27)." The United States government had given Maury permis-
sion to offer copies of the' charts to foreign merchant ships on the same basis as
to American captains, that is, on condition that they filled in and returned the
abstract log which he had designed to standardize and make for easier processing
of the information. He asked Buchanan to bring this to the notice of the British
government and ask if they would appoint someone to receive and distribute the
logs in Britain.
Although the British government's delay in deciding to support the Brussels
conference was discouraging at the time, Maury had no reason to be critical of
his reception in England in 1853. He addressed meetings in London and Liver-
pool and stayed at the home of his principal British supporter, Lord Wrottesley.
Before he left on his return journey he received a letter from George Buist who
had spoken about his work at the annual meeting of the British Association.
Buist wrote:
I pointed out to the good folks at Hull that we had estimated in India that
such charts as yours for the Eastern seas would save us from a quarter to half
a million [pounds] annually & that the entire charge proposed to be imposed
on the Treasury of England would probably be covered by the saving effected
to Commerce in a single week or day (27).
This was typical of reactions among the scientific and shipping fraternities.
Recognition of Maury's work took various forms, including, while he was in
Britain during the Civil War, the award of an honorary degree from the Universi-
ty of Cambridge (28). Scientists in Britain, detached from the political, personal,
and scientific controversies which dogged Maury's footsteps at home (25, 29),
were perhaps in a better position to appreciate his real contribution to maritime
science. While they might not agree with some of the conclusions which he drew
from his researches, there was general praise for the energy with which he
brought to the fore important topics hitherto unjustly neglected (30). Others
had attempted to link science and the sailor. For example, F. W. Beechey, send-
ing his chart of ocean currents to Sir John Herschel in 1848, wrote:
I have executed it more with a view to excite officers to test it by direct ob-
servation and so induce them to attend to such observations, than as a chart
pretending to accuracy; as yet I believe we know too little of the subject to
enable us to offer any thing positive on the subject (31).
Many people had seen how desirable such observations at sea would be, as well
as their systematic study. It was Maury who succeeded in realizing the idea.
In his turn, Maury seems to have valued his contacts among British scientists.
It can hardly have escaped his notice that many of his correspondents there,
Sabine, Beechey, Henry James, W. H. Smyth and others, had service backgrounds
similar to his own. This did not, however, preclude their recognition as members
of the scientific community, Sabine becoming President of the Royal Society.
Nor did scientists engaged in fundamental research, such as Herschel, disdain
making practical contributions to navigation and other fields, or the writing of
popular articles, all things which had been held against Maury at home. The im-
portance which Maury attached to his relationship with British scientists is evi-
dent in the long letter which he wrote to Herschel in 1859, attempting to recon-
cile their differing views on ocean currents, to which Herschel had referred in his
recent article on "Physical geography," published in the Encyclopedia Britanni-
ca. Maury produced a battery of evidence in favor of his own views but his tone
throughout is one of persuasion and reason, rather than criticism. The assump-
tion is that, once in full possession of the facts, Herschel
will perceive how a "lateral impulse" may be given to the waters of the ocean
in consequence of change of specific gravity. If so, perhaps you will then as-
sist me to vindicate for salt and heat their supremacy in giving to the sea, not
its sporadic currents-which are caused mainly by the winds-but its system
of general circulation (32).
Maury concluded:
lowe you an apology for so long a letter. Perhaps the cause of truth which
we both seek to advance would have been better subserved, and the real re-
lation between the winds and currents of the sea vindicated by simply point-
108 M. Deacon
ing you to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream which lave the shores of your
own happy islands.
This Maury attributed to the comparatively unrestricted communication between

the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Herschel, however, remained unconvinced. It
was not until ten years later, when W. B. Carpenter presented evidence in favor
of an undercurrent in the Strait of Gibraltar, that Herschel admitted that what
Maury described as the "ceaseless effort of nature to restore the aqueous equilib-
rium" might have this effect (2, p. 323).
Maury, however, was not alone in his attempts to interest the British in the
scientific study of the sea. In 1853, in a letter to Edward Sabine (33), Alexander
Dallas Bache, head of the U. S. Coast Survey, and Maury's great rival, spoke of
approaching Sir Francis Beaufort, the British Hydrographer to the Navy, with a
view to setting up a joint program of research on the Gulf Stream, a proposal re-
vealing the very different state of relations between the two countries from the
time of Rennell's proposed advance.
The doctrine of a uniform temperature in the depths of the sea of 4°C. and
the theory of the azoic zone acted as a disincentive to the scientific exploration
of the deep ocean and the progress of marine science in the middle years of the
19th century. Again it was Maury, with his pioneer proftles and maps of the bed
of the North Atlantic, who encouraged change. But his success in securing co-
operation over meteorological observations at sea was not to be repeated in
other spheres and work on his charts was discontinued when he left his Washing-
ton post at the outbreak of the Civil War. It was left to the marine biologists to
ally their scientific motivation to the skills of the deep-sea surveyor and bring
about the crucial developments of the 1860s and 1870s. Before leaving Maury,
however, it must be said that perhaps his greatest influence on later develop-
ments, though it would be impossible to produce evidence for this, may have
lain in the familiarization with ocean science among the general public brought
about by the Physical Geography of the Sea which went into many editions on
both sides of the Atlantic and remained in print in Britain until the tum of the
century.
The exploration of the deep ocean for cable laying in the 1850s and 1860s
had produced new data but done comparatively little to advance understanding.
The apparently uniform temperature of the deep water, and composition of the
ocean bed, generally tended to reinforce the opinion prevalent during the middle
years of the century, that the deep sea was unlikely to repay detailed scientific
study. It was the discovery by marine biologists that the supposed limit of life
in the sea did not exist that opened the way to new ideas, not only about marine
life but about the general marine environment as well. It might have been sup-
posed that since a mere handful of people were involved, spread over several
countries, that there would be co-operation between them, as indeed there was,
but this was not an entirely foregone conclusion. In a nationalistic age, competi-
tiveness also made itself felt. W. B. Carpenter, urging the British government to
continue its support for researches at sea, pointed to the achievements of
Pourtales in the U.S.A., and others in Europe, to suggest the risk of Britain's
being left behind (2, p. 209).
Carpenter's colleague, Wyville Thomson, was a very different kind of person
and, in the end, it was he who set the tone for the next forty years. When Alex-
ander Agassiz visited him in the autumn of 1869, just after the return of the
second voyage of the Porcupine, they agreed together (34) that specimens from
the deep sea should be worked up by the same people, chosen without regard
to nationality. Thomson's adherence to this principle on the return of the
Challenger brought him into conflict with several British scientists who felt
that British experts should be given priority. However, he persisted, and Agassiz's
visit to Edinburgh to help sort the Challenger collections at the end of 1876
(35) laid the foundation of a working relationship that continued with John
Murray after Thomson's death and lasted to Agassiz's own death in 1910.
Agassiz's correspondence shows him to have been in contact with-many dis-
tinguished European scientists. His regular exchange of news and views with
Murray (36), which continued long after his work for the Challenger was ended,
reflects the anomalous position in which the new science of oceanography found
itself during the latter part of their lives. In Britain, which had led the way with
the Challenger Expedition, money was forthcoming for a time to publish the
results, but none was available for new work. Similarly, in the United States,
after the last of Agassiz's voyages in the Blake, there were few occasions when
this fruitful collaboration between government resources and private knowledge
were repeated. Agassiz believed that government should not undertake research
that private individuals or universities could do (37), but even with his vast min-
ing fortune, he had difficulty in undertaking research on the scale he would
have liked. Murray's resources were far more limited. He hoped to finance his
work with money from the Christmas Island phosphate deposits but, as Dr. H. L.
Burstyn has shown (38), the delay in being able to exploit this discovery meant
that these funds were not available to him until comparatively late. Shortage of
funds meant that the new work which could be undertaken was extremely re-
stricted, as were opportunities of attracting other workers into the field. In these
circumstances contact with fellow workers overseas was essential to provide the
necessary stimulus and interchange of ideas which was in such limited supply at
home. The situation is not totally unknown today.
Even had the subject developed far enough to make them relevant, these fi-
nancial restrictions would have ruled out the kind of co-operative ventures in-
volving ships of several nations with which we are familiar today. Nevertheless,
Murray and Agassiz did collaborate over many years on one particular topic,
their joint interest in the origin of coral reefs and atolls and dissatisfaction with
the explanation given by Darwin and Dana. Agassiz made numerous field trips to
the main coral-bearing areas of the world in the decade 1892 to 1902. On several
occasions it was mooted that Murray should go too but business or domestic
matters always prevented this (39). While Agassiz found himself unable to accept
Murray's rival theory completely, the result of his prolonged researches was to
convince him that no one explanation, and certainly not Darwin's held good in
110 M. Deacon
all places.
External circumstances and common interests are important factors but in
any such long and successful scientific partnership, individual character and
preference must play a decisive role. Perhaps because of his North American up-
bringing, unlike the romantics Buchanan and Bruce who gravitated towards
France, Germany and the circle of Prince Albert of Monaco, Murray clearly felt
more at home in the more egalitarian societies of the United States and Scandi-
navia. Agassiz had been an ardent republican from boyhood (35, p. 6). Though
he and Murray were very different kinds of men they had many attitudes in
common. In particular both were highly individualistic. Though both had held
responsible positions, Agassiz as director of the Museum of Comparative Zoolo-
gy, founded by his father, at Harvard, and Murray as editor of the Challenger
Report, both valued their independence too much to accept in later life the
positions in government science to which their experience and capabilities en-
titled them. In 1880 Agassiz had written to Thomson: "I am not a professor
and hope never to be (40)." Both, however, deprecated the excessive national
individualism which was increasingly causing international tension as the century
drew to a close (41).
The careers of Murray and Agassiz present many interesting parallels, some of
which have already been mentioned. Both undertook oceanographic research on
government voyages and edited their reports. Both founded marine stations but
let them lapse when outside interest proved lukewarm. Both were businessmen
and used their profits to further scientific work. All these facts are well known.
What has been less obvious is the striking similarity between the circumstances in
which they found themselves at the outset. Their different reactions to these cir-
cumstances illustrates the fundamental difference in their characters. Agassiz's
early history is familiar. Son of the famous Swiss zoologist, Louis Agassiz, he
took over his father's creation, the Museum of Comparative Zoology and spent
much money and energy in seeing that his father's dream was brought to fruition.
Murray too, as a young man, came under the influence of a dominating personal-
ity, that of his maternal grandfather, John Macfarlane of Stirling (42).
Macfarlane's chief interest was his own creation, the Macfarlane Museum of
Natural History, built in the grounds of his house at Bridge of Allan. This was nO
Victorian amateur's grandly named private hobby, housed in a few glass cases in
a spare room, but a purpose-built three storey building ready for opening to the
public at the end of 1860 with the young John Murray as curator. The grandiose
project proved not viable and after Macfarlane's death in 1868 the museum was
dismantled. Perhaps Murray foresaw the inevitable, anyway by that time, as we
know, he had left to take up his studies at Edinburgh University.
Agassiz died in 1910, Murray in 1914. In 1912 the United States sent a repre-
sentative to the meeting of the International Council for the Exploration of the
Sea. Largely at the insistence of the Scandinavians, oceanographers had in the
last years of the 19th century begun to organize their activities on an internation-
al basis. Through the needs of fisheries research, governments had perforce be-
come involved in wider questions of marine science. From then on co-operation
would be on a formal basis of international committees and intergovernmental

negotiations, rather than the purely individual and circumstantial contacts de-
scribed here. But it is still the personal contacts, the exchange of ideas and ex-
perience, the creation of new ideas and enterprises from thoughts shared which
lubricate the otherwise dry and dusty wheels of officialdom. British scientists are
still grateful if their American counterparts will put out floats for them in the
Atlantic Ocean. The ideas and the means have changed enormously in three
hundred years but the spirit remains much the same, and unlike Rennell, a
British oceanographer may now write about the Gulf Stream for an American
publication without being suspected of ulterior motives. The scale of the oceans
still makes co-operation of value in solving their problems.
One very tangible link with the distant days here remembered is the occasion-
al award by the National Academy of Sciences of the Agassiz Medal to scientists
from any part of the world for original contributions to the science of ocean-
ography. This medal was founded by Sir John Murray in memory of his friend
and colleague, whose memorial address he gave in 1911 (43). It has been, and
still is, a very fitting reminder of the work of two men who did their best to
strengthen the bonds of scientific co-operation and equally of friendship between
all nations, not just their own.
Acknowledgments
I would particularly like to thank Franklin W. Burch, Director, and Bill Weneta
of the Center for Polar and Scientific Archives, National Archives, Washington,
for their extremely generous help over the Maury letters.
References
I. Directions for sea-men, bound for far voyages. 1966. Phil. Trans. R. Soc.,
I, 140-143. Reprinted in: Deacon, M. B., 1978. Oceanography: concepts
and history. Benchmark Papers in Geology, No. 35, Dowden, Hutchinson
& Ross, Inc., Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, pp. 15-18.
2. Deacon, M. B. 1971. Scientists and the sea, 1650-1900; a study of marine
science. Academic Press, London & New York, pp. 69-88.
3. Birch, T. 1756-1757. The history of the Royal Society of London for im-
proving of natural knowledge. A. Millar, London, 4 vols. Vol. 1, p. 207.
4. Ibid., p. 280.
5. Winthrop, R. C. 1878. Correspondence of Hartlib, Haak, Oldenburg, and
others of the founders of the Royal Society, with Governor Winthrop of
Connecticut, 1661-1672. Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 16,206-251 (Winthrop to
the Hon. William Brereton, 6 November 1662, p. 220).
6. Ibid., p. 216 (Henry Oldenburg to Winthrop,S August 1663).
7. Hales, S. 1754. A description of a sea gage, to measure unfathomable depths.
Gentleman's Magazine, 24, 215-219. Reprinted Deacon, 1978, pp. 291-295.
8. Hales, S. 1750-1751. A letter to the President, from Stephen Hales, D. D. &
F. R. S. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., 47, 214-216.
112 M. Deacon
9. De Vorsey, L. 1976. Pioneer charting of the Gulf Stream: the contributions
of Benjamin Franklin and William Gerard De Brahm. Imago Mundi, 28, 105-
120. De Vorsey states that Franklin first used the term 'Gulph Stream' in
1762. De Brahm in 1771 (see reference 11) referred to it as the 'Florida,
commonly called Gulf Stream' which suggests that it was already a name in
general usage.
10. De Vorsey, L. 1971. De Brahm's report on the general survey in the southern
district of North America. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia,
South Carolina. The introduction (3-59) contains a life of De Brahm.
11. De Brahm, W. G. 1771. Letter to Mr. Urban. Gentleman's Magazine 41, 436.
1772. The Atlantic Pilot. Printed for the author by T. Spi1sbury, London.
Facsimile reproduction (ed. L. De Vorsey), University Presses of Florida,
Gainesville, 1974.
12. Franklin, B. 1768. Letter to Anthony Todd, 29 October 1768, gives an ac-
count of the conversation with Fo1ger- 'a very intelligent Mariner of the
Island of Nantuckett.' Papers of Benjamin Franklin, L. W. Labaree and W. B.
Willcox (eds.), Yale University Press, New Haven and London, vol. 15 (1972),
246-248.
13. Richardson, P. L. 1979. The Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger charts
of the Gulf Stream. This volume. See also: Benjamin Franklin and Timothy
Folger's first printed chart of the Gulf Stream. Science, 8 February 1980.
207, 643-645.
14. The Yale University Press edition of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin, see
reference 12, consulted up to 1773 (vol. 20, 1976) shows no communi-
cation between the two men.
15. See entry in Dictionary of American Biography, by Leonard W. Labaree,
1935, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 8,161-163.
16. Pownall, T. 1787. Hydraulic and nautical observations on the currents in the
Atlantic Ocean, forming an hypothetical theorem for investigation. With a
corresponding chart of that ocean. Robert Sayer, London, 17 pp.
17. Franklin, B. 1786. A letter from Dr. Benjamin Franklin, to Mr. Alphonsus
Ie Roy. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., 2,294-329.
18. Blagden, C. 1781. On the heat of the water in the Gulf-stream. Phil. Trans.
R. Soc., 71, 334-344 (342-343).
19. Franklin, B., W. Brownrigg, and J. Farish. 1774. Of the stilling of waves by
means of oil. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., 64,445-460 (456).
20. Mr. (later Sir Joseph) Banks and Dr. Daniel Solander had a special interest in
voyages of discovery as they had sailed with Cook on his first voyage (1768-
1771). Franklin here refers, however, to earlier voyages. Ibid., p. 460.
21. Rennell, J. 1819. Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, 29 April 1819. Holograph in
the Gabb Collection, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, U.K. in Daw-
son, W. R., 1958. A calendar of the manuscript correspondence of Sir Joseph
Banks preserved in the British Museum, the British Museum (Natural Histo-
ry) and other collections in Great Britain, British Museum, London, there is
no mention of this letter, only to the copy in the Dawson Turner Collection
at the British Museum (Natural History).
22. Rennell, J. 1822. Letter to Edward Sabine, 17 June 1822. Holograph in the
Sabine Papers, Royal Society of London.
23. Denham, H. M. 1853. Deep sea soundings. Nautical Magazine, 22,98-101.
24. Maury, M. F. 1853. Ocean soundings: the deepest of the deep sea soundings
discussed. Nautical Magazine, 22, 393-400.
25. Williams, F. L. 1963. Matthew Fontaine Maury: scientist of the sea. Rutgers
University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
26. Maury, M. F. 1845. Letter to Edward Sabine, 22 February 1845. Naval Ob-
servatory Letterbook (letters sent), 1842-1845, Records of the Naval Obser-
vatory, Record Group 78, National Archives, Washington, D. C. Vol. 1,
pp. 343-35l.
27. Maury, M. F. 1853. Letter to James Buchanan, 9 November 1853. Naval Ob-
servatory Letterbook (letters sent), 1853-1854, RG 78 National Archives,
Washington, D. C., Vol. 10, pp. 28-29.
28. On 28 May 1868. The University of Cambridge has no record of who moved
the award. I am most grateful to the Archivist for his help.
29. Burstyn, H. L. 1975. Seafaring and the emergence of American science, The
Atlantic world of Robert G. Albion, Benjamin W. Labaree (ed.), Wesleyan
University Press, Middletown, Connecticut, pp. 76-109.
30. For example, the Editor of the Nautical Magazine, 1853,22,476, wrote:
'The great pains and trouble which this officer has taken to enlighten his
brother seamen on the subject of prevailing winds and currents of the ocean
are highly commendable.'
31. Beechey, F. W. 1848. Letter to Sir John Herschel, 24 May 1848. Herschel
Papers, Royal Society of London.
32. Maury, M. F. 1859. Letter to Sir John Herschel, 10 June 1859. Herschel
Papers, Royal Society of London. With draft of Herschel's reply.
33. Bache, A. D. 1853. Letter to Edward Sabine, 20 May 1853. Sabine Papers
(BJ. 3/25), Public Record Office, London.
34. Agassiz, A. 1877. Letter to Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, 28 May 1877. Let-
ters of Alexander Agassiz to Wyville Thomson, Edinburgh University Library.
In this letter Agassiz recalls: 'That as far back as 1869 when the Porcupine
had just returned we had agreed upon the wisdom of letting the same people
work up all the deep sea things from both sides of the Atlantic, as far as
practicable.'
35. Agassiz, G. R. 1913. Letters and recollections of Alexander Agassiz with a
sketch of his life and work. Constable, London, Houghton Mifflin, Boston &
New York, pp. 157-158.
36. Letters of Alexander Agassiz to John Murray, 1877-1910, University of
Edinburgh Library. Murray's letters to Agassiz, 1877-1910, Museum of Com-
parative Zoology, Harvard.
37. Dupree, A. H. 1957. Science in the Federal Government. Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 220.
38. Burstyn, H. L. 1975. Science pays off: Sir John Murray and the Christmas
Island phosphate industry, 1886-1914. Social Studies of Science, 5, 5-34.
39. For example, the Barrier Reef (Australia) trip of 1896. See Murray, John,
1895. Letter to Alexander Agassiz, 15 October 1895. Museum of Compara-
tive Zoology, Harvard.
40. Agassiz, A. 1880. Letter to Wyville Thomson, 4 November 1880. University
of Edinburgh Library.
41. For example, Murray, John, 1895. Letter to Alexander Agassiz, 23 Decem-
ber 1895, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, deplores the tension
then existing between Britain and the United States. Also, 11 June 1898 on
the Spanish-American War.
42. The material for this and the following paragraph was drawn in the first
place from Letterbook No.2 of the Macfarlane Museum of Natural History
in Sir John Murray's papers, Department of Mineralogy, British Museum
(Natural History).
43. Murray, J. 1911. Alexander Agassiz. An appreciation of his life and scientific
work. Memorial address, delivered at the Saunders Theatre, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 22 March 1911 at the request of the President and Fellows
of Harvard College. Murray's copy and notes are in the University of Edin-
burgh Library. (MS Dk. 6.13).
Edward H. Smith and the 1928 Marion Expedition
Revisited: A Compilation
V. Wendell Driggers
Legend has it that "Iceberg" Smith gained his remarkable capability for bearing
the icy Arctic cold by killing a musk ox on a lonely Greenland icecap and drink-
ing its blood. Too often, when a man is renowned in his field, the legends sur-
rounding him overshadow his true character. Such is becoming the case of Admi-
ral Edward H. Smith, for his life was overflowing with those instances from which
legends spring. It began at his birth on October 29, 1889, at Vineyard Haven,
Massachusetts. Descended from a long line of Martha's Vineyard whalers, he was
drawn naturally to the sea and possessed the physical and mental stamina needed
to endure the hardships it offered.
After a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Smith entered the
Coast Guard Academy in 1910. Three years later, he embarked on a career that
was to span more than four decades and earn him world wide recognition and
respect. His achievements over the years were many, the major ones being: his
scientific observations for the International Ice Patrol; leadership of the Marion
Expedition that surveyed the Davis Strait, Baffm Bay, and the ice-producing
glaciers of Western Greenland; participation as scientific observer on the polar
flight of the dirigible Gra! Zeppelin in 1931; command of a major North Atlan-
tic Navy Task Force during World War II, which earned him a Distinguished
Service Medal; and direction of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for
six years following his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1950.
Smith's accomplishments seemed to come naturally, for he applied himself
in a dedicated, single-minded fashion. Take Arctic ice as an instance, since his as-
sociation with it led to his nickname. He possessed an insatiable appetite for
knowledge on this subject and devoted virtually his entire life to seeking out new
facts concerning it. This lifelong fascination began when he was a young officer
Edward H. Smith and the 1928 Marion Expedition Revisited 115
riding a rolling, pitching cutter on International Ice Patrol. In sharp contrast to

the other officers, who eagerly went ashore after six. to eight weeks of patrol
duty, Smith arranged to stay at sea for the entire iceberg season. He sailed with
the ftrst cutter to begin the patrol in February, made mid-ocean transfers to the
following relief cutters, and only returned to shore on board the last cutter at
patrol's end in July. Then, each year, he would retire to the seclusion of Harvard
University to write up the patrol's annual report. DUring these interludes, Smith
analyzed the chunks of Arctic ice that he had brought back from the North At-
lantic in the iceboxes of the cutters, as well as plundering the research facilities
at Harvard to further his studies on the subject closest to his heart. In recognition
of his expertise in this fteld, Harvard awarded him a Masters of Arts Degree in
1924 and a Ph.D. Degree in 1934.
Smith's unique fascination with icebergs was fueled by a deep sense of human-
ity, for he knew only too well the awesome toll in human lives that they had
reaped over the years among the hapless passengers crossing the treacherous
shipping lanes. In an article that he wrote in 1929 for the U. S. Naval Institute
Proceedings, entitled "The North Atlantic Ice Menace and the Work of Pro-
tection Conducted by the U. S. Coast Guard," Smith expressed a sincere concern
over the plight of ships that steamed in the ice-laden northern waters. This
article revealed his uncanny understanding of the region that caused disasters
and hardships for so many. He concluded with the statement that, because of
the research and patrol efforts of the Coast Guard, not a single life had been lost
in this area in the seventeen years following the Titanic tragedy that brought the
patrol into being. For Smith, this record was one of personal pride, for it was
largely through his efforts that an understanding, and eventually, a safer passage
of this dangerous area were gained.
Another source of pride for Smith was his more than forty years of associ-
ation with the Coast Guard. During this period, he proved himself as a successful
leader of men, as well as a world-renowned scientist. He was to see combat in
both World Wars. As a young officer during World War I, Smith served with
distinction on the Manning as it escorted vital Allied convoys through submarine-
infested waters between Gibraltar and England. During World War II his distinc-
tive accomplishments gave birth to as many legends as did his scholarly achieve-
ments. As a wartime commander, Smith benefited from his scientific training.
His operational plans, orders, and dispatches showed his affinity for details. He
would rewrite and revise them until no one could possibly misunderstand their
intended meaning. The harmonious relationships between his men and the
Greenlanders owed much to his watchful eye and patient guidance. One danger
that loomed large in his concern was an outbreak of a serious epidemic among
the Greenlanders, who lacked the natural immunities of the more civilized man.
Thus, he took particular pains to head off any infectious disease-even measles-
that might threaten the effectiveness of his command.
Despite Smith's enviable accomplishments throughout his life, he never be-
came inflated with his own sense of importance. With the people in his home-
town, Smith maintained a warm, friendly, intimate relationship.
116 v. W. Driggers
"Iceberg" Smith died on his birthday, October 29, 1961, but his legend con-
tinues to grow. "Iceberg" Smith's life and significance can be summed up in
the words of Henry Beetle Hough in the Vineyard Gazette on November 3, 1961:
'Striving for Success' was the class motto. There is not only a touching but in-
structive quality in the high school program which, in this instance as in
others across the nation, was to prove the beginning of a great career. What
happened in the busy years between that graduation and the final phase of
Admiral Smith's service as director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution, seems somehow to measure the promise and fulfillment of the pur-
pose of the United States.
In 1928 the United States Coast Guard sent the Marion Expedition north into
Davis Strait and Baffin Bay to carry out scientific investigations connected with
the International Ice Patrol. The object of the expedition was to obtain all the
information possible regarding ocean currents, depths, and ice conditions in the
Figure 1. LCDR Edward H. Smith, USCG.

region to the north of that usually covered by the ice-patrol vessels each spring
and summer. The leader of the Marion Expedition was Lieut. Commander Edward
H. Smith. The Marion was one of a number of similar vessels which the Coast
Guard had built in 1925 for offshore patrol duty. She was 125 feet long, with
a 23%-foot beam and an 8%-foot draft. Her normal displacement was about 220
tons. Her twin screws, each driven by a 6-cylinder air-injection Diesel engine of
150 horsepower, could give her a maximum speed of about 10% knots. When she
departed for the north she carried a total of 9 ,000 gallons of fuel oil, of which
7,000 were in her tanks and 2,000 in drums on deck. With this amount of oil,
her cruising radius was upward of 6,000 miles at a speed of 7% knots. A number
of extra items of equipment were installed on the Marion prior to her departure
from the United States. The principal ones were radiocompass, a short-wave
radio set , two oceanographic winches, an electric salinometer, a fathometer,
several extra banks of storage batteries, a special generator driven by an internal-
combustion engine for running the oceanographic winches, and another for
charging the numerous banks of batteries needed for the radio and the fathome-
ter work. All the Ice Patrol's deep-sea thermometers, thermographs, Greene-
Bigelow water bottles, water-sample bottles, and other articles of scientific appa-
ratus were taken on board for use. One of the items of special equipment was
the bottom sampler. There was amply sufficient apparatus on board for compre-
hensive oceanographic research, including the occupation of a large number of
stations at which serial temperatures and salinities were determined for the pur-
pose of working out the dynamic currents of the area traversed .
Figure 2. USCG Cutter Marion, departing Boston July, 1928 for expedition.
118 v. W. Driggers
Figure 3. Polar bear cub captured and named "Marion."
After leaving her homeport of New London, Connecticut, on July 7, 1928,

the Marion called at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, the Commanding Officer's
hometown, Boston, Halifax, and Sydney, Nova Scotia. Marion crossed the Gulf
of st. Lawrence, transited the Strait of Belle Isle, and made a brief stop at Battle
Harbor, Labrador, the evening of July 19. Here the water tank was topped off
with fresh water by placing the Marion's forefoot lightly against the harbor's
bank and drawing water with buckets from a nearby stream. Fresh water for
scrubbing clothes was also put into four open barrels on deck.
While progressing northward, Marion ran into a northwest gale, so they
anchored first off Domino Harbor, Labrador; then after determining radio com-
pass deviations, they anchored across the run at Spotted Island Harbor. On
Sunday, July 22, the gale had blown itself out, permitting the Marion to get
under way. A stop was made just seaward of the mottled black and white rocks
of Spotted Island where an oceanographic station was occupied. Until the 25th
the ship was engaged off Labrador taking two lines of oceanographic stations
located more or less at right angles to the general trend of the coast. From Bull-
dog Island the course led northward along the shore toward a point near 56°
north latitude, whence a 575-mile line of stations was to be run to the north-
eastward to the west coast of Greenland in latitude 63° N. About 200 bergs,
. .
~w
.crw
.d... BAF FI N
- J 10·N BAY
t .. "
..
:NOR1H ~.
i\1Li\ 1\C
OC£.I\N
..
~s·w
Figure 4. Track chart of the Marion Expedition cruise.

120 V. W. Driggers
most of them grounded along the Labrador coast were seen while on the run
toward the fifty -sixth parallel.
The first landfall on the Greenland west coast was truly a grand and inspiring
sight. The piloting along the sunken mountainous shore was very difficult be-
cause of the jutting headlands, the hundreds of bare rock islands, and the outly-
ing reefs which lay peppered about. Aids to navigation generally did not exist,
and, added to these conditions, the best chart they had was only a general one of
the entire west coast. The Marion stopped at the town of Godthaab, Greenland,
and fired a national salute of 21 guns. The town was amazingly different from
the summer fishing villages seen a few days before in Labrador. Even from the
harbor it was seen to be much neater and more prosperous looking. Here the
majority of the buildings were freshly painted in red and white. Several hundred
natives in brightly trimmed costumes watched the Marion from points of vantage
on the low hills about the town. Minor Danish officials were brought alongside
in a pulling boat from which they came on board after they had been satisfied
that health conditions on board were good. This town was not only the capital
of the Godthaab district but also of the whole of South Greenland. Fishing was
the principal industry and the town boasted a church, a hospital, several Govern-
ment houses for officials, storehouses, schoolS-including a normal school for
training native teachers from all parts of Greenland-a radio station, a fox farm,
and a large statue of the famous eighteenth century missionary to the Green-
landers, Hans Egede.
On August 1, the pilot was dropped into his small motor boat, and the Marion
stood out past the Kok Island beacon to begin a line of oceanographic stations
extending offshore for 170 miles. Early on August 3 the offshore row of stations
was completed and a northerly course was set up the center of Davis Strait. After
running north for 150 miles, a new row of stations was started in toward the
Greenland coast in latitude 65° 20'N. On the morning of August 5, this other
row of stations was finished.
On the 7th the Marion had run off the northern end of Great Hellefiske Bank
and was over deep water. Several large bergs were sighted at this time, but no
more were seen along a 40-mile line of stations that was taken on the eastward
to a position 10 miles south of the Western Islands in the southern entrance to
Disko Bay. Two stations were taken while approaching Godhavn, on Disko Island,
from the southward, the last one being located about 4 miles off the port. The
town, which is the capital of its local district and also of North Greenland, is
perched on a rock bench at the edge of the sea. Immediately behind it rise great
red mountains that are much cut up by ravines. There were ice domes on the
highest parts of these mountains, but nearer sea level there was everywhere a
faint tinge of green, caused by the vegetation which reached apparently almost
up to the areas of perpetual snow. About 100 bergs, some very large and some
with much dirt from the land on them, were drifting off Godhavn in the mouth
of Disko Bay. By 11 pm., on August 7, the Marion had run in through the nar-
row entrance of lichen-covered rocks and anchored in the fme harbor, near two
Government whaling vessels. The morning of August 8 was very pleasant, with
the air temperatures around 50°F. LCDR Smith exchanged official calls with
the Danish officials, who kindly agreed to furnish the ship with fresh water and
with 1,400 gallons of good Diesel oil. The latter item was an unexpected and
most welcome accommodation, which made it certain that the Marion could
visit the iceberg producing glaciers at the eastern side of the bay and also com-
plete her projected oceanographic program at sea at a good speed and without
danger of fuel shortage.
At 1 p.m. the Marion got underway for lacobshavn, firing a 21-gun salute
before leaving the harbor. By 11 p.m. the Marion had fmished taking a row of
stations eastward for 50 miles to the berg-choked entrance of the lacobshavn
ice fiord. Over 500 large bergs from this fiord were sighted during the run across
Disko Bay. The tallest one that was passed close to was found by means of sex-
tant angles to be 265 feet high. The mountainous land behind lacobshavn could
be seen from the moment Godhavn was left. Over these mountains of the main-
land they could see the brilliant white glare of ice blink caused by reflection
from the great dome of the inland ice. The ice itself was not visible because of
its distance and of the intervening mountains, but the evidence of its presence
was plainly visible in the sky. On August 8, the Marion was anchored in the little
bottle-necked harbor at lacobshavn, a town situated less than two miles north
of the great ice fiord of the same name. Despite the hour, the entire populace of
about 500 natives seemed to be up and about. This place boasted the distinction
of being the most important town, commercially, in North Greenland. At 8:30
the next morning almost the entire ship's company, followed by a crowd of
native women and children, started out over rocks and meadows for a point
southeast of the town, an Eskimo guide leading the way. After an hour's walk
they reached a high point from which there was a fine view of the lacobshavn
ice fiord. The whole length and breadth of it, comprising over 50 square miles,
was one jam of icebergs that had calved from the producing glaciers to the east-
ward. From the western end of the ice fiord these massed icebergs protruded
into Disko Bay.
At noon, after an opportunity had been given the Danes and the natives to
visit the Marion, they got under way and stood out of the tiny harbor, so pictu-
resque with its kyaks and other native boats and its numerous small ice masses
brought in by wind and tide from the bay. Upon leaving the harbor the massed
bergs just off the mouth of the lacobshavn ice fiord were visited. A few minutes
were spent examining the great ice wall formed by the congestion of icebergs
and in obtaining from a dory photographs of it.
At 8: 10 p.m. the ship anchored in Port Quervain Harbor, near the south end
of Ekip-Sermia Glacier, which produces large numbers of very small bergs. This
glacier runs down steeply from the inland ice and is broken up by innumerable
crevasses where it passes over a rock spur. Apparently only this breaking up
process prevents it from forming large bergs like those that push seaward from
the lacobshavn ice fiord. The sea wall of this glacier was about vertical, and
near its center was a great ice cavern, probably the end of a tube serving farther
inland as the conduit pipe for a subglacial stream. A strong milky current setting
122 v. W. Driggers
out from under the ice was carrying away rapidly all the bergs and small ice
pieces as fast as they were calved. Shots flred into the glacier from the Marion's
3-inch gun brought down a few tons of ice from weakened and overhanging cor-
nices, but the flring was really without appreciable effect. Spontaneous calving,
on the other hand, was occurring frequently because of the comparatively high
temperature of the day and the steady advance of the glacier into deep water
along a broad front. When the larger ice blocks calved off there were thunderous
noises and the swells set up often made the ship roll suddenly and the rocky
shores of the sheltered anchorage resounded with breaking waves.
On August 10 the ship was left with a few ship keepers only, while most of
the offtcers and crew were boated ashore for a hike to the inland ice. The latter
is easily accessible at this point, and it was from here that Dequervain, the Swiss
glaciologist scaled it and crossed in 1912 to Greenland's east coast. They found
the walking inland from the end of the glacier good, but it entailed much going
up and down hill, tiring for sailors, though probably easy enough for experi-
enced mountaineers. As soon as the moraine had been surmounted, the expanse
of the inland ice could be seen rising in a gentle slope toward the interior. It
looked much like a frozen sea, and a strong raw wind, like a cold sea breeze, was
blowing down slope toward the ice margin upon which they stood. There were
some stones and sand on the ice near the margin and the surface was cut up
slightly by small running streams, most of which disappeared between the ice
and the terminal moraine. In some places these streams had cut through the lat-
ter, however, and could be seen rushing down it in little cascades.
Upon returning to the ship, several members of the crew who had taken
special pride in the work of the expedition went to the commanding offtcer and
requested permission to erect some sort of monument ashore at Port Quervain
to mark the northernmost point ever attained by a United States Coast Guard
vessel on the eastern side of North America. Accordingly, a written record was
wrapped in a weatherproof covering and placed in a cairn built on top of a promi-
nent nearby hill. The men amassed an impressive pile of stones for their purpose
and topped it all with a 3-inch brass cartridge case inscribed 'Marion Expedition,
1928.'
There was much interest in a Danish oceanographic expedition under Com-
mander Riis-Cartensen, of the Royal Danish Navy, which was cruising during the
summer of 1928 in the waters of Bafftn Bay. His ship, the Godthaab, was north
at Etah, Greenland, so greetings were exchanged by radio and a package contain-
ing sketches of Marion's track and a description of her work was left for Com-
mander Riis-Cartensen at the Danish Arctic station.
After returning to Godhavn for fuel and water, Marion ran westward and
northwestward until about 15 miles from Godhavn. Then an oceanographic
station was taken close to the land, the flrst of a row of stations that they hoped
to take to the southwestward for 220 miles to Cape Dier, Bafftn Island. On
August 15 the Marion reached the eastern edge of pack ice. The farther the
Marion penetrated to the westward the closer packed the shattered ice became.
The land about Cape Dier could not be reached because of 36 miles of close-
packed ice without leads at which the Marion was soon vainly pushing, trying to
force a way. The attempt to go southwestward was abandoned and the ship was
headed southeast in hope of fmding more open water.
One evening a large polar bear and two young ones were seen eating a seal on
a nearby ice cake. The ship worked toward them. They tried to escape by
swimming and running, but two of them were killed with rifles before they
could get away. The third, a cub, weighing about 200 pounds, remained roaring
about in the vicinity of the dead bears. A dory was quickly lowered and the
small bear was noosed and towed alongside. The two dead bears were hoisted
aboard and then the live one, growling and snarling, was lifted to the deck by
numerous lines slipped about the neck, body, and legs. On the ship it was over-
powered and muzzled by many hands, then dragged forward and thrown into
the forehold. After the hatch was dogged down, the bear was a secure captive,
though free to rage about among the lines, bags of coal, and paint cans of its
large prison. Very foolishly just before the pack ice was left, the hatch to the
forehold was slightly opened to enable the captive bear to get light and venti-
lation. It was believed that the weight of the steel hatch cover, high over the
bear's head, would prove sufficient restraint to keep it a prisoner. In a short
time, however, the officer of the deck saw from the bridge that the bear's head
and paws were prying the hatch cover farther open. An instant later the bear
squirmed its way free and began running about the forward deck. The alarm was
given and officers and men rushed madly forward to keep their prize from get-
ting away. Four times the bear tried to leap over the rail into the sea, but each
time it was pulled back by the hair on its hind legs. On one of these occasions it
turned and severely bit the hand of its restrainer before he could let go. An at-
tempt was made to throw a blanket over the bear's head, but the big cub was too
fierce and quick. It tore the blanket aside, knocking down the man who was
holding it and ripping the back out of his coat. A lively fight ensued until many
men closed in on the bear and by force of numbers held it helpless until it could
be dragged to the hatch and thrown into the forehold once more. A little later
the bear was securely noosed by several lines and lifted from the hold. It was
dragged to a strong cage that had been constructed of lumber and wire and
wedged in among the oil drums on the deck aft. Here the bear, which was soon
named "Marion", was kept until shipped from New London, Connecticut, over
one month later, to the National Zoo at Washington, D. C. She ate very little
during this period, practically refUSing to touch any food except slices of her
dead mother and brother, of which she would eat sparingly from time to time.
She was always trying to scratch and gnaw her way out, so the cage frequently
had to be repaired with new boards and reinforced with more wire. "Marion"
was extremely sly and vicious and would make sudden rushes to surprise and
bite those working about her cage. The only time she seemed to like her captivi-
ty was when the washdeck hose was turned on her to give her a daily bath. Her
bad temper at all other times was well understood by everyone, and many
anxious hours were spent by light sleepers who had visions of her escaping at
night and seeking vengeance upon her abductors by means of tooth and claw.
A line of stations was taken to the westsouthwest toward Cape St. David,
Baffin Island, for nearly 120 miles. The ship then headed to the southeastward,
124 v. W. Driggers
stopping to take stations every 25 miles. Numerous bergs were sighted until the
ship ran out of cold current with surface temperatures of 37°F. and got into the
47°F. water situated farther out in Davis Strait.
The greater part of August 19 was spent running to the westward on a line of
stations laid in toward Resolution Island. From the inshore station near Cape
Resolution, the ship ran south for 20 miles and then west about 25 miles to a
point 1% miles south of Hatton Headland, Resolution Island. A station was taken
off the latter point, the beginning of a line of stations run southward across the
eastern entrance of Hudson Strait. After anchoring in a fiord at the southern end
of Aulalsivik Island, Labrador, they boated fresh water aboard and visited a near-
by glacier. A small berg with peaks about 25 feet high was sighted at the fiord
entrance just inshore of the submarine ridge that runs along the coast. It was ap-
proached by the Marion for the purpose of obtaining ice. The sea was smooth,
except for a very slight swell, so it was decided to run alongside the berg with
the ship, instead of sending out a boat to get the ice. The Marion got alongside a
sheer wall of the berg about 15 feet high, and one of the men on the spar deck
began cutting at the ice opposite his head with a fire ax. Whether the blows of
the ax or the jarring of the berg by the gentle rolling ship was the cause can not
be told, but in a very few seconds a loud crackling was heard, and the berg
calved off several growlers weighing a number of tons each. There was a great
scampering among the ice gatherers as the heavy masses fell down and disappeared
with a roar between the ship and the berg. The Marion was pushed away from
the berg bodily by the sea as it fell, and was pushed away farther as the new
growlers rose to the sea surface after their sudden plunge.
Two stations were taken to the eastward of the fiord just south of Aulalsivik
Island on the afternoon of August 24. Then a course southward was run to a
point off Ramah, Labrador. Here, less than 7 miles northeast of Mount Blow-me-
down, was started the western end of a series of stations extending 450 miles to
the Greenland coast off Ivigtut.
On August 28 the extremely narrow passage north of the eastern end of
Arsuk Island was negotiated. This passage is less than 40 yards wide at its most
constricted point, and so shallow that many details of the rock bottom and side
could be seen from the ship. The Marion proceeded up the main branch of Arsuk
Fiord toward Ivigtut. Depths greater than 270 fathoms were obtained with the
fathometer on this run, although the fiord is only 1% miles wide. The Marion
moored alongside the Norwegian steamship Wagland, which was close to the sea
wall at Ivigtut loading cryolite for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
After the local government agent had passed upon the health of the crew and
the usual formalities had been complied with, liberty was granted to visit the
cryolite mine and the settlement surrounding it. They were astonished to see the
great open mine pit and comfortable dwellings of the 200 Danes who get out
the cryolite with the most up-to-date methods. Due to the very good wages paid
the workers, the type of men working in the mine is usually high. The miners
come over from Denmark for limited periods, and there is always a large wait-
ing list of applicants, from which only the best and most deserving men are
selected. No Greenlanders were about at Ivigtut, because none are allowed to

live nearby. There were only two women on the reservation, the wife of the
chief engineer and the housekeeper of the director of the mining company. The
crew was royally received by the latter gentleman, whose house up there in that
wild country rivaled in its sumptuousness a millionaire's in the United States.
On September 1 the ship got under way and stood to sea and then south-
eastward toward Cape Farewell. From 6 p.m. to 6:24 p.m. on September 2,
1928, the Marion lay stopped 6 miles off the outer islets and 12 miles west of
Cape Farewell, taking the first station of the 620-mile line of them that was to
end off the Strait of Belle Isle. In the descriptive words of Noble G. Ricketts,
Just after leaving this station, the clouds broke away to the westward, causing
the low sun to light up brilliantly the mighty peaks of the southern tip of
Greenland, the Cape Horn of the north. The air was so clear that these peaks
were outlined with unearthly sharpness against the dark-gray eastern sky.
There were dozens of them visible, rising one above the other with extreme
wildness. Never before had we seen such sharp alpine horns and pinnacles.
The bright colors of the bare rock contrasted sharply with the radiant white-
ness of the snow fields and snow patches, as it did with the gray shadows of
the chasms and the still darker background of the steely sky. Off the coast in
front of the mountains was a line of black wave-washed rocks and islets, while
between the shore and us lay the uneasy surface of the cold, blue sea.
Five and a half days were required to make the run to Cape Bauld, the
northern tip of Newfoundland. The afternoon of September 8 was spent running
southward along the northeast coast of Newfoundland past the Gray Islands.
When about 23 miles east of Horse Island a station was taken. This was the first
of the 225-mile line of them that was run to the eastward over the 1,000-fathom
curve. The last line of stations, which ran in a southeasterly direction toward st.
John's, was started on September 10. A short and sharp September gale held up
the work somewhat, but st. John's was reached safely on September 11.
There had been only four days in nine weeks that the Marion had not been
underway at sea. About noon on September 16 Nantucket Sound was entered.
The Marion tied up to the steamboat wharf at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts,
the home of the commanding officer. While he was ashore in the evening crowds
of summer visitors and island residents came down to look at the ship. On Sep-
tember 17 many visitors were shown about on board. The public-school children
were marched down by classes. After looking at the bear and the various scientific
instruments, each class was told of the trip through the northland and shown an
imposing array of souvenirs that had been obtained in the land of the Eskimo.
The night of September 17 was spent running to the westward. On September
18, 1928, the Marion moored to the State pier in New London, Connecticut, her
home station. The intensive 73-day cruise to the Arctic was finally ended.
The bear in the well-strengthened bear cage aft was shipped by express to the
National Zoo at Washington, D. C.
The Marion proved ideal for the work and could not have been better if
126 V. W. Driggers
especially constructed for the expedition. She was a rme sea boat, capable of
operating almost anywhere in the world. The fact that not once in all her cruis-
ing in the Arctic, thousands of miles from machine shops and supplies, had there
been a breakdown of her motors, speaks eloquently for the reliability of the
machinery installation. The Hill-Diesel, although heavily taxed with furnishing
power for the winches at every station, never faltered.
The Marion cruised a total distance of 8,100 sea miles, or farther than from
New York to Sydney, Australia. The motors expended 14,000 gallons of oil, the
rate of consumption being 1.5 gallons per mile on one motor at an average speed
of 6 knots and 2.3 gallons per mile with two motors at 8.7 knots. The survey
covered that 450,000 square sea-mile area of ocean lying between Greenland and
North America which is situated between st. John's and the seventieth parallel
of north latitude. A total of 191 stations was taken, at which about 2,000 obser-
vations of temperature and salinity were made. All of the tests of salinity were
made immediately on board by means of electric salinometers. The fathometer
registered 1,700 depths for chart record and several times that number in actual
practice.
Although her northern adventures were all over, the tale of them recorded in
part in the foregoing pages will live long in the memories of her complement.
References
Norris, B. W. and T. R. Strobridge. 1976. Iceberg Smith, the Chief, April-May

1976/Vol. 2, No.4. U. S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association,
Arlington.
Ricketts, N. G. and P. D. Trask. 1932. The bathymetry and sediments of Davis
Strait. The Marion Expedition to Davis Strait and Baffin Bay under direction
of the United States Coast Guard, 1928. U. S. Treasury Department, Coast
Guard Bulletin, No. 19, Part 1, Scientific Results, Washington.
The Role of T. Wayland Vaughan in
American Oceanography
Elizabeth N. Shor
1 Introduction
A request to study reef corals in Florida turned T. Wayland Vaughan into an

oceanographer.
The Florida program, under the auspices of the U. S. Geological Survey and
the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1908 to 1915, gave Vaughan what
he called "a splendid opportunity to study certain problems in marine sedi-
ments." Chemical analyses of the sediments and of seawater and investigations
into the role of bacteria in the precipitation of calcium carbonate were carried
out, as well as Vaughan's detailed studies of coral reefs and the ecology and
physiology of coral organisms. He later said (Vaughan 1929a) that the establish-
ment of the Committee on Sedimentation in the Division of Geology and Geogra-
phy of the National Research Council was a direct outcome of the extensive
Florida project. This committee was chaired by Vaughan from 1919 to 1923;
among its achievements was publishing W. H. Twenhofel's "Treatise on Sedi-
mentation."
On the opposite coast of the United States in 1922 William E. Ritter, the
founding director of Scripps Institution for Biological Research, was facing re-
tirement. He observed (Ritter 1922):
A rather wide circle of scientific men in America are now convinced that the
Institution we have developed on the coast of Southern California ought to
be treated as a nucleus for an oceanographic institution worthy of the magni-
tude of oceanographic problems of the largest ocean now on earth and one
of the richest countries on earth.
128 E. N. Shor
In that circle was T. Wayland Vaughan (Fig. 1), who served with Ritter on the
Committee on Pacific Investigations of the National Research Council. That com-
mittee, among other achievements, established the first Pan-Pacific Scientific
Congress (later called Pacific Science Congresses). Ritter urged University of
California authorities that Vaughan become his replacement at Scripps Insti-
tution, and that the scope of the institution should become wholly oceanographic.
Among Vaughan's conditions of acceptance were that he be allowed to carry
out certain of his own oceanographic studies, that investigations at Scripps be
extended to include chemistry, bacteriology, and marine sediments, that "ef-
forts be made to work in coordination with other inter.ested institutions and
individuals," and that some arrangement for scientific publications be made. Con-
tingent on those and "sympathetic support," Vaughan (1923a) said that he would
be happy to devote all his "energies and unreserved support" to the Institution.
His conditions were accepted, and in February, 1924 he became the second di-
rector of Scripps Institution for Biological Research, which the following year
was renamed Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Vaughan did indeed devote
his energies and unreserved support to the Institution. When he retired in 1936,
his annual salary of $7,000 had been reduced, because of the depression, to
$6,360, and he estimated that he had donated $19,000 of his own money to the
Institution, as well as his personal library then valued at almost $10,000.
Figure 1. T. Wayland Vaughan

on the landscaped grounds of
Scripps Institution, 1934.
The Role of T. Wayland Vaughan in American Oceanography 129
Vaughan also advanced the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to the fore-

most rank and simultaneously helped to create a national program in oceanogra-
phy. His approach was to expand the scope of oceanographic researches at
Scripps, to work in cooperation with many sea-going agencies, and to participate
in ocean-oriented committees.
2 Vaughan's Program at Scripps Institution
In 1924 the staff of Scripps Institution consisted of the director, two associate
professors, an assistant professor, a postdoctoral researcher, an aquarium-
museum curator, three students, two laboratory assistants, a business manager
(who soon resigned), a superintendent of buildings and grounds, and a secretary
who was also the librarian. Associate professor George F. McEwen was a physi-
cist; the rest of the academic staff were biologists. To Vaughan, a geologist, it
did seem that turning the biological station into an oceanographic institution
would take a long time. Scripps had even sold its only research vessel,Alexander
Agassiz, seven years earlier. However, appreciable basic marine biological research
essential to the broader concept of oceanography had been initiated by Ritter.
Vaughan promptly started his search for additions to the small staff in the
fields that he felt were necessary to broaden the oceanographic studies. He
queried colleagues for suggestions, and he moved slowly so as not to disrupt the
sensitivities of the "biological colony," most of whom lived on campus.
Finding a chemist was easy, as Erik G. Moberg was then a graduate student at
Scripps, already carrying out a program in marine chemistry. He was continued
on the staff when he received his Ph.D., as Vaughan thought highly of him from
their first meeting. This resolved a debate that Vaughan was having with himself:
whether to select as new staff members "men who had already achieved high
reputations," or "young men who are already interested in investigations planned
for the Scripps Institution and who have shown promise" (Vaughan 1923c). He
adopted the latter course. Some of those promising young men have shown great
endurance: physiologist Denis L. Fox and microbiologist Claude E. ZoBell
joined the staff in 1931, and invertebrate zoologist Martin W. Johnson in 1934.
They are now professors emeriti at Scripps, but still active.
The meteorological studies of George F. McEwen appealed keenly to Vaughan,
and this program was soon expanded. As a member of the National Research
Council's Division of Geology and Geography, Vaughan had been much impressed
in 1922 with McEwen's proposal: "Suggested Schedule of Oceanographic Re-
search in the North Pacific, with Special Reference to the Problem of the Re-
lation between Ocean Temperatures and Precipitation in Western North Ameri-
ca." At Vaughan's urging that year, the National Research Council's Committee
on Pacific Investigations promptly arranged that temperature records from all
lightships on the Pacific coast be sent to McEwen.
In the fall of 1924, not long after Vaughan had become director of Scripps, a
representative of Southern California Edison Company proposed cooperation
130 E. N. Shor
with the Institution in the hope of acquiring improved rainfall forecasts. That in-
quiry led to conversations with officials of other utility companies, who re-
sponded with contributions to the "Special Meteorological Fund" at Scripps.
Eventually 14 companies participated, throughout California, and the fund in-
creased to $15,000 annually. It paid the salaries of several assistants, and allowed
for the purchase of considerable equipment (such as "Burroughs adding and sub-
tracting machines"). Data on sea-surface temperatures were acquired from shore
stations from La Jolla to the Columbia River, from thermograph records taken
by commercial steamships, from Navy ships and from Coast and Geodetic Survey
ships. McEwen issued rainfall forecasts annually to the participating companies,
and to farm advisory services and newspapers. His forecasts were based chiefly
on sea-surface temperatures, and he estimated them to be 70 to 80% correct.
The support from utility companies was brought to an end in 1931 by the de-
pression, but McEwen's program continued with other support until the begin-
ning of World War II.
The means of acquiring data for McEwen's work was characteristic of Vaughan.
Cooperation with other agencies was necessary and desirable, especially as his in-
stitution was scarcely able to gather oceanographic data alone. In 1925 Vaughan
did acquire a "boat" -a 64-foot purse seiner for sale following customs violation.
This was the Scripps (Fig. 2; not the schooner E. W. Scripps given to the insti-
tution in 1937). Vaughan optimistically estimated that on it trips could be made
to several hundred miles offshore and "certainly from Panama to British Colum-
bia." Not so. The Scripps was, however, used frequently from Point Conception
to the Coronado Islands and out to Cortez Bank. It was Vaughan's avowed inten-
Figure 2. The boat Scripps acquired for the institution in 1925 by Vaughan.
The Role ofT. Wayland Vaughan in American Oceanography 131
tion to have "virtually all the students working at the Scripps Institution spend a
certain amount of time on the Institution's boat" (Vaughan 1928c). The ''virtu-
ally" did not exclude women, who did go to sea on the Scripps.
Vaughan's philosophy on oceanic expeditions was summed up in a letter to
Ellen B. Scripps' agent, J. C. Harper (Vaughan 1925a):
... within a few years the Institution should undertake extensive expeditions
so as to supplement the oceanographic data and collections which are now
coming to the Institution from a number of different sources. The expense of
such an expedition may be roughly placed at $50,000. Since field work is in-
tended to obtain both data and materials for study, interpretation, and publi-
cation, expeditions should not be undertaken more frequently than will per-
mit the· adequate working up in the laboratory and office of the data and
materials collected and preparation of reports on the results. From past ex-
perience expeditions should be undertaken about once in four years.
But material for oceanographic study could come from many other sources.
As early as the fall of 1924 Vaughan (1924c) reported to University President
W. W. Campbell these cooperative efforts: The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
steamships Guide and Pioneer were supplying Scripps with water, plankton, and
bottom samples throughout the year; the Survey had installed a tide gauge on
the Scripps pier; the Carnegie Institution was about to install a seismograph on
the campus; the U. S. Geological Survey was making chemical analyses of bot-
tom muds for Scripps; the U. S. Bureau of Soils was carrying out mechanical
analyses of those muds; the U. S. National Museum had donated foraminifera
specimens; the Bureau of Lighthouses and Hopkins Marine Laboratory were col-
lecting water samples and plankton samples from two of its expeditions in con-
junction with the U. S. Navy; and Vaughan was about to negotiate cooperative
work with Navy himself.
By the next year he had the U. S. Battle Fleet gathering hourly temperature
records and some water samples for Scripps from its exercises from California
to Hawaii and Australia. By 1927 Navy ships were providing similar data from
off western South America, and, through the arrangements ofU. S. Naval Intel-
ligence, so were ships of the Peruvian Navy. Also in 1927 three steamship com-
panies began sending sea-surface temperature records from along their routes
across the Pacific. All these agencies continued such collections for the insti-
tution for many years, using thermometers and bottles routinely provided to
them by Scripps. Soon institution staff members began riding ships of the Navy,
the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the California Fish and Game Commission
to gather data directly.
The cooperation was not one-sided. Officers of the Coast and Geodetic
Survey felt that they were receiving equal value for their efforts, in the salinity
determinations carried out for them by Scripps, which were used "in the deter-
mination of the rate of propagation of sound waves through the water and in the
standardizing of the sonic method of the determination of depth" (Vaughan
1924a). Vaughan acknowledged the Coast Survey's cordial thanks in 1928, and
132 E. N. Shor
simultaneously asked it to survey the Scripps Submarine Canyon for him, which
it did from the Institution's boat.
Vaughan's primary advantage during his Scripps years was his wide circle of
acquaintances in Washington. Commissioner of Lighthouses George R. Putnam
was an old acquaintance; E. Lester Jones of the Coast and Geodetic Survey was
very much interested in oceanographic observations. Vaughan retained his con-
tacts with the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. National Museum. He was a
member of the National Academy of Sciences from 1921, and he regularly at-
tended its spring meeting in Washington, at which he arranged conferences with
other ocean-interested scientists.
"Besides looking after the general affairs of the Institution and doing what I
can to stimulate oceanographic investigations in the Pacific, I must do some re-
search work myself' wrote Vaughan (1927c). He continued at Scripps his re-
searches on corals and the larger foraminifera, on which his fundamental studies
are considered major contributions in taxonomy and stratigraphy.
His new special interest was in marine sediments-"my beloved bottom muds,"
he once called them (Vaughan 1924b). "What I am trying to do," he wrote to
Captain W. E. Parker of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, "is to build up a suffi-
cient collection of marine bottom deposits to make possible the mapping of the
deposits on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of America from
Alaska to the Canal Zone" (Vaughan 1927b). In all modesty he intended to share
this project with W. H. Twenhofel, who was to receive all samples from north of
Puget Sound. On one occasion Vaughan reported with great pleasure to the Uni-
versity President that the U. S. National Museum had donated to Scripps two
vials of radiolarian ooze-had in fact "generously divided" its small collection
thus, and so had made the Institution's "representation of modern deep sea de-
posits complete except for one kind which I hope later may be added" (Vaughan
1925b). By 1934 he noted with pride that the Institution had "over one
thousand bottom samples from the Pacific Ocean" (Vaughan 1934).
The most extensive oceanographic exploration planned under Vaughan's di-
rection was to have been on the Carnegie following the completion of that ship's
work for the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Erik Moberg worked out, with
Captain James P. Ault, a detailed 18-month program on a course throughout the
eastern Pacific, after Moberg had sailed on the Carnegie during August and Sep-
tember of 1929. This program was dashed by the tragic loss of that ship and her
captain in Apia, Western Samoa in November, 1929. Scripps Institution received
seawater samples and marine bottom samples from the Carnegie and some of the
ship's collecting equipment. A nominal plan was begun for using the tiny Scripps
to explore the vast Pacific Ocean, but the idea was soon abandoned.
As the depression deepened, the Institution's fmances were affected, and
Vaughan was unable to carry out several of his hopes. He had wanted to in-
crease the annual income of the Institution to $100,000 (from the $45,000
when he arrived), and he did raise it to approximately $85,000 by 1936. He
came close to getting a new ship from Robert P. Scripps, but that was not car-
ried out until 1937. Vaughan hoped to build a "moderate-sized permanent
aquarium" and an oceanographic museum; that building was fmally completed

in 1950, and was appropriately named for T. Wayland Vaughan. Another of
Vaughan's goals was a national journal of oceanography, but that too came
later. In the meantime he was able to encourage the use of the already estab-
lished Bulletin of the Scripps Institution for publications by staff and visiting
investigators.
3 Vaughan's Programs beyond the Institution
The oceanographic committee of accomplishment in the 1920s and 1930s was

the Committee on Oceanography of the National Academy of Sciences, which
served from 1927 to 1938 under the chairmanship of Frank R. Lillie. Minutes
of the meetings indicate that negotiations had begun between Lillie and Wick-
liffe Rose of the (Rockefeller-sponsored) General Eduation Board prior to the
establishment of the committee and specifically for founding an oceanographic
institution on the east coast.
Vaughan was an active member of this committee, for both altruistic and
selfish reasons. He favored an east-coast "competitor," and assured University
President W. W. Campbell that "it would be ten years or even more before the
institution on the Atlantic could catch up to where the Scripps Institution now
is" (Vaughan 1929b).
His altruistic aim, often recognizable in the wording of the committee's
minutes, was to create a national program in oceanography, to overcome what
he and others felt was "the relative backwardness of the United States in the
study of oceanography" (National Academy of Sciences 1938).
If an institution of the kind indicated can be started [wrote Vaughan (1 927d)

to Lillie] I think that it will then become practicable to bring into more or
less concerted efforts the activities of the different marine stations and of a
number of the govel\Dmental organizations, such as the Navy, Coast and Geo-
detic Survey, Bureau of Lighthouses, Bureau of Fisheries, and International
Ice Patrol.
One effort of the committee, Vaughan felt, should be
to get support for the keeping of marine laboratories open for research pur-
poses during the entire year, and to endeavor to have the scope of the marine
laboratories extended beyond the biological field and take into consideration
numerous problems of physical oceanography and of the chemical properties
of sea-water (Vaughan 1927a).
To biologist Henry B. Bigelow, Vaughan (1928b) commented:
I am inclined to the opinion that one of the handicaps from which oceanogra-
phy has suffered is that it has been considered too much either from the
134 E. N. Shor
standpoint of biology or fisheries. [Harald U.] Sverdrup ... expressed an
opinion virtually the same as this.
An early action of the committee was to appoint Henry B. Bigelow secretary,

for the purpose of preparing a report on the status of American oceanography.
Bigelow's report, "Oceanography: Its Scope, Problems, and Economic Impor-
tance," was published by the committee in 1931, and Bigelow soon was ap-
pointed a full member of the committee.
As it became obvious that, through the action of the Committee of Ocean-
ography, the Rockefeller Foundation would provide one million dollars to
found Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Vaughan (1929c) commented
to Lillie:
I certainly hope that the Pacific side of the country is not going to be left
out of the running. As you know I wish the Institution with which I am con-
nected strengthened and I think that additional consideration should be given
both to the Pacific Grove group and those at the University of Washington.
The Atlantic side received the lion's share of the Rockefeller contributions:
the endowment of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and £50,000 to the
Bermuda Biological Station. On the Pacific side the University of Washington re-
ceived "a liberal contribution" for a laboratory building and a research boat,
which established the oceanographic laboratories at that university and Scripps
Institution of Oceanography received $40,000 toward its second laboratory
building, Ritter Hall.
The committee then turned to Vaughan for another summary report, on the
status of international oceanography. At its expense Vaughan took a round-the-
world tour of oceanographic agencies from September 1 of 1931 to April 1 of
1932, and in 1937 the committee published "International Aspects of Ocean-
ography" by Thomas Wayland Vaughan and others. The committee thenrecom-
mended its own dissolution. (Other committees on oceanography of the Nation-
al Academy of Sciences existed prior to and following this one.)
Vaughan was well qualified for undertaking the international study, for he
had been participating in those circles since 1920. He was a delegate to the first
six Pacific Science Congresses. The second was in Australia in 1923, before he
assumed the director's post at Scripps, and after it he wrote to George F. McEwen
(Vaughan 1923b):
While in Australia I succeeded in having first the Section of Geography and

Oceanography and then the general Congress pass a resolution looking toward
a cooperative study of the surface temperatures, salinities, hydrogen ion con-
centration, and currents of the Pacific, particularly of the northern Pacific
... I did this largely for the purpose of bringing out and strengthening the
investigations you have been making in physical oceanography and the re-
lation of oceanic conditions to continental meteorology.
The Role ofT. Wayland Vaughan in American Oceanography 135
At the third Congress (Japan, 1926) was established the International Com-
mittee on the Oceanography of the Pacific, of which Vaughan served as chair-
man for ten years. This committee, according to Thompson (1958, p. 404), "not
only enormously stimulated oceanographic research in the Pacific, but it became
a medium whereby the different oceanographic organizations of the Pacific
Basin could ·coordinate their efforts." As organizing chairman Vaughan devoted
considerable correspondence to lining up committee members from the many
countries bordering or colonizing in the Pacific.
Deciding whether to attend the fourth Congress in Java in 1929 put him into
a quandary. In present days of jet-set scientists, one must be reminded that in
1929 a minimum of three months was required to make the round trip from
California to Indonesia. Vaughan wondered whether he should be absent from
his campus that long, and, as he observed to University President Campbell
(Vaughan 1928a): "My personal scientific research work has been seriously in-
terrupted because of the time that I have devoted to attempts to promote and
organize oceanographic research." He was soon persuaded to attend, however,
by his appointments as a delegate from the University of Callforni a, the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, and the National Academy of Sciences. The Committee on Oceanogra-
phy of the National Academy contributed to his expenses, and urged him to
visit oceanographic agencies throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Vaughan set
aside his own researches and enjoyed the four-month trip.
In fact, he obviously enjoyed his expanding acquaintance with oceanogra-
phers in other countries. Among his personal interests were Oriental art and gar-
dening, subjects that he often discussed with colleagues whom he had met
through oceanography. Some of the plants that he set out during his extensive
planting program on the Scripps campus came from seeds sent by those colleagues.
4 The Results of Vaughan's Efforts
There were setbacks to Vaughan's hopes while he was director of Scripps Insti-
tution, mostly because of the depression. Also, during the latter half of 1934
Vaughan underwent a slow recovery from pulmonary tuberculosis. But there
were many bright moments: his pride in McEwen's meteorological program, the
cordial cooperation that he found in many oceanic agencies, the new laboratory
building, the much improved landscaping on the formerly bleak campus,and the
caliber of the institution's students.
Vaughan devoted considerable time to the handful of students then at Scripps,
in their acceptance and in their preparation for a career in oceanography. Those
students were truly research assistants in his mind. Vaughan took a particular
interest in one recommended to him in 1931 by George D. Louderback to work
on the marine bottom samples collected by the Carnegie. The student prepared
the long report (somewhat late), and then Vaughan got into a sharp exchange
136 E. N. Shor
with the dean of graduate studies at Berkeley over the student having written a
"thesis" before having been accepted for candidacy. So now, those of you who
are acquainted with Vaughan's favored student-keynote speaker Roger Revelle
-will not be surprised to find that even as a student Roger sometimes carried
out big projects in reverse order, and not quite according to University of Cali-
fornia procedure!
T. Wayland Vaughan retired from Scripps Institution satisfied that he had ad-
vanced American Oceanography. Immediately after turning over the reins to his
hand-picked successor, Harald U. Sverdrup, in the summer of 1936, Vaughan at-
tended a meeting of the Interntional Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Edin-
burgh, as did several of the Scripps staff. He reported to Sverdrup (Sverdrup
1936):
There were more papers on the Pacific than on any other ocean ... The
Scripps Institution received many compliments. I was gratified to get an
ovation when T. G. Thompson mentioned that I had attempted in developing
oceanographic research in the Pacific. After Revelle had presented the last of
the papers contributed by Scripps, the Institution was accorded a vote of
thanks. Helland-Hansen repeatedly said to me that what has been done at the
Scripps was 'most impressive.'
Under T. Wayland Vaughan's direction, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

became oceanographic and internationally known.
Acknowledgments
Vaughan's correspondence is in the Archives of Scripps Institution of Ocean-

ography, now under my care, so lowe a debt to earlier history-minded Scripps
people who saved the material. The National Academy of Sciences courteously
provided copies of minutes of the Committee on Oceanography. I thank Roger
Revelle and Martin W. Johnson for reviewing the manuscript. Mrs. Caroline
Vaughan Fortune gave the photo of her father to the Scripps Archives. The re-
search was supported in part by a gift in memory of Margaret Scripps Hawkins,
here gratefully acknowledged.
References
National Academy of Sciences: Committee on Oceanography: Meetings: Minutes:

1938 annual meeting.
Ritter, E. 1922. Letter (15 November) to Sir William A. Herdman.
Sverdrup, H. U. 1936. Letter (23 October) to R. G. Sproul. Vaughan's original
letter is not in the Scripps Institution Archives.
Thompson, T. G. 1958. Thomas Wayland Vaughan. Biog. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci.,
32,399-437.
Vaughan, T. W. 1923a. Telegram (30 April) to University of California President-
elect W. W. Campbell.
Vaughan, T. 1923b. Letter (19 October) to George F. McEwen.
Vaughan, T. 1923c. Letter (6 December) to W. W. Campbell.
Vaughan, T. 1924a. Letter (21 February) to W. W. Campbell.
Vaughan, T. 1924b. Oceanography in its relations to other earth sciences. J.
Wash. Acad. Sci., 14,308.
Vaughan, T. 1924c. Letter (20 October) to W. W. Campbell.
Vaughan, T. 1925a. Letter (23 June) to J. C. Harper.
Vaughan, T. 1925b. Letter (27 July) to Office of University President.
Vaughan, T. 1927a. Letter (21 June) to F. R. Lillie.
Vaughan, T. 1927b. Letter (12 July) to W. E. Parker.
Vaughan, T. 1927c. Letter (19 July) to G. W. Littleha1es.
Vaughan, T. 1927d. Letter (9 October) to F. R. Lillie.
Vaughan, T. 1928a. Letter (13 September) to W. W. Campbell.
Vaughan, T. 1928b. Letter (25 October) to H. B. Bigelow.
Vaughan, T. 1928c. Letter (19 December) to W. M. Hart.
Vaughan, T. 1929a. Letter (22 August) to F. R. Lillie.
Vaughan, T. 1929b. Letter (16 November) to W. W. Campbell.
Vaughan, T. 1929c. Letter (29 November) to F. R. Lillie.
Vaughan, T. 1934. Letter (6 June) to Waldo Schmitt.
A Brief History of the Tortugas Marine Laboratory and the
Department of Marine Biology, Carnegie Institution of
Washington
Patrick L. Colin
"Love, not logic, impels the naturalist to his work"

Alfred Goldsborough Mayor
From early in this century until World War II, the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington supported one of the most active programs in tropical marine research of
that time. It supported the Tortugas Marine Laboratory at Dry Tortugas, Florida
and expeditions to tropical areas around the world. The Carnegie Institution
provided many workers their first exposure to the tropical ocean and profoundly
influenced some who continued on to make major contributions in tropical
oceanography and biology.
In early 1902 the trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, formed
to promote scientific research, decided to support a research laboratory for trop-
ical marine zoology at the suggestion of Alfred G. Mayor (Fig. la), then curator
of natural sciences of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. In December
1903 Mayor was appointed director of this laboratory, operated through the
Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution (of which Mayor was
also director), and given the task of locating, designing and overseeing construc-
tion of this facility. He chose the Dry Tortugas of Florida, 11 0 km west of Key
West, as the location because of their isolation from continental land masses,
lack of commercial fisheries around the islands, lush reefs and clear water. He
hoped this laboratory would become the "Naples of the west" in comparison to
the Stazione Zoologica of Naples, as he put it in a letter of Apri11902 outlining
the goals of the laboratory, "it is remarkable that America, possessing as it does
large numbers of well-trained biologists, has produced so little creditable research
upon the fauna of the tropical Atlantic." Mayor was 35 years of age at the time
of his appointment and already was a field biologist of exceptionally wide exper-
A Brief History of the Tortugas Marine Laboratory 139
ience. Davenport (1926) has written a comprehensive biographical sketch of

Mayor, based largely on Mayor's autobiographical notes produced at the request
of the National Academy of Sciences.
The northern end of Loggerhead Key, a spindle-shaped island 1 km in length
by about 200 m wide, was selected for the laboratory site. A large lighthouse
was already established on the island. Two laboratory buildings, a dock with
kitchen, an outhouse building and a windmill for pumping saltwater were erected
there during the summer of 1904 (Fig. Ib). Actually, the buildings were prefabri-
cated in New York and brought to Tortugas by schooner. A laboratory vessel
was also built, a 17 m auxiliary ketch named Physalia (Fig. lc). The vessel, of
double center board design, drew only 1.l m with boards up and could thus
work in shallow reef areas as well as dredge in water up to 500 fathoms deep.
She was built in Maine and launched in August 1904 with Mayor, an exception-
ally able mariner, as her master. The Physalia headed south for the first time in
the fall of 1904 under Mayor's command.
The first investigators arrived at the station in the spring of 1905. Laboratory
operations were limited to the late spring and summer months, with the station
shuttered and the Physalia safe in the Miami River during the peak of the hurri-
cane season. The Carnegie Institution paid each investigator's travel expenses
from his home and expenses while at the station, but the station was surprisingly
economical. Construction of the laboratory with all expenses was $4,800 while
the Physalia cost slightly over $6,000. The operational budget, including all sala-
ries and travel costs, came to only about $15,000 per year.
Mayor invited scientists to the laboratory who were either young men of
great promise or well-established in their respective fields. It was a somewhat ex-
clusive gathering since only 6-10 investigators could be accommodated each sum-
mer with several repeat visitors usually among them. The visitors came from
highly diverse fields, from genetics or embryology to parasitology and physiolo-
gy, but all had in common the need to work with live or fresh tropical marine
organisms. During the first 15 years of the station's existence such notable
figures in marine biology and geology as L. R. Cary, E. G. Conklin, U. Dahlgren,
R. A. Daly, C. H. Edmondson, E. N. Harvey, W. H. Longley, D. H. Tennent and
T. W. Vaughan spent summers at the station. For some it was their first experi-
ence in the tropics and the stimulus to a lifelong interest. Charles H. Edmondson
was one such person, the "first professionally trained marine zoologist to live in
the Hawaiian archipelago" (Banner 1977), who made his first visit to the tropics
at Tortugas in 1906 just after receiving his doctoral degree from the University
of Iowa. William H. Longley of Goucher College (Fig. Id) spent every summer
between 1910 and 1936, missing only 1912, at the station and was its executive
officer after Mayor's death in 1922. Reginald A. Daly, a strong proponent of the
"glacial control" theory of atoll and coral reef development, visited Tortugas
once, in 1919, then continued on with Mayor to Samoa in the late summer.
Thomas Wayland Vaughan, while employed by the United States Geological
Survey, spent the summers from 1908-1915 and 1922-1923 at Tortugas. Al-
though a geologist he also worked on many aspects of coral biology, making de-
140 P. L. Colin
tailed measurements of growth of both undisturbed and experimental coral colo-

nies , the relationship of currents to reef growth, origins of carbonate material
and fossil reefs. His work was of such quality that it is widely cited today and in
some areas has not been superseded. Vaughan visited many areas of the Florida
Figure 1
reef tract and the Bahamas using the Physalia and later the Anton Dohrn and
had a familiarity with western Atlantic reefs unequaled by any geologist of his
time. The Carnegie Institution also supported his field work in the West Indies
in 1914. He never returned to Tortug~s after moving to the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography in 1924.
Edmund Newton Harvey first visited the Tortugas, serving as laboratory col-
lector, in 1909, the year he attained his B. S. degree. Conditions at the station
were described as hot and humid, with no refrigeration or electricity (Johnson
1967). By getting up at dawn, Harvey could finish his collecting tasks for the
other scientists by mid-morning with the remainder of the day available for his
own research. It is worth noting that after Harvey completed his first summer
at Tortugas he continued north by steamer to make his first of many visits to
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He was one of the five participants on the 1913
expedition to the Murray Islands of the Torres Strait, sponsored by the Depart-
ment of Marine Biology, and it was on this trip that his lifelong interest in bio-
luminescence was aroused. He visited Cuba in 1915 and Japan in 1918 with the
support of the Carnegie Institution and returned to Tortugas several times be-
tween 1910 and 1922 (Chase 1960). He never visited Tortugas after Mayor's
death in 1922.
Mayor also made the facilities available to non-marine scientists. These in-
cluded entomologists, such as W. L. Tower who did experimental work with
beetles in cages on Loggerhead Key, and ornithologists, such as F. Chapman and
G. Shiras of the American Museum of Natural History, who were taken to re-
mote Cay Verde in the southwestern Bahamas to study frigate birds and gannets.
Paul Bartsch of the U. S. National Museum worked for many years on land mol-
luscs of the genus Cerion, analyzing natural populations and transplanting colo-
nies of Cerion among the small islands of the Florida Keys.
Except for summer periods when he was occupied with the Tortugas Labora-
tory, Mayor was given the freedom to travel as his interests might lead him. He
organized numerous expeditions with the financial support of the Carnegie Insti-
tution and broadened the projects undertaken by the Department of Marine
Biology to a world-wide scope. Expeditions were mounted to the Bahamas (1907,
1912), Jamaica (1912), Puerto Rico (1915), Trinidad-Tobago (1918), the Torres
Strait (1913), Fiji (1918, 1920), Samoa (1917, 1918, 1919, 1920) and other
Figure 1. (Opposite) (a) Alfred G. Mayor at the wheel of the Physalia shortly
after her launching (Carnegie Institution). (b) The original Tortugas Marine Labo-
ratory building in 1906. The windmill for pumping saltwater is visible in the left
background (Carnegie Institution). (c) The "fleet" at Tortugas in 1907 with the
Physalia in the rear. The remaining boats are small collecting and transport
launches. (d) William H. Longley trolling from the back of the Anton Dohrn
traveling to Tortugas at the start of the 1930 season. He is still dressed for town
since the boat had only shortly departed from Key West (William H. Longley,
Jr.). (e) The Anton Dohrn at the dock at Tortugas in 1917. The dining room is
visible on the left (Carnegie Institution). (f) View of the Tortugas Marine Labo-
ratory from the Loggerhead Key lighthouse taken in about 1916. The Anton
Dohrn rides at anchor offshore (Carnegie Institution).
142 P. L. Colin
areas. Usually several scientists participated in each of these expeditions, ac-
companied by Mayor and John W. Mills, the chief engineer of the Tortugas Labo-
ratory. While the papers on the results of the trips give little hint, these journeys
were ft1led with adventure and often danger. Fortunately Mayor has provided
some brief glimpses of these happenings on expeditions in his few semi-popular
writings. In his description of the expedition to the Murray Islands in 1913
(Mayer 1914)1 he recounts chartering a local schooner which then disappeared
with the charter fee the night before it was to be boarded by the scientists. After
hunting and "recapturing" the errant schooner with a small launch, the expedi-
tion set forth "over a sea marked 'dangerous' on the maps we might have had
but chose to dispense with" to finally arrive at isolated Maer Island. Here the
local chief provided the "courthouse" (a one room concrete building) and the
"jail" (a pandanus hut) as laboratory quarters and since these facilities were un-
available for justice to be meted out, "an even more dreadful punishment was
quickly devised by the chief, who condemned malefactors to work for us."
Significantly at Maer Island Mayor carried on the first published quantitative
ecological survey of a coral reef (Mayer 1918) and he used similar techniques
later for surveys on Samoan coral reefs (Mayor 1924). These studies represent
the earliest baseline data for any coral reefs. The Samoan transects were resur-
veyed in 1973 (Dahl and Lamberts 1977) to assess long term changes produced
by environmental alteration, a study made possible by the "foresight and skill
of the Carnegie Institution studies" (Dahl and Lamberts 1977: 318).
While he had the utmost sincerity in his work, Mayor understood how others
might view his efforts and those of his colleagues. Of one Samoan trip he wrote,
"the natives while they wholly fail to appreciate the seriousness of our work and
regarded the scientific members of the expedition as hopeless, but harmless im-
beciles engaged in fruitless and foolish tasks, were nevertheless most kind and
hospitable .... In native opinion the most amazing imbecile among us was
Professor Daly whom they named 'Ma-a' (the rock), due to his habit of cracking
off rocks wherever he went, at the same time muttering such meaningless words
as 'trachydolorite' and loading himself with a heavy burden of useless objects ....
Our chief engineer, Mr. John W. Mills, was 'Kele Polo' (the wise one) from the
moment he installed the new engine in the hull and made it go."
A new laboratory vessel, the Anton Dohrn (Fig. Ie), was constructed in Miami
during the winter of 1910-1911 to replace the rotted-out Physaiia. The 70-foot
twin-engine boat was the largest yacht then constructed in south Florida and
cost $25,000. She began her long career in June 1911, serving at Tortugas that
summer, and the following spring made her first major research cruise to the
Bahamas with Mayor, T. W. Vaughan and P. Bartsch.
In either 1914 or 1915 Longley, Mayor and others began using diving helmets
in their field work. Clad in overalls and sneakers for protection, Longley would
descend for 4 or 5 hours at a stretch on the shallow reefs. A broken fencing foil
was carried for protection and a wax-covered slate served for taking notes. The
1 Alfred G. Mayor had his family name legally changed from Mayer to Mayor in 1918.
diving hehnets were also taken on various expeditions, including those to Samoa
and Fiji.
The Tortugas workers were also among the first marine biologists to exten-
sively utilize underwater photography in their studies. Jacob Reighard (1908)
was the first investigator to take such photos operating a camera while wading in
shallow water. Longley began in 1917 a series of experiments in underwater color
photography to document his studies of pattern and coloration of reef fishes.
His first successful color photographs, requiring an exposure time of 10-12
seconds, of sedentary corals, sea anemones and fan worms were not made until
1923. By artificially lighting the underwater substrate with a charge of powdered
magnesium detonated on a reflector raft on the surface, Longley and Charles
Martin of the National Geographic Society were able to obtain faster exposures
and make photographs of fishes underwater in color in 1926 (Longley 1927).
The laboratory was closed in 1918 due to World War I and the Anton Dohrn
was leased to the Navy to serve as a patrol boat at Key West Harbor. Mayor and
others were still able to travel widely with an expedition to the Pacific that
spring. After an incident in Trinidad in the summer, Mayor had his family name
officially "de-Germanized" (from Mayer) to relieve "the incongruity between a
Hun name and an American heart" (Davenport 1926). Thus, he published under
two names to the confusion of librarians.
The station opened again in 1919, but weathered a severe hurricane that fall
which required the laboratory be closed the following summer. Mayor traveled
with several co-workers to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, examining and weighing coral
and gorgonians placed there on previous visits. After his return from the Pacific
he learned that he had active tuberculosis, but went to Tortugas in the summer
of 1921 to oversee the rebuilding of the laboratory. Although he spent much of
the intervening year in a sanatorium and despite warnings from his doctors, he
returned again in June 1922 to Tortugas. Weakened by his travels, on June 24
Mayor fainted while bathing in shallow water and drowned.
Mayor's colleagues fmished the season at Tortugas as he wished and after
closing the laboratory in August, consideration of its future was begun. Many
scientists who had been closely associated with it wanted the Tortugas site aban-
doned in favor of a more diverse or accessible location in the tropics. Suggestions
for a location included various West Indian islands or somewhere in the tropical
Pacific. Longley, however, argued that the Tortugas station was the best equipped
tropical marine laboratory in the world and that a transfer of the laboratory
would unduly disturb ongoing research programs. The Carnegie Institution, un-
certain of the marine biology program without Mayor's guidance, decided to
continue support of the Tortugas station, but new long-term projects were
discouraged. The world-ranging expeditions of the department were eliminated.
The Department of Marine Biology was dissolved and was replaced by the simple
administrative designation "Tortugas Laboratory" within the Carnegie Insti-
tution. Longley was appointed "executive officer" of the laboratory on a year
by year basis.
In the years immediately following Mayor's death, the activity at the Tortu-
144 P. L. Colin
gas Laboratory was reduced to a narrower spectrum, but the station became
available to a larger group of scientists each summer. Due to better transportation
arrangements with Key West, scientists were no longer obliged to spend the entire
summer at Tortugas, so with the possibility of shorter visits more investigators
could be accommodated during the season. During the late 1920s and 1930s 14
to 18 men worked there each summer. During Longley's tenure from 1923-
1936 as executive officer such well known figures in marine science as H. Bosch-
rna, C. M. Breder, M. W. de Laubenfels, W. L. Schmitt, W. R. Taylor, J. W.
Wells and C. M. Yonge visited the Tortugas lab. Some returned for several
seasons. Very competent research was performed at the station during those
years, but overall the productivity of the entire program seems less than during
Mayor's stewardship. The reduced scope of activities was an element contribut-
ing to this possible difference. Certainly the diversity of investigation was less
during the Longley years than previously. Although there are exceptions, such as
Longley's work on fish systematics and biology and William Randolph Taylor's
(1928) work on algae, which have withstood well the test of time, the work
performed at Tortugas in the late 1920s and 1930s is, perhaps, not as widely
cited as the work of Mayor, Cary, Harvey, Vaughan and others who worked
there in the early years.
The grounds of the station in the mid-1930s contained two laboratory build-
ings, one of which also held accommodations for the scientists, and a shop with
maintenance staff quarters. A dock with kitchen and dining room at its entrance
was close by. The station now had electricity, seawater pumps and air compres-
sors. Rainwater was still collected from the roofs for use. The scientists slept on
a screened porch on quaint hammock-like beds suspended from the rafters, each
with its own mosquito net. Life at Tortugas was rather Spartan and a few visitors
chafed bitterly at the isolation and primitive conditions, some leaving shortly af-
ter arrival. Most investigators, however, found it a welcome change from the de-
mands of academic life with the opportunity to work during the day without
interruptions. In the evening the scientists would gather for an informal discus-
sion group, which, although slow to start early in the season, resulted in spirited
argument on the scientific theories of the day.
During the depression of the 1930s the operational costs of the station were
reduced to only $10,000-$15,000 per year, actually less than they had been
some 20 years previously. In spite of this, the number of investigators did not
decrease during this period. Longley continued as executive officer, a position
which did not provide him with full authority over the laboratory, but would
have gladly left his teaching position to accept the directorship of the laboratory.
Despite his long association with the laboratory, this was never offered. Once the
marine biology program had been relegated to a minor position in the Carnegie
Institution activities, there was resistance to resumption of full administrative
authority and funding for the program. Without a director within the Carnegie
Institution, the workers at the Tortugas station gradually became a group of
outsiders.
Longley died in March 1937 from a brain tumor and, at the time of his death,
his manuscript on the fishes of the Dry Tortugas was far from complete with his
collections and notes in a disorganized state. These were passed to Samuel F.
Hildebrand who completed the manuscript as best he could (Longley and Hilde-
brand 1941). David H. Tennent of Bryn Mawr College was appointed executive
officer for the remaining seasons (1937-1939). Tennent was the natural choice
since he had worked at Tortugas since 1909, largely on sea urchin embryology,
antrhad been associated with the laboratory longer than anyone else. The fmal
three years were active, but the station was closed as an economy measure and
due to shifting emphasis toward cellular and molecular biology. The lab closed
its doors for the last time on 8 August 1939, although the workers there did
not know at that time it would not reopen. The remaining equipment from the
station was carried to Washington iri June 1940 on board the Anton Dohrn and
the old ship was donated to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Longley's
underwater camera and various equipment were given to the Smithsonian
Institution.
The laboratory buildings were destroyed by fire in 1964. The area where the
laboratory stood at the north end of Loggerhead Key is now a dense grove of
Australian pine. When I visited the site in June 1973 few traces of the laboratory
remained with only the rotten remains of one dock house standing. In good con-
dition was a concrete monolith bearing a bronze tablet with the following in-
scription:
ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYOR
WHO STUDIED THE BIOLOGY OF MANY SEAS AND HERE

FOUNDED A LABORATORY FOR THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION
DIRECTING IT FOR XVIII YEARS WITH CONSPICUOUS SUCCESS
BRILLIANT VERSATILE COURAGEOUS UTTERLY FORGETFUL
OF SELF HE WAS THE BELOVED LEADER OF ALL WHO
WORKED WITH HIM AND WHO ERECT THIS TO HIS MEMORY
BORN MDCCCLXVIII DIED MCMXXII
The memorial plaque was executed by Harriet Mayor, his wife, and installed
shortly after his death. It is most appropriate that this remains the last vestige of
the laboratory he started.
Scientific Contributions
Approximately 146 different investigators worked at the Tortugas Laboratory

from 1905 to 1939. No woman was ever invited to join this all male summer
congregation. Most of the participants on the expeditions organized by Mayor
also visited the Tortugas station at some time.
The published results of the work undertaken at the Dry Tortugas are consid-
erable. Thirty-five volumes were issued in the "papers" series published by the
Carnegie Institution of Washington. Volumes 1-6 were titled "Papers from the
Tortugas Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington" (1908-1914)
146 P. L. Colin
while volumes 7-14 were "Papers from the Department of Marine Biology of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington" (1915-1926). Volumes 15-29 were issued as
"Papers from Tortugas Laboratory of Carnegie Institution of Washington" (1928-
1936) and volumes 30-35 were titled "Papers from Tortugas Laboratory" (1936-
1942). In addition, each volume was given a separate publication number by the
Carnegie Institution. This series included 219 contributions amounting to 7000
pages which ranged from short notes to monographic works of considerable
length. The annual "yearbooks" of the Carnegie Institution contain reports by
individual investigators of the results obtained during their visits to Tortugas and
summarization of the events at the laboratory for the year. The latter helped
greatly in the present undertaking. A series of other major publications was is-
sued by the Carnegie Institution concerning the research at Tortugas, but was
not included in the "papers" series. These include works such as Mayor's medusae
monograph (Mayer 1910), his later work on ctenophores (Mayer 1912) and
Clark's work on the echinoderms of Australia (1946). Each of these was assigned
a separate Carnegie Institution publication number.
No complete bibliography of the publications resulting from the work at
Tortugas and during the expeditions sponsored by the Department of Marine
Biology has been attempted. Papers not included in the Carnegie Institution
publications have been published in a wide range of journals. These papers
must certainly number over one hundred and continued to appear many years
after closure of the laboratory. Grey (1924) provides a list of the scientific
writings produced from activities of the department during Mayor's directorship.
A list of 28 titles authored or co-authored by Longley is included in Longley and
Hildebrand (1941).
Acknowledgments
I thank the Carnegie Institution of Washington for allowing access to the existing
documents regarding the Tortugas Marine Laboratory and for assistance in dupli-
cation of necessary materials. Drs. William H. Longley, Jr. and James B. Longley
provided original photographs and information unobtainable elsewhere. I would
like to thank J. Corredor, C. Cutress and D. Shapiro for their comments on the
manuscript. Dr. A. H. Banner provided answers to questions and C. Arneson
brought some references to my attention.
References
Banner, A. H. 1977. Charles Howard Edmondson. B. P. Bishop Mus. Spec. PubI.

64(1), v-vii.
Chase, A. M. 1960. Memorial Edmund Newton Harvey. BioI. Bull., 119, 9-10.
Clark, H. L. 1946. The echinoderm fauna of Australia: its composition and its
origin. Carnegie Inst. Washington PubI., No. 566. 567 pp.
Dahl, A. L. and A. E. Lamberts. 1977. Environmental impact on a Samoan coral
reef: a resurvey of Mayor's 1917 transect. Pac. Sci., 31, 309-319.
Davenport, C. B. 1926. Alfred Goldsborough Mayor. Biogr. Mem. Nat. Acad.
Sci., 21(8),1-10.
Grey, I. M. 1924. Bibliography of scientific writings emanating from the Depart-
ment of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and relat-
ing to work done or inaugurated during the incumbency of Alfred G. Mayor
as Director of the Department. Pap. Tortugas Lab., 19,80-90.
Johnson, F. H. 1967. Edmund Newton Harvey. Biogr. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci.,
39,192-266.
Longley, W. H. 1927. Life on a coral reef. Nat. Geogr. Mag., 51(1), 61-83.
Longley, W. H. and S. F. Hildebrand. 1941. Systematic catalogue of the fishes of
Tortugas, Florida, with observations on color, habits and local distribution.
Pap. Tortugas Lab., 34, 1-331.
Mayer, A. G. 1910. The Medusae of the World. Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ.,
No. 109,3 vol. 735 pp.
Mayer, A. G. 1912. Ctenophores of the Atlantic Coast of North America. Carne-
gie Inst. Washington Publ., No. 162.58 pp.
Mayer, A. G. 1914. An expedition to the coral reefs of the Torres Strait. Popular
Sci. Monthly, 85(15), 209-231.
Mayer, A. G. 1918. Ecology of the Murray Island coral reef. Pap. Tortugas Lab.,
9,1-48.
Mayor, A. G. 1924. Structure and ecology of Samoan reefs. Pap. Tortugas Lab.,
19,1-25.
Reighard, J. 1908. An experimental field-study of warning coloration in coral-
reef fishes. Pap. Tortugas Lab., 2, 257-325.
Taylor, W. R. 1928. The marine algae of Florida, with special reference to the
Dry Tortugas. Pap. Tortugas Lab., 25,1-219.
Some Aspects of the History of Oceanography as Seen
through the Publications of the International Hydrographic
Bureau 1919-1939
G. S. Ritchie
1 Introduction
The necessity for some form of international co-operation in maritime affairs,

including the provision of satisfactory world-wide sea charts for navigation, de-
veloped in the latter half of the 19th century. A proposal was eventually made
at the International Maritime Conference in Washington in 1889 to establish a
Permanent International Maritime Commission but this did not reach fruition.
In 1912 the Russian Government called delegates to an International Mari-
time Conference in St. Petersburg where delegates from fifteen nations took part.
Many technical matters were discussed and also the possibility of using Esperan-
to as an international language of navigation, whilst a further conference was
envisaged.
In fact, no further conference was possible until 1919 when the French and
British hydrographers took the initiative by calling an International Hydrogra-
phic Conference in London to which twenty-two nations sent delegations. After
passing a number of resolutions concerning the standardization of chart symbols
and related matters the Conference decided to form a permanent International
Hydrographic Bureau (IHB). French and English were to be the official languages,
whilst the Bureau would become an agency of the newly formed League of
Nations.
Admiral Sir John Parry, the former Hydrographer of the United Kingdom,
was elected as the first President of a Directing Committee of three which was to
establish and run the Bureau. Admiral Parry was influential in accepting the invi-
tation of the Principality of Monaco because of its comparative nearness to the
League of Nations at Geneva. Furthermore, Monaco was easy of access and its
Some Aspects of the History of Oceanography 149
particular status was a guarantee of neutrality from the Bureau's point of view,
and had an enhanced reputation due to the high regard in which the Sovereign,
His Serene Highness Prince Albert I, was held as a scientist. The Prince was deep-
ly concerned with all problems relating to the sea and took an active interest in
the Bureau's creation and had generously proposed that it be established in his
own country where he had built the Musee Oceanographique in 1910.
The Bureau took up its temporary quarters in Monaco in 1921. In 1929
Prince Louis II, son of Prince Albert who had died in 1922, laid the foundation
stone of a building on the Port to be specially constructed and to this the Bureau
moved in 1931.
2 Bureau Publications
The role of the Bureau was to propose, and use persuasion to implement, hydro-
graphic standardization; also to acquire new information and publicize methods,
thereby contributing to their development by preventing duplication of techni-
cal research.
Promulgation of technical and scientific advances therefore became a major
task for the Bureau and for this purpose the twice yearly publication of the Hy-
drographic Review (hereafter referred to as the Review) was established in 1923.
Special Bureau Publications (hereafter referred to as SPs) were also issued from
time to time as necessary to cover developments of special interest to hydrogra-
phers. All publications are in both English and French.
Thus, a study of the pages of the Review, SPs and the published Reports of
Proceedings of the 5-yearly Hydrographic Conferences in Monaco, where Mem-
ber States plan future policy, can provide researchers with a wealth of detail con-
cerning the advancement of sea technology in the twenty years between the two
world wars.
Hydrography in the context of the IHB primarily concerns the measurement
of the depths of the sea and the delineation of the seabed topography for the
compilation of marine charts. Inevitably developments in hydrography, as a
sea surveyor knows it, are closely intermingled with those in oceanography al-
though the practitioners of the latter science attach quite a different meaning to
the word hydrography. Perhaps the most fundamental oceanographic parameter
affecting the sea surveyor is the tide, for its ever-changing height must always be
taken into account when addressing the depth of water available to the navigator.
Commander H. D. Warburg, the Superintendent of Tidal Work in the British
Hydrographic Department, gave the lead at the First International Hydrographic
Conference with his submitted "Remarks and Suggestions respecting Tidal Infor-
mation" which led to several Resolutions. Among these was that Tidal Datum
should be the same as Chart Datum, and should be a plane so low that the tide
will not frequently fall below it. Further it was resolved that hydrographers
adopt "a universal datum plan which should be called International Low Water,
its plane of reference below mean sea level being determined as follows-take
150 G. S. Ritchie
half of the range between mean low water and mean higher water and multiply
this half range by 1.5 (1 )."
Nothing was said at the First Conference about tidal analysis by harmonic
constants, although this method had been increasingly adopted by scientists
since the beginning of the century. However, in the first ever issue of the Review
in March 1923 (2) the Directing Committee gave the text of a Circular Letter
which had been sent to Member States which posed, among other questions,
"whether harmonic analysis was applied to tides in your country." Replies to
this early Circular Letter were published in the Review of November 1924 (3),
and of the 12 members replying only Argentina, China, Canada, Denmark,
France, Japan and the U.S.A. were using harmonic constants. They were employ-
ing a number of different predicting machines among which Kelvin's Tide Pre-
dictor seems to have been the one most widely in use. The United Kindgom does
not appear to have answered the Circular Letter.
A paper entitled "International Low Water" by the Dutchman Rear Admiral
Phaff, a Member of the Directing Committee, appeared in the Review for May
1925 (4), which was followed over a year later by a paper of the same title con-
tributed to the Review in July 1926 (5) by Captain J. L. H. Luymes, the Hydro-
grapher of the Netherlands. Largely agreeing with Phaff, Luymes concluded
"International Low Water is an erroneous conception; it is impossible to estab-
lish a general hard and fast rule for a level of reduction of soundings which is
applicable to every system of tides." He further continued "although theoretical
considerations will be of great advantage when choosing a level, it is essential
to establish, if possible, its distance below a fixed plane of levelling directly
from a series of tide gauge readings made during several years." Phaffhad come
nearer to solving the surveyor's problem in his paper when he had written, "Dur-
ing an extensive survey the hydrographic surveyor will always have the oppor-
tunity to collate a series of observations made at a tide gauge during at least one
month and, by the method of approximation, these observations will enable
him to deduce, within certain limits of accuracy, the constants of the principal
constituents of the tide."
The publication of these two papers had its effect at the 2nd I. H. Confer-
ence held in Monaco in 1926 when, among other Resolutions on tidal matters,
was one to change the wording of Chart Datum, Captain Luymes proposing that
"Chart Datum should be on a plane so low that the tide will but seldom fall be-
low it," a wording which has endured to the present time (6). All references to
an 'International Chart Datum' were dropped.
It was further resolved at this Conference to encourage the use of harmonic-
constants by seamen for tide predicting and by hydrographers for determining
Chart Datum. The Bureau was instructed to prepare and publish a volume con-
taining standard harmonic constants for the whole world as they became avail-
able from administrative authorities. The volume was to be kept up to date by
annual supplements. The actual collection of the tidal harmonic constants took
a good deal of time to arrange. Pro-forma sheets were issued to numerous au-
thorities world-wide for completion and return to the Bureau. SP 26 (7) first
made its appearance in 1930 in which was described how the constants would
be handled using the symbolic denominations established by Sir George Darwin
nearly 50 years earlier. From 1931 onwards SP 26 was frequently republished
to give numerical, geographical and alphabetical listings of the ever-increasing
number of stations for which harmonic constants were becoming available. By
1939 SP 26 was carrying lists of harmonic constants for well over 2000 stations
and its compilation had received the approval of the 1937 I. H. Conference. In
1975, as a result of a Resolution at the 1972 Conference (8), this world-wide
collection of harmonic constants was transferred to a computer-controlled data
bank operated on behalf of the IHB by the Canadian Hydrographic Service.
The data bank catalogue, which is now available (9), enables those requiring
print-outs of harmonic constants to be quickly supplied in respect of 4000
stations world-wide. So has come to fruition a modest beginning made by the
IHB in 1926.
Other Bureau SPs concerning tides published during the period under review
included SP 28 (10) and SP 28a (11) being a "Vocabulary Concerning Tides" in
French, English, German, Dutch and Spanish. SP 31 (12) was a remarkable
"General List of Tidal Authorities and Tidal Records" which gave details of
tidal stations world-wide and the type of records available from each; whilst
for the Congress of Geodesy and Geophysics held in Edinburgh in 1936 the
Bureau prepared charts showing the location of the stations listed in SP 31 so
that new locations for tidal observations could best be chosen to augment the
existing records and close the gaps.
SP 13 (13) published in 1926 was a notable report on "Tide Predicting
Machines" currently in use in different parts of the world compiled by Henri
Bencker, a technical assistant in the Bureau. The Report, which carries a num-
ber of illustrations, begins with a description of an early machine developed
for the British Association for the Advancement of Science by Sir William
Thomson Oater Lord Kelvin) in 1873. It concludes with a description of a
tide predictor only recently presented to the Liverpool Tidal Institute by the
Shipowners of Liverpool and the Tidal Committee of the British Association.
With this major concentration on tides during the 1920s and 30s it is not
surprising to fmd in the Review during these years a number of papers on tidal
analysis, current meters and tide gauges, including a seabed gauge, by such
writers as Marmer, Rude, Wiist and others.
The latter years of World War I saw the tentative use of underwater sound
for locating submarines and this led in the immediate post-war years to the
first real developments in echo-sounding. By the 1930s the echo-sounding
machine had become a major tool for both hydrographers and oceanographers.
Numerous papers in the Review and SPs concerned with the development of
echo sounders reflect the importance of this revolutionary equipment. The first
shot was fired, so to speak, by the Hydrographer of the U. S. Navy in the first
issue of the Review in 1923 (2) when he reported briefly on the taking of a line
of soundings across the Atlantic from Newport to Gibralter by U.S.S. Stewart.
The Navy Sonic Depth Sounder was used which measured the time required for
152 G. S. Ritchie
an emitted sound signal to travel to the seabed and return to the ship as an echo.
Soundings could be taken at minute intervals but neither the acoustic source nor
the method of measuring the time of sound travel were described.
Under its Statutes the IHB was adjured to collect and publicize information
on technical developments which would increase the efficiency of sea surveying,
and echo sounding surely came within this category. However, the Directing
Committee did not ftnd at ftrst the collection of such details a simple matter, as
is pointed out in the Introduction to SP 1 (1923) (14). "In connection with
marine invention of most descriptions it is distinctly noticeable that the majority
of nations are treating such matters as conftdential: this, no doubt, as the result
of the War in which it was obviously essential to keep all new inventions as secret
as possible."
As time went on, however, things began to open up and SP 1 (1923) (14),
SP 3 (1924) (15), SP 4 (1925) (16), and SP 14 (1926) (17) each give increasingly
complete descriptions and assessments of the various new echo-sounding machines
as they developed.
From the historical point of view the early somewhat tentative reports in SP 1
are worthy of some brief quotations. A re,port by the French Hydrographer was
the ftrst to appear in SP 1, a portion of which reads as follows:
Professor Langevin's method of soundings at sea by Rertzian waves is but

one of the new systems of sounding by sound-waves, the development of
which my office is watching closely.
In spite of the results obtained by means of the Langevin apparatus we
are of the opinion that this system is too complicated to be taken into general
use. Besides, we are certain that we shall succeed in sounding by means of
much more simple acoustic arrangements, having discovered that a light blow
with a hammer on the hull of a ship transmits to the water sufficient sonor-
ous energy to make the echo from the bottom of the sea audible to a depth
of 200 m (I 10 fms). The Scientific Research Department of the French Navy
is now engaged in the perfection of a sounding apparatus based on this prin-
ciple.
In greater depths, for the last year, we have been using an acoustic sound-
ing instrument devised by an Officer in my Service, Monsieur Marti, which
employs the sound made by detonation. In depths up to 1,000 m (545 fms)
an ordinary rifle, suitably shortened, is used and is fired straight into the
water. Beyond this depth a small gun of 37 m/m bore (3 pr.) firing blank, also
straight into the water, is employed. This apparatus was used for the first
time to obtain a section-profile from Marseilles to Philippeville. We are now
using this apparatus in one of our surveys on the coasts of Algeria; it is easy
to use and gives satisfactory results. We recommend it for the exploration of
the depths of the oceans which, up to now, has been a difficult and lengthy
matter by means of sounding by wire.
Then follows an interesting report from the Nautical Magazine (British) of

March 1923:
In a popular lecture delivered recently by Mr. J. F. Sirks, Engineer, under
the auspices of the Nautical Institute and Museum of Rotterdam, the Behm
depth indicator was described. The instrument serves to measure the depth
of the sea by sound, viz., by observing the difference in time between the
detonation of a sound signal and the return of the echo from the sea bottom.
The whole instrument can be worked from the bridge of a vessel and consists
of a rifle, loaded with a detonator signal, two microphones fitted, below the
waterline, to the side of the ship, and a recorder on the bridge. The rifle is
fixed to the side of the ship above the waterline, and can be loaded from the
bridge by a pneumatic tube and fired by electric contact. The explosion is
received by the port microphone, which closes a contact of a small motor
rotating a circular mirror mounted on a vertical shaft on the bridge, the maxi-
mum angle of rotation of the mirror being 90 degrees. This mirror reflects a
beam of light to a scale, divided in a scale of linear measures. On the return of
the echo from the bottom, same is received in the starboard microphone
which, through an electric constant, engages a powerful brake, instantly stop-
ping the rotation of the mirror. The actual depth can be immediately read off
from the recorder on the bridge by noting the position of the beam of light
reflected by the mirror on the scale. For great depths a photographic recorder
has been patented. Experiments are now being carried out to adapt the device
for measuring the height of flying machines above the land.
SP 1 concludes with a fuller report from the U.S. Hydrographer on the Navy's
Sonic Depth Finder, which was being investigated by a number of European Hy-
drographic Offices. The Bureau had been informed that
The American Government had specially despatched to Australia the Mil-

waukee, one of the latest Scout Cruisers of 10,000 tons displacement with a
speed of 35 knots, to demonstrate the Sonic Depth Finder to the Delegates of
the Second Triennial Pan Pacific Science Congress which was held in Mel-
bourne and Sydney in August 1923.
From SP 3 onwards the Directing Committee attempts to describe the theory

of echo sounding as well as keeping track of developing systems. In SP 4 (1925)
the British Admiralty Apparatus being developed by F. E. Smith gets its first
mention and description. This apparatus was destined to become a highly success-
ful machine for survey work when manufactured and marketed by Henry Hughes
& Sons.
By 1926 (SP 14) Marti had developed his Continuous Sounding Recorder
which enabled depths to be marked every 3-5 seconds on a continuous roll of
paper. Before use this paper had to be blackened by means of a petroleum lamp,
"its wick properly set to smoke abundantly. It is important to place the flame in
such a way that it will not set fire to the paper."
With SP 33 (1939)(18), "A Summary of Echo Sounding Apparatus," published
at the very outbreak of World War II, Bencker made his second major contri-
bution to the publications of the IHB. This SP is a comprehensive contemporary
154 G. S. Ritchie
report on the state of echo-sounding technology at the end of a twenty year
period which had seen great developments in this field and forms a most useful
book of reference for students of oceanographic history. The chronological bibli-
ography consists of372 references dating from 1827 to 1938.
In his Historical Notes in SP 33 Bencker attributes the first proposal to utilize
the propagation of sound for deep-sea soundings to Jean Fran90is Arago in 1807.
He follows these early developments through to the expedition of the German
research ship Meteor in the South Atlantic in 1925-27 which he considers "the
most extensive work ever obtained by the establishment of 14 transoceanic pro-
mes comprising more than 67,430 soundings taken at approximately 34,000
stations with two echo-sounders."
Bencker lists a number of major deep-sea sounding expeditions which took
place in the 1920s and 1930s including those made in Marion, Carnegie, Wille-
brord Snellius, Dana, Emden, Discovery II and others, many of which had been
described in papers contributed to the Review. The numerous soundings ob-
tained by these vessels were passed to the IHB, which had been instructed by the
1929 I.H. Conference (19) to centralize oceanic echo soundings in order to keep
up-to-date the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO). This was
originally compiled and published in its First Edition in 1903 by Prince Albert I
of Monaco and the responsibility for maintaining it was passed to the IHB by the
Cabinet Scientifique of the Prince of Monaco after the completion of the 2nd
Edition in 1929.
The 5th Edition of GEBCO, which covers the world on 18 sheets, is expected
to be complete by 1982. Whilst the sounding data contributed by Member States
is still centralized in the IHB, the formation of a joint IHOjlOC Guiding Com-
mittee for GEBCO in 1972 has resulted in the participation of the great majority
of the world's leading marine geophysicists and geomorphologists in the compi-
lation of this series of scientifically orientated ocean charts. The Canadian Hy-
drographic Service is printing the 5th Edition of GEBCO.
3 Postscript
If there is a place for a hero in this paper then one is easily found. Stocky, ro-
tund, often untidily or exotically dressed, with an alert scientific mind and a
prickly nature, Henri Bencker, a lieutenant in the French Navy, joined the Bureau
in 1924 as a technical assistant when he was pronounced medically unfit for sea
service. He remained at the Bureau for 33 years where, by then promoted to
Captain, he was elected Secretary General in 1947. Retiring in 1957, he died
eight years later. His contribution to the publications of the IHB had been out-
standing.
During World War II Bencker remained at the Bureau together with the sole
Director, De Vannssay de Blavous, during the occupation of the Principality of
Monaco first by the Italian and then by the German Armies.
There being practically no input by Member States and with his salary drasti-
cally reduced, Bencker might have taken life easily, but in fact during these war
years he contributed to the Review (published once a year during this period) a
series of remarkable papers each of which required copious research and all of
which are of lasting interest to historians concerned with navigation or ocean-
ography.
Among the more notable of Bencker's wartime papers published in the
Review are the, following:
1941 (20) "Historical and Bibliographic Index concerning the development

and improvement of the Compass" (sixty pages comprising a
chronological list of illustrated references from 2600 B.C. to
1941)
1942 (21) "Maritime Geographical Terminology relating to the various
Hydrographic Subdivisions of the Globe" (an early list of the
terminology of maritime features covering 14 pages)
1943 (22) "Regimen of the Sea or Nautical Compendium-being a Chrono-
logical and Analytical List of various Tables or Treaties on Navi-
gation intended to facilitate Nautical Computations and acceler-
ate ships' position finding" (70 pages of References from 640
B.C. to 1942)
1944 (23) "Chronological List of the Main Maritime Discoveries and Explo-
rations" (40 pages of References from AD 861 "Scandinavian
Ships manned by Naddod's men discover the Faroe Islands" to
1940 "Echo-soundings made by U.S.S. Ramapo in the North
Pacific Ocean." A number of voyages organized by Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution are referenced, beginning with the
Nautilus exploration in the North Atlantic in 1931.
For those who may wish to pursue further papers published in the Hydrogra-
phic Review for the period covered by this paper the indexes are given as Refer-
ences 24 and 25 to this paper.
References
1. H.M. Stationery Office. 1920. International Hydrographic Conference, Lon-

don 1919.
2. IHB Monaco, March 1923. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. I, No.1.
3. IHB Monaco, November 1924. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. II, No.1.
4. IHB Monaco, May 1925. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. II, No.2.
5. IHB Monaco, July 1926. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. III, No.1.
6. IHB Monaco. 1926. Report of the Proceedings of the Second International
Hydrographic Conference.
7. IHB Monaco. 1931. Special Publication, No. 36, Tides-List of Harmonic
Constants.
8. IHB Monaco. 1972. Tenth International Hydrographic Conference-Report
of Proceedings.
9. Ocean and Aquatic Sciences, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Ottawa.
1979. IHO Tidal Constituent Bank-Station Catalogue.
156 G. S. Ritchie
10. IHB Monaco. 1932. Special Publication, No. 2S-Vocabulary concerning
Tides in French and English.
11. IHB Monaco. 1934. Special Publication, No. 2S-Vocabulary concerning
Tides in German, Dutch and Spanish.
12. IHB Monaco. 1935. Special Publication, No. 31-General List of Tidal
Authorities and Tidal Records.
13. IHB Monaco. 1926. Special Publication, No. 13-Tide Predicting Machines.
14. IHB Monaco. 1923. Special Publication, No. I-Echo Sounding.
15. IHB Monaco. 1924. Special Publication, No.3-Echo Sounding.
16. IHB Monaco. 1925. Special Publication, No.4-Echo Sounding.
17. IHB Monaco. 1926. Special Publication, No. 14-Echo Sounding.
IS. IHB Monaco. 1939. Special Publication, No. 33-A Summary of Echo Sound-
ing Apparatus.
19. IHB Monaco. 1929. Report of Proceedings of the First Supplementary Inter-
national Hydrographic Conference.
20. IHB Monaco. 1941. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. XVIII, No.1.
21. IHB Monaco. 1942. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. XIX.
22. IHB Monaco. 1943. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. XX.
23. IHB Monaco. 1944. The Hydrographic Review, Vol. XXI.
24. IHB Monaco. The Hydrographic Review-Index of Articles and Authors
for the first Twenty-four Numbers, March 1923-November 1935.
25. IHB Monaco. The Hydrographic Review-Index of Articles and Authors for
the Numbers 25-36 inclusive issued from May 1936 to November 1941 in-
clusive (Vol. XIII to Vol. XVIII inclusive).
The Plan for an International Oceanographic Congress
Proposed by H.S.H. the Prince Albert 1st of Monaco
Jacqueline Carpine-Lancre
The years 1905-1910 represent a particularly fruitful and active period in the
oceanographic career of H.S.H. Prince Albert I of Monaco. Every summer he
regularly carried out scientific expeditions in the Atlantic, from the Azores to
Spitzbergen. With the help of his collaborators, he perfected new instruments
and new methods. Academies and learned societies conferred membership upon
him; he received degrees of Doctor honoris causa from universities. He did not
simply confme himself to assisting in the advancement of oceanographic know-
ledge, he also endeavored to encourage countries to extend their research in this
field and to make the results obtained available at all levels. It was with this pur-
pose of "propagating" oceanography that he delivered speeches before heads of
State, organized popular courses and, in 1906 founded in Paris the Institut
Oceanographique to undertake teaching at the university level. The successive
editions and translations of his autobiography,La ca"iere d'un navigateur, were
also produced with this aim in view.
The centerpiece of his enterprise is represented by the Musee Oceanographique
de Monaco, the first stone of which was laid in 1899. The inauguration was to
constitute, in the Prince's own words "The consecration of [his] scientific
career (1 )." It was therefore logical that Albert I wished this occasion to be as
impressive, and useful, as possible, by convening at the same time the first inter-
national oceanographic congress.
For some decades past, congresses had appeared to be a propitious means for
promoting science, on a national level within the framework of associations for
the advancement of science, on an international level with periodic meetings de-
voted to a particular discipline. In the oceanographic sphere nothing comparable
had as yet been organized. Professor H. H. Hildebrandsson (University of Upsala)
158 J. Carpine-Lancre
thus summed up the position in 1906:
On n'a eu jusqu'ici que deux grands congres internationaux oceanographiques,

Ie premier sur l'initiative de Maury it Bruxelles 1853, et l'autre a Londres
1874 se10n une resolution du Co mite international meteorologique it sa
seance it Vie nne 1873. La conference internationale pour l'exploration de 1a
mer it Stockholm en 1899, et dans laquelle prirent part des de1egues de
l'Allemagne, Danemark, Grande-Bretagne, Norvege, Pays-Bas, Russie et Suede,
avait Ie but it organiser l'exp10ration hydrographique et biologique de la Mer
Glacia1e, de la Mer du Nord et de la Baltique (2).
In April 1906 Dr. Jules Richard, director of the Musee Oceanographique de

Monaco, sent a circular letter to oceanographers throughout the world, announc-
ing the plan for an international oceanographic congress (Fig. 1). The following
month, an invitation along similar lines was addressed to academies and learned
societies (3).
Within a few weeks, more than a hundred answers had been received, all of
them favorable. Most of these paid a well-deserved tribute to Prince Albert and
his work.
Nul, plus que Son Altesse, n'a ete un fervent de cette science, et nul ne lui a
donne plus entierement sa pensee, son temps, ses ressources et son C(l)Ur. Oui,
c'est bien it Monaco, pres de ce Musee ou s'accumulent des richesses recueil-
lies pendant vingt annees, que doit se tenir la premiere assise des oceanogra-
phes; tous les savants, vous pouvez en etre convaincu, applaudiront it cette
nouvelle initiative de Son Altesse (E.-L. Bouvier (4».
The Prince of Monaco has undoubtedly the supreme claim to be the founder
of such a Congress. In his oceanographical work he has always shown the
most generous appreciation of the efforts of the workers of every nationality
(Hugh Robert Mill (5».
C'est avec grand plaisir que j'apprends Ie projet de S.A.S. Ie Prince Albert de
convoquer it Monaco un congres d'oceanographie. 11 lui appartient it lui qui a
tant fait pour les recherches directes en mer, pour la conservation de ces
tresors dans Ie Musee de Monaco, qui vient d'annoncer la creation d'un Insti-
a
tut d'oceanographie Paris, d'appeler it lui les oceanographes du monde en-
tier qui repondront je n'en doute pas, it son invitation (F. A. Forel (6».
Some of the letters contained either the theme of a possible paper (even at
that stage) or suggestions on questions which should be tackled during the
congress.
In his circular letter of April 1906, Dr. J. Richard had simply outlined as sub-
divisions of oceanography: physics, chemistry and biology of the sea. In the invi-
tations to the academies he had added, at the request of the Prince himself,
marine meteorology (7). For some years Albert I had been taking an increasing
interest in meteorological research, as witnessed by the exploration of the upper
The Plan for an International Oceanographic Congress 159
MUStE OCtANOGRAPHIQUE
Jlollaro, A,'ril 19(Jlj.
DE
MONACO
Suivant Ses instructions, fai [,honneur de vous faire connaitre que S. A. S. Ie

Prince de lIJonaco a ['intention de provoquer la reunion, a Monaco, d'un PREMIER
CONGRb'S INTERNATIONAL D'OCEANOGRAPHIE (Physique, Chimie, Biologie, etc.
de la Mer).
S. A. S. le Prince desh'erait faire cOIncideI', si cela est possible, la date de ce
Congres avec celle de l'inauguration du J/usee Oceanographique; ceUe ceremollie
se ferait tres probablement pendant les vacances de Paques d'llne des annees tres
prochaines, qu'il n'est pas encore possible de designer. Mais le Prince a pense qu'il
y avait lieu de se prepareI' des maintenant a ce Congres, de fafon ;, en assurer Ie
plein sucees.
Le but de celte circulaire est de vous prier de vouloir bien me faire connailre si
vous etes dispose, com me je ['espere, a donner en principe votre adhesion a ce projet.
Le sucees des divers congres tenus deja, au printemps, dans la Principaute montre
que ['on peut esperer, pour le Premier Co~res International d'Oceanographie, Ulle
reussite complete; rien d'ailleurs ne sera neglige pour ['obtellir.
Je pense que vous serez d'avis avec moi qu'it appartient a S. A. S. le Prillce
Albert ler de fonder ce Congres Illternational d'Oceallographie, Lui qui depuis plus
de vingt ans poursuit dans celte voie les recherches avec la plus grande constance.
Il sera hellreux de voir des savants de tous les pays se reunir dans Ie Musee
Oceal/ograpltique de MOl/aco pour y etudier ensemble leO' grands problemes de la Mel'.
Je 1'0us serais oblige de vouloir bien me faire conllaUre votre avis sur Ie sujet
de celie circulaire et les observatiolls qu'elle peut vous ."'ggerer. Un autre docll-
ment indiquera ulterieurement les dispositions arretees.
VI'I/ille: agreer, .Ilonsieur. l'e.rpressioll de Illes selltimellls les plus distillgues.
Le Secretaire aua:; fravauz scientifiquel de S. A. S. le Prince de Monaco,

Directeur du Mute Oceanographique,
Figure 1. Facsimilie of the circular sent by Dr. Jules Richard announcing the
plan for an International Oceanographic Congress.
atmosphere during the 1904 to 1907 expeditions, the participation in the foun-
dation of the Meteorological Observatory of the Azores, and the choice of the
motto "Ex abyssis ad alta" for the Institut Oceanographique (8).
The answers sent to Dr. J. Richard suggested enlarging still further the range
of the subjects to be dealt with during the congress.
Professor F. A. Forel (Morges (6» and L. de Loczy (Budapest (9» wished to
see limnology associated with oceanography. Professor V. Almeida d 'Erya (liS-
bon) suggested that the law of the sea should not be forgotten:
Je pense que parmi les sujets d'etude qui seront soumis au Congn:s, il y aura
naturellement de la place pour ce qui concerne la legislation sur la plkhe tant
dans la haute mer que sur les cotes, et par consequent sur la question, pas en-
core resolue, malgre son importance, de la delimitation des eaux territoriales
(10).
As for Professor E. von Halle (Grunewald b./Berhn), he was interested by the

economic aspects of oceanographic research (11).
Among the themes suggested by Dr. Richard's correspondents, the strongest
trend of opinion was in favor of increased international cooperation and of the
standardization of methods, of instruments and of the presentation of results.
V. Bjerknes based his proposal on the analogy with meteorology:
Les problemes avec lesquels je me suis occupe, savoir des problemes qui se
rattachent it la dynamique de la mer, ne peuvent, suivant mon opinion, etre
attaques serieusement que par des methodes synoptiques analogues it celles
qui forment la base de l'etude de la dynamique de l'atmosphere dans la
meteorologie moderne. Mais, exactement comme dans la meteorologie,
l'application de ces methodes presupposent avec necessite la formation d'une
cooperation internationale, et si Ie congres propose pouvait inaugurer l'organ-
isation d'une telle cooperation, il ferait, j'en suis convaincu, un grand service it
la science (12).
Max Weber expressed a similar opinion:
II y a peu de branches de la science qui ont tant besoin d'une cooperation in-
ternationale que l'Oceanographie tant pour ce qui concerne la methode des
recherches, les instruments dont on se devra servir, que la maniere dont les
resultats devront etre traites. Un congres international peut certes faire beau-
coup pour preparer une bonne entente et mener Ie travail dans la bonne voie
et personne mieux que S.A.S. Ie Prince n'aurait pu prendre l'initiative cet a
a
effet, car depuis de nombreuses annees Ie Prince a mis la disposition de
l'oceanographie ses capacites, sa personne et ses moyens dans Ie sens Ie plus
large du mot (13).
Finally, Otto Pettersson's letter is of such interest that it deserves to be

quoted in full (14).
to the Director of the Musee Oceanographique de Monaco,
Sir,
In a circular dated April this year you have asked my opinion upon some
topics connected with the future organisation and development of oceanogra-
phic research. I beg your permission to give my answere in the English lan-
guage with which I am more familiar than with your own.
From my own experience, which dates back to the year 1890, I judge
that the interest for the scientific investigation, hydrographic as well as bio-
logic, is increasing in all civilised countries and that the convocation of a
worlds congress of hydrographers and biologists in order to ensure a syste-
matic cooperation in the future investigation of the sea will meet with uni-
versal sympathy and will greatly contribute to raise oceanography to its born
rank and position among other sciences. The advantages intellectual and
material to mankind of an increased knowledge of the ocean, its vegetal and
animal life, the circulation of its water and influence upon our climate will be
immense.
I am further of the opinion that among all authorities now living His
Highness the Prince of Monaco is most entitled to take the initiative and the
lead in this matter.
Your circular invites me to give my advice about the proposed congress
and to communicate to you the ideas which it may suggest.
I have been a member of many scientific congresses, but I only remember
three which have led to positive results and really promoted the progress of
oceanography, viz. the two congresses in Stockholm 1899 and in Christiania
1901 where we organized the international research of the northern seas, and
the congress in Wiesbaden 1903 when, under the presidency of His Highness
the Prince of Monaco, we discussed the redaction of the bathymetric charts
of the oceans which have since been worked out and published by the care of
His Highness. On this last occasion His Highness informed the members of his
intention to give the oceanographic museum of Monaco an international char-
acter.
I have afterwards had occasion to reflect upon his words. From my con-
nection with the international oceanographic research of the North Sea
powers and Russia I have experienced both the advantages and the difficulties
of international scientific work.
Every such enterprise must have its centre. We were obliged to choose
Copenhagen for the seat of our Central-Bureau, because this town has a cen-
tral Rosition and is the capital of a small but independent country. Hamburg,
Amsterdam a. o. cities were proposed but rejected. Monaco fulfills most con-
ditions for becoming the centre of an international investigation of the sea,
being independent of the political changes and opinions of legislative bodies
as well as of the scientific rivalry of the universities and academies of the
greater nations. The oceanographic museum of Monaco, if combined with an
international investigation of the Atlantic and other oceans, might become
the seat of this organisation and the literary centre for publishing the general
results.
The conditions requisite for such an enterprise seem fulfilled. I can only
point to the fact: that the methods of investigation have attained a high de-
gree of perfection; that most plankton animals and plants of the Atlantic are
known and characterised; that the analytical methods are tested and the phys-
ical and chemical constants of the seawater are fixed to a high degree of accu-
racy. Lastly I call attention to the fact, that a hydrodynamic method of the
highest proficiency, founded upon the vortex theory of Helmholtz and Kelvin
has been worked out and surpasses all prior attempts to calculate by partial
solutions the circulation of the atmosphere and hydrosphere. According to
this method the multitude of observations from every niveau of sea and at-
mosphere collected by the kites and balloons of the international investi-
gation of the free atmosphere and by the quarterly cruises of the internation-
al investigation of the sea have been worked out and constructed into charts
representing the fields of forces of the atmosphere and hydrosphere. The
short extract subjoined of a number of such charts which have been con-
structed at the Station of Borno by our assistant Mr. Sandstrom will illustrate
this.
Generalisation of this kind invites to the organisation of a synoptic inves-
tigation of the oceans and seem to inaugurate an epoch when isolated expe-
ditions will gradually be replaced by systematically organized international
work. The opening of the Musee oceanographique in Monaco and the con-
gress may be introductory to this.
Should this hope be realised, the Ill~titution for Oceanography founded
by Albert I of Monaco may give a similar impulse to modern science as the
Museum in Alexandria of the kings of the Ptolemean dynasty gave to the
physiographic study of the antique world.
Thus the proposed congress seemed sure of success and of fulfilling a con-
siderable demand. However, it never took place (15). The reasons for this failure
are complex.
Some of the difficulties were of an internal nature. As it was intended that
the Congress should assemble in the Musee Oceanographique de Monaco, it
seemed natural that its organization should be entrusted to Dr. J. Richard. But
although by this date he had almost completely abandoned his own personal
scientific research (16) he was weighed down with responsibilities which he
assumed with unbounded devotion (17). He had to plan and prepare the gear
used during the Prince's expeditions, as well as that which Albert I, with excep-
tional generosity, loaned or gave on request to numerous oceanographic or
polar expeditions. J. Richard took part in all the Prince's cruises, which lasted
two to three months each year. He controlled the sorting and dispatch of the
animals collected during these trips to the various specialists. He also had to
supervise in the most. minute detail and at every stage, the publication not only
of oceanographical, but also archaeological and anthropological works patronized
by the Prince. He was responsible for an enormous correspondence: about 4000
letters, written entirely in his own hand, in the years 1907-1910. Finally, the
supervision of the construction and organization of the Museum, not only of the
exhibition rooms and the aquarium, but also of the laboratories, would have em-
ployed a team three times as large as the one which assisted him. The chronic
overwork to which he was subjected could not possibly have allowed him to take
charge of the organization of the Congress.
Within the Institut Oceanographique itself, differences seem to have arisen
between Dr. P. Regnard, childhood friend of the Prince and director of the Insti-
tut Oceanographique, and L. Joubin, professor at the Museum National d'His-
toire Naturelle and at the Institut Oceanographique, in particular regarding the
post of Secretary General of the Congress.
These internal difficulties might perhaps have been overcome had other,
much more fundamental, problems not arisen. Among questions of a practical
nature, the first concerned the actual date of the Congress. Prince Albert reserved
the summer months each year for his great research cruise. The Easter holiday
was therefore the only possible solution and was not a very suitable period, par-
ticularly for those who had to undertake a long journey to reach Monaco.
Other difficulties were linked with the ever increasing number of congresses
in all developed countries. Two prominent scientists, highly esteemed by Prince
Albert, since he had just named them members of the first Comite de Perfection-
nement of the Institut Oceanographique, publicly raised this question in the
Revue scientifique. In September 1906, Alfred Giard wrote:
11 nous sera permis de regretter l'absence de toute coordination, de toute

periodicite regulhire, de toute entente prealable dans les manifestations de
cette activite qui, par suite, n'aboutit Ie plus souvent qu'li des resultats
scientifiques derisoires [ ... ] Les deplacements sont couteux; les receptions
Ie sont plus encore. Un CongreS exige qu'on lui consacre un temps relative-
ment long et des depenses considerables, pour des hommes, la plupart tres
occupes, et en general peu fortunes (18).
As early as 12th October 1906, Alexander Agassiz had answered him in a letter
also published by the Revue scientifique:
11 me parait comme Ii vous tres necessaire de discuter Ii nouveau la question

de la reunion de tous ces Congres internationaux qui se suivent main tenant
de si pres qu'il est impossible, avec la meilleur volonte, pour ceux qui n'ont
pas les coudees franches et la poche bien garnie d'y pendre part. Cette annee,
nous en avons des exemples frappants et l'annee prochaine en promet un
nombre presqu'aussi grand! [ ... J Si Ie Prince de Monaco convoque un Con-
gn~s international d'Oct:anographie pour 1909, il sera presque impossible aux
Americains, qui auront pris part au Congres de Washington en 1908, de
s'absenter de nouveau [ ... J Au moins deux Congres par an [ ... J demandent
l'attention des naturalistes interesses aux grandes questions de leurs sciences.
Est-il possible de continuer de cette fayon sans gaspiller les forces dont on
peut disposer? (I 9)
Prince Albert endeavored to take the observations of A. Giard and A. Agassiz

into account, as well as the proposals made at the same time by the editor of the
Revue scientifique:
11 y a evidemment trop de Congres, et surtout il y a trop d'anarchie dans

l'organisation de ces Congres, pris dans l'ensemble. Des fusions seraient
necessaires, et aussi des juxtapositions, aux memes epoques, dans les memes
a
lieux, des Congres connexes dont les participants sont peu pres les memes.
a
On economise ainsi Ie temps et les frais, la fois aux organisations qui re-
yoivent les Congres et aux congressistes eux-memes (20).
It seemed to the Prince that, of the great international congresses which met
at regular intervals, the Zoological Congress would be the one suited to take
place in Monaco at the same time as the Oceanographic Congress. An official
invitation to this effect was addressed to the Seventh International Zoological
Congress in Boston (21). The Executive Committee of the Congress declined
this offer for reasons outlined by the President, A. Agassiz:
It was brought out in the discussion called forth by the invitation of your
Highness that neither the Americans nor the English would be able to attend
a meeting of the Congress if held at Easter. Neither the Professors at English
or American universities have at Easter vacations of sufficient length to en-
able them to reach Monaco, this together with the annual examinations held
soon after Easter prevent them from obtaining leave of absence at that time
of the year. The Executive Committee of the Seventh International Congress
while recognising the great advantages of holding their next Congress at Mon-
aco, in connection with that of the Oceanographic Congress, did not feel
justified in accepting the kind invitation of your Highness and of thus delib-
erately throw out so large a number of the English speaking zoologists who
can only attend meetings held in the fall of the year. I have been instructed
by the Executive Committee to express to your Highness their deep regret at
not being able to accept your invitation to meet at Monaco and to wish the
best success to the Oceanic Congress which is to meet under your auspices at
Easter 1910, the members of which will have the privilege of being present at
the inauguration of the great Oceanographic Museum you have founded (22).
The impossibility of convening simultaneously the zoological and oceanogra-

phic congresses in Monaco was certainly a decisive factor in leading the Prince to
abandon his project. And so it was that from the spring of 1908 all reference to
the necessary preparations disappeared from the correspondence between J.
Richard, P. Regnard and L. Joubin. It is true that at that time the Prince and
those close to him attached the greatest importance to the organization of the
Museum and to its inauguration, as well as to the election of the Prince to the
Academie des Sciences in Paris, where a foreign associate membership had been
vacant since the death of Lord Kelvin (23).
The decision of the Prince to abandon his project was also certainly inspired
by deep reflection on the situation of oceanography and the oceanographic
community.
Was oceanography already, at the beginning of the 20th century, a "major"
and autonomous science? The real situation seemed rather that described thus
by A. SchUck:
L'Oceanographie peut etre consideree comme part de differentes branches de

l'arbre de la Science,-c'est la raison pour laquelle l'Oceanographie ne reyoit
pas sa propre place dans la consideration des hommes (24).
As for oceanographers, they were then relatively few in number and geogra-
phically spread far and wide. Moreover, their administrative and university po-
sitions, and also their initial training, were to lead many of them to consider
themselves first as biologists, chemists or meteorologists, rather than as ocean-
ographers.
Under these conditions, would the assembly of an international congress have
a chance of producing fruitful work? The Prince may well have had his doubts.
Wishes had been clearly expressed in favor of international cooperation and of
the standardization of oceanographic works; the desired results could be ob-
tained by other means, within a more restricted framework than that of an
international congress.
Two proposals were made during the summer of 1908, to create an Atlantic
Commission and a Mediterranean Commission, both presided over by Prince
Albert I (25). Both commissions met in Monaco on 30th March 1910, the day
after the formal opening of the Musee Oceanographique; from this meeting
arose the Commission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la Mer
MMiterranee, still in existence today under the chairmanship of H.S.H. Prince
Rainier III of Monaco (26).
Prince Albert's personality, his constant efforts to bring oceanography to an
international audience, the intellectual habits of his time, clearly account for
his vision of founding an international oceanographic congress. The abandon-
ment of this project was in keeping with his character: with his lucid and effi-
cient mind, he could recognize the premature nature of an enterprise linked to
the as yet insufficient evolution of oceanography and to the heterogeneity of
the oceanographic community. In our opinion, this hypothesis is confirmed by
the lapse of half a century before the assembly in New York of the First Inter-
national Oceanographic Congress.
References
a
1. Discours de S.A.S. Ie Prince de Monaco. Discours prononces l'occasion des
fetes d'inauguration du Musee oceanographique de Monaco, 29 mars 1910,
ler avril 1910, pp. 5-11. (cf. p. 10).
2. Letter from H. H. Hildebrandsson to J. Richard: Upsala, 10th October
1906 (Archives of the Musee oceanographique of Monaco = A.M.O.M.).
3. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Academie des sciences, vol.
142,no 21,p.1142(21 mai 1906).
4. Letter from E.-L. Bouvier to J. Richard: Paris, 4th May 1906 (A.M.O.M.).
5. Letter from H. R. Mill to J. Richard: London, 10th May 1906 (A.M.O.M.).
6. Letter from F. A. Forel to J. Richard: Morges, 5th May 1906 (A.M.O.M.).
7. Letter from J. Richard to H. S. H. Prince Albert I of Monaco: Monaco, 10th
May 1906 (A.M.O.M.).
8. Rouch, J. 1947. Le Prince Albert et l'aeronautique. Les amis du Musee
oceanographique de Monaco, nO 3, p. 14.
9. Letter from L. de Loczy to J. Richard: Budapest, 13th June 1906
(A.M.O.M.).
10. Letter from V. Almeida d'Ecya to J. Richard: Lisbonne, 10th May 1906
(A.M.O.M.).
11. Letter from E. von Halle to J. Richard: Grunewald b./Berlin, 11 th October
1906 (A.M.O.M.).
12. Letter from V. Bjerknes to J. Richard: Stockholm, 17th May 1906
(A.M.O.M.).
13. Letter from M. Weber to J. Richard: Eerbeek, 7th June 1906 (A.M.O.M.).
14. Letter from O. Pettersson to J. Richard: Stockholm, lith May 1906
(A.M.O.M.).
15. It is thus by error that this Congress, which remained in the planning stage,
appears (page 55, No. 1097) in: Les congres internationaux de 1900 a
1919: liste complete = International congTesses 1900 to 1919: full list.
Bruxelles: Union des associations internationales, 1964.
16. Damkaer, D. M. 1978. A copepodologist's calendar 1979. Seattle, Washing-
ton: Scribella press. (cf. November: J. Richard).
17. Rouch, J. 1968. Discours [de cloture J. Bulletin de l'institut oceanograph-
ique, Monaco, nO special 2 [Communications-Premier Congres international
d'histoire de l'oceanographie, Monaco, 1966J, vol. 2, pp. 686-690.
18. Giard, A. 1906. Le Congres international pour l'etude des regions polaires et
les divers congres internationaux de I>eches et d'oceanographie. Revue scien-
tifique (revue rose), 5° serie, vol. 6, nO 11, pp. 343-345.
a
19. Agassiz, A. 1906. [Lettre A. Giard, Castle Hill, Newport, R.I., 12 octobre
1906J, in: La multiplicite des congnk Revue scientifique (revue rose), 5°
serie, vol. 6, nO 18, pp. 570-571.
20. L'abus des congres. Revue scientifique (revue rose), 5° serie, vol. 6, nO 14,
pp. 446447 (1906).
21. Proceedings-General meeting, 19 August 1907. Proceedings of the Seventh
international zoological congress, Boston, 19-24 August 1907, pp. 964-965.
Cambridge, Mass.: University press, 1912.
22. Letter from A. Agassiz to H.S.H. Prince Albert of Monaco: Cambridge,
Mass., 29th May 1907 [sicJ. The date of this letter is obviously incorrect.
The Prince's invitation was dated 23rd May 1907. The interval of six days
was insufficient for the letter to arrive and for the meeting of the Executive
Committee of the Congress; and this meeting, to reach an official decision,
could only have taken place during the Congress, namely in August. Finally,
the official reply of A. Agassiz, in his capacity as President of the Congress,
is necessarily subsequent to his informal reply, which reads as follows:
Castle Hill, Newport, Ie 11 juin 1907. Monseigneur, J'ai l'honneur de vous
accuser reception de votre lettre du 23 mai invitant les zoologistes du 7°
a
Congres international se reunir en 1910 it Monaco en meme temps que Ie
1er Congres oceanographique. Je me ferai un grand plaisir de transmettre
votre invitation aux membres du Congres de zoologistes et je ne doute pas
qu'ils seront heureux d'accepter l'aimable invitation de Votre Altesse.
23. Rouch, J. 1953. Les elections academiques du Prince Albert. Les amis du
Musee oceanographique de Monaco, nO 27, pp. 1-13.
24. Letter from A. Sch~ck to J. Richard: Hamburg, 3rd December 1906
(A.M.O.M.).
25. Resolutions et voeux. Compte rendu des travaux du congres (Neuvieme
congres international de geographie, Geneve, 27 juillet-6 aout 1908), vol. 1.
Geneve: Societe genera1e d'imprimerie, 1909.
XIV: Wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Atlantischen Ozeans, pp. 146-148;
XV: Esplorazione oceanografica del Mediterraneo, pp. 148-149.
26. Crovetto, A. 1968. La Commission internationa1e pour l'exploration scien-
tifique de la mer MediterraIiee: ori~ines, difficultes initia1es. Bulletin de
l'Institut oceanographique, Monaco, n special 2 [Communications-Premier
Congres international d'histoire de l'oceanographie, Monaco, 1966], vol. 1,
pp.327-335.
Oceanographic Prescience: The Deliberations of the
First U.S. Interagency Conference on Oceanography,
July 1, 1924
Stewart B. Nelson
1 Introduction
The 1920s were the period during which the businessman was, as Stuart Chase
put it (Allen 1964), "the dictator of our destinies," ousting "the statesman, the
priest, the philosopher, as the creator of standards of ethics and behavior" and
becoming "the fmal authority on the conduct of American society."
With the death of Warren G. Harding on August 2, 1923, Vice President Calvin
Coolidge (who would be elected in his own right in October 1924) assumed the
Presidency. The new President, son of a Vermont storekeeper, was a man of im-
peccable integrity and a strong believer in efficient and frugal government. His
outlook was similar to Harding's and in his first message to Congress, Coolidge
called for the continuation of conservative Republican domestic and foreign
policies, more tax cuts, and very limited aid for agriculture, and asserted that the
League of Nations should be shunned.
Meanwhile, in 1924, "the great Texas autocrat," T. Wayland Vaughan, left
the cultural refmement and intellectual stimulation of Washington, D. C. to as-
sume the directorship of a struggling little research institution on the edge of
the Pacific (Raitt and Moulton 1967). The following year, the institution's name
was officially changed to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and, after
eight years of being without a boat capable of carrying out investigations at sea
(although fishing boats were chartered from time to time), the Institution pur-
chased a former purse seiner and renamed her the Scripps.
While Scripps was without a ship of its own, the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington laid up in 1921 its specially designed non-magnetic research ship, the
hermaphrodite brig Carnegie. From 1909 until 1921, the Carnegie had sailed
Oceanographic Prescience 169
through all the oceans of the world. She remained idle for six years, in part be-
cause of the rising costs of running such an exceptional vessel (Schlee 1973), the
costly repairs which were needed and, perhaps most decisive, the huge volume of
unused data from previous cruises (paul 1932).
In 1923, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., de-
livered his dedication address at the commissioning ceremonies of the Navy's Ex-
perimental and Research Laboratory. This facility, soon to be renamed the Naval
Research Laboratory, included among its small staff the underwater sound inves-
tigation group under the direction of Dr. Harvey C. Hayes. Two years earlier, Dr.
Hayes had developed the sonic depth fmder and in 1923 the Navy Hydrographic
Office published the first bathymetric chart compiled from sonic soundings. This
chart, considered the best of the Pacific Continental Shelf yet published, was in
great demand by seismologists, volcanologists, meteorologists, and by scientific
societies and schools throughout the world (Hydrographic Office 1923).
Speaking on the subject of oceanography before the fourth annual meeting of
the American Geophysical Union in April 1923, George W. Littlehales of the
Navy Hydrographic Office (Littlehales 1923) offered that "(t)he position occu-
pied by water in the economy of Nature is most remarkable. Everywhere natural
conditions are influenced and molded by its wonderful properties ... the ocean
(constitutes) a dominant factor in terrestrial physics, exercising a governing in-
fluence through its circulation upon heat transference and upon climate and the
development of vegetation ..." Littlehales also observed that
(o)f great significance is the appeal of oceanography for international co-

operation seen on all sides in the recognition by oceanographers of the funda-
mentally worldwide and hence continental and intercontinental nature of the
phenomena, and the national and international character of the scientific and
economic results to be developed, and the necessity for the application of
resources that come only at the call of nations.co-operating together.
And what of the Navy's role in oceanography? In a letter to the Navy League
on the occasion of Navy Day Observance, the President of the United States pro-
claimed that
(t)he depths of the oceans have been sounded, the floors of the seas have
been mapped, by the scientific specialists of the Navy. It is through such activ-
ities as these that the sea as a reservoir of food and other necessities of man-
kind, will ultimately come to be fully realized and exploited. The Navy has al-
ways taken a leading part and interest in explorations and in the studies of
newly discovered regions, particularly in the Polar and Pacific areas.
As to the Navy's future in these areas, the President offered that
(w)e may be sure that such services will continue to be multiplied in the
future. We cannot doubt that they will continue to justify the maintenance
of the full naval capacity of which we have agreed under the terms of the
170 S. B. Nelson
Washington Conference (Treaty for the Limitation of Naval Armament,
1922). We may be sure that in the future as in the past the Navy's service to
industry and the arts of peace and science will continue completely to justify
its maintenance in the highest efficiency (Department of the Navy 1942, p. 2).
Against this Presidential backdrop, the Navy Hydrographic Office began to

advance its concerns and broader services. Concerning national security, the
Hydrographer of the Navy (Hydrographic Office 1923, p. 20) raised the warning
that "(w)e cannot afford to trust to foreign countries to provide us with charts
as in case of strained relations they might be denied us." As to the broader ser-
vices of the Hydrographic Office, the same report notes (Hydrographic Office
1923, p. 45):
It is not alone of matters strictly nautical that the scope of research in the
Hydrographic Office must take account. The demands of the cognate sciences
require a conspiring interest on the part of marine hydrography to supply ele-
ments of knowledge derived from the field of oceanic observations as when
the meteorologist looks to the oceanographer for the distribution of tempera-
ture in the sea; or the biologist for the physical properties by which the forms
of life in its waters are influenced in their development; or the geologist and
seismologist for the configuration of the oceanic basins and the conformation
of the topography of their submerged tracts.
The way was now clear. With the Navy's operating budgets being slashed-
since "the business of government was business" -and political obsession with
disarmament, the Navy, especially the Hydrographic Office, could expand its
activities by promoting a wide-ranging oceanographic research expedition based
on the economic benefits to be gained. And what better way to advance this en-
deavor then by seeking the support of other federal agencies.
Consequently, on June 2, 1924, Acting Secretary of the Navy Theodore
Roosevelt formally invited the heads of the various federal agencies, as well as
the Carnegie Institution, American Geophysical Union, Library of Congress, and
the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, to a meeting on
July 1, 1924 to participate in the planning of a naval scientific expedition in
oceanography. That assemblage of people would represent the first U. S. "inter-
agency" Conference on Oceanography.
2 The First U.S. Interagency Conference on Oceanography
The 61 people who gathered together in Washington, D. C. on July 1, 1924 (Hy-

drographic Office 1924, pp. 34-35) for purposes of planning a Navy-proposed
"research expedition in oceanography," first proceeded to lay down the definite
objects of such an undertaking:
1. Discovering, developing and utilizing the resources of the sea.

2. Facilitating navigation of the sea and of the air and improving communication
by radio and by submarine cable.
3. Promoting the welfare of mankind through scientific discovery and the pro-
gress of knowledge.
4. Safeguarding human life.
Conscious of the political and social milieu which prevailed, the conferees
were "profoundly impressed with the importance of beginning, as soon as pos-
sible, a national cooperative program of research in oceanography, having as the
principal aim, the accomplishment of results of practical economic value."
Accordingly, particular attention was paid to the oceans' enormous untapped
food resources and the oceans' climatological influence on agricultural pro-
duction. The conferees advanced the following tenets:
1. That five-sevenths of the earth's surface is covered with the waters of the
oceans.
2. That the physical conditions of these waters and their circulation largely de-
termine the weather and climate over land areas and, consequently, the pro-
ductivity of the soil.
3. That the food and other plant and animal resources of the ocean at present
unexploited are enormous.
4. That these resources have not been fully used by man because of a lack of
knowledge of their extent and of practicable means of applying them to
economic use.
5. That indications are that the products of the land will not be able to keep
pace with increases in population, thus requiring a greater exploitation of the
resources of the sea.
6. That the first requisite to practical scientific studies in oceanography is a
knowledge of the shapes of the ocean basins, the contours of the bottom,
and the depths of the water in different places.
Indeed, it was the opinion of the conferees "that a survey and inventory of
the resources of the sea ... will give results of much practical and scientific
value." It was agreed that this oceanographic undertaking would be known as
the Maury U. S. Naval Oceanographic Research, in honor of Lieutenant Matthew
Fontaine Maury, U. S. Navy, ''whose pioneer work in practically all branches of
oceanography entitles him to this distinction." Further, the Navy ship to be as-
signed to this expedition would be named the U.S.S. Tanner, "in honor of Com-
mander Zera L. Tanner, U. S. Navy, whose long continued oceanographic work
has contributed much to the advance of this science."
The conference attendees hoped that the naval vessel(s) would be permanent-
ly assigned to oceanographic work and that the ship have twin-screws, low free-
board, large cruising radius, and sufficient laboratories and living quarters. How-
ever, as the conferees were apparently well aware of the Navy's resource limi-
tations, it was noted that while these requirements were preferred, that "any
172 S. B. Nelson
suitable vessel or vessels that the Navy Department may assign for this purpose
will be acceptable." The officers and crew of the vessel were expected to be
naval personnel. To carry out the research, it was recommended that the follow-
ing specially selected scientific personnel be employed: 1 oceanographer, 1 bi-
ologist, 1 geologist, and 6 or more scientific assistants. The first three were to be
men of outstanding attainments, each eminent in his own field of knowledge.
The assistants were to be drawn from the younger scientists connected with uni-
versities, colleges, and other institutions.
Having set forth the objectives of a research expedition in oceanography, the
potential value of the oceans, and the general composition of the scientific party,
the conferees agreed upon seventeen "scientific problems to be taken up." These
were the shapes, contours and depths of the ocean basins; distribution of tem-
peratures, densities and salinities on the surface and in the depths of the oceans
together with the periodic or other changes which occur; evaporation and pre-
cipitation (rain, fog, snow) over sea and land areas; the distribution and periodic
changes in atmospheric pressures and winds; the ocean currents and the vertical
circulation of ocean waters; the chemistry of sea-water, the hydrogen-ion con-
centration, and the sources and distribution of nitrogen, etc., in the sea; changes
in the size and shape of the bottoms of the seas, such as shifting of shore lines,
warping of the margins of the continents and submarine upheavals and dislo-
cations; nature and composition of the formation of the sea bottom; previous
land connections and changes in existing connections between continents; areas
and features of submarine volcanism and earthquake movement; sedimentation;
the penetration and diffusion of light in sea water under various conditions and
its bearing on plant and animal life; the distribution of the intensity of gravity;
the distribution, relative abundance, and interrelations of the various forms of
plant and animal life; visibility under different conditions of the atmosphere;
height, length, and velocity of ocean waves; and location and extent of fields of
static and of electrostatic disturbances and investigations of other forms of atmo-
spheric electricity.
It was envisioned that from these scientific investigations would be derived
the following practical and economic results:
1. New fishing banks, when developed, will add to the welfare of mankind.
Scientific methods applied to the development and use of fisheries resources
will increase production and insure permanency.
2. A full understanding of the climate and the developing of better means of
predicting weather conditions, particularly the periods of rainfall and
drought and their duration will enable better control of the agricultural
production of the land.
3. The solution of weather problems affecting navigation of the sea and of the
air.
4. A full knowledge of the oceans and tidal currents and of the drift of ice-
bergs will better safeguard shipping and be of value to fishermen in their
operations.
5. A knowledge of ocean depths and bottom contours will aid navigation and
fishing and will indicate the most economical and advantageous cable
routes.
6. Knowledge of sedimentation and of the action of tides, winds and waves
will aid effective and economical construction and maintenance of navi-
gational channels and harbor works.
7. Greater knowledge of the proflles and velocities of waves will lead to better
design of ships to secure the necessary strength.
8. Additional knowledge of the density of waters in all parts of the oceans will
lead to a clearer understanding of ocean currents, a higher precision in sonic
depth sounding, and more accurate design of underwater devices.
9. Knowledge of the visibility over all parts of the oceans will aid navigation
and the design of observing apparatus.
10. The location of deposits of oil, ores and other resources of economic im-
portance.
11. The improvement of radio communication and the reduction in the cost of
operating radio stations.
12. The improvement in the radio compass stations and other practical aids to
safe navigation of ships and of aircraft.
On October 2, 1924 the report of the Conference and the recommendations

for the proposed Maury Research Expedition were submitted to the Secretary of
the Navy. The Report carried the statement that "(t)he recommendations em-
bodied in this report are based upon the expectation that research in oceanogra-
phy will take a permanent place among the activities of the Navy." To carry the
project through the initial planning stages and to properly present the research
expedition proposal to the Department of the Navy, Bureau of the Budget, and
the appropriate committees of Congress, the Secretary of the Navy appointed a
continuing advisory committee under the chairmanship of Captain F. B. Bassett,
U. S. Navy, Hydrographer of the Navy.
3 Post-conference Activities: The Quiet Demise of the Proposed

Maury Research Expedition
In his annual report for 1925 (Hydrographic Office 1925, p. 23), Captain F. B.
Bassett commented on the proposed research expedition with one brief sentence
-noting that "(t)o push the plans for the Maury oceanographic research" he had
been appointed permanent chairman of the "Advisory Committee on Ocean-
ography."
Indeed, this brevity was probably Bassett's realization that the plan was
rapidly evaporating. Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, caught up in the
scandals concerning transfer of the Navy's oil reserves to the Interior Depart-
ment, was forced by political pressure to resign. This he did on March 10, 1924.
His successor was Curtis D. Wilbur, a lawyer and former naval officer who clearly
174 S. B. Nelson
favored expansion of naval air power. Theodore Roosevelt, who had initiated the
. planning conference for the proposed Maury Research Expedition, resigned on
September 30, 1924.
However, for a short while it appeared that the proponents of naval ocean-
ography would see their proposed expedition carried through. On November 8,
1924, The Science News-Letter reported that "U.S.S. Rainbow, former mother-
ship for submarines, is to be fitted out as a floating laboratory and itself sent in
search of underwater secrets. The Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department
has announced the selection of this vessel for the first of a series of cruises in
which the ocean will be surveyed from top to bottom. The Rainbow is on her
way home from China and the Philippines. On her arrival she will be fitted out
with a sonic depth finder for surveying the sea bottom and with tanks and labo-
ratories for the collection and examination of living specimens of the denizens of
the deep. When fitted out for her scientific work, the Rainbow is expected to
take up a program of investigation in the region of the Caribbean Sea and the
Gulf of Mexico which will later include more extensive surveys in the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans, which the Conference on Oceanography has recommended
should form a permanent part of naval activities. The same Science News-Letter
also noted that
Captain F. B. Bassett, chief of the Hydrographic Office and president of the

Conference, stated that the Rainbow is especially well adapted to scientific
exploration. She is 350 feet long, has a draft of 17 feet and displaces 4,350
tons and is amply provided with comfortable cabins and quarters to take
care of the extra personnel for scientific work.
The U.S.s. Rainbow (AS-7) arrived the United States on December 31, 1924.
Unfortunately, because of the political situation in Nicaragua, she received new
orders and on February 2, 1925 she departed San Diego to land Marine reinforce-
ments at Corinto, Nicaragua. She then proceeded back via the Panama Canal and
arrived at Philadelphia Navy Yard on March 10, 1925. Four months later, the
decision was made to decommission her and soon thereafter she was sold for
scrapping.
Confronted with a change in Navy administration, with an emphasis on naval
air expansion, and with the loss of the Rainbow, the proposed Maury Research
Expedition quietly faded away.
No mention of the expedition was made in the Hydrographer's annual report
for 1926. However, Secretary of the Navy Wilbur, in his annual report for 1926,
delivered the eulogy (Secretary of the Navy 1926): "The Maury Oceanographic
Expedition failed because of lack of appropriation. It should be reviewed when
the policy of the Government permits."
4 Current Relevancy of the 1924 Conference on Oceanography
In planning for "the accomplishment of results of practical economic value,"

the 1924 oceanographic conferees set forth the "scientific problems to be taken
up." It is suggested that if we were now to begin planning for a similar such re-
search expedition, our list of scientific problems would not be unlike those of
more than half a century ago.
During the course of their deliberations on scientific problems to be addressed
and the economic values to be gained, the conferees also touched on a number
of issues which were more political in nature. These issues too have survived and
grown in importance all through the 1970s to the point where their debate is fre-
quently more controversial and often obscures the scientific questions of ocean-
ography.
For example, discussions show a recognition of the problems of geographical-
ly disadvantaged states and indicate an inclination on the part of some partici-
pants, particularly Dr. William Bowie (representing the Division of Foreign Re-
lations of the National Research Council), to view ocean resources as the com-
mon heritage of all men.
With logic that sounds like a preview of issues which were to become very
tender during Law of the Sea negotiations in the second half of the century,
Dr. Bowie advocated "an accurate geophysical inventory and biological survey
of the resources of the world" (Department of the Navy 1924, p. 8) as a contri-
bution to world peace. He argued:
Nations are not altogether fighting because they hate other nations, but be-
cause they are afraid of other nations. The nations do not know where their
food supply and raw materials for industries are coming from in the next
generations. They see their resources used up and decide, therefore, that
they will grab this or that piece of land that is inhabited by a weaker people
(Department of the Navy 1924, p. 10).
As an alternative to fighting for resources, Dr. Bowie proposed to the Confer-

ence on Oceanography that "peoples could come to some agreement as to the
working of those products, the gathering of them, the trading in them" (Depart-
ment of the Navy 1924, p. 10). To do that, it would be necessary to take an in-
ventory of resources, including marine resources, of "this country and other
countries that make up the whole of the land surface of the world" (Department
of the Navy 1924,p.l0).
Mr. G. W. Littlehales, a hydrographic engineer with the Navy's Hydrographic
Office, joined Dr. Bowie in promoting an inventory of resources. Calling the
oceans "the two-thirds of the area of the globe which is the common possession
of the Nations," Littlehales argued that utilization of the great riches and re-
sources of the oceans would "refute the political dogma that great sections of
the world's popUlations must inevitably be driven by material poverty to preda-
tory impingement upon other sections" (Department of the Navy 1924, p. 32).
176 S. B. Nelson
But even such a worthy fringe benefit as world peace had to await approval
and funding of the Maury Research Expedition by a society which the conferees
perceived to be increasingly more sophisticated about the "extraordinary novel-
ties" of the ocean and less anxious to provide abundant support.
Mr. Austin Clark, Curator of the Division of Echinoderms of the Smithsonian
Institution, argued that the cumulative effect of the private and academic ocean-
ographic expeditions of the previous 20 years had been to discover and publicize
so much new information as to make it questionable whether Congress and the
public would favor an expedition so general as the one proposed.
But Dr. David White, senior geologist of the U. S. Geological Survey, and
Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, director of science service of the National Academy of
Sciences, felt strongly that there was much to be gained.
The report of the Conference on Oceanography credited Dr. Slosson with
pointing out that there are two kinds of ignorance-that of experts and that of
the world outside. Dr. Slosson felt it was the business of the proposed expe-
dition to relieve the ignorance of experts. Dr. White, on the other hand, saw the
new knowledge to be generated as a "going concern" which the public would
recognize as a valuable task which should be continued.
The strategy which Clark advanced for selling the proposed expedition was to
court the Midwest. "As the popUlation of our coasts already appreciate, to some
extent at least, the value of oceanographic work, emphasis must be placed on the
importance of oceanographic research to the middle west, (which is) at present
quite apathetic" (Department of the Navy 1924, p. 36). He favored beginning
the expedition in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean basin because "anything
done there can be explained in terms of personal economics to our middle
western people, as far as the Canadian border" (Department of the Navy 1924,
p.36).
Clark urged the Conference to stress the benefits of the expedition in terms of
improved knowledge about the influence of the Gulf of Mexico on the winds
and rainfall of the great central farm regions and a better understanding of how
soils washed from the mountains and farming regions affect the fish life of the
Gulf of Mexico. He pointed out that more accurate knowledge of the coast line,
tides, currents, configuration of the sea bottom, and growth of sea life would
make navigation more safe and thus decrease marine insurance and transpor-
tation costs which mid-America pays for agricultural goods and other products.
He pushed the public interest argument still farther, forecasting that the day
would come when food from the ocean would be a major concern to all
In the near future when all our lands are taken up by farms and cattle ranges,
we shall have reached a point when the increase in our population cannot be
cared for by an increase in the products of the land. To the ocean we shall
have to look for an increase in our food supply. As yet, the resources of the
sea have received but scant attention. The sea fishes that we use as food are
but a small percentage of those available, and we know but little of them
(Department of the Navy 1924, p. 8).
Clark's arguments could be picked up without change and inserted in numer-
ous government reports of the 1970s as the oceanographic community still faces
the necessity of educating the public as to the continuing importance and rele-
vance of the oceans to the daily lives of the non-coastal population.
It is equally true that arguments for integrating Navy oceanography with
civil tasks were little different then than they are now. Dr. White of the Geo-
logical Survey put it well-though time has proven his assumption to be less
than totally accurate-when he pointed out that
the proposed employment of a portion of the Navy overhead, equipment

and personnel (all of which should be maintained in a state of efficiency)
for the advancement of science and human welfare in time of peace can
hardly fail to meet with public approval (Department of the Navy 1924,
p.32).
Dr. Henry B. Bigelow, representing the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries at the

Conference on Oceanography concurred, with a strong statement that "(i)t is
not conceivable that the Navy could go to sea and fmd out anything that would
not interest the Bureau of Fisheries" (Department of the Navy 1924, p. 24).
But, in this author's opinion, the years since 1924 have proven that there is
only a small cadre of people in both the Navy and civilian government agencies
who believe in and have worked for a strong joint effort. Integration of civilian
and military oceanographic programs has been erratic, at best, and has never
overcome the separatist arguments.
In addition to (1) recognition of geographically disadvantaged states, (2) re-
alization of the need for educating and currying the interest of the general pub-
lic, and (3) consideration of using the Navy's marine capabilities for peacetime
endeavors, the Conference on Oceanography touched on other public policy
concerns which are still problems in the 1980s. These include (1) the need to de-
velop international, interagency, and government/industry cooperative efforts,
(2) the need to improve dissemination of data and technology transfer, and (3)
the problems of obtaining access to waters within the territorial jurisdiction of
foreign nations.
References
Allen, F. L. 1964. Only yesterday. Harper & Row, New York, 312 pp.
Anonymous. 1924. Ocean survey ship selected by the Navy. Science News-
Letter,5 (187)b.
Department of the Navy. 1924. Proceedings of the Conference on Oceanography.
Washington, D. C., n. p.
Hydrographic Office. 1923. Annual report of the Hydrographic Office. U. S.
178 S. B. Nelson
Littlehales, G. W. 1923. Status, scope, and problems of the Section on Ocean-
ography. Trans. Fourth Ann. Meet., Am. Geophys. Un., 68-71.
Paul, J. H. 1932. The last cruise of the Carnegie. Williams & Wilkins Co., Balti-
more, Md., 331 pp.
Raitt, H. and Moulton, B. 1967. Scripps Institution of Oceanography: first fifty
years. Ward Ritchie Press, La Jolla, California, 217 pp.
Schlee, S. 1973. The edge of an unfamiliar world: a history of oceanography.
E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 398 pp.
Secretary of the Navy. 1926. Annual report of the Secretary of the Navy. U. S.
Some Historical Backgrounds for the Establishment of the
Stazione Zoologica at Naples
Jane M. Oppenheimer
The foundation stone of the Stazione Zoologica in Naples was laid in 1872, and
scientists began to work at the Stazione in 1873. The great imaginer, planner,
entrepreneur and accomplisher of this feat was Anton Dohrn. Ris life has been
the subject of an exhaustive biography by Theoder Reuss, a political figure
(Reuss 1948), and his scientific work has been minutely analyzed in the light of
zoology contemporary to it by Alfred KUhn (Kuhn 1950), a zoologist of great
eminence. Many other famous writers and famous scientists have written about
the history and accomplishments of the Stazione. One of the most recent evalu-
ations is by Inngard Miiller, in her introduction to the catalogue for the Exhi-
bition for a planned centenary celebration of the Stazione (MUller 1975a). In it
she writes that it was no accident that Stazione's foundation stone was laid the
same year that the Challenger put to sea, and she names a number of other
factors then fostering an interest in the sea.
She made on the whole a correct evaluation, and then went on to emphasize
the importance of Darwinian evolution theory to an interest in creatures of the
sea. It is true that Dohm himself, originally trained in zoology, became so bored
with it as a young man that he was prepared to become a book dealer until the
Origin of Species rekindled his interest (Reuss 1948). It is my purpose here to
try to expand slightly upon MUller's outline of the background for Dohrn's ac-
complishment.
Dohrn made a trip to Messina in 1868 with his Scottish friend Miklucho-
Maclay, taking with him portable aquaria designed to permit circulation of water.
Aquaria, at least inland, were beginning to develop their own popularity at the
time, and private ones had become fashionable in the 18th century. The first
public one seems to have been set up in Regent's Park in London (if London is
180 J. M. Oppenheimer
to be considered inland) in 1853; as Dohrnknew, one was established in Hamburg

in 1867 (Heuss 1948); Brehm was to set one up in Berlin in 1869. Thus Dohrn's
use of aquaria in Messina was not a wholly isolated phenomena. Two important
sequelae of his stay there were to ensue; he met his bride-to-be, and he began to
dream of his plan for setting up a permanent marine station.
This was hardly the ftrst zoological fteld trip ever made to the seashore, not
even for Dohrn. He himself had gone to Helgoland with Haeckel and others in
1865 (Heuss 1948). Spallanzani had studied the fauna of the Sicilian Coast in
1788; Krohn had studied Sicilian coastal fauna in 1846 (Heuss 1948). Louis
Agassiz collected specimens from shallow waters bordering Massachusetts from
the U. S. Coast Survey vessel Bibb as early as 1847 (Lurie 1960). Perhaps more
generally influential on the theoretical thinking of laboratory zoologists of the
mid-19th century was the fact that Johannes Muller, as I. MUller tells us, often
went down to the seashore with his students. In 1841, with Retzius, he studied
Amphioxus in Bohuslan, Sweden, and on the Kelsen Islands near Goteborg.
Beginning in 1845 he travelled to the seashore regularly during his vacations: to
the North Sea, the Baltic, the Adriatic, the Ligurian. He developed a strong inter-
est in the study of microscopic marine forms and observed for the ftrst time,
among many other important discoveries, the metamorphosis of the pluteus
larva into the sea urchin; he collected specimens by using tow-nets (Steudel
1974). In Messina it had been the opportunity to observe unexpected metamor-
phoses of crustaceans that was of particular appeal to Dohrn, since by his day, in
the Darwinian era, unlike in Muller's, this was viewed as an opportunity to ascer-
tain hitherto unsuspected evolutionary relationships by examining embryos as
ancestors.
To vacation at the seashore with nets and even microscopes, collecting in shal-
low waters from rowboats and even from coast survey vessels, is not to establish
a chain of permanent sea-side laboratories, which was Dohrn's ftrst hope. But it
was a ftrst step towards setting up a single one. Even here, with respect to the
founding of a station, or stations, Dohrn was not completely original, nor did he
claim to be. The Belgian zoologist Pierre Jean van Beneden, father of the now
better-remembered cytologist Edouard van Beneden, set up a short-lived station
at Ostend in 1842 (Kemna 1897; Charlier and Leloup, 1968, give the date as
1843). Van Beneden knew that in England the coastal fauna was being exhaus-
tively studied from a taxonomic point of view; he wished to do the same for that
of Belgium. In 1841 he went to Ostend on a ftshing vacation; that same year he
published his ftrst paper on a marine form, Hydractinia (van Beneden 1841).
After he set up his small laboratory a year or so later, it was used by a number of
others, including Johannes Muller, whom we have already mentioned, and by
de Quatrefages, and de Lacaze-Duthiers.
In France an important attempt to study life along the seashore, partly from
the point of view of physiology, had been made even earlier (Russell 1916), and
V. Audouin and H. Milne-Edwards published as early as 1832 an important work
on the littoral life along French shores (Audouin and Milne-Edwards 1832).
Audouin died early and then A. de Quatrefages, who had been at Ostend, became
Stazione Zoologica at Naples 181
associated with Milne-Edwards in the work; their journeys were written up by

the fonner (de Quatrefages 1857).
Milne-Edwards'next worked with Carl Vogt in Paris, and in 1844-1847 they
fonnulated a plan for investigating a coral island and setting up a station on it
that would function for at least several years. According to a letter that Vogt
wrote to Dohm, published in 1872, the plan fell through because "the com-
mander of a man-of-war of the Royal Navy would not submit to the direction of
a naturalist" (Dohm 1872, p. 277). Vogt lived in Nice from 1850 to 1852 and
tried then to set up a station at Villefranche, vainly, though all he asked for were
some rooms in an empty building. In 1863 when his friend Mateucci, a physicist,
became Minister of Public Instruction in Italy, Vogt worked out a plan for erect-
ing a station at Naples that was to include instruction among its efforts. But
Mateucci left the government and that was the end of that. Vogt tried for the
last time, and failed, at Trieste in 1872. He and Dohrn were close to one another,
and Dohrn sought and accepted much advice from him. De Lacaze-Duthiers,
who had previously worked at Ostend, did succeed in setting up a station at
Roscoff in 1871 (Schlee 1973), and later one at Banyuls.
Other movements were stirring too, as far away as the United States of Amer-
ica, as the Stazione opened. The first successful marine teaching establishment,
the Anderson School of Natural History, was opened by Louis Agassiz on Peni-
kese Island, in Buzzards Bay, in 1873; it survived only for two years (Lurie
1960). This was not a research venture. As early as 1871 investigators from the
newly founded U. S. Fish Commission, established through the efforts of Spencer
Baird, worked out of Woods Hole in small boats. This was before the Commis-
sion's laboratory there was erected in 1885. Baird had had in mind the possibili-
ty of its becoming a sort of summer university, with a group of universities using
the facilities for teaching as well as research, but these plans had to be withdrawn
for political reasons (Dupree 1957, Schlee 1973). The Marine Biological Labo-
ratory at Woods Hole was opened in 1888 (Lillie 1944), one year after the open-
ing of the Misaki Marine Biological Station by the Imperial University of Tokyo
(Terayama 1979).
The fact that Dohrn's ideas of administering marine stations had predecessors
in the minds of those who had earlier tried to open sea-side laboratories does not
detract one whit from his accomplishment. Dohm's plan was for a much more
substantial institution. And it was he who translated the idea into magnificent
reality: he developed an imaginative and practical plan for fmancial support,
and an equally imaginative and practical plan for the physical and technical
organization of the laboratories. Baird's ideas stemmed from Dohrn's, as did
those of the organizers of many of the other research laboratories we have men-
tioned. The organization of the Naples Stazione was to become a model not only
for other sea-side laboratories, but also for such other great research establish-
ments as the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institutes and the Rockefeller Institute. Further-
more, the international dimensions of the Naples Stazione were wide and unique.
Another set of discoveries that added to the excitement of marine zoology
during the times we are discussing was the discovery of life at the depths of the
sea, and the proof that the abysses were not azoic. Edward Forbes, who had be-
gun the practice of dredging in 1841, had suspected that no life was found at
depths greater than 300 fathoms, and this was a general belief until the 1860s. In
1866 Charles Wyville Thomson visited Michael Sars in Norway and saw specimens
dredged up by Michael's son Georg from depths of 450 fathoms. Marine anemo-
nes had already been found in 1860 clinging to a cable brought up for repair
from a depth of over 1000 fathoms in the Mediterranean (Deacon 1978).
It is hard to measure what direct influence, if any, the knowledge that the
seas were everywhere populated may have had on the development of marine
stations. These had, at first at least, all they could do to cope with their studies
of littoral flora and fauna. It was only after the stations had been established that
they became sufficiently affluent to design, outfit and commission sea-going
ships that could dredge at great depths. Although the steamer Blake, on which
Alexander Agassiz sailed, was built for surveying by the U. S. Coast Survey in
1874, and the U. S. Fish Commission had built the Fish Hawk, suitable for
dredging in coastal waters, in 1879 (Shor 1979), funds for building the Alba-
tross, the U. S. Fish Commission's first truly research vessel equipped for deep-
sea studies, were not obtained until 1881 (Dupree 1957). Dohrn himself, who
had multiple dreams, not a single one, did not acquire the Stazione's first steam-
boat, the Johannes Muller, until 1877; the second smaller one, the Frank Bal-
four, came along in 1883 (Reuss 1948). These were used principally for the
study of the fauna and flora of the Bay of Naples; one of the great contri-
butions of the Stazione has been the publication of the great monograph series,
Das Flora und Fauna des Golfes von Neapels, now in its 39th volume.
Just as the year 1872, the year of Stazione's beginning, was a culmination
as well as a start for Dohrn, so it was for the voyage of the Challenger (1872-
1876). Although the Challenger may have been among the first of the labo-
ratory ships designed specifically for the study of the physical and biological
properties of the seas, its voyage was not the first made with scientific motives.
Captain Cook, after all, set sail in the Endeavour (1768-1871) in part to study
the transit of Venus as an aid in determining the earth's distance from the sun.
The voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836), though not designed as a strictly scien-
tific expedition, unless 19th century surveying is considered a science proper,
had great consequences for biology, although we are now told that Darwin was
taken aboard merely as a mess-mate for the Captain rather than as a naturalist
(Burstyn 1975a); the voyage of the Rattlesnake (1846-50) had biological con-
sequences too, since Huxley did sail on her as surgeon-naturalist.
Leading up more directly to the Challenger were the voyages of the Light-
ning, the Porcupine, and the Shearwater (Deacon 1971). We have already
mentioned Wyville Thomson's visit to Sars; one of its results was his commence-
ment of deep-sea studies with William B. Carpenter, with whom he had already
been collaborating. They sailed together in the Lightning in 1868, and made im-
portant discoveries regarding temperature distribution, as well as those con-
cerning the abundance and diversity of life at 570 fathoms; higher forms of life,
as well as lower, were identified. The following year (1869) the survey ship
Porcupine sailed with Wyville Thomson and Carpenter aboard for part but not
all of the voyage; specimens were obtained early in the voyage from 1,476
fathoms, finally from 2,435. In 1870, on two cruises, the preoccupation of the
Porcupine, with Carpenter aboard but not Wyville Thomson who was ill, was
ocean circulation, and again important results were obtained.
These were not the only voyages taken in the years shortly before the expe-
dition of the Challenger, although they were important ones. Louis Agassiz' as-
sociate de Pourtales began pioneering efforts at deep-sea dredging (to 850 feet)
in 1867-1869 (Burstyn 1975b), and Agassiz and de Pourtales together cruised in
the U. S. Coast Survey vessel Hassler in 1871-1872; their attempts at deep-sea
dredging failed, but stimulated Carpenter to move quickly. He was a potent
figure both in the Royal Society of London and in the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, and was able to persuade the government to
mount the Challenger Expedition. He himself did not sail on it.
Except for those of the American coast survey vessels the pre-Challenger
voyages we have mentioned were mostly English. This presents a distorted pic-
ture. Men on the ships of other lands were fmding interest in the life in the
seas. We have already mentioned Michael and Georg Sars; Adelbert Chamisso,
the poet, served as naturalist on the Russian expedition led by Otto von Kotze-
bue (1815-1818) (Schlee 1973). Karl Ernst von Baer, known to most inland
laboratory biologists as the founder of embryology, wrote as early as 1820
from Konigsberg to Admiral Krusenstem, one of the early Russian circumnavi-
gators (1803-1806), about the possibility of sailing to the Russian North (Lukina
1970, pp. 15-16). In 1837, after removing to st. Petersburg, von Baer mounted
his own expedition to Novaya Zemlya and became the first naturalist to collect
biological specimens there. Perhaps this is not oceanography, but von Baer
succeeded in making a formidably perilous ocean voyage with biological intent
and success, and several islands and capes in the Russian north were named for
him (Raikov 1968). I do not know how oceanographers consider inland seas
(other than the Mediterranean) but we might add that von Baer also made
several trips to the Caspian Sea from 1853 to 1857, ostensibly to study the
decline of the fisheries industry, but he took the opportunity to make numer-
ous strictly scientific contributions to the investigation of what we should now
call ecology. Fish migrations, food chains, plant and animal distribution, the
interrelationships of living communities to each other and to their environment,
were all of interest to him (Raikov 1968).
An embryologist studying the biota of the Russian North and the fishes of
the Caspian Sea? Well, Milne-Edwards and Johannes Millier were comparative
anatomists and physiologists. And who was Carpenter but a physiologist who
went to sea? Carpenter wrote a famous textbook of physiology (Carpenter
1839) that had reached its fourth edition in 1854 (Carpenter 1854); the latter
was one of Darwin's sources for the Origin of Species (Stauffer 1975). Car-
penter also wrote a book on microscopy (Carpenter 1856) that reached its 8th
edition in 1901 (Carpenter 1901). He and Martin Barry and T. H. Huxley were
among the few Englishmen of their times who understood von Baer's ideas about
embryology well enough to make them accessible to Darwin (Oppenheimer
1959).
It is often said, as Muller argued in her introductory catalogue to the cente-
nary exhibit, that "marine research received ... decisive incentive through the
theories of Darwin: it was hoped that by comparing the development of the
simpler and lower forms, such as most of the species living in the sea, with the
higher, more complex species, the ontogeny and phylogeny of the vertebrates
could be elucidated" (Muller 1975, p. 12). It is true, as we have already pointed
out, that Dohrn was strongly inspired by Darwin, but this would not have held
for von Baer in Novaya Zemlya in 1837 nor for van Beneden at Ostend in 1842,
nor for Vogt and Milne-Edwards in Paris in 1844-1847, nor for Vogt in Nice in
1950-1852, nor for Johannes Muller, who began his visits to the sea in 1841 and
who died the year before the publication of the Origin of Species. These men
who predated Darwin were simply fascinated by the wealth and variety of the
fauna that were found near the shores of the continents and their nearby islands
or archipelagoes. Johannes Muller was a firm believer in the concept of Unity of
Type, that was only later to be supplanted by Darwin's concept of Unity of De-
scent. It is true that later Vogt became a pro-Darwinist, but that was long after
1842 and 1852 when he first became interested in the sea.
And many marine scientists who worked after the publication of the Origin
of Species were strongly anti-Darwinian. Von Baer, who lived a long life, opposed,
until he died in 1876, Darwin's notion that all organisms arose from one or a few
progenitors (von Baer 1876). Louis Agassiz, who opted for special creation, was
one of the strongest of anti-Darwinians. Wyville Thomson never accepted Dar-
win's theory of evolution by natural selection, though he had sympathy for some
of Darwin's ideas. When Spencer Baird became responsible for establishing the
U. S. Fish Commission in 1871, he was no more trying to test a particular theory
of evolution than was von Baer when he visited the Caspian; developing the fish
hatcheries was the first task taken on by the U. S. Fish Commission, collecting
statistics a secondary one.
If Darwinism was not the sole factor influencing the study of marine fauna, it
was nonetheless an important one. As we have said, it was Dohrn's observations
on metamorphosis of crustaceans in Messina, with its implications for the re-
lations of embryos to ancestors, that fired his desires to the point where he as-
sumed seriously the undertaking of his self-set task. Darwin himself was one of
his strong supporters (but another was that intransigeant anti-Darwinian, von
Baer).
Much has been said about Dohm's organizational skills, but he is more rarely
praised adequately for the fact that in the post-Darwinian and post-Haeckelian
years the publications of the laboratory did not confme themselves to work of
evolutionary or recapitulationary interest. Haeckel himself did attend the
Stazione; Amphioxus and the ascidians were studied by various workers, as were
larval metamorphoses. But when embryology turned analytical, physiological,
cytological, experimental, it was to the Naples Stazione that the investigators
flocked, not only for the material, but because the institution was a citadel of
freedom of thought. Dohm, though himself nurtured in the old, welcomed and
encouraged the new. This has begun to be emphasized in an important article by
Muller on the transformation of embryology from its descriptive to its experi-
mental phase under the influence of the Naples Stazione (Muller 1975b). But by
thus singling out embryology, we must not forget that equal claims might be
made for other disciplines. Dohrn wrote himself in his program for the Stazione,
in 1875: "If we have now the problem of establishing the genealogy of organisms
and of approaching more closely the true history of the creatures on earth, em-
bryology and comparative anatomy are only one factor in the solution of the
problem. The others are the study of ecology [Lebensweise] and comparative
physiology" (KUhn 1950, p. 170; translation by present author). In both of
these areas the Stazione was to make signal contributions.
Observation of unexpected larval metamorphoses, scientific voyages in inland
seas and through the oceans, the publication of Origin of Species, the establish-
ment of urban aquaria, strong beliefs in and dramatic disproofs of the postulated
azotic nature of the abysses, studies of coral islands, a captain who wanted good
company aboard his ship, the writing of technical and of popular books about
the glories of the marine flora and fauna, and many other factors all contributed
to the general excitement about the sea. But why the culmination in the magic
years 1872 to 1873? Some of the principal reasons we have not touched upon;
they would have been technological, the fruits of the Industrial Revolution. By
the 1870s improvement in glass manufacture permitted the construction of large
aquaria with glass sides that had both strength to hold large volumes of water
and sufficient transparency to permit easy observation of their contents; the im-
provement of pumps for water circulation, the improvement of design of dredging
instruments, were important too. New technologies in glass manufacture per-
mitted the advanced development of microscopes, in which Dohm, as a friend of
Abbe, was himself involved (Heuss 1948). Improved navigational methods and
instrumentation, indeed improved propulsion of vessels by steam rather than sail,
improved methods of preservation of delicate organisms, were all influential.
But while Dohm, like the scientists aboard the Challenger, may have been aided
by these and many other technological advances, he could take advantage of
them only because he had the energy and vision to translate his idea into reality,
at a time when other ideas converged with his own interests.
References
Audouin, A. and Milne-Edwards, H. 1832. Recherches pour servir a l'histoire

naturel1e du littoral de la France; ou Recueil de memoires sur l'anatomie, la
physiologie, la classification et les moeurs des animaux de nos cotes. Paris,
Crochard. 406 pp.
von Baer, K. E. 1876. Uber Darwins Lehre. In: Reden gehalten in wissenschaft-
lichen Versammlungen and klein ere Aufsatze vermischten Inhalts. II. Studien
aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften, St. Petersburg, H. Schmitzdorf,
pp. 235-480.
van Beneden, P. J. 1841. Recherches sur 1a structure de l'oeuf dans un nouveau
genre de Po1ype (genre Hydractinie). Bull. Acad. Roy. Scis. Bruxelles 8 (pt. 1),
pp.89-93.
Burstyn, H. L. 1975a. If Darwin wasn't the Beagle's naturalist, why was he on
board. Brit. J. Hist. Sci. 8,62-69.
Burstyn, H. L. 1975b. Louis Fran~ois de Pourta1es. In: Dict. Sci. Biogr., Vol. 11,
C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Scribner, New York, pp. 113-114.
Carpenter, W. B. 1839, 1854. Principles of general physiology. Churchill, Lon-
don, 1st ed., 1839,478 pp.; 1854, 4th ed., 720 pp.
Carpenter, W. B. 1856, 1901. The microscope and its revelations. Churchill, Lon-
don, 1st ed., 1856,778 pp.; 8th ed., 1181 pp.
Charlier, R. H. and Le10up, E. 1970. Brief summary of some oceanographic con-
tributions in Belgium until 1922. Bull., Inst. Oceanogr., Monaco, Spec. no. 2,
1,293-310. [Not seen; cited from Deacon, 1978, p. 371.]
Deacon, M. 1971. Scientists and the sea 1650-1900. A study of marine science.
Academic Press, New York, 445 pp.
Deacon, M. (ed.). 1978. Oceanography: concepts and history. Benchmark
papers in Geology 35. Dowden Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudsburg, Pa. [Dis-
tributed by Academic Press], 349 pp.
Dohrn, A. 1872. The foundation of zoological stations. Nature,S, 277-280.
Dupree, A. H. 1957. Science in the Federal Government. A history of policies
and activities to 1940. Belknap (Harvard University) Press, Cambridge, Mass.
460 pp.
Heuss, T. 1948. Anton Dohrn. 2nd ed., Rainer Wunderlich, Tiibingen, 448 pp.
Kemna, A. 1897. P. J. van Beneden. La vie et l'oeuvre d'un zoologiste. Busch-
mann, Anvers, 137 pp.
Kuhn, A. 1950. Anton Dohrn und die Zoologie seiner Zeit. Pubbl. Staz. Zool.,
Suppl. 1950, Naples, 205 pp.
Lillie, F. R. 1944. The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 284 pp.
Lukina, T. (ed.). 1970. Perepiska Karla Bera po Problem am Geografii. [Corre-
spondence of Karl von Baer on problems of geography.] Nauka, Leningrad,
332 pp.
Lurie, E. 1960. Louis Agassiz. A life in science. University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, 449 pp.
Miiller, I. 1975a. One hundred years of the Zoological Station in the service of
international research. In: The Naples Zoological Station at the time of
Anton Dohrn. Exhibition and catalogue by C. Groeben in collaboration with
I. Miiller, Naples, Zoological Station, pp. 1-21; 107-110.
Miiller, I. 1975b. Die Wandlung embryo10gischer Forschung von der deskrip-
tiven zur experimentellen Phase unter dem Einfluss der Zoologischen Station
in Neapel. Med. Hist. J., 10, 191-218.
Oppenheimer, J. M. 1959. An embryological enigma in the Origin of Species. In:
Forerunners of Darwin: 1745-1859, B. Glass, O. Temkin and W. L. Straus,
Jr. (eds.), Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, pp. 292-322.
de Quatrefages, A. 1864. Souvenirs d'un naturaliste. Charpentier, Paris, Vol. 1,
522 pp.; Vol. 2,549 pp.
Raikov, B. E. 1968. Karl Ernst von Baer 1792-1876. Sein Leben und sein Werk.
Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, 516 pp.
Russell, E. S. 1916. Form and function. A contribution to the history of animal
morphology. E. P. Dutton, New York, 383 pp.
Schlee, S. 1973. The edge of an unfamiliar world. A history of oceanography.
E. P. Dutton, New York, 398 pp.
Shor, E. N. 1979. Oceanographic research: sailing vessels. Science, 204, 1263.
Stauffer, R. C. (ed.). 1975. Charles Darwin's Natural Selection, being the second
part of his big species book written from 1856-1858. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, Eng., 692 pp.
Steudel, J. 1974. Johannes Peter Muller. In: Dict. Sci. Biogr., Vol. 9, C. C. Gil-
lispie (ed.), Scribner's, New York, pp. 567-574.
Terayama, H. 1979. The Misaki Marine Biological Station (Faculty of Science,
University of Tokyo). Internat. Soc. Dev. Biols. Newsletter, May 1979 [no
vol. #1 ,pp. 3-4.
A Review of Wiist's Classification of the Major Deep-sea
Expeditions 1873-1960 and Its Extension to Recent
Oceanographic Research Programs
Matthias Tomczak, Jr.
1 Introduction
Although science is and has always been instrumental to the achievement of po-
litical aims, the history of science is mostly written in a manner such as to avoid
investigation of this link and to present scientific progress as the product of the
general curiosity of humanity and the efforts of outstanding individuals. Progress,
it then seems, inevitably springs from the development of new knowledge and
new methods by way of natural evolution. This is the approach adopted by Wlist
(1964) in his history of the major deep~a expeditions of 1873-1960. According
to Wust, the discovery of new facts and the development of new methods are the
only reasons for changes in the planning of oceanographic expeditions.
While it is true that progress in science depends to a large extent on the means
of individual scientists to independently follow their own approach to the solu-
tion of scientific problems, any approach to the history of science that does not
consider the political aims for which research is undertaken cannot but fail to ex-
plain major developments. Wust's description of major changes in deep-sea expe-
ditions clearly is a case in point: It does not try to give reasons for these changes
but is restricted to their description.
The present study supplies evidence that the major deep-sea expeditions until
recently were part of the imperialist strategy towards world domination, and pro-
ceeds to discuss the changes which emerge under the growing influence of the
Third World's struggle for independence. In doing so it begins with a review of
Wust's history of the earlier deep-sea expeditions and tries to explain the periods
in deep-sea research activity observed by him.
A Review of Wiist's Classification of the Major Deep-sea Expeditions 189
2 Review of Wust's Classification
WUst (1964) grouped the deep-sea expeditions between 1873 and 1960 into four
periods which he called the era of exploration (1873-1914), of national syste-
matic and dynamic ocean surveys (1925-1940), of new marine geological, geo-
physical, biological and physical methods (1947-1956) and of international co-
operation (since 1957). It is interesting to note that gaps occur between some of
his periods, which suggests that the reason for the change from one period to the
next should be found in these gaps, i.e., 1914-1925 and 1940-1947. In addition,
a major change in the politico-econornical world situation should be found at
about 1956/7.
In 1873, when the British research vessel Challenger set out for an expedition
into all oceans, not much was known of the oceanography and biology of the
deep seas. Consequently, expeditions were "characterised by widely-spaced
stations along isolated proftles" (WUst 1964), which led WUst to term the period
the "era of exploration." More importantly, however, the period witnessed the
flnal dramatic rush of the competing imperialist countries for the occupation of
allegedly unoccupied territories. According to Supan (1906, p. 256), the area oc-
cupied by colonists between 1876 and 1900 increased from 10.8% to 90.4% in
Africa, from 56.8% to 98.9% in Polynesia and from 51.5% to 56.6% in Asia. Even
the scientiflc series established to publish the results of the various oceanogra-
phic expeditions of this period give ample evidence that the scientific ventures
were part of the rush for colonies.
The motivation for the Challenger Expedition can be found in a letter sent to
the Royal Society in 1871 and quoted in the frrst volume of the Challenger Re-
ports (Thomson and Murray 1885). It contained a clipping from Nature which in-
formed the Society of plans in Germany, Sweden and the USA to prepare deep-
sea expeditions, and it urged the Society to convince the government that it react
to these "activities of other nations."
In 1873, it should be recalled, Britain was the leading colonial power, and its
position enabled it to follow its colonial intentions in a comparatively relaxed
mood. Once government agreed to the necessity of an oceanographic voyage and
Challenger set sail, scientific curiosity officially prevailed over colonial desire.
Other countries were more outspoken with their intentions about deep-sea ex-
peditions. The German vessel Gazelle, which sailed the oceans on an expedition
during 1874-1876, was ordered to ''increase the recognition of the German expe-
dition for the exploration of Central Africa" (Hydrographisches Amt 1889), and
the commander of the research vessel did not complete the voyage around the
world because he was appointed governor of Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land and the
Bismarck-Archipel while studying its waters. The description of the DutchSiboga
Expedition in the first volume of its scientific report series contains such en-
lightening passages as "Even the naturalist who is so much sympathetic towards
a real wild cannot but express his deep impression when hearing the pupils of
Taruna and of Beo sing correctly and melodiously, conducted by their native
instructor, the Dutch national anthem" (Weber 1902). The commander of the
190 M. Tomczak, Jr.
German research vessel Planet which sailed the three oceans during 1906-1907
had collected previous experience with the study area. Some years earlier, he had
participated in the destruction of villages in the Admiralty Islands area during a
"retaliation expedition" of a German naval vessel (Reichs-Marine-Amt 1909).
The rush for colonies was essentially decided soon after 1900. The only major
deep-sea expedition before 1914 that followed the expedition of Planet was a
voyage of the German vessel Deutschland in 1911-1912 to Antarctica which did
not offer much as a colony in those days. So Germany had to rely on the only
method available to the imperialist powers since then: redistribution of the con-
trol over foreign territory by force. The resulting First World War brought the
period of occupation of new colonies, or the "era of exploration," to an end.
In the years following 1918, all imperialist powers concentrated on the syste-
matic exploitation of the territories they had managed to obtain. Holland sent
the research vessel Willebrord Snellius to continue, in 1929-1930, the work of
the Siboga; of the four presidents of the expedition's planning committee, one
was a former governor-general of "Netherlands East-India" and another resigned
to become Colonial Secretary of the Government (van Riel 1937). Britain sent
the famous Discovery to assist its monopoly over Antarctic whaling. The scien-
tifically well-designed regular patterns of the 19 Discovery sections around Ant-
arctica of 1932-1934 led Wtist to call this period the "era of national systematic
and dynamic ocean surveys." If it was the scientists' desire to systematically
study restricted areas of the ocean because it promised deeper insight into physi-
cal mechanisms or ecological communities than the sketchy station distribution
of the earlier expeditions, this desire was, to say the least, strongly fostered by
the imperialists' need to concentrate on the exploitation of limited areas while
preparing for the next redistribution by force. This is particularly obvious with
the German Meteor Expedition of 1925-1927 which became famous for survey-
ing the South Atlantic Ocean in an extremely systematic and scientifically re-
warding way. Germany had no foreign countries to exploit it; it had to start the
search for colonies all over again, and the report of the Meteor Expedition gives
ample evidence that its scientists planned to continue along the lines of the "era
of exploration" as had the Gazelle and Planet. Lack of funds eventually forced
them to abandon plans for an expedition around the world, and only because of
lack of funds did they give up their second best option, plans for an expedition
into the Pacific Ocean, one of Germany's traditional colonial grounds, and re-
luctantly settle for the Atlantic Ocean. The 1925-1927 Meteor Expedition was
an emergency program of an imperialist power determined "to again show its
flag in as many foreign ports as possible" (Spiess 1932).
The Second World War for the redistribution of territories between imperial-
ist countries began in 1939. It brought the second era of deep-sea expeditions to
an end. It also resulted in the rise of the first imperialist superpower, and its
strength is reflected in deep-sea research activities of the era of "new marine geo-
logical, geophysical, biological and physical methods." Of the six research vessels
listed by Wtist for this era, three are vessels of the USA. With the existing advan-
tage of the economically buoyant power admidst victims of exhausting battles,
the USA not only set out to economically control many countries but also en-
visaged early exploitation of the deep oceans. All three USA vessels listed by
Wtist therefore concentrated on geology and geophysics, a development corre~t
ly described as new marine methods but not explained in Wtist's paper.
The gradual recovery of the old competing imperialist powers led to a gradual
increase of research vessels capable of sailing all oceans. It is perhaps worth not-
ing that until very recently need for an ocean-going research vessel existed only
for countries which aimed at expanding their area of influence. For proper man-
agement of national coastal resources such need did not exist, and the need for
management of the common heritage of humanity occurred only very recently,
at about the time when the Third World pressed for a convention on the use of
the sea floor. It is therefore another example of the drastic change which the
USSR underwent when it turned from the first socialist state into the second
superpower, that in the years from 1957 to 1960 a whole fleet of USSR research
vessels started to sail all oceans. The reason, however, for the third era to end
and the "era of international research cooperation" to begin at that time was not
so much the rise of the second superpower but the development which occurred
with the occupied territories. Table 1 lists the number of countries which gained
their independence and were admitted to the United Nations each year since
1945. It can be seen that the national struggle for independence resulted in two
waves of increased membership in the United Nations during 1955-1957 and
1960-1962. The first session of the United Nations Conference on the Law of
the Sea was held in 1958.
3 Towards a New Period of Oceanographic Research
The advantages of international cooperation in oceanographic research cannot be

denied. It is, however, quite misleading to explain the increase of internationally
organized expeditions since 1957 merely by the increase of our understanding of
the ocean and by improvements in oceanographic methods. Ventures such as the
Table 1. Number of countries admitted to the United Nations, 1945-1976

1945 51 1956 4 1967 1
1946 4 1957 2 1968 3
1947 2 1958 1 1969
1948 1 1959 1970 1
1949 1 1960 17 1971 5
1950 1 1961 4 1972
1951 1962 6 1973 3
1952 1963 2 1974 3
1953 1964 3 1975 6
1954 1965 3 1976 3
1955 16 1966 4
Source: United Nations
192 M. Tomczak, Jr.
1925-1927 Meteor Expedition or the 1932-1934 Discovery Expedition certainly
could have been done better as an international undertaking, and the reason
why they were single-ship operations was purely political. Thus, the'change ob-
served by Wilst for 1957 can only be explained by a change in the political situ-
ation. Although not many of the new independent states expressed direct interest
in deep-sea oceanography, continued activity of research vessels from the imper-
ialist countries just off their territorial waters would have caused quite an embar-
rassment. Declaration of the on-going activity as part of an internationally agreed
research program seemed to be a way to avoid such embarrassment.
International cooperation of imperialist countries does not imply that these
countries abandon their previous aims. Although formally acknowledging the in-
dependence of the Third World countries they constantly seek to expand control
over the countries' economies. This neo-colonialist politics extends into science
as well and can clearly be observed in international marine science. Tomczak
(1977) analyzed the major working groups of the Intergovernmental Oceanogra-
phic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO prior to 1966 and found that of the 193
scientists and other experts from member countries involved, 39 were from the
USA, 18 from the Federal Republic of Germany, 17 from Great Britain, 17 from
France and 16 from the USSR, the remaining 86 being from 33 other countries.
Such a composition of the working groups can of course be justified on the basis
of the advanced oceanographic knowledge of the dominating countries, but it
cannot be denied that international programs do not work out favorably for
Third World countries when their research aims are set by scientists who repre-
sent First or Second World countries. As an example, the Integrated Global
Ocean Station System (IGOSS), drafted by IOC and agreed upon by the World
Meteorological Organisation (WMO), stipulates that the system be composed by
national installations and services which are to be provided by the participating
countries, and that these installations and services make use of the most advanced
observation, communication and data processing techniques (Tolkachev 1976).
Obviously, the most advanced techniques involve a high degree of electronics
and computerization. Any Third World country wishing to join IGOSS thus faces
the need to buy expensive equipment from those countries which already con-
trolled the program at its drafting stage. From the point of view of data handling
and data exchange, use of compatible equipment by all participating countries is
an advantage. From the point of view ofa Third World countrY,however, an in-
ternational program which increases its dependence on First and Second World
countries technologically and economically runs against its national interests. If,
as is often claimed, the role of science is to make life easier for all members of
humanity, a research program which is based on optimum data handling pro-
cedures but leads to increased neo-colonialist dependence can scarcely be regarded
as an element of scientific progress. It certainly does not represent progress of
humanity.
A more detailed account of the history of oceanographic deep-sea ventures
has been given in Tomczak (1977) where it is pointed out that an early initiative
of the 1958 UNESCO General Assembly to introduce an internationally control-
led element into oceanography by recommending the funding of international
research vessels, was aborted by a group of First and Second World scientists
who recommended that national research be coordinated instead. Today, inter-
national organizations still do not have the means for oceanographic research
and totally depend on support from the scientifically advanced countries. As a
result, even those international expeditions which are originally based on a re-
search proposal in accordance with the Third World countries' interests, undergo
drastic changes because of First and Second World interference. An example of
this type of international expedition, the Cooperative Investigation of the
Northern Part of the Eastern Central Atlantic (CINECA), has been analyzed in
detail by Tomczak (1979). CINECA was drafted by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and the original plans for CINECA
were the first attempt to study the area along the coasts of northwest Africa for
the benefit of the northwest African countries. Today, two years after the offi-
cial end of CINECA, these countries are still wondering whether they will ever
see the oceanographic atlas of their coastal waters (where, over a period of sever-
al years, more than 40 research vessels performed thousands of stations).
Since 1964, the year of publication ofWiist's history of deep-sea expeditions,
many newly independent countries have won great achievements, and the Third
World has succeeded in joining forces on many issues. The growing strength of
this unity is reflected in changes in international scientific programs. As an ex-
ample, conditions for participation in the Global Atmospheric Research Pro-
gram (GARP) are much less stringent than those of IGOSS, and any member
country of WMO may join the program simply by augmenting existing obser-
vation programs. Since all countries run a meteorological service for forecasting
purposes, facilities to contribute to GARP exist everywhere, and it is possible to
benefit from GARP results in one way or another. At the same time, the Third
World is about to succeed in attaining control over the exploitation of the natu-
ral resources of their coastal waters, and management of the mineral resources
of the high seas by an internationally agreed United Nations administration is
soon to occur. Within the economic zone of 200 nautical miles the coastal states
obtained complete sovereignty over all oceanographic research. These develop-
ments indicate that the period of neo-colonialist domination is gradually giving
way to a new period of ocean management where the oceans' resources are fmal-
Iy administered for the benefit of all nations rather than only a few. The analysis
of the earlier periods has shown that oceanic science always followed economic
and political developments. It can therefore be expected that the new period in
economic use of the oceans will show its impact on marine science with the
eventual implementation of the 1958 recommendation of UNESCO that an in-
ternational agency for research on the high seas be set up.
4 Summation
To sum up, a review of Wtist's classification of the major deep-sea expeditions

showed that he was correct in distinguishing four periods between 1873 and 1960
which proved to have quite different characteristics. However, it also became
194 M. Tomczak, Jr.
evident that WUst's description of the individual periods did not ascertain the
reasons for the changes which occurred. This can only be achieved when the
economic and political development of the world is taken into consideration.
Such an analysis not only explains observed changes in expedition planning and
management but helps to judge the present-day situation and the development
for the near future. On the basis of the progress achieved with an agreement for
the exploitation of marine resources on the high seas for the benefit of all
nations it seems likely that a similar agreement will emerge for oceanographic
research in the high seas, following the UNESCO recommendation of 1958.
References
Hydrographisches Amt des Reichsmarineamts (ed.). 1889. Die Forschungsreise

S.M.S. Gazelle in den Jahren 1874 bis 1876, part 1. Mittler, Berlin, 307 pp.
Reichs-Marine-Amt (ed.). 1909. Forschungsergebnisse S.M.S. Planet 1906/7,
Reisebeschreibung. Karl Sigismund, Berlin, 104 pp.
van Reil, P. 1937. Programme of research and preparations. The Snellius-Expe-
dition in the eastern part of the Netherlands East-Indies 1929-30, The voyage.
Brill, Leiden, 1, 37.
Spiess, E. 1932. Das Forschungsschiff und seine Reise. Wiss. Ergebn. Dt. AU.
Exp. Meteor 1925-27. de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, 1,442.
Supan, A. 1906. Die territoriale Entwicklung der europiiischen Kolonien. Perthes,
Gotha, 344 pp.
Thomson, C. W. and Murray, J. (eds.). 1885. Report on the scientific results of
H.M.S. Challenger. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1 (1), 509.
Tolkachev, A. J. 1976. Stethoscope on the ocean. Ceres 54 (FAO review on agri-
culture and development), 9(6), 4749.
Tomczak, Jr., M. 1977. Das Ende der imperialistischen Seeherrschaft naht. Send-
ler, Frankfurt/M., 109 pp.
Tomczak, Jr., M. 1979. The CINECA experience. Mar. Policy, 3, 59-65.
Weber, M. 1902. Siboga-Expeditie, Introduction et description de l'expedition.
Brill, Leiden, 1, 159.
Wiist, G. 1964. The major deep-sea expeditions and research vessels 1873-1960-
A contribution to the history of oceanography. Progress in Oceanography,
Pergamon Press, Oxford, 2,1-52.
The Role of Instruments in the Development of
Physical Oceanography
Myrl C. Hendershott
1 Introduction
Munk and Cartwright (1967) close their reexamination of tide prediction with a
quote from Hilaire Belloc (1925): ''When they pontificate on the tides it does
no great harm, for the sailorman cares nothing for their theories but goes by real
knowledge." Yet in physical geography there have been a number of far reaching
interactions between theory and real knowledge. It is the theme of this note that
they could not have occurred without certain crucial advances in instrumentation.
What follows is a sketch of those advances and of their role in studies of
ocean tides, of ocean surface waves, of the general circulation of the world's
oceans, and of the fluctuating mesoscale circulation. I believe that a similar ad-
vance is now in the making for what I expect to be the next major area of long
term study in physical geography: description of large scale oceanic fluxes of
heat and of dissolved and suspended substances.
This sketch is of necessity a very preliminary one, reflecting prirnarilymy own
view of the field, and one which presupposes an appreciable amount of general
knowledge about the development of physical oceanography on the part of the
reader. To make it more would have required a much longer period of historical
research than was available to me.
196 M. C. Hendershott
2 Ocean Tides
The art of tide prediction was well on its way to codification by the time that
Newton's Principia with its explanation of the tide generating force (TGF) ap-
peared in 1687. In the subsequent century European dynamicists, above all
Laplace, correctly formulated the problem of the dynamical response of the
oceans to the TGF and made great progress in solving it. But the purely technical
difficulty of not being able to deal with ocean basins of realistic shape kept their
work from having much real influence on practical tide prediction.
It was Lord Kelvin who had the genius to realize that the way towards further
progress lay in abandoning Laplace's goal of solving the ocean equations of
motion while at the same time retaining Laplace's realization that the oceans re-
spond linearly to the TGF, whose frequencies are known very precisely from
astronomy. This meant that tide prediction should proceed by decomposing a
tide record into its astronomical components and then recombining them at
future times.
In the days of manual computation, such harmonic analysis from the then
customary observations of high and low waters only would have been all but im-
possible. But if the tides were to be sampled at closely and regularly spaced inter-
vals for a sufficiently long time, then harmonic analysis could proceed very
simply by forming appropriate averages of the sampled values (Darwin 1911a).
Such observations were beginning to be feasible in the mid-1800s. Deacon (1978)
reprints a description first published in 1832 of the continuously recording tide
gauge at Sheerness, and Darwin (1911 a) describes similar instruments whose use
was becoming widespread by Kelvin's day. In all these gauges the motion of a
float in a well, insulated from short period waves but otherwise freely connected
with the sea, drives a pencil up and down a paper wrapped on a drum which is
rotated once a day by clockwork, thus producing a continuous plot of sea level
versus time. Darwin (1911 a) outlines procedures for subjecting this record to
harmonic analysis at the astronomical frequencies by simple averaging of hourly
samples.
But successful harmonic analysis would have been for naught were it not for
Lord Kelvin's invention, about 1872 (Darwin 1911b), of the tide predicting ma-
chine for recombining the harmonics at future times. A series of pulleys, move-
able at frequencies corresponding to the astronomical ones, drove a pencil up and
down a paper wrapped on a drum which was rotated once a day by clockwork,
thus producing a continuous plot of predicted sea level versus future time.
These instrumental developments are what enabled tidal theory to make a
real contribution to practical tide prediction. Ironically, their success effectively
removed tide prediction from the concern of dynamicists, who increasingly
turned their attention to the theoretical eigen value problem posed by Laplace's
dynamical theory of long waves in the ocean. With one important exception
(the elucidation of the role of the oceans in the dissipation of tidal energy in the
earth-moon system), tidal theory and observations did not again interact signifi-
cantly until the advent of electronic computers.
The Role of Instruments in the Development of Physical Oceanography 197
The use of computers as dynamical tools to solve Laplace's tidal equations
was pioneered by Hansen just after the Second World War. Now, after several
decades of comparison between numerical solutions of Laplace's tidal equations
and tidal observations derived from the global network of tide gauges, we are
tolerably close to having carried out Laplace's original project of solving the
equations of motion to determine the response of the oceans to the TGF. Used
in this manner, the electronic computer is one of the instruments which have
changed physical oceanography as well as tidal studies completely (although
much of the impetus for this use of the computer entered oceanography from
meteorology rather than from tidal studies).
The rather unusual-by oceanographic studies-properties of tides kept their
study from having the overall influence on the development of physical ocean-
ography which might have been expected as their right of primogeniture. The
linear barotropic dynamics of tides are so different from those of ocean cur-
rents that the attainment of Laplace's predictive goal has not had a great influ-
ence on the theory of ocean circulation; the natural common ground, Laplace's
low frequency oscillations of the third species, was rediscovered by the meteor-
ologist Rossby and thence spread into the theory of ocean currents, only later
being widely recognized as already known to tidalists. Tides have such a high
signal to noise ratio and such a nearly discrete frequency spectrum that the ad-
vent of continuous recording and automated analysis which revolutionized tide
prediction did not give rise to a statistical view of the motions of the sea (yet
Victorian scientists were not unaware of statistical considerations: Newcomb
was skeptical about the results of his own harmonic analysis of three years of
latitude observations carried out in search of the lO-month period of free nu-
tation of a rigid earth). The development of the statistical view was left for much
later studies of the far more irregular (and shorter period) wind generated sur-
face wave field.
3 Ocean Waves
Before the [Second World] War there were theoretical conclusions [about
ocean waves] based on the laws of classical mechanics, and generalizations
based on makeshift observations. The practical man had some excuse, no
doubt, for considering the theoretical ideas insufficiently developed to be of
much practical value, and the theoretical workers could well despair at the
difficulty of making observations sufficiently precise to test detailed theories
(Deacon 1963).
Yet studies based on continuously recording wave gauges and automated analysis
of them were a significant component in planning the Allied invasion of Europe.
The importance of wave studies for phYSical oceanography as a whole was to
introduce statistical constructs not only as convenient summaries of observations
but ultimately as the primary elements in a dynamical theory. Being only weakly
nonlinear, the theory of ocean surface waves was far more'suitable for the initial
conversion to statistical elements than, for example, the highly non-linear theory
of thermal convection. But the conversion did not take place until there was de-
veloped the ability to conveniently form statistical summaries of the observations.
That ability required first of all wave gauges recording sufficiently often (in
practice continuously) to resolve energetic variations of sea level having periods
as short as a second or two, with wide dynamic range and with reliable stability
throughout a campaign of observations. Such gauges were constructed in various
ways (as various kinds of wave staves, as bottom-mounted pressure gauges, and
much later as motion sensors on floating buoys). Deacon (1946), writing of
work done in 1944, vividly describes the impact of the resulting records:
Mathematicians and observers had -tome together, and although statistical

analysis, using crest to crest measurements was given a thorough trial they
soon reached the conclusion that no fundamental advance could be made in
the study of waves till a method was developed by which a complex wave
record could be resolved into its individual waves, in sufficient detail to allow
the amplitude of each wave-length present to be measured.
That method was automatic harmonic analysis of the wave record. The re-
corder output, a plot of sea level against time, was colored white below sea level
and black above, so that a photo cell viewing the record through a slit produced
a voltage which was proportional to sea level at a time corresponding to the po-
sition of the slit along the time axis of the record. The record was then wrapped
around a drum which was spun to rapid rotation and allowed to slow gradually
under the influence of its own bearing friction, the photo cell scanning all the
while. A given wave frequency in the wave record appeared in the photo cell
voltage as a high frequency when the drum was rotating rapidly and as an ever
decreasing frequency as the drum slowed down. By passing the photo cell
voltage through a highly tuned resonant network, whose output reflected only a
narrow band of frequencies, a record of wave energy versus frequency-the wave
spectrum-was obtained.
Just as in tidal studies nearly three-quarters of a century earlier, the combi-
nation of a continuously recording sensor and a method of automatic data pro-
cessing now led to a fundamental change in how the observations were used and
regarded. The wave spectrum became the quantity to be observed and compared
with the predictions of theory. But, as was not the case with tides, the prediction
problem was not now solved because the generating mechanism-the wind-was a
wide band process. Instead of leaving the analysis of wave observations, theore-
ticians continued to be attracted to the study of waves. The legacies they left to
the rest of physical oceanography were basically two in number. One was the
systematic development of techniques for estimating the second order statistics
of flow fields (array design in space-time, data processing techniques using the
best of available computing machinery; the harmonic analyzer was soon super-
ceded by the digital computer). The other was the systematic conversion of the
weakly nonlinear theory of ocean surface waves into a fully statistical form.
Both of these occurred over several decades, and that history is not a part of this
discussion. But the experience of them was at hand at the beginning of the
International Decade of Ocean Exploration (IDOE 1970-1980) when similar de-
velopments were needed for the quite different problem of ocean current vari-
ability.
4 The General Circulation
By the late 1800s the general circulation of the world's oceans had been broadly
but correctly inferred from tracer studies. Ships themselves were the principal
tracers of surface currents, and centuries of observations, probably beginning with
those gathered by Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, had culminated in
the surface current complications of Renne1 and of Maury. Temperature was the
principal tracer of the abyssal circulation. Deep-sea observations of subsurface
temperature appear to have begun in the mid-1700s (Deacon 1978). By 1875,
when Prestwich's survey appeared, there were enough of them to make it clear
that the abyssal circulation of the Pacific was not the two celled Hadley-like
circulation (with cold water sinking in both Arctic and Antarctic high latitudes
and rising symmetrically towards the equator) which had been proposed in the
mid-1800s on the basis of the general recognition that the deep sea was cold
(Reid 1973).
Temperature and salinity were employed with increasing fmesse as tracers of
the circulation by the Scandinavian oceanographers towards the end of the
century, with the first serial hydrographic cruises growing out of fisheries re-
search in the 1890s (Schlee 1973). But about 1900 the introduction of the geo-
strophic approximation from meteorology opened the alluring prospect of a
quantitative interpretation of hydrographic data in terms of water motions, and
so forced a decisive improvement in techniques of measurement. Thus Nansen
wrote in 1901, concerning the maiden voyage of the Michael Sars:
It would be worthless to make observations of the temperature and salinity

... in this sea [the Norwegian Sea] with no more accurate methods than
have hitherto generally been employed, for the errors of observation are
much greater than the natural variations. Nevertheless the slight differences in
density, etc., which may exist in the deeper strata of the Ocean are certainly
very important for the circulation of the whole hydrosphere, and it is there-
fore very desirable that they should be exactly determined ... (Schlee 1973).
Five different types of water sampling bottle were employed on this cruise; by
1910 Nansen had devised the present arrangement of a sampler bottle with a pair
of reversing thermometers all attached to a reversing frame which bears his name
today. The fmal step, due to Knudsen at the tum of the century, was the con-
struction of tables of the equation of state of seawater accurately giving density
in terms of measured temperature, salinity, and pressure.
It is not quite clear what to call the "instrument" in this mixture of serial hy-
drographic cruises (requiring one or more dedicated research vessels), Nansen
bottle sampling techniques, and laboratory investigations of the equation of
state of sea water. Grouped together, they form an entity which enabled syste-
matic exploration of the deep circulation of the world's oceans, beginning with
the Meteor cruise and continuing through the present day.
The geographical task of exploring the deep circulation was so vast that little
further interaction with theory took place until after the Second World War. By
that time, theoreticians had developed appreciable ability at simplifying the
equations of fluid dynamics into forms consonant with the dynamics of large scale
ocean circulation yet simple enough to be solved. Much of this ability was devel-
oped by meteorologists. It was exploited by a generation of theoreticians initial-
ly led by Henry Stommel. Within a decade or so, their efforts had yielded a wide-
ranging synthesis of observations of surface currents and of the global distribution
of temperature and salinity, a synthesis perhaps incomplete in details such as the
precise path of the Gulf Stream or its time dependence and admittedly not al-
together consistent in every dynamical detail, yet a synthesis which rationalized
large scale features with remarkable consistency. Just as in tidal studies the com-
puter as a dynamical tool was essential in effecting the fmal version of this syn-
thesis and, again as in tidal studies, this fmal theoretical synthesis came about as
the result of a much earlier intense period of interaction between theory and ob-
servation leading to the construction of a new "instrument."
5 The Fluctuating Circulation
In the second of the charts of surface currents prepared by Major James Rennel
and published in 1832 there appears a note at 28" W covering the western Atlan-
tic from 74° W to 70° W: "Currents said to be casual, Sir. Ch. Blagden" (Swal-
low 1976). Indeed every sailor and most oceanographers knew that currents are
often unsteady and difficult to predict, the dynamical theory of the general
circulation notwithstanding. But until the technology needed to leave instru-
ments self-recording in the sea for months (and then to recover their data)
became available to describe fluctuating currents in detail, oceanographers were
unable to make room in their theories for dynamically significant fluctuating
currents-Le., those which signal strong transfers of energy and momentum be-
tween widely differing spatial scales-even with the meteorological precedent in
which unsteady winds are the key to understanding the global atmospheric
circulation.
The Aries observations of 1960, together with the powerful and foresighted
interpretation made of them by Crease (1962), are often considered the decisive
event in raising the collective conscience of theoreticians to awareness of dynami-
cally important fluctuating currents. But the instrument used on the Aries cruise,
the neutrally buoyant Swallow float, was not the primary instrument used at the
beginning of systematic exploration of the fluctuations.
That "instrument" was long-lived deep-sea mooring technology. It was pio-
neered above all at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, perhaps partly in
response to the kinds of doubts concerning the significance of his necessarily
short current meter observations of internal tidal currents which caused Ekman
to delay publication of "Results of a cruise on board the Annauer Hansen in
1930 under the leadership of Bjorn Helland-Hansen" until 1953 (Munk, personal
communication). The introduction of deep-sea mooring technology in fact did
for the internal wave problem what the continuously recording wave gauge had
done for the surface wave problem; invited a statistical point of view by making
possible observational estimates of internal wave spectra. These plus the availabil-
ity of high speed digital computing led to a statistical reformulation of internal
wave theory analogous to that which had taken place for surface waves. It was
the readiness of this technology for routine deep-sea work that allowed the
MODE experiment and its successor POLYMODE to begin to describe the fluctu-
ating or mesoscale circulation during the IDOE (MODE Group 1978).
The Aries observations and the pilot observations preparatory to MODE raised
a fundamental difference between researchers who wanted to do a traditional
mapping experiment to study the fluctuating flow, albeit at unusually small
space scales, and researchers who wanted to design an experiment to yield good
estimates of second order statistics of the fluctuating flow. The resolution of this
conIDct introduced the method of objective analysis to oceanographers (Brether-
ton, Davis and Fandry 1976) and ultimately brought to current studies the (ap-
propriately revised) techniques of array design which had first entered oceanogra-
phy through studies of ocean surface waves. It is fair to say that these techniques
have since become routine in the planning of field work.
As in the wave problem, the shift in observational emphasis from mapping a
single realization of the flow to estimating statistics of the flow field provided
impetus for a statistical reformulation of the dynamical theory. That theory had
unfolded with such vigor in the two decades after the Second World War that it
continued to develop even after many of its constructs had gone beyond the ob-
servational, picture of the general circulation. It was therefore ripe for a statisti-
cal reformulation. Here the computer as a dynamical tool was absolutely indis-
pensable on account of the strong nonlinearity of the theory.
Initially the equations of the theory were solved numerically and the solutions
were then averaged to estimate various statistical quantities. Such studies have
now begun to be a testing ground for dynamical theories constructed directly in
terms of the statistical quantities-theories of mesoscale turbulence.
Exploration of the mesoscale circulation is by no means completed. It is in-
creasingly relying upon untethered instruments; neutrally buoyant floats and
instrument capsules, and freely falling probes of many kinds. Yet it was the tech-
nology of long-lived deep-sea mooring which allowed tentative theoretical ideas
about the possible importance of the mesoscale circulation to effect a major
change in the planning of oceanographic field work and in the structure of the
theory of ocean circulation.
6 Oceanic Fluxes
The conflict between map makers and statisticians during the planning of MODE
raised anew the most fundamental of all questions for physical oceanography-
why are oceanographic observations of importance or interest to anyone? The
sharply defmed goal of description and prediction which had motivated early
students of currents and tides had gradually been replaced by the important,
although somewhat nebulous goal of ''understanding the dynamics." But climate
research, the projected disposal of wastes in the deep sea, and the need for
rational management of marine resources have all reintroduced the need for de-
scription and prediction, of oceanic fluxes of heat, pollutants, and nutrients.
It presently appears very unlikely that these fluxes may be described or pre-
dicted on a purely theoretical basis. They will instead have to be observed di-
rectly, surely for a long period and perhaps for as long as there is need for their
continuing specification and/or prediction. This will require a program of large
scale ocean monitoring.
The technology of long-lived deep-sea moorings which made initial explo-
ration of the mesoscale circulation possible is ill-suited to the task of monitoring
the global ocean because it cannot conveniently cover an extended region. For
this purpose, remote sensing is ideal. The technology for effective remote sensing
of the oceans is just now being developed. Acoustic (SOF AR) floats neutrally
buoyant at mid-depths are now being routinely tracked in the western Atlantic
from land-based hydrophones; this capability was developed during MODE-
POLYMODE (MODE Group 1978). The technology of computer assisted to-
mography has been borrowed from medicine to analyze acoustic signals, propa-
gated over paths hundreds of kilometers in length, to provide a synoptic picture
of the intervening flow (Munk and Wunsch 1979). Satellite-borne sensors have
proven capable of mapping great detail in the surface temperature field, and an
entire suite of sensors including an altimeter good enough to resolve tides and
the dynamic topography of the fluctuating circulation was flown on SEASAT
(Various 1979).
Precisely how a program of global ocean monitoring will change our view of
the oceans is not yet clear. But that change is likely to be a profound one, and
for it to occur the new generation of remote sensing instruments now being de-
veloped will be essential.
References
Belloc, H. 1925. The cruise of the Nona. Constable, London.

Bretherton, F. P., Davis, R., and Fandry, C. 1976. A technique for objective
analysis and design of oceanographic experiments. Deep-Sea Res., 23, 559-
582.
Crease, J. 1962. Velocity measurements in the deep water of the western North
Atlantic. Jour. Geophys. Res., 67, 3173-3176 (reprinted in Deacon 1978).
Darwin, G. 1911a. The tides and kindred phenomena in the solar system. John
Murray. Reprinted by Freeman 1968.
Darwin, G. 1911 b. Tide. Encyclopedia Brittanica, Eleventh Edition.
Deacon, G. E. R. 1946. Ocean waves and swell. Occ. Pap. Challenger Soc., 1, 1-13
(reprinted in Deacon 1978).
Deacon, M. B. 1978. Oceanography: concepts and history. Dowden, Hutchinson
and Ross, Inc.
MODE Group. 1978. The Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment. Deep-Sea Res., 25,
859-910.
MUnk, W. H. and Cartwright, D. E. 1966. Tidal spectroscopy and prediction.
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., A, 259,533-581
MUnk, W. and Wunsch, C. 1979. Ocean acoustic tomography: a scheme for large
scale monitoring. Deep-Sea Res., 26A, 123-161.
Reid, I. L. 1973. Deep ocean circulation. Chapter 15 of Oceanography. R. G.
Vetter (ed.). Basic Books, Inc.
Schlee, S. 1973. A history of oceanography. Robert Hale and Company, London.
Swallow, I. C. 1976. Variable currents in mid-ocean. Oceanus, 19,18-25.
Various. 1979. A collection of articles on SEASAT. Science, 204, 1405-1424.
Meso-scale Spatial Distribution of Plankton: Co-evolution
of Concepts and Instrumentation
Alex Herman and Trevor Platt
1 Introduction
It is a truism in oceanography that all processes operating at fmer scale than the
resolution of the sampling grid are suppressed or ignored, implicitly if not ex-
plicitly, by the observer. Conversely, if it is imperative that processes on a cer-
tain scale be studied, then the sampling grid has to be at least as fme-scaled as
the scale of this process of interest. In physical oceanography, this view of the
world was crystallized by Stommel (1963) some seventeen years ago.
In biological oceanography, however, this perspective was not fully appreci-
ated for another fifteen or so years. Early workers with phytoplankton, using
stations spaced tens or hundreds of kilometers apart, had been able to see large
scale horizontal gradients in distribution of the flora. So long as the spacing
of stations remained like this ("one station a day") planktologists would and did
overlook the finer scale variance that lay all about them. Working closer to shore
and on smaller ships, where the sampling schedule typically is less rigidly formal-
ized, planktologists attached to fisheries investigations began to show that esti-
mates of plankton abundance at given stations were not as reproducible as one
would have wanted. For example, in 1922 Hardy (1956, p. 75) observed a vari-
ation in the ichthyoplankton at one station in the southern North Sea that was
greater than the variation between all other stations on the cruise. This experi-
ence led Hardy to develop his continuous plankton recorder (Hardy 1939) which
showed conclusively that intense horizontal variability, on scales of kilometers
and up, was characteristic of the distribution of plankton abundance in the sea
(Fig. la). Fascinating though it was, this new view of the plankton world took a
long time to permeate through the conservative field of plankton research. A
Meso-scale Spatial Distribution of Plankton 205
o.L---------~------------~------------------------
~~-N-~~~~~~~- •• - .. -..J'vt:..c.=-=...t....::.:..::::.==----~--~=
==------~-"-
~ .. ~
o 30 40 50 EiO
RECOROER SECTIONS (mi.es)
10
""
(b)
20 30 40 50
SAMPLE NUM BER
Figure 1. (a) A graph showing the mile to mile variation in the numbers of di-
noflagellates (Ceratium) and several plankton animals: arrow-worms (Sagitta)
and crustaceans (Cladocera and Copepods: Calanu8, Temora, etc.) as shown by
the analysis of a typical plankton recorder roll representing a distance of 100
miles in the North Sea. (From Hardy 1939.)
(b) Temperature, salinity and sample counts for zooplankton (left) and phyto-
plankton (right). (From Cassie 1960.)
partial cause was, no doubt, the evolution of world politics in that period, but
the principal cause was that Hardy was just too far (say 25 years) ahead of his
time. A vanishingly small proportion of researchers had access to a continuous
206 A. Herman and T. Platt
plankton recorder; the rest were stuck with bottles and nets.
The early 1950s saw a growing interest in the application of statistical methods
to scientific research generally and to fisheries research in particular. Against the
background painted by Hardy, some planktologists engaged in survey projects
became concerned with the statistical reliability of individual plankton samples.
An early statistical treatment of the variance of replicate plankton hauls was
that of Barnes and Marshall (1951). The variability of bottle samples of phyto-
plankton in the Oslofjord was described by Hasle (1954). The application of clas-
sical, regression-type statistical methods was taken furthest by Cassie (1959,
1960, 1962, 1963), who was able to show for the first time a correlation between
the microdistribution of plankton and the fille scale distribution of environmen-
tal variates such as temperature and salinity. Plankton variability, then, had a
causal as well as a stochastic component (Fig. I b). This general line of investi-
gation by Cassie and others served to reinforce the results of Hardy and to show
that plankton was highly uneven in space no matter what the spatial resolution
of the sample design.
In what follows, the evolution of the concepts underlying patchiness research
is treated along with that of the methodology for phytoplankton sampling. This
reflects the historical development, but in fact, the same set of ideas applies also
to the study of patchiness in zooplankton.
2 Developments in Phytoplankton Research
All of the studies so far mentioned treated the organisms in the plankton samples
as discrete taxonomic entities. In the 1960s, a growing number of biological
oceanographic programs, especially in fisheries, were concerned with the phyto-
plankton community viewed as a black-box transducing solar energy to energy
available for nourishing higher elements in the marine food chain. For want of
something better, the commonly-used index of phytoplankton abundance in
these studies was chlorophyll concentration, measured on acetone extracts made
from bottle samples. It became a natural question to inquire into the statistical
reliability of estimates of phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll) made from point
samples. It was not difficult to show (Platt et al. 1970) that lumping the phyto-
plankton into one biomass category did not erase the spatial variability that had
been seen at the level of individual species.
In keeping with the spirit of quantitative food chain dynamics that was chang-
ing the face of biological oceanography at this time, it became of interest (1) to
characterize the variability in the phytoplankton; (2) to try to account for it in
mechanistic terms; and (3) to look into its functional significance.
Tentative steps at statistical characterization of data on chlorophyll variabili-
ty were taken by Platt et al. (1970). They applied the methods of time-series
analysis of transect data taken with bottles to construct rudimentary power spec-
tra of chlorophyll variance. Thus, they hoped to discover the dominant length
scale of phytoplankton variability, if one in fact existed, and to compare the bio-
logical spectrum with those of temperature and salinity. It turned out that the
number of data points in their series was only marginal for a spectral analysis,
the best that could be done with winch and bottle sampling from a relatively
slow vessel. No dominant scale of patchiness was found.
Some of the world's most original and influential ecologists of the day were
working in the field of marine ecology. The giant among these was, and is,
Ramon Margalef, who had given considerable thought to the general question of
structure in phytoplankton populations (Margalef 1963, 1967). He recognized
the potential for a mechanistic as well as a stochastic component of phytoplank-
ton variability, and suggested that turbulence might be worth investigating as
the causal agent.
As for the functional significance of plankton variability, its importance went
far beyond an immediate application to a fisheries computation. Ecologists in
general were beginning to talk about spatial variability as a key factor in ensuring
the persistence of ecological dynamics in theoretical, experimental, and real
systems. For example, Huffaker (1958), working with an experimental colony
of mites on oranges, showed that spatial variability was a direct avenue to the
stabilization of predator-prey systems: the more spatially complex the experi-
mental design, the less chance that the predators would exterminate their prey.
A number of people working with simulation models of food-chains observed
that the introduction of a certain spatial variability in phytoplankton abundance
was sufficient to stabilize, in the mathematical sense, models whose previous out-
puts had been at best highly erratic or at worst had predicted extinction of an
essential trophic link. Arguments based on ecological energetics, and experi-
ments based on them had shown that the ecological efficiency of grazing had to
depend on the spatial distribution of the animal's food (Ivlev 1945). Results ob-
tained by Parsons et al. (1967) for zooplankton demonstrated the existence of a
grazing threshold below which feeding did not occur, supposedly because it was,
thermodynamically, a losing proposition. With the appropriate mathematical
formulation, introduction of this result into a simulation model was a guarantee
that the simulated phytoplankton would not become extinct in time. In space,
introduction of spatial variability had the same effect.
Spatial heterogeneity, then, was turning out to be of profound and funda-
mental significance in ecology. Phytoplankton offered a particularly suitable
group with which to study the phenomenon because one of the central parame-
ters (the diffusion coefficient) of the theoretical treatments could, in principle,
be quantified. But there was another reason. Food chain studies were beginning
to show that both zooplankton (Mullin and Brooks 1976) and larval fish (Lasker
1975) would have difficulty meeting their energy requirements grazing on the
mean concentration of phytoplankton as it occurred over most of the ocean. The
inescapable conclusion, if the measurements were sound, was that surviving indi-
viduals were successful because they were grazing, fortuitously or otherwise, in
regions where the concentration of their food locally exceeded the regional
mean. The significance of the variance, as well as the mean, of ecological distri-
butions became more clear.
By 1970 then, the emphasis on patchiness research had shifted away from esti-
mates of the reliability of point samples towards explanation of the causes and
investigation of the ecological implications. Patchiness in phytoplankton was be-
ginning to be recognized as a "big" problem. The introduction of the technique
of in vivo fluorometry by Lorenzen (1966) for estimation of chlorophyll concen-
tration was to be germinal to the next phase of research.
With this new method the abundance of phytoplankton could be indexed
continuously and automatically at sea, if necessary with the vessel underway.
The route was now clear for the collection of time series containing sufficient
data points for a sound spectral analysis. A typical early set-up is shown in
Platt (1972, Fig. 1). Water from a submersible pump could be drawn into a fluor-
ometer on deck. The analog output was converted to digital form and averaged
over any desired time interval. A spectral analysis (Platt 1972, Fig. 3) showed
that on a logarithmic plot, the variance of chlorophyll concentration was a
linear function of wavenumber over the range of scales accessible to the obser-
vations (10 m to 1000 m).
The result was suggestive of the interpretation that the local chlorophyll con-
centration was controlled by turbulence, because the general shape of the spec-
trum, and the magnitude of the fitted slope, agreed with the predictions of a
physical theory by Kolmogorov (1941) for the properties of idealized turbulent
flow. Moreover, the results argued against a preferred scale of phytoplankton
variance in this range of length scales.
Similar chlorophyll spectra were obtained from other environments (powell
et al. 1975, Denman and Platt 1975, Fasham and Pugh 1976, Steele and Hen-
derson 1977, Lekan and Wilson 1978). Data were now being collected not with
a submersible pump but more commonly with an in situ fluorometer mounted
on a V-fin. One of the earliest such fluorometers bore the trade name Variosens
(Herman 1975, Fig, 2).
In parallel with the improvements in sampling methodology, the theory of
patchiness was being developed in the early 1970s. Some twenty years earlier,
Kierstead and Slobodkin (1953), working on the red-tide phenomenon, had
posed the problem as one of a dynamic balance between phytoplankton growth
and turbulent diffusion. If diffusion were too strong, phytoplankton patches
(red tides) would be dispersed: if the growth rate of phytoplankton were high
enough, the patches could maintain their integrity even against the diffusion.
These considerations allowed Kierstead and Slobodkin to defme a characteristic
length scale (kjr)1I2 where k is the coefficient of turbulent diffusion and r is the
growth rate of the cells, for phytoplankton patches. Aggregations larger than
this could be expected to persist, smaller patches to be eradicated. When this
theory was exhumed in the early 1970s and accepted ocean values of k and r
were substituted in it, a characteristic length between 1 and 10 km was calcu-
lated.
Denman and Platt (1976) retained the basic ideas of Kierstead and Slobodkin
(1953) and combined them with those of Kolmogorov (1941) to produce by di-
mensional analysis an equation for the shape of the chlorophyll spectrum (Fig.
2). A similar solution was obtained using more rigorous mathematics by Denman
et al. (1977).
Figure 2. A schematic of the
proposed spectrum for the spatial
variability of phytoplankton,
E(3(k) , as a function of the wave-
number, k, displayed on a log-log ,--y'
plot. The region of primary bio-
logical interest is that to the left
of kc where we predict a k- 1 de- ~ ,
pendence. The high wavenumber t3-
region to the right of kc' where ~
1\ \
turbulent motions dominate, has
a dependence between k- 2 and k-3 •
I
For typical upper ocean values,
k c == (r_3/€)1I2 assumes a value
I
'V 1 km 1. (From Denman and I
Platt 1976).
I
kc log k
These theoretical treatments predicted that the slope of the chlorophyll spec-
trum should change in the vicinity of the characteristic length scale. At higher
wavenumbers, the spectrum is thought to be controlled by non-biological pro-
cesses. At lower wavenumbers, biological processes (growth and death) are
thought to dominate. Whether or not this break will be seen depends on the
magnitude of the characteristic scale and the lowest wavenumber resolved in the
spectrum. When division rate and mortality of the cells are very nearly equal,
the value of (kjr)1I2 can become large. The largest length scale that can be seen
in a spectrum calculated from ship-borne data is, say, 50 km. A thorough test
of the idea of a break in the chlorophyll spectrum requires that we cover larger
length scales than this. The solution will have to wait until the indexing of phyto-
plankton biomass by remote sensing is sufficiently quantitative for the data to
be treated by spectral analysis.
It was realized early in the investigation of one-dimensional chlorophyll spec-
tra that the interpretation of horizontal structure could be confounded by verti-
cal chlorophyll gradients, if these gradients were displaced vertically, say by
internal waves, with respect to the transducer at a constant depth. Denman
(1976) used submersible pumps at two depths simultaneously to show that this
indeed could be a significant problem. It was natural then to seek ways to col-
lect patchiness data in the X-Z plane. This was accomplished by mounting the
in situ fluorometer on an undulating towed vehicle. It is also possible to count
zooplankton in situ on the same towed vehicle. The "Batfish" vehicle (Dessu-
reault 1976) can be towed in a sawtooth pattern under shipboard command to
provide a quasi-proftle of the vertical plane. It was not only capable of measuring
in situ chlorophyll a continuously but simultaneous temperature, depth, and
salinity as well (Herman 1975, Herman and Denman 1977). Contoured proflles
of chlorophyll and density for a 40 km section off Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (Den-
man and Herman 1978) (Fig. 3) demonstrate the high resolution capabilities of
LATITUDE
20
30
40
50 CH LOROPHYLL CONCENTRATION
CONTOUR INTERVAL. I mg m- 3
E
I
I-
(L
0
W 0
25
Cl
10
20
30
40
25.8 t 2 5.6'
50 SPECIFI C DENSITY O'"t
CONTOUR INTERVAL = 0 .2
0 10 20 30 40
DISTANCE (km)
SECTION A2
Figure 3. Contour plots of chlorophyll a concentration and sigma-t on graphs of

depth against distance for transect A z . The shaded area represents the limits of
the Batfish cycling. There were 80 cycles or 19 every 10 Ian. The solid black
areas in the upper panel represent chlorophyll concentrations between 5 and
6 mg m- 3 . (From Denman and Herman 1978.)
the system. Chlorophyll gradients were displaced vertically by as much as '\120-

30 m due to internal wave activity in less than 1 km of horizontal distance. The
difficulty of interpreting data from single vertical proftles separated by much
larger distances is easily demonstrated.
3 Developments in Zooplankton Research
There are two spatial features of oceanic zooplankton distributions that have
influenced our concepts of their behavior and the development of samplers:
horizontal variability (similar to phytoplankton) and active vertical migration.
The occurrence of vertical migration has been known for the last 150 years or
about the age of the plankton net. However, its quantification awaited the devel-
opment of discrete samplers capable of higher vertical resolution. The extent of
diel migration of Calanus finmarchicus, for example, was demonstrated by Long-
hurst (1976) using a new sampler, to be in the order of lOs of meters whereas
Metridia lucens and Pleuromamma robusta migrated over depth intervals of 300-
400 m. Such vertical movements placed these animals in quite different light,
temperature and food regimes.
As with phytoplankton, horizontal features are governed by mechanisms of
turbulent diffusion and these features together with the active aggregation of
zooplankton within phytoplankton distributions may explain their observed
spatial scales of variations. Observations of spatial variability suggest that patches
exist typically on the scales of IV 10-100 kIn (Steele 1976) although smaller
patches on the scale of kIn have also been observed by Wiebe et al. (1976).
The Plankton Net
The history of zooplankton sampling as a "state of the art" was reviewed by

Fraser (1968) and dealt primarily with the still-conventional plankton net in use
to that time.
The basic cone or cylinder-cone shaped net, while under tow, filters its water
from the forward half of the net and subsequently concentrates zooplankton
towards the cod end where they remain stalled due to low water flow or pres-
sure. The stall effect maintains the animals in good condition where they
would otherwise become pressured together locally and suffer physical
damage. Unrestricted filtration of seawater is, however, complicated by prob-
lems of mesh clogging from algal matter or smaller zooplankton, and although
the filtering efficiency of the plankton net is dependent on mechanical design
as well as plankton concentration, the average towing time is limited to only
'\) 10 min (Smith et al. 1968) before the filtering efficiency is reduced to be-
low IV 85%. During this towing period, approximately 500 m3 of water ideally
should be filtered by a plankton net with an aperture of I m2 and towed at a
speed of IV 1 ms- 1 • Under these conditions the horizontal resolution is <1 km.
The development and evolution of the plankton net over the years was cen-
tered primarily around four basic problems limiting accurate biomass estimates:
(1) filtration efficiency (Tranter and Smith 1968) limiting towing time and accu-
racy of filtered volume estimates, (2) zooplankton avoidance of samplers (Clut-
ter and Anraku 1968) biasing abundance estimates, (3) losses or organisms
through meshes (Vannucci 1968) and (4) discrete sampling limiting the spatial
and temporal resolution of zooplankton distributions. Of the first three, fIltration
efficiency appears to have received the most concentrated effort (Fraser 1968)
and more recently in the last decade or so, the problems of discrete sampling
have led to the development of a variety of instrumentation. Their generation
was, in part, based on two schools of thought; one that wished to minimize the
effect of patchiness through longer tows (Le., integrate it out) and therefore ob-
tain better statistical averaging and the other that wished to resolve the patchi-
ness scales in order to study their underlying mechanisms. Integrated vertical
profIles were obtained by vertical hauls and the larger volume fIltration was ob-
tained by oblique hauls representing an extended vertical haul. The need for
sampling discrete strata resulted in the development of the single opening and
closing nets described by Fraser (1968).
Such a plankton net is mechanically opened at a desired depth and following

some towing period, closed before recovery thus eliminating sample contami-
nation at other depths. The tow point at the front of the net is relocated be-
hind the net mouth by means of a throttling band which pinches or closes the
net preventing further filtration or entry of animals. Thus the closing net
yielded a single discrete sample at a constant depth or depth interval and
provided a means of limited vertical resolution.
Continuous and Serial Plankton Recorders
The first real attempt to obtain a temporal towing record was made by Hardy
(1936, 1939) who introduced the first continuous plankton recorder (CPR)
(Fig.4a).
It was a towed instrument consisting of a continuously advancing strip of

bolting cloth filtering plankton from seawater passing through a small tunnel
('V 2 cm diameter). The entrapped plankton were sandwiched between the
bolting cloth and another advancing strip and subsequently stored in a tank
of formalin. The instrument was restricted to a constant depth tow typically at
'V 10m and was used extensively by Glover (1967) on a continuous monthly
basis on various sea routes.
The principal advantage of the CPR was the ease of passive operation from ships
of opportunity, Le., merchant vessels, etc. A considerable amount of plankton
data has been collected and compiled in atlas form by Glover (1967) and Lucas
and Glover (1973). However, the spatial and temporal resolution was still some-
what limited.
The development of the Longhurst-Hardy plankton recorder (LHPR) (long-
hurst et al. 1966, Longhurst and Williams 1976) yielded a fmer measure of verti-
cal resolution than previously available.
The instrument employed the principle of the Hardy sampler (Fig. 4b) (illUS-
trating the advancing gauze strips) except that a conventional plankton net of
STABILIZ I NG FIN ___ PROPELLER TURNED BY

WATER FLOW. DRIVES
INTERNAL MECHANISM
STORAGE SPOOL
IN TANK OF
PRESERVATIVE
FLUID
DIVING PLANE
O~_-:7:=-=-_~
metres
Figure 4. (a) The continuous plankton recorder. (From Hardy 1956.)

(b) The Longhurst-Hardy plankton recorder. The lower diagram illustrates the
underwater vehicle with the indicated parts: A - net; B - plankton sampler;
C - battery; D - electronics pressure case; E - depressor; F - flowmeter; G-
spreader bar for bridle. (From Longhurst and Williams 1976.)
length 2.5 m and mouth aperture of 'V.5 m3 was used to funnel zooplankton
to the CPR. In addition, the filtering process was programmed such that it
integrated over known depth intervals while continuously measuring and re-
cording environmental parameters; temperature, depth, and water flow. The
instrument was normally used in a oblique haul fashion sampling to depths of
'V500 m. The vertical resolution steps ranged from 3-10 m and the horizontal
towed distance was 'V 2 km. The filtered water volume was 'V 10m3 for each
samp 'ng step.
Longhurst (1976) obtained vertical distributions of zooplankton in the Eastern

Tropical Pacific (Fig. 5) resolving steps of 'V 10 m depth with the LHPR and
demonstrated some of the zooplankton dynamics operating in the euphotic zone.
10 15 20 25 15 30
24 48
76152
100
Figure 5. Two exemplary shallow daytime profiles (total organisms 100 m- 3 ) to

demonstrate their principal features; N = neuston, E = epiplankton, C = plankto-
cline, P = planktostad. (From Longhurst 1976.)
Zooplankton abundance was highest above the lower pycnocline and the high
biomass values seldom extended deeper than the chlorophyll layer . In the same
area, he also found that zooplankton tended to aggregate closer to the depth of
maximum carbon fixation rather than the chlorophyll layer maximum.
The Undulating Oceanographic Recorder
The principle of the continuous plankton recorder designed by Hardy (1939) has
also been employed in an automated sampler, the undulating oceanographic re-
corder (UOR) (Bruce and Aiken 1975) (Fig. 6a).
The feature of continuous- vertical profiling was incorporated into the vehicle
which could be preset to sample in an undulating or sawtooth pattern between
'V I 0-60 m thereby providing a quasi-profile of the vertical plane (Fig. 6b).
(0)
( b)
DISTANCE (nautical miles)
o°r-----------,1o~--------~2TO~--------~30r_--------~40~
(.\., :: .,
/:.
< • . I,
~. : ....' ::" ".
,
S20
...-
, '.
I
I-
,':
.
~.
'. ....
:
:. ,'.. ;.
CL "
~40 .:. ;,. .; " ;
~
. , , "....;~
\ ' \,.i' "
.~
(
60
DEPTH
~ 15
~ 14
.. '::~ -,,:. ."-, ~ .
...~: ,,--
, '.
:::> ,..... ~
13 -
I-
~ ....." .~.~
~ 12
~ TEMPERATURE
w
I- "
>-
a::
<l:Vl
a:: I-
1-2
iii:::>
a::
<l:
CONDUCTIVITY
o 10 20 30 40
DISTANCE (naut ical miles)
Figure 6. (a) The undulating oceanographic recorder (UOR) Mark I and a block
diagram showing instrument during payload.
(b) Raw data taken by UOR Mark I during trials in Irish Sea, showing well-
formed undulations between 6 and 55 m depths. Each dot represents separate
measurement (at 25.6-sec intervals) of depth, temperature or conductivity.
Small scatter of points near mid-depth corresponds to oscillations of up to ±3 m
amplitude about the chosen undulation profile. UOR was towed at 11 knots on
200 m of unfaired 8-mm diameter cable. (From Bruce and Aiken 1975.)
Temperature, salinity and depth were measured simultaneously with plankton
and data were logged in situ on a cassette recorded mounted on the vehicle.
The demonstrated horizontal resolution of the physical data was typically 'V4 Ian
(1/2 cycle) over the operating depth range extending through the euphotic zone.
Zooplankton were sampled by the same principle of the CPR via a tunnel of
1.9 cm diameter. Following each tow, the analysis and identification were made
from sections of gauze 'V 10 cm in length and bearing plankton filtered from
'V3 m 3 of seawater. This sample represented a towing length of 'V16 Ian and
therefore the minimum operating resolution of the zooplankton sampler. The
UOR in its present operating mode is primarily suited for sampling over large
oceanic scales. The principal advantage of UOR lies in its automated deployment
since the vehicle was deployed, as was the CPR, in a passive mode towed at high
speeds ('V 3-7 ms- 1 ) from ships of opportunity.
Bruce and Aiken (1975) have compared zooplankton distributions as recorded
by the CPR and the UOR and have shown how different samples employed in
different sampling modes yield different apparent distributions. The CPR was
towed at a constant depth of 10 m and the UOR integrated samples from 10-
65 m depth. Although the vertical distributions were not specifically resolved,
the effect of vertical migration was clear from the analysis. Metridia Zucens, a
copepod with a known diurnal migration pattern, was sampled by the CPR only
at night and found in the UOR samples both by day and night. Metridia Zanga
was notably absent from the CPR but was sampled by the UOR mostly at night.
Calanus finmarchicus, a near surface dweller, was sampled by both instruments
in both day and night catches.
Multiple Opening and Closing Nets
Another dimension of discrete vertical sampling was opened by the recent devel-
opment of multiple opening and closing sampler nets systems called MOCNESS
(Wiebe et al. 1976) and BIONESS (Sameoto et al. 1979). The principal features
of these samplers are: (1) discrete vertical resolution, (2) large volume filtration
(net mouth apertures of 1.4 m 2 and 1 m 2 for the MOCNESS and BIONESS,
respectively), and (3) simultaneous environmental sensing.
The operating principle of the BIONESS net sampler (Fig. 7) consists of a

falling horizontal bar which is attached both to the top of the first net and
the bottom of the second, thus simultaneously closing the first and opening
the second. Each of the samplers (MOCNESS and BIONESS) bears 'V 10 such
nets which can be deployed over a horizontal distance cf 'V3 km thus defin-
ing its horizontal resolution. The sampler systems can be towed at a constant
depth or deployed to integrate over a selected depth interval to a maximum
sampling depth of 'V800 m. Each sampler has mounted on it a CTD measuring
salinity, temperature, depth and other net parameters enabling simultaneous
monitoring of the physical environment of the captured zooplankton.
Towing cable
----
Sensors and
electronic controls
Flowmeters
Bumper
~ Open net
Locking latch
mechanism
Depressor
Figure 7. The BIONESS plankton sampler shown with its instrumentation and
the first of ten nets in the 'open' position. (From Sameoto 1979.)
Using the MOCNESS, Wiebe et al. (1976) examined vertical and horizontal
distributions and the strong diel migration patterns of zooplankton in the
northern Sargasso Sea, Slope Water and a Gulf Stream meander. By towing at a
constant depth of 350 m in Slope Water, they showed patchiness structure for
seven species of euphausiids.
Acoustic Methods
Another means of continuous vertical profiling over large horizontal distances

while underway involves sonar used to detect sound backscattered from layers
formed by marine organisms and estimate biomass from signal amplitudes. The
frequency of the acoustic source is chosen such that its wavelength is equal to or
greater than the circumference of the largest animal in the sampled population.
For this latter case, the backscattering signal strength is in theory proportional
to the target biomass (McNaught 1968). However, this proportionality rarely
holds true due to variations in target densities, geometrical factors, etc. The
minimum detectable size range of a zooplankter using this method is "-'2 mm.
An example of a migrating scattering layer, consisting mainly of euphausiids
(Fig. 8), for an area near the Gaspe coast studied by Sameoto (1976) illustrates
the clarity with which these layers can be defmed.
The detection method is capable of high vertical resolution and large horizon-
tal scales limited only by the areal coverage provided by a ship. However, the
biomass estimates are extremely difficult to make due to uncertainties in relating
them to signal strength. The backscattering signals can vary by considerable
amounts ("-'10 db, Sameoto 1979) due to reorientation effects of migrating
populations causing changes in cross-sectional areas. Therefore, the method tends
to be utilized primarily as a survey tool for zooplankton location.
·c
m o 123
o ..."""'. r:;zu~ ~_111 """--111"1'9!'1....."" ::::;;::::aoIj'I-=
25
50
15
100
125
1100 1900 2100 0100 0500 0800
HOURS
Figure 8. Photos of echograms of migrating scattering layer at one station near

the Gaspe coast. Temperature profile is shown on the right. Layer at 0100 was
recorded with the upward looking sonar. (From Sameoto 1976.)
Electronic Zooplankton Counters
Fine structure spatial resolution of zooplankton distributions has become pos-

sible in the last decade with the development of the in situ electronic particle
counter fIrst introduced by Maddux and Kanwisher (1965) and subsequently
by Boyd and Johnson (1969) who mounted the device ona towed body equipped
with environmental sensors.
Electronic particle counters operate on a principle similar to the Coulter

counter (Coulter, 1957) whereby an insulating particle such as a zooplankter
displaces seawater and results in a change of electrical resistance measured
along a tubular cell through which the animals are moving. The resultant
change can be measured as a voltage change which is nearly proportional to
the volume of the zooplankton in the cell. Therefore, both the number of zoo-
plankton and their corresponding volumes can be measured simultaneously.
The measurement time is extremely fast ('V5 ms) thereby enabling high count
rates and fine spatial resolution, in theory, on scales of the order of cm. Un-
fortunately events are statistically low due to the small size of the tubular
cell ('V3 mm) and a conventional plankton net is still required to concentrate
and feed animals to the electronic cell. Therefore due to sample integration,
the minimum horizontal scale resolvable is the order of lOs of cm and the
maximum horizontal scale is limited to the towing range or rather the clogging
rates of the conventional plankton net used ~~ concentrate the animals. As
pointed out by Maddux and Kanwisher (1965), the concentrating net ahead
of the cell has proven to be the most troublesome component of the filtration
apparatus.
An in situ electronic counter has also been mounted on a "Batfish" vehicle

designed to carry instrumentation while undulating in a sawtooth pattern. The
development of the electronic zooplankton counter, its calibration and deploy-
ment on Batfish has been described by Dauphinee (1977) and Herman and
Dauphinee (1980) (Fig. 9).
The Batfish vehicle is capable of profiling in a continuous sawtooth pattern to

a maximum depth of 'V250 m by a change of wing angle automatically con-
trolled from the surface. The vehicle transports instrumentation consisting of a
digital CTD unit measuring salinity, temperature and depth, an in situ fluor-
ometer measuring chlorophyll a, the indicator of phytoplankton biomass and
an in situ electronic zooplankton counter (prototype) mounted on the under-
carriage of the Batfish. Ahead of the zooplankton sensor cell is a sampler net
concentrating and feeding zooplankton into the measuring cell. Behind the
sensor is attached a 0.5 m length of plastic tubing terminated with a sampler
bag (not shown) entrapping the recorded plankton for later analysis. The
sensor cell is normally used at Batfish towing speeds of'V3 ms- 1 • At present
there are two tubular cells that can be used (separately) of 3 mm and 5 mm
diameter aperture providing a volume detection range of zooplankton of
'V0.08 to 25 mm 3 and 'V0.03 to 100 m3 respectively and a measurable diame-
ter range of 'V0.5-2.5 mm and 'V0.8 to 4 mm respectively for an equivalent
sphere. Consequently the cell is best suited primarily for the detection and
measurement of copepods.
The sampler net used for concentrating zooplankton was designed to provide
the obvious advantages of maximum mtration and minimal clogging for long
periods (hrs) of towing.
Figure 9. The Batfish system with its complement of sensors consisting of a

Variosens fluorometer, digital CTD unit, and the electronic zooplankton sampler.
A plankton net with a 6.4 cm aperture concentrates samples to the electronic
sensor for counting and sizing. (From Herman and Dauphinee 1980.)
The design (Fig. 9) has mouth aperture area of 41 cm 2 and a smaller length
(25 cm) to mouth dimensional ratio than the conventional plankton net in
order to increase flow pressure at the cod end, thus eliminating the stall con-
dition and allowing continuous flushing of zooplankton through the sensor
cell. The sampler net is cleaned and kept free from clogging (by algal matter
and small zooplankton) with a side to side motion. The sampler net is thus
self-cleaning, permitting continuous operation, and has been employed on Bat-
fish (Herman and Dauphinee 1980) sampling zooplankton, typically for 'V3 hr
periods during normal towing operations.
Under these existing operating conditions (towing speed, etc.) with Batfish
and its sampler system, spatial resolution of zooplankton distributions is 'V0.5 m
depth interval in the vertical scale, 'V0.5 km horizontal resolution (Le., oblique
proflles) and a typical maximum horizontal range of 'V30 km. An example of
zooplankton data sampled with the Batfish in the coastal waters of Peru (9 0 S) in
November 1977 (Fig. 10) corresponds to temperature, and chlorophyll respec-
tively contoured on depth. The concentration of sampled zooplankton (upper
ZOOPLANKTON CONC.
TOWING DISTANCE (km)
00 2 4 6 8
20 ) f ~V)} > >> ~ [)

> J ) ) I) } ).
:> ) I)
)
40
CHLOROPHYLL (mg mo3 )

O.---------~r---------_.----------_r----------,-----
E
~20
a..
w
o
v VVVVV
40
VV V V
TEMPERATURE (OC)
O.---------~r---------_.----------~----------,_----
20
v
40
VVVVV VV V V
Figure 10. Batfish traces of zooplankton concentration, and chlorophyll and
temperature contoured on depth. The concentrations of zooplankton are plotted
on an 'assumed' vertical (rather than oblique) profile of Batfish.
plot) is plotted on an 'assumed' vertical (rather than oblique) Batfish proftle.
There appears to be a layer of zooplankton concentrated at night between 'ViO-
30 m depth situated approximately within the chlorophyll layer (Fig. 10). At
daybreak, presumably due to light responses, the zooplankton concentrations
were measured to be nearly uniformly distributed throughout the water column
at least to 'V80 m (the maximum Batfish cycle depth). Migration appeared to
occur therefore among some copepod species.
The electronic zooplankton counter is also capable of giving data on volume,
length and diameter of each counted zooplankter within the measuring range of
the cell. The dominant species measurable by the cell consisted mainly of Cen-
tropages brachiatus, Calanus chilensis (V and VI) and Eucalanus inermis [V and
VI (male and female adults)] comprising 'V70-90% of the total catch. Each of
these species and their stages were separable from the data and identifiable by
their unique physical dimensions. With this data, spatial distributions of zoo-
plankton and their migratory patterns could then be related in real time and
space to their physical environment as measured with the eID and fluorometer.
4 Data Interpretation
The development of new techniques of plankton sampling has proceeded hand-

in-hand with the evolution of concepts relating to the role of spatial variability
in ecosystem functions. Each new technique and device has stemmed from the
need to resolve some spatial feature and yet with this progress, no single sampler
has ever displaced its predecessor; it simply became complementary. The best
example is the plankton net, which appears to have survived 150 years of inno-
vations and is still the most cost-effective means of obtaining plankton samples.
Improvements in instrumentation have been considerable in recent years
and will no doubt continue. Students of patchiness in plankton could not say
with justice that progress is being held up for lack of suitable equipment. How-
ever, neither our statistical methods nor our ecological theories are adequate for
the task of handling the quality and quantity of data that can be produced with
the present generation of instrumentation. This is particularly true of towed
vehicle systems that can sample both phytoplankton and zooplankton simul-
taneously. At the present time the technology has advanced to the point that it
is ahead of our capacity to interpret the data it can give us.
References
Barnes, H. and Marshall, S. M. 1951. On the variability of replicate plankton

samples and some applications of contagious series to the statistical distri-
bution of catches over restricted periods. J. Mar. BioI. Ass. U. K., 30, 233-
262.
Boyd, C. M. and Johnson, G. W. 1969. Studying zooplankton populations with
an electronic zooplankton counting device and the LlNC-8 computer. Trans-
actions of the Applications of Sea Going Computers, 83-90.
Bruce, R. H. and Aiken, J. 1975. The undulating oceanographic recorder-a new
instrument system for sampling plankton and recording physical variables in
the euphotic zone from a ship underway. Mar. BioI., 32, 85-97.
Cassie, R. M. 1959. An experimental study of factors inducing aggregation in
marine plankton. N.Z.J. Sci., 2, 339-365.
Cassie, R. M. 1960. Factors influencing the distribution pattern of plankton in
the mixing zone between oceanic and harbour waters. N.Z.J. Sci., 3, 26-50.
Cassie, R. M. 1962. Frequency distribution models in the ecology of plankton
and other organisms. J. Anim. Ecol., 310),65-92.
Cassie, R. M. 1963. Microdistribution of plankton. Oceanogr. Mar. BioI. Ann.
Rev., 1,223-252.
Clutter, R. I. and Anraku, M. 1968. Avoidance of sampler, pp. 57-76. In: Zoo-
plankton sampling, D. J. Tranter (ed.), UNESCO (Monogr. Oceanogr. Metho-
dol. 2), 174 pp.
Coulter, W. H. 1957. High speed automatic blood cell counter and cell size
analyzer. Proceedings of the National Electronics Conference, pp. 1034-1042.
Dauphinee, T. M. 1977. Zooplankton measurements using a conductance cell.
MTS-IEEE, Oceans '77 Conference Record, session 39B, 1-5.
Denman, K. L. 1976. Covariability of chlorophyll and temperature in the sea.
Deep-Sea Res., 23(6), 539-550.
Denman, K. L. and Herman, A. W. 1978. Space-time structure of a continental
shelf ecosystem measured by a towed porpoising vehicle. J. Mar. Res., 36,
693-714.
Denman, K. L., Okubo, A. and Platt, T. 1977. The chlorophyll fluctuation spec-
trum in the sea. Limnol. Oceanogr., 22(6), 1033-1038.
Denman, K. L. and Platt, T. 1975. Coherences in the horizontal distributions of
phytoplankton and temperature in the upper ocean. In: Proceedings of the
Sixth Lit~ge Colloquium on Ocean Hydrodynamics, J. Nihoul (ed.). Mem.
Soc. Roy. Sci. Liege, 6 e serie, 7, 19-30.
Denman, K. L. and Platt, T. 1976. The variance spectrum of phytoplankton in a
turbulent ocean. J. Mar. Res., 34, 593-601.
Dessureault, J.-G. 1976. 'Batfish': a depth controllable towed body for collect-
ing oceanographic data. Ocean Engineering, 3, 99-111.
Fasham, M. J. and Pugh, P. R. 1976. Observations on the horizontal coherence
of chlorophyll a and temperature. Deep-Sea Res., 23, 527-538.
Fraser, J. H. 1968. The history of plankton sampling, pp. 11-18. In: Zooplank-
ton sampling, D. J. Tranter (ed.), UNESCO (Monogr. Oceanogr. Methodol. 2),
174 pp.
Glover, R. S. 1967. The continuous plankton recorder survey of the North At-
lantic. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 19,189-210.
Hardy, A. C. 1936. The continuous plankton recorder. Discovery Repts., XI,
457-510.
Hardy, A. C. 1939. Ecological investigations with the continuous plankton re-
corder: object, plan and methods. Hull Bull. Mar. Ecol., 1, 1-57.
Hardy, A. C. 1956. The Open Sea: Its Natural History. Part I: The world of
plankton. Collins, St. James' Place, London. 335 pp.
Hasle, G. R. 1954. The reliability of single observations in phytoplankton sur-
veys. Nytt. Mag. for Botanikk, 2,121-137.
Herman, A. W. 1975. Chlorophyll and dye detection with the Variosens fluor-
ometer. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Report Series BI-R, 75-2/Feb.
1975,37 pp.
Herman, A. W. and Denman, K. L. 1977. Rapid underway profiling of chloro-
phyll with an in situ fluorometer mounted on a Batfish vehicle. Deep-Sea
Res., 24, 385-397.
Herman, A. W. and Dauphinee, T. M. 1980. Continuous and rapid profiling of
zooplankton with an electronic counter mounted on a 'Batfish' vehicle. (In
press, Deep-Sea Res.).
Huffaker, C. B. 1958. Experimental studies on predation: dispersion factors and
predator-prey oscillations. Hilgardia, 27, 343-383.
Ivlev, V. S. 1945. The biological productivity of waters. Uspekhi Sovremennoi
Biologii 19,98-120. Fish. Res. Bd. Can. Trans. Ser. L394 from J. Fish. Res.
Bd. Can., 23, 1727-1744 (1966).
Kierstead, H. and Slobodkin, L. B. 1953. The size of water masses containing
plankton blooms. J. Mar. Res., 12, 141."
Kolmogorov, A. N. 1941. The local structure of turbulence in an incompressible
viscous fluid for very large Reynolds number (in Russian). DokI. Akad. Nauk,
U.S.S.R., 30, 299-303.
Lasker, R. 1975. Field criteriaja survival of anchovy larvae: The relation between
inshore chlorophyll maximum layers and successful first feeding. Fish. Bull.
U.S., 73, 453.
Lekan, J. F. and Wilson, R. E. 1978. Spatial variability of phytoplankton bio-
mass in the surface waters of Long Island. Estuar. Coast. Mar. Sci., 6, 239-251.
Longhurst, A. R. 1976. Vertical migration, pp. 116-137. In: The Ecology of the
Seas, D. H. Cushing and J. J. Walsh (eds.), Blackwell Scientific Publications,
Oxford, 467 pp.
Longhurst, A. R., Reith, A. K., Bower, R. E. and Seibert, D. L. R. 1966. A new
system for the collection of multiple serial plankton samples. Deep-Sea Res.,
13,213-222.
Longhurst, A. R. and Williams, R. 1976. Improved filtration systems for multi-
ple-serial plankton samplers and their deployment. Deep-Sea Res., 23, 1067-
1073.
Lorenzen, C. J. 1966. A method for the continuous measurement of in vivo
chlorophyll concentration. Deep-Sea Res., 13,223-227.
Lucas, C. E. and Glover, R. S. (eds.). 1973. Bibliography of the continuous
plankton recorder, 1926-1971. Bull. Mar. EcoI., 7, xi-xix.
Maddux, W. S. and Kanwisher, J. W. 1965. An in situ particle counter. LimnoI.
Oceanogr., 10, 162-168.
Margalef, R. 1963. On certain unifying principles in ecology. Am. Nat., 97,357-
374.
Margalef, R. 1967. Some concepts relative to the organization of plankton.
Oceanogr. Mar. BioI. Ann. Rev., 5, 257-289.
McNaught, D. C. 1968. Acoustical determination of zooplankton distributions.
Proceedings, Conference on Great Lakes Research, 11,76-84.
Mullin, M. and Brooks, E. 1976. Some consequences of distributional hetero-
geneity of phytoplankton and zooplankton. LimnoI. Oceanogr., 21, 784-796.
Parsons, T. R., LeBrasseur, R. J. and Fulton, J. D. 1967. Some observations on
the dependence of zooplankton grazing on the cell size and concentration
of phytoplankton blooms. J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 23,10-17.
Platt, T. 1972. Local phytoplankton abundance and turbulence. Deep-Sea Res.,
19,183-187.
Platt, T., Dickie, L. M. and Trites, R. W. 1970. Spatial heterogeneity of phyto-
plankton in a near-shore environment. J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada, 27(8), 1453-
1473.
Powell, T. M., Richerson, P. J., Dillon, T. M., Agee, B. A., Dozier, B. J., Godden,
D. A. and Myrup, L. o. 1975. Spatial scales of current speed and phytoplank-
ton biomass fluctuations in Lake Tahoe. Science, 189, 1088-1090.
Sameoto, D. D. 1976. Distribution of sound scattering layers caused by euphau-
siids and their relationship to chlorophyll a concentrations in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence estuary. J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada, 33(4), 681-687.
Sameoto, D. D. 1979. Quantitative measurements of euphausiids using a 120
kHz sounder and their in situ orientation. (Submitted March 1979, J. Fish.
Res. Bd. Canada).
Sameoto, D. D., Jaroszynski, L. O. and Fraser, W. B. 1979. The BlONESS-new
design in multiple net zooplankton samplers. (In press, J. Fish. Res. Bd.
Canada).
Smith, P. E., Counts, R. C. and Clutter, R. I. 1968. Changes in filtering effi-
ciency of plankton nets due to clogging under tow. J. Cons., 32, 232-238.
Steele, J. H. 1976. Patchiness, pp. 90-115. In: The Ecology of the Seas, D. H.
Cushing and J. J. Walsh (eds.), Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford,
467 pp.
Steele, J. H. and Henderson, E. W. 1977. Plankton patches in the northern North
Sea, pp. 1-19. In: Fisheries Mathematics, J. H. Steele (ed.), Academic Press,
London.
Stommel, H. 1963. Varieties of oceanographic experiences. Science, 139,572-
576.
Tranter, D. J. and Smith, P. E. 1968. Filtration performance, pp. 57-76. In:
Zooplankton sampling, D. J. Tranter (ed.), UNESCO (Monogr. Oceanogr.
Methodol. 2), 174 pp.
UNESCO. 1968. Zooplankton sampling, p. 174, Paris. UNESCO (Monogr.
Oceanogr. Methodol. 2).
Vannucci, M. 1968. Loss of organisms through the meshes, pp. 77-86. In: Zoo-
plankton sampling, D. J. Tranter (ed.), UNESCO (Monogr. Oceanogr. Metho-
dol. 2), 174 pp.
Wiebe, P. H., Burt, K. H., Boyd, S. H. and Morton, A. W. 1976. A multiple
opening/closing net and environmental sensing system for sampling zoo-
plankton. J. Mar. Res., 34, 313-326.
Some Origins and Perspectives in Deep-ocean
Instrumentation Development
Fred Noel Spiess
1 Introduction
As an ocean instrumentation developer and user for nearly 30 years, rather than
an historian, I accepted Prof. Isaacs' invitation to participate in the symposium
with two motives: first, to help others outsl':e the field to have a more detailed
look into how things' are accomplished, and second, in hope that I might from
this exercise be able to draw some conclusions of use to those of us who will be
in this business in the future, administrators and seagoing practitioners of marine
science.
The intent here is to look back at the recent past through the use of a few
specific examples, not so much to see how particular new hardware has changed
our perceptions of the oceans, but rather to see, in a fragmentary way, a little
about how important instruments came into being. My choices, however, are
made from among the variety of systems that have had, or may be expected to
have, real impact. Finally, in looking inevitably into the future my concerns are
not with what new devices should be built next, but rather what our institutional
arrangements and professional attitudes may portend about our ability as a
community to create new things and incorporate them intelligently into ocean
research.
While it will only be possible to treat a limited number of specific cases, it is
also useful to take a more general backward look. An appropriate check point,
particularly since Prof. Isaacs, the organizer of this trio of papers, was one of its
co-chairmen, is the instrumentation conference held at Rancho Santa Fe, near
Scripps Institution, in 1952. Prof. Isaacs' opening remarks on that occasion
(Isaacs 1954) ranged widely over philosophical matters related to ocean instru-
Some Origins and Perspectives in Deep-ocean Instrumentation 227
ments, defining the needs in general terms. In looking to the future he ex-
pressed the hope that instrumentation would never become so sophisticated that
it would be unable to convey to us the unexpected or the inconceivable. Actual-
ly we are learning that in the deep sea we must use sophisticated systems if we
are to be able to see the unexpected. Manned submersibles, deeply towed diverse
sets of observational instruments, complex sonars and satellites with broad band
observing capabilities all are presenting us with unforeseen questions, ranging
from the observations of new biological communities on the sea floor to the
SEASAT synthetic aperture radar pictures of strange patterns on the ocean's
surface. Our main hopes now must be that the complex administrative structures
in which these facilities are imbedded do not become barriers to the imaginative
use of existing capabilities and the bold innovative steps required to bring new
systems into being, and that the users maintain their sensitivity to the natural-
ists' view that leads them to look at the outputs of these systems with their
minds wide enough open to be able to see the unexpected.
I have chosen four specific examples whose fruitful use at sea covers about
half the lifetime of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The first is
traced back to about 1940 and the others had origins in the 50s, 60s and 70s. As
with nearly all good ocean instrumentation there are two elements. One is the
existence of a large base of available technology, much of it not specifically re-
lated to the ocean. The other is a group of ocean-oriented scientists and engineers
who understand the important marine problems of the day and who can pull
together, adapt and use the existing technology for these oceanographic ob-
jectives.
2 Seagoing Fluxgate Total Field Magnetometer
Figure 1 is familiar to all marine geophysicists. It is a portion of the survey made

in the late 50s by Mason and Raff(Mason and Raff 1961, Raff and Mason 1961).
The survey covered the region from 32°N to 52°N and extended from the west
coast of the U. S. out to a distance of about 200 miles. Some version of this
figure will probably appear again in Dr. HeirtzIer's session on plate tectonics.
The very obvious lineated anomaly pattern which it displays was completely
unexpected. Once demonstrated with this level of coverage (east-west survey
lines spaced about 5 miles apart north-south; 12 lines per degree of latitude) it
was possible to map other large ocean areas using much wider spacings (Vacquier
et al. 1961) and take advantage of the lineated structure in contouring the data.
The existence of the regular patterns which emerged, offset at the already topo-
graphically mapped major fracture zones, became a principal part of the evidence
on which the sea-floor spreading concept and its later global descendant, plate
tectonics,have been based.
A map of this kind represents both an instrumentation and an operational
achievement, and a look at the highlights and origins in this case provides one of
my examples of how deep-ocean experimental marine science moves forward, or,
228 F. N. Spiess
Figure 1. Portion of the magnetic anomaly map of the region off the west coast
of the United States (Mason and Raff 1961).
at least, moved forward in the 50s. It is a blend of initial innovation, later refme·
ment and persistence in carrying out the work at sea. It also is a major example
of how the careful investigation of some aspect of the ocean, previously not
measured or observed, may have great importance. In this sense it represents a
descriptive approach in which one tries first to see what the world is like and
then tries to understand it. It is the opposite of what is categorized as the true
scientific method, in which a question is formulated and an experiment or a set
of observations is made to answer it.
The beginning of this story is in the late thirties. With tensions building in the
world, the Gulf Oil Company (1946) research organization, with experience in a
variety of geophysical measurement techniques, undertook to investigate the
possibility of making magnetic-actuated fuses for mines. Victor Vacquier, work-
ing on this project, realized that the saturable core reactor approach which he
was taking would be very effective as the basis for building a new type of mag-
netometer, one which could provide a continuous measurement of a time-varying
magnetic field or, if moved about, the basic data for geophysical surveys. It was
also insensitive to accelerations of the platforms and thus, unlike the other mag-
netometers of the day, suitable for use from an aircraft. An arrangement was
made with the Sperry Gyroscope Company to fly it in their plane, which had a
vertical reference gyro system which was used to stabilize the orientation of the
system (necessary since it only measured the field component along its own
axis). The partial success of this venture, plus the realization of the capabilities
at Sperry to build servo systems, led Gulf to continue to sponsor Vacquier's
development. In 1942 the National Defense Research Council (NDRC) realized
the fluxgate's potential as a submarine detector and, with Columbia University
as the operating agent, established the Airborne Instrument Lab. Quickly
Vacquier and Donald Hare (Director of the Laboratory) put together the idea of
using two fluxgates to sense the field direction and to drive the servo system
previously designed by Vacquier to maintain a third fluxgate aligned with the
local magnetic field vector and thus to make a total field measurement. The re-
sulting magnetic airborne detection (MAD) instruments were being mass pro-
duced six months later and played an important role in the anti-submarine war,
particularly in confmed waters such as the Straits of Gibraltar.
Once the war ended, Gulf began using its version of the airborne system for
geophysical surveys (Vacquier 1945) and the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS)
built up a similar capability by adaptation of the Navy's operational MAD
systems (Dobrin 1960). Vacquier's part in this was recognized by the award of
the Franklin Institute's Wetherill medal in 1960.
At this point the marine element began to emerge. In the summer of 1951,
J. D. Frautschy of Scripps, at Revelle's suggestion, went to Washington, D. C.,
to talk with USGS personnel about the possibility of adapting their airborne
system for towing behind a research ship. With advice from Dr. H. S. Irons of
the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, and support from Scripps' Marine Physical
Laboratory electronic shop, Frautschy began in 1952 to assemble a seagoing
system for use on the Capricorn Expedition, scheduled to depart late that year.
In spite of the load of other equipment-development responsibilities (particular-
ly the new deep-sea winch and tapered wire (Frautschy 1954) which was a major
support item for the expedition) Frautschy brought the instrument into being in
time. Backup equipment was loaned by Mr. E. T. Miller, originally of Woods
Hole but by 1953 at Lamont Geological Observatory, where efforts were also
underway to develop a viable towed magnetometer system (Worzel 1954).
In the latter stages of this preparatory period Dr. R. G. Mason of Imperial Col-
lege, London, arrived on the scene to take on responsibility for actual use of the
equipment on the expedition. As a member of that college's Department of Geo-
physics which, under Sir P. M. S. Blackett, was strongly concerned with mag-
netic measurements, Mason had become interested in the possibilities of map-
230 F. N. Spiess
ping the earth's field at the sea surface in expectation of learning something
about the geology of the earth's crust below.
Capricorn Expedition broke new ground in a variety of instrumentation areas
(Raitt 1956). It introduced new dredging capabilities, improved two ship seismic
refraction methods and saw the first use of Sir Edward Bullard's geothermal heat
flow probe, by then-graduate-student, Arthur Maxwell. For equipment-oriented
reasons related to modifications made at sea the magnetic results were primarily
useful in showing that the technique could be made to work. As a result Mason
(still operating from Imperial College, where he is today), with Scripps support
(primarily Revelle, Frautschy and A. D. Raff), improved the system for further
seagoing work.
Late in 1954 the Navy decided, for reasons related to underwater acoustics,
that they needed a detailed survey of undersea topography off the west coast of
the United States. LCDR J. Kelly of the Bureau of Ships set out the specifi-
cations and, working through the Navy Hydrographic Office, commissioned the
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to carry this out. At this point another impor-
tant aspect of instrumentation enters. The Survey had developed a very effective
radio navigation system which could be installed along the coast to provide pre-
cise (within a hundred feet) position information out to distances of a few
hundred miles. Existence of this system is baSically what made the entire result-
ing operation, both topographic and magnetic mapping, possible.
In January of 1955 Mason became aware of the plans for what eventually was
called the Pioneer Survey (after the name of the ship which carried it out) and
H. W. Menard, then at the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego but closely
allied with the Scripps operation, convinced LCDR Kelly that it would be desir-
able to allow a magnetometer to be towed throughout the course of the two-
year operation. His action was paralleled by Revelle's contact with the Hydrogra-
pher of the Navy and Sir Charles Wright's (then acting director of Scripps' Marine
Physical Laboratory) interaction with the commander of the Coast Survey. The
result was that pennission was granted to exploit this opportunity and detailed
arrangements were consummated between Frautschy and the officers of the ship.
One last instrumentation step remained. It was one thing for Mason to baby
an experimental system on an oceanographic expedition and a somewhat dif-
ferent matter to keep such equipment operating on a not-to-interfere basis on a
major survey. A. D. Raff entered at this point. An engineer with previous experi-
ence in the Scripps seismic refraction group, he undertook to make the necessary
practical modifications to produce the requisite reliability both in calibration
and in towing (Raff 1961). He also maintained the momentum of the program
through two years of almost continuous seagoing operation.
Shortly after the Pioneer work was completed, Mason returned to Imperial
College and Vacquier (coming from Gulf via Sperry Gyroscope and the New
Mexico School of Mines) joined the Scripps staff. With his arrival came the up-
grading of seagoing survey magnetometry through introduction of the new, vast-
ly simpler, proton precession magnetometer originated by Martin Packard for
use in other contexts. Thus, Vacquier was involved directly in the disappearance
of his own invention from the ocean survey scene but not until after it had pro-
vided the key to our present understanding of the earth.
There is one footnote on an essential element of successful experimental
marine geophysics. In mid-1954, building on Revelle's earlier contacts, Mason
was involved in some initial at-sea tests relating to Packard's then-new proton
precession system. The advantages (no calibration required, no servo system to
keep running) were clear. Nevertheless, when the availability of the Pioneer arose
six months later Mason did not try to hold off while waiting for an easier and
more elegant way to do the work. The moral is that when the opportunity arises
one should take whatever proven techniques he has and go to sea. Waiting for
the ultimate system to be available can lead to indefinite delays and no new
science-the better system can always be used on the next expedition.
3 Deep Tow and Alvin
As one considers more complex instrumentation systems their origins become

equally complex and it is unlikely that anyone, even the developing scientists
themselves, are aware of all the contributing factors leading to their success.
Figures 2 and 3 are a small indicator of the outputs of two systems for fine scale
deep-sea floor investigation-one manned and one remotely operated-which, al-
though each has contributed answers to a wide range of questions, have recently
teamed to provide insight into what is going on at sea floor spreading centers
(Ballard et al. 1975, Spiess et al., 1980). Figure 2 is an example of the frne scale
topographic charts which the deep tow system produces in addition to side-scan
sonar, magnetometry, photography, sub-bottom profiling, etc. Figure 3 is a pho-
tograph made from Alvin at a hot spring in the southeast corner of the area map-
ped in Fig. 2. Although most elements in the respective developments of the two
systems are quite separate, they have one thread of origin in common, which be-
gan nearly 25 years ago and lasted for a period of several years.
The link was in the aluminum submarine eventually built by Reynolds and
called Aluminaut.
In 1956 there was a Navy sponsored summer study held in Woods Hole. One
of the questions raised by several participants was how deep a full-sized sub-
marine might be built to go using the best technology of the day. An engineering
group under Dr. Edward Wenk from the Navy's David Taylor Model Basin took
on the task of providing an answer, which took the form of a study of a pressure
hull made of aluminum. While such a craft had many attractive features it also
had some fabrication problems and thus remained a paper curiosity until the Rey-
nolds Aluminum Company became interested. By then Wenk had moved to the
Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and Reynolds thus commis-
sioned that group to produce a design for a deep-diving research submarine.
There was at the time some growing interest on the Navy's part, particularly
in the Office of Naval Research, in having a deep submersible capacity. By then
(1960) this had included the purchase of the bathyscaphe Trieste, and Reynolds
232 F. N. Spiess
r-----,------,----~------r_----._----_r----_.------r.~~
20,'
jJ'/(
20,'
52'1(
20,'
51'/(
20, '
50'1(
20,'
4""
fO"l;;·O,<;l'g''';--f7,;O,,.;08='";--"fo'''';;;'o':;'''1;""--:f;;;;09~'0'"'6r,;;";--"fO,;;;-9'!;;Oj;"'''::;--''''''10,::-:':+"0,:-:4'="--7.(0':-=9'~o'J":T.,,::---:(0,,:,:,::l:'0,c:l2'''''---('''''0'..,.J,.'-,J0,I''''
Figure 2. Detailed sea-floor topography on the crest of the East Pacific Rise as
mapped with the Marine Physical Laboratory Deep Tow system (Spiess et al.
1978, Spiess et al. 1980).
Figure 3. Intense hydrothermal discharge (400 0 C) as photographed from ALVIN

on the East Pacific Rise Crest (area of Fig. 2) in April 1979 (Spiess et al. 1980).
was given indications that if their submarine, Aluminaut, were built it might be
leased by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Wenk, as part of his design for-
mulation, thus asked three of us-Arthur Maxwell, then of ONR, Allyn Vine of
Woods Hole and myself, from Scripps, to be his consultants on what the mis-
sions for such a submarine might be. Vine's proposals emphasized observation
and manipulation at the sea floor. The small group that I assembled at Scripps to
talk about this, however, recognizing that the submarine (Busby 1976) could
only go to 12,000 ft, but had good cruising range and internal space, opted for
the use of geophysical remote sensing techniques (echo sounding, magnetics,
gravity) which would have very significantly enhanced resolution by being used
much closer to the sea floor than usual. It should be noted that the Scripps
group was strongly influenced in this decision by awareness of the lineated mag-
netic anomaly patterns which had emerged from Mason and Raff's work and
wanted very much to put survey instruments closer to the bottom in order to
"see" in more detail what the nature of these stripes on the sea floor might be.
In any ~vent this dichotomy in viewpoint persisted and became the hallmarks
of the Woods Hole (Alvin) and Scripps (deep tow) systems which both emerged
under sponsorship of the same office in ONR. Alvin followed directly from
Aluminaut. The ONR (particularly in the person of CDR C. B. Momsen) had
managed to set aside a budget allocation for an expensive, long term charter for
Aluminaut. When difficulties were encountered in negotiating an agreement be-
tween ONR and Reynolds, ONR decided (in 1962) to use the funds to build a
research submarine focusing on the near-bottom observation mission, and
awarded it to Woods Hole. The resulting craft (Busby 1976) was far better
adapted to the near-bottom observation and manipulation missions than the
original Aluminaut design.
In the meantime our group had realized that most of the things we had in
mind could, with less financial investment and personnel risk, be done by towing
a sensor package down close to the sea floor. Thus. when the opportunity to
build a near-bottom towed echo-sounding device came in 1961, in connection
with another Navy project which also spawned Rip (Fisher and Spiess 1963). we
began development of such a system immediately.
These two major research tools represent two quite different ways of bringing
complex instrumentation systems into being. The deep-tow system actually origi-
nated in response to a particular research question-what is the statistical distri-
bution of sea-floor slopes when one defmes these on a lateral scale of 50 to
100 m? In starting on system development, however, there was a basic commit-
ment to the fact that many other types of measurements could in the long run
be made from this single vehicle. The system (Spiess et al. 1978) thus developed
incrementally in parallel with funded research activities. There has always been a
general plan that encompassed the addition of particular new system options and
the~ have been brought into being one by one as our perceptions of research op-
portunities were validated by various sponsoring groups. The result has been a
reasonably continuous flow of research papers from very early in the program
(Spiess and Mudie 1970).
Alvin, on the other hand, represented a large initial investment made on the
234 F. N. Spiess
premise that eventually interesting results would emerge. It was not a part of a
specific research program initially and thus took a very substantial time to build
up to the production of impressive research output. Although there have been
extensive engineering improvements (e.g., doubling of operating depth capabili-
ties) it has only been in the last few years that major advances in its research in-
strumentation have been brought into action as it has moved into its own on a
variety of fronts. As in the deep-tow case, however, the initial commitment to
back something new was made by the Navy while in the latter stages, after its
capabilities had become well established, the support for its research has been
predominantly from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
4 Multichannel Doppler Sonar
The systems whose origins have been somewhat exposed above successively
reached states of full productivity in the late 50s, 60s and 70s. The final example,
to provide a base for adequate perspective, is a system which will have its first
major impact in the early 80s, exposing the internal motions (waves, turbulence,
currents) of the upper part of the open sea. Its beginnings reflect all the aspects
of an ideal instrumentation system: a set of interesting scientific questions,
availability of existing unique support facilities and existence of a technology
base from which the necessary special elements can be drawn.
The unique support facility is F1ip, the manned spar-buoy laboratory (which
had its own origins in the 1956-62 time frame, including the '56 summer study
which gave rise to the aluminum submarine) which a group of us brought into
reality 18 years ago (Fisher and Spiess 1963). As a stable place from which to
make measurements in the sea it has been used in a variety of investigations.
Those of relevance in this present case have been concerned with trying to sort
out the directional properties of internal waves as they exist in the upper part of
the deep sea. The first work on this problem was carried out by adapting tech-
niques used earlier in shallow water situations. E. C. Lafond of the Navy Elec-
tronics Laboratory (forerunner of the present Naval Ocean Systems Center in
San Diego) rigged a set of three long booms out from that laboratory's small
Texas Tower-a platfonn located in about 10 m of water off San Diego. From
these he suspended lines with temperature sensors on them, with which he could
track the vertical movement of the thennocline. Since measurements were being
made at three spatially separated points it was possible to observe the crests of
the internal waves as they moved by and thus to estimate their direction.
A young naval officer, R. L. Zalkan, working on his Ph.D. at Scripps, adapted
this system for deep water, using Flip in place of the bottom-mounted research
tower (Zalkan 1970). The situation in the deep water was much more complex
than in the shallow, nearshore environment and the questions which Zalkan at-
tacked initially were treated further by R. Pinkel (Pinkel1975), who developed a
system which could profile both temperature and conductivity from each of the
three extended booms to a depth of 400 m. While this system improved our
understanding substantially it still left us with an un satisfyingly small view of the

horizontal spatial nature of the field since booms much longer than the 20 m al-
ready in use seemed impractical. Moreover we were relying on the existence of a
vertical gradient in water temperature to give us our indication of vertical dis-
placements rather than measuring the motion of the water directly. Several of us
bent our minds to devising ways of holding arrays of current meters still in the
water out to distances of hundreds of meters, without success (although assem-
bling strings of floating telephone poles in the ocean gave us some good experi-
ence). Finally, in 1974, Irealized that our good friend underwater acoustics could
provide the answer by transmitting a very narrow horizontal pencil of sound out
and measuring the doppler shift of the backscattered energy from each of many
range increments. Pinkel immediately seized upon this and was able to carry out
an initial trial very quickly because, courtesy of a completely different set of ex-
perimental concerns, F. H. Fisher, of our group, had built a powerful 87.5 kHz
sonar with about 2° beam width. The initial trial not only showed that the con-
cept would work, it disclosed a transient in the upper ocean hydrodynamic field
of a type that had not previously been documented (Pinkel 1979).
With this indication of potential success Pinkel, with ONR support, began the
development of a full-fledged system which could document the motion of the
water out to distances of a km or more from Flip. Parenthetically, the role of
Flip in this case is to provide the necessary very stable mounting place for the
narrow beam sonar. If it were mounted on a ship or suspended in the water it
would be very difficult to maintain its orientation to within one degree of arc.
Flip also, of course, provides the laboratory and living spaces on site and drifts
with the near surface water in an economical operating mode for weeks at a time.
Since anyone sonar only provides information about the water velocity com-
ponents in a single direction (along the sonar beam), the development program
required first the design and construction of a single sonar (Fig. 4) for this par-
ticular purpose (with its electronics and data recording system) and second the
construction of additional units to be able to record data from various directions
and depths. The first model of the new transducer system was tested at sea in
1977 and a four-element system will go to sea for test late in 1979, with the first
full scale operation scheduled for spring 1980.
5 Outlook
The world of ocean research has changed substantially from 1955 to 1980-half
of the entire lifetime of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has passed
during this period. It might thus be instructive to compare the magnetometer
and the doppler sonar from the instrument-development viewpoint. The com-
parison is reasonably valid. Both were small enough initially to be assembled,
operated and data interpreted within a single research group. Both relied for
their first major impact on the existence of a very special seagoing operational
opportunity-Flip and Pioneer-to whose origin neither instrument was related.
236 F. N. Spiess
Figure 4. Narrow beam high power transducer for multichannel doppler sonar
system (Pinkel 1979).
In fact both Flip and the Pioneer Survey were funded by the Navy for reasons
principally related to underwater acoustics. Finally, the magnetic techniques,
once established, were used by many from a variety of craft and a similar ex-
pansion of the multi-range doppler sonar concept has already begun.
It seems justifiable to draw several tentative conclusions from these accounts
of instrumentation origins. First, while they all have drawn heavily on interinsti-
tutional and interpersonal synergisms, they required the tenacity of a particular
individual or small group of scientists to bring them to a productive state. The
one exception is Alvin and it was the slowest in achieving full recognition as a
cost-effective research system. It was also the only system treated which was
brought into being as a general purpose tool not related to a particular type of
problem, which may also account for the delay.
Second is an institutional matter. All of the examples covered here were
brought from initial concept into full productivity with Navy sponsorship. For
developments in the 50s this is not surprising, since that organization provided
the major support for all of ocean science in that era. By the late 60s, however,
the pattern of research support had shifted to heavy NSF involvement. That
shift, however, did not include support for any parallel significant innovative
instrumentation development. The situation has improved somewhat in the
70s, particularly in the area of chemical oceanography/geochemistry in the
International Decade of Ocean Exploration program. Nevertheless, ventures in
new instrumentation, even when proposed by investigators with long records of
success in that field, have a very low probability of achieving NSF support, and
must still be pushed within the Navy (or in some cases NASA) until the scientific
returns have become obvious. NSF, however, has been the major supporter of
seagoing use of these systems once they are validated. This may be a conscious
division of effort on the part of the agencies, but there is little evidence that this
is so. Primarily it represents the difficulty in supporting high risk activity in a
strict peer review context. At the other extreme, NOAA has yet to have any im-
pact in ocean research instrumentation innovation, largely due to its very small
involvement with most of the ocean research community.
Current funding patterns also make it difficult to move through the inevitable
period between the time when the bright new idea is conceived and the time in
which it has its first major impact. This usually encompasses sea operations
which yield more understanding of the equipment and its use than actual scien-
tific knowledge. Ouring this period most developments which will eventually be
productive yield enticing fragmentary views of the ocean, but no solid scientific
papers. Those who administer the support of new development tend to be in-
creasingly impatient for "Science" to emerge in spite of the increased organi-
zational and funding complexities which the innovator must face. Only two
sponsor groups were involved in the magnetometer development: the Navy and
Scripps Institution itself. It nevertheless was four years from Frautschy's initial
investigations to the start of the Pioneer program which was the first major suc-
cessful survey work. Pinkel's doppler sonar will have taken six years from the
first design calculations (1974) to the first full multiple sonar experiment in
1980. In achieving this four different (and often non-interacting) Navy compo-
nents were involved, with several promising funds at one moment and then not
providing them later. If funding continuity had been as good as in the magne-
tometer case, the system development time (including initial sea operations)
would have been quite comparable.
There is no question but what organizational complexities in all of ocean re-
search have increased substantially over the 25-year period and that the level of
innovation (particularly considering the great increase in number of scientists
involved) has, if anything, declined. Informal discussions within the research
community lead me to believe that, while imagination still exists, it is not being
nurtured and is unlikely to be as long as the trend is toward division of work
into individual projects which must be able to produce their anticipated results
in a year or two in order to be funded. An interesting contradiction which we
face is that, while academic research organizations have much less ability than
in the past to generate funds to support risky but potentially important devel-
opments, private industry is allowed to spend a fraction of the production
money received from federal contracts on unfettered R and D. Only in a few
rare, ONR or NASA sponsored instances are funds made available to academic
laboratories for local discretionary use, and even then the goal is not develop-
ment of marine science in general, but is related to areas of Agency interest.
Neither NSF nor NOAA has come forth in a similar, but more scientifically
general way.
One final point. Looking about the research community, in spite of the dif-
ficulties, many new things are in process of emerging which will surely increase
238 F. N. Spiess
our understanding of the sea. The most potentially fruitful, as in the past, are
instruments and systems which have their origins and development within the
research laboratories and institutions themselves. Ideas of separating the devel-
opment function from the user appear occasionally, but have not been successful.
Consideration of the natural and inevitable complexities of the origins illustrated
above indicate that success in this field depends on continuous interplay, within
one man's mind, or within a research group, between the developing instrumen-
tation concept and the research goals which it hopefully will help to reach.
Note
The fluxgate is still used in a number of ocean science applications, including

three-<:omponent sea-floor recording magnetometers (Greenhouse et a1. 1971)
and the recently built Alvin system for in situ measurement of rock magnetism
(Atwater and Macdonald 1978).
References
Atwater, T. M. and Macdonald, K. C. 1978. AMAR-78 preliminary results-II:

Gradiometer results in the Narrowgate Magnetic Anomaly Region. EOS, 59,
1198.
Ballard, R. D., Bryan, W. B., Heirtzler, J. R., Keller, G. and van Andel, Tj. H.
1975. Manned submersible observations in the FAMOUS area: Mid-Atlantic
Ridge. Science, 190, 103-108.
Busby, R. F. 1976. Manned submersibles-Office of the Oceanographer of the
Navy, publisher.
Dobrin, M. B. 1960. Introduction to geophysical prospecting. 2nd edition,
McGraw Hill Book Co.
Fisher, F. H. and Spiess, F. N. 1963. FLIP-Floating Instrument Platform. J.
Acoust. Soc. Am., 35,1633-1644.
Frautschy, J. D. 1954. Symposium on oceanographic instrumentation. J. D.
Isaacs and C. O'D. Iselin (eds.), sponsored by Office of Naval Research,
June 21-23,1952, Nat. Res. Counc. Pub!', 309.
Greenhouse, J. P., Vacquier, V., Pepper, C. S. and Whiteman, R. E. 1971. Sea
floor measurements of geomagnetic variations off Southern California. EOS,
52,194.
Gulf Oil Co. 1946. Oil exploration takes to the air. The Orange Disc, July-
August 1946, pp. 2-7.
Isaacs, J. D. 1954. Symposium on oceanographic instrumentation. J. D. Isaacs
and C. O'D. Iselin (eds.), sponsored by Office of Naval Research, June 21-23,
1952, Nat. Res. Counc. Pub!', 309.
Mason, R. G. and Raff, A. D. 1961. Magnetic survey off the West Coast of North
America, 32°N Latitudt; to 42°N Latitude. Bull. Geo!. Soc. Am., 72, 1259-
1266.
Pinkel, R. 1975. Upper ocean internal wave observation from FLIP. J. Geophys.
Res., 80, 3892-3910.
Pinkel, R. 1979. Observations of strongly non-linear internal motion in the open
sea using a range-gated doppler sonar. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 9, 675-686.
Raff, A. D. and Mason, R. G. 1961. Magnetic survey off the West Coast of North
America, 400 N Latitude to 52°N Latitude. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 72, 1267-
1270.
Raff, A. D. 1961. Problems and some solutions to towing a large oceanographic
instrument from a ship. MPL Tech Memorandum, 119.
Raitt, H. 1956. Exploring the deep Pacific. W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
Spiess, F. N. and Mudie, J. D. 1970. Small scale topographic and magnetic fea-
tures. Chap. 7 in: The Sea, A. E. Maxwell (ed.), J. Wiley & Sons, New York 4.
Spiess, F. N., Lowenstein, C. D. and Boegeman, D. E. 1978. Fine grained deep
ocean survey techniques. Proc. Offshore Technology Conference, Houston,
Texas, May, 1978, pp. 715-725.
Spiess, F. N., Macdonald, K. C., Atwater, T., Ballard, R., Carranza, A., Cordoba,
D., Cox, C. Diaz Garcia, V. M., Francheteau, J., Guerrero, J., Hawkins, J.,
Haymon, R., Hessler, R., Juteau, T., Kastner, M., Larson, R., Luyendyk, B.,
MacDougall, D., Miller, S., Normark, W., Orcutt, J. and Rangin, C. 1980. Hot
springs and geophysical experiments on the East Pacific Rise. Science.
Vacquier, V. 1945. The Gulf Absolute Magnetometer. Terrestrial Magnetism and
Atmospheric Electricity, 50, 91-104.
Vacquier, V., Raff, A. D. and Warren, R. E. 1961. Horizontal displacements in
the floor of the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., 72, 1251-
1258.
Worzel, J. L. 1954. Symposium on oceanographic instrumentation. J. D. Isaacs
and C. O'D. Iselin (eds.), sponsored by Office of Naval Research, June 21-23,
1952, Nat. Res. Counc. Publ., 309.
Zalkan, R. L. 1970. High frequency internal waves in the Pacific Ocean. Deep-
Sea Res., 17,91-108.
The Historical Development of Tidal Science, and the
Liverpool Tidal Institute
D. E. Cartwright
1 Introduction
The Liverpool Tidal Institute (LTI), to use its original title, is still in the memory
of the older generation of oceanographers and hydrographers through the work
of its creators, Joseph Proudman and Arthur T. Doodson, and of its last formal
director, Jack Rossiter. Its original objectives still underlie much of the work of
the branch of the Institute of Oceanographic Science, UK, which now occupies
the site on Bidston Hill used by LTI for about forty years. But LTI undoubtedly
belongs to the historical past together with its tide predicting machines and the
scientific world in which it originated. Sixty years after its inception, it is timely
to review this curious Institute in its proper historical context of scientific devel-
opment.
The tides have a longer history of continual research than any other aspect of
what is now called physical oceanography. Counts of serious tidal research papers
published in all countries in 50-year intervals since 1670, listed individually in
the comprehensive bibliographies published by Association International d'Ocean-
ographie Physique (Pub. Sci. Nos. 15, 17,29) are as follows:
1670-1719 1720-1769 1770-1819 1820-1869 1870-1919 1920-1969
27 29 37 262 1121 2100
Their steady rise reflects the growing scale of general scientific activity through
the three centuries covered. The subject matter has evidently proved so far inex-
haustible. The reasons for these facts are not hard to fmd. Knowledge of the
The Historical Development of Tidal Science 241
tides has always been important for safe navigation, and showed early promise
of providing useful predictions. By contrast, other oceanic phenomena such as
wind, waves and currents were equally important to navigation but scientific
methods of the 18th and 19th centuries could do little to improve on what sea-
farers already knew about them from practical experience.
But predicting tides by relating them to their known astronomical causes
proved less simple than was at first expected. Intensive analysis of records re-
vealed new problems, many of them with wider implications for global me-
chanics than the initial objective of providing tide tables. Understanding the
coastal behavior of tides showed it to be only a superficial manifestation of a
complex oceanic wave system for which both suitable measurements and simple
explanations were hard to obtain. Researchers from new disciplines such as hy-
drodynamics and geophysics joined the astronomers in tackling the problems
involved, while in more recent years new technology in computing and oceanic
measurement have also been applied. All these approaches have advanced tidal
knowledge, but in some cases they have also imposed new demands on it. Thus
we see in brief how a subject with apparently limited scope has grown to attract
a considerable range of scientific research. A parallel could be made with the re-
search in astronomy which has grown out of the original practical demand to
provide navigators with a means of determining longitude at sea.
In the following section I shall attempt to classify the various approaches
which have been made to tidal research with respect to scientific discipline dur-
ing its long history, in order to understand how the need for the Liverpool Tidal
Institute arose and how tides became a branch of physical oceanography.
2 Phases of Tidal Research-The Astronomical Phase
It is convenient to separate the development of tidal research into four 'phases',

A - astronomical, B - geophysical, C - hydrodynamic, D - oceanographic. These
phases are intended to represent disciplinary approaches rather than distinct
epochs of time. Each has a period when it was most active, but none has ceased
altogether when another phase has become active.
We may ignore the more or less erroneous speculations about the causes of
tides, including those of Galileo, before the time of Newton's 'Principia'. Al-
though that work did not provide a complete description of the mechanism of
the tide raising forces (see Proudman's (1927) critical account, written for the
bicentenary of Newton's death), it so clearly related their principal features to
the orbital 'positions and accelerations of the Moon and the Sun that it started a
new era of research into methods of tide prediction. This research was uniquely
in Phase A, since only the astronomers had the necessary knowledge of the de-
tails of the predictable motions of the heavenly bodies. This seemed appropriate
enough, since the English and French astronomers who carried out most of the
tidal research of the 18th and 19th centuries had other commitments to marine
science in improving methods of navigation and time-keeping. Rossiter's (1972)
242 D. E. Cartwright
paper at the last Congress covered only this phase of research, but in some detail,
so I shall give only a brief outline here.
In England, apart from much lively controversy by members of the newly
formed Royal Society (Deacon 1971), several of the early "Astronomers Royal"
took an active interest in tides. Thus, Flamsteed, the rust Astronomer Royal,
devised a tide table for London Bridge and entered into acrimonious correspon-
dence with Halley about its use for other ports (Ronan 1970, pp. 122-124).
Halley (2nd A. R.) went to sea to map the tidal streams and other navigational
features of the English Channel (Ronan 1970, pp. 181-182). Maskelyne (5th A.
R.) and Mason made difficult and extensive measurements of the tides at St.
Helena (Cartwright 1972). Airy (7th A. R.) analyzed the tides at several British
ports and wrote a lengthy treatise on their hydrodynamics, including his famous
'canal theory' (Airy 1845) which was essentially an early contribution to Phase
B. Lubbock, another British astronomer, also contributed greatly to prediction
theory (Rossiter 1972).
In France, long series of tidal observations instigated by the Academie Royale
des Sciences were analyzed with increasing degrees of profundity by the astrono-
mers Cassini, l Lalande and Laplace (1790) (Cartwright 1972). Laplace's later
work on tides (Laplace 1824) to which I shall return later, went far beyond ques-
tions of prediction, and formed the essential starting point for phases C and D.
Phase A culminated with the development of the 'harmonic method' of tide
prediction by W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and G. H. Darwin, successive leaders
of a committee specially formed for this purpose in 1867 by the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science (Thomson 1868, Darwin 1883). Similar
work was also being done in the USA by W. Ferrel (1874). The harmonic
method was so effective and basically so simple that it temporarily put an end to
further research on tide prediction, while the practical details could be handed
over by the astronomers to the naval authorities who had direct interest in their
application. There was, of course, scope for small improvements and even alter-
native methods which have occupied a few researchers up to the present day, but
the subject ceased to interest astronomers from about 1890 onward. Unfortu-
nately, this left high and dry the many tidal problems which had come to light
through the broader work of Laplace and Darwin.
3 Phases B, C and D
I treat the geophysical phase B next because it follows directly from the work of
G. H. Darwin, who was called by Jeffreys the 'founder of modern geophysics',
and because its main objectives are rather remote from oceanography. It is obvi-
ous from Darwin's popular book "The Tides" (Darwin 1911) that his work on
harmonic prediction is only a by-product of a much wider interest in the physics
and history of the Earth and Moon. The real quantities of interest are the global
1 Jacques Cassini, son of the more famous C. D. Cassini.

average retardation of the ocean tides caused by friction, the resulting torque
about the Earth's axis and the consequent lengthening of the day, the increase
in the Moon's distance and the retardation of its longitude. The last-named is ob-
served in discrepancies in the timing of ancient eclipses and was first noticed by
Halley. Laplace (1824) claimed to have explained the retardation without re-
course to tidal friction but was refuted in this by Adams.
Despite lengthy analyses, Darwin was unable to assemble enough reliable
quantitative facts to prove his hypotheses. The subject lay more or less dormant
for a time and was then taken up by the Cambridge geophysicist Jeffreys (1924)
who seemed to have deduced enough friction in the world's shallow seas to ac-
count for the lunar retardation. Since then, a succession of scientists up to the
present day, including Jeffreys (1976) himself, have revised the various physical
quantities involved, producing new arguments to account for the last scientist's
errors. In short, it is a happy hunting ground for geophysical research, with impli-
cations for accretion of the Earth's core, the origin of the Moon, and the con-
stancy ofG. However, the research relies on facts about the ocean's tidal friction
which oceanographers are not at present able to support definitively (Cartwright
1977).
Another branch of phase B research which sprang from Darwin's work was
the deformation of the Earth through ocean tidal loading, with implications for
the Earth's elastic structure. This subject has only made great progress with the
advent of modem high preciSion instruments, too recently for a historical survey.
However, it has come to be an integral part of modem theories of the ocean tides.
Phase C - hydrodynamic and D - oceanographic are clearly related, but I have
used the former term to distinguish the idealized theory characterized by Lamb's
(1932) classic volume of that name from work which attempts to take into ac-
count the real shape and conditions of the oceans. Laplace (1790) was the first
to express the hydrodynamic relationship of the water motion induced by the
tidal gravitational forces, and his equations, though basically simple, have chal-
lenged mathematicians and physicists for nearly two centuries. The difficulty is
in rmding sol\ltions to Laplace's tidal equations which satisfy boundary conditions
corresponding to coastal and bathymetric configurations remotely like those of
the real oceans. Realistic computations were out of the question until the last
two decades, and mathematicians had to be content with solving for simple geo-
metrical basins of (usually) constant depth. Such work constituted what I mean
by Phase C research.
Laplace's own incomplete solutions for an ocean covering a complete sphere
were extended by Hough (1897, 1898) who first clearly indicated the existence
of two classes of solution, one class resembling gravity waves, the- other more
nearly consisting of oscillatory currents. The theory was extended by Lamb and
by Poincare, and the first half of the 20th century was notable for ingenious
mathematical solutions for hemispheres (meridional and equatorial), spherical
sectors and other shapes, with and without rotation, by Goldsbrough, Proudman
and Doodson. These gave a good deal of insight into the complexities of the wave
forms and their sensitivity to depth and period, but it was clear that none really
matched the complexity of the real ocean.
The oceanographic phase D may be said to have begun when scientists fIrst
attempted to draw 'cotidal maps' by interpolating the lag-times of High Water
after lunar transit across enclosed seas. (Interpolating 'range' or amplitude, a
more diffIcult problem, came much later.) The earliest known cotidal map is
that sketched by the British physicist Thomas Young in 1807 for the seas sur-
rounding the British Isles (reproduced in Marmer 1928). He was followed by the
Cambridge mathematician Whewell (1833), who made a rough but plausible map
of the cotidallines in most of the world's oceans except the PacifIc. This map
was later improved slightly by Airy (1845).
The Whewell/Airy maps suggested that the tides were generated principally
in the Southern Ocean and propagated thence northwards into the other oceans.
This looked less likely when more data from the PacifIc became available, and
the next serious contender for world cotidal maps, the American Rollin Harris
(1901-4), had another theory of independently resonating basins. By then, hydro-
dynamic theory had shown the existence of amphidrornic points, and the maps
proposed by the Austrian Sterneck (1920-21) and the German Dietrich (1944),
using increasing amounts of coastal data, contained an impressive number of
these nodes, most of which have been supported by modem advances.
As techniques of sea-going physical measurement progressed, chiefly in the
years following 1920, new approaches to tidal oceanography arose, mostly con-
cerned with tidal currents in shallow seas and the effects on them of friction,
turbulence, coastal topography and stratifIcation. Such work is amply surveyed
in the classic book by the Austrian, A. Defant (1961), which mostly covers work
considerably earlier than its date of publication. However, the behavior of tidal
streams soon became fairly well understood, and the techniques were passed on
to the naval hydrographers, while researchers turned their interest to the more
exciting developments of modem oceanographers.
Meanwhile, the problem of defIning the global tidal system remained stub-
bornly unsolved. While geophysicists were posing an increasing number of ques-
tions depending for their solution on knowledge of the ocean tides, oceanogra-
phers tended to get diverted from this old-fashioned subject in favor of new fIelds
of exploration opened up by advanced technology.
This was the scenario in which the liverpool Tidal Institute ploughed its lone-
ly but persistent furrow in its chosen fIeld.
4 Joseph Proudman and the L.T.I.
Joseph Proudman (1888-1975) was born in Lancashire of a poor farming family,

but through brilliance and devotion to his school studies, he quickly rose to the
front rank of Cambridge applied mathematicians, along with his contemporaries
Harold Jeffreys, G. I. Taylor, R. A. Fisher and H. Spencer-Jones. Early aspirations
to research in electromagnetic theory were thwarted by lack of encouragement
from the Cambridge 'establishment', and Proudman was led into hydrodynamic
theory by a brief association with G. I. Taylor (which led to the discovery of

"Taylor-Proudman columns" in rotating fluids 2 ), and by a problem on tides sent
to him by Professor Horace Lamb of Manchester.
Lamb's problem was typical of Phase C research-to determine the tides gener-
ated in a (frictionless) flat rotating sea of uniform depth bounded by a sector of
a circle. Fifteen years were to elapse before Proudman fmally published a partial
solution to this problem (proudman 1928), but during that time he had written
the major parts of a profound treatise on the solution of Laplace's tidal equations
in seas of general shape (proudman 1917), some twenty other pregnant works
on tidal hydrodynamics, and had firmly adopted the subject of tides as a life-
long research interest. Lamb was quick to exploit this new disciple, and when
Proudman returned to Liverpool in 1913 as a lecturer he enlisted his help in the
preparation of a new report to the British Association Committee on tides. This
Committee, now chaired by Lamb, was a successor to that set up by Lord Kelvin
and later chaired by George Darwin, for the improvement of tidal predictions
(see § 2); its activity had somewhat subsided since Darwin virtually completed
his task about 1890. Lamb and Proudman became convinced of the need of a
new formal center for tidal research, not only for the pursuance of promising
new ideas for solving the oceanic problems, but also for further tidying up pre-
diction methods and improving knowledge of tidal streams for shipping purposes.
The Liverpool Tidal Institute (LTI) was created in March 1919 to fulfill this
need, on Proudman's appointment to the new chair of Applied Mathematics at
Liverpool at the age of 30. Generous fmancial aid from the Liverpool owners of
the Cunard and Booth shipping lines bespoke its promise of practical utility. Its
aims were, in brief, to research into all aspects of tides and related marine phe-
nomena and to act as a national center for prediction services and advice. It was
based at first at the University of Liverpool, with Proudman as Director of re-
search and a recent postgraduate student, Arthur Doodson, as Secretary and
general 'right-hand man'. More will be said about Doodson later, but it suffices
to say here that he enthusiastically took up the many jobs involving computation,
in which he had a great skill, while Proudman was more interested in mathemati-
cal analysis. In short, they made a very effective team. Other researchers joined
the LTI in due course, notably S. F. Grace and R. H. Corkan, and later J. R.
Rossiter and G. W. Lennon, while a few assistants were employed for clerical
work and preparation of tide tables.
Leaving aside methods of prediction which were Doodson's province, the
development of the Institute's research may be described in terms of Proudman's
own, since his was the guiding spirit behind all the work. He had an underlying
ambition to find a method of determining oceanic cotidal maps by classical
hydrodynamics, that is, to put phase C research at the service of phase D. His
general treatise (1917, 1931) expressed the solution for a basin of any shape in
terms of special forms of Lagrangian normal modes. While this proved a power-
ful method for dealing with seas in the form of spherical sectors and the like, the
2 See, for example, Greenspan (1968).

calculations for any sea of realistic shape were too difficult. A form of Green's
Theorem (proudman 1925) for seas bounded by a coastline where the tides were
known again had practical limitations, although it was later applied to part of
the Indian Ocean by one of Proudman's students (Fairbairn 1954). Grace (1932,
1935) developed a method of dividing oceans into small-but not very small-
rectangles of constant depth and used it to obtain solutions for the Gulf of
Mexico and the Bay of Biscay, but the results proved to be only approximate.
Proudman's final essay in this direction was an expansion theorem for the
tides in strips of ocean bounded by parallels of latitude, inside which the depth
configuration was arbitrary, and at whose extremities the tidal energy could leak
into peripheral shallow seas (Proudman 1946). He applied this form of calcu-
lation to a sizeable part of the Atlantic Ocean, and described the results in his
George Darwin Lecture to the Royal Astronomical Society (Proudman 1944).
They were only partly successful, although they were probably the most advanced
analysis yet carried out on tides in an ocean of realistic shape. However, from
about that time the methodology of that type of calculation began to be super-
seded by the use of infmite differences and modern computer technology. Proud-
man was then too old to learn new tricks, although he took a lively interest in
the new advances made in his favorite subject by W. Hansen at Hamburg and by
C. L. Perkeris at Rehovot.
The Institute also did much work concerning the shallow seas surrounding the
British Isles, producing cotidal maps of the North Sea, English Channel and the
Irish Sea, which stand up to modern measurements and analysis. Occupation
with tide gauge records led to the study of storm surges, and the development of
methods of flood warning which are still used today. Some of the earliest practi-
cal studies of the interaction between earth tides and sea tides were made by
Grace (1930). The international Committee for Mean Sea Level and its vari-
ations 3 was initiated by Proudman in 1936 and its work has been based at Bid-
ston ever since. Various members of LTI have advanced the understanding of
variations in mean sea level and their relation to land movement and to steric
changes in the ocean.
Towards 1930, Proudman evidently began to feel the need for closer contact
with the sea than merely through harbor tide gauges, and for research into other
physical aspects of the sea's motion than tides. Marine science at Liverpool, as in
the rest of Britain and indeed in all parts of the world where it was studied, was
entirely dominated by biology. When the chair of oceanography at Liverpool
became vacant in 1933, Proudman asked ifhe could transfer to it from his pres-
ent chair of applied mathematics, and to set up a department of physical ocean-
ography, probably the first in the world. His wish was granted.
We are here mainly concerned with the effect of this development on the LTI.
Proudman enlisted the help of Institute staff for his expeditions in the Irish Sea,
where they took an active part in measuring turbulence in tidal streams and in
the use of an early device for measuring pressure variations in shallow water.
3Renamed "Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level" since 1958.

Doodson had a considerable mechanical flair, and he designed a new current
meter for this work. In short, the LTI began to "get its feet wet" and to take a
greater interest in experiments at sea.
The last major development in British oceanography for which Proudman was
largely responsible, and in which he took an active part, was the creation in 1950
of the National Institute of Oceanography under the Directorship of George
Deacon. This Institute had far wider scope and resources than the LTI ever had,
and for some years the latter began to seem like a poor, if dignified, relative.
After some changes of name and affiliation, the LTI was at last amalgamated
with the NIO under national funding and became a fully equipped member of
the oceanographic community. This seems a fitting conclusion to Proudman's
original inspiration (Fig. 1); tidal research has passed through phase C to become
a respectable branch of modern oceanography.
Figure 1. Joseph Proud man

at the age of 30, about the
time of formation (1919) of
the LTI.
5 Arthur Doodson and the Tide-predicting Machines
It would be unfair not to give a fuller account of the work of Arthur Doodson
(1890·1968) (Fig. 2), because he devoted over 40 years to the liverpool Tidal
Institute, and was one of its most outstanding personalities. He succeeded Proud·
man as Director in 1945 until his retirement in 1960. He was a Lancashire man,
like Proudman; his father had been manager of a cotton mill. As a boy he was
Figure 2. Arthur Doodson at work with a desk calculator in the early days of
the LTI.
studious with a liking for chemistry, but the onset of serious deafness at the age
of about 19 made it difficult for him to follow lectures. His university training
at liverpool owed much to the personal interest taken by Professor F. S. Carey,
who persuaded Doodson to switch from chemistry to his own subject of mathe-
matics, and to later supervision for an MSc thesis by Proudman himself, then
a lecturer in Carey's department. During the 1914-18 War, Doodson worked
in London on statistics and ballistic trajectories under the famous statistician
Karl Pearson, and this work brought out his outstanding gift for computing.
When Proudman invited Doodson to help in the formation of the LTI, Dood-
son knew nothing of tidal theory, but Proudman knew that he had the right sort
of ability from their earlier association at the University. The two men collabo-
rated in several papers; the summit of their joint achievement was the five-part
series of papers on tides computed in oceans bounded by meridians (Doodson
and Proudman 1936-40).4 However, the subject which Doodson made his own
4 For historical balance, one should also note the important series of papers on a very similar
subject by Prof. G. R. Goldsbrough (192849) of Durham University.
and for which he became a world authority was that of tidal analysis and pre-
.diction-essentially a continuation of phase A work.
After an intensive analysis of tidal record from Newlyn, Cornwall, Doodson
set about re-computing Darwin's harmonic expansion of the tide-generating
potential from the new and advanced tables of the Moon's motion by E. W.
Brown. His results (Doodson 1921) differed from Darwin's and were for long
accepted as an international standard. (When the present writer re-computed
Doodson's tables by an IBM machine, 50 years later, he could identify only one
defmite mistake, of slight importance.) Doodson used these tables as a basis for
a carefully worked out and precise scheme for analyzing and predicting the tides
from their harmonic constituents, ideally suited to the pencil-and-paper methods
of computing which were used at that time (Doodson 1928). He also devised
(1951a) a special and very effective method of analyzing the times and heights
of High and Low Water, which is especially useful where the tide is strongly dis-
torted by the effects of shallow water.
The best predictions at that period were made by tide-predicting machines,
of which very few existed in 1920. (Space does not perrnit a full description, but
it suffices to say that these were carefully engineered devices in which each har-
monic constituent of the tide is represented by the vertical motion of a pulley
wheel, constrained to move harmonically at the appropriate speed; a wire wound
over several such wheels summed their motion and recorded it.) The acquisition
of one such machine by the LTI in 1923 provided a focal point for Doodson's
mastery of the theory, his mechanical flair, and his sense of business. He used it
extensively, obtaining a rare insight into its possible sources of error, and was
continually designing modifications and having the machine taken to pieces,
oiled and reassembled.
There had been a long tradition of commercialism over tide-table production
in England (Rossiter 1972), and Doodson was quick to see the machine as a
means of keeping the Institute'S finances solvent. Edward Roberts, the designer
of the first machine in 1876 to Lord Kelvin's plan, had his own machine (built
by Lege in 1906) with which he was carrying out a respectable business with his
son at Broadstairs, Kent. When the son died in 1929, Doodson acquired this
machine too for the L TI, and took over its business. The moving of Doodson
and his assistants to Bidston Observatory, whose original function as a time-
keeper for Liverpool shipping had become moribund, was largely motivated by
the need for safe rooms for the tide predicting machines.
By 1935 the LTI at Bidston was producing annually the tide tables with up
to 30 constituents for 75 ports from the UK and many other distant countries.
By 1955 the number of ports had risen to 166. During the 193945 war the two
machines were kept in well separated underground compartments as a precaution
against both being damaged simultaneously by a bomb.
Doodson soon became the national authority for the design of tide predicting
machines, and spent much time advising the principal constructors, Kelvin and
Co. and Lege and Co. for machines ordered for use in countries which included
Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan, France, the Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Thailand
and the USSR. (Only Gennany and the United States had machines of their own
design.) His ultimate achievement was the new design of a 42-constituent ma-
chine, constructed by the Lege Company in 1950 (Doodson 1951b). Four
models were made and one, of course, went to Bidston where it was used in-
tensively until Doodson's retirement in 1960. His successor, Jack Rossiter, used
to relate that Doodson strenuously opposed any suggestion to convert to elec-
tronic digital computers.
References
Airy, G. B. 1845. Tides and waves. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, London 5,

241-396.
Cartwright, D. E. 1972. Proc. 2nd Int. Congo History of Oceanography, Proc. R.
Soc. Edinburgh, B 72, 331-339.
Cartwright, D. E. 1977. Oceanic tides. Rep. Prog. Physics, 40, 6, 665-708.
Darwin, G. H. 1883. Rep. Comm. for the harmonic analysis of tidal observations.
Brit. Ass. Adv. Sci. Rep., pp. 48-118.
Darwin, G. H. 1911. The tides and kindred phenomena in the solar system . John
Murray, London, 437 pp. (Reprinted 1962 by W. H. Freeman, San Francisco).
Deacon, M. B. 1971. Scientists and the Sea, 1650-1900. Academic Press, Lon-
don, 445 pp.
Defant, A. 1961. Physical Oceanography, 2. Pergamon Press, London, 598 pp.
Dietrich, G. 1944. Die Schwingungsysteme der halb- und eintiigigen Tiden in den
Ozeanen. Veroff. Inst. Meeres, Berlin, A 41,7-68.
Doodson, A. T. 1921. The harmonic development of the tide-generating potenti-
al. Proc. R. Soc. London, A 100,305-329.
Doodson, A. T. 1928. The analysis of tidal observations. Phil. Trans. R. Soc.
London, A 227, 223-279.
Doodson, A. T. 1951 a. The analysis of high and low water. Internat. Hydrog.
Rev., 28, I, 13-77.
Doodson, A. T. 1951 b. New tide-predicting machines. Internat. Hydrog. Rev.,
28,2,88-91 (with 6 plates).
Doodson, A. T. and Proudman, J. 193640. Tides in oceans bounded by meridi-
ans, parts 1-5. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London; (1,2) A, 235,273-342; (3) A,
237,311-373; (4,5) A, 238,477-512.
Fairbairn, L. A. 1954. The semi-diurnal tides along the Equator in the Indian
Ocean. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., A 247,191-212.
Ferrel, W. 1874. Tidal researchers. U. S. Coast Geod. Surv. Rep., 268 pp.
Goldsbrough, G. R. 1928-50. The tides in oceans on a rotating globe, parts 1-5.
Proc. R. Soc. London; (1) A, 117, 692-718; (2) A, 122, 228-245; (3) with
D. C. Colborne, A, 126, 1-15; (4) A, 140, 241-253; (5) A, 200, 191-200.
Grace, S. F. 1930. The semi-diurnal lunar tidal motion of the Red Sea. Mon.
Not. R. Astro. Soc., Geophys. Supp., 2,273-296.
Grace, S. F. 1932. The principal constituents of tidal motion in the Gulf of
Mexico. Mon. Not. R. Astro. Soc. Geophys. Supp., 3, 70-83 and 156-162.
Grace, S. F. 1935. The principal semi-diurnal constituent of tidal motion in the
Bay of Biscay. Mon. Not. R. Astro. Soc. Geophys. Supp., 3, 274-285.
Greenspan, H. P. 1968. The theory of rotating fluids. Camb. Univ. Press, 327 pp.
Harris, R. A. 1901-4. Manual of Tides, Parts 4A and B. U. S. Coast Geod. Surv.
Rep., (1901) 545-699 and (1904) 313400.
Hough, S. S. 1897, 1898. On the application of harmonic analysis to the dynam-
ical theory of the tides. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., London, 189,201-258,191,139-
185.
Jeffreys, H. 1924. The Earth. 1st Edition. Camb. Univ. Press, 278 pp. (1976)
6th Edition, 574 pp.
Lamb, H. 1932. Hydrodynamics. 6th Edition. Camb. Univ. Press, 738 pp.
Laplace, P. S. 1790. Memoire sur Ie flux et reflux de 1a mer. Mem. Acad. Sci.,
Paris, pp. 45-181.
Laplace, P. S. 1824. Mecanique Celeste. Livre 13, Paris.
Marmer,H. A. 1928. On cotida1 maps. Int. Hydrog. Rev., 5,2, 195-205.
Proudman, J. 1917. On the dynamical equations of the tides, parts 1,2,3. Proc.
Lond. Math. Soc., 18, 1-68.
Proudman, J. 1927. Newton's work on the theory of the tides. Pp. 87-95 in
"Isaac Newton, 1642-1727" Math. Ass., London.
Proudman, J. 1928. On the tides in a flat semicircular sea of uniform depth.
Mon. Not. R. Astro. Soc. Geophys. Supp., 2, 32-43.
Proudman, J. 1931. On the dynamical equations of the tides, part 4. Proc. Lond.
Math. Soc., 34, 293-304.
Proudman, J. 1944. The tides of the Atlantic Ocean (George Darwin lecture).
Mon. Not. R. Astro. Soc., 104,244-256.
Proudman, J. 1946. On the distribution of tides over a channel. Proc. Lond.
Math. Soc., 49, 211-226.
Ronan, C. A. 1970. Edmond Halley-genius in eclipse. Macdonald, London,
251 pp.
Rossiter, J. R. 1972. Proc. 2nd Int. Congo history of oceanography, Proc. R. Soc.
Edinburgh, B 73, 13-23.
Sterneck, R. D. 1920-21. Die Gezeiten der Ozeane. (2 parts) Sitz;-Ber. Akad.
Wiss. Wien, 2a, 129, 131-150 and 130,363-371.
Thomson, W. 1868. Rep. Comm. for the purpose of promoting the extension,
improvement and harmonic analysis of tidal observations. Brit. Ass. Adv. Sci.
Rep., pp. 489-505.
Whewell, W. 1833. Essay towards a first approximation to a map of cotida1lines.
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, 1833, 147-236.
Six's Thermometer: A Century of Use in Oceanography
Anita McConnell
1 Introduction
Two hundred years ago James Six devised the self-registering thermometer which
bears his name (Fig. 1). Before the end of the 18th century its value as a meteoro-
logical instrument had been recognized and from the earliest years of the 19th
century it served to record submarine temperatures within all the world's oceans.
Many modifications were proposed for this instrument to improve its per-
formance on land and within the sea. Despite the march of technological progress
which eventually rendered it obsolete as an accurate means of registering and re-
cording temperature, it remains in the instrument-makers' catalogues as one of
the most popular types for horticultural and domestic use. It is today to be
found in many homes and gardens, still recognizably in the form that Six designed
in 1780; few other instruments have enjoyed such a long and successful existence.
2 The Life of James Six, 1731-1793
I give here some account of Six's life and scientific work since he does not figure
in the British Dictionary of National Biography nor indeed in any other similar
dictionary so far as I am aware, though an obituary notice did appear in Gentle-
man's Magazine (Gent. Mag. 1793).
James Six was born in 1731, a descendant of one of the refugee Hugenot fami-
lies who had settled in Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. All his life
was passed in that city and he died there in 1793. In his early years he was occu-
pied in the family silk-weaving business but he retired early in order to devote
Six's Thermometer: A Century of Use in Oceanography 253
himself to natural science. He had the catholic range of interests typical of the
18th century intellectual, corresponding and exchanging observations with vari-
ous astronomers; he also built a number of electrical machines and made these
available to the medical profession.
His only formal publications so far located are those in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society in London (Six 1782, 1784, 1788) dealing
with the construction and use of his meteorological thermometers, for which
work he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1792, and his book on
meteorological and marine thermometers which appeared posthumously (Six
1794). However, he did contribute several letters to Gentleman's Magazine on
the subjects of astronomy and meteorology (Gent. Mag. 1770, 1771, 1781,
1783, 1784). Towards the end of his life, Six was elected as a Foreign Member
of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia and his observations of
the planet Uranus were contributed by David Rittenhouse to its Transactions
in 1786.
Until recently none of Six's own instruments were thought to survive; how-
ever, evidence now suggests that the Science Museum in London possesses
twenty-seven original thermometers, designed both for meteorological and deep-
sea use.
Six's private life was the tragic but then familiar tale of a parent who outlived
most of his children. Three sons died in infancy; the fourth, James Six junior,
grew up to be an outstanding scholar only to die of fever in Rome at the age of
twenty-nine. The surviving daughter, Mary, married a brewer named George
May and it was through this line of the family that Six's collection of thermome-
ters came eventually into the keeping of the Science Museum. A deeply religious
man, Six was remembered locally for his support of his church and a children's
Sunday School. He is buried with his wife, who survived him by eight years, in
Canterbury's Westgate Church.
3 Six's Thennometers in Their Historical Context
In 1698 Jean Bernoulli had written to Leibnitz describing a proposed air ther-
mometer in which a fluid sector registered extremes of heat and cold reached
during an observer's absence (Leibnitz 1745). He would have met with formid-
able problems in constructing and using such an instrument and there is no evi-
dence that he ever attempted to do so. Various designs were put forward sub-
sequently: Lord Charles Cavendish presented the Royal Society with plans for
separate maximum and minimum 'overflow' thermometers in 1757 (Cavendish
1757). These particular thermometers were very fragile, difficult to set and use,
and registered in large steps as each mercury droplet passed into the overflow
chamber.
Six's thermometer owed nothing to these antecedents. It worked in the fol-
lowing manner (Fig. 1): In a tube folded into three limbs, alcohol filled the
central expanded reservoir and the upper portion of the left-hand limb, being
254 A. McConnell
- Figure 1. Diagram of the original Six thermometer (Science

Museum photo).
E
::I
E
'2
'E
separated by a mercury sector occupying the U-bend. Space was left in an upper
corked chamber to permit expansion of the liquids which were kept in contact
with each other by atmospheric pressure. In each outer limb light steel-in-glass
indexes floated in the alcohol. They could be pushed up by the mercury menis-
cus, but were prevented from falling down by slender glass 'tails' acting as
springs. As the temperature rose, alcohol in the reservoir expanded, pushing the
mercury and index up the left-hand limb. Any subsequent drop in temperature
caused the alcohol to contract; the mercury receded, leaving the index remain-
ing in the left-hand limb to record the maximum attained while that in the
right-hand limb was lifted to record the lowest temperature. After use the in-
dexes were reset at the mercury surfaces with the aid of a magnet.
Twelve original thermometers of this pattern survive (Fig. 2, left). Their con-
struction is fairly crude with rough wooden frames and irregularly-blown glass
tubes. Dimensions are similar, being about 350 mm long. The mean external
diameter of the alcohol reservoirs is 7.5 mm long and that of the tubes is 3.9 mm.
Proportional length of reservoir to tubing varies, as does the tightness of fold of
the three limbs. The indexes all consist of sewing-needle tips enclosed in fme
tubing and having a 'bugle' or small knob of glass at each end against which the
mercury could push. The fmely-drawn glass 'tails' are about twice as long as the
indexes.
Only five of the thermometers are calibrated and this is done by crude pencil
markings. The ranges vary: the lowest temperature marked on a minimum arm
is -40°F and the highest on a maximum arm is 110°F. The alcohol has long
since evaporated in the maximum arms but it has been possible to check the cali-
brations on the minimum arms and these proved remarkably accurate when com-
pared with readings from a modem mercury-in-glass thermometer, differences
being less that 1°F. None of the scales are linearly spaced. This is because Six
was aware of the irregularities in the bore and so calibrated his instruments step
by step against a standard thermometer. This was obviously preferable to the
then usual method of taking two fixed temperatures and interpolating regular
graduations.
In his book on thermometers Six considered previous methods of taking deep-
sea temperatures and found them wanting. He proposed a shorter instrument, of
thicker glass to resist pressure, and provided with indexes of different form. The
open end of the tube was to be capped to exclude seawater and back-pressure
would return the mercury sector when the temperature fell. There are fourteen
of these marine thermometers in the Science Museum, agreeing in detail with
his written description. The indexes consist of needle tips, sealed in glass tubes as
before, but without a spring tail (Fig. 2, right). As the mercury fell in one arm,
so did the needle resting on its surface. However, when the mercury rose again it
flowed past the needle which remained to mark the extreme reached. Thus the
indexes in the marine thermometer acted in the opposite sense to those in the
meteorological thermometer. This design should have worked very well because,
once the needles were immersed in the mercury, due to surface tension they
were so strongly pressed against the tube that it was impossible to move them,
even by shaking or by using a powerful magnet. To retrieve the minimum index
it was necessary to cool the instrument below the minimum temperature to
which it had been exposed. When not in use, the indexes were stored well clear
of the mercury in two small reservoirs at the top of the instrument.
256 A. McConnell
Figure 2. Original Six's thermometers in the
Science Museum. Left: Meteorological ther-
mometer. Right: Deep-sea thermometer
(Science Museum photo).
4 Development and Use of the Six Thermometer at Sea
Six did not patent his thermometer but instrument makers were slow to copy
the design, probably due to difficulties of construction. However, by 1787 two
were sent abroad (Gent. Mag. 1787) and soon after one was made in America
for George Washington (Knowles Middleton 1969, 46-47). By the end of the
century it was in regular meteorological use in England (Kings College, nd).
The inherent defect of the thermometer was the tendency of the alcohol to
'creep' past the mercury column and displace it relative to the scale. Instrument
makers also changed the proportions that Six had laid down, shortening the
overall length and replacing the fragile glass-tailed indexes with shorter ones,
sprung with hairs or bristles laid parallel to the index itself. These, however,
were adversely affected by the alcohol and the tendency of the indexes to
shift when the instrument was no longer new led to many complaints. Before
mid-century, creosote was added to the alcohol as it was found to preserve the
springiness of the bristles to some degree but in rough conditions such as marine
use it proved inadequate as a long-term solution. For meteorological use there-
fore, the Six thermometer was superseded by separate maximum and minimum
thermometers of Rutherford's pattern. As these had to be kept strictly hori-
zontal Six's thermometer did continue to be used at sea and also for balloon
observations.
There is no evidence that the Six marine thermometer was ever produced
commercially. In 1798 Aboville (Aboville 1798) proposed using the air version
at sea, sealing the open end to exclude water and dirt, and replacing the atmos-
pheric pressure by that of a second mercury column, such that even at the low-
est temperatures encountered its level was higher than that in the other limb. In
fact this suggestion was not taken up, for it proved unnecessary; the elasticity
of a small volume of air sealed into the top of the tube sufficed to return the
three liquid segments when the temperature fell.
The first known use of Six's thermometer at sea was in 1803 during the cir-
cumnavigation of the Russian ships Nadezhda and Neva under the command of
Captain von Krusenstern of the Imperial Navy. The narrative of the voyage
(Krusenstern 1813,8-9,202-3) states that a Six thermometer was purchased in
England and used as a supplement to a waterbottle, for measuring subsurface
temperatures. It was lowered to various depths, down to 125 fathoms, but its
readings were at variance to those obtained from water brought up in the bottle
and measured on deck with a standard thermometer.
Accounts of the use of Six's thermometer are to be found in the narratives
of the several Arctic voyages undertaken by John Ross in 1818 (Ross 1819) and
by Edward Parry in the following years (Parry 1821, 1824, 1826). The Admiral-
ty was concerned with the search for a Northwest Passage which would link the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was hoped that by testing the water in various
inlets the explorers would be able to identify a strong current· of saline water,
less cold than that of the surface layer, as indicative of a channel leading to an
open polar sea. The results, however, were inconclusive. It is apparent from
these and other reports that the unknown pressure factor and the tendency of
the indexes to shift under rough handling caused the thermometer readings to be
viewed with suspicion by some observers, though by no means all of them.
It must have been apparent to those using it that the Six thermometer was
susceptible to error for the mercury could be mQved by simple pressure of
fmger and thumb upon the bulb. As the instrument was made of relatively elas-
tic glass, it deformed under pressure and returned to the surface unharmed.
However, the falsely high reading which it presented, coupled to some ignorance
of the precise temperature at which sea water attained its maximum density, led
258 A. McConnell
to erroneous conclusions about the existence of a deep-water mass having a uni-
form temperature around 40°F, as may be seen from the literature of the period.
Edward Sabine, who had accompanied Ross on his 1818 voyage, was in the
Caribbean Sea in 1822 and t,?ok the opportunity to see how deep this supposed
isotherm lay within a tropical ocean. He had with him Six's thermometers, made
expressly for this purpose, which he described as being of the ordinary pattern
except that the tubes were sealed rather than corked as was sometimes the case.
I take this to mean that the same pattern of thermometer might serve for obser-
vations in air and in water, provided that in the latter instance the tube was
sealed, whereas it was immaterial for its performance on land.
Sabine sent two thermometers down to an estimated 1000 fathoms and in
order to determine if they were affected by pressure.he enclosed one within a
sturdy sealed iron cylinder weighing 75 lbs while the other was carried within a
lighter cylinder, perforated to allow the water to pass freely through it. The ex-
periment was not wholly successful for while the unprotected thermometer
came up having registered 45.5°F, water was found to have entered the sealed
container and its thermometer had registered 49.5°F (Sabine 1823).
Later he was able to repeat the test, lowering two thermometers as before,
this time to. 650 fathoms (Sabine 1825,45). He found that the readings were
identical and his assumption that it was a correct one was reinforced when he
subsequently heard of the experiment carried out some years previously by
Captain Wauchope off the coast of equatorial Africa. Wauchope had sent down a
standard thermometer within an insulated container to a depth of about 1000
fathoms and had been able to take a reading with the thermometer still in the
water sample which was recovered.
These two methods were scarcely comparable for the tests were carried out
on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Wauchope's bottle was of doubtful efficiency
and had taken well over an hour to haul up. Furthermore, both men gauged the
depth from the amount of rope veered out and could not compensate for the
unknown effect of any submarine current which might drag the line out of
plumb. That Sabine should fail to recognize the deleterious effects of pressure
on the Six thermometer is regrettable for he was a scientist who, by virtue of
his position in the scientific community of the day, wielded considerable in-
fluence on the methods of work adopted by Royal Navy expeditions. It seems
only reasonable to conclude that if all these results agreed broadly then all were
equally distorted by pressure or subject to other errors of apparatus or method.
In 1875 the geologist Joseph Prestwich published a tabulation, analysis and
discussion of all known deep-sea temperature measurements made between 1749
and 1868 (prestwich 1875). He wished to discover the form of protection given
to the Six thermometer during the early decades of its use. Lowering or raising a
fragile glass instrument over the side of a rolling ship was a hazardous operation
and it seems to have been general practice to enclose the thermometer within
some kind of metal tube or box, as Sabine had done. If such a container was left
open to the sea the thermometer quickly responded to the temperature of the
ambient water but if an attempt was being made to compensate for the effect of
pressure then it would be logical to seal the container, overcoming the conse-
quent insulating effect by leaving it down for some time.
With hindsight, Prestwich was able to draw conclusions from the results
claimed as to which expeditions had made conscious efforts to protect their ther-
mometers from any pressure effect. He found that the French expeditions of
D'Urville, Berard and Du Petit-Thouars in the 1820s and 1830s had made such
efforts, though they had not always used thermometers of the Six type. Nor was
it generally realized that temperature does not consistently fall with depth. For
this reason Six's thermometer is less suited to use in polar seas where the coldest
water may be at the surface, with warmer but more saline water below, some-
times underlain by colder water, the whole system varying with the seasons and
even from basin to basin within the area.
In the years prior to the mid<entury altemative methods of measuring deep-
sea temperatures were considered by scientists and inventors, namely the con-
struction of a bimetallic thermometer and the sheathing of a liquid-in-glass ther-
mometer within some kind of totally pressure-resistant cover. The bimetallic
thermometer never gained acceptance for it too was unreliable when sent to even
modest depths while the construction of a metal pressure-tight case proved unat-
tainable. Frequently the apparatus returned from below with the outer rigid case
flattened against the thermometer, crushed by extreme pressure. Alternatively,
water was found to have penetrated the seal, in which event the reading could
not be relied upon.
One technique remained as a practical possibility: that of sealing the ther-
mometer within a glass sheath. This form of protection had been described by
Walferdin (Walferdin 1839) who favored an overflow thermometer of his own
design, rather than the Six 'thermographe' because of the likelihood of the in-
dexes in the latter becoming dislodged. However, sheathing the entire thermome-
ter within an evacuated glass cover made it very insensitive. The instrument
makers, Negretti and Zambra, claimed to have overcome this with their pressure-
protected Six thermometer first produced in 1857. It seems to have been de-
veloped as a result of the observations made in 1844 by James Glaisher of the
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on the temperature of the River Thames. At a
depth of only 25 feet within the river, the additional pressure amounted to three-
quarters of one atmosphere and had a marked effect on the thermometers that
Glaisher was using. Glaisher and Admiral Fitzroy, then at the Board of Trade,
approached Negretti and Zambra for a solution to their problem (GB Board of
Trade 1857,55). After fruitless attempts to perfect a watertight case, the firm
produced a thermometer whose bulb was hermetically sealed within an outer
cylinder of glass (Fig. 3) sufficiently thick to withstand great pressure. To retain
sensitivity, the space between bulb and sheath was partially filled with mercury,
the remaining space being a vacuum. By this means the outer glass could be com-
pressed without having any effect on the inner bulb, while still transmitting
temperature rapidly. Some fifty thermometers made to this pattern were sup-
plied to Royal Navy vessels on surveying duties.
In use, these thermometers were fixed to a boxwood back, their scales being
Figure 3. Pressure-protected Six thermometer by
Negretti and Zambra, 1859. Length of folded tube is
325 mm, tube bore is 2.68 mm (Science Museum
photo).
Figure 4. Miller-Casella thermometer

by Casella 1968. Length of folded
tube is 300 mm, tube bore is 1.25 mm
(Science Museum photo).
engraved on zinc plates alongside the tube. They were sent down within a valved
copper case of the type invented by Jamieson in 1820 (Jamieson 1820). This
case permitted free flow of water past the thermometer as it was lowered, the
valves closing on hauling-up so that a water sample was collected at the same time.
While these long thermometers were being made by Negretti and Zambra, the
instrument maker Casella was producing a much shorter model, with smaller in-
dexes, its glass tube being mounted on an ebonite back and the whole instrument
carried within a perforated copper case. (Ebonite, a mixture of 2/3 rubber and
1/3 sulphur, was invented in America in 1833 and rediscovered independently in
Britain about ten years later. It was impermeable to water and thus not subject
to warping and shrinkage under pressure.) Casella's 'Hydrographic Office' (HO)
pattern thermometer still retained the three-limbed form of the original Six
instrument.
HO thermometers were taken on the deep-sea dredging cruises made by HMS
Lightning and HMS Porcupine during 1868 and 1869 but were found to be un-
satisfactory since the zoologists on board were looking for very small temper-
ature differences distinguishing the various water masses. When the cruises ended,
the Deep-Sea Committee of the Royal Society met at the Hydrographic Office
where the Society's Vice-President, Dr. W. A. Miller, made proposals, subse-
quently published (Miller 1869), for a pressure-resistant thermometer. Made by
Casella, this instrument now took the form of a simple U-tube, of the same
overall length as the earlier HO pattern. While the volume of thermometric fluid
was now much reduced, Casella managed to keep the graduations of each degree
as large as those on the HO thermometer by reducing the bore of the tube from
1.70 mm to 1.25 mm. The indexes were correspondingly reduced, both in length
and diameter. The U-tube terminated in two bulbs; the larger was sealed into an
outer glass and the space between the bulb and sheath was filled with alcohol, its
vapor and some air. Scales were engraved on slips of white glass fixed beside the
tube. The back of the tube was also of white glass so that the level of mercury
and the indexes could be clearly seen against the dark ebonite backplate. Small
bulges or aneurisms at the ends of each limb prevented the indexes from being
carried up into the bulbs or down into the U-bend of the tube (Fig. 4).
Apparently the Negretti-Fitzroy thermometer was rather fragile and since it
did not overcome the problem of shifting indexes its production was soon dis-
continued. Its existence must, however, have been known to many of the hydro-
graphic surveyors. Curiously, Miller claimed to have been ignorant of it. When
his instrument was put forward as a new invention, the firm of Negretti and
Zambra made strong objections to his claim. They themselves had failed to patent
this improvement and they may have recognized that it was not new; certainly
both Walferdin and Sir William Thomson (Thomson 1850) had experimented
with thermometers wholly sheathed within glass. Letters arguing their case ap-
peared in Nature (Negretti and Zambra 1873, Scott 1873) and the firm was still
expressing its resentment against the Miller-Casella thermometer many years
later, in the form of a lengthy article in their 1880 Catalogue (Negretti and Zam-
bria 1880, 509-511). Possibly the reason that this bitterness was felt so long
262 A. McConnell
after the Negretti 'long' thermometers ceased to be made was that the same prin-
ciple was used by that ftrm for protecting simple minimum thermometers but
they were in any case nOw making the shorter U-tube version similar to those of
Casella.
Whatever its failings, the MilleroCasella thermometer represented Six's ther-
mometer carried as nearly to perfection as was possible. Casella made strenuous
efforts to gauge the effects of pressure On his instruments, building a pressure-
chamber for test purposes. Such chambers did not truly parallel deep-sea con-
ditions for under compression the materials composing the thermometer heated
up considerably. Within the sea this heat was dissipated as fast as it built up but
within the confmed space of the test chamber it required a long time and careful
comparison with a standard thermometer to enSure that this heat was lost. Cap-
tain Davis of the Hydrographic Office reported On these tests to the Royal Socie-
ty (Davis 1871). Casella tested not only his own thermometers but also various
instruments supplied by the makers Pastorelli and Elliott, Negretti and Zambra
having declined to submit any of their manufacture.
Despite the careful tests which preceded production of the MilleroCassella
thermometer it was found that no simple correction table held good for all in-
struments. Though then theoretically possible, in practice each instrument had
individual characteristics of manufacture. A separate table had to be made for
each, and this in turn required that it be lowered to a known depth for testing
and comparison, a requirement that was still very difficult to fulfill, given the
technical problems of depth-sounding in a truly vertical line.
HMS Porcupine took MilleroCasella thermometers on her next cruise in 1870.
To obtain a temperature profIle of the water, serial soundings were made in
which one or more thermometers were attached to the line. A measured length
of line was paid out, then hauled in, the thermometers read and their indexes
reset, and the assembly paid out again to greater depth. It was a tedious busi-
ness; one serial sounding in the Bay of Biscay where the temperature was
measured every 50 fathoms down to 850 fathoms occupied the crew of Porcu-
pine for an entire day (Wyville Thomson 1973,299).
The MilleroCasella thermometer, fitted within the standard perforated copper
case, was used for the majority of observations made by HMS Challenger during
the important cruise round the world made between 1872 and 1876, and they
alone provided the data which appear in the tabulated results in the Challenger
Report. Several thermometers were usually lashed to the sounding line, a fixed
distance apart. In temperate and tropical waters a rough temperature profIle
could be drawn from such sounding but her scientists encountered great difficul-
ties when working in Antarctic seas. This was due to the layered structure of the
water; cold melt from icebergs overlay, because of its freshness, warmer saline
subsurface water, which in turn covered cold deep masses. Here the failure of
the Six thermometer to indicate the depth at which maxima and minima oc-
curred rendered it of little use. In addition, Challenger's observing stations were
very far apart and so there was no opportunity to relate one profIle to the others.
During the course of her voyage Challenger received from England some ex-
amples of the newly-invented reversing thermometer patented in 1874 by
Negretti and Zambra (GB Patent 1874) and this instrument, though its readings
were not incorporated into the Challenger data, was in time to supersede the Six
thermometer for oceanographical work. However, in the meantime, after Chal-
lenger returned in 1876 her thermometers were subjected to a further series of
tests by Professor Tait (Tait 1881), with a view to reassessing the value of the
pressure correction that should be applied to the observed readings made during
the voyage.
Tait felt that the values in Davis' table of corrections were excessive, given
that the thermometer bulbs were already protected. When he came to inspect
the thermometers he found them rather dissimilar; the size of each degree varied
and the indexes were uncertain in their action. Such 'unscientific' instruments
were however, he admitted, probably better suited to rough handling than the
more delicate conventional thermometers used ashore.
Davis and Casella had gone to considerable trouble to ensure that the heating
of the test thermometers under compression in the test chamber was allowed to
dissipate fully before making any measurements. Tait found that ebonite, chosen
as a backing for its otherwise good qualities, had the property of retaining such
heat to the detriment of the reading. Testing the compressibility of glass, and the
effect of this at various distances along the thermometer tube, he found that the
relatively large quantity of mercury occupying the lower thin-walled aneurisms
led to grave distortion of the register.
After long and painstaking experiments he concluded that Davis' results had
been largely due to faulty laboratory techniques and were therefore inapplicable
to a thermometer within the deep sea. These faults arose from: a pressure effect
on the unshielded parts of the tube; the heat of the test-tank water which had
varied from day to day; the peculiar quality of ebonite as a heat retainer; and the
uneven pressure-gradient operating across the glass forming the outer pressure
sheath, which might induce a temperature change in the glass itself. Since all
these faults, except the first, occurred only under test conditions, that one alone,
namely the effect of pressure upon the tube, should have been taken into ac-
count. Hence the values in Davis' table were indeed excessive.
The Miller-Casella thermometer was widely advertised throughout the latter
years of the 19th century. It figures in the catalogues of such notable instrument
makers as Elliott, Hicks and Pastorelli, besides those of Casella and Negretti and
Zambra. It seems certain that all these makers constructed their own thermome-
ters, but in addition the Six deep-sea thermometer was offered for sale by a host
of smaller firms who probably purchased them wholesale for subsequent resale
under their own names.
Oceanographic apparatus was often included among the classes of Philosophi-
cal Instruments and Hydrographical Apparatus displayed at the great internation-
al exhibitions and trade fairs of the late 19th century which were held in Britain
and abroad. Here Six's thermometers were offered for sale by the instrument
makers as well as appearing on the stands set up by British and foreign hydrogra-
264 A. McConnell
phic departments.
And so, one hundred years after its flrst appearance, the errors of Six's ther-
mometer were being determined to a far greater accuracy than the marine instru-
ment itself was capable of registering. The wide-bore tube, necessary for contain-
ing the indexes, meant that each degree Fahrenheit occupied between 1 and 1.5
mm along the scale. Subdivision by eye was impractical. The combination of two
liquids within a single tube was also unsatisfactory. On land, the Six thermome-
ter was replaced for accurate readings by the Rutherford separate maximum and
minimum thermometers, each containing a single liquid; for deep-sea use it was
replaced by the reversing thermometer which employed mercury as the ther-
mometric fluid and did not require indexes. Nevertheless, the Six thermometer
has remained as the only instrument capable of giving both extremes of tempera-
ture on a single instrument and its present simple form and ease of operation has
kept it in the instrument makers' catalogues in the same form for a second century.
Acknowledgment
Sections 1, 2 and 3 are abridged from a paper researched and written in collabo-
ration with my colleague Jill Austin of the Physics Department, Science Museum
and submitted to 'Notes and Records of the Royal Society'. My thanks are due
to Dr. Austin for allowing me to draw on this work for the benefit of this
Congress.
References
Aboville. 1798. Changement propose au thermometre de l' Anglais Six ... Paris
J. Mines 9, 75-76.
Cavendish, C. 1757. A description of some thermometers for particular uses. Phil.
Trans. Roy. Soc. 50,300-310 + Tab 11.
Davis, J. 1871. On deep sea thermometers. Proc. Met. Soc. 5(55), 305-342.
Gent. Mag. 1770.40,252-253 and 319-320.
Gent. Mag. 1771. 41, 28-29.
Gent. Mag. 1781. 51,511.
Gent. Mag. 1783.53(2),726-727.
Gent. Mag. 1784.54(1),86-87.
Gent. Mag. 1787.57(1),18.
Gent. Mag. 1793. Obituary of James Six FRS. 63(2), 864.
GB Board of Trade. 1857. Meteorological Papers No. 1.
GB Patent. 1784. No.1 09 Thermometer for deep sea soundings.
Jamieson, R. 1820. Description of the marine thermometer case ... Phil. Mag.,
57.294-300.
Middleton, W. E. Knowles. 1969. Catalogue of meteorological instruments in the
(Smithsonian) Museum of History and Technology, Washington, 128 pp.
Miller, W. A. 1869. Note upon a self-registering thermometer adapted to deep
sea sounding. Proc. Roy. Soc., 17,482486.
Negretti and Zambra. 1873. Nature, 8, 529.
Negretti and Zambra. 1880. Negretti & Zambra's Encyclopedic Illustrated and
Descriptive Catalogue) London, 561 pp.
Parry, W. E. 1821. Journal of a voyage ... London, 310 pp. + Appendices.
Parry, W. E. 1824. Journal of a second voyage ... London, 571 pp.
Parry, W. E. 1826. Journal of a third voyage ... London, 337 pp.
Prestwich, J. 1875. Tables of temperature of the sea at different depths ...
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 165,587-672.
Rittenhouse, D. 1786. Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., 2, 206.
Ross, J. 1819. A voyage of discovery ... London, 252 pp. + Appendices.
Sabine, E. 1823. On the temperature at considerable depths of the Caribbean
Sea. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 113,206-210.
Scott, R. 1873. Nature 9, 102.
Six, J. 1782. An. account of an improved thermometer. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.,
72,72-81.
Six, J. 1784. Experiments to investigate the variation of local heat. Phil. Trans.
Roy. Soc., 74, 428436:c,.
Six, J. 1788. Experiments on local heat. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 78, 103-120.
Six, J. 1794. The construction and use of a thermometer. Maidstone, 62 pp. +
Appendices.
Tait, A. 1881. The pressure error of the Challenger thermometers. Appendix,
Challenger Report Narrative 2. London, 42 pp.
Thomson, C. Wyville. 1873. The depths of the sea. London, 527 pp.
Thomson, W. 1850. The effect of pressure in lowering the freezing point of
water experimentally demonstrated. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 2,267-271.
Walferdin, F. 1839. Memoire sur les effets de pression ... Bull. Soc. Geol.
France, 5, 83-93.
North Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Observations:
A History
Kern E. Kenyon
1 Introduction
For more than the past five years I have been trying to understand why the sea
surface temperature has the marked variation with longitude on a scale of several
thousand kilometers which is observed in the North Pacific, particularly at mid-
latitudes, and what causes its time variations. This interest led me to the present
short history of sea surface temperature observations. I have attempted to as-
semble the early observations, descriptions, and thinking about the large-scale
surface temperature distribution of the North Pacific Ocean.
Murray's (1898) introductory comments on surface temperature changes dur-
ing the course of the year can be equally well applied to the large-scale longitudi-
nal variation of surface temperature and its time changes: "'Variations of
temperature are intimately associated with all changes in nature, and no investi-
gation is more important or more interesting to the scientific man than the study
of these temperature variations, and their relation to other natural phenomena."
European and American observations of North Pacific sea surface tempera-
tures came after a certain amount of information on surface temperature had al-
ready been collected and discussed in other oceans, particularly in the North
Atlantic. This occurred naturally in the period of exploration of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, during which the range of European based expeditions
increased with time until the North Pacific was fmally discovered and explored.
One of man's first interests in ocean surface temperatures was scientific. Ac-
cording to Humboldt (1850, Vol. 2, p. 281): "Attention was directed at the
close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, in reference
to the distribution of heat and meteorology, to the decrease of heat with in-
268 K. E. Kenyon
crease of western longitude (the curvature of the isothennallines); ..." He con-
tinues (in footnote),
In the temperate and cold zones, this inflection of the isothermal lines is gen-
eral between the west coast of Europe and the east coast of North America,
but within the tropical zone the isothermal lines run almost parallel to the
equator; and in the hasty conclusions into which Columbus was 'ed, no ac-
count was taken of the difference between sea and land climates, or between
east and west coasts or of the influence of latitudes and winds, as for instance
those blowing over Africa. (Compare the remarkable considerations on
climates which are brought together in the Vida del Almirante, cap. 66.) The
early conjecture of Columbus regarding the curvature of the isothermal lines
in the Atlantic Ocean was well founded, if limited to the extra-tropical
(temperature and cold) zones.
Presumably the feature of interest here is the "inflection observed in the iso-
thennal lines a hundred nautical miles to the west of the Azores" (Humboldt
1850, Vol. 2, p. xvi, p. 276), or perhaps a hundred leagues west of the Azores
(Morison 1963,p. 251, 264).
A practical interest in sea surface temperatures developed later as an aid to
navigation. Helland-Hansen (Murray and Hjort 1912, Ch. 5, p. 213) says,
At a comparatively early date it was known that the temperature of the sea-
surface was strongly influenced by the currents. In the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, for instance, it was noticed that there was a sudden change of
temperature on passing from the cold Labrador Current south of the New-
foundland Banks to the adjacent warmer waters of the Gulf Stream. Benjamin
Franklin, who made a careful study of the Gulf Stream, advised ships' officers
to use the thermometer in order to find out when they entered the Gulf
Stream, 'so they might take advantage of the current when voyaging eastward,
and steer clear of it when sailing westward.
The chief cause of the deflection of the isothennal lines in the ocean from
parallels of latitude was believed to be the existence and direction of ocean cur-
rents (Milham 1912, p. 95), which in turn can be caused by the wind or by the sun.
2 Exploration, 1521-1776
It is now difficult to fmd out what scientific observations were made and re-
corded during the period of exploration of the North Pacific, which was domi-
nated by the Spanish. As indicated above, some knowledge of surface tempera-
tures in the North Atlantic had accumulated well before mercury thennometers
became available in about 1714 and the Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales were
devised in 1724 and 1742, respectively, or before the first satisfactory marine
time keeper was made in 1759. These developments made possible accurate
determinations of sea surface temperature and longitude. In any case, the first
North Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Observations: A History 269
opportunities for European surface temperature measurements in the open
ocean occurred during this exploration period.
Balboa, in 1513, was the first European to see the North Pacific, which was
called the South Sea because of the orientation of the coast from which he saw
it. Magellan was the first circumnavigator and the first European to sail into the
North Pacific in 1521. Drake was the next circumnavigator. He explored the
northwes~ coast of North America in 1578. Bering passed through the Bering
Strait in 1728, which completed the discovery of the American continent.
Some additional voyages of exploration in the North Pacific during this
period of time are: Bezerra and Grijalva, 1532; Valle, 1536; d'Ulloa, 1539;
Alarcon (with Coronado on land), 1540; Cabrillo, 1542; Mendaiia, 1567-69;
Cavendish, 1586-88; Fuka, 1592; Mendaiia and Quiros, 1595-96; Quiros, 1605-
06; Spilbergen, 1614-17; Hamel, 1653; Nowosilzoff, 1745; Byron, 1764-66;
de Pages, 1767; Wallis, 1766-68; Carteret, 1766-69; Bragin, 1772; and Heceta
and Ayala, 1775. The ship tracks and some information about these and other
North Pacific voyages are contained in Humboldt's (1845-62) Atlas, in Murray
(1895), and in Beaglehole (1966). Additional sources are Findlay (1851),
Prestwich (1876), Von Arx (1962), and Silvera and Oakes (1974).
3 Scientific Expeditions, 1776-1876
Accurate surface temperature measurements were taken over many parts of the
North Pacific during this 100-year period, which happens to begin and end with
British expeditions. Also during this time ocean surface temperature observations
from several individual voyages started to be collected and analyzed together
(e.g., by Matthew Fontaine Maury 1858-59), so that learning from the previous
experiences of earlier observers could begin. A list of most of the major expe-
ditions, which were either primarily or partly scientific in their main purpose, is
given in Table 1.
On Cook's third voyage the Hawaiian Islands were discovered and the north-
west coast of North America and the Bering Strait were explored. A number of
sea otter skins were obtained along the Oregon coast and then sold in China,
which directly or indirectly led to several subsequent voyages (Findlay 1851,
p. xii).
Marchand made a voyage to Vancouver Island with the hydrographer
Fleurieu. The concept of a separate clockwise gyre in the eastern North Pacific
may have started with "Fleurieu's Whirlpool" (Findlay 1851, p.1256)basedin
part on the inferred northward currents found northeast of Hawaii during this
expedition (Fleurieu 1801, p. 175).
Krusenstern's expedition explored the northwest and northeast Pacific and
stimulated his atlas of the Pacific Ocean published about 25 years later.
Kotzebue and Lenz made surface and subsurface temperature measurements
in the North Pacific. The observed decrease in temperature with depth at low
latitudes suggested to Lenz (1847, see also Prestwich 1876) that the flow of low
270 K.E.Kenyon
Table 1. Scientific Expeditions, 1776-1876. Expedition leader given first, chief
scientist second
Date Observer Ship Date Observer Ship
1776-80 Cook, Burney Resolution, 1837-42 Belcher Sulphur
Discovery 1839-42 Wilkes, Vincennes,
1785-88 La Perouse Boussole Dana Peacock,
1790-92 Marchand, F1eurieu Solide Porpoise
1790-95 Vancouver Discovery 1843-46 Belcher Samarang
1794 Malaspina Descubierta 1845-51 Kellet Herald
1803-06 Krusenstem, Nadiejeda, 1850-54 McClure, Investigator
Horner Neva Armstrong
1815-18 Kotzebue, Chamisso Rurick 1857-60 Wuller- Novara
1823-26 Kotzebue, Lenz Predpriatie storf
1825-28 Beechey Blossom 1873-74 Belknap Tuscarora
1826-28 Lutke, Erman Ssenjavin 1874-76 Hensen, Gazelle
1826-29 D'Urville Astrolabe Rottok
1831-36 Fitzroy, Darwin Beagle 1872-76 Nares, Challenger
1836 Vaillant Bonite Thomson
1836-39 Du Petit Thouars Venus
temperature water below the surface was equatorward and the surface flow of
higher temperature water was poleward.
A large number of ocean surface temperature measurements and meteorologi-
cal observations were made by Vaillant, who remarked that in the Pacific the sea
is more frequently warmer than the air, except at the equator (prestwich 1876).
Also tabulated surface temperatures are given by Belknap (1874).
In addition to the expeditions in Table 1, Humboldt, for whom the Humboldt
Current is named, traveled extensively during 1800-04, and he sailed from Peru
to Mexico. Other voyages in the North Pacific are by Dixon and Portlock, 1785;
Lawrie and Guise, 1786; Hall, 1816; and Wasiljeff, 1819 (Humboldt's Atlas
1845-62).
The Challenger Expedition ends the 1DO-year period of scientific expeditions
in Table 1 and begins a period of extensive exploration of the deep sea. After
1876 surface and subsurface observations in the North Pacific were made by the
expeditions of the Vitiaz, 1887-88;Planet, 1906-07; Carnegie, 1928-29; Dana II,
1928-30; Snellius, 1929-30; Albatross, 1947-48; and Galathea, 1950-52. The
ship tracks and discussions of these and other research cruises after 1876 are
given in Schott and Schu (1910), Schott (1935), and Wiist (1964).
4 Thennal Charts and Tables
It is known now that the long term annual mean difference in surface tempera-
ture between 200 N and 600 N in the Pacific is about 20°C and that the mean an-
nual temperature range is about lOoC at mid-latitudes, where it is a maximum.
Also at mid-latitudes the mid-ocean surface temperature varies with longitude
typically by 2°C on a scale of several thousand kilometers at any time of year.
The early expeditions usually traversed this spatially and temporally varying
temperature distribution along paths which had somewhat complex geometric
shapes over distances of several thousand kilometers and during time intervals of
a significant fraction of the seasonal period. A good description of the surface
temperature field on the large-scale therefore had to wait until a sufficient num-
ber of individual cruises had been made at about the same time of year.
Makaroffs (1894) early map (Fig. 1) is remarkable in that it defmes the large
scale features of the surface temperature field (variations with latitude and longi-
tude) over most of the North Pacific in August on the basis of relatively few ob-
servations, not all of which were made in August. For example, the thermal
equator is north of the actual equator, the temperature decreases with increasing
latitude north of the thermal equator, and there is a large-scale longitudinal vari-
ation in temperature at mid-latitudes. In fact, the shape of the isotherm pattern
in Fig. 1 is similar to that based on long term monthly mean temperatures for
August (e.g., U. S. Hydrographic Office 1944) and is also similar to that based
on long term annual mean temperatures available today (see also Fig. 3).
The first map showing isotherms of yearly normal temperatures for the whole
world was made by Humboldt (1817, see also Humboldt 1850, Vol. 1, p. 323
and Humboldt's Atlas 1845-62), and later improved by Kamtz in 1831 and
Mahlmann in 1841; Dove was the first to chart the monthly mean temperature
in 1852 (Milham 1912, p.94). These maps show isotherms of surface air tempera-
ture. However, for long term averages the isotherm patterns of surface sea and
air temperature are quite similar over most of the North Pacific and only differ
in magnitude by about 1° or 2°C.
Matthew Fontaine Maury organized the systematic collection and analysis of
oceanographic and meteorological data, including sea surface temperatures, by
ships from the U. S. and several other countries. Thermal charts (eleven individ-
ual sheets) of sea surface temperature for the North Pacific were started by
Maury and were in progress in 1858-60 (Maury 1858-59, Vol. 1, p. 303; Vol. 2,
p. 873). This was probably the first attempt to make ocean thermal charts for
the North Pacific in an organized and comprehensive way.
Sources of several early sea surface temperature maps for the North Pacific
are given in Table 2. The time period of Table 2 begins and ends with efforts of
the U. S. Hydrographic Office, and it is before many BT temperature data be-
came available, since the BT was invented in 1938 (Spllhaus 1938). Among the
most carefully constructed charts in this list are those of Makaroff, PuIs, and the
U. S. Hydrographic Office (1944), the last of which was supervised by Sverdrup
at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Sources in Table 2 which also contain
,1t"""'"'-r"~~ 11oo.f.q... "'............ ~...'H
.,i;'ntrn.,I,W'-.'1 ((oJ" .', #OUl~~.u rr
(,l~ .. I:.· .. r;r~I.I ••' ('f...~.. I' n
''''.'.h'. n'~'I' ~~~ ~.j.k" .. \"J ,,1 f< .....-tlvtfltl
,..... "."".II~t'~.~ "......to l . t..· ... , If' tIII.·I·~ .1. 10 __ 1
r~.. I~....,., .. ,-..,.. ""7r.-- r.--"~

,. _ . J.l.o.a ..... ~ ........... ~
r.. , •. ..( . . r... ... -1 te.,•. \'........ 1·..._
'11'......,... ":-r'- po.
,-~,.n"".1
"1' _.c...,,,.,., .• t..
_U., •• I •..-,...~ 4",.-4.t.
.1"_
-t------...: w
tl t tJ
., fU
"'-
......
Figure 1. North Pacific sea surface temperature map for August from Makaroff (1894). Cruise tracks are shown by thin lines and iso-
therms by thick lines. Individual ship's observations are indicated by small numbers and temperatures averaged over five degree squares
from U.S. Hydrographic Office (1878) are given by large numbers.
~
50
:c.
::n
(")
til
G
'til"
Table 2. Surface temperature maps, 1878-1944. Full citations in References ...s::j;j>
Date Author Description Date Author Description (")
G
1878 U.S.N. Hydro- Eastern Pacific, annual 1910 Schott & Schu Whole ocean, annual mean >-l
G
graphic Office mean 1911 Schulz Subpolar Pacific, monthly means all months S
'"0
Whole ocean, annual mean, monthly means all G
1891 Schott Western Pacific, monthly 1928 Tsukuda
means all months months ~
1894 Makaroff Whole ocean, August mean 1930 Uda & Okamoto, Western Pacific, annual mean, monthly means ~
1895 Buchan Whole ocean, annual mean 1931 Uda all months o0-
1895 Puls Equatorial Pacific, monthly 1935 Schott Whole ocean, monthly means Feb., May, Aug., G
'"
means all months Nov. ~
1898 Koppen Whole ocean, annual mean 1942 Sverdrup, Whole ocean, monthly means Feb., Aug. o·
::s
1904 Wada Western Pacific, annual mean, Johnson, '"
monthly means all months Fleming >
1909 Thorade Eastern Pacific, annual mean, 1944 U.S. Hydro- Whole ocean, monthly means all months e;
monthly means all months graphic Office .....
'"
Q
'<
N
.....:I
W
274 K. E. Kenyon
tabulated surface temperature data are U. S. Hydrographic Office (1878), Maka-
roff, Wada, Schott and Schu, and Tsukuda. Okada (1935) gives tables of sea sur-
face temperature data only. A few surface temperatures are given by Prestwich
(1876).
Some additional sea surface temperature charts are given in Krummel (1907)
and Schokalsky (1917). Koppen's (1911) second chart is shown opposite (Fig. 2).
Two early atlases by Krusenstern and Berghaus (see Findlay 1851) I have not seen.
5 Temperature Range and Anomaly
Humboldt's work suggests that an early interest in ocean surface temperatures

developed from climate studies of surface air temperature on land which were
extended over the oceans when sufficient data became available. Later when ade-
quate sea surface temperature data had accumulated to construct sensible maps,
then maps of other quantities derived from surface temperature were made also.
Two derived properties are the annual range and the longitUdinal anomaly of sea
surface temperature, and both are temperature differences.
The annual range of sea surface temperature at a given location is the differ-
ence between summer and winter temperatures at that location. The annual range
of sea surface temperature for all oceans is shown in Fig. 2, and is taken from
Murray (1898). Murray's map is based on extreme temperatures, whereas an
earlier one by Schott (1895) is based on monthly mean temperatures. Murray's
purpose was to describe and understand the distribution of extreme temperature
range which ocean plants and animals must tolerate during the year in order to
survive, since most biological species in the ocean cannot regulate their own
temperature.
Figure 2 shows maximum annual range at mid-latitudes and smaller ranges at
higher and lower latitudes. The largest annual range at mid-latitudes is at the
western boundary of the ocean and there is a secondary maximum in the eastern
Pacific. These general features are similar to those on the earlier and later maps
by Schott (1895, 1935) based on monthly mean temperatures, and they are con-
firmed by the more recent and more extensive data available today.
The longitudinal anomaly of surface temperature is constructed by subtract-
ing a longitudinally averaged temperature for each latitude from the original
temperature field. This procedure essentially removes the relatively strong nega-
tive northward temperature gradient from the temperature field and draws at-
tention to east-west contrasts in temperature. An example of a map of longi-
tudinal anomaly of sea surface temperature for the North Atlantic and North
Pacific is given in Fig. 3, taken from Koppen (1911).
This map (Fig. 3) shows that in the North Pacific the annual mean tempera-
tures are relatively high in the west and low in the east at low latitudes (see also
Fig. 1) and high in the east and low in the west at high latitudes. In other words,
the temperature field contains an eastward temperature gradient on the scale of
the ocean basin. Similar features are shown in Koppen's (1898) earlier anomaly
.... D~L UNO. or Tal .UU£OII1'KIIl'nloTUR' Til OOI.I.H
...-...-
T ........ _ . . - - _ .............. , _ . .... ~ ...... ., ..................... ttl . . " .....
... _-.......- ...... -....,..-Or
z
........o
=:r
'"C:j
I>l
O.
::t?
(")
til
(1)
I>l
...~
;'
(")
(1)
....,
(1)
S
'0
(1)
...
I>l
E"
...
(1)
o0'"
(1)
'"
~
.....
o·::s
'"
>
g;
'"o.....
...
'<
IV
Figure 2. Extreme annual range of sea surface temperature for all oceans from Murray (I895). Contour interval is 5°F. -..l
Ul
276 K. E. Kenyon
Figure 3. Annual mean surface temperature (solid) and its longitudinal anomaly
(dashed) for the North Atlantic and North Pacific from Koppen (1911). Contour
interval is 2°C for both.
map and on more recent maps. Schott (1935, charts 25, 26) gives longitudinal
anomaly maps for February and August, which have the same character as that
for the annual mean temperatures.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NSF Grant OCE77-23807. I would like to especial-
ly acknowledge the fine assistance of the library staff of Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in assembling some material for this paper. C. S. Cox told me
about Morison's one and two volume works on Columbus (cited in Morison
1963), H. Friis helped me search for Maury's North Pacific thermal charts. G.
Neumann found Koppen's anomaly map (Fig. 3) for me, and M. Tsuchiya made
several specific comments on the manuscript and helped me locate a few Japa-
nese works.
References
Beaglehole, J. C. 1966. The exploration of the Pacific. Third edition. Stanford

University Press, Stanford, California, 346 pp.
Belknap, G. E. 1874. Deep-sea soundings in the North Pacific Ocean, obtained in
the U.S.S. Tuscarora. U. S. Hydrographic Office No. 54, Government Printing
Office, Washington, D. C., 51 pp., 19 plates, 9 profiles, I chart.
Buchan, A. 1895. Report on oceanic circulation, based on observations made on
board H.M.S. Challenger, and other observations. Report on the Scientific
Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1872-76. A
Summary of the Scientific Results. Physics and Chemistry, Part 8, Appendix
2,38 pp., 16 charts. Eyre and Spottiswoode, London.
Findlay, A. G. 1851. A directory for the navigation of the Pacific Ocean; with
descriptions of its coasts, islands, etc., from the Strait of Magelhaens to the
Arctic Sea, and those of Asia and Australia; its winds, currents, and other
phenomena. Part I. The coasts of the Pacific Ocean, 650 pp. Part II. The
islands, etc., of the Pacific Ocean, pp. 651-1388. R. H. Laurie, London.
Fleurieu, C. P. C. 1801. A voya~e round the world performed during the years
1790, 1791 and 1792 by Etienne Marchand. Vol. I, Longman and Rees,
Cadell and Davies, London, 361 pp.
Hum boldt, A. 1817. Sur les lignes isothermes. Memoires de Physique et de Chimie
de la Societe d' Arcueil, t. iii, pp. 143-165, Paris.
Humboldt, A. 1850. Cosmos: a sketch of a physical description of the universe.
E. C. Otte, trans. Vol. 1,375 pp., Vol. 2,367 pp. Harper and Brothers, New
York.
Humboldt, A. 1845-62. Kosmos: Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung.
Vols. 1-5 and Atlas. Gottascher, Stuttgart and Tubingen.
Koppen, W. 1898. Jahres-Isothermen und - Isanomalen der Meeresoberfliiche.
Annal. Hydrogr. Marit. Meteorol., 26, 356-359, chart 9.
Koppen, W. 1911. Wodurch ist die hohe Wiirme Europas und des Nordatlanti-
schen Ozeans bedingt? Annal. Hydrogr. Marit. Meteorol., 39, 113-119, chart 8.
Krummel, O. 1907. Handbuch der Ozeanographie. Vol. 1. Englehorn, Stuttgart,
526 pp.
Lenz, E. 1847. Bemerkungen liber die Temperatur des Weltmeeres in verschied-
enen Tiefen. Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg, 5, 65-74.
Makaroff, S. O. 1894. Le "Vitiaz" et l'Ocean Pacifique. St. Petersburg, Vol. 1,
337 pp., Vol. 2, 511 pp., 31 charts.
Maury, M. F. 1858-59. Explanations and sailing directions to accompany the
wind and current charts. 8th edition. William A. Harris, Washington, D.C.,
Vol. 1,383 pp., 39 charts, Vol. 2,874 pp., 7 charts.
Milham, W. I. 1912. Meteorology. A text book on the weather, the causes ofits
changes, and weather forecasting. Macmillan, New York, 549 pp.
Morison, S. E. 1963. Journals and other documents on the life and voyages of
Christopher Columbus. Heritage Press, New York, 417 pp.
278 K. E. Kenyon
Murray, J. 1895. Historical introduction, pp. 1-106, 1 chart. Report on the
Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years
1872-76. A Summary of the Scientific Results. First Part. Eyre and Spottis-
woode, London.
Murray, J. 1898. On the annual range of temperature in the surface waters of
the ocean, and its relation to other oceanographical phenomena. Geograph.
Journ., 12, 113-137.
Murray, J. and Hjort, J. 1912. The depths of the ocean. Macmillan, London,
821 pp.
Okada, T. 1935. The mean atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, air temperature,
and sea surface temperature of the North Pacific Ocean and the neighboring
seas during the years 1911 to 1930. Imp. Mar. Obs., Kobe, Japan, 173 pp.
Prestwich, J. 1876. Tables of temperature of the sea at different depths beneath
the surface, reduced and collated from the various observations made be-
tween the years 1749 and 1868, discussed. With map and sections. Phil.
Trans. Roy Soc. Lond., 165,587-674.
PuIs, C. 1895. Oberfliichentemperaturen und Stromungsverhiiltnisse des Aequa-
torialglirtels des Stillen Ozeans. Arch. Deutsch. Seewarte, 18(1), 38 pp., 4
charts.
Schokalsky, J. 1917. Okeanographia. Petrograd, 614 pp.
Schott, G. 1891. Oberfliichen-Temperaturen und Stromungen der Ostasiati-
schen Gewiisser. Arch Deutsch. Seewarte, 14,45 pp., 7 charts.
Schott, G. 1895. Die jiihrliche Temperatureschwankung des Ozeanwassers.
Petermann's Mitteil., 41,153-159, chart 10.
Schott, G. 1935. Geographie des Indischen und Stillen Ozeans. Boysen, Ham-
burg, 413 pp., 37 charts.
Schott, G. and Schu, F. 1910. Die Wiirmeverteilung in den Tiefen des Stillen
Ozeans. Annal. Hydrogr. Marit. Meteorol., 38, 2-25, 15 charts.
Schulz, B. 1911. Die Stromungen und die Temperaturverhiiltnisse des Stillen
Ozeans nordlich von 400 N-Br. einschliesslich der Bering-Meeres. Annal.
Hydrogr. Marit. Meteorol., 39,177-190,242-264, charts 15, 17-19.
Silvera, R. L. and Oakes, C. 1974. The Hill collection of Pacific voyages. The
Castle Press, Pasadena, California, 333 pp.
Spilhaus, A. F. 1938. A bathythermograph. J. Mar. Res., 1,95-100.
Sverdrup, H. U., Johnson, M. W. and Fleming, R. H. 1942. The oceans, their
physics, chemist~y and general biology. Prentice-Hall, New York, 1087 pp.
Thorade, H. 1909. Uber die Kalifornische Meeresstromung. Oberfliichentemper-
aturen und Stromungen an der WestkUste Nordamerikas. Annal. Hydrogr.
Marit. Meteorol., 37,17-34,63-76, charts 5,10,11.
Tsukuda, K. 1928. On the mean atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, and sea sur-
face temperature of the North Pacific Ocean. Mem. Imp. Mar. Obs., Kobe,
Japan, 2, 163-201, 39 charts.
Uda, M. 1931. Of the monthly oceanographic charts of the adjacent seas of
Japan based on the averages for the 13 years from 1918-1930, with a discus-
sion of the current system inferred from these charts. Part 2: From January
to June. Jour. Imp. Fish. Exper. Sta., 2, 59-81, 12 charts.
Uda, M. and Okamoto, G. 1930. Of the monthly oceanographical charts of the
adjacent seas of Japan based on the averages for the 11 years from 1918-
1929, with a discussion of the current system inferred from these charts.
Part 1: From July to December. Jour. Imp. Fish. Exper. Sta., 1,39-55,12
charts.
U. S. Hydrographic Office. 1878. Meteorological charts of the North Pacific
Ocean from the equator to latitude 45 0 North and from the American coast
to the 180th meridian. Govt. Print. Off., Washington, D. C., 20 pp., 15 charts.
U. S. Hydrographic Office. 1944. World atlas of sea surface temperatures.
Second edition. H.O. No. 224. U. S. Navy Hydrographic Office, Washington,
D. C., 48 charts.
Von Arx, W. 1962. An introduction to physical oceanography. Addison-Wesley,
Reading, Mass., 422 pp.
Wada, Y. 1904. Temperature moyenne annuelle de 1a surface de 1a mer dans
l'Ocean Pacifique occidental. Bull. Centro Meteorol. Obs., Japan, 1, 1-14, 13
charts.
Wust, G. 1964. The major deep-sea expeditions and research vessels, 1873-1960.
Progress in Oceanography, 2, 1-52.
Some Aspects of the Historical Development on the
Studies of the Kuroshio and the Oyashio
Kiyomitsu Kitano
1 Introduction
The Kuroshio is a narrow intense ocean current which generally flows along the
eastern coasts of the Japanese Islands. It is characterized by a large-scaled
oceanic jet stream comparable to the atmospheric jet stream. It also may be con-
sidered as a baroclinic western boundary current of the Subtropical Gyre. Its
counterpart in the North Atlantic is the Gulf Stream.
The Kuroshio was ftrst noted by Varenius in the middle of the seventeenth
century and the name Kuroshio was applied to it in the Japanese literature at
the end of the eighteenth century (Uda 1974). Berghaus (1837), on the other
hand, called it the Japan Current. The origin of the name Oyashio is not clearly
indicated, but the Oyashio Current is probably synonymous with the Kurile Cur-
rent used by Schrenck in 1873 (Uda 1943a).
In 1893, Yuzi Wada initiated scientiftc studies of the Kuroshio and the Oya-
shio with drift bottle experiments (Uda 1964). Since then, the early exploratory
and rather comprehensive general descriptions of the Kuroshio and the Oyashio
have steadily accumulated chiefly due to the studies of the Japanese oceanogra-
phers (Uda 1930, 1933, 1935b, 1938 and 1940, Shigematsu 1933, Koenuma
1936, 1938, 1939, Suda 1936, 1938, Kishindo 1930), and also of the German
oceanographers Wiist (1929, 1930, 1936) and Schott (1935) between 1929 and
1940.
At present, the Kuroshio and the Gulf Stream are the most explored western
boundary currents. Their outstanding features are their intense baroclinicity and
their three dimensional structure. Their dynamics are in many ways similar
(Neumann 1968).
Studies of the Kuroshio and the Oyashio 281
The Kuroshio System was first defined by Wust (1936). It consists of the fol-
lowing subdivisions; the Kuroshio, the Kuroshio Extension and the North Pacific
Current. It runs northeast from Formosa to Riukiu and then close to the coast
of Japan as far as Lat. 35 0 N. The Kuroshio Extension flows nearly in an easterly
direction, probably with two branches as far as Long. 1600 E. The North Pacific
Current flows eastward, probably as far as Long. 1500 W (Sverdrup et al. 1942)
(Fig. 1). The northern branch of the Kuroshio Extension is rapidly mixed with
the cold waters of the Oyashio that flows southward close to the northeast ~oasts
of Japan.
The Oyashio originates in the Bering Sea and runs along the coast of Kamchat-
ka and the Kurile Islands, and to the area east of the Japanese Islands. The water
flowing out from the Okhotsk Sea is sufficient to feed some branches of the
Oyashio (Suda 1936).
The origin of the Kuroshio is generally located in the current east of Luzon
and Taiwan, as a continuation of the North Equatorial Current (Uda 1964). How-
ever, Nitani (1972) considered its location as comprising a rather broader region
from 1300 E to the west of Luzon Strait, and from the southern boundary of
the North Equatorial Current to the northern boundary of the Kuroshio in the
East China Sea.
2 Front, Velocity and Transport of the Kuroshio
The double frontal structure of the Kuroshio Extension was frrst noted by Suda
(1936) and Uda (1943b). Later, Kawai (1955a) defmed the Polar Frontal Zone
consisting of both the Kuroshio and the Oyashio fronts. This zone is divided into
50'
, '"3
'0
'"9-
..
<f>
'3
~
~
-
Northwest
PacifiC Rise - 40·
-
-- NORTH
PAC I FIC
CURRENT
KUROSH IO EXTENSION
J'~
0...
1,
v60
~+/
N
20·
120' E 130' 150· 160' 170·
Figure 1. Subdivisions of the Kuroshio System. After Kawai (1972).

282 K. Kitano
three areas: the Kuroshio, the Transition and the Oyashio areas. The Kuroshio-
Oyashio Front east of Japan had a marked resemblance to a symmetrical com-
pound vortex street at least two-thirds of the time during the years 1955-1964
(Barkley 1968).
Masuzawa (1955) estimated the maximum velocity of the Kuroshio with a
G.E.K. as about 4 knots, but south of the Japanese Islands, the velocity fluctu-
ates between 1.5-4.5 knots with an average of 3 knots (Shoji 1970). It is strong-
est from spring through summer and decreases in autumn (Uda 1964). The
speed of the Kuroshio may vary by as much as 20% of the mean velocity within
a period of several hours. Possibly these short period variations are closely re-
lated to internal waves of tidal or inertial periods (Shoji and Nitani 1966).
The volume transport of the Kuroshio south off Shionomisaki is 2040 mil-
lion cubic meters per second (Masuzawa 1951a), but the transport of the Kur-
oshio Extension is somewhat higher, i.e., 3744 million cubic meters per second
(Sugiura 1955a,b). On the other hand, according to Shoji (1970), the volume
transport of the Kuroshio is moderate, i.e., 50 million cubic meters per second
with a range of 30-60 million cubic meter per second. It is maximal in the spring
and fall and minimal in winter and early summer (Neumann 1968). The maxi-
mum speed and maximum relative transport in the Kuroshio south of Japan
takes place about three months later than it does east of Formosa (Taft 1972).
3 Kuroshio as an Oceanic Jet Stream
The axis of the Kuroshio Front is also the axis of the jet stream (Kawai 1955b).
The theory of a free jet was first applied to an ocean current such as a western
boundary current like the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio by Rossby (1936).
Newton (1959) and Kitano (1959) initiated comparative studies of the oceanic
jet stream and the atmospheric jet stream.
Defant (1961) posed the question as to why the Gulf Stream has such a con-
centrated narrow form over long distances which sometimes meanders? The
same question can be asked for the Kuroshio. These strong oceanic boundary
currents are analogous in many respects to the jet streams in the upper atmo-
sphere and are especially characteristic for dynamic free jets (Defant 1961).
The core of turbulent energy and the atmospheric jet stream generally over-
lie the main ocean currents. In the Atlantic Ocean the mean latitudinal positions
of the Gulf Stream and the maximum kinetic energy are nearly coincidental. In
the Pacific, the Kuroshio and the North Pacific currents underlie the position of
the core of maximum turbulent kinetic energy. Thus, there appears to be a close
relationship between the latitudinal position of the mean upper air and the warm
ocean current (Kao and Farr 1966).
In general, the oceanic jet stream accompanies free boundary layers on both
sides. The warm core is mostly generated in the free boundary layer to the right
and the cold low salinity layer in the free boundary layer to the left. The warm
core of the Gulf Stream was first recorded by Dietrich (1937) as a ribbon of hot
water, with more detailed observations reported by Fuglister and Worthington
(1951). The warm core of the Kuroshio was first detected by Uda (1940 and
1943b) and discussed in greater detail by Masuzawa (1955) and Kawai (1955a,b).
The narrow cold low salinity layer of the left free boundary layer in the Gulf
Stream was discussed by Church (1937) and by Ford et al. (1952). The cold
layer of the Kuroshio, called the inner cold zone by Kawai (1955a), is considered
as a train of induced parasitic eddies. Furthermore, Masuzawa (1955) indicated
that this cold, low salinity water, rich in dissolved oxygen, is not upwelled from
deeper layers but rather is the Oyashio or Oyashio Undercurrent Water dragged
out by the Kuroshio Current. Nagata (1970) observed many temperature in-
versions in the cold water belt along the northern edge of the Kuroshio, where
the colder and warmer waters are a "patchwork." Kitano (1956, 1958, 1959) in-
terpreted the warm core as "gobs" and the cold low salinity layers as cold rem-
nants, as a result of the presupposed parasitic eddies generated in the left and
right free boundary layers of the turbulent jet stream such as the Kuroshio and
the Gulf Stream.
Kawai et al. (1969) measured the horizontal convergence or divergence in the
surface layer of the Kuroshio south of Shikoku. The order of horizontal divergence
amounted to 1~ sec- 1 • The belt of high speed in the anticyclonic shear zone of
the Kuroshio Extension is about three times as wide as in the cyclonic shear
zone. The cyclonic horizontal shear is larger than the anticyclonic horizontal
shear. The magnitude of the horizontal gradient for the cross-current velocity
may be estimated as about 0.5 x 10-5 sec- 1 ,which gives an approximate magni-
tude of the horizontal divergence or convergence (Masuzawa 1964).
4 Good Indicator of the Kuroshio
The central axis of the strongest current indicates the main stream axis of the
Kuroshio, with a breadth, which is mostly between 20 and 50 miles (Uda 1951).
The strongest current of more than 2 knots is only about 30 miles wide in the
Kuroshio Extension (Masuzawa 1955).
A narrow band with a sharp front around the 15°C isotherm at a depth of the
200 m coincided with the stream axis of the Kuroshio in Enshunada and its of-
fmg (Uehara 1962). This isotherm at 200 m is a good indicator of the Kuroshio
path (Uda 1964). Towing a temperature sensor along the 15°C isotherm at a
depth of 200 m also delimit a position close to the maximum surface current in
the Gulf Stream (Fuglister and Voorhis 1965).
The temperatures indicative of the Kuroshio axis at 200 m depth differ in
various parts, 16.5°C in the East China Sea and off Shikoku, 15.0°C off Enshu-
nada and 13.5-14.0°C for the Kuroshio Extension (Kawai 1969).
5 Meandering of the Kuroshio
The cold water region enlarges when the speed of the Kuroshio weakens and
the wavy meander off Enshunada becomes larger. The period of this fluctu-
ation is about 5 years or more (Nanniti 1960). The Kuroshio meander south
284 K. Kitano
of Japan exists for a period of years, disappears in other years, and then sud-
denly reappears (White and McCreary 1976). The Kuroshio had a normal pat-
tern until 1933, but anomalous conditions appeared in the autumn of 1934 (Uda
1964). Thereafter, the large meandering off Shionornisaki continued from 1934-
1944 and again occurred during 1953-1955, and during 1959-1963. In 1975 a
large meander appeared and it still exists (Fig. 2).
There is strong evidence that the Kuroshio meander over the Shikoku Basin
may be interpreted as an inertial Rossby wave. This bimodal behavior in the
Kuroshio, however, appears to be unique, a phenomenon which has not been
demonstrated for other western boundary currents (Robinson and Taft 1972)
(Fig. 3). A small transient meander seems to precede the formation of the large
stable Kuroshio meander south of Kumano Nada and Enshunada (Solomon
1974). The rate of advance of small transient meanders east of Kyushu shows
an order of magnitude agreement with the barotropic Rossby wave velocity
(Fig. 4). The Kuroshio meandering south of Japan (White and McCreary 1976)
is present when the baroclinic transport is weak and is absent when the trans-
port is large. When present, the wavelength of the meander is directly related to
the magnitude of the transport. The meander can be modeled as a Rossby lee
wave phenomenon induced by passing a zonal baroclinic inertial jet past a
coastal perturbation scaled to represent Kyushu. All major changes in the path
of the Kuroshio off Cape Shionomisaki were preceded by the formation of
small trigger meanders off Kyushu and its downstream propagation to Cape
Shionornisaki. Small meanders off Kyushu occur throughout the year, but all
of those which triggered changes off Cape Shionornisaki were initially gener-
ated in the period January-April (Solomon 1978).
Figure 2. Meandering of the Kuroshio (1955-1956). After Teramoto (1974).

1300 E 135°E
I I
35°--
34° _ _ --34°N
33°- $. --33°N
32°-- --32°N
31° _ _ --31°N
1400 E
Figure 3. Normal and meander paths of the Kuroshio. After Solomon (1978).
34°N
• Aug. 1962
30°
- - - - deduced stream line
130° 135° 1400 E
Figure 4. Change of the path of the Kuroshio prior to the generation of the
meander, March-June 1959. After Shoji (1972).
286 K. Kitano
6 Oyashio
Sugiura (1955a) and Masuzawa (1955) supposed that the north-eastward current
of the Kuroshio branched out from the main stream of the Kuroshio at 37 and
38° N and at 144 and 145° E. The volume transport of the branch current is
estimated as 5-8 million cubic meters per second which amounts to about twen-
ty percent of the total eastward transport of the Kuroshio. Uda (1938) indicated
three elongate branches of the Oyashio to the south at 141-143° E, 146-147° E
and 150-151° E. Sugiura (1956) also observed several current branches in the
Oyashio area and designated as the main Oyashio Current, the Oyashio Counter-
current and a neritic water current off the coast of Tokachi. Kawai (1972) pro-
posed that these be called the First Oyashio Intrusion rather than the Inshore
Branch of the Oyashio or the First Branch of the Oyashio and the Second Oya-
shio Intrusion rather than the Offshore Branch of the Oyashio or the Second
Branch of the Oyashio. However, it seems that the actual existences of those
branch currents of the Oyashio and the Kuroshio Branch Current are still not
clearly demonstrated as they are mostly influenced by rather random fluctu-
ations.
The existence of the Oyashio Undercurrent (Uda 1935a) is considered to oc-
cur in the subsurface layers of the confluence zone of the Kuroshio and the
Oyashio after the subarktische Zwischenstrome of Wiist (1929). Masuzawa
(1951b and 1952) studied the fluctuation tendency of the intermediate water in
the Oyashio undercurrent.
Fukuoka (1950) studied T-S diagrams ofOyashio Water and Sugiura (1955a)
estimated the volume transport of the Oyashio as 2-6 million cubic meters per
second. The maximum velocity of the Oyashio Current south off Hokkaido to
the west of Long. 147° E is 1.3 knots and the width of the strongest current
is restricted to only about 10-15 miles (Sugiura 1959).
The southward volume transport of the coastal branch of the Oyashio fluctu-
ates from 1 to 4 million cubic meters per second, indicating remarkable seasonal
and secular changes. It increases when the northward shift of the Kuroshio Ex-
tension is prominent and decreases when the northward shift is not conspicuous.
This supports the supposition that the Oyashio is a compensation current of the
Kuroshio (Rata 1965).
The Oyashio's counterpart in the North Atlantic is the Labrador Current.
Both of these currents carry cold, subarctic water southward into lower latitudes
and are instrumental in the formation of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio frontal
systems (Cheney 1977).
References
Barkley, R. A. 1968. The Kuroshio-Oyashio front as a compound vortex street.

J. Mar. Res., 26, 83-104. .
Berghaus, H. 1837. Physikalischer Atlas, Abt. 2, Nr. 4.
Church, P. E. 1937. Temperatures of the western North Atlantic from thermo-
graph records. Publ. Sci. Ass. Oceanogr. Phys., 4, 1-32.
Cheney, R. E. 1977. Synoptic observations of the oceanic frontal system east

of Japan. Navoceano Technical Note, 3700-61-77,1-17.
Defant, A. 1961. Physical oceanography. Pergamon Press, London, 1. 729 pp.
Dietrich, G. 1937. Uber Bewegung und Herkunft des Go1fstromwassers. Veroff.,
Inst. Meereskunde, Univ. Berlin, N.F., A. Geogr.-naturwiss. Reihe, Heft, 33,
52-91.
Ford, W. L., Longard, J. R. and Banks, R. E. 1952. On the nature, occurrence
and origin of cold 10w-salinity water along the edge of the Gulf Stream. J.
Mar. Res., 11,281-293.
Fuglister, F. C. and Worthington, L. V. 1951. Some results of a multiple ship
survey of the Gulf Stream. Tellus, 3, 1-14.
Fuglister, F. C. and Voorhis, A. D. 1965. A new method of tracking the Gulf
Stream. Limnol. Oceanogr., Suppl., 10, 115-124.
Fukuoka,1. 1950. On the Oyashio. Kaiyo Hokoku, 1, 124-128.
Hata, K. 1965. Seasonal variation of the volume transport in the Oyashio area.
J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 21,193-201.
Kao, S. K. and Farr, G. R. 1966. Turbulent kinetic energy in relation to jet
streams, cyclone tracks and ocean currents. J. Geophys. Res., 71, 4289-
4296.
Kawai, H. 195 Sa. On the polar frontal zone and its fluctuation in the waters to
the northeast of Japan. I. Bull. Tohoku Reg. Fish. Res. Lab., 4, 1-46.
Kawai, H. 1955b. On the polar frontal zone and its fluctuation in the waters to
the northeast of Japan. II. Bull. Tohoku Reg. Fish. Res. Lab., 5, 1-42.
Kawai, H. 1969. Statistical estimation of isotherms indicative of the Kuroshio
axis. Deep-Sea Res., Suppl., 16, 109-115.
Kawai, H. 1972. Hydrography of the Kuroshio Extension. Kuroshio. Univ. Tokyo
Press, ppo 235-352.
Kawai, H., Sakamoto, H. and Momota, M. 1969. A study on convergence and di-
vergence in surface layer of the Kuroshio. I. Bull. Nansei Reg. Fish. Res. Lab.,
1,1-14.
Kishindo, S. 1930. On the vortical currents along the south side of the Kuroshio.
4th Pacific Sci. Congo Proc., 2B, 1059.
Kitano, K. 1956. Note on the eddies generated around the turbulent jet flow. J.
Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 12, 121-124.
Kitano, K. 1958. A possible interpretation of the warm core and the cold low
salinity layer. Bull. Hokkaido Reg. Fish. Res. Lab., 17, 103-110.
Kitano, K. 1959. Studies on the oceanic jet stream. Bull. Hokkaido Reg. Fish.
Res. Lab., 20, 1-66.
Koenuma, K. 1936. On the hydrography of the south-western part of the North
Pacific. Umi to Sora, 16, 133-155.
Koenuma, K. 1938. On the hydrography of the south-western part of the North
Pacific and the Kuroshio. II. Mem. Kobe Observ., 6, 349-414.
Koenuma, K. 1939. Study on the Kuroshio. Umi to Sora, 19,247-291.
Masuzawa, J. 1951a. On the transport of Kuroshio Current south off Shionomi-
saki. Kaiyo Hokoku, 2, 5-13.
Masuzawa, J. 1951 b. On the intermediate water in the Northeastern Sea of
Japan. I. Kaiyo Hokoku, 2, 5-13.
Masuzawa, J. 1952. On the intermediate water in the Northeastern Sea of Japan.
II. Kaiyo Hokoku, 2, 241-245.
Masuzawa, J. 1955. An outline of the Kuroshio in the Eastern Sea of Japan.
Oceanogr. Mag., 7, 29-48.
Masuzawa, J. 1964. A typical hydrographic section of the Kuroshio Extension.
Oceanogr. Mag., 16,21-30.
Nanniti, T. 1960. Long-period fluctuations in the Kuroshio. Papers Meteor. Geo-
phys., 11,339-347.
288 K. Kitano
Nagata, Y. 1970. Detailed temperature cross section of the cold water belt along
the northern edge of the Kuroshio. J. Mar. Res., 28, 1-14.
Neumann, G. 1968. Ocean Currents. Elsevier Pub. Comp., 352 pp.
Newton, C. W. 1959. Synoptic comparisons of Jet Stream and Gulf Stream
systems. The Rossby Memorial Volume, Rockefeller Inst. Press, pp. 288-304.
Nitani, H. 1972. Beginning of the Kuroshio. Kuroshio. Dniv. Tokyo Press, pp.
129-163.
Rossby, C.-G. 1936. Dynamics of steady ocean currents in the light of experi-
mental fluid dynamics. Pap. Phys. Oceanogr. Meteorol., 5, 1-43.
Robinson, A. and Taft, B. 1972. A numerical experiment for the path of the
Kuroshio. J. Mar. Res., 30, 65-101.
Shoji, D. 1970. Kuroshio. Marine Science, 2, 56-61.
Shoji, D. 1972. Time variation of the Kuroshio south of Japan. Kuroshio. Dniv.
Tokyo Press, pp. 217-234.
Shoji, D. and Nitani, H. 1966. On the variability of the velocity of the Kuroshio.
I. J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 22,192-196.
Schott, G. 1935. Geographie des Indischen und Stillen Ozeans. Verlag von C.
Boysen, Hamburg, pp. 1-413.
Shigematsu, R. 1933. On the current in the Sea of Okhotsk and the origin of
Oyashio. Hydro. Bull., 12, 325-328.
Solomon, H. 1974. On the possible role of Rossby waves in the formation of the
long-period Kuroshio meander off of Kumano Nada and Enshu Nada. J.
Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 30,46-48.
Solomon, H. 1978. Comments on a theory of the Kuroshio meander. Deep-Sea
Res., 25, 957-958.
Suda, K. 1936. On the dissipation of energy in the density currents. II. Geophys.
Mag., 10, 131-243.
Suda, K. 1938. On the variations of the oceanographical state of the Kuroshio in
the original region. I. Geophys. Mag., 11, 373-410.
Sugiura, J. 1955a. On the transport in the eastern sea of Honshu. I. Oceanogr.
Mag., 6, 153-163.
Sugiura, J. 1955 b. On the transport in the eastern sea of Honshu. II. Oceanogr.
Mag., 7, 21-28.
Sugiura, J. 1956. A note on current branches in the Oyashio area. J. Oceanogr.
Soc. Japan, 12, 117-119.
Sugiura, J. 1959. On the currents south off Hokkaido in the western North Pa-
cific. Oceanogr. Mag., II, I-II.
Sverdrup, H. D., Johnson, M. W. and Fleming, R. H. 1942. The oceans. Prentice-
Hall, New York, 1087 pp.
Taft, B. A. 1972. Characteristics of the flow of the Kuroshio south of Japan.
Kuroshio. Dniv. Tokyo Press, pp. 165-216.
Dda, M. 1930. On some oceanographical researches of the sea water of Kuroshio.
Rec. Oceanogr. Works Japan, 2, 59-81.
Dda, M. 1933. Hydrographical researches on the monthly conditions ofOyashio
and Kuroshio area. J. Imper. Fish. Exper. Station, 3, 79-136.
Dda, M. 1935a. On the distribution, formation and movement of the dicho-
thermal water off the northeast of Japan. Dmi to Sora, 15,445-452.
Dda, M. 1935b. The results of simultaneous oceanographical investigations in the
North Pacific Ocean adjacent to Japan made in August, 1933. J. Imper. Fish.
Exper. Station, 6, 1-130.
Dda, M. 1938. Hydrographical fluctuation in the north-eastern sea region adja-
cent to Japan in North Pacific Ocean. J. Imper. Fish. Exper. Station, 9,1-66.
Dda, M. 1940. On the recent anomalous hydrographical conditions of the Kuro-
shio in the south waters off Japan proper in relation to the fisheries. J. Imper.
Fish. Exper. Station, 10,231-278.
Uda, M. 1943a. Umi no Tankyushi. Kawade, Tokyo, 250 pp.
Uda, M. 1943b. On the structure of oceanic front. J.Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 2-4,
9-16.
Uda, M. 1951. On the fluctuation of the main stream axis and its boundary line
of Kuroshio. J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, 6-4,181-189.
Uda, M. 1964. On the nature of the Kuroshio, its origin and meanders. Studies
on Oceanography. Univ. Tokyo Press, Tokyo, pp. 89-107.
Uda, M. 1974. The Kuroshio and the Gulf Stream. Marine Science,5, 41-50.
Uehara, S. 1962. Fishery oceanography around Enshunada off the central Pa-
cific coast of Honshu. I. Bull. Tokai Reg. Fish. Res. Lab., 34, 55-56.
White, W. B. and McCreary, J. P. 1976. On the formation of the Kuroshio mean-
der and its relationship to the large-scale ocean circulation. Deep-Sea Res., 23,
33-47.
Wust, G. 1929. Schichtung und Tiefenzirku1ation des Pazifischen Ozeans auf
Grund zweier Liingsschnitte. Veroff. Inst. Meereskunde, Univ. Berlin, N.F., A.
Geogr.-naturwiss. Reihe, Heft 20, 1-63.
Wust, G. 1930. Meridionale Schichtung und Tiefenzirku1ation in den Westhii1ften
der drei Ozeane. J. du Conseil, 5, 7-21.
W\ist, G. 1936. Kuroshio und Golfstrom. Eine vergleichende hydrodynamische
Untersuchung. Veroff. Inst. Meereskunde, Univ. Berlin, N.F., A. Georgr.-
naturwiss. Reihe, Heft 29,1-69.
Seasonal Changes in the Suez Canal Following Its
Opening in 1869: Newly Discovered Hydrographic
Records of 1870-1872
Selim A. Morcos
1 Introduction
One hundred and ten years after its opening to navigation, the Suez Canal con-
tinues to represent a special case in oceanography. The highest surface salinity in
free connection with the world oceans is in the Bitter Lakes region, with a salini-
ty between 44 and 48%0. It was much higher after opening the Canal in Novem-
ber 1869, when the salinity was 61 to 68%0. The salinity decreased rapidly dur-
ing the first decades, and, since then, slowly during the following decades (Fox
1926, Wtist 1934, Wtist 1951, Morcos 1959).
In addition, very striking seasonal changes in salinity distribution and ocean-
ographic conditions accompany a seasonal reversal of current. In winter and
spring, the mean sea level in the Suez Bay is higher than that in the Mediterrane-
an, the current is strong and toward the north, and the salinity in the Bitter
Lakes shows its lowest values ('V 44% 0). In late summer and early autumn, the
reverse conditions prevail with the mean sea level higher at Port Said than Suez,
with the current predominantly southward, and with the salinity reaching maxi-
mum values ('V 48% 0). This picture has evolved through scattered observations,
but more definitely through three sets of 12-monthly sections along the Suez
Canal in 1924/25 (Fox 1926, Wtist 1934), 1933/34 (Faouzi 1951) and 1954/55
(Morcos 1960). Later three sections were made during 1964/66 (Morcos and
Gerges 1974, Morcos 1975), and five sections during 1966/67 (EI-Sabh 1969).
The seasonal variation of salinity was not thoroughly understood before the
1924/25 sections, and our knowledge of the hydrographic conditions of the
Canal during the half century after its opening depend on fragmentary obser-
vations. Being aware of this gap in our knowledge, the author continued to search
Seasonal Changes in the Suez Canal Following Its Opening in 1869 291
archives and libraries of relevance to the Suez Canal. These attempts met with
success in the archives of the Hydrographer of the Navy, Taunton, Somerset,
U.K., where records of monthly observations of temperatures and specific gravi-
ty of sea water along the Suez Canal were discovered. These recorded obser-
vations were obtained by H.M.S. Malabar during five cruises between March
1871 and April 1872, by H.M.S. Nassau in June 1870, and by H.M.S. Shear-
water in March 1872. The records of the seven cruises were hitherto completely
unknown to oceanographers, and have never been discussed in the oceanographic
literature, including the previous study by the author (Morcos 1972).
The limitation of the present study lies in the difficulty in comparing data
collected by different authors using different methods. The observations of old
hydrometers were made three decades before the classical definition of salinity
came into existence (Knudsen et al. 1902). However, one great advantage of the
H.M.S. Malabar observations is that the five seasonal cruises (March 1871 to April
1872) were made by one conscientious and competent observer (Navigating Lieu-
tenant J. Cumins Richards). This ensures comparability within the H.M.S. Mala-
bar observations. Moreover, the detailed notes and laboratory work of Richards
facilitates comparison with other data from that period. While the Malabar obser-
vations extend over the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the Red Sea and the Medi-
terranean, their main value lies in those taken in the Suez Canal. Unlike in open
seas, where long-term variations are minimal, the salinity and hydrographic con-
ditions in the Canal have undergone considerable changes with time.
2 Narrative
Between January 1870 and February 1871, H.M. Indian Troopship Malabar made
eight cruises between Bombay and Suez. By then the Suez Canal was open to
navigation (since 17 November 1869) and had started to receive increasing at-
tention. On her ninth cruise, Malabar left Bombay on 3 March 1871, travelling
through the Suez Canal to reach Portsmouth on 14 April 1871. Five such cruises
either northbound or southbound were made by Malabar through the Suez Canal,
the last being made in April 1872 on passage back to Portsmouth. Before the
opening of the Suez Canal, the overland route between Alexandria and Suez was
the alternative road from Northwest Europe to India. As early as February 1870,
Captain George Henry Richards, Hydrographer of the Navy, and Lieut.-Colonel
Clarke, Director of Engineering and Architectural Works of the Admiralty, visited
the Suez Canal on board the survey vessel H.M.S. Newport. This was her second
passage through the Canal with Captain G. S. Nares in command. A short descrip-
tion of this survey was given by Ritchie (1967). In their report, Richards and
Clarke (1870) gave support to the Canal route, "leaving the political bearing out
of the question."
By 1871, the Suez Canal had become a vital route for the Royal (British) Navy
and in a memorandum from Rear-Admiral George Henry Richards, Hydrogra-
pher of the Navy, in April 1873, on "Towing of H.M. Indian Troop Ships
292 S. A. Morcos
through the Suez Maritime Canal," reference was made to a host of ships such as
H.M. Indian Troopships, Malabar, Euphrates, Serapis, lumna, Crocodile, which
frequented the Canal.
In an earlier paper (Morcos 1972) on measurements of sea water density (or
salinity) in the Suez Canal during and after its opening in 1869, the author gave
a record of 27 investigations between 1867 and 1906. Many of these investi-
gations depend on one or several samples from the Canal or the Lakes. Only eight
of these observations were made along the Canal between the Mediterranean and
Red seas, but none of them were repeated on a monthly basis to reveal the
seasonal characteristics of the Canal.
It was immediately after the Second International Congress on the History of
Oceanography in Edinburgh in September 1972 that the author, on the kind in-
vitation of Rear-Admiral G. S. Ritchie CB, DSC, FRICS, Hydrographer of the
Navy, spent a few days visiting the archives and libraries of the Hydrographic
Department, Taunton, Somerset, U.K. With the assistance of Lieutenant Com-
mander Andrew C. F. David and Miss Margaret J. Perry (Curator), the data of
the five cruises in the Suez Canal were discovered in the handwritten "Remarks
Books" of Navigating Lieutenant J. Cumins Richards 1 ofH.M. Indian Troopship
Malabar. In addition, the search revealed two other cruises: those of H.M.S.
Nassau in June 1870, and of H.M.S. Shearwater in March 1872. The search in
the rich and interesting archives of the Hydrographic Department was rewarding
and required careful examination of material, since none of the seven titles refer
to the Suez Canal. .
In addition to these seven cruises, which were hitherto completely unknown
to oceanographers, reference is made here to two printed reports. H.M.S. New-
port passed through the Canal during its opening in November 1869, and at the
very end of the printed report, G. S. Nares (November 1869), Commander-in-
charge of Mediterranean Survey (who later commanded H.M.S. Challenger), gave
four observations of density, which were omitted when the same report was
printed as a Notice to Mariners (Richards, December 1869). The apparent reason
was the inaccuracy of the four observations which can be easily judged as much
lower than reported measurements from the same period. Moreover, in the sixth
edition of the Red Sea Pilot, the following note was given on page 68. "In De-
cember 1900, the density of the water at Suez was 1.031, and at Ismailia 1.038,
and at Port Said 1.027--Captain H.E. Purey.cust, H.M.S. Rambler." Attempts to
trace these data in the returns of H.M.S. Rambler were made without success.
Finally, a search was made for data of specific gravity and/or temperature in
1 John Cumins Richards (23.4.1838 - 2.8.1906). October 1861 fIrst listed as Master, Royal
Navy; April 1862 on ships in North America and West Indies Station; January 1868 Navi-
gating Lieutenant; June 1869 appointed to H.M. Troopship Malabar at Bombay; June 1872
Staff-Commander-Naval Assistant to the Hydrographer; from 1872 employed in the Hydro-
graphic Deparment writing Sailing Directions; 1883 Superintendent of Sailing Directions
Branch (SSD); 1893 placed on retired list with rank of Staff-Captain but re-employed as
SSD; 1903 retired as SSD but continued writing Sailing Directions until his death in 1906.
(From information provided by the Naval Historical Library and the Hydrographer of the
Navy).
the records or returns of the troopships: lumna, Euphrates, Serapis and Croco-
dile. Only the Remark Books of lumna, 1870 and Crocodile, 1872 are held in the
archives. The latter contains no details; H.M.S. lumna made her first passage
through the Canal in September 1870 and measurements of density were made
according to the following statement: "Bitter Lakes. The water in these Lakes is
very salt-the hydrometer floating out of the water-but I consider that the salti-
ness is about 46°, the water of the Mediterranean being only 27° and at Suez
32° ." This is the fust time mention is made of hydrometers being off scale in the
Bitter Lakes.
It remains to be said that a thorough search for the returns from W. H. Black,
Engineer, H.M.S. lumna, on hydrology of the Suez Canal, received 4 February
1886, failed to locate this report, which was not logged in on its receipt in 1886.
Evidence of the existence of such a report was found in a handwritten note on
the copy of the 1883 (third) edition of the Red Sea Pilot, apparently for the
preparation of the fourth edition which appeared in 1892.
3 Observations along the Suez Canal
From the above information and that available in Morcos (1972), a list of cruises
during which hydrographic observations were carried out along the Suez Canal
between 1870 and 1906 are given in Table I. From this table, it is seen that 14
cruises were carried out during the 37 years that followed the opening of the
Canal. Of these 14 cruises, 7 were listed before in Morcos (1972) and 7 others
are recorded now for the first time in the oceanographic literature. Quantitative-
ly, these newly found data have more than doubled the early data available on
the Suez Canal. However, the significance of these data is greater. They start in
June 1870, the first year the Canal was open to navigation, and were preceded
only by the Blue Cross observation in May 1870. They are concentrated into less
than two years, while the other observations are scattered over 37 years. The
Malabar observations show even greater advantages over the rest. They were
made during five cruises in March, October and November 1871, and February
and April 1872, thus covering one complete year. This is the first set of data
which can be used to investigate the seasonal change in the distribution of
salinity in the Canal. Their value is enhanced by the fact that the measurements
were made by the same man and presumably with the same instruments, a great
advantage over data from various different sources. However, there is a notice-
able gap in the Malabar observations for the period May to September. This may
be due to the trooping season. We were unable to find anything positive about
the trooping season, but one suspects that the troopships did not run through
the Red Sea at the height of the summer months.
A brief description of the data available from the first 9 cruises follows:
Table 1. Early cruises with hydrographic observations along the Suez Canal in chronological order
tv
No. Date Ship or From To No. of Depths Parameters Reference \CI
~
Collector Stations m
17-18 May 1870 Blue Cross 14 0 t, P Tissot (1872)
2* ?-14 June 1870 Nassau P.S. Suez 13 0 t, P Chimmo (1870)
3* 24-26 March 1871 Malabar (a) Suez P.S. 42 0 t, p! Richards (1871)
4* 14-18 October 1871 Malabar (b) P.S. Suez 42 0 t, P (unpublished)
5* 29-30 November 1871 Malabar (c) Suez P.S. 33 0 t, P
6* 14-16 February 1872 Malabar (d) P.S. Suez 31 0 t, P Richards (1872)
(unpublished)
7 8,10,18 February 1872 E. Tissot P.S. Suez 14 0 t, P Tissot (1872)
8* March 1872 Shearwater Suez P.S. 34 0 t, P Nares (1872)
(unpublished)
9* 4-5 April 1872 Malabar (e) Suez P.S. 30 0 t, P Richards (1872)
(unpublished)
10 October 1872 C.U.C.M.S. 14 0,4,7 p,S,Ch Durand-Claye (1874)
11 20-29 July 1874 C.U.C.M.S. 20 0,7,9 p,Ch Durand-C1aye (1875)
(unpublished)
12 11-15 March 1889 Vitiaz Suez P.S. 21 0,5,8 t, P Makaroff (1894)
13 16-24 October 1895 Pola P.S. Suez 11 0,2,5,9 t, C1
p, Luksch (1898) &
Natterer (1898)
14 19 September 1906 C.U.C.M.S. km.98 Suez 10 0,5,10 P Anonymous (1907)
(unpublished)
*The seven cruises indicated by the asterisk are listed here for the first time in print, and were not included in the survey of Morcos
(1972).
C.U.C.M.S. : Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez ~
P.S. Port Said ~
km.98
p Deversoir, i.e., covering only the Bitter Lakes and southern part of the Canal a<::
Density (or hydrometer reading) 0
....
(')
S Salinity by evaporation to dryness 0
Cl Chlorinity (g Clfl) '"
Ch Complete chemical analysis
S. S. Blue Cross, May 1870 and E. Tissot, February 1872
The earliest observations from the Canal were made by Captain Kennedy of the
British ship Blue Cross which passed through the Canal on two occasions: 31
December 1869 and 17-18 May 1870. During the second cruise, and at the re-
quest of the British Admiralty, Captain Kennedy made careful observations of
temperature and density of sea water using the best instruments available at
that time. The only data available from these observations are found in a small
booklet published in Alexandria in 1872 by E. Tissot, Engineer of the Egyptian
Government. Tissot gave no reference but his paper gives the impression that he
received the data directly or indirectly from Kennedy. However, the tempera-
tures were given in Centigrade, presumably recalculated from the original obser-
vations in Fahrenheit. Tissot made similar observations with different instru-
ments at the same fourteen stations in February 1872. He gave no details of his
instruments, as this was, with the exception of J. C. Richards of Malabar, a com-
mon denominator among the authors or observers in the nine cruises. No indi-
cation was given whether the so-called 'density' values in the paper were calcu-
lated from the readings of the hydrometer, or they were the unreduced readings
of the hydrometer. Attempts to find the original Blue Cross data met with little
success despite the efforts made in the Hydrographic Department, Taunton,
Somerset, the Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, and the General
Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen, Uandaff, Cardiff.
H.M.S.Nassau, June 1870
A one-page table on page 5 of a handwritten manuscript, which was also printed

as "Report on the sites for additional Red Sea lights," Commander W. Chimmo,
H.M.S. Nassau, June 1870, contains 31 stations between the Mediterranean and
Perim at the southern end of the Red Sea. Of these, 13 stations were made in
the Suez Canal. For each station, temperature in Fahrenheit and density was
given. It seems that old manuscripts gave hydrometer readings under the term
density, since they give it in association with observed temperature. For example,
under remarks for Station 1, an additional value was given "At 120 fathoms
1.0290/71.6." In very few cases reference was made to depth of scale. Therefore
all observations were presumably surface observations, and this holds true for
all the first nine cruises in Table 1.
H.M.S. Shearwater, March 1872
In a manuscript written and signed by G. S. Nares, Captain, a table entitled

''Table of the density of the water in the Suez Canal obtained in H.M.S. Shear-
water in March 1872, the Nile being low." In this table observations of density
and temperature from 34 stations in the Canal and two in Lake Menzaleh were
given.
296 S. A. Morcos
H.M.S.Malabar, March, October, November 1871, and February and April 1872
These are the most systematic and best recorded observations and were found in
a series of handwritten volwnes entitled "Remark Books." Each volume covered
one calendar year in 1869, 1871, 1872, while two volwnes (parts I and II)
covered 1970. The volwnes include many descriptive observations such as the
Suez Canal, a 6-page description of the Canal in the 1869 volwne. Other topics
were: navigation of the Red Sea, reported Shoal off Mocha, specific gravity of
the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, specific gravity of water in the Suez Canal, re-
marks on the passage through the Suez Canal. The early interest of Richards in
the Canal was demonstrated by the following account on his visit to the Canal, a
few days before its opening on 16 November 1869:
A party of the Malabar's officers (myself among the number) interested in the
success of this great undertaking, proceeded in a hired steam launch from
Suez its entire length to Port Said on the 13th and 14th and returned again
on the 15th and 16th November ... I sounded in mid-channel ... , but from
the short time at my disposal, and the character of the excursion, a pleasure
one, I had not the opportunity of examining it so completely as I should
have otherwise liked.
However, the main value of the works of the Navigating Lieutenant J. Cwn-
mins Richards is his systematic way of writing down his observations and his
perseverance in taking measurements over a period of two and a half years, first
in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea between Bombay and Suez (8 cruises from
January 1870 to February 1871), and then in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Suez
Canal, Mediterranean, Atlantic during the following five cruises between Bom-
bay and Portsmouth. However, it was in the Suez Canal that he concentrated
his observations. While making one observation per day in the open sea, in the
Canal he was working full time, taking observations at a rate of one every hour
or half an hour during daylight, thus collecting between 30 and 40 samples for
each passage. Navigation was not allowed in the Canal after sunset, but in some
instances Richards continued to take samples at night, e.g., his observations at
Ras EI Ech (km 14.3) between 20.00 and 05.00,14 to 15 October 1871.
4 Richards' Work on Reduction of Hydrometer Readings
British-made hydrometers were calibrated to give the specific gravity f ~~:~~ of

sea water at 60°F referred to distilled water at 60°F (= ISoS6C).2 Specific gravi-
ty measurements made at temperatures below or above 60° F should be corrected
according to tables, preswnably provided by the manufacturers or found in hand-
books. Many of the observers from that period reported the readings of their hy-
drometers without correction but recorded also the corresponding temperature,
2 According to KrUmmel (1907), British-made ~drometers calibrated to give f !~.~: were

less frequent than those calibrated to give: f ~S. 6. .
presumably to allow for correction. This left some sort of doubt, since many of
them did not clearly indicate whether or not they had corrected their readings.
Most of the old reports on specific gravity suffer from this ambiguity and sim-
ilar weaknesses. The excellence of Richards' observations can be appreciated
when compared to reports by some of his colleagues or contemporaries from the
same period. Richards made his own experiments to calculate the required cor-
rections. Under "Remarks on the Specific Gravity of the Red Sea and Arabian
Gulf," Remarks Book, Part II, page 19, Richards wrote:
In order to reduce to the standard temperature of 60 0 the observations made

on the density of these two seas, I heated some water from Suez Bay to 105 0 ,
and allowed it to cool gradually, ice being used on the outside to bring it be-
low the temperature of the air.
He then gave a table of the readings of the hydrometer no. 19 (Negretti and
Zambra) on two occasions. Then he continued:
The expansion of fresh water between 40 0 and 90 0 Far. is said to be uniform,

and assuming the glass material of the hydrometer to expand uniformly also,
the coefficient of expansion for 10 (taking the difference between 60 0 and
90 0 ) will be .00015, from which the following table of corrections for temper-
ature may be constructed to reduce to that of 60 0 •
Following this, he continued his arguments:
I am aware so high an authority as Maury 3 has stated that the expansion of

sea water, or its 'thermal dilatability', varies with the temperature, but the
observations I have made do not illustrate this; in fact, they tend to show that,
between the limits of 600 to 90 0 , it obeys the same law as fresh water. Wish-
ing to satisfy myself on this point, I made similar observations in the Arabian
Gulf in Lat. 17 N. Long. 65 0 E.
From this he concluded:
I take it these three sets of observations show that the expansion is uniform
between these temperatures and that the above table of corrections may be
assumed as correct.
In addition, Richards applied two other types of corrections: the second cor-
rection was the capillarity by which he added a 0.0005 on the original reading.
The reason for this is as follows. I had a glass vessel in which to place the
hydrometer so that it could be read from below, and the amount .0005 was
3 This may be a reference to Maury's Sailing Directions, containing Hubbard's Table of

Dilation of sea water (Vol. I, p. 237), which was commonly used to reduce hydrometer
readings to specific gravities at 15.560 c.
298 S. A. Morcos
assumed as the probable value of capillarity. By experiments since made, I
find that it (capillarity) is the same, or there is no perceptible difference,
for water from specific gravity 1 to 1.035, and the amount, taking the differ-
ence of the upper edge of the water, and the edge of the hollow seen below as
the true mark, is .0006.
The third correction was the "error of scale reading." This correction was
about -0.0006 to -0.0008 for open sea density, it was -0.0008 in Port Said,
-0.0005 in Suez, the correction of scale decreased in the Suez Canal proper,
with increase of density, from -0.0004 to -0.0001. Beyond reading values of
1.040, i.e., off scale, the error of scale reading was considered zero. These cor-
rections presumably were found in certificates provided by the instrument man-
ufacturers.
An example of the relative magnitude of the three corrections was roughly
+0 .0003 (correction for temperature reduced to 60° P) +0 .0005 (capillarity)
-0.0006 (scale reading) = +0.0002. This was for a sample in Suez Bay in March
1871. The correction for temperature increases by increase of temperature of
observations. Thus a typical case of a sample from the Suez Bay was +0.0003 in
March 1871 (61.5°p), +0.0022 in October 1871 (75°p), +0.0013 in November
1871 (69°p), and +0.0017 in April 1872 (71 0p).
Thus, the correction for temperature becomes very significant in the warm
months of summer in the Suez Canal, and should not be neglected.
5 Accuracy of Old Measurements in the Suez Canal
By the end of the nineteenth century, two types of constant weight, partially
immersed hydrometers were manufactured. Sets of several hydrometers cover-
ing the oceanic range of density and graduated in division of 0.0001 p (= 00.10
a) were used by research vessels. Por routine observations, a single hydrometer
covering a wide range and graduated in division of 0.001 p (= 01.00 a) was
normally used by naval and merchant vessels (KriimmeI1890). Various estimates
of the accuracy of these hydrometers are available in the old literature. More
recently, Gillbricht (1970) found that after gauging of the hydrometers under
working conditions it should be possible to reach an accuracy off 0.1%0 salini-
ty with the precise instruments normally used in marine sciences, whilst a small
hydrometer for the total range has an accuracy off 0.3%0.
Richards gave no description of his instruments, except for a reference to
Negretti and Zambra hydrometer no. 19. This should be one of the common
instruments used by the Royal Navy at that time. A study of Richards' data and
notes reveals that the hydrometer's scale has an upper limit of 1.040 (correspond-
ing to salinity of about 52%0 at 17.s°C). The scale was graduated in divisions
of 0.001, but Richards was able to read his hydrometer to the fourth decimal
place (mostly to 0.0005 and in some cases to 0.00025 and 0.00075). However,
the accuracy of measurements became greatly reduced in the Suez Canal, as ex-
plained by Richards in his letter of 18 April 1871 to the Hydrographer of the
Navy, on the occasion of his first measurements in the Canal in March 1871:
"The readings above 0.040 are, of course, out of scale marks of the hydrometer,
and may on account of the means resorted to for reading the excess be in error
to the extent of half a division, or 0.0005, but no more." An error of half a
division would correspond to about 0.63 % 0 salinity. It could be safely stated
that the sensitivity of the hydrometer was about 0.7 to 1.0 0 at the extremely
%
high salinities (> 52%0) when the hydrometer reading is off scale. In spite of
this low sensitivity, hydrometer observations were valuable in revealing many of
the changes in the distribution of salinity in the Suez Canal both in time and
space, due to the exceptionally large variations in salinity.
6 Recalculation of Old Observations by British-made Hydrometers
At the end of the nineteenth century, German, Russian and Scandinavian litera-
ture used 17.5°C as a standard tempe{,t~re, and hydrometers calibrated at
l7.5°C were manufactured to give f 17·S. The choice of 17.5°C was later
adopted by the international community aria used as a basis for the Hydrographi-
cal Tables (Knudsen 1901). A British-made hydrometer calibrated at 15.56°C
would read directly the density of a sea water sample at 15.56°C, but would sink
in the same sample at 17.5°C, thus giving a slightly lower reading than that given
by a hydrometer calibrated at 17.5°C. In order to apply Knudsen's Tables for
the recalculation of the original observations, the readings of the British hy-
drometers calibrated at 15.56°C should be corrected to give the corresponding
reading by a hydrometer calibrated at 17.5°C. A table for these corrections was
calculated using the following equation:
17.5 15.56 d 17.5 D 15.56

f 17.5 ::: f 15.56
d 15.56 D 17.5
where: d : density of sea water at a certain temperature

D : density of pure water at a certain temperature
The magnitude of this correction was about 00.10 to 00.25-for readings between
19.50 and 60.50, and was introduced before applying Knudsen's Tables to re-
duce the results to densities at 17.5°C. In the case of the Malabar results, the
two additional corrections, i.e., the capillarity, and scale correction were kept as
applied by Richards.
7 Monthly Distribution of Salinity along the Canal
The curves in Fig. 1 show the distribution of surface salinity along the Canal be-
tween Port Said Lighthouse (Km 0) and the southern end of the Canal at Suez
Bay ('V Km 162). The five cruises of H.M.S. Malabar are plotted in Fig. la to
Ie, H.M.S. Shearwater (March 1872) in la, and H.M.S. Nassau (June 1870) in
300 S. A. Morcos
-
Port· Said
March ,~---.......
2
......___
Lake
Timsah
4
__--
Great Bitter Little Bitter
Lake
5
Lake
6 7
Suez
60 1871j••••{""••••• •••...... 'iITJ.s.•.siies.rwater7 ...·· =,~

Ij
lIiIarch 1872
~ ••iI
50
~'__~M~a~r~ch~1~9~55~______ J ~.
....
....
=
r--
c:
70r---------------------,-r----r----~----~------~
as
(/)
60
50 / \
---
October 187V
40 September 1954 _"""Y
60
,.....------- ~--. ~--,
@
November 1876
\, .~
50
I ~.
Nove~ber /
"----
~~
1955
40
k~7
/"""
/
.-
---
-=60 f-
as
(/)
50 f-
I
I
A-
("-------"
February 1872
~.r---
",, @
February 1954" \
r-
'q
'-_...10-,,,
40 V
1'-
60 r--------~ ... @
rpril1872
..;50
~I April 1954"-
'-," ,-
.- r; I V- I
c:
=60 I- ... ....... ................
~
as
(/)
sau~•••··~
MS.~!~·····.. .... . ...
1-0...... CD
50 ..... June1955
June 187Q..~;···;··..
)..
.............
..... ...
~ .' r--,"" ~-
40
I I
o 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 km 180
- - - H.M.S. Malabar (1871/72) - - - S.A. MORCOS (1954/55)
Figure 1. Distribution of surface salinity along the Suez Canal.

Fig. 1f. In order to compare the old data with the recent ones, the surface salini-
ty from 1954/55 monthly cruises of Morcos (1960) were plotted to show the
change of salinity along the Canal in the same month. In Fig. 1, the two curves
from 1871/72 and 1954/55 results overlap or are very close towards the two
ends of the Canal, while illustrating large differences in salinity in its central
part. Assuming that the long term changes in salinity of the Suez Bay or the
Mediterranean were inSignificant during the last century, the salinity at the two
ends of the Canal remained unchanged except for local and seasonal fluctuations
due to the influence of fresh water from the Nile, or of highly saline water from
the Suez Canal. Both sources were significantly larger during the 1871/72
cruises. The river was relatively uncontrolled, and the salt bed in the Bitter Lakes
was larger and in direct contact with the water. Since then the salt bed was di-
minished greatly in volume with time, its exposed surface has decreased and been
covered by sediments.
As a general feature, the curves show an increase of salinity from Port Said
southward towards the Bitter Lakes, followed by a drop to the normal salinity
values of the Suez Canal. Although the maximum salinity values along the Canal
should be expected in the Bitter Lakes, the results of 1870/71 confmn the obser-
vations of 1954/55 that the maximum salinity values tend to move northward
during the winter months when the current is northward and to the south of
the Great Bitter Lakes, when the current is southward in late summer and autumn.
A substantial decrease in salinity is observed in the Port Said region in Sep-
tember, October and November (24 to 33 %0 ), from the normal values of 39%0
of the Eastern Mediterranean, due to the seasonal flood of the Nile (Damietta
Branch) which reaches its peak around September. A secondary decrease in salin-
ity is observed in most of the curves of Lake Timsah where the fresh water canal
(dug in 1863) flows.
The seasonal change in the distribution of salinity in the northern part of the
Canal has been generally described by G. S. Nares after his fourth visit to the
Canal in April 1871:
That there is constant communication going on between the Canal and Lake
Monzaleh, is clearly indicated by the fact, that in October, when, from the
overflowing of the Nile, the Lake is at its highest, and the water in it is
freshest: the water in the Canal is considerably fresher than salt water; and
in April, when the Lake is low and salt, the water in the Canal is much salter
than sea-water; and even equals that of the Bitter Lakes.
After his third cruise in the Canal in November 1871, J. C. Richards was able
to give more details:
The sudden rise which takes place in the density between the Large Bitter
Lake and Port Said appears to vary in its position on account perhaps of the
fresh water of the Nile finding its way in the Canal. For instance in the middle
of October when the River was 'beginning to subside the separation of what
may be termed the heavy water from the light was at 53 miles from Port
302 S. A. Morcos
Said, at the end of November it was at 19 miles, and at the end of March, 8 or
9 miles from the same place.
Near the south end the separation is shown to be nearly at the same place
on all three occasions, viz. at or near the south end of the Small Bitter Lake.
These tables appear to show that a constant exchange between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean is taking place. Upper and under-currents are of
daily occurrence, and the tide runs off while the water rises. From the line of
separation at the south end being, as we may suppose it to be, constant in its
position, more of the heavy water produced by evaporation would seem to
find its way into the Gulf of Suez than into the Mediterranean. This theory
receives some confirmation from the fact that the tides run rapidly at the
south end and weakly at the north.
The Admiralty Red Sea Pilot, second edition, 1873, in a footnote on page
236 gives remarks on the density of water in the Suez Canal. Part of this foot-
note is produced here for its value:
In April, when Lake Menzaleh is low and salt, the water in the Canal north
of the Bitter Lake is much salter than ordinary sea water, and even equals in
density that of the Bitter Lakes until within 7 or 8 miles of Port Said, when
there is a sudden decrease in the saltness of the water which brings it to the
same density as that of the Mediterranean. This sudden change in the density
of the Canal water varies in its position. In October the density is only a little
above that of ordinary sea water from Kantara to within a mile or so from the
entrance of the Great Bitter Lake.
This remark was given without any reference to Richards' work. However, on
the copy preserved in the Hydrographic Office in Taunton, a handwritten obser-
vation reads: "These remarks for the density of the water in the Suez Canal are
based on observations made by Navigating Lieutenant J. C. Richards, H.M.S.
Malabar, 1870/72." It was in the third edition of 1883, page 256, that reference
was made to Navigating Lieutenant Richards, and the remark continued to ap-
pear in the Red Sea Pilots until the sixth edition, 1909. It is of interest to note
that the author of the second edition was Staff Commander J. C. Richards him-
self, while the name of the author was not given in the third edition.
Richards' observations are well illustrated in Fig. 1. In all the curves except
September and October, the Canal north of the Bitter Lakes is full of water of
60-64%0 salinity, i.e., similar or higher than the salinity in the Great Bitter Lake
itself, indicating a northward transport. The same conditions appear in the cor-
responding months of 1954/55, except that the salinity in the northern part of
the Canal is around 43 to 44%0.
During these months the northward transport is observed in the southern part
of the Canal, where Suez Bay water of 42 to 43%0 salinity penetrates north-
ward to fill the Southern Canal and the Little Bitter Lakes in the 1954 obser-
vations, while in the 1871/72 observations, water of slightly higher salinity (42-
44%0) filled the southern part of the Canal, and the salinity increased sharply
in the Little Bitter Lake. This is due to the strong salinity gradient in 1871/72
between the Great Bitter Lake (62%0) and the Suez Bay (43 %0 ), as compared
to 44%0 and 43%0 in 1954/55 observations.
The curves of October 1871 and September 1954 represent the opposite con-
dition when the current in the Canal set southward. Mediterranean water diluted
by the Nile (S 'V 32%0) penetrates the Canal and increases in salinity as it moves
south. The maximum annual salinity occurs in this season due to the combined
effect of evaporation and the slow southward current which allows longer con-
tact between the salt bed and the overlying water. In October 1871, the maxi-
mum value of 68%0 appeared south of the salt bed in the Great Bitter Lake, i.e.,
in the Little Bitter Lake. In September 1954, the maximum value of 48%0 ap-
peared even further south at Km 146 in the Suez Canal. Following this maximum
value a sharp decrease takes place towards the Suez Bay where salinity values
higher than normal are found during both cases (45%0 in 1871 and> 43%0 in
1954).
In spite of the low sensitivity of the methods used in the 1870s, the early re-
sults obtained are good enough to be interpreted in a significant way and to be
compared to recent oceanographic data. This is due mainly to the large seasonal
and spatial variation of salinity in the Suez Canal. However, it is mainly due to
the dedication of such men as E. Tissot, W. Chimmo, G. S. Nares, and J. C.
Richards, who were fascinated by the new enterprise and left for us their obser-
vations and notes, that we can get an insight into the hydrographic conditions of
the Suez Canal immediately after its opening in November 1869.
Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges the kind support of the Staff of the Hydrographic
Department, of the Royal Navy, Taunton, Somerset, U.K. He is grateful to
Lieutenant Commander Desmond P. D. Scott, Lieutenant Commander Andrew
C. F. David and Miss Margaret J. Perry for their encouragement and support
during the initial phase of this investigation in 1972. Particular thanks are due to
Lieutenant Commander Andrew C. F. David who continued his support and ad-
vice during the writing of this paper.
References
Chimmo, W. 1870. Report on the sites for additional Red Sea lights, H.M.S.
Nassau. Admiralty, London, 5pp. (Also in hand-written manuscript).
El-Sabh, M. I. 1969. Seasonal hydrographic variations in the Suez Canal after
the completion of the Aswan High Dam. Kiel. Meeresforsch., 25, 1-18.
Faouzi, H. 1951. Le Canal de Suez, voie d'echanges biologiques entre la Mecti-
terranee et la Mer Rouge. Ann. Centre Univ. Mediter., 5,23-30.
Fox, M. H. 1926. Cambridge Expedition to the Suez Canal 1924. Trans. Zool.
Soc. London, 22, 1-64.
Gillbricht, M. 1970. Uber den Einfluss den Oberflaechenspannung des Seewassers
auf Araeometermessungen. Ber. Dt. Wiss. Komm. Meeresforsch., 21, 403-409.
304 S. A. Morcos
Hydrographic Office, 1841, 1873, 1883, 1892, 1900. The Red Sea and Gulf of
Aden Pilot, lst Edition, 1841, London, 258 pp.; 2nd Edition, 1873, London,
255 pp.; 3rd Edition, 1883, London, 282 pp.; 4th Edition, 1892, London,
564 pp.; 5th Edition, 1900, London, 528 pp.; 6th Edition, 1909, London,
600 pp.
Knudsen, M. 1901. Hydrographische Tabellen. G.E.C. Gad, Copenhagen, 63 pp.
Knudsen, M., Forch, C. and Sorensen, S. P. L. 1902. Bericht liber die chemische
und physikalische Untersuchung des Seewassers und die Aufstellung der neuen
Hydrographischen Tabellen. Wissenschaftliche Meeresunteruchungen. Komm.
zur wiss. Untersuch d. deutschen Meere in Kiel und der biolog. Anstalt auf
Helgoland, Neue Folge, Bd. 6, Abt. Kiel, 123-184.
Krummel, O. 1890. tiber die Bestimmung des specifischen Gewichts des Seewas-
sers an Bord. Annln. Hydrogr. Berl., 18,381-395.
KrUmmel, O. 1907. Die Dichtigkeit des Seewassers. In: Handbuch der Ozean-
ographie, Stuttgart, I, 228-238.
Maury, M. F. 1858. Sailing Directions, Vol. 1, p. 237.
Morcos, S. A. 1959. tiber die Veranderungen der Schichtung und Zirkulation im
Suez-Kanal (Auf Grund eigenen Beobachtungs Materials 1953-1955). Ph.D.
Thesis, Univ. Kiel, 202 pp.
Morcos, S. A. 1960. Die Verteilung des Salzgehalts im Suez Kanal. Kiel. Meeres-
forsch., 16, 133-154.
Morcos, S. A. 1972. Early investigations of the Suez Canal waters during and
after its opening in 1869. Proceedings of the Second International Congress
on the History of Oceanography. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, Section B,
72,449458.
Morcos, S. A. 1975. A transitional stage in the current regime in the Suez Canal.
Limnol. Oceanogr., 20, 672-679.
Morcos, S. A. and Gerges, M. A. 1974. Circulation and mean sea level in the
Suez Canal. In: L'Oceanographie Physique de la Mer Rouge, IAPSO-UNESCO-
SCOR, Symp., Paris, 1972. CNEXO publ. Ser. Actes Colloq., 2, 267-287.
Nares, G. S. 1869. Report on the Suez Canal with directions for its pilotage.
H.M.S. Newport. Admiralty, London, 7 pp.
Nares, G. S. 1871. Report on the Suez Canal. H.M.S.Newport, April 1871. Ad-
miralty, London, 4 pp.
Nares, G. S. 1872. Temperature taken by H.M.S. Shearwater off the "Brothers"
(Red Sea) ... "Safadgar Island" and south of Shadwan Island in February
and March 1872,5 pp. (manuscript).
Parker, W. H. 1870. H.M.S. Jumna Remark Book. From June to 31 December
1870, pp. 1-20 (manuscript).
Richards, G. H. 1869. Suez Canal with directions for its pilotage. Notice to mari-
ners, Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London. 7 pp.
Richards, G. H. 1873. Towing of H.M. Indian Troop Ships through the Suez
Maritime Canal. Admiralty, London, 11 pp.
Richards, Captain, R.N., F.R.S. and Clarke, Lt-Colonel. C.B., R. E. 1870. Re-
port on the maritime canal, connecting the Mediterranean at Port-Said, with
the Red Sea at Suez. Admiralty, London, 23 pp., 2 folded charts and 52
cross sectors in 11 folded pages.
Richards, J. C. 1869. H.M.S. Malabar Remark Book. From July 1st to December
31,1869,50 pp. (manuscript).
Richards, J. C. 1870. H.M.S. Malabar Remark Book in 2 parts, January 1st to
December 31, 1870, Part I, 38 pp., Part 2, 51 pp. (manuscript).
Richards, J. C. 1871. H.M.S. Malabar Remark Book, East India and Home. Be-
tween lst January and 31st December 1871, 51 pp. (manuscript).
Richards, J. S. 1872. H.M.S. Malabar Remark Book, Home and East India, Be-
tween 1st January and 10 May 1872, 19 pp. (manuscript).
Ritchie, G. S. 1967. The Admiralty Chart, British Naval Hydrography in the
Nineteenth Century. Holls and Carter, London. 388 pp.
Tissot, E. 1872. Notice sur Ie regime des eaux dans Ie Canal de Suez, Alexandrie,
35 pp.
Wust, G. 1934. Salzgehalt und Wasserbewegung im Suez Kanal. Naturwissen-
schaften, 22,446-450.
Wust, G. 1951. Uber die Abnahme des Salgzgehaltes im Suez Kanal von 1869-
1937. Erdkunde, 5, 241-243.
The First Geological-Oceanological Studies of the Black
Sea (N.R Andrusov, A.D. Arkhangel'sky, N.M. Strakhov)
v. V. Tikhomirov
The Black Sea, one of the largest internal seas, has many peculiarities of scien-
tific interest. Oceanographic investigations of the Black Sea were started in the
second half of the last century, and the first, true, somewhat approximate data
on the composition of its bottom sediments were published in explanatory notes
to the maps of European seas (Delesse 1874). These data indicated that the cen-
tral Black Sea bottom is covered by a bluish-gray ooze while the coastal part is
composed of pebble-beds, sand, and coquina. Further investigations of the Black
Sea were organized in 1890 by N. F. Andrusov (Fig. 1a) to collect new data to
elucidate its geological history and the character of the bottom as it is today. The
idea for the organization of such oceanological studies of the Black Sea was sug-
gested by Andrusov following the work of the ships-Lightning, Porcupine, Chal-
lenger, Blake, Travail, Washington, etc. These data were made available to Rus-
sian colleagues by publication in a Russian scientific periodical (Andrusov 1889).
A small military ship, which ordinarily made different specialized observations
and measurements en route between Odessa and Sevastopol, was loaned for these
oceanological investigations. The expedition was headed by the meteorologist,
I. V. Shpindler, a member of the Russian Geographical Society. N. F. Andrusov
also took part. The ship covered 2500 miles in 18 days and made 60 depth
measurements. It measured depth, temperature, water salinity, direction and in-
tensity of sea currents, carried out meteorological observations and took 13
dredgings (Andrusov 1890b).
Despite the short time for the survey, rather valuable data were obtained. Con-
trary to the then existing concept of a shallow-water zone in the center of the
Black Sea, it became evident that the deepest depression was actually in the
center and that there were no rises or topographic highs there. The boundaries
The First Geographical-Oceanological Studies of the Black Sea 307
of the depression were outlined and the maximum depths were determined. The
temperature gradually decreased with depth to 8.8°C at 200 m, then it increased
somewhat to 9.3°C near the bottom. Water density and salinity also increased
with depth. However, the most significant discovery was the unexpected presence
of hydrogen sulfide between 200 m and the bottom. Andrusov suggested that
the accumulation of hydrogen sulfide resulted from the peculiar morphology of
the basin separated as it is from the Sea of Marmora by a high sill. The appearance
of hydrogen sulfide, Andrusov believed, was caused by both the decay of dead
organisms inhabiting that sea, and the reduction of sulfates dissolved in sea
water. Such an explanation for the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the Black
Sea is now supported by the majority of microbiologists. Later investigation by
others working in the sea basins and on the continents indicated that the pres-
ence of hydrogen sulfide contamination is the most significant factor for deter-
mining paleooceanic environments.
The bottom deposits recovered in different regions of the basin, showed that
hydrogen sulfide affects the composition of oozes and that their distribution
on the bottom has a regular pattern (Andrusov 1890b). From 70 to 200 m there
are certain sediments which Andrusov called "the Modiolus ooze." It forms a
belt around the entire Black Sea with a certain typical fauna. In these oozes
were elongate nodules, brown in color, usually covering the valves of Modiolus
shells, which proved to be ferro-manganese nodules. The bottom sediments in
shallower water, i.e., less than 70 m, contain organisms which are more typical
of the near-shore region. Below 200 m there is a belt, mostly of a pale~gray vis-
cous ooze sometimes with a thin black coating containing semi-fossils, i.e., shells
which are not found in the sea today. This type of sediment occupies a belt on
the slope at depths of 200 to 1200 m. As Andrusov noted, gray ooze, saturated
with water, has a jelly-like appearance, but when dry it becomes hard and has a
shale-like appearance. The ooze has alternate greenish clays and white calcarous
layers. The calcite formation, in Andrusov's opinion, resulted from the reduction
of calcium sulfate in sea water. The deep basin is covered by other sediments, a
darker bluish-gray ooze with white pellets of carbonate of lime. This layer is com-
pletely lifeless, but contains the remains of pelagic organisms. The presence of
fine laminations indicates periodical changes in sedimentation, caused by season-
al fluctuations in the amount of terrigenous material delivered by rivers (Andrusov
1892). Microscopic investigations showed that the deep-water oozes contained
small black balls of FeS. In the opinion of Andrusov, a gradual change from FeS
to FeS 2 takes place in the lower layers of the deep-water ooze. This is confirmed
by the presence of fine pyrite concretions.
A later study carried out by other Russian scientists (Samoilov and Titov
1922) revealed that ferro-manganese concretions of the Black Sea differed from
similar oceanic aggregates elsewhere in the higher content of iron but they have
less manganese.
Andrusov attempted to study not only recent hydrographic features of the
Black Sea, but also to understand these features in the geological past. In an at-
tempt to estimate the salinity of waters in which the Kerch limestone accumu-
lated (Andrusov 1890), he discovered that this limestone was deposited with a
308 V. V. Tikhomirov
Figure la Figure Ib
Figure la. Academician Nikolai Fran-

ovich Andrusov (1861-1924).
Figure 1b. Academician Andre Dmit-

rievich Arkhangel'sky (1879-1940).
Figure lc. Academician Nikolai Mik-

hailovich Strakhov (1900-1978).
Figure Ie
gradual transition from brackish to fresh water. Thus, he concluded that the
limestone formation took place in small bays fed by freshwater rivers. Andrusov
found definite lime formations in Neogene deposits, due to the activity of micro-
scopic algae which liberated lime. The activity of marine microorganisms and
their part in rock formation especially attracted his attention during the ocean-
ographic investigations in the Black Sea. His study on the significance of micro-
organisms in rock formations can be regarded as the beginning of the new field
of biochemical geology (Andrusov 1897). Understanding the importance of
microorganism activity in chemical processes in the Black Sea, Andrusov sug-
gested that sulfur bacteria transformed carbonates into sulfates, which, in tum,
liberated hydrogen sulfide under the influence of other bacteria. He concluded
that newly formed sediments underwent diagenetic changes due to bacterial
activity, i.e., a transformation which took place during sedimentation or soon
after.
Andrusov's work on biochemical processes in Black Sea waters was the first
significant step in the development of ideas on the geochemical significance of
living organisms. Thus, he also considered iron ores, which are widely distributed
throughout geological time, as an indication of the activity of bacteria. Though
the geochemical significance of the organic world was overestimated by Andrusov
(particularly, with respect to sulfur bacteria) the biogeochemistry based on
oceanographic studies of the Black Sea has become an important part of geologi-
cal science today.
In investigating the activities of marine organisms, Andrusov paid particular
attention to molluscs. In addition to recent pelecypods and gastropods, he found
shells of species in the oozes, which are not found today, but which had lived in
the Black Sea not very long ago. He also paid considerable attention to more
ancient Neogene deposits accumulated in the Ponto-Caspian basin for the past
several hundred thousands and millions of years. Apparently the fauna of closed
basins evolved separately resulting in local endemic forms. These can be used for
dating the time when a basin became isolated.
Studies of such zoological-paleontological and lithological facies made it pos-
sible to reconstruct paleogeographical and paleooceanological history from the
ancient Ponto-Caspian basin to the recent Black Sea. To insure the accurate re-
construction of physico-geographic environments of the geological past, Andrusov
widely used the observational method. He carefully examined the peculiarities
of the recent basins with different salinity and sediments accumulated within
them and compared them with the rocks recovered in geological sequences. This
method insured highly reliable paleogeographic reconstructions. Salting and de-
salting of "normal" closed basins were followed by a gradual faunal impoverish-
ment chiefly due to extinction or migration of some species. A rapid change in
habitat of the forms living in a basin, as well as the overall composition of the
fauna, was due to fluctuations in the salinity of the environment. Andrusov thus
distinguished several types of fauna: freshwater, freshwater-marine or limanian,
semimarine (in lagoons connected with the sea) and marine (Andrusov 1909,1912).
With a broad complex of paleontological and lithological data, Andrusov
acquired considerable experience in reconstructing paleogeographical environ-
ments during different stages of the geological history of the Ponto-Caspian
Basin. Thus, at the beginning of the Quaternary the water of the ancient Black
Sea basin was brackish like the waters of the present Caspian Sea. Then, as a
result of the penetration of salt water from the Mediterranean Sea, the regime
essentially changed: an increase in salinity resulted in the extinction of many
organisms. Some species survived in limans and river mouths, while others
adapted to the life in more saline waters. The same period was distinguished by
the beginning of a general hydrogen-sulfide contamination of the deep basin. As
a result, the life previously existing down to a depth of 1000 m was no longer
present below 200 m. The data on ancient oozes obtained in the Black Sea, the
Sea of Marmora, as well as from outcrops along their shores, revealed that "the
Propontida" (the Sea of Marmora) was formed in Post-Sarmatian time replacing
a small lake connected by a channel of the river type (now the Bosporus) with
the "Pontian." A river flowing from the Aegean continent discharged its waters
into the Propondita in the south. Later this river became the Dardanelles.
The oceanographic studies of Andrusov (1896,1905) refuted earlier opinions
that the straits connecting the Sea of Marmora with the adjacent ones were open-
ings created by regional faulting. He showed that they replaced former river
channels and were due to tectonic subsidence of the continent which isolated
the Sea of Marmora. Such data, together with other evidence, especially finding
a semi-fossil fauna, were the basis for important paleooceanologic conclusions.
Thus, in the Post-Pliocene the Black Sea regime changed considerably due to an
incursion of Mediterranean water. This caused an increase in salinity, an extinction
of the Caspian-type fauna, and also hydrogen-sulfide contamination.
Other investigations carried out by Andrusov added considerable detail to the
paleogeographical and more especially to the oceanological history of the Black
Sea basin. From drill holes in the Kerch Strait made during a survey on the pos-
sible construction of a bridge over the strait in 1916 and 1917, samples were
recovered which established the history of the northern part of the strait. It can
be subdivided into four phases: (1) Ancient freshwater-Caspian with Didacna
crassa; (2) Ancient marine with Tapes calverti; (3) Recent freshwater-Caspian
with Monodacna pseudocardium; (4) Recent marine phase with Azov fauna
(Andrusov 1918). The four stages are thus based on the salinity.
The first relatively freshwater stage was replaced by the second with increased
salinity and it had a typical marine fauna such as Tapes calverti. The third, associ-
ated with glaciation, was distinguished by a freshening and resulted in the almost
complete disappearance of the marine fauna. This basin was situated within the
area now occupied by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Finally, the fourth was
characterized by a new salinization and a marine fauna entering the Black Sea.
However, it was poorer than that during the previous ingression of marine waters.
The details of change in the paleogeographic environment of the Ponto-
Caspian basin in the transitions from one detailed stratigraphic subdivision to
another, revealed changes in the sea contours, the appearance of limans, and
established the times of formation of small enclosed basins with abnormal salini-
ty and the restoration of their connections with the open sea. By the type of
fauna and the lithological composition, the depth of the sedimentation zone and
its distance from the source of terrigenous material were determined (Andrusov
1890a, 1897, 1909-1912).
Besides his studies of the mack Sea in 1891 and later, Andrusov carried out
other oceanographic works. However, they were far removed from problems of
sedimentology, zoology and geology and therefore do not add to his earlier
studies.
In summary, it should be emphasized that Andrusov was the first to promote
investigations of the mack Sea (1890-1891) and the Sea of Marmora (1894). He
discovered the phenomenon of hydrogen -sulfide contamination of the Black Sea,
shells of semi-fossil molluscs, and gave the reasons for these phenomena. He dis-
tinguished different types of bottom oozes and outlined their distribution. He
furthermore determined the rock-forming role of microorganisms, their activity
in the formation of small particles of calcium carbonate, ferro-manganese con-
cretions, alkaline ores and other aggregates indicating the significant role of bio-
chemical processes in these basins. Andrusov's conclusions were so accurate that
subsequent work has not introduced any new principles to his scheme for the
geological history of the basin.
The unique features of the mack Sea discovered by Andrusov attracted much
interest in the peculiarities of this basin and suggested a complex of problems,
the solution of which has contributed to theoretical oceanography and sedimen-
tology. The studies carried out by the Soviet scientists on the Black Sea from
1920 to 1950 played an important role. Thus, a new stage in the study of the
mack Sea began in 1923 without Andrusov, who was ill at the time and soon
died. A hydrographic expedition led by the famous Soviet oceanographer
Shokal'sky was organized and completed by the autumn of 1930. Cores of bot-
tom oozes collected at more than 700 stations were given to Arkhangel'sky
(Fig. Ib) and Strakhov (Fig. lc) for study, whose carefu1lithological studies
added to the detail of Andrusov's earlier ftndings. Thus, deep water oozes of
the Black Sea differed from those in shallow water by the presence of distinct
laminations. These are alternate thin layers of sapropelic matter, which number
up to several dozen in one centimeter and in the black ooze there may be as
many as a hundred such layers. The number of laminations per unit of core
thickness increases offshore, i.e., the layers became thinner and thinner. Thus,
near the coast they average 15-20 per centimeter and farther out 40-50 lami-
nations per centimeter. The black ooze appears to be associated with the central
basin, where it is part of the ancient mack Sea depOSits. Around the periphery
the black ooze alternates with a gray clay without any laminations. The amount
of phosphorus in the oozes was extremely small. Arkhangel'sky concluded that
under conditions of hydrogen-sulfide contamination concentrations of phos-
phorus do not occur in clastic sediments. Later Strakhov suggested that the phos-
phorus content was proportional to the organic carbon. According to A. D.
Arkhangel'sky the rhythmic alternation of the thin interlayers in the oozes of
the Black Sea is seasonal in character. Thus, these reflect an increase in terrigen-
ous material from rivers during the spring and a corresponding reduction in
clastic particles during autumn and winter.
Furthennore, the rhythmic microlaminations may be in some way correlated
with the plankton, which is abundant in summer and less abundant in winter, a
distribution reflected in the organic content of the oozes. In the latter part of
the summer in the central Black Sea the clastic particles from the rivers have al-
most completely settled and later only accumulations of organic remains take
place. The rate of sedimentation in the central Black Sea is 15-30 cm per 1000
years, i.e., approximately 10 times the rate for the open ocean.
Detailed lithological studies made possible some important corrections in the
stratigraphic scheme of Andrusov's most recent history of the Black Sea. From
an analysis of vertical succession in the ooze and changes in the composition of
the paleontological remains, Arkhangel'sky and Strakhov (1932, 1938) concluded
that the Neoeuxinian was distinguished by desalting of the Black Sea basin due
to shoaling in the Dardanelles and the Bosporus which resulted in a reduction of
the salt water inflow. A new salting started at a later time when the straits
deepened. This led to a greater influx of salt waters in the deep current from the
Mediterranean into the Black Sea. (Andrusov had already established that the
surface current in these straits was a freshwater outflow from the Black Sea.)
The bottom ooze cores recovered by Shokal'sky revealed the succession of
paleooceanological environments and the stratigraphy of recent deposits in the
Black Sea basin (Arkhangel'sky and Strakhov 1938). The first salting was fol-
lowed by a secondary desalting, subsequently called Neoeuxinian. The sediments
of this semi-fresh sea were overlain by a bed containing the old Black Sea fauna.
In the uppennost part there was a layer of recent Black Sea ooze deposited in a
more saline sernimarine basin. The calculation of laminae in recent and ancient
Black Sea microlaminated clays enabled Strakhov to estimate that the last sali-
nization began about 5000 years ago. Subsequently, this figure was checked by
radiocarbon dating which indicated that the salinization took place seven to eight
thousand years ago.
From bottom sediment cores and shore terraces, Arkhangel'sky and StrakhOV
were able to review the geological history of the Black Sea during the post-glacial
epoch. They concluded that in the Lower Pliocene it was a part of the tre-
mendous Pontian lake-sea. This basin, Euxinian in age according to Andrusov
was filled with the original Pontian fauna, the prototype for the fauna of the
present Caspian Sea.
Arkhangel'sky and Strakhov found that the Euxinian lake-sea was gradually
desalted and that marine organisms inhabiting it disappeared. Sea level was origi-
nally some meters higher than at present, but not reaching the level of the
Caspian Sea of that time. Then, during the development of the steppes in southern
Europe and the fonnation of loess, the level in the basin became lower and
reached its lowest position, i.e., 30-50 m below that at present. At that time the
basin joined the Mediterranean Sea; this resulted in salinization of the Euxinian
Sea and a rise of level.
Considering the depths of the fossil faunas, Arkhangel'sky and Strakhov com-
pared biocoenoses of the Euxinian Sea with those of the present Caspian Sea.
They concluded that the lower horizon devoid of calcareous (drewitic) interbeds
is the deepest water facies of old mytiloid ooze in the Black Sea basin. Deep-
water black ooze is characterized by a large amount of organic matter and rela-
tively little CaC0 3 • In the geological literature of the 1930s this study gave the
most detailed scheme for the history of the development of a water basin in the
Upper Quaternary. Arkhangel'sky observed the similarity of waters in the Black
Sea oozes to those of the oil deposits of the northwest Caucasus. Hence, he sug-
gested that in future the Black Sea oozes may be transformed into oil-bearing
rocks. This question is still debatable. With his general interest in paleontology
Arkhangel'sky (1912), before he studied the Black Sea sediments, considered
some theoretical problems for solving problems of paleooceanology with geologi-
cal data. Thus, in order to determine characteristic features of an old basin it was
necessary to consider the peculiarities of sediments depending on the shape of
the basin, the position of its shores and the rocks concerned, the direction and
strength of currents, the depth of the baSin, climatic conditions, the intensity of
volcanic activity, etc. In short, an analysis of rock samples can establish the geo-
graphical position, depth of the basin and distance from shore where the for-
mation of sediments took place. In doing so, he used an actualistic method com-
paring recent marine sediments with rocks of the geological past.
Continuing geological-oceanological investigations initiated by Arkhangel'sky,
Strakhov with a new method devised in 1940-1950 examined the peculiarities of
sedimentation in the Black Sea relative to the drainage system. The compilation
of maps of the Black Sea showed the distribution of thicknesses of recent sedi.
ment. From geological-oceanological studies of the Black Sea, Strakhov furthered
a nwnber of theoretical problems, including some important ones for lithogene-
sis and established that under conditions of hydrogen-sulfide contamination the
accwnulation of organic matter does not undergo any appreciable deviation from
the common marine process. Thus, the distribution of organic matter of the
Black Sea bottom has little relation to the gas regime of the water, but is chiefly
determined by the hydrodynamics of the basin.
Following his Black Sea studies, Strakhov concentrated his attention on the
Caspian Sea and some other internal basins of the USSR. Comparison with the
data from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans indicates that the hydrodynamic
regime produced by climate directly controls the distribution of almost all com-
ponents of a sediment on the ocean bottom except for regions near areas of vol-
canic activity, where volcanogenic deposits accwnulate. Strakhov studied especi-
ally carefully the geochemical evolution of the Black Sea basin during the last
7000-8000 years, where processes occurring in the basin depended on tectonic
events taking place in the eastern Mediterranean.
Andrusov's conclusions that in Neoeuxinian time the Black Sea was a deep-
water basin similar to that in the Caspian today were confmned by Strakhov,
who examined the salinity and type of fauna. Great amounts of common salt
were concentrated in the deeper layers of the bottom water and homogeneous
bluish-white, slightly carbonated, oozes with a negligible amount of organic mat-
ter were deposited on the bottom. At the boundary between the Neoeuxinian
and the ancient Black Sea, there was an incursion of salt Mediterranean water
314 v. v. Tikhomirov
into the Black Sea basin and the sediments were rapidly enriched with organic
matter. The heavy Mediterranean water sank and spread over the bottom, forcing
upward the semi-fresh bottom water rich in common salts. In the photosynthetic
zone, a vigorous blooming of algae and zooplankton was initiated. Then, great
amounts of organic matter accumulated in the sediments, and sapropelic oozes
and dark gray clays rich in organic matter resulted. Reduction of sulfates dis-
solved in sea water caused intensification of the hydrogen-sulfide generation, and
hence, contamination of the deep waters. The distribution of chemical elements
on the bottom was presumably due to physico-chemical reactions in sea water.
The behavior of chemical elements in the sedimentation process arise from com-
plex physico-chemical interactions between drainage systems and the sea basin.
This discovery by Strakhov (1976) radically changed the approach to the study
of the geochemistry of sedimentary deposits. It became clear that the investi-
gations should be based on an analysis of the lithological facies, but not on an
artificial construction of the probable chemical reactions. Finally, Strakhov con-
tributed to the development of many important problems of marine sedimen-
tation fundamental to the general theory of lithogenesis (Strakhov 1967-1969).
In short, it should be noted that after Andrusov's studies the general trend of
oceanological investigations of the Black Sea changed. Thus, Soviet geologists-
oceanologists during the period 1920-1930 attempted to establish a relation be-
tween peculiarities of sedimentation in a basin and the specificity of its drainage
area. Along with an analysis of the sedimentation process, the geologists, chiefly
Arkhangel'sky and Strakhov, took into consideration the thickness of the sedi-
ments. Much of the knowledge of the history of the Black Sea today resulted
from the work of Strakhov and his students from 1940 to 1950. Hence, the
mack Sea is now the best known epicontinental basin. New data on recent
marine sediments caused appreciable changes in theoretical concepts for studies
of the older sedimentary rocks.
Thus, Soviet scientists perfecting the methods for geological-oceanological
studies initiated by Andrusov extended the range of their interest far beyond
the borders of the Black Sea and conSiderably advanced this field of knowledge,
having gained international recognition. Their studies clarified many previously
unknown peculiarities of the history of a number of seas and oceans and led to
a greater understanding of marine sedimentation.
References
Andrusov, N. F. 1889. The present state of our knowledge of the distribution of

sediments and organisms in the deep oceans. (In Russian). Gorn. Zhurnal,
3 (9), 305-336.
Andrusov, N. F. 1890a. Limestone of Kerch and its fauna. (In Russian). Zap. St.
-Po mineral. ob-va, part 26, pp. 193-345.
Andrusov, N. F. 1890b. Preliminary report on participation in the Black Sea
Deep-Water Expedition. (In Russian). Izvest. Russk. Geogr. ob-va, v. 27,
2(5), Geogr. Izv., pp. 380-409.
The First Geographical-Oceano1ogical Studies of the Black Sea 315
Andrusov, N. F. 1892. Some results of the "Chemomorets" Expedition. On the
origin of hydrogen sulfide in the Black Sea waters. (In Russian). Izv. Russk.
Geogr. ob-va, 28(4), 370-397.
Andrusov, N. F. 1896. Expedition "Solyanka" to the Sea of Marmora. (In Rus-
sian). In: "Sea of Marmora" Expedition of the Russian Geographical Society
in 1884." St. -P., pp. 153-171.
Andrusov, N. F. 1897. Bacteriology and geology: their mutual relations. (In Rus-
sian). Uchen. zapiski Yurievsk. Univ., No.1, nauch. otd., pp. 1-20.
Andrusov, N. F. 1905. Bosporus and Dardanelles: Historical review of opinions
of their origin. (In Russian). Zem1evedenie, v. 12, 1-2, 1-44.
Andrusov, N. F. Die Fossilen Bryozoenriffe der Halbinse1n Kertsch und Taman
Kiew: Se1bstveriag des Verfassers, 1909-1912. Lief 1-3,144 S.
Andrusov, N. F. 1918. Geological structure of the Kerch Strait bottom. (In Rus-
sian). Izvest. Akad. Nauk, ser. 6,12(1),23-28.
Arkhangel'sky, A. D. 1912. Upper Cretaceous deposits of east European Russia.
(In Russian). Materials for the geology of Russia, St. -P., v. 25, 631.
Arkhangel'sky, A. D. and Strakhov, N. M. 1932. Geological history of the Black
Sea. (In Russian). Bull. MOIP, Otd. geol., 10(1),3-104.
Arkhangel'sky, A. D. and Strakhov, N. M. 1938. Geological structure and history
of the development of the Black Sea. (In Russian). Izdat Akad. Nauk SSSR,
226.
Delesse, A. 1874. Lithologie du fond des mers. Ann. Soc. Geol. Belgique, No.1.
Samoilov, Va. V. and Titov, A. A. 1922. Iron-manganese nodules from the bot-
toms of the Black, Baltic, and Barents seas. (In Russian). Trudy Geol. i Miner-
alog. muzeya Akad. Nauk, SSSR, v. 3.
Strakhov, N. M. 1937. On the significance of hydrogen sulfide basins as areas of
deposition of bituminous and "oil-producing" suites. (In Russian). Izvest.
Akad. Nauk,SSSR, Ser. Geol., No.5, 893-917.
Strakhov, N. M. 1967-1969. Principles of lithogenesis. Edinburgh, London, vol.
1-2.
Strakhov, N. M. 1976. Problems of geochemistry of recent oceanic lithogenesis.
(In Russian). Trudy GIN Akad. Nauk SSSR, v. 292, "Nauka," M. 300.
The First Deep Ocean Drilling
Willard Bascom
Only twenty years ago, in 1960, the deepest water in which drilling had ever
been done was about 360 feet; by April 1961 that record had been extended to
12,000 feet. This is the story of how that giant step downward from the conti·
nental shelf to the deep ocean basin came about in spite of the widely held view
among drilling experts that drilling in such a depth of water was impossible. The
oil drilling business was used to seeing record depths extended by 20% or so but
it was astonished by an increase of over 3000 percent; for years the implications
of the new capability echoed through the offshore industry.
The driving force that caused this extension was the Mohole Project. Early in
1958 at a casual meeting of geologists and geophysicists at Walter Munk's house
in La Jolla, California the conversation turned to ways of sampling the earth's
mantle. The idea was to drill through the Mohorovicic seismic discontinuity
(commonly known as the Moho) which separates the earth's crust from its
mantle to obtain a specimen of the stuff that comprises some 80% of the volume
of the earth. In the beginning it seemed likely that an attempt would be made
beneath land but eventually, because of the relative shallowness of the Moho
beneath the sea (roughly 9.5 kilometers versus 33 beneath the continents), sub·
sea drilling was decided upon. In any case the primary objective was to open new
avenues of thought and research in geology and geophysics.
The group that proposed the deep drilling called itself the American Miscel·
laneous Society (AMSOC)-a "put on" of more formal scientific societies. How·
ever since five of the original participants (Walter Munk, Harry Hess, Maurice
Ewing, Roger Revelle and William Rubey) were members of the National Acade·
my of Sciences, the Academy accepted the group as a whole (the AMSOC Com·
mittee) to study the feasibility of drilling a hole to the mantle. At that time the
The First Deep Ocean Drilling 317
author was employed at the National Academy of Sciences on the Advisory Com-
mittee to the Maritime Administration, a group set up to recommend research
on matters related to merchant shipping. I soon became involved and the name
Mohole was my contribution, intended to attract public interest and fmancial
backing to the project. Although it was very successful in that respect, Mohole
carried with it the unfortunate connotation of one deep hole. The first public
statement about the project was a piece called the Mohole which I wrote for the
April 1959 Scientific American (Bascom 1959) which noted that the scientific
results of the first tests might be "so rewarding that a series of similar holes will
be the most reasonable next step." It was my hope, and that of several commit-
tee members, notably Maurice Ewing, to explore the ocean basins by drilling.
Although the ultimate objectives of this project were scientific, about 90% of
the initial problems were engineering. The first question was: What kind of
equipment and techniques should be used to drill in oceanic depths? While still
largely involved in maritime research I started putting all the time that could be
spared into a preliminary investigation of the possibilities with $15,000 supplied
by the National Science Foundation.
I surveyed and reported back on all existing drilling barges that might be used.
These included Western Explorer, Nola, Venmac, CUSS J, and some others.
None of these was intended for work off the continental shelf and the owners
were astonished by the idea that anyone would want to drill in deep water. As
barges, none were self-propelled; all, except Nola, had center wells. Of these
CUSS J, an acronym of the oil companies that jointly owned it (Continental,
Union, Shell and Superior), seemed the most suitable.
In 1959 I began assembling a small staff of engineers to study the possibilities;
this eventually included Jack McLelland, Edward Horton, Peter Johnson, and
Fran~ois Lampietti. OUf problem was to determine if and how this vessel could
be modified for test drilling in deep water.
From the beginning the question that concerned us most was that of bending
stresses in the drill pipe because these had great influence on the rest of the de-
sign. Drill pipe made of high quality steel will break if it is bent too sharply and
there was an excellent chance of doing this in open-sea drilling. In all land drill-
ing the pipe is confined by the hole walls so there is no way it can be bent exces-
sively; moreover, if the pipe does break it can be fished up. In shallow water
drilling, where the water is only a few hundred feet deep and the drill barge is
held directly above the hole by a web of stout anchor wires, there cannot be
enough motion of the drilling barge relative to the hole to cause a serious bend-
ing problem. But in deep water there are several possible ways in which the pipe
could be bent so acutely that it would break. If it did there would be no chance
of fishing it up.
First, there was always the possibility that when the ship rolled as a large
wave passed, the pipe, already under great tension, would be sharply bent where
it passed through the derrick floor. This bending would be compounded if the
ship moved away from a point above the hole. Then, even with a flat sea, the
pipe would be bent both at the ship and at the entrance to the hole some 12,000
318 w. Bascom
feet below. Finally, the side pressures of ocean currents, the lateral forces caused
by the rotation of the pipe, and transverse vibrational waves in the pipe caused
additional stresses. Of course, all of these added to the tension and torsional
forces that ordinarily act on drill pipe. The estimation and sununation of such
forces were tricky problems that occupied months of our time.
Our calculations showed that the point of pipe suspension would have to be
kept within 600 feet of a point above a hole. We were quite sure that this require-
ment could not be achieved by mooring wire alone. The problem is that although
a very light single wire will anchor a ship if the ship is allowed to swing, as soon
as an opposing anchor is added to hold the ship in one spot each anchor wire
pulls against the other. The heavier the wire the more sag in the catenary that
will be straightened (permitting the ship to move) when the ship is pressured by
winds and currents. However, I engaged a consultant, Robert Taggart, to report
on whether it would be possible to use some combination of wires and deep
anchors to hold a barge within the 600 foot radius in water 12,000 feet deep.
One of my early thoughts was that some kind of propulsion might be added
to the ship to take the strain off the anchor wires. At the time I was very keen
on the subject of large vessels maneuvering themselves because the previous year
there had been a tug boat strike in New York harbor and many of the larger
ships had great difficulty in entering or leaving their berths. John Gregory and I
had made a study for the Maritime Advisory Committee of bow thrusters, active
rudders, vertical-axis propellers and large outboard-like propellers (Harbor-
masters). We believed it was feasible for certain kinds of ocean-going ships to
have an installed capacity for jockeying themselves about in small areas without
a tug. In a harbor, of course, there are lots of visual references for the pilot such
as buoys or pilings.
After considering several combinations of anchor wires and propulsion
schemes it dawned on me in the spring of 1959 that there was no need for the
wires. If a ship were equipped with an omnidirectional propulsion system, and if
the pilot had some kind of visual reference that would be the deep-water equiva-
lent of a piling or buoy, the ship's position could be indefinitely adjusted to hold
the ship in one location. I was confident that precise position-marking buoys
could be installed in very deep water that would serve as reference points because
I had installed some at the nuclear tests at Eniwetok in 1951. I called this
method "dynamic positioning," a name which stuck and is widely used today
(Bascom 1959c).
Because of the construction of the CUSS I (an ex-Navy freight barge) it was
clear that the Harbormaster outboard-type units (225 HP diesel engines with
extended shafts), installed in each corner of the barge, were the most convenient
way to add propulsion. It was then necessary to translate the three remaining
important pieces of the dynamic positioning concept into usable hardware. Robert
Taggart was aSSigned the task of devising a set of controls for the four outboard
engines around what I described as a "joy stick" (the pilot pushes this vertical
control in the direction he wants the ship to go). Peter Johnson, with some help
from Horton and McLelland, had the job of designjng and building deep-water
marker buoys. Chad Ohanian was set to the task of sensing the marker buoys
with sonar and radar and presenting the information to the pilot.
It was not easy in those days to fIx a ship's position within a hundred feet.
Electronic positioning utilizing distant transmitters worked reasonably well
either day or night but shifted at sunset and daybreak. Various schemes for auto-
mating the positioning were proposed and rejected because of inadequate time
and money for development. Maurice Ewing suggested we use sonar transponders
mounted on the bottom (similar to those in common use today) but they were
insuffIciently developed at the time. I decided it was safest to rely on human
hands and brains instead of uncertain electronics for the fIrst test.
At the same time, under a contract from the OffIce of Naval Research, Global
Marine engineers were independently studying these matters; months after dy-
namic positioning had been decided upon they produced a plan for an anchoring
system that would have cost well over a million dollars-more than the ultimate
cost of the entire project.
In early December 1959 a technical review group composed of experts gener-
ously lent by various oil, steel and equipment companies assembled in Washing-
ton. They went over our tentative plans, made many suggestions, and agreed that
our scheme for deep-water drilling would probably work. My notes show that ''by
the fourth day some of those who had been most skeptical at the beginning were
showing enthusiasm."
On the basis of the report we prepared: "Experimental Drilling in Deep
Water" (green) (Bascom 1960), the National Science Foundation agreed to
furnish additional funds for detailed design and for purchase of some of the
long-lead-time items. The air of excitement steadily increased as it became clear
that the fIrst test of deep-ocean drilling would become a reality.
Many questions remained. Although we had tentative solutions there was no
real assurance that these would work. For example: (1) How to keep a steady
tension on the pipe and an even pressure on the drill bit? We would use "bumper-
subs" -a sliding spline between two sets of heavy drill collars. The upper collars
pulled down on the pipe; the weight of the lower ones rested on the bit. We
hoped that ten feet of "play" between the two would be suffIcient. (2) Would
the pipe "whip" when rotated (that is, throw large lateral loops like a vertical
jump rope)? (3) Would sea water make a satisfactory drilling fluid? Drillers love
to use mud but since there was no way to recirculate it the ship could not pos-
Sibly carry enough mud for continuous use; we took some for emergencies.
(4) How do you start a hole? Pump a lot of seawater at the moment of touch-
down and ''wash in." (5) Where would the cuttings go? Anywhere out of the
hole was OK. (6) How would we take cores? Test all known methods: punch,
side wall, drilled, turbo-drilled. (7) How would we log? Withdraw the bit from
the bottom but keep it in the hole and log out through the end of it. And so on.
There were dozens of serious and frivolous matters, and although some of the
answers seemed evident afterwards they raised large question marks in advance.
It was quite clear that without actual sea trials no one would ever be sure.
We also had considerable help from the outside. Christiansen Diamond
Products and De Beers generously furnished all the diamonds used in the bits.
Union Carbide and Honeywell contributed full-time engineers. One helpful
320 W. Bascom
scientist proposed a "rock softener" which was declined with thanks.
Most of 1960 was spent in planning exactly what we would do and how and
where we would do it. After a number of indecisive meetings by our drilling
site selection group, which was quite surprised to fmd that the ocean bottom
off southern California was pimpled with seamounts and lined with ridges, I
selected a site off the coast of Mexico about 40 miles east of Guadalupe Island
and got tentative approval for it from Harry Hess, the chairman. It then was
necessary to check it out so we borrowed the R. V. Orca from Scripps and
I led a party to the spot. Its virtues were that the bottom was flat, muddy and
12,000 feet deep; the island furnished a little protection from westerly swell;
enough was known about weather conditions so that we could estimate sea
state during drilling; the currents seemed to be steady from the same direction.
The AMSOC staff of engineers steadily worked away on the design of the
special equipment-especially the items needed to reduce the chances of exces-
sive bending of the drill pipe. Because ship motion with the untested dynamic
positioning system was uncertain we made a special effort to minimize the
bending stresses at the ship and at the hole entrance. At the ship there was a
small opening in the rotary table on the derrick floor through which the pipe
(weighing some 110 tons plus acceleration loading) passed and where it could
bend sharply if the ship rolled and/or strayed away from the hole. We could not
change the total amount of bending but Ed Horton devised a "guide shoe,"
something like a giant trumpet opening downward, that would distribute the
stress along a greater length of pipe.
At the sea floor there was a similar problem but it was solved in a different
way by Horton and Jack McLelland. They designed a tapered casing for the hole
entrance that would prevent kinking at that point. It was tested by welding it to
a steel billet that was secured to some large old eucalyptus trees at Ventura Tool
Company. A drill pipe inside the casing was kept under tension by a large crane
while being moved to one side to simulate bending on the bottom. A special
fluted kelly with improved bending characteristics was designed for use inside
the guide shoe. The pipe was designed concurrently. We wanted a "tapered
string"; that is, a pipe which was stronger and had different qualities at the top
than at the bottom. After a good deal of thoughtful analysis three sizes and
lengths of 4.5" internal flush pipe were selected; 1500 feet of 105,000 psi 30 lb;
3,500 feet of 95,000 psi 16.6Ib;and 8,000 feet of 75,000 psi 13.7 lb. The safe-
ty factor was about 2.
We also arranged for a tapered drill collar to spread the stress where the col-
lars (weighted pipe) connected to the drill pipe. It, and some of the other col-
lars, were made of non-magnetic K-monel to allow us to use a compass in the
core-orienting device.
Another substantial part of our effort went into the study of existing types
of wire-line coring and hole.,Iogging equipment. Many of these pieces had to have
some modification to be useful for our purposes. Special devices, like the long
needle that probed ahead of the drilling for heat-flow measurements, had to be
manufactured. A "positioning inclinometer" was built by Welex Inc. as a back-
up navigational device. It consisted of two pairs of inclinometers mounted on a
clump anchor on the bottom with a constant tension cable leading to the surface.
It was supposed to act as an analog of the bending of the pipe at the sea floor
and although it seemed to work well in 3,000 feet of water at 12,000 feet we
did not understand the record it gave. Luckily it was not needed.
In the above work our staff received valuable technical assistance from ex-
perts in specific areas including Arthur Lubinski, Jan Leendertse, Daniel Savitsky
and others.
Our plans were reviewed by Global Marine Inc., the drilling contractor, under
a grant from the National Science Foundation. Their company engineers were
also responsible for designing the detailed alterations to the drilling barge.
By this time I was not only Director of the Mohole Project for the National
Academy of Science, but Technical Representative of the National Science
Foundation. As the end of 1960 approached, I met with the Global Marine ex-
ecutives to negotiate a drilling contract and was told for the first time that
CUSS I was not available because of a long-standing option to the Shell Oil
Company. Since their engineers had been working with us on preparations this
was quite a surprise, but eventually Shell released the ship on February 11, 1961.
Immediately afterwards it was taken to National Steel and Shipbuilding Com-
pany in San Diego for modification.
We were now committed to what would clearly be a large project that would
require quite a lot of money. The din of publicity was rising and there were
many outsiders asking questions that needed answers. One of those heard most
often was, "What will you do if you drop the pipe?" Obviously it would not be
easy to replace the carefully designed and built drill string; the project would
stop abruptly with considerable fmancial loss, not to mention embarrassment
to all concerned. Then Ed Horton suggested that we could drill, though with less
convenience and more risk, with a 3.5" untapered pipe string which was available.
We bought it on the spot, had all the joints magnafluxed and all the threaded
connections cleaned and greased. It was then carefully marked and stored in a
San Diego supply yard. It was never needed but when people asked, "What if
you drop the drill string?" I could answer, ''We go back and pick up the other
one."
By February 22 four Harbormaster maneuvering propellers and their con-
trols had been added to the barge and it was necessary to test the new system.
Seamen accustomed to ordinary bridge controls are very wary of such strange
equipment and keep clear of it. Thus, when the lines were cast off Bob Taggart,
designer of the controls, jockeyed the ex-barge slowly out into the channel and
turned it in its own length. Then he invited me to try the controls. I slowly
moved the ship up to within a short distance of one of the large Navy mooring
buoys, stopped and backed off a little. We were pleased.
Our first sea trials were set for March 3. The night before at my home on the
beach in La Jolla I observed with apprehension a large new set of swell arriving.
Its period was about 9 seconds-close to the roll period of CUSS I. Ordinarily
this would not be a problem; at sea the ship could head into it. But the San
Diego jetties run nearly north-south and the swell was from the west. The fol-
lowing day, as the flat-bottomed CUSS I was towed down the channel it was
322 W. Bascom
exposed to this beam swell and began to roll: each succeeding roll was greater
than the last because of the reinforcement of each new wave. Water came over
the open tops of the six-foot bulwarks surrounding the outboard propulsion
units and eventually the ship rolled 24 degrees. On one large roll a guy wire that
restrained the travelling block guide rails in the derrick parted. Although the rails
slammed alanningly nothing large came down. That train of waves died down
and the tug turned the CUSS I into the sea. There was no option but to return to
the shipyard, take down the heavy rails, magnaflux them and repair various
cracks that were found, and re-install them. At the same time the engines were
covered completely to make sure they would not be flooded in heavy weather.
In a day or two we were towed out to sea again. On this occasion there was
no swell and no roll. Two officers of Global Marine on the bridge with me re-
vealed that they did not have much confidence that the trials would be success-
ful by saying: ''We won't be too disappointed if this doesn't work out, will we?"
I retorted that I put my faith in sound engineering design.
The first step was to train pilots to operate the dynamic positioning console
in the shallow waters of Coronado Roads. After one day of practice our pilots
assured us they could hold the ship over a dime if there were enough reference
buoys around. They hung a sign over the control console, borrowed from the
Greyhound Bus Co.: "And leave the driving to us."
CUSS I was then towed to the La Jolla site, out of sight of land, where the
Scripps Submarine Canyon meets the San Diego Trough. Deep marker buoys
had previously been set to make a spot in water 3,111 feet deep. We were aware
that pipe bending problems would be more acute in this less-than-design depth
but it was necessary to check out equipment close to home.
Don Woodward, an experienced driller borrowed from Texaco, served as our
drilling superintendent. Our plans were translated by him into oil field jargon that
the contractor's men could understand. We began at once to run pipe and drill.
The National Research Council was then in session and soon I was able to send
a radio message to Dr. Detlev Bronk, president of the National Academy of
Sciences, part of which follows:
At 0206 today, March 9, 1961 a drilling bit touched bottom in 3111 feet
of water. First hole was washed and drilled to 115 feet. Bottom was clearly
recognizable on hook-load indicator. Rotation of 30 rpm causes no pipe vi-
bration. Bumper subs opened and closed properly maintaining a constant
pressure of 6,000 pounds on the diamond bit. The first punch corer was run
in at 165 feet. We believe that today's experiment at a water depth which is
nearly an order of magnitude greater than the previous record clearly estab-
lishes the feasibility of deep sea drilling (Bascom 1961 b).
While we were drilling the third hole someone in the pilot house accidentally
changed the radar range scale. The pilot, tryingtorecenterthe ship, drove it well
off its proper position. The hook load indicator was suddenly 3000 pounds
light. We tripped the pipe out to find that the lowest collar, core barrel and
diamond bit were lost.
The third hole penetrated 310 feet and produced three successful cores which
the geologists aboard practically devoured. On that evening John Steinbeck, an
old friend whom I had persuaded to come along as expedition historian, arrived
aboard. His account in LIFE that likened the roughnecks on the derrick floor to
ballet dancers may have helped him win the Nobel prize for literature.
The fifth hole was the first full scale test of lowering a casing on the drill pipe.
It hung from a landing base above which was the taped casing with a cone-shaped
entrance. This entire assembly, some 250 feet long, had to be made up beneath
the ship, lowered on the drill pipe and washed into the bottom. That took two
days. Then the drill pipe was disengaged from the J·slots that had supported the
casing assembly and drilled on, coring intermittently, to a hole depth of 1035
feet. This test demonstrated how hardware for hole re-entry could be installed.
Those aboard were delighted by this success but enough small problems had
been found with the ship and equipment that it was necessary to return to the
shipyard for repairs and adjustments. While those were going on the staff re-
ceived a rude shock. Some of the AMSOC Committee members got cold feet
about going deeper and thought we should "quit while we were ahead" without
even attempting the job the drilling system was designed for. Shipyard work was
shut down and a meeting of those AMSOC Committee members in the area was
hastily called. It consisted largely of a cross examination of me on design and
operational procedures in front of a tape recorder. Clearly the intention was to
shift every iota of risk to me in case the experiments failed (Bascom 1962b).
The answers were apparently satisfactory to half those present and Walter Munk
arrived just in time to cast the deciding vote in favor of finishing the tests.
A few days later the shipyard work was completed and CUSS I was towed to
the drilling site off Guadalupe Island. When we arrived on station the winds were
25 knots and the swell was 8 to 10 feet high; they remained that way for much
of the next two weeks. At noon on March 28 a bit drilled into the deep sea
floor, 11,672 feet below the ship, for the first time. At 238 feet a punch core
brought up a greenish clay, described as Miocene ooze.
As that hole was completed the wind was rising and, with all engines already
running full ahead, the pilot reported that the steering wheel that controlled di-
rection of the four outboard engines would not turn. In the middle of the night
Taggart and I spent an hour beneath the pilot's legs with flashlight and screw
driver fixing a frozen idler gear while the pilot held position with manual con-
trols. The follOwing morning, against the advice of the contractor, we ran in the
pipe and drilled 400 feet into the bottom as rapidly as possible to bury the drill
collars and hold the bottom of the pipe against current drag.
On April 1, 1961 after 557 feet of progress downward through the Miocene
ooze, drill penetration slowed markedly. We had reached the "second layer"
which had been the subject of considerable geological speculation; the diamond
bit penetrated only 2 feet per hour. There was much excitement aboard as we
wirelined out a core that turned out to be basalt. On that same day, an advance
copy of my book "A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" (Bascom 1961a) arrived
with the mail. Although the writing had been complete over a year before, a
standard joke around the ship became: "Tum the page and see what we do
tomorrow."
324 w. Bascom
Eventually we drilled five holes, each by a slightly different method and
cuhninating with one done by an exotic "wire line coring turbodrill" brought
from France. The first deep-sea drilling was a great success, primarily because it
proved that drilling in deep water and setting a casing assembly for hole reentry
was possible (Bascom 1961b).
A year before I had lectured at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas to a large
group of oil men on our plan for holding a drilling ship with outboard motors
over water two miles deep. They were very skeptical and, at the end, two old-
timers came up to me. One said, "Son, did you ever see a real drilling operation?"
and the other added, "Or an outboard motor?" When I answered, "Yes," they
walked off shaking their heads like they'd been talking to the village idiot. After
the completion of the tests I returned to Houston for more lectures. Now the
same crowd thought it was all very simple.
Now it is simple-like flying or crossing the ocean in a small boat-once the
risky first exploration has been done by someone else.
In dozens of lectures and papers I had emphasized that the program was to
"explore the ocean basins by drilling many holes, culminating one day in a hole
to the Moho." With that in mind our group of engineers returned to Washington
and in the next eight months designed the "intermediate ship" described in "The
Design of a Deep Ocean Drilling Ship" (Bascom 1962a). Although this plan
seemed to me like an obvious next step, it split the AMSOC Committee almost
evenly. The "one deep hole" group finally gained ascendancy and the direction
of the work left the Academy. Eventually, after the disappointing performance
of Brown and Root on a large Mohole platform, that project was terminated and
a program of ocean basin exploration with the Glomar Challenger (roughly
equivalent to our intermediate ship) was begun. By 1979 there was talk again of
drilling very deep holes to explore beneath the crust with an "ultimate" ship.
These days deep-ocean drilling from a dynamically-positioned ship is an
accepted technique used by many companies and supported by thousands of
engineers who have a choice of off-the-shelf designs and hardware. Perhaps this
account will remind them of the dozen or so engineers who explored this new
world.
References
Bascom, W. 1959. The Mohole. Scientific American, April, 200(4), 41-45.

Bascom, W. 1959. Precise station keeping in deep water. Report to the AMSOC
Committee (NAS-NRC), October. 8 pp.
Bascom, W. (ed.). 1960. Experimental drilling in deep water (green). Report to
the AMSOC Committee (NAS-NRC), February, 108 pp.
Bascom, W. 1961a. A hole in the bottom of the sea. Doubleday, New York,
352 pp.
Bascom, W. (ed.). 1961 b. Experimental drilling in deep water (blue). NAS-NRC
Publication 914, 183 pp.
Bascom, W. (ed.). 1962a. Design of a deep ocean drilling ship. NAS-NRC Publi-
cation 984, 171 pp.
Bascom, W. 1962b. Communication to AMSOC meeting. "The present feeling of
the staff and how it developed," March 26, 5 pp.
Geological and Oceanographical Studies in the Caspian
Sea and Problems of Oil and Gas Deposits
Sh. F. Mekhtiyev and Z.A. Buniat-Zade
1 Introduction
The Caspian Sea, a remnant of the ancient Tethys, which once engirdled the
earth, is now the largest lake in the world; its elongate basin has an area of 400
thousand square kilometers (1200 km in length and about 325 km in width),
with a maximum depth of 1010 m and with water level about 29 m below that
of the oceans. There has been great interest since olden times in this basin be-
cause of its geographic position on the ancient trade routes connecting the East
and West, its various natural phenomena, etc. The whole history through the
centuries of various physiogeographic features and phenomena related to oil and
gas is demonstrated in the Caspian Sea. The investigations during the past cen-
tury of the geological structure of the bottom and of the economic mineral re-
sources there can be divided into two main periods:
1. Pre-80viet period from ancient times to 1920, and

2. Soviet period from 1921 to the present.
The pre-Soviet period can in turn be subdivided into the initial (to 1850),
intermediate (1851-1900) and fmal (1901-1920) stages, while the Soviet period
can be subdivided into early (1921-1945) and modem (since 1946) stages.
326 Sh. F. Mekhtiyev and Z. A. Buniat-Zade
2 Pre-Soviet Period (to 1920)
The Initial Stage
The initial stage (to 1850) is principally reported upon by famous naturalists,
travelers and also poets and writers of antiquity who described the Caspian Sea I
under many various names. Some ancient scholars believed, for example, that
the legendary Argonauts described by Homer, author of the Iliad and Odyssey
(12th to 8th centuries B.C.), entered the Caspian Seal from the Black Sea through
the Manych Depression. Hecateus of Miletus (end of the 6th to the beginning of
the 5th century B.C.) described the Caspian as a gulf of the World Ocean while
the "father of history," Herodotus (5th century B.C.), emphasized that "it is a
separate sea merging with no other." Aristotle (4th century B.C.) concurred in
this viewpoint but on the world map of Erathosthenes (3rd century B.C.) the
Caspian Sea was shown as a meridionally elongate basin with two rivers entering
it from the east. Through the rivers it was connected with the ocean in the north.
Furthermore, Patroc1us (3rd century B.C.), who governed the southern coast of
the Caspian and who used to sail as far north as the Apsheron Peninsula, thought
of the southern Caspian as a gulf of the Scythian (Northern) Ocean. The Caspian
Sea is also described in the 37 volumes of the Historia naturalis of Pliny the
Elder (who died in 79 A.D. when studying the eruption of Vesuvius) and in the
well-known Geography (17 volumes) by Strabo (1st century A.D.) where it is be-
lieved to stretch along the parallel, but according to Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.)
the Caspian was diamond-shaped with about two dozen rivers flowing into it
from every direction.
The most ancient written evidence of oil and gas seeps is associated with the
Azerbaijanian part of the Caspian Sea in the History of the Goths by Priscus of
Pannia, a diplomat of the 5th century A.D. He reported that the mounted troops
of Huns on the way northward from Media (the region from Lake Vrmia to the
present town of Hamadan in western Iran) "turned on another road and, having
passed a flame rising from a rock in the sea, ... arrived in their native country,"
i.e., the North Caucasus. It should be mentioned that this rock with a flame was
formerly associated with abundant gas blowouts in the Daghestan Fires, a well-
known spot not far from the town of Derbent (Kovalevsky 1940). More recently,
it was thought that it might have been Artyom Island or the Oil Rocks (Yampol-
lOver many centuries, the Caspian Sea has had more than 70 names, which can be traced to
either the peoples populating its coasts or the countries, regions or towns located along its
shores. The ancient Russians called it the "Khvalynsky Sea." ("He sailed the sea, the blue
Khvalynsky Sea," says the popular Russian epic about Sadko, the merchant of Novgorod).
The Arabs called it the "Hyrkanian Sea" after Hyrkania, a coastal country; the Chinese name
was "See-Hai" (the Western Sea); the Tatar name was "Ak Deniz" (the White Sea), etc.
The most popular present-day name, the Caspian Sea, which can be traced back to an
ancient tribe of Caspians who lived on its southwestern shore some centuries B.C., has been
known since the 5th century B.C. It was familiar to Herodotus, was brought to Russia early
in the 16th century and was widespread in Russian literature at the time of Peter I. Its
Azerbaijanian name is the "Khazar Sea" after the Khazars, an ancient folk living on its
northwestern shore.
Geological and Oceanographical Studies in the Caspian Sea 327
sky 1965) though there are also good reasons to believe (Buniat-Zade 1972) that
it could be a violent eruption of anyone of the mud volcanoes (e.g., Duvanny
Island where a remnant of a once-majestic mud volcano can be seen from the
shore today) and which was described by a number of ancient authors. For ex-
ample, a remarkable eruption of a mud volcano which spewed forth oil and gas
in the Caspian Sea not far from Baku was described in "the most fundamental
geographical treatise of the 10th century" (by L. H. Gumilev 1966), Meadows of
Gold, by a prominent Arabian traveler Abu-I-Hassan Ali Ibn Hussain Masudi (end
of the 9th century-956 or 957 A.D.) who visited Baku between 943 and 947
A.D.:
Islands lie in the sea opposite this coast. A huge mud volcano is on one of
these islands located at a distance of three days' travel from the mainland.
At a certain season it roars, its flames grow and rise to·the sky like the highest
mountains and it belches more fire than the size of this sea so that it can be
seen at a distance of 100 'farsahs' from the shore. This volcano can be com-
pared with Burkan Volcano on the island of Sicily in the land of the Franks.
(Burkan Volcano is Mt. Aetna, the highest (3263 m) active volcano in Europe.)
One can imagine what an imposing impression this raging "fiery island" had even
on this experienced Arabian traveler and scientist who had seen much of the world.
Slavonic merchants, who used to put in to the shores of the Caspian Sea, are
mentioned in the Book of Roads and Countries by the Arabian author Ibn Hor-
dadbek. Ibn Isfendiar, a Persian historian, reported that Russians sailed on the
Caspian Sea and visited the port of Abeskun in 909 A.D. In the reign of Prince
Igor (913 A.D.), 50 thousand Russian warriors portaged 500 ships (in the area of
the village of Kachalinskaya) from the Don to the Volga and sailed into the
Caspian Sea as far as its southwest border. In The Description of Russian Trade
over the Caspian Sea and its Perspectives by A. P. Mikhailov and K. I. Gablitz,
the participants of a Russian expedition to the Caspian headed by Academician
S. G. Gmelin (who died during the expedition and was buried on the shore of
the Caspian Sea near the village of Kayakent) as far back as in 913-914 A.D.
reached the "oil land" of Baku. During their next voyage in 943-944 A.D., Rus-
sian navigators not only reached Baku, but sailed as far as the mouth of the
Kura River and then up the river as far as the town of Barda.
One of the maps made by the Arabian traveler and geographer Abu Iskhak
Ibrahim Ibn Mohammed al-Farei al-Istahri (951-1000 A.D.) included in his
Book of the Roads of the Country shows the Caspian Sea as a circle with two
round islands in the northern and southern parts of its western half.
The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo wrote as far back as the 13th cen-
tury about the extraction of oil on Pir-Allahi Island (now Artyom Island). How-
ever, even on the well-known maps of the 14th century by Marino Sanuto
(1320), by the brothers Pizzigani (1367) and on the Catalan map (1375), the
outline of the Caspian Sea was very far from accurate. On the other hand, the
map by Fra-Mauro (1459) had a fairly accurate general outline of the sea and,
particularly, for some parts.
Valuable infonnation of the nature and level of the Caspian Sea contained in
the works by the prominent Azerbaijanian scholar Abdurashid Ibn Saleh Bakuvi
(14th century) were published in Paris in 1770.
The notes Wayfaring Over Three Seas by Afanasy Nikitin, a merchant from
Tver, is one of the significant "historical monuments" ofthe 15th century. The
Caspian was the first sea on his way and he stayed on its shores for some time
(in the town of Baku "where inextinguishable fire bums"). The Caspian also was
on the route of Malinkov, a Russian merchant who died on his way back in
Shemakha (Azerbaijan).
In the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Russian envoys led by Boris Pazukhin were
sent to Khiva, Bukhara and Merv and returned to Moscow via Baku. This tsar
ordered the compilation of a "Great Sketch of the whole state of Moscovia and
all neighbouring states" in 1551 which included the Caspian Sea. (The original
of the "Great Sketch ..." has not been preserved, but a description of it has
survived.)
A map and description of the Caspian (with great distortion) was also com-
piled by Antony Jenkinson, a British traveler who made a trip to Astrakhan,
Khiva and Bukhara via Moscow in 1558.
Mohammed Ibn Ali Ibn Ahmed al-Sharif gave a fairly accurate outline of the
Caspian on his map in 1601.
In 1623 Fedot Kotov, a Russian merchant, made a trip to Persia via Astrakhan.
In 1636 Adam Olearius, a Gennan traveler, compiled a fairly authentic map and
description of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian was also included in the maps made
by a Russian cartographer, S. U. Rernizov.
In the reign of Alexey Mikhailovich a ship Fridrix was built which was caught
in a stonn and wrecked on her maiden voyage in the Caspian. Other ships built
by this tsar in the Volga shipbuilding yards to protect the Caspian trade route
were captured and burned during the peasants' insurrection under the leadership
of Stepan Razin.
Most popular in Europe though rather inaccurate was the map of the Caspian
Sea compiled in 1700 by the well-known French cartographer, G. Delisle.
Until the 18th century the Caspian Sea was represented either with consider-
able distortions or rather crudely on most maps while in numerous descriptions
historical facts were intermingled with fictitious stories.
More interest was awakened in the Caspian Sea in the reign of Peter I who said
that ''we are in great need of winning the coasts of the Caspian Sea." During his
reign the Russian navy appeared in the Caspian. He sent the first Caspian expe-
dition headed by Prince A. Bekovich-Cherkassky who made the first fairly exact
map of the Caspian Sea in 1715 and who was killed in 1717 during the Khiva
campaign. In 1718 Peter I sent other expeditions headed by V. A. Urusov, K. P.
Verden and F. I. Soimonov on the ships St. Catherine, St. Alexander and Astrak-
han to explore the Caspian Sea. The resulting map based on this survey and
earlier expeditions not only compare favorably with all the earlier maps but has
retained its scientific value to the present time. In 1721 Peter I sent this map to
the Academy of Sciences in Paris, where it was reissued in French when Peter I
was elected to membership in the Academy.
Realizing the great importance of the Caspian Sea for Russia, not only did
Peter I visit it in 1722 but with his own hands cut a window in the famous for-
tress wall of Derbent in order to see the Caspian. It is worth noting that when he
learned about the old bed of the Uzboi River, he decided to change the course
of the Amu-Darya River to an earlier course to make a water route to India (A.
Bekovich<:herkassky was charged to investigate this project).
F. I. Soimonov, who mapped the coasts of the Caspian and compiled a hydro-
graphic description between 1718 and 1729 published in 1731 the first Atlas of
the Caspian Sea and the first sailing directions. Far-reaching importance of his
research is corroborated by the fact that more than 30 years later (in 1763) a
book was published in St. Petersburg entitled "Description of the Caspian Sea
... by the endeavor of F. I. Soimonov selected from the log of his Excellency
... and with supplements, where necessary, ... , introduced by G. F. Miller."
In 1751 a map and description of the Caspian Sea was compiled by Captain
A. I. Nagayev. In 1762 the southern coast of the Caspian was surveyed by Panin
and in 1764-1765 the eastern coast was surveyed by I. V. Tokmachov. The latter
investigated Tcheleken Island where Ladyzhensky inspected 20 oil wells which
yielded yearly about 64,000 kg of oil for the local populace.
Between 1769 and 1773 scientific investigations of the Caspian Sea were
carried out by Academician P. S. Pallas who suggested that there was a relation-
ship between the fluctuations of the water level and climatic factors. This was
the same period when Academician S. G. Gmelin visited Baku in 1770 and left
many memorabilia on the Caspian Sea.
In 1781-1782 a Russian squadron under the command of Captain 2nd class
(later Admiral) Prince M. I. Voinovich cruised in the Caspian Sea. Two naturalists
A. P. Mikhailov and K. I. Gablitz were on his staff. On completion of this expe-
dition, K. I. Gablitz (later Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences) com-
piled the well-known Historical Journal . .. (1809) describing the results of the
expedition.
The limited scope of this chapter makes it impossible even to mention quite a
number of other investigators of the Caspian Sea in the 18th century. It should
be emphasized, however, that already by the beginning of the 19th century all
former maps of this sea were inaccurate chiefly due to its fluctuating water level.
Among the physiogeographic phenomena of the Caspian Sea, the most character-
istic feature is its unstable water level. Thus, the numerous fluctuations make
this landlocked sea markedly different from other seas connected with the world
ocean. From the earliest times this problem attracted attention of the inhabitants
along the Caspian shores and gave rise to numerous legends. Some attributed
these fluctuations to the outflow of water into the Gulf Kara-Bogaz-Gol (which
means the Gulf of the Black Maw in the Turkmenian language), others explained
them by an underground channel connecting the Caspian with the Black Sea, the
Aral Sea or the Persian Gulf, and still others related them to numerous volcanoes
on the sea floor which allegedly swallowed up the water and then spouted it
back, etc.
Consequently, a new map and description of the Caspian Sea by G. L.
Golenishchev-Kutuzov was issued in 1807 and reissued in French in 1826 by
Zh. M. Dannet. Navigating officer, A. Yeo Kolodkin, began his survey in 1808
and published a new atlas (17 maps) of the Caspian Sea in 1826. In 1819-1821
the eastern coast of the Caspian was studied by N. N. Muravyov and in 1825 a
new map of the Caspian Sea was compiled by G. G. Basargin.
In the 1820s a rich collection of the fauna of the Caspian and its neighboring
areas was obtained by an expedition headed by the prominent naturalist and
zoologist E. I. Eichwald. He also gave a brief description of oil seeps in the area
of Baku and Cheleken. In 1832-1836 G. S. Karelin took part in several expeditions
in the Caspian Sea and published A Journal and Diary Notes containing 10 maps
in 1883. He was the first investigator to enter the Gulf of Kara-Bogaz-Gol in a
boat on September 29, 1836. This enabled him to chart and describe this gulf
and to discover the strong current from the sea into the gulf which he attributed
to intense surface evaporation within the gulf.
At this time the fluctuations in the Caspian Sea level attracted the attention
of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Academician E. H. l.enz was com-
missioned to examine this phenomenon. On coming to Baku in 1830, he installed
two permanent bench marks (south of the city wall and in an eastern bay of
Nargin Island) to mark the water level. (From 1837 until 1866 systematic obser-
vations of sea level were carried out using a depth gauge installed in a ditch in
front of the Baku Custom House; since 1866 those observations have been made
with a depth gauge installed on Cape Bailov.)
At this time the Caspian Sea was visited by Alexander von Humboldt, the
Aristotle of the 19th century, who wrote in his diary as far back as the middle
of the 18th century: "I cannot die before I see this sea!"
The end of this stage includes a series of works by Lieutenant A. I. Sokolov,
one of the first scholars dealing with the history of the investigation in the Caspi-
an Sea, who discussed descriptions of this sea from the early 18th century until
the middle of the 19th century.
To summarize, the initial stage of the history of investigation in the Caspian
Sea is characterized not only by general information (sometimes very inaccurate)
on the physiogeographical features and economic mineral deposits of the Caspi-
an Sea contained in the works of travelers and naturalists of the ancient world,
but also by comprehensive investigations by Russian scientists, started in the
days of Peter I and culminating in the outstanding surveys just mentioned.
Intermediate Stage (1851-1900)
Since the second half of the 19th century greater interest has been aroused in a
comprehensive investigation of the Caspian Sea. At this time, along with com-
piling various accurate maps and detailed geographic descriptions and in general
with the intensification of physiogeographic studies, a scientific foundation was
laid for studies of the geological structure and economic mineral deposits beneath
the floor of the Caspian Sea. The basic work in this field was that of Academici-
an G. V. Abich.
G. V. Abich came to Russia on the recommendation of A. von Humboldt in
1842 and devoted more than 40 years to studying the geology and useful miner-
als of the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. He thus gained a reputation as "father
of the geology of the Caucasus" and "founder of the geology of the Caspian"
(Alichanov and Buniat-Zade 1976). Beginning his studies in 1846 with fluctu-
ations in the sea level and a description of gas seeps in Baku Bay (at depths down
to 6 m), he explored the salient features of the water in the Caspian Sea, its
unique mud volcanoes (in his opinion they were responsible for the formation
of all islands in the South Caspian, which is only partially true) and many other
problems. This enabled him not only to give practical recommendations on the
presence of oil and gas in certain areas of the Baku and Apsheron archipelagoes
but also to generalize and draw theoretical conclusions most of which have more
than a mere theoretical value even today.
He was the first, for example, to indicate that porous beds in the form of
anticlines rather than joints, caverns, caves and underground hollows (as his
contemporaries both in Russia and abroad believed) are underground oil reser-
voirs. Agreeing with the great Russian scientists D. I. Mendeleyev about the in-
organic origin of oil, G. V. Abich conceived that oil accumulations are of a
secondary occurrence, i.e., that these are formed in the deeper parts of the earth
from bituminous shales and marls under the action of high temperatures and
steam and that the oil is then driven by gases from high pressure regions to those
of lower pressures along the paths of least resistance (such as joints and fractures)
filling collector beds to form natural reservoirs.
A number of other prominent Russian scientists explored the Caspian Sea
during this time. Since 1853 the character and causative factors of the secular
variations in the level of this sea were studied by Academician N. V. Khanykov.
He used the notes of oriental travelers for historical reconstruction of level. As
had P. S. Pallas, he related these variations to climatic factors.
Although the chief objective of the expedition with the participation of the
outstanding zoologist K. von Baer and Danilevsky in 1853-1856 was the ftsh
fauna and the chemical hydrology of the Caspian Sea, K. von Baer was also the
first to describe low sand ridges forming several massifs (later called Baer Knolls)
on the northern coast of the Caspian when recording the general geographical
features of the eastern part of the South Caspian. He also described the Gulf of
Krasnovodsk and Cheleken Island.
In 1856-1867 Captain lst class N. A. Ivashintsov commanded a complex navy
expedition to the Caspian Sea with a group of scientists on the staff who were
later remembered as well-known investigators of this sea. Before he died in 1870,
Rear-Admiral N. A. Ivashintsov had compiled a detailed magnetic declination at-
las and was the first to calculate the water balance of the sea. A young member
of his staff A. F. Ulsky died suddenly; however, he had compiled a very inter-
esting bathymetric chart of the Caspian Sea. The total results (25 detailed charts
of various sea areas, 24 exact plans, and two atlases) of this expedition were pre-
pared by N. L. Pushchin and published in 1877.
In 1872, V. Arkhipov, P. Kraft and G. Tsulukidze published a paper on the
geological structure of coastal areas and islands in the South Caspian. In 1892
geological structure and oil and gas seeps on the Svyatoy Island (now Artyom
Island) were described by N. Shegren and by the end of this stage oil and gas
seeps in the water areas adjacent to Baku Bay were studied by N. I. Lebedev.
Later in 19th century Academician A. P. Karpinsky, an outstanding geologist
of the 20th century, published two papers entitled "Outline of the Geological
Past of European Russia" (1892) and "The General Character of the Earth Crust
in European Russia" (1894). Among other things he noted that the Chief Cau-
casian Range ran through the Caspian Sea toward the Greater and Lesser Balkans
and Kopet-dag while the Donets Basin and Mangyshlak are tectonically con-
nected through the northern part of the Caspian. These concepts were corrobo-
rated by N. F. Andrusov during his work on the geological structure and structur-
al history of the floor of the Caspian Sea. In 1897 an expedition headed by
N. I. Andrusov explored the Gulf of Kara-Bogaz-Gol and, among other things,
found a thick (about 14 m) layer of pure Glauber salt on the bottom.
It is during this stage that a mining engineer, V. K. Zglenitsky, suggested a
"crazy idea" and drew up a proposal for the extraction of oil from under the sea
floor by drilling wells from individual wooden platforms; he also considered mud
volcanoes as indicators of the presence of oil and gas in the rock (Z. A. Buniat-
Zade 1978) and singled out more than 150 potential oil-bearing areas within the
northwestern part of the South Caspian and its coast line in 1900 ..
The intermediate stage of the history of investigation of the Caspian Sea pro-
vided the foundation for marine geology in general and marine oil and gas geolo-
gy in particular, by complex exploration and by drawing up a proposal for devel-
oping offshore oil deposits.
Final Stage (1901-1920)
At the beginning of the 20th century N. I. Lebedev described the geological

structure of Artyom Island, Zhyloy Island and Oil Rocks (1901-1902) suggesting
that they were anticlines. In 1904 an expedition headed by A. L. Lebedintsev
studied the chemical composition of numerous samples of Caspian water.
In 1907, D. V. Golubyatnikov, generally acknowledged as the "father of
Apsheron geology ," compiled a detailed geographical map of Artyom Island and
proved the presence of oil and gas in the offshore Bibi-Eibat anticline. In 1907-
1909 the geological structure of Cheleken Island was studied by V. V. Weber and
K. P. Kalitsky who compiled a detailed geological map.
In 1911 the Hydrometeorological Service was established in Petrovsk (now
Makhachkala). Three expeditions studied the Caspian Sea under the guidance of
a prominent marine explorer, N. I. Knipovich, who described in detail the physio-
geographic properties of this sea, the distribution of fauna, the gases, tempera-
ture, and salinity of the water, the currents and the fluctuations of its water level.
In 1916 K. P. Kalitsky published the results of his exploration of the Baku
Archipelago and suggested that oil might exist on the island.
To summarize, during this stage the geological structure of the Baku and
Apsheron archipelagoes in the South Caspian were studied in detail and it was
unanimously concluded that oil and gas were present there. Thus, the pre-Soviet
period is characterized by the following major achievements: (1) a foundation
for marine geology and marine oil-gas geology; (2) the proof that oil was present
in underwater structures; (3) a program for developing offshore oil deposits; and
(4) complex oceanographic investigations.
3 Soviet Period (since 1921)
Characteristic of the early stage (1921-1945) is the project of filling the offshore
Bibi-Eibat anticline and drilling prospecting (from 1922) and producing (from
1923) wells there and also wells at a short distance from shore (from 1934, north
of Artyom Island).
This stage included the oceanological research of many outstanding scientists
such as I. S. Berg, B. D. Zaikov, M. V. Klenova and many others, and the classical
investigations of the geology of oil and gas of prominent geologists such as A. D.
Arkhangel'sky, I. M. Gubkin, V. V. Fedynsky, S. M. Apresov, A. A. Kamladze,
S. A. Kovalevsky, V. S. Melik-Pashayev and others. Academician A. D. Ark-
hangel'sky said in 1924 that "enormous wealth has been hidden under the sea.
The present-day technology can undoubtedly cope with the development of
these deposits. I strongly recommend to start dealing with this problem in the
nearest future." Particular emphasis was placed upon the necessity of prospect-
ing in the area of the Oil Rocks which were "not only a thorn in the flesh of the
sea but also an oil deposit" (Kovalevsky 1940); the mechanism for the activity
and the products erupted were studied for several mud volcanoes in the South
Caspian (M. V. Abramovich, S. P. Zuber, K. P. Kalitsky, A. T. Kutsenko, V.
Livental, N. V. Malinovsky, V. A. Sulin and others).
As far back as 1924 S. R. Zuber made a memorable appeal "to drill for oil
where indicated by mud volcanoes" and the next year he flew to study the
characteristic features of the geological structure of the Baku Archipelago, there-
by laying the foundation for the use of airborne techniques in geological research.
Marine geophysical exploration (since 1930), initiated by G. A. Gamburtsev
and V. V. Fedynsky, and mapping by drilling from a boat (since 1934) were car-
ried out on the Caspian Sea for the first time anywhere in the world. The tech-
nique for prospecting for offshore oil-bearing structures had been considerably
improved by the end of this stage despite the fact that the scope of oceanologi-
cal research, geological and geophysical explorations and exploratory drilling was
considerably reduced in the years of the Great Patriotic War. In the course of
time both marine geophysical techniques (especially seismic methods which have
been employed on the Caspian Sea since 1941) and offshore drilling from ships
at great depths (up to several kilometers) have become essential components of
the complex geological and geophysical explorations of the world ocean.
This stage also includes the first map of seeps of an oil reservoir (compiled by
V. A. Gorin in 1934 for Bibi-Eibat) and publication of the first treatise on the
presence of oil in the southwestern Caspian Sea (S. M. Apresov 1933).
During this stage, there were quite a number of outstanding achievements in
the field of marine geological science and practice.
334 Sh. F. Mekhtiyevand Z. A. Buniat-Zade
The Modem Stage (since 1946)
The modem stage is characterized by systematic and comprehensive (geological,

geophysical, geochemical, ocean ological , etc.) research in the Caspian Sea by
large groups of scientists and production specialists including prominent research
workers such as A. K. Allev, E. N. Alikhanov, B. A. Appolov, G. A. Akhmedov,
F. M. Baghir-Zade, A. A. Geodeklyan, Yu. N. Godin, V. A. Gorin, K. K. Gyul,
F. G. Dadashev, M. V. Klenova, V. A. Kornev, V. I. Kulikov, O. K. Leontyev,
Va. P. Malovitsky, V. S. Melik-Pashayev, Sh. F. Mekhtiyev, N. V. Pashaly, A. L.
Putkaradze, S. Va. Rapoport, F. I. Samedov, V. F. Solovyov, D. M. Suleimanov,
V. Yeo Khain, N. I. Shapirovsky, V. V. Sharkov, I. O. Tsimmelzon, Kh. B. Yusuf-
Zadeh, to name a few. This stage also includes a number of pioneering funda-
mental works by investigators of the Caspian Sea (M. V. Klenova 1948, E. N.
Alikhanov 1964, F. M. Baghir-Zade and L. A. Buryakovsky 1974).
A complex of geophysical (gravitational, electric and seismic prospecting),
aeromagnetic, and aerial survey studies and large scale exploratory drilling
made it possible to discover about 200 local uplifts under the floor of the Caspi-
an Sea, of which 18 contained oil and gas (Oil Rocks 1949, Darwin Bank 1950,
Sangachaly-Duvanny-Bulla Island 1964, Bahar 1968, Zhdanov Bank 1968,
livanov Bank 1973, Bulla 1973, Garasu 1974, etc.).
Due to these fmdings, it was not only possible to discover the oceanological
features of the Caspian Sea but also to tackle the problem concerning the geo-
logical structure of its bottom and answer many questions about the presence of
oil and gas in a wide range of stratigraphic deposits (from the Triassic to Upper
Pliocene).
Thus, this is the most thoroughly investigated sea in the Soviet Union and one
of the most thoroughly investigated water areas in the world from geological,
geophysical, geochemical and oceanological viewpoints.
References
Alikhanov, E. N. 1964. Oil and gas reservoirs in the Caspian Sea. (In Russian).
Azerneshr Publishers, Baku.
Alikhanov, E. N. 1978. Geology of the Caspian Sea. (In Russian). Elm Pub-
lishers, Baku.
Alikhanov, E. N., Buniat-Zade, Z. A. and Abich, H. W. 1976. Die Geologie des
Kaspisees. Zur Geschichte der Deutsch-Sowjetischen Beziehungen auf dem
Gebiet der geologischen Wissenschaftes. Teil 3. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin.
Baghir-Zade, F. M. and Buryakovsky, L. A. 1974. Fundamentals of marine oil-
gas geology. (In Russian). Elm Publishers, Baku.
Buniat-Zade, Z. A. 1971. On the history of research of gas-oil volcanism. Papers
on the History of Geological and Geographical Sciences. (In Russian). 13th
International Congress on History of Science. Nedra Publishers, Moscow.
Buniat-Zade, Z. A. 1972. Classification of gas-oil volcanoes in the South-Caspian
Depression. (In Russian). Sovetskaya Geologiya, No.5.
Buniat-Zade, Z. A. 1978. Witold Zglenickl a problem wydobycia ropy naftowej
z dna marskiego. Notatki Plockie, 4/97.
Gorin, V. A. and Buniat-Zade, Z. A. 1971. Abyssal fractures, mud volcanoes and
and oil deposits in the western slope of the South-Caspian Depression. (In
Russian). Azerneshr Publishers, Baku.
Gyul, K. K. 1956. The Caspian Sea. (In Russian). Azerneshr Publishers, Baku.
Klenova, M. V. 1948. Marine geology. (In Russian). Uchpedgiz Publishers,
Moscow.
Mekhtiyev, Sh. F. 1957. Oil resources of the Caspian Sea. (In Russian). Znaniye
Publishers, Baku.
Mekhtiyev, Sh. F. 1968. Basic steps in geological studies of Azerbaijan. (In Rus-
sian). Published by the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry, Baku.
Mekhtiyev, Sh. F. and Buniat-Zade, Z. A. 1978. Azerbaijan is the motherland for
the studies of oil geology and gas-oil volcanoes. International Committee on
the History of Geological Sciences. INHIGEO. Abstract. VIII Symposium.
Munster and Bonn, FRG. The United States and Developing World. Agenda
for Action. Washington, 1973.
Yusuf-Zade, Kh. B. 1979. Development and prospecting of offshore oil and gas
deposits. (In Russian). Azerbaijan State Publishers, Baku.
The Development of Marine Chemistry until 1900
William J. Wallace
Kopp (1844) suggested over 100 years ago that solution analytic procedures
were derived primarily from the examination of mineral waters dating from the
end ofthe 16th century.
Natural waters from time immemorial have been considered to be of medicin-
al value and to possess curative powers. By the Renaissance, Italian physicians
were evaporating them to dryness and testing the residues with the senses, pri-
marily taste (Debus 1962). Although there was little theoretical advance beyond
the ancient Greek texts, chemical techniques had improved considerably and by
the late 17th century, distillation, crystallization, specific salt separations and
identifications, consistent weighings, and a number of qualitative tests were in
common use (Multhauf 1956). This can be clearly seen in the flurry of papers
published from about 1666 in the scientific journals of the time.
In 1674 the English chemist and natural philosopher, Robert Boyle, published
his Observations and Experiments on the Saltness of the Sea (Birch 1965), an ex-
traordinary work which established him as the founder of the science now known
as chemical oceanography (Riley 1965, Thompson 1958). It was the first truly
defmitive scientific paper dealing with the sea and its various physical and chem-
ical parameters such as temperature, depth and salt content. This paper was un-
usual in that there was not at that time general chemical curiosity in the sea, but
rather it was the result of the continued interest in natural waters. Boyle clearly
stated that the reason he turned to the investigation of all waters, including spring,
lake, river, well and sea, was for the "health of thousands" (Birch 1965, Vol. 4,
p. 795). Sea water was just a particularly concentrated natural water. In compil-
ing a qualitative and quantitative scheme from the available techniques, adding
some of his own, he applied it to all solutions, including sea water. The chemical
The Development of Marine Chemistry until 1900 337
measurements of saltness were done by evaporating a pound of sea water (avoir-
dupois) and by precipitating the salt by some agent. Since he was able to get con-
sistant values by evaporation, Boyle stated that the method was not as straight-
forward as one might expect; perhaps some change in the salt might be occurring.
He, therefore, chose precipitation as his primary test. Later he recommended the
use of a silver nitrate solution to determine the sweetness of all waters (Boyle
1693).
Although the works of Robert Boyle represent the clearest, most complete
ideas with respect to mineral waters and the sea and its saltness written for some
time to come, they were largely overlooked in sea water investigations for the
next century. By and large the chemical study of mineral waters through the 18th
century was a common yet random thing (Home 1756, LeMonnier 1747, Rutty
1757, Venel1755) possessing no common analytical scheme, yielding only inc-
consistent results.
In 1772 the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in a paper on mineral waters
(Lavoisier 1772) included the first published analysis of sea water. Twelve years
later the Swedish chemist Torbern Olaf Bergman (1784), also in a detailed exami-
nation of all natural waters, chose to include a list of the substances he had iden-
tified in sea water (Bergman 1784). Neither man was particularly interested in
sea water in itself; both regarded it as the most concentrated of the waters in
nature and undertook its study for that reason. Lavoisier's method was evapo-
rative with subsequent solvent extraction. Bergman used evaporation and precip-
itation and he introduced the procedure of weighing the precipitated salts
(Stillman 1924, p. 137). He also suggested that the results of any water analysis
might not necessarily indicate the actual constituents as they exist in solution.
lavoisier believed that the salts in solution involved a simple separation from
one another (Whitfield 1972) and would yield the same when dried.
Chemical analysis had existed for some time prior to Bergman, but it was not
a separate branch of the science. Bergman was responsible for its attainment as a
separate branch of chemistry (analytical) (Szabadvary 1966. p. 71). Indirectly,
then, Bergman was important to chemical oceanography. His work in mineral
waters stimulated and accelerated much of the future work on fresh waters and
solution chemistry that was applicable to sea water.
The last part of the 18th century and well into the 19th produced no in-depth
research on the sea. No purely oceanographic expeditions had been outfitted and
most measurements taken were at best only scientific curiosities. The chemical
investigations of the nature and constituents of sea water still by no means syste-
matic continued to be a major scientific study of the sea, even though sea water
was still considered to be a branch of mineral water investigations. The salts de-
termined in mineral waters and their amounts still did not agree from analysis
to analysis nor did those of sea water (Bouillon-lagrange 1811, Bouillon-lagrange
and Vogel 1813, Iichtenberg 1811, Vogel 1817). This situation was aided by
several developments. The practice of drying to constant weight was initiated by
the German chemist Martin Klaproth in 1813 (Klaproth 1813, Leicester 1956)
who also introduced the practice of reporting the actual percentage composition
338 W. J. Wallace
based on the examination instead of recalculating the results in order to get a
swn oft 00% as was usually done (Campbell and Mallen 1958, 1960). This method
was not only realistic but it permitted the discovery of errors more readily. Short-
ly thereafter Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, one of the greatest of all analytical
chemists, between the years 1824 and 1836 (Gay-Lussac 1832, 1835, 1836)
published a nwnber of papers on volumetric analysis. These works of Gay-Lussac
in titrimetry gave chemistry rapid, simple and accurate methods that were
increasingly used in chemistry, mineral water, and sea water investigations.
Gay-Lussac (1817a, p. 432) also introduced the notion of a water colwnn and
made the flrst precise announcement that the salinity of the open ocean (specifl-
cally the Atlantic) is constant (Gay-Lussac 1817b), preswnably based on his
fmdings with von Humboldt that the atmosphere was homogenous in compo-
sition, at least to the altitude of 22,000 feet (Gay-Lussac and von Hwnboldt
1805).
The discrepancies in experimental results of sea water investigations had to be
due either to faults in the procedure or the nature of sea water itself or both. It
is true that while most chemists seemed to believe in some consistency of sea
water there was no real evidence since there had not yet been a particularly
large nwnber of analyses and little consistency in results. The fault lay primarily
in the evaporation-solvent~xtraction method. Although Boyle had experienced
difficulties with evaporation as the primary analytical procedure to determine
total salt in sea water almost 150 years prior, evaporation was still the basic tool
in water examinations. Nevertheless the means for the accurate determination of
constituents in sea water were known. This was by the use of precipitating agents
used hitherto as qualitative tests (Madsen 1958). The systematic quantitative use
of indirect analytical methods was introduced almost simultaneously but inde-
pendently by John Murray (1818b) and Alexander Marcet (1822).
Having duplicated the experiments of previous workers on sea water Murray
came to the conclusion that a new method was justifled. To Murray the compo-
sition of sea water could be performed more easily and with greater accuracy
by the indirect or precipitation method (Murray 1818a, p. 262). He went on to
propose a general formula for the analysis of all waters (Murray 1818b). In fact
he appears to have used sea water as the means to show the value of the indirect
method since no mineral water was as concentrated or presented as many prob-
lems as sea water. This, then, is the flrst time that sea water analysis had been of
speciflc value to that of mineral waters.
The indirect method proposed by Murray was simply the determination by
precipitation of the speciflc "acids and bases" in the water sample rather than
the removal of the salts per se. The salt constituents could then be inferred. His
work was entirely gravimetric. His technique even from a modern standpoint was
excellent-so much so that the four quantitative determinations he recommended
have existed until the present time with only minor modiflcations. 1
1These are sulfate as barium sulfate, calcium as the oxalate, chloride as silver muriate and
magnesium as the pyrophosphate.
The concept of determining the "acids and bases" present in a sample was to
become extremely important in analytical chemistry. The work of John Murray
was largely responsible for this. It gave chemists a general method which, when
used with care, was capable of giving reproducible results in mineral water as
well as sea water analyses. This was a new conceptual framework envisioning the
nature of the constituents in solution (Whitfield 1972).
By the time Alexander Marcet had written his major paper on sea water
(1819), he was familiar with Murray's work in this area. The fact that they both
chose to study sea water by the indirect method is not indicative of an increased
interest in the sea by the scientific community but rather of solution chemistry
which had been accelerating since the time of Lavoisier. Marcet's experimental
method and results are essentially Murray's, but he did throw out two interesting
conjectures: that sea water might contain minute quantities of all soluble sub-
stances in nature and that the composition of sea water was relatively constant
(Marcet 1819, 1820, 1822).
Because the works of Murray and Marcet were well read it might seem that
the emphasis on the use of precipitation methods to determine the composition
of salt in sea water would result in the falling of evaporation procedures from
popular usage. While such was generally the case (Bibra 1851, Boussingault
1825, Clemm 1841, Gobel 1842, Laurens 1835, Lenz 1832, Pfaff 1818, Daron-
deau 1838), it was still common to use the evaporation techniques. By 1850 the
precipitative method to determine the salts in sea water quantitatively was in
general use, but this technique as it was practiced still involved the prior evapo-
ration of the water, based on the belief that the precipitating agents would
function more effectively in the more concentrated solution. Murray himself
had done this as a matter of course. This was a direct carryover from mineral
waters, where the solutions in question were usually much more dilute than sea
water and concentration was not only useful but almost necessary. The inade-
quacy of evaporative techniques was clearly pointed out by J. Usiglio in 1849
(Usiglio 1849a, 1849b).
The chemical methods Usiglio used to determine the constituents in sea
water were those of Murray and Marcet with some improvements (Wollaston
1820, 1829). In comparing the results of three sea water samples concentrated
to increasing densities, he found that they did not even agree in terms of total
salt content, much less individual components. He, therefore, emphasized the
analysis of sea water directly in its normal unconcentrated form and by the pre-
cipitative method.
Usiglio's work was conclusive proof that this direct method was vastly superi-
or in that it was capable of results that were reproducible and, therefore sup-
posedly more in keeping with the actual nature of the sea water. After Usiglio,
mineral water ceased to be important to sea water. The break between these two
was not a sharp one occurring with Usiglio, but was one that had been in process
since the early 1800s when men such as Marcet studied the make-up of sea water
for its own sake, and not as a particular concentrated mineral water. The chemi-
cal study of sea water went its own separate way accelerated by the new interest
in the ocean that was beginning to take place at that time.
340 W. J. Wallace
By 1855 the elements that comprise the bulk of the salt matter (about
9993%) had been discovered and subsequently detected in sea water. The ex-
ception was fluorine which, although finally detected in a compound in 1865
(Forchhammer 1865), had been inferred as early as 1850 (Wilson and Forch-
hammer 1850), but was not fmally isolated as an element until 1886 (Weeks
1956). Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1807-1808, isolated the elements sodium and po-
tassium, as well as barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium by the electrolysis
of the fused bases. The element iodine was discovered in 1811 (Courtois 1813)
in the ashes of marine algae and detected in 1825 in Baltic sea water (pfaff
1825). Bromine was discovered in 1824 by Antoine-Jerome Balard (1826) and
shortly thereafter he identified it in sea water. The element boron was detected
by Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thenard in 1808 and detected in sea water in
1853 (Riley 1965, p. 13) but defmitely reported in 1865 by Forchhammer when
he reported strontium in sea water.
By 1860 the non-scientific world viewed the salt content of the sea as constant
largely through the popular works of writers such as Maury (1855). The scien-
tific community, however, knew that the salt content varied, at least inshore,
but there were no conclusive statements as to variability of total salt content or
constituents in sea water, although there was a prevailing belief that these were
constant in proportion. There was also the question of what criteria to use in
inferring the composition of sea salt from the indirect method.
The lengthy and detailed paper of Georg Forchhammer (1865) was a mile-
stone in the history of chemical theories of sea water. Aside from introducing
the term salinity and determining 27 elements in sea water, his principal con-
clusion was that, although the salinity of the open ocean might vary, the pro-
portion of total salts to each other was everywhere the same. He introduced the
coefficient of chlorine as the means to determine salinity rapidly.
There are probably few that would disagree with the statement that modem
oceanography as a science began with H.M.S. Challenger. While the foundations
of modem chemical oceanography lie in the detailed work by such chemists as
Murray and Marcet, their works were isolated occurrences and not part of
an overall field of ocean study. With the publishing of William Dittmar's report
on the chemistry of the 77 water samples of the Challenger expedition (1884),
representing the most extensive sea water analysis performed before and for some
time to come, the situation had changed. Prior to the Challenger reports, most
scientists engaged in the chemical investigation of sea water, with the major ex-
ception being dissolved gas determinations, were involved with the determination
of primarily the major and some of the minor constituents and of salinity, and
there was little general agreement. Dittmar used the investigative scheme of
Forchhammer. He accepted and believed, before he began his laboratory re-
search, Forchhammer's idea of constituent constancy as well as the use of the
coefficient of chlorine, although Dittmar suggested a different value (1.8058).
Consequently, with the strong impact by the published expedition results on the
scientific community, chemists accepted the work of Forchhammer solidified by
Dittmar. There was now little question as to the major salt constituents as well
as their constancy of proportion. Chemical oceanography now had a firm
foundation and became a separate discipline within the framework of the new
science of oceanography.
The remainder of the 19th century saw marine chemistry develop its modem
form. Chemists began to look at a great many marine-related topics. Winkler
(1889), for example, published his test for dissolved oxygen, Natterer's (1892)
sea water analyses contained determinations of dissolved organic matter, and
carbon dioxide and oxygen productivity as well as attempts at nutrient deter-
minations. Although slow to be accepted by oceanographers, Svante Arrhenius'
theory of electrolytic dissociation (1887) made it possible for them to "visual-
ize" the constituents of sea water in a manner more consistent with their ana-
lytical results.
While 19th century marine chemistry had grappled primarily with the prob-
lem there were still difficulties in defming the total salt content of sea water
(Schmelk 1882, T~moe 1880). These were solved by the team of Martin Knud-
sen, Carl Forch and S. P. L. Sorenson (1902) who between 1899 and 1902
(Knudsen 1901) produced a gravimetric definition of salinity and in effect de-
fined a procedure in terms of chloride (Le., total halide) content. The acceptance
by the marine community of these defmitions with their underlying assump-
tions, the equation relating them (S %0 = 1.805 CI %0 + .030) and the titri-
metric procedure to determine chloride effectively ended, for that time, these
problems, and supplied in largest part the standardization needed by the ocean-
ographic chemical community for salinity (and density) determinations.
References
Arrhenius, S. 1887. Dissociation of substances dissolved in water. Z. Phys.

Chern., 1,631-648.
Balard, A.-J. 1826. Sur une substance particuliere contenue dans l'eau de la mer.
Ann. Chim. Phys., Ser. 2, 32, 337-381.
Bergman, T. 1784. Physical and chemical essays (translated by Edmund Cullen).
Murray, London, 2 vol.
Bibra, E. von. 1851. Untersuchung von Seewasser des Stillen Meeres und des
Atlantischen Oceans. Justus Liebig's Ann. Chern., 77, 90-102.
Birch, T. (ed.). 1965. The works of Robert Boyle. Georg Olms, Hildescheim,
6 vol.
Bouillon-Lagrange, E. J. B. 1811. Essai sur les eaux minerales naturelles et arti-
ficielles. Bull. Pharmacie, Ser. 1,3,47-48.
Bouillon-Lagrange, E. J. B. and Vogel, A. 1813. Memoire sur l'eau des mers qui
baignent les cotes de l'Empire franc;:ais. Bull. Pharmacie, 5, 505-516.
Boussingault, J. B. J. 1825. Sur l'existence de l'iode dans l'eau d'une saline de la
province d'Antioquia. Ann. Chim. Phys., 30, 91-96.
Boyle, R. 1693. An account of the honourable Robert Boyle's way of examining
waters as to freshness and saltness. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., 17, 627-641.
Campbell, W. A. and Mallen, C. E. 1958. The development of quantitative analy-
sis from 1750 to 1850,1. Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 13A, 108-118.
Campbell, W. A. and Mallen, C. E. 1960. The development of qualitative analysis
(1750-1850),2. Proc. Univ. Durham Phil. Soc., 13A, 168-173.
Clemm, G. 1841. Analyse des Nordsee-Wassers. Justus Liebig's Ann. Chern., 37,
111-113.
342 W. J. Wallace
Courtois, B. 1813. Decouverte d'un substance novelle dans Ie vareck. Ann. Chim.
Phys., Ser. 1,88,304-310.
Darondeau, B. H. 1838. Resultat de l'examen des eaux de mer recueillies pen-
dent Ie voyage de la Bonite, avec l'appareil imagine par M. Biot. Ann. Chim.
Phys., Ser. 2,69,100-106.
Debus, A. G. 1962. Solution analysis prior to Robert Boyle. Chymia, 8,41-61.
Dittmar, W. 1884. Physics and Chemistry. Rept. Scient. Res. H.M.S. Challenger,
1873-76, 1, 251 pp.
Forchhammer, G. 1865. On the composition of sea-water in the different parts
of the ocean. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., 155,203-262.
Gay-Lussac, J. L. 1817. Note sur la salure de l'Ocean atlantique. Ann. Chim.
Phys., Ser. 2, 6,426-436.
a
Gay-Lussac, J. L. 1817. Supplement la note sur la salure de lamer,imprimee
dans Ie sixi~me volume des Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Ann. Chim.
Phys., Ser. 2, 7, 79-83.
Gay-Lussac, J. L. 1832. Instruction sur l'essai des matieres d'argent per la voie
humide. Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 88 pp.
Gay-Lussac, J. L. 1835. Nouvelle instruction sur la chlorometrie. Ann. Chim. 60,
218-224.
Gay-Lussac, J. L. 1836. Nouvelle instruction sur la chlorometrie. Ann. Chim.,
63,334-335.
Gay-Lussac, J. L. and Humboldt, A. F. H. von. 1805. Experiences sur les moyens
eudiometriques et des principes constituants de l'atmosphere. Ann. Chim.,
53,239-259.
Gay-Lussac, J. L. and Thenard, L. J. 1808. Sur la decomposition et la recompo-
sition de l'acide boracique. Ann. Chim. Phys., Ser. 1,68, 169-174.
Gobel, F. 1842. Resultate der Zerlegung des Wassers vom Schwarzen, Asowschen
und Kaspischen Meeres. Ann. Phys. Chern., 51,187-188.
Home, F. 1756. An essay on the contents and virtues of Dunse Spaw, Kincaid
and Donaldson. Edinburgh, 330 pp.
Klaproth, M. H. 1813. Chemische Untersuchung des Wassers vom Todten Meere.
Ann. Phil." 1,36-39.
Knudsen, M. 1901. Report 2me Conf. Int. Explor. Mer, Kristiania, 1901. 38 pp.
Knudsen, M., Forch, C. and Sorensen, S. P. L. 1902. Bericht tiber die chemische
and physikalische Untersuchung des Seewassers und die Aufstellung der
neuen hydrographischen Tabellen. Wiss. Meeresunters., n.f., 6, 123-184.
Kopp, H. 1844. Geschichte der Chemie. Vieweg, Braunschweig, 2 vol.
Laurens, A. 1835. Sur une analyse de l'eau de la mer Mediterranee. J. Pharmacie,
Ser. 2, 21, 89-94.
Lavoisier, A. 1772. Memoire sur l'usage de l'esprit-de-vin dans l'analyse des eaux
minerales. Mem. Acad. Roy. Sci. (Paris), 1772,555-563.
Lavoisier, A. 1965. Oeuvres de Lavoisier. Johnson, New York, 6 vol.
Leicester, H. M. 1956. The historical background of chemistry. Wiley, New York,
241 pp.
LeMonnier, L. G. 1747. L'analyse des eaux minerales. Mem. Acad. Roy. Sci.,
Paris, 1747,259-271.
Lenz, E. 1832. On the comparative quality of salt contained in the waters of the
ocean. Edinb. J. Sci., 6, 341-344.
Lichtenberg, F. D. von. 1811. Chemische Untersuchung des Ostsee-Wassers. J.
Chern. Phys., 2,252-257.
Madsen, E. R. 1958. The development of titrimetric analysis till 1806. Gad,
Copenhagen, 239 pp.
Marcet, A. 1819. On the specific gravity, and temperature, in different parts of
the ocean, and in particular seas; with some account of their saline contents.
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., 109, 161-208.
Marcet, A. 1820. Sur la pesanteur specifique de l'eau de l'ocean, dans diverses
regions. J. Pharmacie, Ser. 2, 6, 380-381.
Marcet, A. 1822. Some experiments and researches on the saline contents of sea-
water, undertaken with a view to correct and improve its chemical analysis.
Phil. Trans. Roy. Lond., 112,448456.
Maury, M. F. 1855. The physical geography of the sea. Harper, New York, 360 pp.
Multhauf, R. 1956. The significance of distillation in Renaissance medical chem-
istry. Bull. Hist. Medicine, 30, 329-346.
Murray, J. 1818a. An analysis of sea-water; with observations on the analysis of
salt-brines. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 8, 205-244.
Murray, J. 1818b. A general formula for the analysis of mineral waters. Trans.
Roy. Soc. Edinb., 8, 259-279.
Natterer, K. 1892. Chemische Untersuchungen im ostlichen Mitte1meer. Monatsh.
Chern., 13,873-897.
Pfaff, C. H. 1818. Nachtrag zu meiner Analyse des Ostseewassers. J. Chern.
Phys., 22, 271-273.
Pfaff, C. H. 1825. Ueber die Kalisii1ze, den Salmiak-und lod-Gehalt des Ostsee-
wassers, so wie tiber die Doppe1sii1ze aus Ta1kerde und Kali. Jahrb. Chern.
Phys., 15,378-382.
Riley, J. P. 1965. Historical introduction. In: J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow (eds.),
Chemical Oceanography. Academic Press, New York 1, 142.
Rutty, J. 1757. A methodical synopsis of mineral waters, comprehending the
most celebrated medicinal waters, both cold and hot, of Great Britain, Ire-
land, France, Germany, and Italy, and several other parts of the world. John-
ston, London, 668 pp.
Schme1k, L. 1882. Chemistry. Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876-
1878, Gr(mdahl, Christinia, 1(9). 71 pp.
Stillman, J. M. 1924. The story of early chemistry. Appleton, New York, 438 pp.
Szabadvary, F. 1966. History of analytical chemistry. (Translation by Gyula
Svehla), Pergamon, London. 401 pp.
Thompson, T. G. 1958. A short history of oceanography with emphasis on the
role played by chemistry. J. Chern. Educ., 35, 108-112.
T¢>rnoe, H. 1880. Chemistry. Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876-1878,
Gr¢mdahl, Christiania, I, 76 pp.
Usiglio, I. 1849a. Analyse de l'eau de la Mediterranee sur les cotes de France.
Ann. Chim. Physp Ser. 3, 27,92-107.
Usigiio, J. 1948b. Etudes sur la composition de l'eau de la M'editerranee et sur
l'exploitation des sels qu'elle contient. Ann. Chim. Phys., Ser. 3, 27, 172-191.
Venel, G. F. 1755. L'analyse de l'eau minerale de Seltz. Memoires presentes par
a
divers savants l'Academie Royale des Sciences de l'Institute de France, 2,
80-112.
Vogel, A. 1817. Analyse des Seewassers aus dem Canal, dem A tlantischen und
Mitteliindischen Meere. J. Chern. Phys., 8, 344-351.
Weeks, M. E. 1956. Discovery of the elements. J. Chern. Education, Easton, Pa.,
6th ed., 898 pp.
Whitfield, M. L. 1972. Progress towards a chemical model for sea water. Proc.
Roy. Soc. Edinb., Ser. B, 72,389-399.
Wilson, G. and Forchhammer, G. 1850. On the proportion of fluoride of calcium
present in the Baltic, with some preliminary remarks on the presence of fluo-
rine in different oceanic waters. New Phil. J. (Edinb.), 48, 345-350.
Winkler, L. 1889. Die Bestimmung des im Wasser gelosten Sauerstoffes. Mathe-
mat. Naturwis. Ber. Ungarn, 6,176-189.
Wollaston, W. H. 1820. On the discovery of potash in sea water. Edinb. Phil. J.,
2,325-326.
Wollaston, W. H. 1829. On the water of the Mediterranean. Phil. Trans. Roy.
Soc. Lond., 49, 29-31.
Physical Oceanography of the Chilean Sea:
An Historical Study
Guillermo Barros G.
1 Location, Description and Characteristics of the Maritime Areas

of Chile
Location and Geographical Concept of the Chilean Sea
The lengthy territory of Chile lies along the extreme southwestern border of
South America and faces on the Pacific Ocean. It extends from 17° 30'S Lat. in a
general north-south direction reaching the geographical South Pole. Due to
Chile's position, its coasts have different characteristics; thus down to 41 ° 8'S
Lat. (Chacao Channel) there is a high, even and craggy coastline, while from
Chacao Channel to the east entrance of the Beagle Channel the coast is uneven,
divided by gulfs, fiords and channels with a great number of islands, rocks and
islets. The shoreline corresponding to the Chilean Antarctic Territory is similar to
the channels found in Patagonia.
The Chilean Sea, the main subject of this historic review, is formed by waters
of the Southeast Pacific Ocean from the parallel that intersects the coast at the
"Concordia Line," i.e., from the Peruvian border down to the Chilean Antarctic,
including the Drake Passage, and extends to the west to include the islands of
San Felix, San Ambrosio, Juan Fernandez, Sala y Gomez, Easter Island and
others. Under Chilean jurisdiction are the inland waters formed by numerous
channels, passes and straits extending from the Island of Chiloe to the east
entrance of the Beagle Channel opposite Cape San Pio and including those of the
Antarctic Zone between 53°W and 90 0 W Long.
Physical Oceanography of the Chilean Sea: An Historical Study 345
Oceanographic Characteristics
The Sea Bottom. The continental shelf along the Chilean coast is not of great
significance due to the fact that it is a narrow shelf where the oceanic crust is
subducted beneath the continent. Within five miles of the coast there are depths
greater than 200 m which increase to 600 or 1000 m within ten miles of shore.
Regularly, farther offshore there are depths that vary between 3,000 and
4,500 m, a phenomenon which appears almost the entire oceanic region, includ-
ing the Drake Passage. The greatest depths fluctuate between 6,000 and 8,000 m
along the basins or trenches that run from north to south at an approximate
distance of 60 miles from the north and central coasts.
Water Masses and Currents. In the southern part of the Chilean Sea, at the sur-
face there are the Antarctic and Subantarctic Water masses, while in the northern
part there are the subtropical waters. At a depth of 200 m along all the Chilean
coast are the Subsurface Equatorial waters and at a greater depth the Antarctic
Intermediate Water and the Pacific Deep Water. Over the sea bottom of the
southern extremity and in the Antarctic, the Bottom Antarctic Deep Water is
usually present. There is a complex system of surface currents: one branch
flows northward forming the coastal and oceanic branches of the Humboldt
Current with a countercurrent between them called the Peru-Chile Countercur-
rent. South of 43°S Lat. part of the West Wind Drift Current flows south off the
southern coast of Chile. It is a mixture of estuarine and oceanic water and is
called the Cape Horn Current. At the surface, there is a southerly current that
transports Subsurface Equatorial waters and has a low oxygen content, but it is,
however, very rich in nutrients. The upwelling of subsurface waters largely
sustains the great productivity that is so characteristic of the Chilean coast.
The Participation of the Navy
Studies and surveys on the hydrography and physical oceanography of Chilean

oceanic areas have always been controlled and directed by the Chilean Navy;
since 1874 by the Hydrographic Institute (IHA) and before that, directly by the
ships especially assigned for this purpose. Thus, in December 1834, the brigan-
tine Aquiles, commanded by Cdr. Roberto Simpson, carried out the first hydro-
graphic survey, with a study and the production of a hydrographic chart of the
outlet of Rio Bueno and the adjacent coast (40 0 S Lat.). This survey was ex-
tended years later by expeditions on several navy ships that carried out intensive
scientific studies for a better understanding of the Chilean Sea.
The great increase in world navigation during the last century made it impera-
tive for most of the important maritime nations that they establish hydrographic
services to manage, centralize and control activities that provide a greater safety
at sea. As an essentially maritime country Chile also felt this need and, on the
1st of May of 1874 by Decree N° 192, the Hydrographic Office, was established
within the naval service. Several other activities of the IHA were incorporated
346 G. Barros G.
later such as oceanography, geodesy, and a Time Service Station. The results of
these investigations have been published periodically in the Hydrographic Year
Books and other publications that contain the subjects undertaken with such
foresight by the Chilean Navy.
2 Historical Review of the Oceanographic and Hydrographic

Investigations Up to the International Geophysical Year
From 1834 to 1874
Exploration, hydrographic surveys and scientific studies of the Chilean coast and
ocean started at the time of the awakening of Chilean republican life. Thus, in
December 1834, when the independence of Chile was assured, the first stage of
oceanographic investigation began. The original chart of the outlet of Rio
Bueno, signed by Cdr. Simpson and lieutenant Felipe Solo de Zaldivar, is an his-
torical relic that has been carefully preserved by the Hydrographic Institute of
the Chilean Navy.
Oceanographic activity was postponed, however, during the years of the war
against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, but it began once again in 1841 with
the studies carried out at Mocha Island, the port of Constitucion and the area
along the coast of Arauco. For commercial reasons, these surveys and researches
were extended to include the rivers Maule, Tolten and Lebu, together with their
oceanic approaches.
During 1862, Francisco Vidal Gormaz, who became the founder of the Hydro-
graphic Office of the Chilean Navy, began his activities in this field. The extensive
surveys carried out by Cdr. Vidal Gormaz included the more important ports of
the country and the extensive coastal zone from Valparaiso to the Chonos
Archipelago. As a seagoing man and a scientist, Cdr. Vidal Gormaz was in 1874
designated as the first Director of the Hydrographic Office, of which he was the
founding father.
Before continuing with this historical review, it is appropriate to mention the
valuable contribution made to hydrographic, biological and geological investi-
gations by foreign ships in voyages along Chilean coasts during the 19th century.
(1) In early 1823, the Chilean coast was visited by the French corvette La Coquil-
Ie. (2) During 1826 and 1833 the naturalist D'Orbigny made important studies of
the marine fauna. (3) The voyages of the English vessels Adventure and Beagle
between 1826 and 1834, explored the southern part of Chile, charting that area.
The naturalist Charles Darwin also studied the geology, flora and fauna, with
results that are widely known. (4) Between 1873 and 1876, during the voyages
of H.M.S. Challenger around the world, important studies were made in Chilean
waters. (5) We must mention the valuable works carried out by the French
Scientific Commission of Cape Hom during the voyage of the ship Romanchein
1882 and 1883, which included humanistic and natural sciences.
From 1874 to 1957
Since May 1, 1874 the investigation of the Chilean Sea has been carried out
with the most capable officers and staff within the Navy in an attempt to perfect
the organization and working methods. Although the oceanographic and hydro-
graphic surveys were firmly supported by the Hydrographic Office, they were
interrupted during the War of the Pacific in 1879. Thereafter, the scientific
activities were renewed with results that went beyond Chile's frontiers and
which received approval and encouragement at the international level.
As the years went by the results of these explorations have added to national
and international general understanding of the characteristics of the sea, ports
and channels of southern Chile. Easter Island, Juan Fernandez, San Ambrosio
and San Felix were not omitted from this intensive work of the Navy, which
involved cartographic surveys, observations of temperature, salinity, currents and
tides in adjacent waters. The Hydrographic Year Book printed by the IHA since
1875 also contains detailed accounts of all the investigations performed during
the numerous voyages of the Chilean ships along the shipping lanes.
The Chilean Antarctic Territory was first explored by Chilean fishing vessels,
and later was visited by the Navy Auxiliary Ship Yelcho. This vessel successfully
rescued the British expedition on board the Endurance, commanded by Sir
Ernest Shackleton from Elephant Island in August 1916. These visits were
succeeded by periodic voyages carrying scientists and technicians who contri-
buted much to the oceanographic, hydrographic, glaciologic, geologic, and
mineralogic knowledge of that distant Chilean Dominion.
When one considers the extent of the Chilean oceanic area, the complex
nature of its southern geography and the remoteness of the islands under its
jurisdiction, it is a tribute to the several generations of outstanding men of the
Chilean Navy. They not only acquired new knowledge but also improved the
economy in remote parts of the country. Hydrographers whose scientific activi-
ties took place between 1834 and 1921, and whose portraits are in the Honor
Hall of the Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy are:
Vice-Admiral Roberto Simpson 1834
Captain Leoncio Senoret 1844-1869
Captain Francisco Vidal Gormaz 1857-1889
Rear-Admiral Enrique Simpson B. 1869-1875
Captain Luis Pomar A. 1863-1898
Captain Ramon Serrano M. 1873-1889
Vice-Admiral Arturo Wilson N. 1885-1896
Captain Baldomero Pacheco C. 1892-1905
Vice-Admiral Francisco Nef I. 1894-1901
Captain Roberto Maldonado C. 1895-1912
Rear-Admiral Ismael Huerta L. 1909-1921.
In 1941, in Valparaiso, and later in the main ports, tidal observations were
made with automatic recording instruments.
348 G.BarrosG.
3 The International Geophysical Year (I.G.Y.)
The International Geophysical Year that took place between 1957 and 1958
marked the starting point of a defmite stage within the field of physical ocean-
ography, since from that time the systematic investigation of this science was
started. Chile was represented in this great world event, in the oceanographic
field by the Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy, that at the same time
coordinated this work with local universities and other scientific entities of the
country.
During one of the meetings of the International Council of Scientific Unions
in Brussels in 1951, a review was made of all the projects undertaken during the
International Polar Years of 1883 and of 1932. As a result, the I.G.Y. (Inter-
national Geophysical Year) was formally established to take place during 1957-
1958. The active Chilean participation began when delegates took part in a
meeting organized by the Special Committee of the IGY (30th September to 4th
October 1954), immediately after the Tenth General Assembly of the Inter-
national Geodetic and Geophysic Union, in Rome in September 1954. General
Roman Canas Montalve (R) was Chairman of the National Committee which was
formed by various working groups. Chief of the Physical Oceanography Working
Group was the Director of the Hydrographic Institute, Cdr. Alberto Andrade
Taraba, and for the Marine Biology Working Group, Professor Guillermo Mann
F., Chief of the Biology Department, University of Chile. At the first meeting
of this Committee on 19 August 1955, based on previous recommendations
of the National Geographic, Geodetic and Geophysical Committee, a pro-
gram of scientific investigation was developed together with an expense budget.
On December 2,1955, the Director of the Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean
Navy submitted the following document: "preliminary memorandum regarding
the oceanographic work that could be carried out during the IGY throughout
the Chilean coasts," summarized as follows:
1. tidal observation:; in different ports including Easter Island and Juan Fernan-
dez.
2. water samples for chemical analyses and temperature measurements down to
500 m depth and also meteorological data off Easter Island and Juan Fernan-
dez and the ports of Talcahuano and Punta Arenas.
3. observation of long-period waves at Easter Island and Juan Fernandez.
4. oceanographic surveys along parallels 27°S, 33°S and 37°S.
5. possibilities of taking oceanographic observations in the Drake Passage and on
both sides of the Scotia Arch.
To carry out this program, it was necessary to obtain equipment, train appropri-
ate personnel and create a specific Oceanographic Department in the Hydrogra-
phic Institute of the Chilean Navy .
The Chilean oceanographic program for the IGY began under the guidance
of Cdr. Roberto Peralta B. in June 1957, with the cooperation of the Scripps
Oceanographic Institution of the University of California, San Diego, USA,
where Cdr. Peralta had studied the previous year. After 1 January 1958 due to
Cdr. Peralta's reassignment, Mr. Hellmuth A. Sievers was put in charge.
The results of this participation in the field of physical oceanography were
printed in 1959 (Hydrographic Institute 1959) and included:
1. seasonal charts of the median surface isotherms for 1957 and 1958;
2. tidal observations at existing stations: Arica (1950), Antofagasta (1945),
Caldera (1950), Valparaiso (l941), Talcahuano (1949), Puerto Montt (1957),
and Punta Arenas (1944);
3. tidal observations at stations specially installed for IGY: Easter Island, from
Jan., 1957) and Robinson Crusoe (from 26 Aug., 1957);
4. temperature data with a bathythermograph down to 135 m and collection
of water samples every 25 m for salinity with Frautschy bottles for the study
of the volume variation: Easter Island (from 8 July 1957) and Robinson
Crusoe (from 22 Aug., 1957);
5. long period waves in Vinapu Bay, Easter Island (from 29 Jan., 1958), using a
Long Period Wave Recorder, Model WR-9000, designed by Dr. William G.
Van Dorn from Scripps Oceanographic Institution, for recording tsunamis;
6. temperature observations with a bathythermograph down to 135 m from the
B.E. Esmeralda (June 1957) and the Aka Pinto (Jan.-Feb. 1958) during trips
to Easter Island;
7. surface temperatures in Antarctic waters tracing median isotherms from 1948
to 1958, with an indication of the position of the Polar Front and limits of
the ice cap, from Dec. 1958 to Mar. 1959;
8. temperatures with a bathythermograph in Drake Passage and Bransfield Strait;
9. Chile joined the Pacific Tsunami Warning System.
This work, though modest, was extremely important for Chile; it marked the
starting point for oceanography as a modern science in this country involving the
cooperation by and awakening of interest in a number of national institutions in
related fields which, in turn, resulted in the formation of new groups of investi-
gators.
4 Historical Development of the National Systematic Activities

Concerning Physical Oceanography up to 1979
The study of physical oceanography as carried out by the Chilean Navy through
the Navigation and Hydrographic Service-now the Hydrographic Institute of the
Chilean Navy-began in a systematic way at the time of the International Geo-
physical Year in 1957.
350 G. Barros G.
In February and March 1960 the MARCHILE I Oceanographic Expedition
aboard the corvette Chipana was the first of its kind carried out in Chile under
the joint efforts of the Universities of Chile and Concepcion, the Department of
Fisheries and Wild Ufe, the Department of Agriculture Protection, the Pro-
gramme for Technical Assistance of the Federal Republic of Germany and the
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy represented by its Oceanographic
Department. Dr. Wilhelm Brandhorst, a German oceanographer, was designated
as chief scientist of this expedition and the areas covered were between Coquim-
bo to the north, Chiloe Island to the south and out to 150 miles offshore. Its
main purpose was a study of the subsurface Gunther Current in a north-south
direction along the Chilean coast. This current has a low oxygen content of
importance in relation to the fisheries. Bathymetric, bathythermograph and
meteorological observations and the launching of drift bottles for the study of
surface currents all contributed to our understanding of conditions of the
Eastern Pacific Ocean off the Chilean coast. The Hydrographic Institute of the
Chilean Navy planned the MARCHILE II Oceanographic Expedition with
the AGS Yelcho, in July-August 1962, between Arica, Iquique, the islands
of San Felix, San Ambrosio, Juan Fernandez and the port of Valparaiso, in
cooperation with the Oceanographic Department of the Hydrographic Insti-
tute of the Chilean Navy, Catholic University of Valparaiso, University of
Concepcion, Department of Fisheries and Wild Ufe and the Production Devel-
opment Corporation. This cruise improved our knowledge of the Gunther and
Humboldt currents, currents which have a great influence on the fisheries. The
Hydrographic Institute also promoted the Oceanographic Expedition MAR-
CHILE III on board the AGS Yelcho in the Drake Passage from October 1963 to
mid-May 1964, primarily to increase the soundings in the areas assigned to Chile
during the VIII Session of the International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco
during 1962. Chile undertook to trace on special charts all the soundings made
by Chilean or foreign ships in the areas under Chilean jurisdiction down to the
Chilean Antarctic Territory, as a contribution to the production of the General
Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. However, a survey of oceanographic con-
ditions of the Drake Passage was also included. MARCHILE N, with the same
purpose as MARCHILE III, took place between 12 March and 14 April 1965 , in
the area between Magallanes and the Drake Passage. MARCHILE V-VI-VII
and VIII between Arica and Valparaiso were carried out in 1967, 1968 and
1972. MARCHILE IX, also aboard AGS Yelcho between May and June of 1973,
in the area from ValparaiSO to the Juan Fernandez Archipielago, included a
detailed study of the San Antonio Canyon together with a plankton and fisheries
survey. The last such expedition to date was MARCHILE X between 28 June
and 28 July 1976. It consisted of seven sections perpendicular to the coast
between Arica and Valparaiso, each one 200 miles long. In addition there have
been voyages by Navy ships to the Juan Fernandez Archipielago, Easter Island
and the Chilean Antarctic Territory, where numerous observations have been
made.
Finally, it should be noted that the Hydrographic Institute is the official
representative in Chile of the International Tsunami Warning System in the
Pacific. In 1964 the National Tsunami Warning System was established in Chile
to advise and inform the authorities at different Chilean ports and coves con-
cerning the intensity and estimated time of arrival of a tsunami. At the same
time it gathers information concerning any tsunami or abnormal tidal waves
charted or observed along the Chilean coast.
5 The Participation of Chile in International Programs
Apart from the National Oceanographic Expeditions, Chile has cooperated

with international programs. The Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy
contributed with data from MARCHILE V (1967), MARCHILE VI (1967) and
MARCHILE VII (1968) to the EASTROPIC Program to the Eastern Tropical
Pacific. The B. E. Esmerelda likewise assisted, by taking bathythermograph
observations during a voyage from Valparaiso to Panama in 1968. Chile also
collaborated in the ERFEN Program (Regional Study of El Nino) with data from
MARCHILE X (ERFEN I) toward the study of the non-periodic phenomena
affecting the fisheries of northern Chile, Peru and Ecuador.
The ISOS Program (International Southern Ocean Studies) focuses on the
dynamic processes of the Southern Ocean and its relation to the oceanic and at-
mospheric circulation. It includes large scale studies on the dynamics of the Ant-
arctic Circumpolar Current and of the Polar Front. The Hydrographic Institute
of the Chilean Navy has participated since its inception in 1975, together with
the United States and Argentina in an ISOS program (DRAKE). This joint effort
outlines the path, the baroclinic structure and the distribution of the oceanogra-
phic properties of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, determining its spatial
connection with the Polar Front in the Drake Passage and the western Scotia
Sea. During DRAKE 76, 571 temperature measurements were taken there with
XBTs, in support of a detailed study of the thermal structure of the Polar Front
aboard the Thompson (University of Washington, U.s.A.) between 13 March and
9 April 1976. During the southern summer 1977-78, numerous observations
with XBTs were also taken in a north-south direction, taking advantage of the
crossing of the DRAKE area made by ships of the Chilean Navy during their
annual trips to the Chilean Antarctic Territory. In addition it must also be
mentioned that Chilean scientific and technical staff and personnel have partici-
pated on board numerous scientific vessels working in national waters, such as
RV Hudson (Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada) (1970), between
Punta Arenas and Valparaiso; the USC&GS Oceanographer (1967) between
Valparaiso and Callao, Peru; the platform Blue Water II (1972) between Punta
Arenas and Valparaiso, and the voyages of the Vema (Nos 17-18) in the Drake
Passage.
Thus, it is readily apparent that in the past two decades Chile has achieved an
international status in oceanography and has thereby contributed much to the
knowledge of the eastern South Pacific and of the Antarctic oceans.
352 G. Barros G.
References
Barros, G., G. 1963. Oceanography in the Chilean Navy. Navy Mag., 79, 253-
270; Bull. Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy, 64, 1-26.
Barros, G., G. 1964. The tsunami and warning systems. Bull. of the Hydrogra-
phic Institute of the Chilean Navy, 65, 1-14.
Chile, Peru and Equador. 1952. The declaration of the maritime zone. Santiago,
Chile; written by representative governments of Chile, Peru and Equador.
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. 1874-1979. Year Books 1-39.
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. 1962-1973. Chilean Coast Pilots,
1-6.
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. 1955. International Geophysical
Year 1957-1958. Bull. of the Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy,
38,4.
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. 1957. Chilean oceanographic pro-
gram during the IGY, 1957. Bull. of the Hydrographic Institute of the Chile-
an Navy, 48, 4.
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. 1959. Oceanographic works carried
out in Chile during the IGY. Book of the Hydrographic Institute of the
Chilean Navy, 1,63.
Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. 1965. General instructions on the
national tsunami warning system. Publication 3.014 of the Hydrographic
Institute of the Chilean Navy, p. 63.
Sievers, H. 1960. MARCHILE I oceanographic expedition. Navy Mag., 76, 343-
351.
Sievers, H. 1961. Antecedents and development of the First International Con-
gress on Oceanography, 77, 33-47.
Sievers, H. 1968. A decade of oceanographic investigations. Navy Mag., 85, 4-20.
From the Physiology of Marine Organisms to
Oceanographic Physiology or Physiological Oceanography
Maurice Fontaine
Just as with other natural sciences, biological oceanography began by being de-
scriptive. An inventory was made of the species inhabiting the diverse marine
biotopes, from the most accessible to those most difficult to explore. Then,
once the plants and animals had been discovered, their forms drawn, their colors
and behavior described, attempts were made to understand some of their physio-
logical mechanisms, usually due not so much to the interest attached to the
physiological functions of these organisms for themselves (most of them being
considered very inferior) but rather because they offered special features which
advanced our knowledge of the physiology of higher vertebrates and, in particu-
lar, Man.
Thus, William Harvey (1578-1657), when he doubted the prevailing opinion
that blood passes directly from the right to the left heart, found in the heart of a
fish, equipped with only one ventricle, obvious arguments to refute this error.
And he took as an example the heart of Anguilla anguilla, which is indeed a
marine fish since it is spawned at sea. He also pointed out the interest deriving
from the study of transparent marine invertebrates, such as shrimps, in which it
is possible to observe the movements of the heart and the circulation of the
blood without recourse to dissection. And it was in particular thanks to obser-
vations of such marine animals that William Harvey (1628) was led to under-
stand the route taken by the great flow of blood from the veins to the arteries
via the heart. And it was then that, returning to animals with lungs, he provided
a correct interpretation of pulmonary circulation. From then on, various marine
animals were considered useful organisms in order to understand certain func-
tions in higher animals.
Emphasis was then laid on the particularities of certain physiological functions
354 M. Fontaine
of marine animals, which became valuable elements of a fruitful discipline: com-
parative physiology. It flourished in the 19th century with many works, among
which ''The comparative physiology of sight" by Johannes MUller (1826), the
three-volume treatise on the "Comparative physiology of man and animals" by
Antoine Duges (1838), professor at Montpellier, the lessons on "Physiology and
comparative anatomy" by Milne-Edwards (1857-1881), those on "The compara-
tive physiology of respiration" by Paul Bert (1867a), "The phenomena of life
common to plants and animals" by Claude Bernard (1878) and, in 1898, "Gen-
eral and comparative physiology" by Raphael Dubois. However, marine orga-
nisms were not considered except in relation to other animals or plants. It was
only just over a century ago that some physiologists began to take an interest in
the functions of certain marine beings as such, in order to understand the life of
the marine organisms within their environment.
It was Paul Bert (1867b), Claude Bernard's brilliant laboratory assistant, who,
when appointed professor at Bordeaux in 1866, and unable to fmd a laboratory
suitable for the study of physiology in the University there, went to work at the
station de Biologie Marine in Arcachon, where he studied the principal physio-
logical functions of a marine cephalopod, the cuttlefish. His memoir published in
1867 is rich in new data on the digestion, Circulation, blood, urine, the bone
gases, the functioning of the nervous system, the contractability of muscles. His
was the merit of having drawn attention to the change of color seen when blood
passes from the reduced to the oxygenated state, thus opening up the way for
the famous Belgian physiologist, Uon Fredericq, to discover hemocyanin, the
respiratory pigment, which, in molluscs, takes the place of hemoglobin in verte-
brates. At Roscoff, Fredericq (1878) accomplished some remarkable work,
which was to lead to a memoir on the physiology of the common octopus, pub-
lished in 1878 in the Bulletin de l'Academie royale de Belgique. This was a truly
physiological monograph on this marine animal and dealt with respiration, the
"milieu interieur" -this was the discovery of hemocyanin circulation, the func-
tioning of the nervous system, the chromatic function (color changes), etc ....
It is amazing to think that this work, producing such original and varied results,
was carried out within six weeks in the laboratory at Roscoff. For indeed,
Fredericq was so enthusiastic about his subject that he studied day and night,
with passion. Proof is given in a letter he wrote to his parents in telegraphic
style, consisting of only one sentence: "Very little time, am dissecting octo-
puses, tormenting octopuses, feeding octopuses, caressing octopuses, watching
over octopuses, educating octopuses, dreaming octopuses, conversation only
octopuses."
The physiology of marine animals had been launched and was progressing
so well, particularly on the shores of the Mediterranean, notably with the re-
markable work of a great pioneer, Raphael Dubois (1913), on the luminescence
of Pholas and several other marine animals, that Prince Albert of Monaco, when
founding in 1910 the Institut Oceanographique in Paris, decided that it should
comprise three chairs with research laboratories, one of them bearing the title
of Chair of the Physiology of Marine Beings. It was the first chair of its kind to
From the Physiology of Marine Organisms to Oceanographic Physiology 355
my knowledge, and if Prince Albert had this idea, so original for the time. It
was no doubt not only due to the fine work, some examples of which I have
given, but also to the fact that his faithful assistant, Paul Portier, had made,
some years previously, together with Charles Richet, and thanks to marine
animals, the magnificent discovery of anaphylaxy. Paul Portier was the first to
occupy the chair bearing this name and his teaching had the greatest success,
for he knew how to place marine animals and the problems they created with-
in their environments. Before the word even existed, he was lecturing on eco-
physiology, and his talks were studded with anecdotes brought back from his
campaigns with Prince Albert. In 1938 he published some of his talks and
lectures in a volume entitled "Physiology of marine animals." For until then
it was indeed the physiology of marine animals which was of concern. One of
the most recent definitions of physiology, given in the latest edition of the
Science Dictionary by Lucas, James and Simpson (1976), is the following:
"The study of how a plant or animal performs its different functions." And
this is truly what most physiologists consider to be the aim of their discipline.
Maybe a few of them believe it to be the group effect on such functions. But the
oceanographer goes one step further. For example, when confronted with the
scale and the cohesion of some schools of fishes and the diverse products these
schools excrete, and by which they mark the different zones crossed, he may be
led to consider some of these schools as super-organisms. They are capable of
temporarily modifying certain characteristics of marine waters by emission into
or absorption from different ecosystems of a whole ocean, since some of these
schools can cross the largest oceans, almost from one end to the other. The
secretion of these substances depends on internal factors-on the present physio-
logical state of the organisms-and external ones, but it is directly concerned
with oceanography, for it conditions the chemistry and biology of diverse water
masses on which it acts. Furthennore, the orientation of some of these schools
may depend upon the temperature, differences in electric potential of the water
masses or the magnetic field (Fontaine 1975). Thus the data of physical, chemi-
cal and physiological oceanography are all intimately bound up in this behavior
type of physiology. So that we feel it is legitimate to group together the prob-
lems arising with such important displacements, according to their biomass and
the amplitude of the zones concerned, under the title of physiological ocean-
ography.
Although schools of fish are usually monospecific, sometimes polyspecific
ones are no less interesting, even if they create problems which appear more
complex. The need to study polyspecific populations is much more clearly evi-
dent in the case of planktonic populations. This is what the oceanographer does,
for example, when he detennines primary production, which is only a reflection
of the processes of photosynthesis (Phytoplankton) and chemosynthesis (certain
autotrophic bacteria). It would be impossible to deduce primary production of a
complex population of phytoplankton from a knowledge of the primary
production of some isolated elements of this population. And yet it is important
to know this production capacity in order to judge the potential fertility of
356 M. Fontaine
various ocean zones. The maps drawn to assemble all the data obtained in the
world ocean are proof of their oceanographic nature, in the very etymological
sense of the term. Thus, primary production is so intimately linked with the
characteristics of the environment, its salinity, temperature, chemical compo-
sition, light, transparency, and is itself one of its very important characteristics,
that the oceanographer may speak of physiological oceanography and the
physiologist of oceanographic physiology. The important fact is that the associ-
ation of these two terms is proof of the need to combine the methods and
techniques of oceanography and physiology when dealing with these questions
indispensable to the development of biological and physico-chemical oceanogra-
phy. If we are to learn about planktonic secondary production, we must follow
too the methods and techniques of physiology, which will enable us to under-
stand the different energy transfers (feeding, assimilation, respiration). Many
other examples could be found of the important role played by physiological
sciences in several fields of oceanography.
Thus, all oceanographers know the numerous charts giving, in terms of depth,
the oxygen content of the ocean waters, a content which is considered a repre-
sentation, to a certain extent of the age of deep water, that is the time passed
since it left the surface, the value of which depends for a large part on physio-
logical functions: chemosynthesis, respiration, photosynthesis. Physiological
°
research, which aims to clarify the effect of these processes on chemical factors
(e.g., 2 , CO 2 ) of the water masses, enters into the framework of physiological
oceanography.
The nutritive nitrogen elements measured in sea water are very important in
determining the characteristics of water masses. Indeed they are the result of
physiological processes-largely bacterial-working on the organic detritus of
living organisms. Furthermore, the nitrogen is assimilated by plants, benthic
algae and phytoplankton. All physiological studies undertaken with a view to
clarifying this cycle can be qualified as oceanographic physiology. Similar
examples could be quoted for phosphorus and many other components.
I should like to make particular mention, however, of those organic substances
of biological origin emitted by certain marine animals in the ambient environ-
ment by physiological processes and which, in very small doses and without
having any appreciable energy value in general, exert an action on the consti-
tution, quality, persistence or transformation of a biocenosis. These substances
have been given various names (ectohormones-ectocrine substances-telergones,
ecomones-chemical telemediators, etc.). Although I do not wish to express any
opinion before decisions have been made toward unifying scientific language, we
shall call them here ecomones (Florkin 1965), remembering that this author
divided these messengers into two categories depending on whether or not the
receiver and transmitter individuals belonged to the same biological species: the
pheromones and the allomones.
The sexual pheromones regulate for a large part the sexual biology and physi-
ology of diverse marine animals (vertebrates, Bardach and Todd 1970-inverte-
brates, Ryan 1966, Atema 1971). Some attract individuals, others the gametes.
The latter are called gamones and are found not only in the animal world, but
also in algae. Many have been identified. Thus the substance attracting spennato-
zoids and produced by the female gametes of the marine alga, Ectocarpus sili-
cosus, has been identified as being allocis (cycloheptadien 2 • - 5· - "11) butene 1.
It is a hydrocarbon. In the marine algae,Fucus se"atus, the substance produced
by the eggs which attracts the spennatozoids is different and has been called
fucoserratene (Le., octatriene 1-3-5). Here then are some examples of dissolved
substances facilitating the encounter of gametes and thus playing an important
role in the reproductive function (cf. Fontaine 1976).
Recognition pheromones also exist; thus some individual chemical tracers
enable limpets to fmd their place on their substrate (Funke 1968) and also some
alann pheromones (Bardach and Todd 1970). These too, no doubt, are phero-
mones, emitted in precise physiological conditions by young fish inhabiting a
spawning ground and which determine the homing of adults of certain species
(Solomon 1973).
Various allomones intervene in the growth phenomena of certain populations,
either beneficially (vitamin Bt2 , for example) or by restricting them (antibiotic
activity).
Some allomones play a role in the nutrition functions by allowing certain
predators to fmd their food. In shark-infested waters, certain species of fish
have been seen to liberate substances which attract them. Other allomones are
food attractants facilitating the discovery of inanimate food.
Such examples are multiple, leading us to believe that ecomones intervene in
an ecosystem just as honnones do in an organism.
This comparison is all the more justified because in certain cases the excreted
pheromone (exocrine secretion) is identical to a honnone (endocrine secretion)
of the same species. Thus Kittredge et al. (1971) have noted that the males of
three species of crabs, Pachygrapsus crassipes, Cancer antennarius and C anthonii
can be attracted indiscriminately by the females of the three species. And in this
case, the pheromone is the moult honnone itself, the crustecdysone excreted in
urine. We see then how classical physiological research on the physiology of an
individual is linked to physiological research on a super-organism such as the eco-
system and how physiological research contributes at least in part to justifying
the fonnula of one of our great poets-who incidentally also cultivated science,
with some success-Paul Valery, when he exclaimed: "The sea, this great living
liquid body." I have given elsewhere arguments other than the physiological ones
mentioned here in favor of this concept (Fontaine 1970) and shall not recall
them here. This manner, however, of envisaging that zones of the oceanic envi-
ronment function like super-organisms producing and exchanging energy is par-
ticularly justifiable and open to experimentation in the case oflagoons of high-
lying islands and atolls of the tropical Pacific, which are remarkable for their
individuality, born of the diversity of their biocenoses, resulting from their more
or less marked isolation.
I should like to point out, before concluding, that some of these allomones
perturb the physiological functions of organisms other than the one responsible
for the secretion, often leading to their extinction. One of the most striking ex-
358 M. Fontaine
amples is that of the so-called red or colored waters, resulting from the prolifer-
ation of dinoflagellates or bacteria, which can cause massive mortality of other
planktonic populations and even of fish, and furthermore of accidents hap-
pening to man himself, either when he eats marine animals-in particular, mol-
luscs having accumulated the toxic agent elaborated by these micro-organisms
or when he inhales aerosols bearing the toxin and reaching his respiratory system,
brought by the combined action of the waves and the wind. If pathological
phenomena occurring in the ocean environment itself are considered, then we
may believe too that they are due to a pathological deviation of normal ocean-
ographic physiology, since the preferential and massive development of a marine
species, harmful to other marine species, brings about a serious imbalance in the
biocenosis.
Such phenomena can be due to natural causes or to human activities. The
natural causes appear to be varied and synergetic: of a topographical order
(shallow bays and lagoons are particularly sensitive spots), of a climatic order
(abundant rain, high rise in temperature), of an oceanographic order (period of
calm or stratification of the waters after windy periods, convergence phenomena
and a superficial drift of the waters leading to an important concentration of
cells), etc .... Human causes are also varied: rise in temperature resulting from
discharge of sea water having been used to cool thermal or nuclear centers-
artificial fertilization of certain zones to increase the productivity of fish farms
-excessive restructuration of shores, resulting in ecological imbalances-diverse
organic pollutions, etc ....
All these accidents are due to an ocean physiopathology which cannot be
explained by the physiological study of a single species, but only by the bio-
cenosis under consideration, together with the diverse natural and artificial
factors to which it is submitted, i.e., by an ecophysiological study carried out
within an oceanographic framework.
To sum up, I do not believe that it is merely a vain semantic exercise to quali-
fy certain research as physiological oceanography or oceanographic physiology,
for these expressions have the merit of showing clearly what each of these two
disciplines can contribute mutally: the first when physiologists apply the results
of their research to clarify certain problems of oceanography, the second when
oceanographers, in order to comprehend certain phenomena, have recourse to
methods and techniques of physiology. Words have a useful stimulating virtue
when they correspond to a justified way of thinking. My desire has been, with
these few examples, to show how, as I see it, this evolution has taken place, dur-
ing the last centuries, in the field of physiology applied to the development of
our knowledge in oceanography.
References
Atema, J. 1971. Sex pheromone in the lobster Homarus americanus. Nature,

232(5308),261-263.
Bert, P. 1867. Physio1ogie comparee de 1a respiration. Cours au Museum national
d'Histoire naturelle. Non publie.
Bert, P. 1867b. Memoire sur la physiologie de la seiche. Mem. Soc. Sci. phys.
nat. Bordeaux. 5, 117-138.
Bardach, J. E. and Todd, J. H. 1970. Chemical communication in fish. Adv.
chemoreception, 1, 205.
Bernard, C. 1878. Le90ns sur les phenomenes de la vie communs aux animaux
et aux vegetaux. (2 t. en 1 vol.). J. B. Balliere, Paris, 564 pp.
Dubois, R. 1898. Le90ns de physiologie generale et comparee. Carre et Naud,
Paris, 532 pp.
Dubois, R. 1913. Mecanisme intime de la production de lumiere chez les orga-
nismes vivants. Rey, Lyon, 16 pp.
Duges, A. 1838. Traite de physiologie comparee de l'homme et des animaux.
(3 t.). Louis Castel, Montpellier.
Fontaine, M. 1970. Introduction a l'oceanologie. Sciences, 1 (6), 297-312.
Fontaine, M. 1975. Physiological mechanisms in the migration of marine and
amphihaline fish. Adv. mar. biol., 13,241-355.
Fontaine, M. 1976. Les substances organiques naturelles dissoutes dans I'eau de
mer. In: Actualites de biochimie marine. Colloque GABIM, 18-19 Nov.
1976,5-18. Editions du CNRS, Paris.
FI orkin , M. 1965. Approches moleculaires de l'integration ecologique. Prob-
lemes de terminologie. Bull. Acad. r. Belg., 5e serie, 51,239.
Fredericq, L. 1878. Memoire sur la physiologie du poulpe. Bull. Acad. r. Belg.,
2e serie, 46, 710-765.
Funke, W. 1968. Heimfindevermogen und Ortstrene bei Patella L. (Gastropoda,
Prosobranchia). Oecologia, 2, 19.
Harvey, W. 1628. Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animal-
ibus. Frankfurt.
Kittredge, J. S., Terry, M. and Takahashi, F. T. 1971. Sex hormone activity of
the molting hormone, crustecdysone, on male crabs (Pachygrapsus crassipes,
Cancer antennarius and C. anthonyi). Fish. Bull., 69, 337-343.
Lucas, D. J., James, H. I. and Simpson, O. J. 1976. (reimpression 1977). A first
science dictionary. E. Arnold, London.
Milne-Edwards, H. 1857-1881. Le90ns sur la physiologie et l'anatomie comparee
a
de I'homme et des animaux faites la Faculte des Sciences de Paris. (14 vol.).
Masson, Paris.
Milller, J. 1826. Zur Vergleichenden Physiologie des Gerichtsines des Menschen
und des Tiere nebst einem Versuch tiber die Berwegungen der Augens, ii ber
den menschlichen Blick. (8 vol.). E. Knobloch, Leipzig, 162 pp.
Portier, P. 1938. Physiologie des animaux marins. Flammarion, Paris. 254 pp.
Ryan, E. P. 1965. Pheronome: evidence in a decapod crustacean. Science, 151,
340.
Solomon, D. J. 1973. Evidence for pheronome-influenced homing by migrating
Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. Nature, 244(5413), 231-232.
Alexander Agassiz, Carl Chun and the Problem of the
Intermediate Fauna
Eric L. Mills
1 The Problem of Food Supply to Deep-water Animals
Knowledge of deep-sea animal life was a rapidly-changing aspect of marine biol-

ogy during the last four decades of the nineteenth century. By dredging deeper
and deeper, men such as John Gwyn Jeffreys (1809-1885), Louis Fran~ois de
Pourtales (1823-1880), Charles Wyville Thomson (1830-1882), W. B. Carpenter
(1813-1885), Prince Albert of Monaco (1848-1922), and Alexander Agassiz
(1835-1910) showed that many kinds of benthic animals lived in the greatest ex-
plorable depths of the oceans (Mills 1981). The presence of animals in the water
column below the lighted zone was harder to establish, although their presence
or absence was bound to affect the way food reached benthic animals.
In the 1850s, the decade before it was unequivocally established that metazo-
an animals lived on the bottom at great depths, surveys of the North Atlantic sea
bottom revealed that foraminifera, notably Globigerina, and other enigmatic uni-
cells made up a large part of the deep sediments (BaUey 1851, 1854, 1855;
Huxley 1858), though it was far from clear whether they had originated at the
surface, at great depths, or both (Mills 1981). In the following decade, during
their historic work on Lightning (1868) and Porcupine (1869), Thomson and
Carpenter found animals at all depths down to 4456 m, and, most important for
any discussion, an abundance of sponges and foraminifera (the latter of types
known to be both pelagic and benthic) practically everywhere they dredged.
Thomson answered his own question, ''What is the source of Nutriment for the
vast mass of Animal life covering the abyssal Sea-bed" (Carpenter et al. 1870, p.
476), by suggesting that the mass of "Protozoa" (which included sponges,
foraminifera and non-shelled unicells) could be the immediate source of food for
Alexander Agassiz, Carl Chun and the Problem of the Intermediate Fauna 361
the higher animals living at great depths. What, then, was the source of nutrients
for the sponges and foraminifera themselves? Thomson had suggested (1869)
that seawater was likely to contain large amounts of dissolved organic matter
derived from rivers, littoral algae, the Sargassum of the Atlantic, and decompos-
ing animals. During the cruise of Porcupine later that year, Carpenter's son W. L.
Carpenter analyzed sea water samples from off the British Isles for organic
matter using a permanganate oxidation method (Thomson 1873). Dissolved
organic matter proved to be abundant. This, in Thomson's view, was the major
nutrient source for the "Protozoa."
Thomson's hypothesis (1869, 1870; Carpenter et al. 1870) that the food of
deep-sea animals, the foraminifera and sponges, obtained their own food from
dissolved organic matter appeared to be plausible, though it was not clear how it
could be established except by excluding competing hypotheses. When Thomson
was considering these problems during the late 1860s and early 1870s phyto-
plankton was believed to be too scarce either at the surface or as sunken re-
mains to be an adequate food source, though there was no doubt that viable cells
occurred on the bottom (Thomson 1878, Vol. 1, p. 290). He did not believe it
possible for animals to use inorganic nutrients to build protoplasm without the
agency of light, an opinion opposed by G. C. Wallich (1815-1899), who in 1862
proposed that simple organisms in deep water could synthesize protoplasm from
dissolved organic matter, just as they could synthesize tests on shells from dis-
solved silica or carbon dioxide. Thomson's colleague Jeffreys (1870) also toyed
briefly with Wallich's idea, though its force was never great.
There was not universal assent that dissolved organic matter must be the base
of deep-sea food supplies. Diatom tests (sometimes with cellular contents) had
been observed in deep-water sediments since at least the time of James Clark
Ross's expedition to the Southern Ocean in Erebus and Te"or between 1839
and 1843 (Ehrenberg 1844). Jeffreys (1869, 1881) suggested that both living
and dead animals might reach the bottom. As a result of his observations during
the first cruise of Porcupine in 1869 he noted a flocculent layer on the bottom,
probably derived from decaying plants and animals.
Jeffreys' belief that the plankton, in one way or another, supported benthic
life became the prevalent one in the following years. An increasing number of
plankton investigations, beginning with John Murray's hauls during the Chal-
lenger Expedition of 1872-1876, revealed that the surface plankton, both plant
and animal, was abundant and widespread. Dissolved organic matter as a nutrient
passed into oblivion until it was temporarily revived by August Piitter near the
end of the century (J~rgensen 1976). Opinions like those of Alexander Agassiz
(1880), largely based on his plankton and benthic studies in the Caribbean Sea
and the Gulf of Mexico, that sinking organisms could and did reach the bottom,
became fashionable.
In reviewing his work with Blake between 1878 and 1880, Agassiz (1888b)
remarked that the disappearance of green plants not far below the sea surface
should present serious problems to deep-water animals, no matter where they
lived, for they were ultimately dependent on photosynthetic organisms. How-
ever, pelagic animals could transfer green plant material to the bottom. Basing
362 E. L. Mills
his assessment on H. N. Moseley's (1880) observations that dead salps would
sink very rapidly, Agassiz believed that the transfer of food from surface to bot-
tom (as sinking animals) would take place within a few days. Once on the bot-
tom, the dead organisms would decay slowly, as the microbiological work of
Certes (1884a,b) and Regnard (1884) seemed to indicate, and be eaten or con-
tribute to dissolved matter that sponges and foraminifera might be able to ab-
sorb. Plankton was not the only source of food to the deep sea. Terrestrial and
littoral plants were carried offshore, where they sank on the continental shelf
or just beyond it. Thus the greatest abundance of benthic animals was found in
the deep-sea zones ringing the continents, not farther from shore where the
sparse remains of sinking plankton were the main source of food.
Agassiz's views contrasted sharply with those of Carl Chun (1852-1914) of
Konigsberg, who had been led by the taxonomic study of siphonophores to in-
vestigations of deep-water plankton. Discovering contrary to Agassiz's beliefs,
that a diverse, sometimes abundant midwater plankton (the "intermediate
fauna") could be captured in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic,
Chun speculated that deep-water animals (benthos and plankton) fed on verti-
cally-migrating mid-water plankters as well as on sinking organic remains (Chun
1887, 1890). After marshalling the evidence (well embroidered with speculations),
Chun (1890) concluded that a "ladder of vertical migration" (as Vinogradov
(1970) later termed the process) supplemented other sources of food supply to
the deep sea. Of course this hypothesis depended vitally on the existence of
plankton in midwater, below the well-populated euphotic zone. If there were no
intermediate fauna in the open ocean, as Agassiz insisted, in opposition to Chun's
discoveries, sinking remains must be the vital ingredient. Agassiz sought an inter-
mediate fauna and failed to fmd it; Chun and others discovered one wherever
they looked.
2 The Evidence for an "Intermediate Fauna"
During the Challenger Expedition John Murray (1841-1914) attempted to collect

deep-water plankton by using open muslin tow nets on the lines holding ther-
mometers or dredges and by making vertical hauls from 500 and 1000 fathoms
to the surface. Because the deeper hauls contained species not seen in shallower
ones he inferred the existence of a sparse deep-water plankton feeding on remains
from the surface (Murray 1895, p. 1455). Thomson (1878, Vol. II, p. 301),
using the same results, concluded that plankton only occurred near the surface
and near the bottom.
Theirs was the only systematic attempt until 1880 to determine the nature
(actually the existence) of deep-water plankton, although accidental collections
occasionally gave clues that a rich and bizarre fauna might exist below the sur-
face waters. For example, during the circumnavigation by the German ship Gazelle
in 1874-1876, Studer (1878) took siphonophores from the sounding wire at a
position corresponding to 800-1500 fms, though there had been none in his net
hauls from the surface to 200 fms. Alexander Agassiz (1879) had a similar experi-
ence in 1879 when he found siphonophores from some unknown depth in the
Caribbean Sea on Blake's sounding wire.
To throw some light on the problem of the intermediate fauna, Agassiz and
C. F. Sigsbee designed a cylindrical plankton trap that could be opened and
closed at depth (Sigsbee 1880, Mills 1981). Agassiz tested this "gravitating plank-
ton trap" (plankton cylinder) during a cruise of Blake in the summer of 1880
(between Georges Bank and the Carolinas) by assuring that it did catch plankton
at the surface. Then at two stations, one south of Nantucket and the other
southeast of Cape Lookout, he used the trap in 50-fathom intervals to 150 fms
(274 m). Although he caught surface plankton, in both cases the trap caught
nothing below 100 fms and only a few radiolarians or crustacean larvae between
50 and 100 fms.
Echoing Thomson's (1878) belief, Agassiz (1880, p. 153) wrote "The ...
experiments appear to prove conclusively that the surface fauna of the sea is
really limited to a comparatively narrow belt in depth, and that there is no
intermediate belt, so to speak, of animal life between those living on the bot-
tom, or close to it, and the surface pelagic fauna." Both believed that a rich
near-bottom fauna (in addition to the surface plankton) existed, but that there
was little conclusive evidence for a rich mid-water plankton, if it existed at all
in the open oceans.
Although Studer's observations during the voyage of Gazelle were widely
known, it was the results of collections made during an Italian circumnavigation
in the corvette Vettor Pisani during 1882-1884 that brought about concerted
opposition to Agassiz. During the Italian cruise (Chierchia 1884, 1885) the ship's
captain, Gaetano Palumbo, designed a closing net (for a history of closing nets,
see Kofoid 1911) based on the propeller-driven reversing mechanism of a
Negretti-Zambra deep-sea thermometer. With this device, which its deSigners ad-
mitted could not be fully closed, Chierchia and Palumbo recovered a few animals
from 2300 m and a relatively rich haul from 1000 m during June 1884 in the
equatorial Pacific Ocean. Curiously, it was not these collections but a number of
siphonophores taken on the sounding line (nominally at 800 m) that excited the
interest of Carl Chun when the specimens reached him.
In August 1886 Chun went to the Stazione Zoologica at Naples to study the
systematics of siphonophores and collect deep-water plankton. There the engi-
neer Eugen von Petersen built him an improved closing net based on Palumbo's
releasing mechanism. Using the first of the Petersen-Chun nets, Chun took suc-
cessful vertical plankton hauls to a maximum depth of 1400 m off the Italian
coast. The results were the basis of his monograph Die pelagische Thierwelt
(1887), in which Chun described his work and built a theoretical framework for
future studies of life at great depths. From his first season of work, he was con-
vinced that a rich fauna of medusae, ctenophores, siphonophores, chaetognaths,
polychaetes, copepods, euphausiids, decapods and invertebrate larvae occurred
in very deep water. Its food resources were likely to be the sinking remains of
the sut!'ace organisms, supplemented by vertically-migrating animals from the
364 E. L. Mills
surface waters. The entire mid-water fauna was a mechanism by which surface
material could reach the benthos, either directly or indirectly.
Agassiz (1888a) was quick to criticize Chun's work, on the basis that al-
though the surface plankton might vary in depth (depending on weather at the
surface) it seldom if ever met the near-bottom pelagic fauna except around
oceanic islands or in isolated seas like the Mediterranean, where deep-water
temperatures were abnormally high and uniform from near the surface to great
depths. In short, according to Agassiz, Chun had sampled just where one might
expect to fmd animals from surface to bottom. It remained to be demonstrated,
however, that an intermediate fauna existed in the open oceans far from land.
To do so, Agassiz insisted, a better net than Chun's was needed, for there was
every likelihood that it remained slightly open (as Chun himself admitted-see
1889). Until these criticisms were met head-on, Agassiz was determined to re-
main skeptical about the existence of any oceanic deep-water plankton.
During the following few years new evidence was provided to answer Agassiz's
criticisms. Chun (1889) took advantage of a trip by steamer to the Canary
Islands to tryout an improved net to 1600 m. He found abundant plankton at
500 and 1000 m in the Bay of Biscay and a copepod and an ostracod in a verti-
cal haul from 1600 m near the Canaries. Only one of these stations was truly
oceanic; the others were subject to Agassiz's criticism that an intermediate fauna
was to be expected near land.
Agassiz (1888a) showed more respect for the results of Victor Hensen's
(1835 -1924) Plankton Expedition on National in the North Atlantic during 1889
(Hensen 1895, 1911; Brandt 1889). Most of Hensen's work was intended to
determine the richness and spatial distribution of the surface plankton in the sur-
face 200400 m. However, Hensen did use a Petersen-Chun net to take a few
vertical hauls from nearly 3500 m, where there was a sparse fauna of copepods
and radiolarians; at lesser depths more and more varied organisms were captured.
Despite these apparent successes Agassiz's skepticism about the net remained.
In addition he commented that Hensen's results might be due to the collection
of sinking remains from the surface.
Clearly a more critical test was needed if this weight of circumstantial evi-
dence for an intermediate fauna were to be properly laid to rest. This Agassiz
undertook during 1891 on a cruise of the United States Fish Commission's
steamer Albatross in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (Agassiz 1891). Operating the
vessel at his own expense, Agassiz conducted a general oceanographic program
much like his earlier ones on Blake between 1877 and 1880 but concentrated in
an area that Challenger had not explored, extending west from the Americas to
the Galapagos Islands. In the ship's equipment was a Petersen-Chun net, specially
built for the cruise. When it failed to work properly, Captain Z. L. Tanner of
Albatross designed and built a new closing net that could be closed by chocking
off the cod-end after a horizontal tow (Tanner 1893).
Agassiz and Tanner began work in the Gulf of Panama, then in deep-water
mid-way between Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. There, in 15-20 minute
horizontal tows between 200 and 1773 fms (366-3243 m) they could fmd no
animals in the closed portion of the net, though it always caught plankton near
the surface. Everywhere they failed to collect plankton at and below 300 fms
(549 m). When the net was towed close to the bottom (on one occasion it hit
bottom) it usually captured animals from the near-bottom fauna. Agassiz be-
lieved that these results were definitive. They demonstrated that in the open
ocean no intermediate fauna intervened between the surface fauna (which he
now believed could occur to nearly 300 fms) and the near-bottom pelagic fauna,
just as he had suspected more than a decade earlier.
These seemingly clear-cut conclusions were not accepted by Agassiz's Ameri-
can colleagues (Goode and Bean 1895), nor did they affect Chun, who reinforced
his earlier conclusions a few years later during the voyage of the German research
vessel Valdivia (1898-1899; see Chun 1899, 1900; Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition
1902 ft). During this cruise, Chun and his colleagues took more than 100
Petersen-Chun net samples down to 5000 m, hauling each time through a vertical
interval as great as 600 m before the net closed. There were animals at all depths,
including a distinctive deep-sea pelagic fauna composed of radiolarians, red
chaetognaths, violet medusae and siphonophores, holothurians, euphausiids,
copepods and ostracods which occurred only below 600 m. In the interval
between 5000 and 4400 m, their greatest depth of sampling, four genera of
copepods, an ostracod and a radiolarian were captured. Although the most abun-
dant benthos was near the coast where detritus reached the bottom in abundance
(as Agassiz had noted), offshore, organic remains were lost in sinking. Nonethe-
less, there was an intermediate fauna, sparse though it might be below about
2000 m, which, by acquiring food from the surface (as detritus or as living
vertical migrants) could transfer food into the greatest depths.
Chun was not alone in increasing the weight of evidence for a distinctive inter-
mediate fauna. Albert l er , Prince of Monaco (1848-1922), carried on investi-
gations of deep-water plankton, beginning with the use of a Petersen-Chun net at
857 m on his first yacht Hirondelle in 1887 (Albert 1er 1887, 1932). A little
later, using other devices, he was able to capture living organisms down to
1700 m. His scientific chief-of-staff, Jules Richard (1863-1945) was willing to
consider Agassiz's beliefs plausible for a time (Richard 1902), though he found
it hard to discount Chun's results. The heart of the problem seemed to be in the
small size and slow speed of their horizontally-hauled samplers. The Prince and
Richard made the tactical decision in 1903 to give up small closing nets for
huge, vertically-hauled nets as large as 9 x 9 at the mouth. With them they worked
out by the method of difference, just as Murray had done thirty years before,
the overlapping vertical ranges of mid-water animals (Albert 1er 1932, Richard
1934) throughout the open Atlantic, just where there should have been little or
nothing between surface and near-bottom faunas.
By the turn of the century Agassiz's views must have seemed inexplicable, if
not completely wrong-headed, to Chun and the Prince of Monaco, who had
found animals virtually everywhere they sought them. There was no question of
Agassiz's honesty or ability-he simply failed to fmd an intermediate fauna while
others firmly established its existence. What can account for Agassiz's peculiar
inability to capture mid-water animals?
366 E. L. Mills
3 Why Agassiz Failed
The third cruise of Blake in 1880 under Alexander Agassiz's direction was to the
region between Georges Bank and Charleston, South Carolina. In early July,
near Georges Bank, Agassiz and Sigsbee tested the plankton cylinder by lowering
it from 5-25 fms (9.1-146 m), where it collected surface plankton. Having estab-
lished that it worked, they made two tests of plankton abundance in deeper
water by lowering the cylinder in three depth intervals to 180 fms (274 m). The
first location was at 39°56'16" N, 70°18'30" W, in slope water about 150 km
south of Nantucket. Two weeks later they tried a similar series of collections at
34°28'25" N, 75°22'50" W in the Gulf Stream 110 km SE of Cape Lookout,
North Carolina. In both cases there was surface plankton in the top 50 fms, only
a few organisms (crustacean larvae or radiolarians) in the next 50 fms, and
nothing below 100 fms.
Both Agassiz's equipment and the regions he chose are involved in the expla-
nation of his results. Sigsbee's plankton cylinder, by comparison with plankton
nets, sampled a very small volume, roughly 3.5 m 3 (Mills 1981). By comparison,
Leavitt (1935), collecting euphausiids in the same areas, towed a net of 1 m
diameter for two hours, sampling more than 11,000 m 3 • Grice and Hart (1962),
concentrating on the smaller macroplankton, in nearby regions, sampled a mini-
mum of88 m 3 •
Both Agassiz's sampling areas, the slope water and the Gulf Stream, are now
known to be poor in plankton. Bigelow and Sears (1939), who studied plankton
abundance between Cape Cod and Chesapeake Bay, plotted a sharp decrease in
plankton volume just north of Agassiz's slope water station south of Nantucket.
A survey by Grice and Hart (1962) from Long Island across the continental
shelf into slope water, the Gulf Stream and the Sargasso Sea, documented the
dramatic decreases of plankton volume and numbers that occur going from shelf
to slope water, then from slope water to the Gulf Stream.
In these sparselY-inhabited waters the plankton cylinder's size was inadequate.
In addition, its efficiency was poor because of the mesh size employed (416 J.Lm)
and the speed at which the cylinder fell. The meshes of Agassiz's net were far
too coarse to efficiently capture copepods, which usually made up more than
50% of the zooplankton in Grice and Hart's collections in the slope water and
Gulf Stream. The average speed of the plankton cylinder as it fell was 2-3 m/sec,
whereas conventional plankton nets are usually towed at no more than 1 m/sec.
Small animals were probably forced right through the coarse mesh of the cylin-
der, compounding the problems caused by its small size and the low abundance
of animals in the slope water and Gulf Stream.
Recognizing at least some of the limitations of the plankton cylinder, Agassiz
gave up using it. When he next had an opportunity to sample in deep oceanic
waters it was in 1891 in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (Agassiz 1891, 1892),
where he employed Tanner's closing net at 14 locations between the Gulf of
Panama and the Gulf of California (Townsend 1901, p. 478). Eleven of these
are well-documented in Agassiz's accounts (Fig. 1). Without exception he failed
200
E
400
··
I
l-
a.. 600 • @ ··
w
0
/;
·2.
800
··5,
b 1000
0
DISTANCE OFFSHORE, km
Figure I . (a) Some locations where Alexander Agassiz attempted to capture an

intermediate fauna in the Eastern Tropical Pacific during a cruise in 1891 (open
circles). Details of the stations are given by Agassiz (I 89 1) and Townsend (I 90 1).
Dots indicate the section shown in Figure lb. (b) Oxygen distribution in the
eastern tropical Pacific southwest from the Gulf of Tehuantepec, based on the
work of Cline and Richards (1972). Some of Alexander Agassiz's plankton hauls
with a Tanner closing net near or on the transect are indicated by open circles.
Both hauls within the 2 fJ.g-at O,./Q. isopleths at 549 m contained no animals. The
one taken between 2 and 5 fJ.g-at/Q. isopleths at 320 m contained animals (see
text for discussion).
368 E. L. Mills
to collect plankton at or below 300 fms, although it was often abundant down
to nearly 200 fms (366 m). Agassiz concluded, quite reasonably considering the
evidence, that plankton did not occur in mid-water below 300 fms.
All Agassiz's plankton hauls in the Eastern Tropical Pacific were in areas
where an oxygen minimum layer is well-developed at midwater depths (Fig. 1).
This oceanographic feature, which has been thoroughly described by Wyrtki
(1962, 1966), may be up to 1200 m thick, centered at 300-500 m off Mexico
and Central America. Its upper boundary, defined as 02 = 1 ml/Q (IV 100 p.g-
p.t/Q) occurs at about 250 m near the equator and is at times as shallow as SO m
off the west coast of Mexico. Plankton is not totally absent in the oxygen mini-
mum layer. A vertically-migrating fauna of large animals with special adap-
tations for low oxygen is known from mid-water depths (see Childress 1971).
Schmidt (1925), Sewell and Page (1948) and Longhurst (1967) all report plank-
ton in water containing small amounts of oxygen. However, Longhurst, sampling
carefully with a net that took a sequence of samples at discrete depths, found
very few animals where oxygen tensions dropped below 20 p.g-at/Q. All Agassiz's
unsuccessful plankton hauls were in water as little as 2 p.g-at 02/Q. Only a station
360 km SE of Acapulco seems anomalous, for there he found animals at 175 fms
(320 m) where oxygen tension is likely to have been 2-5 p.g-at/Q (Fig. 1b). Judging
by the complexity of oxygen distribution near the Mexican coast (the rippled
isopleths indicate that rapid changes of oxygen content can take place), Agassiz
probably sampled at a time when oxygen was much higher than 2-5 p.g-at/Q.
This analysis has shown that Alexander Agassiz was singularly unfortunate in
the areas he chose to test his ideas on the absence of plankton in midwater.
Equipment and environment combined to assure that he would not get the same
results as his European opponents.
4 "I have no theory"
Writing to Wilhelm Giesbrecht in 1893, Agassiz said that he did not have any in-
trinsic objection to the existence of an intermediate fauna; it was just that his
experience contradicted the idea (G. R. Agassiz 1913, pp. 265-266). Despite this
disclaimer, Agassiz did have a theory-his concept of how food reached deep-sea
animals-into which the intermediate fauna or its absence fitted in an important
way. This was expressed most clearly in the book Three Cruises of the Blake
(1888b), in which Agassiz described the rain of plankton and suggested that
deep-sea benthic animals would fmd the most abundant food near the continents
or in the paths of great oceanic currents like the Gulf Stream. Away from cur-
rents or continents plankton and its decomposed remains (as particles or in
solution) were necessary to feed the small non-predatory animals. If an inter-
mediate fauna existed it would be a source of living food, capable of reaching
the bottom rapidly and in abundance. His ideas were founded in observation,
integrated into a broader structure of ideas about deep-sea life, and thus hardly
atheoretical.
The controversy between Agassiz and Chun is interesting in at least two
respects. First, it shows how differences in technology-in this case different
sampling techniques-could stimulate differences in scientific ideas. Agassiz and
Chun's contrasting views would not have persisted, of course, had it not been for
the coincidence that Agassiz chose the worst possible sampling areas to search
for resolution of the problem.
Equally interesting are the personal aspects of the controversy. When Agassiz
abandoned the problem of the intermediate fauna after 1905 he turned with
equal vigor and iconoclasm to the disproof of Darwin's theory of coral reef for-
mation. This was entirely characteristic of Agassiz. If theory and observations
differed, the theory must be wrong, especially if an eminent authority were
responsible for it. Agassiz was capable of changing his mind-for example, his
work in the equatorial region of the Pacific showed him that great ocean currents
and great abundance of benthic animals need not be related. Similarly, had Agas-
siz found an intermediate fauna he would certainly have accommodated the
change into his complex framework of ideas about food supply to deep-water
animals. But he saw no reason to change his mind about the essentially azoic
nature of midwater in the open oceans because his singular experiences contra-
dicted the results-thereby the speculations-of the Europeans. Alexander Agas-
siz's individuality and practically-oriented abilities would always have placed
him in opposition to received opinion even if he had been able to undermine his
own skepticism about the intermediate fauna.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Carl Boyd for his suggestion that Agassiz's results in the Pacific
might be due to the oxygen minimum layer, and to Mary P. Winsor for reading
an early version of this paper. My research was supported by a grant from the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
References
Agassiz, A. 1879. (Letter No.3). To Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent United

States Coast Survey, Washington, D. C., from Alexander Agassiz, on the
dredging operations carried on from December, 1878 to March 10, 1879, by
the United States Coast Survey steamer Blake, Commander J. R. Bartlett,
U.S.N. Bull. Mus. Compo Zoo!., 5, 289-302.
Agassiz, A. 1880. (Letter No.4). To Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent United
States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D. C., from Alexander Agassiz,
on the dredging operations carried on during part of June and July, 1880, by
the United States Coast Survey steamer Blake, Commander J. R. Bartlett,
U.S.N. Bull. Mus. Compo Zoo!., 6,147-154.
Agassiz, A. 1888a. Bibliotheca zoologica [Review of C. Chun's Die pelagische
Thierwelt 1. Amer. J. Sci., Ser., 3, 35,420-424.
Agassiz, A. 1888b. Three cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
steamer Blake in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the
Atlantic Coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. Sampson Low, Lon-
don, 2 vo1s., 314 and 220 pp.
370 E. L. Mills
Agassiz, A. 1891. Three letters from Alexander Agassiz to the Hon. Marshall
McDonald, United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, on the dredging
operations off the west coast of Central America to the Galapagos, to the
west coast of Mexico, and in the Gulf of California, in charge of Alexander
Agassiz, carried on by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross Lieut.
Commander Z. L. Tanner, U.S.N., Commanding. Bull. Mus. Compo ZooI.,
21, 185-200.
Agassiz, A. 1892. Reports on the dredging operations off the west coast of Cen-
tral America to the Galapagos, to the west coast of Mexico, and in the Gulf of
California, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, carried on by the U. S. Fish Com-
mission steamer Albatross Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, U.S.N., com-
manding. II. General sketch of the expedition of the Albatross, from Febru-
ary to May, 1891. Bull. Mus. Compo ZooI., 23,1-89,22 pIs.
Agassiz, G. R. (ed.). 1913. Letters and recollections of Alexander Agassiz, with
a sketch of his life and work. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York,
vii + 454 pp., 2 charts.
Albert leI, Prince of Monaco. 1887. Sur les filets fins de profundeur employes
Ii bord de I'Hirondelle. Soc. BioI. Mem., 39(C.R.), Paris, pp. 661-664.
Albert leI, Prince of Monaco. 1932. Recueil des travaux publies sur les cam-
pagnes scientifiques. Resultats des campagnes scientifiques accomplies sur
son Yacht par Albert 1er, Prince sourverain de Monaco, Fasc. 84, 366 pp +
II plates, charts.
Bailey, J. W. 1851. Microscopical examination of soundings made by the U. S.
Coast Survey off the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Smithsonian Con-
trib. Knowledge, 2(3), 1-15.
Bailey, J. W. 1854. Examination of some deep soundings from the Atlantic
Ocean. Am. J. Sci., Ser. 2, 17, 176-178.
Bailey, 1. W. 1855. Microscopical examination of deep soundings from the At-
lantic Ocean. Quart. J. Microsc. Sci., 3, 89-91.
Bigelow, H. B. and Sears, M. 1939. Studies of the waters of the continental
shelf, Cape Cod to Chesapeake Bay. III. A volumetric study of the zooplank-
ton. Mem. Mus. Compo ZooI., 54,181-378.
Brand t, K. 1889. Uber die biologischen Untersuchungen der Plankton-Expedition.
Gesellsch. Erdk. VerhandI., Berlin, 16,515-525.
Carpenter, W. B., Jeffreys, J. G. and Thomson, C. W. 1870. Preliminary report
of the scientific exploration of the deep-sea in H. M. Surveying Vessel Porcu-
pine during the summer of 1869. Proc. Roy. Soc., London, 18, 397-492.
Certes, A. 1884a. Sur la culture, Ii l'abri des germes atmospheriques, des eaux et
des sediments rapportes par les expeditions du Travailleur et du Talisman;
1882-883. Compt. rend. Acad. Sci., Paris, 98, 690-693.
Certes, A. 1884b. De l'action du hautes pressions sur les phenomtmes de la
putrefaction et sur la vitaite des micro-organismes d'eau douce et d'eau de
mer. Compt. rend. Acad. Sci., Paris, 99, 385-388.
Chierchia, G. 1884. The voyage of the Vettor Pisani. Nature, 30, 365.
Chierchia, G. 1885. Collezioni per studi di scienze naturali nel viaggio intorno
al mondo dalla R. Corvett Vettor Pisani, commandante G. Palumbo, Anni
1882-83-84-85. Rivista Maritima, Sept-Nov. 1885, 174 pp. + 13 tables, 2
charts.
Childress, J. J. 1971. Respiratory adaptations to the oxygen minimum layer in
the bathypelagic mysid Gnathophausia ingens. BioI. Bull., 141, 109-121.
Chun, C. 1887. Die pelagische Thierwelt in grosseren Meerestiefen und ihre
Beziehungen zu der Oberflachenfauna. Bibliotheca Zoologica, Heft 1,
Theodor Fischer, Cassel, 72 pp.
Chun, C. 1889. Bericht liber eine nach den Canarischen Inseln im Winter 1887/
88 ausgeflihrte Reise. Sitzunsb. Konigl. preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 188, No.
30,519-553.
Chun, C. 1890. Die pelagische Thierwelt in grossen Meerestiefen. Gesellschaft
deutscher Naturforscher und Artze, Verhandlungen,1890, Allgemeiner
Theil,69-85.
Chun, C. 1899. Die Deutsche Tiefsee Expedition. A. Berichte des Leiters der
Expedition Professor Dr. Chun an das Reichs-Amt des Innern. Zeitschr.
Gessellsch. Erdk., Berlin, 34, 75-134.
Chun, C. 1900. Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres. Schilderungen von der deutschen
Tiefsee-Expedition, Gustav Fischer, Jena, 549 pp.
Cline, J. D. and Richards, F. A. 1972. Oxygen deficient conditions and nitrate
reduction in the eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean. Limnol. Oceanogr.
17, 885-900.
Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition, 1898-1899. 1902 ff. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse
der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf den Dampfer Valdivia 1898-1899.
Herausgegeben von Carl Chun, Band 1-25, Jena.
Ehrenberg, C. G. 1844. On microscopic life in the ocean at the South Pole, and
at considerable depths. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 14, 169-178.
Goode, G. B. and Bean, T. H. 1895. Oceanic ichthyology, a treatise on the deep-
sea and pelagic fishes of the world, based chiefly upon the collections made
by the steamers Blake, Albatross, and Fish Hawk, in the northwestern Atlan-
tic, with an atlas containing 417 figures. U. S. Nat. Mus. Spec. Bull., xxxv +
553 pp. Atlas, xxiii + 26 pp, 123 pIs.
Grice, C. B. and Hart, A. D. 1962. The abundance, seasonal occurrence and dis-
tribution of the epizooplankton between New York and Bermuda. Ecol.
Monogr., 32, 287-309.
Hensen, V. 1895. Methodik der Untersuchungen. Ergebnisse der Plankton-
Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung, Kie1, 1. B, 200 pp.
Hensen, V. 1911. Das Leben in Ozean nach Ziihlungen seiner Bewohner. Ergeb-
nisse der Plankton-Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung. V. 0., Kiel and Leipzig,
406 pp.
Huxley, T. H. 1858. Deep-sea soundings in the North Atlantic Ocean. Appen-
dix A. In: Dayman, J. Deep-sea soundings in the North Atlantic Ocean
between Ireland and Newfoundland, made in H.M.S. Cyclops, in June and
July 1857. H.M.S.O., London.
Jeffreys, J. G. 1869-70. Food of oceanic animals. Nature, I, 192,315.
Jeffreys, J. G. 1881. Deep-sea exploration. Nature, 23, 300-302, 324-326.
J¢lrgensen, C. B. 1976. August Putter, August Krogh, and modern ideas on the
use of dissolved organic matter in aquatic environments. BioI. Rev., 5 I, 291-
328.
Kofoid, C. A. 1911. On a self-closing plankton net for horizontal towing. Univ.
Calif. Publ. Zool., 8, 311-348.
Leavitt, B. B. 1935. A quantitative study of the vertical distribution of the
larger zooplankton in deep water. BioI. Bull., 68,115-130.
Longhurst, A. R. 1967. Vertical distribution of zooplankton in relation to the
eastern Pacific oxygen minimum. Deep-sea Res., 14,51-63.
Mills, E. L. 1981. The problems of deep-sea biology: an historical perspective.
In: The Sea, 8, Deep-sea biology, G. T. Rowe (ed.). John Wiley, New York
(in press).
Moseley, H. N. 1880. Notes by a naturalist on HMS Challenger. John Murray,
London. 540 pp.
Murray, J. 1895. General observations on the distribution of marine organisms.
Rpt. Sci. Res. Voy. H.M.S. Challenger, Summ. Scient. Res., 2, 1431-1462.
372 E. L. Mills
Regnard, P. 1884. Recherches experimentales sur l'influence des tres hautes
pressions sur les organismes vivants. Comptes rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, 98,
745-747.
Richard, J. 1902. Campagne scientifique de la Princess Alice en 1901. Bull.
Soc. Zool. France, 81-104.
Richard, J. 1934. Liste generale des stations des camp agnes scientifiques du
Prince Albert du Monaco. Avec neuf cartes des itineraires et des notes et
observations. Resultats des campagnes scientifiques, accomplies sur son
Yacht par Albert leI, Prince Souverain de Monaco, Fasc. 471 pp. + 8 pIs.
Schmidt, J. 1925. On the contents of oxygen in the ocean on both sides of
Panama. Science, 61, 592-593.
Sewell, R. B. S. and Fage, L. 1948. Minimum oxygen layer in the ocean. Nature,
162,949-951.
Sigsbee, C. D. 1880. Reports of the results of dredging, under the supervision of
Alexander Agassiz, on the east coast of the United States, by the U. S. Coast
Survey Steamer Blake, Commander J. R. Bartlett, U.S.N. VII. Description of
a gravitating trap for obtaining specimens of animal life from intermedial
ocean-depths. Bull. Mus. Compo Zool., 6,155-158, pI.
Studer, T. 1878. Ueber Siphonophoren des tiefen Wassers. Zeitschr. wiss. Zool.
31, 1-3.
Tanner, Z. L. 1893. Report upon the investigations of the U. S. Fish Commission
Steamer Albatross from July 1, 1889, to June 30, 1891. U. S. Comm. Fish &
Fisheries, Rpt. Commissioner, 1889-1891. Appendix 1, pp. 207-342, chart.
Thomson, C. W. 1869. The depths of the sea. The substance of a lecture delivered
by Professor Wyville Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S.E., F.G.S., on the 10th of April,
1869, in the theatre of the Royal Dublin Society. 13 pp., privately printed.
Thomson, C. W. 1870. Food of oceanic animals. Nature, 1,315-316.
Thomson, C. W. 1873. The depth of the sea. An account of the general results of
the dredging cruises of H.M.S.S. Porcupine and Lightning during the summers
of 1868, 1869, and 1870, under the scientific direction of Dr. Carpenter,
F.R.S., J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., and Dr. WyvilleThomson, F.R.S. Macmillan,
London. xx + 527 pp.
Thomson, C. W. 1878. The voyage of the Challenger. The Atlantic. A prelimi-
nary account of the general results of the exploring expedition of H.M.S.
"Challenger" during the year 1873 and the early part of the year 1876. Harper
& Brothers, New York, 2 vols., 391 & 340 pp.
Townsend, C. H. 1901. Dredging and other records of the Steamer Albatross,
with bibliography relative to the work of the vessel. U. S. Comm. of Fish &
Fisheries, Rpt. Commissioner, 1900,387-562.
Vinogradov, M. E. 1970. Vertical distribution of the oceanic zooplankton.
Israel Program for Scientific translations, Jerusalem. vii + 339 pp.
Wallich, G. C. 1862. The North-Atlantic sea-bed. Comprising a journey on
H.M.S. Bulldog in 1860. Van Voorst, London, 160 pp. (unfinished) + 6 pI.
Wyrtki, K. 1962. The oxygen minima in relation to oceanic circulation. Deep-
sea Res., 9, 11-23.
Wyrtki, K. 1966. Oceanography of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Oceanogr.
Mar. BioI. Ann. Rev., 4, 33-68.
The British Association Dredging Committee:
A Brief History
A.L. Rice andJ.B. Wilson
1 Introduction
The Dredging Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of

Science (B.A.) has figured prominently in almost every account of the develop-
ment of biological oceanography written during the past century. Not only was
its work the first systematic attempt to document the occurrence and distri-
bution of benthic marine animals in British (or any other) waters, but it also
represents the transition from a situation in which science was almost entirely
the province of the amateur fmanced either by himself or by a private patron, to
one in which some projects could no longer be underwritten by individuals, but
had to be financed by government.
In ''The Depths of the Sea," Wyville Thomson (1873) described how the Com-
mittee had been established at the 1839 meeting of the B.A. after Edward Forbes
and John Goodsir had presented the results of their dredging expedition to Ork-
ney and Shetland in June of that year. Thomson summarized some of the more
significant results of the Committee's work over the next three decades. While he
clearly recognized the value of these endeavors in the development of marine bi-
ology both at home and abroad, he emphasized the fact that the Dredging Com-
mittee's efforts had been largely restricted to relatively shallow waters, whereas
his own interest was particularly in the deep-sea. Thomson therefore naturally
laid greater stress on the discoveries of such people as John and James Oarke
Ross, Michael and George Ossian Sars, Loven, and Wallich, none of whom had
any direct connection with the Dredging Committee. Nevertheless, "The Depths
of the Sea" has been the main published source of information about the Com-
mittee, since subsequent accounts have rarely provided as many details.
374 A. L. Rice and J. B. Wilson
Although almost 70 members of the Association sat on one or other of the
Committee's appendages, and even more were involved in the expeditions which
they inspired, the Committee was dominated by two main figures-Edward
Forbes during the 1840s and John Gwyn Jeffreys during the 1860s. In an excel-
lent recent interpretative paper, Mills (1978) reviewed the influence of Forbes'
work on Jeffreys and that of both men on British marine biology in general,
inevitably referring directly or indirectly to the work of the Dredging Committee.
Neither Mills nor any other author has, however, attempted to document the
Committee's inception, its development and its ultimate demise. The purpose of
this paper is to present an account of the origin and structure of the dredging
committees, the range of their operations and some observations on their finance.
This account is based on published sources as the search for new documentary
material on the committees is incomplete.
2 Background
Since the Dredging Committee was first established only seven years after the
British Association itself, the factors leading to the birth of the parent organi-
zation are relevant. The Association grew out of a widely felt dismay amongst
British "philosophers" during the early nineteenth century at the sad state of
science in the United Kingdom, particularly in comparison with that of other
European nations (Orange 1971). This dismay was focused in 1830 by Charles
Babbage's hard-hitting criticism of the Government for its apparent lack of
interest in supporting science, and his accusation of mismanagement aimed at
the existing scientific establishment, and particularly at the Council of the Royal
Society (Babbage 1830).
Although Babbage made a number of suggestions for possible improvements,
the proposal to establish a totally new kind of scientific association in the U.K.
came from David Brewster in a review of Babbage's book (Brewster 1830).1 He
maintained that "An association of our nobility, clergy, gentry and philosophers,
can alone draw the attention of the sovereign and the nation to this blot upon its
fame."
Events moved very rapidly and, under the auspices of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society, the first general meeting of the new association took place in
York, September 26, 1831. The follOwing morning the assembled 300 or so
philosophers were addressed by the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt, who formal-
ly proposed the foundation of:
a British Association for the Advancement of Science, having for its objects,
to give a stronger impulse and more systematic direction to scientific inquiry,
lSee also Edinburgh J. Sci. for 1831 which carried (p. 374) a notice that a "Great Scientific
Meeting" was to be held at York the following year. This same volume contained a long
article by Johnston on the Deutscher Naturforscher Versammlung which had met annually
in different German cities since 1822 and on which the British Association was to be model-
led.
The British Association Dredging Committee: A Brief History 375
to obtain a greater degree of national attention to the objects of science and a
removal of those disadvantages which impede its progress, and to promote the
intercourse of the cultivators of science with one another, and with foreign
philosophers.
Harcourt enlarged on the desirability of such a foundation and went on to sug-

gest a modus operandi, including the establishment of a General Committee which
in turn would appoint specialist Sub-committees which should "select the points
in each science which most call for inquiry and endeavour, under the authority
of the General Committee, to engage competent persons to investigate them"
(Rept. Brit. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1831, vol. 1).
The organization of these 'Sub-committees' naturally took some time to de-
velop into a consistent pattern, but by the time the Association met in 1835
they had attained their present status as "Sections," with that dealing with zoolo-
gy and botany (Section D) being separated from anatomy and medicine for the
first time. Compared with several of the other disciplines represented in the Asso-
ciation, the natural historians were relatively inactive during these early years.
Although they called for a report on the "recent progress and present state" of
zoology and recommended a number of subjects which deserved the "consider-
ation of zoologists," no funds were specifically allocated to zoological projects
until the establishment of the Dredging Committee itself.
Following Jenyns' (1836) report on the state of zoology, presented at the
1835 meeting, the Section D committee recommended the production of accu-
rate zoological monographs and "Further attention to the Fishes and Inverte-
brata of the British coasts, and especially to the Radiata of Cuvier" (Rept. Brit.
Ass. Advmt Sci., 1835, xxx). At the same meeting Mr. Ball was "requested to
investigate the mode by which Echinus lividus excavates the rocks on which it is
found," a project which was extended to the mollusks, annelids and other inver-
tebrate groups in 1836 and 1837. Otherwise the biological recommendations had
little marine content and apart from a report of two "new shells" dredged from
Rothsay Bay in the Firth of Clyde by James Smith of Jordanhill (now part of
Glasgow) at the 1837 meeting, and Forbes' report on some mollusks from the
Isle of Man (Forbes 1838) given at the same meeting, marine biology did not
figure large in the Association's proceedings until 1839 when the situation
changed dramatically.
3 The Dredging Committee and Edward Forbes
Although there is no specific reference in the report of the 1839 meeting to what
prompted the formation of the Dredging Committee, it is reasonable to assume
that the frequently repeated statement that it was a direct result of the report by
Forbes and Goodsir at that meeting is correct. The two friends had spent two
weeks in Shetland and a further week in Orkney during June 1839, dredging in
relatively shallow water, and had collected a variety of invertebrates including
several undescribed mollusks and echinoderms. The published report (Forbes
and Goodsir 1840) is not particularly startling, but it must have been presented
with a good deal of enthusiasm by Forbes who already had considerable experi-
ence in dredging in the Firth of Forth and around the Isle of Man (Mills 1978).
The Section D Committee recommended the establishment of a committee:
for researches with the Dredge, with a view to the investigation of the marine
zoology of Great Britain, the Illustration of the Geographical Distribution of
Marine Animals, and the more accurate determination of the Fossils of the
Pliocene Period, under the superintendence of Mr Gray, Mr Forbes, Mr Good-
sir, Mr Patterson, Mr Thompson of Belfast, Mr Ball of Dublin, Dr George
Johnston, Mr Smith of Jordanhill, and Mr A. Strickland.
Although Forbes and Goodsir clearly deserved places on this Committee, they
were apparently considered to be too young and inexperienced to lead it. Instead,
the Chairman was John Edward Gray, the Section D Vice-President, and an
Assistant Keeper of Natural History at the British Museum who was to succeed
J. G. Children as Keeper of the Zoology Department in the following year.
Most of the original members remained on the Committee for the first decade
of its existence. However, Gray left it after 1842 and the Chairmanship passed
naturally to Forbes who was clearly the main driving force behind the Commit-
tee even though he had been unable to attend the B.A. meetings in 1841 or 1842
because of his absence on HMS Beacon in the Aegean. During the 1840s the
Committee was further augmented by additional members, some of whom served
for only one or two years. Notable amongst these were Jonathan Couch, who
joined from 1841 onwards, and Robert MacAndrew, who first appeared in 1845. 2
The first act of the Dredging Committee after its establishment in 1839 was
apparently:
to print blank formulae, in which the information obtained might be registered

at the time and place where procured. Each form consists of a ruled sheet,
with a heading for the registration of particulars of date of the operation, of
the locality where conducted, of the depth of the sea in the place where the
dredge was sunk, of the distance from the shore at which the observation was
made, of the ground, i.e., the nature of the sea bottom in the place examined,
and of the region under which the position of the sea-bed explored might be
classed. Below the headings are ranged the names of the species procured, op-
posite columns stating the number of living individuals taken, the number of
dead specimens, and any observations which might be suggested by the con-
dition of the specimens, or the manner in which they were associated together
(Forbes 1851).
2 During the fIrst decade of its existence the Committee did not fragment into local regional
committees as it did later on. Nevertheless, in 1843 a second committee was established,
consisting of Richard Owen, Forbes, Sir Charles Lemon, and Couch " ... to enable Mr Peach
to continue research on the marine zoology of Devon and Cornwall." Although its reports
to the B.A. were often based in part on the results of dredging, it is not clear whether or not
it was directly related to the main Dredging Committee.
The following year the Committee reported:
the expenditure of I sQ out of the soQ granted for that purpose. The state of
the weather, which prevented dredging in the open sea during a great part of
the summer, and the difficulty of obtaining observations sufficiently precise
in information respecting species, have been the causes which have operated
against them, and caused the expenditure of so small a portion of the grant.
A series of queries, and printed formulae to be filled up with the results of
the dredging excursions, were prepared and distributed. A Sub-Committee,
consisting of Mr Thompson, Mr Ball and Mr Forbes, examined a considerable
portion of the west coast of Ireland; Mr Patterson undertook the examination
of the north-east coast of the same country; and Mr Forbes dredged the coasts
of the Isle of Man. The results of the researches were very satisfactory, and
the products in every case carefully noted down in the printed formulae. The
Committee recommended further researches, and propose that the dredging-
papers be laid by for the present, until a sufficient amount of data be obtained
to warrant the publication of their conclusions (Rept. Brit. Ass. Advmt. Sci.,
1840, 444-44S).
The recommendation was accepted and £50 was made available each year in
1840, 1841 and 1842. The grant was reduced to £25 in 1843, £20 in 1844 and
fmally to £10 each year from 1845 to 1848. During this period each annual re-
port of the Association contained one or more short reports on some aspect of
the Dredging Committee's activities, ranging from an account of the results of
dredging in a single locality "near Sana Island, off the Mull of Cantire" (Hyndman
1843), to Thomas Bell's (1847) account of the Crustacea dredged in recent years
all round the British coasts. Most of the dredging was in relatively shallow water,
with few hauls being made in depths greater than about 100 m. Nevertheless,
anyone who has dredged by hand at any depth will realize how much hard work
such hauls require, particular from a sailing vesse1. 3
No general synthesis of the dredging results appeared until 1850 when Forbes
presented the first major report (Forbes 1851). He explained that the main ob-
jective in the formation of the Dredging Committee had been "the establishment
of a new series of researches more rigidly precise than had ever before been at-
tempted, and set on foot solely with regard to the determination of the true state
of our submarine fauna." For "It was formerly too much the aim of British
naturalists and collectors, to endeavour to swell the catalogue of British animals,
-the former, from a mistaken patriotism, the latter not always with such disin-
terested motives; consequently the catalogues of our fauna, especially of the
marine molluscs, became enriched by numerous species, very doubtful natives
3 Until Gwyn Jeffreys and Norman dredged at over 300 m off Shetland in 1867 the deepest
dredge haul obtained in British waters was that taken by Capt. Beechey from the steam-
vessel HMS Lucifer at 145 fathoms (265 meters) off the Mull of Galloway in 1842. Although
this haul was reported by William Thompson in the B.A. annual report for that year (Rep.
Brit. Ass. Advrnt Sci. 1842, 72-75) it could hardly be considered to be the work of the
Dredging Committee since it was accomplished during an Admiralty Surveying cruise.
of our coasts." Forbes described the introduction of the dredging papers, "a
great mass" of which were by then in his possession. But, although he acknow-
ledged the efforts of many other workers, including almost all those who served
on the Dredging Committee during the fIrst ten years, Forbes reported the
results embodied in only 144 dredging papers all of which (with the exception
of one completed by Hyndman) had been filled in by himself and MacAndrew
from southern and western England, Wales and Scotland, including the Hebrides,
Orkney and Shetland. "As all these provinces, English and Scotch," wrote
Forbes, "have been personally explored by myself, I am enabled, in tabulating
the contents of the dredging papers ... to judge with greater accuracy than I
otherwise could have done of the value and bearing of the data, and to venture
with greater confIdence on the general considerations which follow." It is not
clear whether Forbes was implying that he had less confIdence in the papers com-
pleted by other naturalists, including his fellow Dredging Committee members,
though he does say that "from the eastern coasts of Britain and the whole range
of the Irish coast, more well-filled tabulated forms are still wanting." From the
title of the report, however, it is obvious that he hoped to deal with the dredging
results from these other areas at a later date. He unfortunately never managed to
do so, for this was a particularly busy period in an already overcrowded life. To
his duties as Professor of Botany at Kings College, London, and as Palaeontolo-
gist to the Geological Survey, Forbes added the Presidency of the Geological
Society in 1853. Although he ultimately achieved his ambition of winning
Jameson's chair of Natural History in Edinburgh in May 1854 he had but six
months in the post before his untimely death in November (Wilson and Geikie
1861, Merriman 1965).
4 The Dredging Committee and Gwyn Jeffreys
Edward Forbes continued to attend the annual meetings of the B.A. up to the
year of his death. He also retained his interest in dredging, making his last ex-
cursion with Wyville Thomson to North Berwick on the Firth of Forth in Sep-
tember, 1854. However, perhaps because he was unable to devote so much time
to this activity, or perhaps because the Association was unwilling to continue its
fInancial support until a substantial report had appeared, the Dredging Commit-
tee seems to have been in a state of limbo during the late 1840s and early 1850s.
For in the reports of the 1848, 1850 and 1851 meetings, no dredging commit-
tees were established.
The "main" Dredging Committee did not make its reappearance until 1858.
In the mid-1850s, however, a number of local committees were established to
undertake dredging in specmc regions, on the coasts of Ireland in each year from
1852 to 1857, and in Scotland in each of these years except 1954.
The local dredging committees were generally established round an existing
nucleus of enthusiasts with interests in the area in question. Surprising gaps there-
fore occurred-southern North Sea, eastern English Channel, Thames Estuary,
etc.-where no signifIcant dredging activity apparently took place.
At the 1852 meeting the committee established to undertake dredging on the
east coast of Scotland was placed under the chairmanship of Charles Wyville
Thomson, then a 22-year-old lecturer in Botany at King's College, Aberdeen, but
later to become a leading figure in British marine biology, particularly as scien-
tific director of the Challenger Expedition. The following year Wyville Thomson
moved first to Cork as Professor of Natural History in the Queen's College, and
then, in September 1854, to Queen's College, Belfast, as Professor of Geology
and Mineralogy (Merriman 1972). He reappears in the dredging committee lists
in 1857 as a member of Patterson's committee "to report on the Dredging on
the North Coast of Ireland." Important though Wyville Thomson undoubtedly
was in development of deep-sea oceanography, he does not seem to have had a
great influence on the relatively shallow-water activities of the B.A. dredging
committees, though he was a member of the local committees for Ireland in
1858 and 1866, and for Shetland in 1862.
With the resurrection of the main Committee in 1858, there appeared for the
first time a name which was to dominate the Dredging Committee for the whole
of the remainder of its existence, that of John Gwyn Jeffreys. At this time Jef-
freys was a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. Although he did not retire from the law
until 1866, during the late 1850s he was devoting more and more time to
conchology (Mills 1978). At the 1858 meeting of the B.A. and at the two fol-
lowing meetings, Jeffreys was an ordinary member of the General Dredging
Committee under the chairmanship of MacAndrew. But in 1861, Jeffreys sud-
denly sprang into prominence, heading not only the General Committee but
also the four smaller committees established or continued at that meeting to
dredge the "Dogger Bank and portions of the Sea Coast of Durham and North-
umberland," ''the North and East Coasts of Scotland," "the Rivers Mersey and
Dee," and to produce a "Dredging Report of the Bay of Dublin." During the
succeeding six years Jeffreys apparently headed every dredging committee, gen-
eral or local, established by the B.A.; four in 1862, three in 1863, four in 1864
and 1865, and one in 1867.
During the late 1850s and throughout the 1860s each annual report of the
Association contained at least one contribution based on the dredging results,
and usually three or four. These included the fmal reports of the Belfast and
Dublin local committees (Hyndman 1860, Kinahan 1861) and reports from
Devon and Cornwall (Bate 1866, 1868), from the Northumberland Coast and
the Dogger Bank (Mennell 1863), from the Mersey and Dee (Collingwood and
Byerley 1862) and from the Channel Isles (Jeffreys 1866). But most of the
reports were of dredging excusions around the Scottish coasts. Whereas the
dredging activities during the 1840s and 1850s had been centered in Ireland,
with a particularly active local committee in Belfast, the emphasis moved to
Scotland during the 1860s, and especially to the Hebrides and Shetland.
There was already a long tradition of dredging amongst the northernmost
islands of Britain, for after Forbes' first visit to Shetland with Goodsir in 1839
he had returned with MacAndrew in 1845, while Jeffreys himself had dredged
at Lerwick in 1841 and again in 1848 (Jeffreys 1864). Jeffreys made further
visits in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1867 and 1868, usually with Waller and
Norman. Shetland had a particular fascination, as Norman wrote in his part of
the final dredging report presented to the B.A. in 1868 (Norman 1869).
The extreme interest which attaches to the Shetland sea is the circumstance
that it is the trysting place of the northern and southern faunas: the warm
influence of the Gulf Stream impinging on the western coast coaxes on many
a species of sunnier climes to extend its migration northward, while the cold
winds and waves which issue from the Pole and come drifting round the
North Cape and Loffoden Isles, account for the many Arctic forms which,
stunted in size and numerically scarce, are yet able in the equable tempera-
tures of the abyss of the Shetland waters to hold out against those southern
influences so detrimental to their constitutions.
For these and additional good scientific reasons, and also one suspects because
of the adventure involved in working amongst remote islands, groups of Victo-
rian gentlemen journeyed northward each summer during the 1860s, in their
own yachts or in hired vessels, to spend some weeks or even months dredging
around the Shetland Isles or up to 30 or 40 miles offshore and working up the
material at their temporary headquarters at the lighthouse on the Walsay Skerries
or at Baltasound on the island of Dnst. They sent long and detailed letters back
to their friends, giving a vivid impression of the rewards and disappointments of
work which was inevitably dominated by the all too often inclement weather
(Mills 1978).
Each autumn they would gather for the annual meeting of the B.A. and pre-
sent the results of their endeavors. There is a good deal of scholarship in many
of these reports, and with their long species lists and detailed descriptions of
new or poorly known forms they certainly make dry reading. But at the same
time they are clearly the work of dedicated amateur naturalists "combining,"
as Wyville Thomson wrote (Thomson 1873), "the pursuit of knowledge with
the recreation of their summer holidays." Such amateur activities continued,
with valuable results, for many years within the confmes of local natural history
societies such as those which surrounded the mouth of the River Mersey and
eventually formed the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee with the object of
producing a "Fauna" of Liverpool Bay (Herdman 1886). But their days within
the wider forum of the British Association were numbered.
Jeffreys' visit to Shetland in 1868 was the last to which he was willing to
devote time and money (Mills 1978), and after the presentation of the fmal
reports of the Shetland dredgings at the annual meeting of the B.A. that year
he apparently did not propose any continuation of dredging around the British
Isles. In fact, the only dredging committee established in 1868 was one under
Percival Wright, to dredge off the Portugese coast following Bocage's reports of
the sponge, Hyaionema, having been taken by Setubal shark-fishermen (Thom-
son 1873).
This is not altogether surprising, for in the late 1860s new and ambitious
dredging plans were being formulated outside the British Association. Before he
left Shetland in August 1868, Jeffreys was aware that Carpenter and Wyville
Thomson had succeeded in obtaining government support for their venture to
dredge in much deeper water than had hitherto been attempted. Their six week
cruise on the paddle steamer HMS Lightning during August and September 1868
was dogged by bad weather and by the unreliability of the elderly vessel. Never-
theless, they were able to dredge down to almost 1200 m west of the Faeroes
and the results were sufficiently encouraging for the Admiralty to make available
the much more suitable survey vessel HMS Porcupine during the following sum-
mer. Three cruises were made during 1869 and because Wyville Thomson and
Carpenter were both occupied ashore, Gwyn Jeffreys was given the opportunity
to lead the fust of these, from 18th May to 13th July (Thomson 1873). During
a 450-mile cruise off the west coast of Ireland and north to Rockall, he dredged
at depths down to 2700 m, almost ten times deeper than any hauls he had pre-
viously been directly involved in. Jeffreys must have been greatly impressed by
the relative ease with which the well-equipped vessel was able to dredge at these
seemingly enormous depths, and when, later that same year, Wyville Thomson
obtained samples down to a depth of 4,453 m to the southwest of Ireland, the
efforts of the B.A. dredging committees were well and truly eclipsed.
In 1869 and again in 1873 the Dredging Committee was temporarily resur-
rected, with committees established to dredge off Devon and Cornwall and off
Durham and north Yorkshire, respectively. But the earlier enthusiasm had ob-
viously evaporated, and with the exception of the triumvirate (Gwyn Jeffreys,
Percy Sladen and Wyville Thomson) set up at the 1881 meeting "for the pur-
pose of zoological exploration of the sea bed lying north of the Hebrides" the
Dredging Committee is never again mentioned in the Association's published
reports.
5 Dredging Committee Funding
During the thirty-odd years of its existence, a total of £1440 was voted to the
Dredging Committee in support of its various projects, ranging from £5 for
dredging in the estuaries of the rivers Mersey and Dee in 1860, 1861 and 1865
to £100 allocated to the "main" Committee in 1867.
In the early years the monies allocated were quite often not all used, usually
because of inpropitious weather rather than because they were more than ade-
quate for the needs. Nevertheless, there were no overt grumbles about inade-
quate funding, at least in the published documents. Perhaps the gentlemen natu-
ralists were only too grateful to obtain at least some financial assistance for
activities which otherwise would have had to be fmanced completely out of their
own pockets.
In the 1850s, however, some slight notes of dissatisfaction began to enter the
reports. For instance, in ending his report of dredging in the Firth of Clyde, pre-
sented to the annual meeting in 1856, Charles Popham Miles revealed that not
only was the funding inadequate but, on occasion, the naturalists had to do hard
physical work!
382 A. L. Rice and I. B. Wilson
In closing this necessarily meagre report, the Committee take the opportunity
to make some observations on the expenditure connected with dredging oper-
ations. Boats must of course be hired with crews according to circumstances.
In some localities, a stout boat, with a couple of men may get through some
work in fine weather and with a depth of water not exceeding ten or twelve
fathoms. But if the dredge be coristantly down, the labour is severe, and the
occasional assistance of the gentlemen whose time ought to be otherwise
employed, will be required. Four men are not too many, and in some states
of weather, they are necessary. The charge for a boat and two men cannot be
set down at less than from five shillings to six shillings a day. At Lamlash the
usual charge is 7s. 6d. For deep sea dredging and indeed for the examination
generally of more exposed parts of the Clyde, whether inshore or at a dis-
tance, a small sailing craft is indispensable-such as a common herring boat-
with a crew of four men, the cost of which would be about £4 a week. This,
Mr. Barlee-the Committee could not quote a higher authority-has found to
be quite efficient. With such a vessel having a boat in tow, dredging may be
carried out when oars would be useless. From the above statement of the
absolute outlay inseparable from dredging operations when conducted on a
useful scale (omitting altogether the cost of material, its wear and tear, and
various contingent expenses), it will be evident that a grant of £ 10 will go but
a short way in the hands of an active committee (Miles 1857).
As the excursions became more ambitious, the costs inevitably rose, and dur-
ing the 18608 there are several references to the generosity of individuals in sup-
porting the Shetland Dredging Committee. In his 1863 report to the B.A., Jef-
freys makes this point rather forcibly and at the same time fires a passing shot
at an unresponsive Government.
The expense of this expedition was about £300. It cannot be denied that the
present case is one in aid and furtherance of which the funds of the Associ-
ation may be properly applied. The grants amounted to £75; and the re-
mainder of the expense was borne by myself and friends, including Mr Leck-
enby of Scarborough, who liberally contributed his money in the cause of
science, although he was unfortunately prevented from personally assisting in
the work of the expedition. The marketable value of all the objects of natural
history which were procured by means of this expedition cannot be estimated
at more than £5. 4 It was purely a scientific inquiry; and the British Associ-
ation gave a stronger impulse to it than if it had been undertaken by any
naturalist for the mere sake of enriching his collection. The grant and prestige
attached to it encouraged the Committee, and they endeavoured to the best
of their ability to fulfil the charge with which they were entrusted. These
grants supply to a certain extent the shortcomings of Government in respect
of exploring-expeditions, such as used to be undertaken, and by means of
4Nevertheless, Gwyn Jeffreys was subsequently able to sell his own collection of Molluscs,
including specimens collected in connection with his dredging committee activities, to the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington for 1000 guineas (Bartsch, P., Rehder, H. A. and
Shields, B. E. A bibliography and short biographical sketch of William Healey Dali. Smith-
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, 104, No. 15,9-10).
which our present first-rate school of naturalists has been formed. Some fears
must be confessed for the future (Jeffreys 1864).
The inunediate future certainly did nothing to allay these fears, for during
the remaining years of the Shetland Committee's existence the B.A. grants con-
tinued to be far from adequate to cover the costs of expeditions which would
certainly not have taken place but for the enthusiasm of rich or influential
amateur naturalists.
The failure of the British government to shoulder its responsibilities with re-
spect to science had been one of the main causes for the establishment of the
British Association in the 1830s. It would have been gratifying to have traced, in
the case of marine biology at least, a smooth transition to government funded
research prompted by the lead given by the Association. But this was not the
case, for in the 1860s the work of the Dredging Committee was only one of
many scientific projects which were still being undertaken largely by amateurs
without government assistance. Indeed, far from encouraging the government to
take over scientific funding the Association was criticized for supporting such
ventures on the grounds that "so long as individuals, and bodies of individuals,
without discrimination, attempt to do what should properly devolve on the
State, so long will a Government, destitute like ours, of a particle of the scientific
element, neglect its legitimate duties."s
In the case of deep-sea oceanography, work in the open ocean could clearly
not be undertaken by amateurs, no matter how wealthy, and the government
was ultimately forced into active participation, though, as the story of the Chal-
lenger Expedition amply demonstrates, it did so with some reluctance (Burstyn
1968).
Although the Sea Fisheries Commission had been established in 1866 (Caird
and Huxley 1866), the need for government intervention in shallow-water work
was not so obvious, at least not to the government itself. After the B.A. ceased
its support for dredging in British waters in the late 1860s, two decades elapsed
before the Treasury was goaded into contributing to the continuation of such
work with the building of the Plymouth laboratory and the establishment of
what became the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (M.B.A.)
(J. mar. bioI. Ass. U.K. 1(1889): IX-XI).
6 The Achievements of the Dredging Committee
In view of the time lapse between the demise of the B.A. Dredging Committee
and the formation of the M.B.A., the former can hardly be credited with having
played an important role in the formation of the latter. Similarly, there is no
5 The Tides and the Treasury. Nature editorial for June 17, 1872 (Vol. 6, 157) following the
Treasury's refusal to contribute £150 to help the B.A. to continue its tidal observations
under a Committee chaired by Sir William Thompson. The refusal was on the grounds that
"if they acceded to this request it would be impossible to refuse to contribute towards the
numerous other objects which men of eminence may desire to treat scientifically."
direct connection between the Dredging Committee and the cruises of the
Lightning, Porcupine and ultimately the Challenger, for in the correspondence
between Wyville Thomson, Carpenter and Sabine, the President of the Royal
Society, which established the case for deep-sea dredging, the precedent referred
to was Michael Sars' dredging off the Lofoten Islands and not those of the
Dredging Committee (Thomson 1873).
Nevertheless, the Committee achieved significant results in three distinct areas,
each of which contributed to the development of marine biology both in Britain
and abroad. Firstly, the collections themselves, many of which ultimately found
their way to the British Museum, formed an invaluable basis for all subsequent
work on the taxonomy and ecology of British benthic organisms. Secondly,
amongst the numerous publications which resulted from the examination of
these collections are a number of very important taxonomic works. This was par-
ticularly true in the early days of the Dredging Committee's existence when the
accumulated material stimulated the production of a series of classic texts on the
coelenterates, mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans (Forbes 1851). Without
the groundwork of the dredging committees in demonstrating the value of syste-
matic dredging, the work of the Lightning and Porcupine expeditions would
have been much more difficult. Finally, while the membership lists of the
Dredging Committee and its sub-committees contain many names which have
little or no significance for modern marine biologists, they also include those of
some of the most eminent Victorian naturalists. Forbes, Gwyn Jeffreys and
Wyville Thomson are obvious ones, but in the second rank stand Bell, Brady,
Spence Bate, Norman, Hincks, Percival Wright and Sladen. These men, and many
more cut their marine biological teeth on the Dredging Committee and went on,
despite the continued lack of interest from the government, to help make the
British marine fauna better known than that of any comparable area in the world.
Acknowledgments and Addendum
Assistance given by Miss J. M. Lewis and Mrs. J. M. Weller is gratefully acknow-

ledged. Sir George Deacon is thanked for reading the manuscript. Since this paper
was submitted, an article dealing with Forbes' role in the early years of the
Dredging Committee appeared in: J. Rist. BioI., 12: 293-368, 1979 by P. F.
Rehbock.
References
Babbage, C. 1830. Reflections on the decline of science in England and on some

of its causes. London, 228 pp. (Reprinted 1969 by Gregg International Pub-
lishers Ltd., Westmead, Farnborough, Rants, England).
Bate, C. S. 1866. Report of the committee appointed to explore the marine
fauna and flora of the South Coast of Devon and Cornwall, No.1. Rep. Br.
Ass. Advmt Sci., 1865,51-57.
Bate, C. S. 1868. Report of the committee appointed to explore the marine
fauna and flora of the South Coast of Devon and Cornwall, No.2. Rep. Br.
Ass. Advmt Sci., 1867,275-287.
Bell, T. 1847. On the Crustacea found by Prof. E. Forbes and Mr. McAndrew in
their cruises round the coast. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1846,80-82.
Brewster, D. 1830. (Unsigned review of) Reflections on the decline of science in
England and on some of its causes. Quarterly Review, 43, 305-342.
Burstyn, H. L. 1968. Science and government in the nineteenth century: the
Challenger expedition and its report. Bull. Inst. oceanogr. Monaco, Special
issue, 2, 603-613.
Caird, J. and Huxley, T. H. 1866. The Commissioners appointed to inquire into
the sea fisheries of the United Kingdom. Vol. 1. The report, and appendix.
London, H.M.S.O.
Collingwood, C. and Byerley, I. 1862. Preliminary report of the dredging com-
mittee for the Mersey and Dee. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1861, 188-189.
Forbes, E. 1838. On new and rare forms of British plants and animals. Rep. Br.
Ass. Advmt Sci. (Transactions of the Sections), 1837, 102.
Forbes, E. 1851. Report on the investigation of British marine zoology by
means of the dredge. Part I. The infra-littoral distribution of marine Inverte-
brata on the southern, western and northern coasts of Great Britain. Rep. Br.
Ass. Advmt. Sci., 1850, 192-263.
Forbes, E. and Goodsir, J. 1840. Notice of zoological researches in Orkney and
Shetland during the month of June 1839. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 9(1839),
79-82.
Herdman, W. A. (ed.). 1886. The first report upon the fauna of Liverpool Bay.
Rep. L'pool mar. BioI. Comm., 1, 1-280.
Hyndman, G. C. 1843. Note of species obtained by deep dredging near Sana
Island, off the Mull of Cantire. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1842, 70-72.
Hyndman, G. C. 1860. Report of the Belfast Dredging Committee for 1859.
Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1859, 116-119.
Jeffreys, J. G. 1864. Report of the committee appointed for exploring the coasts
of Shetland by means of the dredge. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1863,70-81.
Jeffreys, J. G. 1866. Report on dredging among the Channel Isles. Rep. Br. Ass.
Advmt Sci., 1865, 1-3.
Jenyns, L. 1836. Report on the recent progress and present state of zoology.
Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1835, 143-251.
Kinahan, J. R. 1861. Report of the Committee appointed to dredge Dublin Bay.
Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1860,27-31.
Mennell, H. T. 1863. Report on the dredging of the Northumberland Coast and
Dogger Bank. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1862, 116-122.
Merriman, D. 1965. Edwards Forbes-Manxman. Prog. Oceanogr., 3, 191-206.
Merriman, D. 1972. Challengers of neptune-the Philosophers. Proc. R. Soc.
Edinb., B 72(2), 15-45.
Miles, C. P. 1857. Dredging report-Firth of Clyde 1856. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt
Sci., 1856,47-53.
Mills, E. L. 1978. Edward Forbes, John Gwyn Jeffreys, and British dredging be-
fore the Challenger expedition. J. Soc. Biblphy nat. Hist., 8,507-536.
Norman, A. M. 1869. Shetland final dredging report. Part II. On the Crustacea,
Tunicata, Polyzoa, Echinodermata, Actinozoa, Hydrozoa, and Porifera. Rep.
Br. Ass. Advmt Sci., 1868,217-336.
Orange, A. D. 1971. The British Association for the Advancement of Science:
the provincial background. Sci. Stud., 1,315-329.
Thomson, C. W. 1873. The Depths of the Sea. MacMillan and Co., London,
527 pp.
Wilson, G. and Geikie, A. 1861. Memoir of Edward Forbes, F.R.S. MacMillan
and Co., Cambridge and London, Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, x +
589 pp.
Development of Knowledge of the Correlation between
Land and Sea in Historical Times
I.A. Fedoseyev
1 Ideas of the Earth Held in the Period B.C.
The ancients' ideas of the Earth were largely determined by the conditions under
which they themselves lived. The Babylonians, whose accounts have come down
to us through five or six millenia, conceived the Earth as a mountain surrounded
by the sea.
According to the ancient Hebrews, who inhabited Palestine, the Earth was a
plain with underground sources feeding the rivers and seas, which occupied a
seventh of the Earth's surface. This view of the correlation between land and sea
(7: 1) is reflected in the Bible, which says: "On the third day thou didst com-
mand the waters to be gathered together in the seventh part of the Earth; six
parts thou didst dry up and keep so that some of them might be planted and cul-
tivated and be of service before thee" (II Esdras, 6,42).
The ancient Greeks, as is clear from Homer's poems, the Odyssey and the
Riad (8th century B.C.), saw the Earth as a flat or slightly concave disk, sur-
rounded on all sides by the river Oceanus. Such a notion of the form of the Earth
maintained by all ancient peoples naturally followed from the Earth's visible
horizon. It appeared natural that the Earth should be surrounded by water. Thales
of Miletos, the founder of the Miletic natural-philosophic school, thought that
the Earth floated on water, and he apparently conceived it to be a circle or disk.
As reported by Strabo (63 B.C.-about 20 A.D.), Anaximander (610-546 B.C.),
the disciple of Thales, who made the first map, conceived of the Earth as a cy-
linder with a 1:3 ratio between its height and the diameter of the base. In the
middle of this he envisaged land in the form of a large round island,oecumena
(Le., the inhabitable land), divided by the Mediterranean Sea in two parts-
Development of Knowledge of the Correlation between Land and Sea 387
Europe and Asia. He was also the first to conceive the bold hypothesis that the
Earth was at the center of the universe, having no supports.
Some of the ancient Greek scholars (for example, Posidonius) considered that
the ocean did not border the dry land, but rather it divided the land into four
parts by channels crossing through it; an opinion also shared later, for example,
by Crates of Melos (2nd century B.C.).
The idea that the Earth is spherical was most probably first mentioned in
writing by Parmenides, who lived at the beginning of the 5th century B.C. Yet
even later, Democritus (460-370 B.C.) spoke of the Earth as a slightly concave
disk. Only because another outstanding ancient Greek scholar, Plato (427-347
B.C.), recognized that the Earth was round did this view become more wide-
spread. Plato believed that the spherical Earth, being "in the mddle of the sky,"
homogeneous in all directions, does not need any force to prevent it from falling.
In his opinion, "the Earth is very great" and those living on the territory from
the river Thasis to the Pillars of Hercules occupy "but a small fraction of it"
(plato 1965).
Information about the distribution of water and dry land, however, remained
scarce. The ancient Greeks knew only the Mediterranean and Red seas well, but
they also had some knowledge of the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gi-
braltar) and of the Arabian Sea. Only in the 4th century B.C. was the Greek
Pytheas able to reach the shores of Britain by sea.
Eratosthenes (275-194 B.C.), the librarian of the famous library at Alexan-
dria, made the first calculations of the meridional circumference of the terrestrial
globe. His figure was 39,375 km (according to other sources it was 39,640 km),
Le., very close to the actual one (40,008 km). He believed that the oecumena
was an island surrounded by a single ocean. He compared its outline to a cloak
and thought that it occupied only one-third of the surface of the globe, the other
two-thirds of which was sea. The idea of the land being an island in the ocean
was reported much later by the well-known Greek geographer Strabo (63 B.C.-
about 20 A.D.), who wrote: "That the vast world is an island can be concluded
from our sensations and from experience. For wherever man can reach the limits
of the Earth, there is sea; and we call that sea the Ocean" (Strabo 1964).
2 Ideas of the Earth Held from the Beginning of A.D. to the

Discovery of America
How far the concepts of the Earth's surface in the 1st century A.D. were
from reality can be seen from the work "On the Position of the Earth" written
by the geographer, Pomponius Mela, in southern Spain in 43 A.D., though he
rightly believed that the land constituted the smaller part of the Earth's surface
and that the greater part was occupied by a single ocean. The opposite view,
that land predominated and the seas were closed, was maintained by the out-
standing geographer, Ptolemy (90-168 A.D.). This concept was reflected in his
map of the oecumena, on which the Indian Ocean was depicted as a closed basin.
388 I. A. Fedoseyev
According to calculations by the Polish geographer, I. Stashevsky (1966), the
areas of land and ocean in Ptolemy's oecumena were distributed as shown in
Table 1. Thus, land in Ptolemy'S oecumena occupied 64.4% and water covered
but 35.6% of the Earth's surface.
Nor was a more correct understanding of the Earth's geography furthered by
the map made by the Roman Macrobius in the first half of the 5th century A.D.
This, however, was on the eve of the mediaeval stagnation in the development of
scientific thought, when even the idea of the Earth being round was replaced by
the bizarre picture of the world offered by the Byzantine merchant and traveller
Cosmas Indicopleustes (Le., sailor to India), which received church recognition
and became widespread. In his "Christian Topography" written about 547 A.D.
Indicopleustes portrayed the Earth as a rectangle twice as long from east to west
as from north to south and washed on all sides by the ocean. It should be men-
tioned, however, that in the Middle Ages, too, there were people who conceived
the Earth realistically and believed it to be spherical. Such views were held, for
example, by V. Bede (675-735 A.D.), A. Shiracatzi (7th century), Dante Alighieri
(1265-1321 A.D.), and John Mandeville (1300-1372 A.D.). There were even
maps showing a knowledge of the world as it really is, for example, the map of
the Spanish monk, Beatus, dated 776.
Although Indicopleustes' ideas lasted for a long time, the numerous travels,
by land and sea, made in the early and later Middle Ages produced important
geographical material, and starting with the 15th century, several quite detailed
maps of the world were compiled. An idea of what geographers knew about the
distribution of land and ocean at the end of the 15th century is provided by
Martin Behaim's globe, dated 1492. It lacked America as yet, and Behaim, who
together with the great naturalists of the 14th century who shared Ptolemy's
view of the prevalence of land over sea, believed that the Asian mainland could
not be far from the western shores of Europe.
Equally mistaken about the proximity of the Asian mainland was Christopher
Columbus (1451-1506 A.D.) when, in 1492, he started on his voyage to reach
India, sailing from east to west, and in the same year discovered Cuba and Haiti,
and in 1498, during his third voyage, reached the shores of South America. He
Table 1. Distribution of land and ocean in Ptolemy's oecumena

Continents Area, Percentage of Percentage of
and oceans sq. km 6 the area of land the area of the
World Ocean
Europe 7.5 7.5
Africa 39.6 39.4
Asia 53.4 53.1
Land 100.5 100
Indian Ocean 41.5 74.6
Mediterranean Sea 5.4 9.8
Atlantic Ocean 8.7 15.6
Ocean 55.6 100
wrote after his third voyage: "As for the Earth's being waterless, experience has
shown that it is much greater in extent than is imagined by unenlightened
people." After the fourth voyage, referring to his experience and the Holy Scrip-
ture, he asserted: "The world is small. Of its seven parts six are occupied by
land and only the seventh is covered with water" (Columbus 1956).
The extension of factual knowledge about the Earth thanks to the discovery
of the new continent was wrongly interpreted under the influence of the church
authorities as indicating the insignificance of the stretches of water compared
with land area.
3 Subsequent Geographical Expeditions and Clarification of the

Ratio Between Land and Ocean
The opinion that land predominated over ocean, however, was soon convincingly
refuted by three successive voyages: those by the Portuguese Vasco de Gama,
the Spaniard Vasco Balboa, who discovered the Pacific Ocean for European
geographers, and the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan, who made the first voyage
round the world. The Magellan expedition fmally proved that the Earth was
spherical and that oceans and seas predominated over land. As the result of these
expeditions made between 1492 and 1522, the map of the hitherto known world
was extended by almost a whole hemisphere.
In Abraham Dertel's atlas Theatrum orbis te"arum, dated 1570, gross inaccu-
racies occur only in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and in extreme
northern and southern latitudes.
A result of the enterprise and courage of Russian explorers was the establish-
ment, in the 17th century, of the European and Asian bounds of the Arctic Ocean
and the eastern bounds of Asia. Equally well known is the great contribution
made to the exploration of the Arctic region by the expeditions led by courage-
ous West-European travellers (John Davis, Willem Barents, Henry Hudson and
others) between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. Of
great importance for oceanography was the Russian Great Northern Expedition
in the first half of the 18th century, especially the voyages by Vitus Bering and
A. Chirikov in the Bering Sea in 1728-1729 and in the northern part of the
Pacific Ocean in 1741-1742. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook discovered
the east coast of Australia, which had remained unknown for a whole century
after the west coast had been mapped. The most important result of his new ex-
pedition, which lasted from 1772 to 1775, was proof that no southern continent
of enormous size existed, as had been believed earlier'.
The Russian expedition under F. Bellingshausen and N. Lazarev in the ships
Vostok and Mirny from 1819 to 1821 established the border of the fixed conti-
nental ice of the Antarctic.
Russian oceanographers have always shown an interest in exploration of the
World Ocean. Besides the expeditions mentioned above, an important contri-
bution to the development of oceanography was also made by the widely known
390 I. A. Fedoseyev
Russian circumnavigations of the world from 1803 to 1806 by A. I. Krusenstern

and Ju Lisyanoky, from 1806 to 1813 and 1817 to 1819 by V. Golovni, from
1813 to 1816 and 1822 to 1825 by M. P. Lazarev, from 1815 to 1818 and 1823
to 1826 by O. Kotzebu, and from 1826 to 1829 by F. Litke. Altogether, in
1803-1850 Russian travellers made 38 voyages round the world. The history of
oceanography has recorded the names of a number of Russian explorers who
conducted important work in various parts of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans
during the 19th century.
The first all-round exploration of the World Ocean according to a prearranged
scientific program was, however, made by a British expedition on board the
Challenger from 1872 to 1876.
It was also believed, probably for the sake of symmetry, that there was a con-
tinent at the North Pole. This mistaken opinion was eventually refuted, but not
until 1893, when the ship of the Norwegian explorer, FridtjofNansen, drifted in
the ice across the Polar Sea.
Between 1903 and 1906, it was Roald Amundsen who was the first to follow
the northwestern sea route, and in 1909 Robert E. Peary (1856-1920) reached
the North Pole. The expedition under B. Vilkitsky, which in 1913 discovered
Severnaya Zemlya, in 1914-1915 was the first to follow the northeastern sea
route from east to west.
Fairly correct outlines and sizes of the oceans and continents, with the excep-
tion of the Antarctic Continent, had been established by the end of the 19th
century. The Austrian geomorphologist, A. Penck (1858-1945), wrote in 1895
that "the distribution of water and land in the Antarctic region is not yet known"
(penck 1894). From 1946 to 1957 the bounds of Antarctica, too, were traced
by an American expedition under Richard E. Byrd. The South Pole was reached
in 1911 by Amundsen and in 1912 by Robert F. Scott.
The maps of the world that followed Oertel's atlas were for a long time not
accurate enough to establish the real correlation between land and sea. Let us see
what this correlation was assumed to be, beginning with Bernhard Varenius. To
calculate the quantities of water in the ocean, he assumed in his "General
Geography" (1650) that the ocean occupied half the surface of the terrestrial
globe. The same point of departure was taken by C. Claramons (the 1660s), J.
Riccioli (1661), J. Buffon (1745), I. Kant (1754), and V. Kraft (1764) for cal-
culating the quantities of oceanic water and fluvial flow. At the end of the 18th
century, T. Bergmann wrote that, although three-quarters of the surface of the
Earth was not known precisely, it could not be said "to be entirely covered with
water" and, when calculating the volume of water evaporated by the ocean, he
assumed a 1:1 ratio between land and sea (Bergmann 1791). It should be remem-
bered, of course, that the maps of that time showed the mythical southern and
northern continents. The ratio between the areas of land and ocean was subse-
quently calculated by a number of scientists. The English scientist J. Herschel
obtained a result of 1:2.86, his compatriot S. Rigaud (1837)-1 :2.76, the German
geographer H. Berghaus-l :3. A. Humboldt wrote in 1844: "In the present state
of our planet, the land surface is to the surface of the liquid element as 1 to
24/5 (Humboldt 1866). The "Physical Geography" by M. Khotinsky says that
land occupies a quarter of the entire surface of the globe, while three-quarters are
oceans and seas (1852). The German oceanographer K. Karstens (1890) assumed
that the ratio of land to water area was 1:2.6. Without mentioning further cor-
rections in the ratio between land and ocean, we note that, at the present time,
it is estimated as 1:2.43. This ratio is the result of a careful calculation made in
1821 by the German scientist K. Kossinna (1933).
V. Vernadsky, who attached much importance to a precise definition of this
ratio, wrote: "It is interesting that 2.4-2.5 is close to the ratio between the
specific weights of the ocean (around 1.04, taking into account the change in
specific weight depending on the depth, owing to pressure) and the upper part of
the continents-up to an average depth of the ocean of 3.8 kilometers" (Vernad-
sky 1954). The same was pointed out by A. A. Tillo (1889).
The distribution of land and sea on Earth is characteristically asymmetrical
with land concentrated in the northeastern hemisphere and ocean in the south-
western. This important feature of the face of the Earth was first noticed by the
French hydrographer C. de Fleurieu in 1789. In the northern hemisphere, the
land occupies 60.5% and the oceans 39.5% of the surface, while in the southern,
the figures are 18.8% and 81.2%, respectively. The map of the terrestrial globe can
be represented as an oceanic hemisphere with a pole south of New Zealand and a
continental hemisphere with the pole on the island of Dumet, not far from the
mouth of the Loire. If such poles are chosen the oceanic hemisphere will have
89.5% ocean and 10.5%land, and the continental, 53.3% and 46.5%, respectively.
It might be mentioned that the most recent detailed description of the
Earth's surface was made at Leningrad University. According to the new data,
land and ocean occupy 60.7 and 39.3% in the northern hemisphere and 81.0%
and 19.0% respectively in the southern and, in absolute figures, in the northern
hemisphere the ocean occupies 154,726 million km 2 and land 100,334 million
km 2 in the southern 48,484 and 206,576 million km 2 respectively; as a whole,
the ocean's area is 361,302 million km 2 and the land's 148,818 million km 2 •
One indicator of how well the outlines of the continents and oceans have been
explored is the length of the coastline, which, in 1972, was considered to be ap-
proximately 370,000 km. According to the latest measurements made by mem-
bers of Moscow State University staff on the basis of the International Map of
the World (1:2,500,000), the total length of the coastline of the World Ocean
has more than doubled-it was found to be 777,000 km (Lukianov and Kholo-
dilin 1975).
References
Bergmann, T. 1791. Bergmannovo estestvennoye zemleopisaniye, chast I. Tipo-

grafiya Vilkovskogo, Sankt-Peterburg (Bergmann's natural geography, Part I.
Vilkovsky Press, St. Petersburg, 267 pp.) (Russian edition).
Columbus, C. 1956. Puteshestviya Khristofora Kolumba. Geografgiz, Moskva
(Travels of Christopher Columbus. Geographical Literature Publishers,
Moscow, 526 pp.) (Russian edition).
392 I. A. Fedoseyev
Humboldt, A. 1866. Kosmos, ch. I. Tipografiya bratyev Salayevykh. Moskva

(Humboldt A. Cosmos, part I. Salayev Brothers' Press Moscow, 508 pp.)
(Russian edition).
Karstens, K. 1894. Eine neue Berechnung der mittleren Tiefe der Ozeane nebst
einer vergleichen den Kritik der verscheidenen Berechnungsmethoden. Kiel
und Leipzig. 32 S. + 37 Tabl.
Khotinsky, M. S. 1852. Fizicheskoye zemlevedeniye, ili fizika zemnogo shara, t.
I. Sankt-Peterburg (Khotinsky M. S. Physics studies of the earth, or physics
of the terrestrial globe, vol. I, St. Petersburg, III + 566 pp.) (Russian edition).
Kossinna, E. 1933. Die Erdoberflache. Handbuch der Geophysik, Bd. 2 Berlin,
S.870-954.
Lukianov, S. A. and Kholodilin, N. A. 1975. Protyazhennost beregovoi linii
Mirovogo okeana i razlichnykh tipov beregov i poberezhii. Vestnik Moskov-
skogo universiteta. Geografiya, No. I (The length of the coastline of the
World Ocean and of the various types of shores and coastlines. Bulletin of
Moscow University. Geography, No. 1) (Russian edition).
Nace, R. L. 1972. Sovremennoye sostoyaniye i perspektivy globalnoi gidrologii.
V sb.: Voprosy mirovogo vodnogo balansa. Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad
(Nace, R. L. The present state of and prospects of global hydrology. In the
book: Questions of the world water balance. Hydrometeorological Literature
Publishers, Leningrad, pp. 14-23) (Russian edition).
Penck, A. 1894. Morphologie der Erdoberfliiche, Bd. I. Verlag von J. Engelhorn,
Stuttgart, X + 472 S.
Plato, 1965. Izbrannye dialogi. Izdatelstvo "Khudozestvennaya literatura."
Moskva (Plato, Selected dialogues. Belles-Lettres Publishers. Moscow, 444
pp.) (Russian edition).
Rigaud, S. 1837. On the relative quantities of land and water on the surface of
the terraqueous globe.-Cambridge Soc. Trans., vol. VI, p. 2.
Staszewski (Stashevsky), J. 1966. Historia nauki 0 Ziemi w zarisie. Panstwowe
widawnistwo naukowe, Warszawa, 408 S.
Strabo. 1964. Geografiya v 17 knigakh. Izdatelstvo Nauka, Leningrad (Strabo.
Geography in 17 books, Nauka Publishers, Leningrad, 943 pp.) (Russian
edition).
Tillo, A. A. 1889. Srednyaya vysota sushi i srednyaya glubina morya v severn om
i yuzhnom polushariyakh.-Izvestiya Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva,
tom XXV, vyp. 2 (The average altitude of the land and the average depth of
the sea in the Northern and the Southern hemispheres.-Bulletin of the Rus-
sian Geographic Society, vol. XXV, no. 2, pp. 113-134) (Russian edition).
Vareni, B. 1790. Vseobshchaya geofrafiya. Akademiya nauk, Sankt-Peterburg
(Varenius, B. General geography). Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, X +
256 pp.) (Russian edition).
Vernadsky, V. I. 1954. Izbrannye sochineniya, t. IV, kniga 2. Izdatelstvo Akade-
mii nauk SSSR, Moskva (Vernadsky, V. I. Selected works, vol. IV, Book 2.
USSR Academy of Sciences Publishers, Moscow, 652 pp.) (Russian edition).
A Commemoration on the 50th Anniversary of the William
Beebe-Otis Barton Bathysphere Dives
Kenneth Gold and Jacqueline C. Warsaw
1 Introduction
Fifty years ago this summer, Otis Barton, the designer of the Bathysphere, and
William Beebe, a naturalist and, at that time, Director of Tropical Research, New
York Zoological Society, captured the interests and imagination of the public
with their diving exploits off Bermuda's Nonesuch Island. The drama that un-
folded on each of their expeditions was reported in detail by Beebe (1930, 1932,
1934); the flavor of this period in deep-water diving history was captured on ftlm
as well (Barton, unpublished), in footage that is now on me in the archives of
the New York Zoological Society. Scenes were selected by the authors and
juxtaposed with new mm footage taken of a modern research submersible diving
in waters off Grand Bahama Island. The contrast between the Mermaid II se-
quence (International Underwater Contractors, Inc.) and the 1930s dive is strik-
ing. At the start of the ftlm a relatively primitive device is shown that barely ac-
commodates two people and has minimal survival and safety features aboard
(Fig. 1); at mid-point in the ftlm, the time shifts to the present and we focus in
on a sophisticated diving system, mother ship and submersible, with the latest
communications and safety equipment plus an impressive array of navigational
aids (Fig. 2).
394 K. Gold and J. C. Warsaw
Figure 1. The original Bathysphere, on display at the New York Aquarium.
Figure 2. A modem diving system, mother ship Aloha and Mermaid II (IUC).
2 The Bathysphere
The Bathysphere had been in the design stage for several years when Barton, an
avid admirer of Beebe, first brought his blueprints to the naturalist's office on a
winter morning in 1928. Greatly encouraged by Beebe's reactions and his willing-
ness to test the device, Barton enthusiastically arranged for the casting and for
the special equipment that would be needed, i.e., fused quartz windows, cables
and wire for communications, and 3,500 feet of 7/8 inch steel cable, capable of
holding 10 times the weight of the Bathysphere (Barton 1954).
A Commemoration on the 50th Anniversary of the Bathysphere Dives 395
Beebe's contributions toward the success of the venture were, in his words,
"belief and faith and the keenest interest in the scientific results of the adven-
ture" (Beebe 1930), but also tangibles such as Arcturus, a heavy duty winch to
handle the special cable, the tug Gladis/en for towing the barge Ready to the
launch site, and a crew and scientific staff totaling 26, the number deemed
necessary for the safe launch and recovery of the Bathysphere. Beebe was a keen
observer of nature, a prolific and colorful writer, and an equally colorful person-
ality from one account (Welker 1975). These personal attributes undoubtedly
contributed considerably to the pUblicity that was directed at the divers' early
achievements.
On the morning of June 6, 1930, first Beebe and then Barton crawled over
the ledge of the IS-inch entry port and prepared for the first deep dive of the
season. The men were sealed in with the 400-pound door secured by 10 bolts
hammered tightly; after adjusting oxygen and checking communications, the
dive commenced. History was made on that day as the Bathysphere and the two
observers descended to 800 feet and were returned safely to the deck of the
Ready, a one hour round trip that was punctuated by the whistles of the boilers
and the siren of the Gladis/en to usher in a new era of deep-sea diving.
Subsequent dives offered an uncontested opportunity to achieve new depth
records. Indeed, the first occurred on June 11, 1930 as the two men reached
1,426 feet; a depth of 2,200 feet was reached on a dive in 1932, and 3,028
feet in 1934. Beebe and Barton attempted contour diving, i.e.,horizontal move-
ment following the contours of the ocean bottom in relatively shallow zones,
but the results appear not to have been especially noteworthy. The early Bathy-
sphere dives stand out historically, therefore, (a) for the depth records set for
manned dives; (b) for the identification of fauna at various depths; and (c) for
the ways in which personal and technological challenges were met and resolved
on entering a new frontier of science.
3 Mermaid II
The opportunity to experience a deep dive and ftIm a modem research submersi-
ble operation as part of this commemoration came as an invitation from Andre
Galeme, President, International Underwater Contractors, Inc. Expecting to dive
near Bermuda, the original Bathysphere dive site, adverse weather conditions last
winter necessitated the shift to Grand Bahama Island.
We boarded the specially renovated support ship Aloha in West End with cine-
matographer Tom Houghton and spent the next several days ftlming all aspects
of the launch and recovery of Mermaid II. The single dive that was made to 400
feet was a marine biologist's dream, and it is easy now to identify with the feel-
ing of excitement that Beebe and Barton obviously experienced fifty years ago.
The technological advances were welcome, for this dive was made in comfort
and security, with the knowledge that the vessel was equipped with sophisticated
life support and recovery systems. The picture window viewing port about three
396 K. Gold and I. C. Warsaw
feet in diameter, and the mechanical arms to recover specimens from the ocean
floor were just two of the reminders of just how far along the submersible has
come in the past 50 years.
The historical importance of Beebe and Barton's accomplishments seemed all
the greater having shared a diving experience. Their achievements in the Bathy-
sphere were placed in historical perspective recently by Bline (1977): "It was
the first means of man's direct viewing of the ocean beyond diver depths and is
regarded by many as the genesis of today's deep-diving non-combatant vehicles."
Recently, the Alvin, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 3-person sub-
mersible, dove to a depth of I ~ miles to a site of formation of a new ocean floor.
The objective of that dive was to observe and recover specimens from the sur-
prising oases of animals communities living at great depths in the Galapagos
Rift (Ballard and Grassle 1979). The exciting discoveries that were made as a
result of the dives in the Alvin will doubtless challenge biologists' imaginations
for years to come. Submersibles certainly have come a long way since the Beebe-
Barton Bathysphere dives of the 1930s!
Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Andre Galerne, President, International Underwater

Contractor, for making this diving experience possible; to the crews of the
Aloha and Mermaid II; to Tom Houghton, cinematographer, for his excellent
filming; to Robert Haber for film editing; to Otis Barton for valuable discussions;
to George Utting, Assistant Archivist, New York Zoological Society, and to the
Griffis Foundation, Inc. for financial support.
References
Ballard, R. D. and Grassle, I. F. 1979. Return to oases of the deep: incredible

world of the deep-sea rifts. National Geographic. 156,680-705.
Barton, o. 1953. The world beneath the sea. I. Y. Crowell Co., New York, 246 pp.
Beebe, W. 1930. A quarter mile down in the open sea. Bull. N.Y. Zoological Soc.,
33,201-232.
Beebe, W. 1932. A half-mile down in the Bathysphere. Bull. N.Y. Zoological
Soc., 35,143-172.
Beebe, W. 1934. Half mile down. Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, 344 pp.
Bline, D. 1977. The unique roles and history of manned and unmanned sub-
mersibles in oceanography. In: Submersibles and their use in oceanography.
R. A. Geyer (ed.), Elsevier Oceanography Series, 17, 61-76.
Welker, R. H. 1975. Natural man: the life of William Beebe. Indiana University
Press, Bloomington, 224 pp.
Marine Industrial Pollution
Bostwick H. Ketchum
1 Introduction
Industrial pollution is undoubtedly as old as civilization, but factual information

concerning it is very recent history. It is not surprising that industry does not
spend a great deal of time and effort in measuring and defIning its pollution prob-
lems. These problems have always been considered an externality of the manu-
facturing process; a cost which is not assessed against the product but is trans-
ferred to be borne by the general population as a whole. It is only during the last
few decades that popular concern has reached the level which has caused govern-
ments to intervene and to require an assessment of the problem.
However, industrial pollution must have started when man fIrst mined and
smelted copper and tin and entered the bronze age some quarter of a million
years ago. Throughout ancient and medieval times, man's demands for goods
were satisfIed by artisans working individually or in small shops. In the middle of
the eighteenth century, the substitution of mechanical power for human strength
and endurance began when James Watt, in 1769, patented his improvements on
existing steam engines and made them practical (Collier's Encyclopedia 1957,
v. 19, p. 394). The industrial revolution did not occur suddenly, but took place
fIrst in Britain in the textile trade and gradually spread to other activities and
other countries. Between 1720 and 1795, exports from Britain increased four-
fold and in the nineteenth century, the national income of Great Britain increased
tenfold (Collier's Encyclopedia 1957, V. 10, pp. 575-577). Records of pollution
from these concentrated industries are nonexistent; clearly man was interested in
the development of wealth, albeit for the favored few, and completely uncon-
cerned about the possible impact of his activities upon the environment.
398 B. H. Ketchum
Arguments rage as to whether it is the increasing size of the human population
on earth or increasing industrialization which is the prime cause of the pollution
of our environment. These are clearly interrelated since more people demand
more products, use more resources and more pollution is produced in meeting
these demands. People alone create domestic pollution problems, and these are
more acute as the population is concentrated in urban areas. A large, sparsely
populated area has fewer pollution problems than are created by the same popu-
lation concentrated in a small area. For example, if the total world population
were uniformly distributed on the land areas of the earth, there would be ap-
proximately 25 people per square kilometer. This contrasts to the density of
population in New York City of nearly 10,000 people per square kilometer.
The spectacular growth of the human population has, itself, a recent history.
After millenia on earth, the human population reached one billion people in
1830; in another century, the population had reached 2 billion people and in
the next 30 years, in 1960, the population was 3 billion people (Fig. 1).
Industrial pollution is also density dependent. Thus, Goldberg and Bertine
(1971) have suggested that the ratio of the gross national product to the area
of a country may be used as a measure of national pollution (Table 1, Fig. 2).
Omitted from this figure are the extremes in Goldberg and Bertine's (1971)
data which ranged from $2,500,000fkm 2 for Hong Kong to a minimum of
$31Ofkm 2 for the central African Republic; a range of ten thousandfold. As
Goldberg and Bertine point out, this ratio as a measure of pollution could be
refined since countries with large, sparsely inhabited areas, such as the United
States and the Soviet Union, show comparatively low values for the ratio in
spite of comparatively large values for the gross national product (GNP). For
example, the United States, which has the largest gross national product of
all countries in Goldberg and Bertine's list, has a population density of
,
6r-----------------------~
I
I
5 , I
, I
,
I
Figure 1. World and U.S.

o~~--~--~~~~--~--~~
populations, 1650-2000
1650 1150 1850 1950 (after CEQ 1972).
Marine Industrial Pollution 399
Table 1. Gross National Product (GNP): Area Ratio as an index of National
Industrial Pollution (data from Goldberg and Bertine 1971)
Country or GNP Population Area GNP/Area
Region $10 9 yr- I Millions 10 3 km 2 $10 3 km- 2
City States (a) 3.9 6.3 1.6 2440
Japan 200 104 370 540
Great Britain (b) 96 56 243 390
N. Europe (c) 298 146 948 320
U.S.A. 930 209 9190 100
E. Europe (d) 118 98 1351 87
N. America (e) 1029 313 21130 49
U.S.S.R. 240 246 22400 II
China 70 761 11100 6.3
S. America (f) 61.4 181 15568 3.9
Africa (g) 38.61 200 11575 3.3
(a) Hong Kong and Singapore, (b) England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, (c) Belgium,
Denmark, France, German Federal Republic, The Netherlands and Switzerland, (d) Austria,
Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Yugo-
slavia, (e) Canada, Mexico, U.S.A., (0 Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru, Uruguay and
Venezuela, and (g) Algeria, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Ghana, Guinea,
Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda
and Zambia
GNP $ /(m- Z (loq sco/e)

105
Great Britain
Figure 2. The ratio of the Gross National Product to the land area of several
countries and regions of the world (data from Goldberg and Bertine 1971).
400 B. H. Ketchum
23/km 2 in comparison with Japan which supports 280/km 2 • While the United
States ranks first in Goldberg and Bertine's list in terrns of the gross national
product, it ranks twenty-first in terrns of the GNP/km 2 and fifty-eighth in
terms of population density.
2 Pollutants of Concern
The pollutants of major concern in the marine environment are those substances
which are toxic either to marine organisms or to man through his ingestion of
sea food; substances which are produced in large quantities and persist for ex-
tended periods of time; substances which are accumulated by the natural biologi-
cal processes in the sea so that the concentration within the organism may reach
levels greatly in excess of the concentration in the environment; or substances
which have deleterious effects on the aesthetic aspects of the marine environ-
ment or otherwise interfere with various legitimate uses of the sea.
The toxic effects may be immediate and acute, and such effects can be evalu-
ated in short-terrn laboratory bioassay experiments. Such tests are useful in
determining a dangerous concentration, but are not necessarily valid in deterrnin-
ing a "safe" concentration in the environment. There are many sublethal, chronic
effects which we are only now beginning to understand adequately. In terrns of
the survival of a population, the sublethal effects may be as important as the
more acute mortalities produced by pollution. These sublethal effects may in-
clude decreases in fecundity or interference with some critical life stage in the
development of the organism, interference with the feeding or breeding behavior
of the organism, interference with normal migration routes of the population or
interference with some fundamental process which does not directly result in
death of the organism but interferes with the vitality and survival of the species.
The ecosystem is complex so that each organism depends upon the health and
well-being of other organisms in the community. Hence, impacts upon one
species in the system may cascade into unexpected side effects on many other
species. Thus, even though the immediate impact of a pollutant may not be ob-
vious or serious, the gradual insidious accumulation of effects may ultimately
reach serious proportions.
Control of human sewage pollution is necessary to prevent the spread of
water-borne diseases and the eutrophication of water masses. Because of rapid
decomposition, however, this type of pollution does not lead to accumulative
effects; if the source of pollution is removed, the recovery of the ecosystem can
be rapid.
Of greater concern are those persistent toxic chemicals which are not re-
cycled by natural processes in the ecosystem. The most important of these in
industrial pollution include the toxic heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons,
exotic chemicals not produced by natural processes such as the chlorinated
hydrocarbons and the radioisotopes (Templeton, this volume).
Toxic Heavy Metals
Toxic heavy metals have always been added to the environment by the natural
weathering processes of the land. The materials dissolved from rocks and soils
on land are carried by water into the streams and ultimately reach the sea via
the estuaries.
In the United States, the Clean Water Act of 1977 listed 65 elements or
compounds which were of principal concern as toxic pollutants (CEQ 1978,
pp. 101-102), including 13 toxic elements and their compounds and 52 organic
compounds which are produced in substantial amounts by industry in the
United States.
A Relative Critical Index for toxic elements WaS proposed by Ketchum et al.
(1975). This waS derived by comparing the rates of addition to the oceans (Ber-
tine and Goldberg 1971) with the concentration considered to pose minimal
risk of deleterious environmental effects (NAS 1973). The index (Table 2) is
equal to the volume of sea water which would be contaminated annually to the
indicated level of toxicity by the specified rates of addition, both by natural pro-
cesses and by man's activities. For each of these elements, additions by natural
processes still exceed those resulting from man's activities. However, man's activi-
ties add enough of the elements to the sea to reach the "safe" concentration in
hundreds of thousands of cubic kilometers of sea water.
Table 2. Toxic elements of importance in marine pollution based on potential

supply and toxicity, listed in order of decreasing toxicity (Ketchum et al. 1975)
Relative Critical
Rate of mobilization (10 9 glyr)* Toxicity+ Index (km 3 /yr)
Element A (man) B (natural) D
fossil river C (j.Lg/liter)
fuels flow total AID C/D
Mercury 1.6 2.5 4.1 0.1 16,000 41,000
Cadmium 0.35 t ? 3.0 t 0.2 1,750 15,000
Silver 0.07 11 11.1 1 70 11,100
Nickel 3.7 160 164 2 1,350 82,000
Selenium 0.45 7.2 7.7 5 90 1,540
Lead 3.6 110 113.6 10 360 11,360
Copper 2.1 250 252.1 10 210 25,210
Chromium 1.5 200 201.5 10 150 20,150
Arsenic 0.7 72 72.7 10 70 7,270
Zinc 7 720 727 20 330 36,350
Manganese 7.0 250 257 20 350 12,850
*After Bertine and Goldberg (1971), except for fossil fuel production of cadmium.
tValues from CEQ (1972); the total includes other sources which are not necessarily in-
cluded for the other elements.
+Water quality criteria: concentration considered to pose minimal risk of deleterious effect
(NAS 1973).
402 B. H. Ketchum
Another way to evaluate the relative importance of these elements as pol-
lutants is to compare the estimated "safe" concentration (NAS 1973) with the
concentration of the same element naturally present in sea water (Table 3). For
mercury and nickel, sea water already contains as much of the element as can be
considered a safe concentration; consequently, further additions should be
avoided. An increase of fourfold or less of cadmium, copper, arsenic, zinc and
possibly silver would reach or exceed the concentration assumed to be safe on
the basis of the toxicity of these elements. Larger increments of the other ele-
ments would be needed to reach or exceed this toxic concentration.
This analysis depends entirely upon the toxicity to marine organisms and
does not take into account the possible transfer of the element to man by the
consumption of sea food. Lead, for example, appears to constitute a lesser threat
of damage to the marine environment than might be expected based upon its
known toxicity in terrestrial environments and to man. While these effects of
lead have been extensively studied, there is no evidence that its presence in sea
water has been deleteriou~ to any marine organism. It must appear in any such
list and be given serious consideration, however, because of its serious effects on
humans and the danger of their ingestion of excess amounts of lead through the
consumption of sea food.
Petroleum Hydrocarbons
Petroleum hydrocarbons have also been added to the environment throughout

millenia by natural seeps. Man's activities have enormously accelerated the rate
of environmental pollution by oil and have concentrated the impact in compara-
Table 3. Toxic heavy metals of importance in marine pollution based on their

sea water concentration and toxicity (Ketchum et al. 1975)
Seawater Concentration Toxicity
Element (J.Lg/liter) (J.Lg/liter) Ratios
A B C A/C B/C
Mercury 0.2* 0.05* 0.1 2 0.5
Cadmium O.l 0.05 0.2 0.5 0.25
Silver 0.3* O.l 1 0.3 0.1
Nickel 7* 2 2 3.5 1
Selenium 0.09* 0.45 5 0.018 0.09
Lead 0.03* 0.03* 10 0.003 0.003
Copper 3* 3* 10 0.3 0.3
Chromium 0.5 0.6* 10 0.05 0.06
Arsenic 2.6 2.3 10 0.26 0.23
Zinc 10* 5 20 0.5 0.25
Manganese 2* 2* 20 0.1 0.1
A -Goldberg et al. (1971), B - Riley and Chester (1971), C - As in Table 2.

*Variations occur; some not related to salinity, depth or ocean basin.
tively small areas, especially as a result of oil well blowouts or accidental losses
of large tankers. Although these accidents attract a great deal of public attention,
they account for only about 5% of the total oil pollution of the oceans (NAS
1975).
While pollution of the oceans come from many sources (Table 4), the largest
amount comes from land-based activities which, including river runoff and at-
mospheric input, accounts for more than 50% of the total. Transportation, in-
cluding accidental spills, accounts for another 35% of the total with the balance
being contributed by natural seeps and offshore oil drilling and production.
The international conventions for the control of oil pollution of the oceans
are primarily concerned with the pollution which results from transportation.
The world-wide distribution of marine pollution (Fig. 3) reflects the world-
wide distribution of oil transport, so that it is not surprising that oil pollution
of the oceans is global in extent. It has been estimated that about 0.4% of the
world tanker fleet is lost annually (Stewart 1977), and that 0.01% of the total
oil transported is lost annually. The record for a five-year period (1972-1976)
for accidental oil spillage in the United States' coastal waters (Fig. 4) shows that
roughly 80% of the total volume of oil spilled resulted from the 20-30 largest
spills each year compared to the thousands of smaller spills which contribute
the remaining 20% of oil pollution annually.
Limitation ofthe deliberate release of oil into the oceans will gradually take
effect under the International Convention for the Prevention of the Pollution of
the Sea by Oil and Other Hazardous Substances (discussed below). It is question-
able whether these controls will do much more than maintain the status quo. In-
creased transport of oil as a reflection of world demand will make it increasingly
difficult to improve the situation. Sea transport of oil has increased (Fig. 5) and
Table 4. Petroleum hydrocarbons introduced into the oceans. (Data from NAS
1975)
Source Input %
mta*
Natural seeps 0-6 9-8
Offshore production 0-08 1-3
Transporta tion
Tanker operations 1-33 21-8
Other ship operations 0-5 8-2
Accidental spills 0-3 4-9
Coastal refineries 0-2 3-3
Municipal and industrial wastes 0-6 9-8
Urban runoff 0-3 4-9
River runoff 1-6 26-2
Atmospheric input 0-6 9-8
TOTAL 6-11 100
*Millions of tons per annum

~
o
~
Marine
pollution
around
the world !=C
1\ ) Somo .Ignillcant DC."n !J:
~ s.ur'face CIJrrents
~
(1)
....
(")
Figure 3. Marine pollution around the world (FAO 1972). [

3
D Spills"" 100,000 gallons

_ Spills> 100,000 gallons
• ~ Incidents
3D
l
28
26
24
22
A~' ."C",of
20 •
<0
II) 18
....
N
ci
<=
..,•
0
n; 16
Ol
<=
14
•
.....
0>
U')
~
~ 0> ..-
.-
:E ci
12
10
8 • •
co
N ..,•
0 •
..,
N
6
4
2
0
1972 1973 1974 1975 1976
Figure 4. Oil spillage within 200 miles of the coasts of U.S.A. from 1972 to
1976 (CEQ 1977).
4,000.----------------.
3,000 Estimoted
Figure 5. Annual growth of

oil transport, 1960-1980
o~~~-~~-~~~-~~~
(after CEQ 1973). 1960 1964 1968 1974 1916 1980
406 B. H. Ketchum
a substantial decrease in intentional and accidental spillage will be necessary in
order to keep ahead of this increased oil transport of about sixfold over these
two decades.
Synthetic Organic Chemicals
It has been estimated that about 20,000 new organic chemicals are synthesized
every year and that about half of these may reach the development stage for
commercial production. About 1,000 new synthetic chemicals reach the market
annually and no adequate mechanism exists to screen these chemicals to deter-
mine whether or not their impact on the environment will be detrimental when
they are released (Waldichuk 1977). Foods, food additives and drugs are evalu-
ated for their effect upon humans after ingestion, but even these are not evalu-
ated in terms of their impact on the environment.
Many of these organic chemicals are not produced naturally and consequently
are foreign to the sea. Living organisms have not evolved mechanisms to decom-
pose or utilize these substances and they can persist for extended periods of time.
Also, since they are not naturally produced, any of these exotic chemicals found
in the environment or in living organisms can be attributed to man's activities.
Chlorinated hydrocarbons (Jerne16v, this volume) are a perfect example of
this type of pollutant. The chlorinated pesticides have come into widespread use
in recent decades and the production since 1950 has increased rapidly (Fig. 6).
Several chlorinated hydrocarbons used as pesticides, including DDT, aldrin, diel-
drin, endrin, heptaclor, and lindane are among the most widely used of these.
The hazards of the widespread use of DDT in agriculture was first widely publi-
cized by Rachel Carson (1962) and extensive studies since that time have con-
firmed her worst fears. Fortunately, the virtual elimination of aerial spraying of
DDT in 1972 has retarded, and even reversed in some places, the prevalence of
this material in the environment.
The characteristics which made DDT so effective as an insecticide for agricul-
tural use included its high toxicity and its persistence in the environment so that
the effect was prolonged. The same two characteristics make it a particularly
hazardous pollutant. All types of chlorinated hydrocarbons are accumulated in
the fatty tissues of organisms where they can reach concentrations thousands of
times greater than can be found in the surrounding water.
In addition to pesticides, other halogenated hydrocarbons for industrial use
have reached the environment in alarming amounts. PCBs were found to be more
prevalent in marine organisms than was DDT (Harvey 1974).
Other Critical Pollutants
While the heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated hydrocarbons

are critical pollutants of global concern, they are by no means the only ones
which need to be considered. The thousand or so new organic chemicals produced
in millions
of pounds
1.200
I,OO(J-I-
800
INSECTICIDES
TOTAL~
600
400
HERBICIDES
200
FUNGICIDES
0 __
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970
Figure 6. U.S. production of synthetic organic insecticides, herbicides, and

fungicides (CEQ 1972).
each year may contain among them a pollutant which may be our greatest con-
cern sometime in the future .
In addition to these new and unusual chemicals which are constantly being
introduced, several inorganic compounds may also be deleterious to the environ-
ment. Special precautions must be taken , for example, in disposing of caustic or
acid materials; tailing from mine operations have long been of concern and as-
bestos has also been shown to have widespread deleterious effects. Most of these,
however , are not critical in the marine environment. Litter and other floatable
materials can be of serious importance if the winds and currents carry them to
beaches where they can make swimming and other activities objectionable if not
actually hazardous. Most of the natural products of the past were decomposed
or dissolved by prolonged exposure to the sea, but the plastics which now con-
stitute a large share of marine litter can persist for long periods of time. Mainte-
nance of navigational channels and harbors has long required dredging and the
408 B. H. Ketchum
dredged materials are commonly disposed of in the ocean. Today, the sediments
in most harbors are heavily polluted and when this material is dumped at sea it
can destroy the normal marine bottom populations of an area.
3 International Aspects of Marine Pollution
Marine pollution is a global problem since any persistent pollutant added to the
sea will be widely recognized by the natural mixing and currents of the sea which
recognize no national boundaries. Those pollutants which are transitory, because
they are decomposed or recycled by natural processes in the sea, can create
serious local problems in estuaries and coastal waters. Although these waters con-
stitute only about 10% of the world ocean surface area, they do contribute about
99% of the harvested living resources of the sea; their protection is vital, but
largely of national concern. Pollutants which reach the sea by atmospheric trans-
port include the fallout radioisotopes from atmospheric testing of nuclear
weapons, the halogenated pesticides as a result of aerial spraying, and probably
lead as a result of its use as an additive in gasoline where it is released in the
exhaust fumes of the engines. Such substances are already widespread when
delivered by fallout or washout from the air onto the ocean surface. Marine
transport of petroleum is another source of global dimensions. Today, pollution
of beaches by oil is widespread and Thor Heyerdahl (1971) reported extensive
evidence for oil pollution in the open ocean hundreds of miles from shore.
The United Nations, and its constituent independent agencies, have an active
concern with the control of marine pollution. The early active concern was a
consideration of pollution by oil from ships and by radioactivity. Actually, inter-
national concern about oil pollution of the sea predates the creation of the
United Nations. An international conference to consider this problem was con-
vened in 1926, but no agreement or concerted effort resulted from this meeting
(CEQ 1973). Waldichuk (1977) lists 36 conventions or other agreements con-
cerned with marine pollution, 22 of which were then in force or adopted. The cat-
egories include marine pollution, oil pollution, radioactivity and ocean dumping.
As a result of the ratification of the 1954 International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, the Inter-governmental Maritime Con-
sultative Organization (IMCO) was established in 1958, with headquarters in
London. When the Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dump-
ing of Wastes and Other Matters was ratified, IMCO was also given the responsi-
bility for implementing this Convention. The International Atomic Energy Agen-
cy with headquarters in Vienna has the responsibility for conventions concerned
with radioactivity.
The United Nations' Conference on the Human Environment held in Stock-
holm in 1972 represented a milestone in the international concern for marine
pollution. This Conference, attended by representatives of 113 nations, encom-
passing most of the world's people, deliberated a broad spectrum of environ-
mental problems including those of human settlements and natural ecosystems.
A major result of these discussions was the establishment of the United Nations'
Environment Programme (UNEP) with headquarters in Nairobi. Preparatory
work for this meeting included consideration of an international dumping con-
vention and its approval by the Stockholm Conference led, no doubt, to its rapid
ratification. The Stockholm Conference approved nine recommendations direct-
ly concerned with marine pollution. In addition to approval of an ocean dumping
convention, their considerations included discharges from ships and the need for
research and monitoring in order to understand the basic problems involved.
Oil Pollution
Historically, the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil
(1954) was the first international convention concerned with marine pollution.
It was amended in 1962, 1969 and 1971 (Barros and Johnston 1974, IMCO
1974). The original convention was concerned only with the persistent oils,
such as crude residual fuel oil. It did not cover refmed petroleum products
which more recent research has shown to be more injurious to the marine eco-
system than the heavier oils. Clearly, the original concern was primarily with the
aesthetic effects such as visibly dirtying of the water, fouling of the beaches and
coating of birds and other marine animals. The Convention did prohibit oil dis-
charges containing 100 ppm of oil within 50 miles of land from tankers and "as
far as practicable from land" for other ships, but it placed no limits on oil dis-
charges beyond the 50-mile limit. In 1973, IMCO convened an international
meeting on the prevention of pollution from ships which extended the 1954
convention to include pollution by the lighter oils and by substances other than
oil which are transported on ships. When the 1973 convention comes into force,
it will supersede the convention of 1954 as amended (IMCO 1974).
Ocean Dumping
The deliberate discharge of waste materials by dumping them at sea is now sub-
ject to control by both regional and global conventions. The first regional action
to take effect was the Oslo Convention, approved in 1972 and more recently,
the Mediterranean Convention was approved in 1978. The London Dumping
Convention is world-wide in scope.
A common characteristic of the dumping conventions is a list of prohibited
substances, commonly called the "Black list," and a list of substances for which
special precautions must be taken, the "Gray list." In the London Dumping
Convention, the prohibited substances listed in Annex I include organohalogen
compounds, mercury and cadmium and their compounds, persistent plastics and
other persistent synthetic materials, various types of oil, high-level radioactive
wastes and materials produced for biological and chemical warfare. It is specified
that these prohibitions do not apply to substances which are rapidly rendered
harmless by physical, chemical, or biological processes in the sea and that materi-
als containing the prohibited substances in trace amounts are not necessarily
prohibited.
410 B. H. Ketchum
Annex II of the London Convention lists substances for which special pre-
cautions are necessary and special permits for their discharge at sea are required.
This list includes the following toxic elements and their compounds: arsenic,
lead, copper, zinc, beryllium, chromium, nickel and vanadium. The four fmal
items are of principal concern when they are discharged in conjunction with the
dumping of large quantities of acids or alkalies. Also included in Annex II are
organo-silicon compounds, cyanides, fluorides, pesticides and their by-products
not covered in Annex I (Barros and Johnston 1974). General permits are required
for the dumping of substances not listed in Annex I or Annex II and information
must be included in the application for the permit concerning the characteristics
and composition of the wastes, the characteristics of the dumping site and the
method of deposit and general considerations concerning such" possible effects as
those on amenities, on marine life and on other potential uses of the sea.
The United Nations' Environment Programme established an activity center
concerned with the "International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals"
(IRPTC) in 1976. The Register will include pertinent available data on the envi-
ronmental behavior and effect of both man-made and naturally occurring sub-
stances (UNEP 1978). While the Register is primarily concerned with the pro-
tection of the Mediterranean Sea against pollution, it could be equally well ad-
dressed to any other international conventions that deal with the prevention of
chemical pollution of the seas. The causes of marine pollution are ubiquitous
and the problems and impacts are identical for all geographic areas.
Pollution Originating on Land
The pollutants of concern in the marine environment are primarily produced as

a result of land-based activities which are necessarily within national boundaries.
These are not subject to international control in the same way that is pollution
resulting from transportation of oil or the intentional dumping of wastes at sea.
Pollutants produced on land may be carried to the oceans through the rivers or
the atmosphere. Once the pollution reaches the marine environment, it may
cross national boundaries and affect the resources of an adjacent nation. Thus,
while the Preamble of the London Dumping Convention can recognize, inter
alia, that states have "the responsibility to insure that activities within their
jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states
or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction," it is also recognized that
activities within national boundaries are not subject to international control.
Many studies of land-based sources of pollution are underway. For example,
The United Nations Environment Programme, in connection with the Mediter-
ranean Action Plan, has sponsored, in conjunction with the World Health Organ-
ization (WHO) a number of inter-governmental and expert consultations for the
protection of the Mediterranean Sea against pollution from land-based sources.
If such a protocol, which is being reviewed by a meeting of governmental, tech-
nical and legal experts in 1979, is successful and an inter-governmental agree-
ment results, a major step will have been taken in the control of this serious
source of marine pollution.
Law of the Sea
Finally, we might consider the possible impact on the control of marine pol-
lution that could result from the acceptance of the "Law of the Sea." Part III
of the draft text for the Law of the Sea is concerned with the "Protection and
Preservation of the Marine Environment." If adopted in substantially its present
form, this part of the Law of the Sea would provide for a comprehensive ap-
proach to marine pollution problems and would expand the international con-
cern to include such problems as the impact of deep-sea exploration and mining
of oil and minerals. The tentative text provides that the measures taken will deal
with all sources of pollution of the marine environment and will include the re-
lease of toxic, harmful and noxious substances, especially those which are persis-
tent, from land-based sources, from distribution through the atmosphere as well
as by dumping and pollution resulting from transportation of these substances.
Pollution from installations and devices used in the exploration and exploitation
of the natural resources of the seabed and subsoil and from all other installations
and devices operating in the marine environment are also specifically identified
as being subject to the articles under the Law of the Sea. The draft text also pro-
vides that states shall take all necessary measures to insure that marine pollution
does not spread outside their national jurisdiction and that activities under their
jurisdiction or control are so conducted that they do not cause damage by pol-
lution to other states in their environment nor cause pollution beyond the areas
where states exercise sovereign rights.
4 Future Problems and Prospects
Although the factual history of marine pollution is very recent, it is encouraging

that today more people are concerned with the problems than was true a decade
or two ago. The major problems remaining are the fact that pollution is largely
land-based in origin and most of the sources are thus within the sovereign bounda-
ry of individual states. International conventions can urge controls of such land-
based pollution, but cannot infringe upon the sovereign rights of the individual
states within their own boundaries.
Another perpetual problem in connection with this subject concerns eco-
nomics. Even though examples can be found which show that the recovery of a
potential pollutant has been profitable, it is generally cheaper to pollute than to
control pollution. While this is true of the organization producing the pollutant,
it is not necessarily true for society as a whole. The cost of a degraded environ-
ment is not charged against the product but is charged against the population as
a whole. Sad to say, the cost of restoring a degraded environment is far greater
than the cost would have been to maintain it in an acceptable condition from
the start. There are innumerable examples of situations where governments are
expected to clean up a mess, which is another way of saying that the cost is as-
sessed against all individuals in that population.
Another problem is that pollution can be considered a concern for the highly
412 B. H. Ketchum
industrialized developed nations of the world who have reached their present
state of development, in part at least, by disregarding the effects of pollution of
the environment. Developing nations thus argue that they should be forced to
adopt extensive pollution control technology which would, in effect, delay or re-
tard their rate of development. Even in developed countries, marginal industries
use a similar argument, namely, that the introduction of adequate pollution con-
trols will eliminate their profits, and they will consequently be forced out of
business with the consequent loss of employment.
Finally, it is human nature to be more concerned with the immediate future,
especially if one is hungry and worried about his next meal, than to be concerned
with the threat of a catastrophe a decade or a century in the future. Thus, while
the scientific impact of the pollution of the marine environment is becoming
more and more clear every day, political, social and economic considerations can
frequently outweigh valid scientific arguments. Deliberations and decisions are
ponderously slow, especially at the international level, and several years may
well elapse between the recognition of the severity of a problem and some action
to control the source. The fact that some progress is being made, both on the
national and international scale, does offer hope for the future.
Addendum
Settle and Patterson (1980) indicate that world lead production has increased
one million fold during the last 5,000 years. Some of this lead reaches the envi-
ronment and it is estimated that anthropogenic lead emissions now exceed natu-
ral emissions by a factor of about 200. There has been a related increase of lead
in the world biomass.
References
Barros, J. and Johnston, D. M. 1974. The international law of pollution. The

Free Press, Macmillan Publ. Co. Inc., New York, 476 pp.
Bertine, K. K. and Goldberg, E. D. 1971. Fossil fuel combustion and the major
sedimentary cycle. Science, 173, 233-235.
Carson, R. 1962. Silent spring. Houghton-Mifflin, 368 pp.
CEQ. 1972. The Third Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 450 pp.
CEQ. 1973. The Fourth Annual Report of the Council of Environmental Quality,
CEQ. 1977. The Eighth Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 445 pp.
CEQ. 1978. The Ninth Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality,
Collier's Encyclopedia. 1957. E. O. Fontaine and W. T. Couch (eds.), 20 vols.
P. F. Collier and Son Corp., New York.
FAO. 1971. Pollution: an international problem for fisheries. World food prob-
lems No. 14, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations,
Rome, viii + 85 pp.
Goldberg, E. D. and Bertine, K. K. 1971. GNP/Area ratio as a measure of nation-
al pollution. Mar. Poll. Bull., 2, 94-95.
Goldberg, E. D., Broecker, W. G., Gross, M. G. and Turekian, K. K. 1971.
Marine chemistry. In: Radioactivity in the marine environment. National
Research Council-National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 137-
146.
Harvey, G. R. 1974. DDT and PCB in the Atlantic. Oceanus, 18(1), 18-23.
Heyerdahl, T. 1971. Atlantic Ocean pollution and biota observed on the 'Ra'
expedition. BioI. Conserv., 3, 164-167.
IMCO. 1974. International Conference on Marine Pollution, 1973. International
Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973. London.
Ketchum, B. H. 1975. Biological implications of global marine pollution, pp.
311-328. In: The Changing Global Environment, S. Fred Singer (ed.), D.,
Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht-Holland/Boston-U.S.A., viii + 423 pp.
Ketchum, B. H. 1976. Marine pollution and international law. Proc. Third Bio-
degradation Symposium. J. M. Sharpley and A. M. Kaplan (eds.), Applied
Science Publishers Ltd., London, 11-19.
Ketchum, B. R., Zitko, V. and Saward, D. 1975. Aspects of heavy metal and
organohalogen pollution in aquatic ecosystems, pp. 75-81. In: Ecological
toxicology research: effects of heavy metal and organohalogen compounds,
A. D. McIntyre and C. F. Mills (eds.), Plenum Press, New York and London,
xi + 323 pp.
NAS. 1973. Water quality criteria, EPA-R3-73-033, March 1973, National
Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
NAS. 1975. Petroleum in the marine environment. National Academy of Sciences,
Washington, D.C., 107 pp.
Riley, J. P. and Chester, R. 1971. Introduction to marine chemistry. Academic
Press, London, 496 pp.
SCEP. 1970. Study of critical environmental problems: man's impact on the
global environment. M.LT. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 319 pp.
Settle, D. M. and C. C. Patterson. 1980. Lead in albacore: Guide to lead pollution
in Americans. Science, 207: 1167-1176. '
Stewart, R. J. 1977. Tankers in U.S. waters. Oceanus, 20(4), 74-85.
UNEP. 1978. Data profiles for chemicals for the evaluation of their hazards to
the environment of the Mediterranean Sea. Vol. 1. International register of
potentially toxic chemicals (IRPT(;), United National Environment Pro-
gramme, Geneva, Switzerland, xviii + 928 pp.
Waldichuk, M. 1977. Global marine pollution: An overview. Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission, Tech. Series 18, UNESCO, Paris, 96 pp.
The History of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pollution in the
Marine Environment
Arne Jerneiov
The history of a case of pollution can be seen either as the history of the pol-
lution itself or as the history of the knowledge and understanding about the situ-
ation. In this article on chlorinated hydrocarbons in the marine environment
some consideration will be given to both aspects. Chlorinated hydrocarbons con-
stitute a very large number of chemicals with a variety of uses in modern society.
Many more are unintentionally produced as by-products in the synthesis of
others or when chlorine is used as a bleaching agent or for control of microorga-
nisms. In this article three groups will be discussed in order to illustrate the situ-
ation: DDT and its metabolites, PCBs and the by-products from vinyl chloride
production-the EDC-tar.
The history of DDT pollution in the marine environment started in a lake.
The story cannot be told without starting with the Clear Lake case as told by
Rachel Carson in "Silent Spring" because so much of our early understanding
and misunderstanding of DDT-residue in aquatic systems originated there. Clear
Lake is a muddy lake in a mountain area 150 kilometers north of San Francisco.
It's an excellent habitat for a small ~idge Chaoborus astictopus. The midge
doesn't bite but the enormous numbers makes it a nuisance for people around
the lake. In order to control the Chaoborus population the lake was sprayed
with DDT in 1949,1954 and 1957.
When the fish-eating birds started to disappear, analyses of DDT-residues were
performed on phyto- and zooplankton and various species of fish in addition to
the birds themselves. An increase in concentration was found with each higher
trophic level and food-chainmagnification was claimed to be the process behind it.
Rachel Carson's recapitulation of the Clear Lake case had a large influence on
the first studies of DDT -residues in the marine environment. The framework was
The History of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pollution 415
given. The pollutant was (implicitly or explicitly) assumed to be discharged to

the sea via sewage or run-off. It was picked up by phytoplankton, transported
via the food-chain to zooplankton and plankton-feeding fish and ended up in
top-predators such as fish-eating birds or mammals. A large number of analyses
were performed in the 1960s on DDT-residues in various marine organisms in a
number of estuaries in North America and in Europe around the North Sea. The
results seemed to connect with the pattern described for Clear Lake.
In the early analyses of DDT -residues a number of unidentified peaks were
found in many samples. In 1966 Soren Jensen demonstrated that many of them
were polychlorated biphenyls PCBs and thereby another environmental pol-
lutant had been discovered. The PCBs have a wide industrial and technical use
where the important properties of the chemicals relate to their chemical stability,
non-flammability, low water solubility, low volatility and high dielectric con-
stants. Those very same properties make the PCBs very persistent in the environ-
ment and cause their accumulation in organisms. DDT-residues and PCBs gener-
ally occur together in samples of marine biota.
Soren Jensen's original work with the identification of PCBs was done on fat
from a sea eagle (1966), so in contrast to DDT the PCBs were already from the
start a marine pollution problem. The fact that the gas-chromatographic analyti-
cal techniques can be used for simultaneous analyses of DDT -residues and PCBs
in many cases makes it possible to obtain data for both DDT and the PCBs at
the same time. One complication, however, is that boat bottom paint frequently
contains PCBs that slowly leach out. A very large proportion of the water and
plankton samples that have been analyzed for PCBs have been taken behind
boats leading to an error due to this contamination. Obviously this problem was
more severe the lower the PCB concentrations in the uncontaminated samples.
For larger organisms such as fish, birds or mammals this is not likely to have in-
fluenced the analytical results very much. One observation that reveals the per-
sistence of PCBs in relation to DDT-residues is that fish-eating marine birds and
mammals frequently contain proportionally more PCBs than DDT-residues when
compared with the fish upon which they feed.
In general the pattern of PCB-contamination resembled that of DDT-residues
in that organisms on higher trophiC levels statistically were found to have higher
levels than those on lower ones. From the use and release-pattern, however, it
was clear at an early date that part of the PCBs entered the marine environ-
ment from the atmosphere after incineration.
In 1970 another large source of chlorinated hydrocarbon pollution of the
marine environment was identified when a Swedish-Norwegian research group
identified a large number of aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbons originating in
residues from vinyl chloride production-the EDC-tar-in samples of water and
organisms from the North Sea. The EDC-tar was dumped into the sea in quanti-
ties of 75,000 tons from Europe alone. Further studies demonstrated various
degrees of persistence and bioaccumulation for the different compounds in the
EDC-tar. Furthermore, degradation of some of these compounds lead to the
formation of other chlorinated hydrocarbons. The resulting picture was one with
416 A. Jerne10v
dumping as the route of entry to the marine environment and subsequent ac-
cumulation in marine organisms and further concentration via the food-chain.
In the early history of the knowledge of chlorinated hydrocarbons in the
marine environment three statements were generally accepted:
1. Chlorinated hydrocarbons are entirely synthetic. The carbon-chlorine binding

is a human invention.
2. Chlorinated hydrocarbons enter the sea predominantly through direct dis-
charges, run-off and dumping or as atmospheric dust.
3. Food-chain magnification is an important factor resulting in subsequently
higher concentrations in organisms at higher trophic levels.
In broad terms this can be said to have been the state of the art in 1970.
In the following decade new information accumulated on the biological effects
of chlorinated hydrocarbons in ecosystems for the organisms at the top of the
marine food-chain and a new view on the items listed above. Eggs of the brown
pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) were found to have thinner eggshells the higher
the concentrations of DDT-residues/PCBs. A population at Auacapa Island off
California experienced a substantial decrease in number between 1969 and 1972
associated with eggshell thinning (Risebrough 1972). Similar fmdings were made
with sea eagle and other fish-eating birds in the Baltic. The seal population in the
Baltic has suffered a severe reduction in the number of individuals during recent
decades. This is associated with reproductive failure as the pups were born pre-
maturely during the winter. The Baltic seals normally have a delay period between
mating, fertilization of the eggs and implantation in the uterus. PCBs in particu-
lar and to a lesser extent DDT-residues have been demonstrated to interfere with
the hormone control and cause the system of delayed implantation to collapse
(Kih1strom et al. 1976, Helle et al. 1976). Similarly premature pupping in sea
lions breeding on the Channel Islands of California have been correlated with
PCB/DDT-Ievels in parents and pups.
The idea that compounds with carbon-chlorine binding are purely synthetic
products and man's invention was disproven when a number of studies of the
Rhodophytes revealed a large number of natural halogenated compounds. A sub-
stantial fraction of randomly selected marine plant species have been shown to
contain halogenated compounds which inhibit microbial growth (Hager et al.
1974, Reinhart et al. 1975, Siuda and De Bernardi$ 1973).
Early analyses of DDT levels in marine organism from remote places revealed
the presence of these compounds in plankton from the middle of all oceans,
from seals in the Arctic and penguins from the Antarctic. These analytical results
were irreconcilable with the idea for mechanisms of transport of DDT-residues
to the marine system. When some studies had demonstrated that nearly all of
the DDT in the atmosphere is in the gaseous phase, a reevaluation of the mecha-
nisms in the transport processes took place. More stringent calculations demon-
strated that the vapor pressure of DDT (1.5 • 10- 7 mm Hg) and PCBs (10-4 -
10-6 mm Hg), although very low, allowed evaporation and atmospheric transport
in the gaseous phase to be the principle route of transport of both DDT-residues

and PCBs to the marine environment.
Another part of the previous basic understanding of the behavior of chlori-
nated hydrocarbons in the marine environment that turned out to be a candidate
for reevaluation was the concept of food-chain concentration. Already in the
Clear Lake case in Rachel Carson's description there had been a curious obser-·
vation that might have been taken as a hint. The levels of DDT in phytoplankton
were found to remain high many years after the levels in the water had decreased
to below the detection limit. The early analyses of marine organisms that were
interpreted as support for the food-<:hain magnification hypothesis were based
on whole organisms. When researches started to relate concentrations of DDT-
residues and PCBs to fat content of the organisms-which from a physiological
point of view seemed far more relevant-the picture became less clear. In most
cases fat content was correlated with trophic level. The higher up in the food-
chain the more fat an organism was generally found to contain. But when that
picture differed as with herring in the Baltic having a higher fat content than the
cod but being the prey for cod, the levels of DDT-residues and PCBs were corre-
lated with fat content rather than with trophic level. A factor that gave rise to
much concern was the high variability and rapid variation in the concentrations
of DDT-residues and PCBs especially in planktonic organisms but also in fish.
The explanation \yas found to be that the chlorinated hydrocarbons accumu-
lated in organisms due to solubility. With a high solubility in fat and low in water
the initial accumulation was high. Differences in types of fat between different
systematic groups of organisms give rise to different accumulation factors. But
with a solution equilibrium the concentrations of chlorinated hydrocarbons in
the fat of marine organisms will depend on the quality of that phase, that is not
only of the percentage of fat in the individual organism but on the total number
of organisms in the package of water and on their fat content. It can be demon-
strated in a simple aquarium experiment that if a fish with high concentrations
of DDT-residues and PCB are placed together with a group of fishes with low
concentrations the chlorinated hydrocarbons will rapidly equalize between the
fishes. Thus, with a rapid solution equilibrium between organisms living in and
breathing water, the actual concentrations in an organism will be influenced by
all the biota in the surroundings and the result will be large and rapid fluctu-
ations. In contrast to the organisms living in and breathing water, marine mam-
mals and birds seem to show a clearer and more classical case of food-chain
magnification.
The history of our knowledge about chlorinated hydrocarbons in the marine
environment thus shows that many of the ideas that we thought as basic parts
of our understanding a decade ago have been reevaluated and the picture as we
see it now is quite different. It has been said that a tragedy for modern scientists
is that the progress in research is so fast that most scientists will live to see their
great discoveries and fmdings reevaluated and found to be misunderstandings
or special cases. In the old days a scientist had a good chance, when he died, to
believe that he had actually found the truth. Which parts of our present under-
418 A. Jernelriv
standing will survive the next decade?

Besides the history of our knowledge of the marine chlorinated hydrocarbon
pollution, the history of pollution itself deserves some discussion. Even if we
have learned during the last decade that halogenated hydrocarbons, including
some chlorinated ones, are produced naturally by some marine organisms, the
history of pollution with DDT-residues and PCBs starts with human production.
Commercial production of PCBs started in 1929. The accumulated production
up to 1970 has been estimated to exceed 1,000,000 tons. After 1970 there was
a substantial drop in the global production. The figure for 1978 is estimated to
be less than 10% of the production in 1970.
Large scale production of DDT started in 1944. The accumulated global
production up to 1980 is estimated 3,000,000 tons with a current annual pro-
duction of about 100,000 tons. The geographical picture of production and use
of DDT has changed drastically. From the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s the domi-
nating production and use was in North America and western Europe. During the
past fifteen years the use and production has moved to other parts of the world
and especially to the equatorial zone. The total production and use may, how-
ever, remain much the same.
Global production of vinyl chloride has been steadily increasing. The amount
of EDC-tar produced as a by-product depends on the purity of the initial products.
In 1970 the EDC-tar constituted 3-8% of the vinyl chloride production. For
1978 it is estimated that the range was 2-6%. Thus, despite the increase in vinyl
chloride production, the amount of EDC-tar produced as a by-product has re-
mained much the same.
From a marine pollution point of view a more important factor than changes
in total production has been a change in the dumping practice. In western Europe
dumping has been stopped and largely replaced by incineration aboard ship. In
other parts of the world land deposition is commonly practiced.
The changes in volume of production and use and in the geographical distri-
bution has drastically changed the transport pattern of DDT-residues, PCBs and
EDC-tar to the marine environment. Dependent on the pattern of accumulation
with the solution equilibrium between water and water-breeding organisms and
on the large fluctuations in concentrations of chlorinated hydrocarbons resulting
therefrom makes it very difficult to record trends in the levels of DDT-residues,
PCBs and aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbons in marine organisms. In a few cases,
however, the material has been large enough to allow trend calculations. Con-
centrations of DDT-residues in estuaries were found to reach a maximum in 1968
and decline markedly after 1970 (Butler 1973). Data that would allow trend
analyses of concentrations of DDT -residues in tropical areas where use has in-
creased during the last decade would be of great interest but there are none avail-
able as yet.
The situation concerning PCBs is difficult to assess also because of the pos-
sible contamination from PCBs in boat bottom paint in the early analyses. Judged
from the persistence and the fact that many industrial uses of PCBs lead to a
long lag period between production and eventual release to the environment it
seems that only small changes in levels in marine organisms are likely to have oc-
curred thus far. Aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbons from EDC-tar to a large de-
gree have a short half life in marine organisms. The ban on dumping in the North
Sea is expected to lead to lower concentrations but data to support this are
missing.
In general it can be said that changes in the production, use and disposal of
DDT, PCB and EDC-tar is expected to lead to a lower degree of contamination
of marine organisms. The changed use pattern of DDT does, however, call for
studies of the new transport pathways and resulting levels in the global environ-
ment.
References
Butler, P. A. 1973. Pestic. Monit. J., Vol. 6, pp. 238-362.

Hager, L. P., White, R. H., Hollenberg, P. F., Doubek, D. L., Brusca,R. C. and
Guerrero, R. 1974. 4th Int. Food. Drugs from the Sea Conference. Mayaquez,
Puerto Rico.
Helle, E., Olsson, M. and Jensen, S. 1976. Ambio, Vol. 5, No. 5-6, 261-263.
Kihlstrom, J. E., Olsson, M., and Jensen, S. 1976. NORDFORSK Miljovardssekre-
tariatet, 2, 567-576.
Rinehart, K. L. Jr., Johnson, R. D., Siuda, J. F., Krejcared, G. E., Shaw, P. D.,
McMillan, J. A. and Paul, I. C. 1975. Dahlem workshop on the nature of sea-
water, Berlin.
Risebrough, R. 1972. Nature, 230, 248.
Siuda, J. F. and De Bernardis, J. F. 1973. Lloydia, 36,107-143.
Artificial Radionuc1ides in the Oceans
William L. Templeton
1 Introduction
Mter the discovery of x-rays by Roentgen in 1895 and Becquerel's determination

in the same year that rays emitted continuously from uranium ionized the air in
their vicinity, there followed the identification of other naturally radioactive
elements. These elements were thorium, polonium, radium and actinium. Marie
Curie and her husband, Pierre, played an important part in these investigations.
It is from these studies ill the closing years of the nineteenth century that an
interest developed in radioactivity in the environment and its effects upon bio-
logical systems.
Probably the first determinations of radioactivity in the environment were
made by Elster and Geital (1902) in ground water, rainwater, snow and the mist
from Niagara Falls. The first determination of a radioactive nuclide in a marine
sample appears to be the measurement of radium-226 by Strutt (1906) in evapo-
rated seawater. Several other measurements of radium-226 in seawater were re-
ported by Joly {1908a, 1908b), Eve (1907,1909), Knocke (1909) and Satterly
(1911). Curie (1910) summarized some of the available data on environmental
radioactivity. Radium was found concentrated in marine sediments, particularly
red clays by Joly (1908b), and his general conclusions were confirmed by Piggott
(1933).
At the same time, radioactivity was determined to have an effect on biologi-
cal tissues and systems. The first reported scientific observations on the effects
of radiation on embryonic development was made by Bohn (1903a, 1903b),
who subjected amphibian larvae and the fertilized ova of the sea urchin, Strong-
locentrotus lividus, to the action of radium bromide. He reported that the overall
effect was retardation of growth.
Artificial Radionuclides in the Oceans 421
Over the three decades following 1910, research in both oceanography and
radiobiology expanded. The interest in radium-226 in the oceans continued. In
1935, Hernegger and Kavlick (1935) reported on the measurement of uranium in
seawater using a fluorometric method and discovered that the uranium decay
series is in disequilibrium in seawater. Pettersson (1937) suggested that this was
manifested by the unexpected low concentration of radium and was caused by
the removal of the precursor, thorium-230, from the seawater to the sediments.
Quantitative evaluations of the amounts of elements involved in the sedimentary
cycle were made by Joly in 1899; however, systematic investigations of the fac-
tors controlling the distribution of the elements in the oceans were ftrst seen in
the work of Goldsclunidt and others between 1930-1939 (Goldschmidt 1937).
Over this same period, radiobiological research examined the effects of radi-
ation on embryonic development, growth, regeneration, physiology, motor
responses, induced chromosomal aberrations and mutations in a variety of aquatic
organisms. The ftrst investigator to study the effects of radiation on ftsh was
Opperman (1913), who studied the development of trout eggs fertilized with
sperm that had been exposed to radium.
A detailed historical perspective of the radiobiological research during this
period is available in the unique volumes edited by Duggar (1936), especially the
chapter by Butler (1936). The quality of the research and its ftndings in the early
years is impressive. None of this research was conceived with the effects of
radioactivity in the oceans in mind, and the use of aquatic organisms for radio-
biological research reflects the availability of easy to maintain species from
marine laboratories and biological supply houses.
All of the above research was being conducted in the three decades when im-
mense strides were also being made in nuclear physics. Many pertinent dis-
coveries were made in the thirties, but the signiftcant stage was reached when
the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction accompanying the ftssion of uranium
by neutrons was seriously considered in 1939 by many physicists. It was sug-
gested that if such chains could be realized, then there was some prospect of
the release of nuclear energy becoming a practical and economic possibility.
However, it was also recognized that if the ftssion energy was liberated in a
short time interval, since nuclear processes are rapid, the chain reaction could
lead to a catastrophic explosion. The culmination of these efforts was the U.s.
Manhattan Project, the wartime effort on the military use of nuclear energy.
This involved the construction of a large scale gaseous diffusion plant for the
separation of uranium-235 from ordinary uranium, the ftrst self-sustaining
chain-reacting pile in 1942, the operation of the ftrst experimental reactor at
Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1943, the startup of plutonium production reactors
at Hanford, Washington in 1944, and the associated chemical reprocessing
plant to separate plutonium-239 from the uranium and other ftssion products.
The year 1944 was the beginning of the era of atomic weapons and nuclear
power. It was also of considerable signiftcance to oceanography and marine
science, since it was then that the ftrst introduction of large quantities of arti-
ftcial radionuclides was made into the oceans of the world.
422 w. L. Templeton
Radioactive nuclides in the marine environment can be considered in four
categories: (a) primordial nuclides of elements which also have stable elements,
e.g., potassium40 and rubidium-87; (b) primordial parent nuclides of the three
natural radioactive decay series, uranium-238, thorium-232 and uranium-235,
and the families of shorter-lived daughter nuclides which are continually renewed
by their decay; (c) naturally occurring nuclides which have short half-lives, but
are continually produced by cosmic interaction with either atmospheric constit-
uents or extra-terrestrial materials; and (d) artificially produced nuclides released
by the explosion of nuclear devices, or accidental or planned releases from nu-
clear power and nuclear chemical reprocessing installations.
The literature on artificial radionuclides in the marine environment is vast
and this account will not attempt to include all the research conducted over the
last three decades. (See reviews by NAS 1957, 1971, IUGG 1963, Mauchline and
Templeton 1964, Burton 1965, 1975, Riley 1975, Riley and Skirrow 1965,
Duursma 1972, Chipman 1972, Pentreath 1977, IAEA 1960-1978.) This account
highlights the areas of major contributions that the nuclear era has made to our
understanding of oceanography and the marine sciences, and in particular the
application to the public-health problems that arise through anthropogenic
exploitation of the oceans for the disposal of radioactive materials. The expec-
tations, as a result of the introduction of artificial radionuclides to the oceans,
for oceanographers, geochemists and biologists were well documented by the
United Nations (1956, 1958) and the National Academy of Sciences (1957,
1971) publications. As Revelle et al. (1956) pointed out:
Many scientific problems of the ocean can be resolved into questions concern-
ing the fluxes within its realms. Promising possibilities exist for study of these
fluxes by the tracer techniques of nuclear science, but to date the possibilities
have been only timidly explored. A more vigorous and imaginative application
of nuclear tools in the marine sciences would certainly result in important
breakthroughs.
The practical problem of oceanic disposal of nuclear wastes involves nearly
all phases of oceanography. Conversely the use of radioactive materials as tools
in oceanography must lead to a better understanding of the disposal problem.
2 Sources of Artificial Radioactivity
Nuclear Weapons
The first atomic bomb was tested at Alamogordo in New Mexico on July 16,
1945. Subsequently, two combat nuclear fission bombs were exploded over
Hiroshima (uranium-235) and Nagasaki (plutonium-239) in the early days of
August 1945. Introduction of artificial radionuclides from weapon testing was
greatest in the early 1960s until virtual cessation of widespread atmospheric
testing by the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Union
of Soviet Socialist RepUblic (USSR), France, and the Peoples Republic of China
in 1963. While some of the testing took place within the oceans, most of the
tests were detonations in the atmosphere, some at high altitudes. These tests
have been the major source of artificial radioactivity released to the environ-
ment. Testing of the hydrogen (or thermonuclear) bomb increased explosive
energy yields from the kiloton range into the equivalent megaton TNT range and
increased the amount of transuranium isotopes into the environment. Joseph
et al. (1971) state that approximately 10 28 atoms of 238Pu and about one-
tenth as much 240 Pu have been generated by testing of thermonuclear devices.
Over sixty devices were tested at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Northern
Marshall Islands.
The first tests were conducted on the atolls, Bikini and Eniwetok* (Oper-
ation Crossroads). One of the two devices was exploded underwater in such a
way that fission products were mixed into the water at detonation and returned
in great measure to the lagoon. This series was a military-scientific program of
a kind never seen until that time (Hines 1962) because the probable effects pre-
viously discussed were theoretical and mainly centered on the questions of physi-
cal effect. The site provided a natural laboratory where preliminary oceanogra-
phic, biological and geological surveys were conducted on the lagoon currents
and diffusion and water exchange with the ocean, on fish and other organisms
of the lagoon and surrounding ocean, on organic productivity, on beach studies
and on submarine geology. However, Hines (1962) in an account of these studies
in the Pacific (1946-1961), stated that there was no evidence that those studies
were considered the possible starting point of long-term research in radiobiology
or that data might be gathered to discover how radionuclides were caught up and
circulated in a biological system. Although the concept of such circulation was
not altogether new, its relevance in that situation seems not to have been realized.
In the seven years after the first shot at Alamogordo, thirty-six nuclear
weapons or devices, including some by the UK and USSR, had been detonated.
In June 1952, the first experimental thermonuclear device was tested at Eniwe-
tok Atoll. At this time, specific oceanographic and radioecological studies were
conducted and increased our understanding of the role of artificial radionuclides
in the marine environment. In 1954, the Operation Castle test series was opened
at Bikini Atoll with the detonation of another thermonuclear device which was
750 times more powerful than the Operation Crossroads series in 1946. It re-
leased energy and heat and radioactive particles of coral and bomb debris to
over 100,000 feet. The plume of particles moved unexpectedly to the east in the
upper winds and fell across four atolls and the oceans in an ellipse reaching more
than 200 miles, and resulted in evacuation of the islanders and military person-
nel. Some two weeks later it was found that a Japanese fishing boat had been
exposed to the close-in fallout.
The result of this unpredicted fallout pattern was an intensive survey in the
following months by the USA and Japanese of the North Pacific Ocean. Japan
*Until about the 1960s the most common spelling for the atoll in the Marshall Islands was
Eniwetok. Then the Marshallese let it be known that their preferred spelling is Enewetak.
All the reports and trust territories now use that spelling.
424 w. L. Templeton
was particularly concerned, since her economy and diet were so dependent on
the fishing industry (Anon 1955). USA and Japanese scientists measured con-
taminated surface water flowing westward from the test site and depth samples
showed some contamination several hundred meters below the surface (Miyake
et al. 1955b). As for the marine organisms, from plankton to tuna and shark,
levels of radioactivity were found which fitted the patterns that had been ob-
served in earlier tests. Plankton appear to concentrate the radioactivity which
indicated the significance of these organisms in horizontal and vertical transports
of radionuclides. Fish concentrated radioactivity in internal organs, such as liver
and the differing concentrations in large-sized fishes appeared to be related to
their food habits, or the food chain. In 1955, the USA and Japan established a
further survey of the North Pacific from the Pacific Test Islands as far west as
the Philippines and northwards to Japan (Miyake 1955a). Operation Troll con-
firmed much of the earlier data, but also added additional data on the rates of
decay and dispersion of these materials in the oceans (USAEC 1956). In 1956,
Operation Wigwam (Schaefer 1957) involved the second underwater detonation
of a device at a depth of 200 ft off the West Coast of the USA and although
some biological samples were obtained, the primary scientific activities were
limited to oceanographic observations and essential monitoring. In a third under-
water test (Wahoo) a comprehensive oceanographic and biological survey was
made after detonation of a device at a depth of 500 ft in the ocean southwest of
Eniwetok Atoll. This was the first underwater test in which biological sampling
had been specifically programmed with a major objective on the biological up-
take of short-lived radionuclides.
The studies indicated a high degree of stratification of radioactivity even in
the mixed layer of the ocean in contradiction to theoretical assumptions. From
examination of the physicochemical form of the introduced radionuclides, it
was found that particles, inorganic and organic, played a significant role. Intro-
duced particles may go into solution as they sink through the water column. If
initially in the soluble form, they may be precipitated as particles or by ab-
sorption to inorganic or biological materials. These particles would tend to be re-
moved from the mixed layer by gravity, although these efforts would be offset
by the vertical immigration of plankton producing two independent systems as
far as concentration or disposal processes are concerned (Lowman 1960).
Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Sources of radioactivity in the oceans, other than that as fallout from nuclear
weapons testing have been discussed in the literature (NAS 1957, 1959a, 1959b,
1962,1971,1975,IAEA 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1975a, 1975b,
1976). Weapon test fallout is spread at very low concentrations throughout the
surface waters of the world's oceans; conversely the majority of other significant
inputs, particularly those discharges from the nuclear fuel cycle, are extremely
restricted in their geographic distributions and, therefore, relatively high concen-
trations exist in the areas where they occur. Nuclear power reactors release small
quantities of radioactive liquid effluents (1-100 Ci/yr) exclusive of 3H, in con-
trast to the planned releases from chemical reprocessing plants.
The first introduction, on any scale, was to the Pacific Ocean via the Colum-
bia River in 1944. The Hanford plutonium production reactors, which produced
the first quantities of military plutonium, were cooled by the once-through pas-
sage of treated Columbia River water which was then returned to the river. The
water contained radionuclides from the activation of corrosion products or by
retention of impurities in the corrosion ftIm. The bulk of the nuclides were acti-
vation products of stable elements in the treated river water; such as, sodium,
arsenic and phosphorus though some fission products occurred due to the fis-
siooing of the natural uranium in the water and to occasional ruptures of the
fuel elements (Foster 1972).
Over the next twenty years, the Columbia River provided a unique opportuni-
ty for limnologists, radioecologists, hydrographers and geochemists to study the
distribution and fate of activation product nuclides in a large river system. On
reaching the Pacific Ocean, selected radionuclides could be traced in the river
plume up to 600 lan. Studies on interactions at the freshwater/seawater inter-
phase, transport, deposition, accumulation by estuarine and marine biota, and
the deposition of radionuclides in fecal pellets through the water column, have
been compiled by Pruter and Alverson (1972).
Seven fuel reprocessing plants have been operated by members of the Europe-
an community, and three of these discharge low level radioactive wastes directly
into the ocean (Davis 1979). The largest, and best documented in terms of dis-
charge rates and environmental surveillance, is the British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.
plant at Windscale on the Irish Sea, which began discharge operations in 1952.
Over the last twenty-five years extensive radioecological and oceanographic
studies have been conducted at this site. In more recent years the research has
concentrated on the transport and bioaccumulation of 137 Cs and the trans-
uranics. As a result of these discharges, the labelling of the areas with a mixture
of artificial radionuclides has added a new dimension to coastal oceanography.
In the Irish Sea 1 3 7Cs in seawater has allowed estimates to be made to residence
times of seawater both east and west of the Isle of Man. Measurements of 134 Cs
and 137CS, 90Sr, 239. 24 °Pu, 238Pu and 241Am have given estimates of the
movement out of the north entrance of the Irish Sea, round the north of Scot-
land into the North Sea and with an offshore movement towards the mouth of
the Baltic (MAFF 1978, livingston and Bowen 1977). Subsequent studies indi-
cate that these waters then move northwards along the Norwegian Coast (Murray
et al. 1978). These measurements have also provided the opportunity of study-
ing the geochemical discrimination between 137 Cs and the transuranics, an esti-
mate of the travel time from the 13 4CS/ 13 7Cs ratios and information on the dif-
ferential behavior between 24 1Am and 239.24 ° Pu. Additional information has
been obtained in the North Sea from the releases from the French reprocessing
plant at Cap de La Hague.
One interesting application of the routine surveillance data has been to esti-
mate the concentration in marine resources per unit rate in introduction. For
example, over the period 1971-1976 the Windscale data indicates a value for
426 W. L. Templeton
137 Cs in seawater of 47 pCi/i. for a 1 Ci/day discharge. With the increase in
radiocesiwn discharges in 1974, biota sampling was substantially increased.
Measurements of 137 Cs in the edible fraction of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa)
collected within 5 km of the discharge point show a relationship of 0.1 pCi/g
for a 1 Ci/day discharge. Such data provides a very powerful predictive tool for
controlling the radiation exposure of man and organism. Research studies have
shown that the concentration of 239.240 Pu in seawater is only about 6% of
137 Cs normalized to a daily discharge rate. The value for 241 Am is even lower
at 3% and suggests that a major portion of the plutonium and americiwn leave
the water phase immediately on discharge to the seawater. This removal is onto
the particulate phase and appears to be a function of suspended load. Concern
has been expressed about remobilization of radionuclides from sediments to
seawater, even though both plutoniwn and americium are very strongly bound
to sediments (Bowen et al. 1975). Measurements within 10 km of the Windscale
discharge point indicate concentration ratios (Kd) of about 1.4 x lOs for
239.240 Pu, 1.4 X 10 6 for 241 Am and 1.10 2 "1.10 3 for 137 Cs (Pentreath et al.,
in press). These values are similar to those derived at Eniwetok Lagoon and else-
where, despite very different source terms. However, recent studies at Eniwetok
suggest that remobilization of transuranics does take place in that area (Noshkin
and Wong, in press).
Other Sources of Radionuclides in the Oceans
There are several other possible sources of artificial radionuclides that reach the
oceans (Joseph et al. 1971). These include low level wastes from medical, pharma-
ceutical and industrial uses of nuclides and other research establishments: naval
propulsion reactors, civilian propulsion reactors, aerospace nuclear reactors, and
radioisotopic power generators. Radionuclides have also been used as tracers in
the course of scientific and engineering research projects (IUGG 1963, Duursma
1972). The dumping of low-level solid radioactive waste has been conducted by
a nwnber of countries over the last 25 years, and will be discussed in more detail
later. In general, these sources contribute only small fractions of the total inven-
tory of radionuclides in the oceans and hence, radiation doses to man and the
environment. Two nuclear accidents have occurred that resulted in the release
of radionuclides to the marine environment. A USA aircraft carrying nuclear
weapons crashed near Thule, Greenland, depositing plutonium isotopes on the
ice and into the water. All indications are that 99% of the plutonium went into
the sediments (Aarkrog 1971, 1977). In 1964, an aerospace nuclear power gener-
ator, containing about 17 kCi of 2 3 8 Pu, in an unmanned satellite, re-entered the
atmosphere following a malfunction during the launch. The plutonium in the
device completely ablated. The particles produced behaved like global fallout
and ultimately 10 kCi of 238 Pu were deposited in the world oceans (Hardy et al.
1973).
3 Assessment of Radiation Dose to Man and the Environment
The presence of artificial radionuclides in the marine environment must be con-

sidered in relation to radiation exposure of the biota and of people who use the
sea and its products. Some exposure is inevitable and, indeed, has always existed
from the naturally occurring radionuclides. To this natural exposure must now
be added some additional radiation dose as a consequence of man's entry into
the age of nuclear energy (Foster et al. 1971). The magnitude of this exposure
depends upon many complex relationships. These depend how, where, what
kinds, and in what amounts radioactive materials are introduced into the seas in
relation to the ways and extent to which the seas and their resources are used by
man. Various methods have been used to set strict controls on disposals so as to
limit public exposure to a small degree of risk. The basic radiation exposure
standards employed are those of the International Commission on Radiological
Protection (ICRP) or national derivations of these.
Critical Pathways
As early as 1960, the whole problem of radioactivity in the sea, and waste dis-
posal in particular, was studied by an international group of experts under the
chairmanship of Brynielssen (IAEA 1961). At that time, the basis of what has
become the most widely used method of control, the critical path approach, had
already been evolved (Dunster 1958) and this method was endorsed by that
group as the best approach to control radiation dose. The critical path approach
is a means of evaluating environmental capacity and establishing limits within
which discharges must be controlled. At the same time, it affords a basis for
planning environmental surveillance from which the actual public radiation ex-
posure can be assessed. It involves a critical evaluation of the behavior of the
radionuclides in seawater, the degree of bioaccumulation by marine resources,
the identification of the limiting pathway(s) to public exposure, and the degree
of use of those pathways by man. Control limits can then be set to ensure com-
pliance within the radiation protection standards (Preston and Jeffries 1967,
1969, Foster et al. 1971, Slansky 1971, Preston 1975). The approach is depen-
dent upon "habit surveys" (preston and Mitchell 1975). These provide the basic
data on the working, eating and recreational habits of the exposed public, and
can be in great detail as at Windscale where detailed surveys determined the
consumption of Porphyra umbilicalis (laver bread) by a discrete population
(preston and Jeffries 1967), or of fish at Tokai-mura in Japan (Sumiya, in press),
or may make an assumption, for example, that coastal inhabitants eating the sea-
foods obtain all of their protein from this source (Foster et al. 1971). The criti-
cal pathway approach has been recommended by both the IAEA (1965) and the
ICRP (1965, 1966) and some examples are given in Table 1.
Two other methods, the specific activity approach (NAS 1962) and the
"point of discharge control" (Anon 1960, USAEC 1965) have also been proposed.
428 W. L. Templeton
Table 1. Critical marine resources and groups from selected sites
Principal Exposed
Site Critical Pathway Group
Hanford USA Oyster flesh General public gil CQaSt
(plutonium production
reactors)
Windscale U.K. Fish flesh Local fishermen
(chemical reprocessing) Porplyra (seaweed) General public (recreation)
Estuarine sediment Local fishermen
Bradwell U.K. Oyster flesh Oyster fishermen and
(power reactors) families
Dungeness U.K. Fish flesh Local fishermen and
(power reactors) families
Beach sediment Bait diggers
Dounreay U.K. Detritus on fishing Local fishermen
(chemical reprocessing) gear
La Hague, France Fish flesh Local fishermen
(chemical reprocessing) Seaweed
Trombay, India Fish flesh Local fishermen
(research and
development)
Tokai-mura Fish Local fishermen
(chemical reprocessing) Shell fish
The latter has been applied in both the USA and USSR while the former, ftrst
proposed in the USA for the coastal disposal of low-level radioactive waste dis-
posal in the Paciftc Ocean (NAS 1962), has never been used in routine control
operations, though it has been applied in research situations (Jenkins 1969, Pres-
ton 1970, Foster 1972).
Once the site has been operating long enough to provide a measurable degree
of contamination in the critical pathways, the surveillance data is used to vali-
date the original assessment of the extent of public exposure, and allows for
appropriate changes in the discharge authorization.
Present Levels and Radiation Exposure
While the greatest impact to date on the oceans in terms of quantity of radio-
activity has been from weapons testing fallout, its absolute signiftcance has been
very small. This contribution, in terms of world-wide terrestrial and aquatic path-
ways has been estimated to be equivalent to 0.1-0.5 mrad/person/year up to the
year 2000 from 13 7CS (UNSCEAR 1966, 1977). This has to be compared to an
average exposure from natural background levels of about 100 mrad/person/year.
On the other hand the global impact from controlled releases have been smaller.
While local concentrations in some areas have been higher than fallout concen-
trations, in no case has the ICRP derived recommended dose limit been exceeded
(preston et al. 1972, Preston 1975). In the UK the per capita dose from marine
disposals have been less than 0.003 percent of natural background (Mitchell
1971).
Assessments have also been made of the radiation doses to the biota in certain
areas and while the dose to some components of the ecosystem is elevated above
the natural background level the resultant dose is well below that estimated from
research and field studies to cause somatic and genetic damage to individual
organisms or populations (IAEA 1976). It is apparent that if the releases are con-
trolled within the limits set for man then the marine resources will be adequately
protected.
4 Ocean Dumping of Solid Radioactive Waste
In the 1950s and 1960s many countries used the oceans for dumping of packaged
low-level radioactive wastes. In 1972 the USA banned the dumping of high-level
radioactive wastes. Although the dumping of medium and low-level radioactive
wastes are allowed by law, no permits have been issued for ocean dumping of
this type of material since 1972.
At this same time there were intensive international efforts to reach agreement
on ocean dumping of all pollutants. The outcome was the UN Convention on the
Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes and Other Matter in the
Oceans (the London Dumping Convention of 1972). The International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA 1974) was charged with the task of defining radioactive
wastes unsuitable for dumping at sea and providing recommendations to ensure
that any dumping of radioactive material into the oceans involves no unaccept-
able degree of hazard to humans and the environment. In 1974 the IAEA made a
provisional defmition along with a recommended basis for issuing special permits
(IAEA 197 5c) and this was accepted by the signatories to the London Convention.
Since 1967 European dumping operations have been organized and conducted
by the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (NEA/OECD). During the period 1967-1977 a total of about
51,600 metric tons of packaged solid wastes, containing about 5,900 curies of
alpha-active material, about 190,000 curies of beta/gamma-emitters, and about
183,000 curies of tritium have been dumped in the northeast Atlantic Ocean.
The accumulated amounts expressed as fractions of the limited dumping rates
implied in the Provisional Defmition are 0.1% for alpha-active materials, 0.1%
beta/gamma-active materials, 1cr for tritium, and only twice approached 10%
of the upper limit for mass dumping rate of 100,000 tons/year (IAEA 1978).
During 1976-1978 the IAEA appointed two international study groups to
review the oceanographic and radiological basis for revision of the proviSional
defmition and recommendations (IAEA 1978a, 1978b). The oceanographic group
recognized that our understanding of the processes occurring in the deep oceans
430 W. L. Templeton
is insufficient to pennit the construction of a single comprehensive model of
deep ocean transport, diffusion and mixing. However, they did agree that the
model of Shepherd (1976) did provide a reasonable basis, although it only ap-
proximates the actual oceanographic processes resulting in the transport and
dispersion of radionuclides. Deep vertical upwelling, effects of large-scale topo-
graphic features and strong convective currents could result in the direct transfer
of deep bottom water to the surface, but are not explicitly in the model due to
our sparse understanding of the rates of vertical diffusion and advection. The
model did not assume that disposal of wastes in deep water, in excess of 4,000 m,
provides any isolation from the surface waters for the purposes of this assessment
of the dose to critical groups.
With the oceanographic model as a basis, calculations were made of the con-
centrations of radionuclides in water for the dose assessment of both (1) the
long-tenn concentration in the water for the appropriate part of the ocean basin
and (2) the appropriate maximum concentrations arising from short-term events.
In both cases the dose calculations are based upon bottom water concentrations
which implies that these levels would be acceptable to surface waters and there-
fore make it unnecessary to assume any values for vertical diffusion or transport
or to distinguish between hypothetical consumption of deep-sea organisms and
more realistic consumption of upper-layer organisms (IAEA 1978b). In this assess-
ment the critical pathway approach was applied and pathways chosen to include
those which exist today and some which may be important in the future.
Since it is difficult to foresee the time scale over which releases of radioactive
waste may continue, the calculations have assumed that releases continue for
40,000 years which is approximately the mean lifetime of 239Pu. The release
rates limits derived are therefore such that concentrations in the marine environ-
ment of long-lived radionuclides will increase very slowly over several thousand
years towards their limiting values. This is clearly very conservative; however, it
does allow waste dumping operations to be reduced or stopped at any time with-
out exceeding the limiting values. For example, if the dumping of 239 Pu is con-
tinued at the calculated release rate limit, the concentrations of 23 9Pu in the
ocean will slowly build up approaching the ICRP derived limit after 40,000 years.
If the practice ceases after 4,000, then only 10% of the ICRP derived limit will
have been reached. For shorter periods of time, the oceanographic model sug-
gests the release rate limits might be controlled by short-term processes of ad-
vection and upwelling. In order that unrealistic release limits for very short-lived
radionuclides are not estimated, it was assumed that the containment time on
the seabed was ten years and that three years decay occurred between the release
point and the exposure point.
In all cases the release rate limits derived corresponded directly, given the
pathways and parameters used, to the ICRP dose limits for individual members
of the public. It is anticipated that optimization procedures would usually result
in radiation doses lower than these limits (ICRP 1977). On the other hand, the
ICRP dose limits are not threshold values above which undesirable effects begin
to appear, but represent dose values corresponding to individual risks approach-
ing unacceptable levels.
~
::to
::tl
O.
e:.
:::tI
Table 2. IAEA dumping and release rate limits I»
Q..
Provisional a (IAEA 1974) Revised a (IAEA 1978b) ~.

n
Single Site Single site Ocean Basin
5:
C1>
of 10 17 m 3
'"
S·
Concentration b Concen tration c ....
Curies/yr
::r
C1>
Curies/ton Curies/yr Curies/ton Curies/yr
lOS lOS
o
n
Alpha-emitters 10 6 10 C1>
I»
but limited for 226Ra and =
supported 2 10 Po to 10 2 104 0.1 104 '"
Beta-gamma emitters 108 10 3 10 7 10 2 10 8

with half lives >0.5 yr
and 90 Sr and 137 Cs to 10 7 10 2
Tritium and beta-gamma

emitters <0.5 yr lOll 10 6 10 11 106 10 12
aUpper limit of 100,000 metric tons per year at anyone site.

bConcentration averaged over a gross mass not exceeding 100 metric tons.
cConcentration averaged over a gross mass not exceeding 1,000 metric tons.
oj:>.
w
432 W. L. Templeton
A significant change was made from the original assessment. Since the model
used provided for the calculation of the capacity of an ocean basin to receive
packaged wastes, the technical basis for the assessment is based upon rates of
release from the dwnped material and not the rate of dumping (Table 2). The
IAEA consultant groups concluded that there are no high level wastes that could
not be dwnped at sea within these limits and recommended that the quantities
should be strictly controlled on the basis of release rate limits.
Since our oceanographic knowledge of the deep oceans is so meager, members
of the European community and the USA are collaborating on studies in the
North Atlantic Ocean to provide additional data on advective and diffusion pro-
cesses in the deep layers of the ocean. Similar studies are being conducted by the
Japanese. These data should provide an improved basis for the oceanographic
and radiological models.
5 Deep-Sea Seabed Emplacement of Solid Radioactive Waste
Since the potential hazards to man and the ecosystem are largely determined by
the rates of release of radioactivity to the ocean, the present IAEA assessment
can provide the radiological basis for considering the deep oceans as an alternative
ultimate repository for high-level radioactive wastes. If the release rates to the
deep-ocean water can be controlled within these limits by suitable natural and
man-made containment, then there are no radioactive wastes that are intrinsi-
cally unsuitable for sub-seabed emplacement in the deep ocean.
One concept being explored by the USA Department of Energy (Anderson
et al. 1971, WHOI 1977) and other countries proposes that sub-seabed geologic
formations may be able to contain solid high-level wastes in isolation long enough
for them to decay to inconsequential levels. The concept is based upon the
premise that a set of sequential barriers could balance the rate of decay against
the rate of migration to man and his ecosystem. These barriers would be the
waste form itself, the containment canister, and the geological formation in
which the material is placed. The geological formations must have tectonic and
climatic stability, predictable uniformity over a large area and have a low proba-
bility of future resource development. Areas under study in the abyssal plains
are generally covered with 50 to 100 meters of red clay. Where they also occur
below the centers of wind-driven surface current gyres such areas appear to be
geologically stable and biologically relatively unproductive (Bishop and Hollister
1972).
The seabed sediments are considered to be the primary long-term barrier and
existing transport models would suggest containment in the sediments for 106
to 1011 years, depending upon physical and chemical characteristics ofthe sedi-
ments. An additional potential barrier is the deep-ocean water. There is ongoing
research to examine physical, chemical and mechanical properties of these ocean
sediments, assess the problems of heat dissipation and the impact upon these
properties, study deep-ocean properties and the character of deep-ocean biologi-
cal communities. The current assessment of the engineering and environmental
feasibility is that nothing has yet been discovered that discredits the concept.
However, it will be necessary to intensify the establishment of many oceanogra-
phic and ecological parameters in order to develop definitive radiological assess-
ments on a site by site basis.
While the Revised Definition and Recommendations of the IABA outlined
earlier restrict the dumping of radioactive wastes that exceed specified concen-
tration/mass limits, the acceptance of the concept of applying release rate limits
as developed by the IAEA provides a rational basis for further considering the
emplacement of radioactive wastes in the seabed as an alternative to terrestrial
geological repositories.
Acknowledgments
Prepared for the Department of Energy under Contract EY-76-C-06-l830.
References
Aarkrog, A. 1971. Radioecological investigations of plutonium in an Arctic

marine environment. Health Phys., 20.
Aarkrog, A. 1977. Environmental behavior of plutonium accidentally released at
Thule, Greenland. Health Phys., 32.
Anderson, D. R., Bishop, W. P., Bowen, V. T., Brannen, J. P., Caudle, W. N.,
Detry, R. J., Ewart, T. E., Haynes, D. E., Heath, G. R., Hessler, R. R., Hol-
lister, C. D., Keill, K., McGowan, J. A., Rohde, R. W., Schimmel, W. P.,
Schuster, C. L., Silva, A. J., Smyrl, W. H., Taft, B. A. and Talbert, D. M.
1971. Release pathways for deep seabed disposal of radioactive wastes. In:
Proc. Symp. on Impacts of Nuclear Releases into the Aquatic Environment,
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna.
Anon. 1955. Report on the investigations of the effects of radiation in the
Bikini region. Rep. Dept. Japan Fisheries Agency, Tokyo.
Anon. 1960. USSR health and safety regulations governing work with radioactive
materials and sources of ionizing radiation. State Publ. House, Moscow.
Bishop, W. P. and Hollister, C. D. 1972. Seabed leaked disposal-where to look.
Nuclear Techn., 24.
Bohn, G. 1903a. Influence des rayons du radium sur les animaux en voie de
croissance. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci., Paris, 136.
Bohn, G. 1903b. Influence des rayons du radium sur les oeufs vierges et fe-
condes et sur les premiers stades du developpement. Com pt. Rend. Acad.
Sci., Paris, 136.
Bowen, V. T., Livingston, H. D. and Burke, J. C. 1975. Distributions of transu-
ranie nuclides in sediments and biota of the North Atlantic Ocean. In: Proc.
IAEA Symp. Transuranic Nuclides in the Environment, Vienna.
Burton, J. D. 1965. Radioactive nuclides in seawater, marine sediments and
marine organisms. Ch. 22. In: Chemical Oceanography, Vol. II. J. P. Riley
and G. Skirrow (eds.), Academic Press, NY.
Burton, J. D. 1975. Radioactive nuclides in the marine environment. Ch. 18.
In: Chemical Oceanography, J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow (eds.), 2nd Ed.,
Academic Press, NY.
Butler, E. G. 1936. Effects of radium and x-rays on embryogenic development.
In: Biological Effects of Radiation, Vol. 1, B. M. Duggar (ed.), McGraw-Hill
Book Co., Inc., NY.
434 W. L. Templeton
Chipman, W. A. 1972. Ionizing radiation. In: Marine Ecology I, pt. 3. O. Kinne
(ed.), Wiley Interscience, NY.
Curie, P. 1910. Traite de Radioactivite. Vol. II, Ch. XVIII. Gauthier-Villars,
Paris.
Davis, W. 1979. Radioactive effluents from nuclear power stations and fuel re-
processing plants in Europe, 1972-1976. Nuclear Safety, 20.
Duggar, B. M. (ed.). 1936. Biological Effects of Radiation, Vols. I and II,
McGraw-Hill, NY.
Dunster, H. J. 1958. The disposal of radioactive liquid wastes into coastal
waters. In: Proc. U.N. Int. Conf. Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Vol. XVII,
United Nations, Geneva.
Duursma, E. K. 1972. Geochemical aspects and applications of radionuclides in
the sea. In: Oceanogr. Mar. BioI. Ann. Rev., Vol. 10, Allen and Unwin Ltd.,
London.
Elster, G. and Geitel, H. 1902. Physik. Zeit., iii p. 574, cited in E. Rutherford.
1906. Radioactive Transformations, Archibald Constable Co. Ltd., London.
Eve, A. S. 1907. The ionization of the atmosphere over the ocean. Phil. Mag.,
13.
Eve, A. S. 1908. The amount of radium present in seawater. Phil. Mag., 18.
Foster, R. F. 1972. The history of Hanford and its contribution of radionuclides
in the Columbia River. In: The Columbia River Estuary and Adjacent Oceanic
Waters, A. T. Pruter and D. L. Alverson (eds.), Univ. Wash. Press, Seattle.
Foster, R. F., Ophel, I. L. and Preston, A. 1971. Evaluation of human radiation
exposure. In: Radioactivity in the Marine Environment, A. Seymour (ed.),
National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Goldschmidt, V. M. 1937. The principles of distribution of chemical elements
in minerals and rocks. J. Chern. Soc., Pt. 1.
Hardy, E. P., Krey, P. W. and Volchok, H. L. 1973. Global inventory and distri-
bution of fallout plutonium. Nature, 241.
Hernegger, F. and Kavlick, B. 1935. Die quantitative Bestimmung sehr kleiner
Uranmengen und de Urangehalt des Meerwassers. Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss.,
Wien, Math-natuw. Kl., Abt. lla, 144.
Hines, N. O. 1962. Proving Ground. Univ. Wash. Press, Seattle.
IAEA (International Atomic Engery Agency). 1960. Disposal of radioactive
wastes, Vols. I and II, IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1961. Radioactive waste disposal
into the sea, Safety Series, No.5, IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1962. Disposal of radioactive
wastes into marine and fresh waters, IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1965. Methods of surveying and
monitoring marine radioactivity, Safety Series, No. 11, IAEA, Vienna.
wastes into seas, oceans and surface waters, IAEA, Vienna.
wastes into rivers, lakes, and estuaries, Safety Series, No. 36, IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1973. Radioactive contamination
of the marine environment. IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1974. Convention on the Preven-
tion of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter. INF CIRC/
205, IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1975a. Transuranic nuclides in
the environment. IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1975b. Impacts of nuclear re-
leases in to the aquatic environment. IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1975c. Convention on the Preven-

tion of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter. The defi-
nition required by annex I, paragraph 6, to the Convention, and the recom-
mendation required by Annex II, section D. INF CIRC/20S/Add I, IAEA,
Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1976. Effects of ionizing radi-
ation on aquatic organisms and ecosystems. Tech. Rpt. Series, No. 172,
IAEA, Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1978a. The oceanographic basis
of the IAEA revised definition and recommendations concerning high-level
radioactive waste unsuitable for dumping at sea. Tech. Doc-210, IAEA,
Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1978b. The radiological basis of
the IAEA revised definition and recommendations concerning high-level
radioactive waste unsuitable for dumping at sea. Tech. Doc-211, IAEA,
Vienna.
IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). 1978c. Convention on the Preven-
tion of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes and Other Matter. The defi-
nition required by Annex I, paragraph 6, to the Convention, and the Recom-
mendation Required by Annex II, section D. INF CIRC/20S/Add I/Rev. 1,
IAEA, Vienna.
ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection). 1965. Principles
of environmental monitoring related to the handling of radioactive materials.
ICRP Pub. 7, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection). 1966. Recommen-
dations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. ICRP
Publ. 9, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection). 1977. Recom-
mendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
Publ. 26, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
IUGG (International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics). 1963. Radioactive
tracers in oceanography, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics,
Paris.
Jenkins, C. E. 1969. Radionuclide Distribution in Pacific Salmon. Health Phys.,
17 (3).
Joly, J. J. 1899. Sci. Trans. R. Dublin Soc. 7. Cited in Riley, J. P. (1965).
Joly, J. J. 1908a. The radioactivity of seawater. Phil. Mag., 15.
Joly, J. J. 1908b. On the radium content of deep sea sediment. Phil. Mag., 16,
190.
Joseph, A. B., Gustafson, P. F., Russell, I. R., Schuert, E. A., Volchok, H. L. and
Tamplin, A. 1971. Sources of radioactivity and their characteristics. In:
Radioactivity in the marine environment, National Research Council-National
Academy of Science, Washington, D. C.
Knocke, W. 1909. Emanation of water of the Atlantic Ocean. Physik, 2, 10.
Livingston, H. D. and Bowen, V. T. 1977. Windscale effluent in the waters and
sediments of the Minch. Nature, 269, 5629, London.
Lowman, F. G. 1960. Marine biological investigations at the Eniwetok test site.
In: Proc. IAEA. Sci. Conf. Disposal of Radioactive Wastes, II, IAEA, Vienna.
MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food). 1978. Fisheries Research,
1974-1977, Lowestoft, London.
Mauchline, J. and Templeton, W. L. 1964. Artificial and natural radioisotopes in
the marine environment. In: Oceanogr. Mar. BioI. Ann. Rev. 2, Allen and
Unwin Ltd., London.
436 W. L. Templeton
Mitchell, N. T. 1971. Radioactivity in surface and coastal waters of the British
Isles, 1970. MAFF Tech. Rpt., FRL 8, Lowestoft, London.
Miyake, Y., Sugiura, Y. and Kameda, K. 1955a. On the artificial radioactivity in
the sea near Japan. Pap. Met. Geophys., 6.
Miyake, Y. Sugiura, Y. and Kameda, K. 1955b. On the distribution of radioactiv-
ity in the sea around Bikini Atoll in June, 1954. Pap. Met. Geophys., 5.
Murray, C. N., Kautsky, H., Hoppenheit, M. and Domian, M. 1978. Actinide
activities in water entering the northern North Sea. Nature, 276, Lond.
National Academy of Sciences. 1957. The effects of atomic radiation on ocean-
ography and fisheries. Pubi. No. 551, National Research Council-National
National Academy of Sciences. 1959a. Radioactive waste disposal into Atlantic
and Gulf Coastal Waters. Pubi. No. 655, National Research Council-National
National Academy of Sciences. 1959b. Considerations on the disposal of radio-
active wastes from nuclear-powered ships into the marine environment. Pubi.
No. 658, National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences, Wash-
ington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences. 1962. Disposal of radioactive waste into Pacific
coastal waters. Pubi. No. 985, National Research Council-National Academy
of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences. 1971. Radioactivity in the marine environment.
National Academy of Sciences. 1975. Assessing potential ocean pollutants.
Noshkin, V. E. and Wong, K. M. In press. Plutonium remobilization from sedi-
mentary sources to solution in the marine environment. In: Proc. NEAjOECD
Seminar on Radioecology, Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.
Opperman, K. 1913. Die Entwicklung von ForeUeneiern nach Befruchtung mit
radiumbestrahlten Samenfaden. Arch. f. mikrosk. Anat., 83, 307-323.
Pentreath, R. J. 1977. Radionuclides in marine fish. In: Oceanogr. Mar. BioI.
Ann. Rev., 15, Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London.
Pentreath, R. J., Jeffries, D. F., Lovelt, M. B. and Nelson, D. M. In press. The
behavior of transuranic and other long-lived radio nuclides in the Irish Sea,
and its relevance to the deep sea disposal of radioactive wastes. In: Proc.
NEAjOECD Seminar on Radioecology, Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organ-
ization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.
Pettersson, H. 1937. The proportion of thorium to uranium in rocks and in the
sea. Anz. Akad. Wiss., Wien, Math-naturw. Kl, 74.
Piggott, C. S. 1933. Radium content of ocean bottom sediments. Amer. J. Sci.
25.
Preston, A. 1970. Concentrations of iron-55 in commercial fish species from the
North Atlantic. Mar. BioI., 6.
Preston, A. 1975. The radiological consequences of releases from nuclear facili-
ties to the aquatic environment. In: Proc. Symp. Impacts of Nuclear Releases
into the Aquatic Environment, IAEA, Vienna.
Preston, A. and Jeffries, D. F. 1967. The assessment of the principal public radi-
ation exposure from, and the resulting control of, discharges of aqueous
radioactive waste from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Factory
at Windscale, Cumberland. Health Phys., 13.
Preston, A. and Jeffries, D. F. 1969. The ICRP critical group concept in relation
to the Windscale sea discharges. Health Phys., 16.
Preston, A. and Mitchell, N. T. 1975. Evaluation of public radiation exposure
from the controlled marine disposal of radioactive waste (with special refer-
ence to the United Kingdom). In: Proc. lARA Symp. Radioactive Contami-
nation of the Marine Environment, IAEA, Vienna.
Preston, A., Woodhead, D. S., Mitchell, N. T. and Pentreath, R. J. 1972. The
impact of artificial radioactivity on the oceans and on oceanography. Proc.
Roy. Soc., Edinburgh, (B)72.
Pruter, A. T. and Alverson, D. L. 1972. The Columbia River estuary and adja-
cent ocean water. Univ. Wash. Press, Seattle.
Revelle, R., Folsom, T. R., Goldberg, E. D. and Isaacs, J. D. 1956. Nuclear
science and oceanography. In: Proc. Int. Conf. Peaceful Uses Atomic Eng.,
XIII, UN, NY.
Riley, J. P. 1965. Historical introduction. In: Chemical oceanography, Vol. 1,
J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow (eds.), Academic Press, London.
Riley, J. P. 1975. Analytical chemistry of sea water. Ch. 19. In: Chemica10cean-
ography, Vol. 3, J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow (eds.), Academic Press, NY.
Riley, J. P. and Skirrow, G. (ed.). 1965. Chemical oceanography, Vols. I and II,
Academic Press, NY.
Satterly, J. 1911. The radium content of various fresh and sea waters and some
other substances. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 16.
Schaefer, M. B. (ed.). 1957. Effects of nuclear explosion on marine biology.
AEC Rep., WT-1013 USAEC, Washington, D.C.
Shepherd, J. G. 1976. A simple model for the dispersion of radioactive wastes
dumped on the deep seabed. Fish. Res. Tech. Rep., No. 29. Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, UK.
Slansky, C. M. 1971. Principles for limiting the introduction of radioactive
waste into the sea. Atomic Energy Review, 9, IAEA, Vienna.
Strutt, R. J. 1906. On the distribution of radium in the earth's crust. Proc. Roy.
Soc., A78.
Sumiya, M. In press. Dietary survey around nuclear sites in the Tokai area of
Japan and their radiological significance to the relevant population. In:
Proc. NEAjOECD Seminar on Radioecology, Paris.
United Nations (UN). 1956. Sixteen volumes. Proc. of 1st UN International
Conferences on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. August 1955, Geneva.
United Nations, NY.
United Nations (UN). 1958. Thirty-three volumes. Proc. of 2nd UN International
Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. September 1958, Geneva.
United Nations, Geneva.
UNSCEAR (United Nations). 1966. Report of UN Scientific Committee on the
effects of atomic radiation. General Assembly, 21st Session Sup. 14. United
Nations, NY.
UNSCEAR (United Nations). 1977. Sources and effects of ionizing radiation
report of UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation,
United Nations, NY.
USAEC (United States Atomic Energy Commission). 1965. Rules and regu-
lations, Title lO-Ch. 1, Code of Federal Regulations. Pt. 20-Standards for
protection against radiation, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
USAEC (United States Atomic Energy Commission). 1956. Operation Troll,
Joint Preliminary Report, J. H. Hadey (ed.), HASL, USAEC, NY.
WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). 1977. High-level nuclear wastes
in the seabed? Oceanus, 20, 1. Woods Hole, Mass.
The Royal Society and the Study of Coral Reefs
C. Maurice Yonge
The existence of coral reefs with their hazards to navigation in the Persian Gulf,
Red Sea and adjacent regions in the Indian Ocean was known to the early civili-
zations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. But the nature of the organisms that formed
them long remained mysterious. Aristotle conceived the idea of a ladder or scale
of nature leading from the inorganic by ascending steps through lower to higher
plants and so, by way of animals of increasing complexity, to man the sole pos-
sessor of a rational soul. Between higher plants and lower animals there were, in
his translated words, "many marine creatures which leave the observer in doubt
as to whether they are plants or animals, for they grow on the rocks, and many
die if detached." Corals were amongst such plant-animals or zoophytes as they
became termed.
Following the Renaissance such vegetatively growing organisms were increas-
ingly regarded as plants and were so classified by John Ray. This conclusion ap-
peared confirmed by the Mediterranean observations of Luigi Marsigli who noted
the protrusion from the branches of red coral of white flowers ("fiori bianchi")
which disappeared when these were removed from water. In a letter dated 13
December, 1706, he states that "Coral has been suspected by the naturalists of
all ages for a sea plant, but the moderns have demonstrated it such."
Yet within a few years of this conclusive demonstration, Jean Andre Peyssonel
of Marseilles is observing these same "flowers" but their presence at all seasons
and possession of a mouth with surrounding retractile tentacles so resembling
sea anemones but inhabiting tunnels within a skeleton. On death, moreover, they
gave out the odor of decomposing animals. But so heterodox were such views
that, to save their author's reputation, they were published anonymously and so
without effect. Opinion does not change until 1744 when Abraham Trembley
The Royal Society and the Study of Coral Reefs 439
electrifies-the expression is justified-the scientific world by his observations
and beautifully performed grafts on Hydra. There is no longer doubt about the
nature of these flower-like polyps.
Meanwhile Peyssonel has become Physician-Botanist to His Most Christian
Majesty of France on the island of Guadalupe where, following the distinguished
example of Malpighi and Leeuwenhoek, he gives wider expression of his views by
way of the Royal Society. He sends what is described as a curious treatise "con-
taining upwards of 400 quarto pages in manuscript" which was extracted and
translated by Mr. William Watson, F.R.S. and read before the Society on May 7,
1752. He demonstrates the errors of those who believe corals to be plants or
regarded them as no better than stones. But there is little exactitude. We are in-
formed (in Mr. Watson's extract) that "In the madrepore, its animal occupies the
extremity; in the millepore, the substance; in corallines and sponges, the void
places; in coral and lithophytons, the cortical parts." Where the animal was seen
it consisted of a head or center "surrounded by several feet or claws" giving
them, in his view, some relationship with cuttlefish where the head is similarly
surrounded.
Clearer demonstration now comes from the studies of John Ellis, merchant
and eventually Royal Agent for West Florida but pre-eminently a naturalist. His
interest in "zoophytes," begun in ignorance of Peyssonel's work, comes in 1751
when he arranges what he calls a "landscape" out of a "curious Collection of Sea-
plants and Corallines" from the Island of Angelsey, in North Wales, and another
from Dublin. Asked by the noted plant physiologist the Rev. Stephen Hales to
prepare others for the edification of the Princess of Wales, Ellis comes to ex-
amine his collections microscopically with the tentative conclusion that the con-
tained hydroids are animals. "To determine how fair these Suspicions were
just" he proceeds "to the Island of Sheppey, on the coast of Kent" and later to
the "seaside at Brightehnstone, in Sussex." Again aided by a microscope and
with the help of artists he prepared descriptions of a variety of colonial coelen-
terates concluding with that of a "large clustered Sea-Polype found in the North
Seas, near the Pole," this an umbelliferous pennatulid.
His observations, published initially in the Philosophical Transactions in 1754
but at greater length the following year in his "Essay Towards the Natural Histo-
ry of the Corallines" clinched the matter. Summarizing he notes that "Not only
the Substances described in the preceding Pages, are of Animal Production but
e_ven that those compact Bodies, known by the common Appelation of Star-
Stones, Brain-Stones, petrified Fungi, and the like, brought from various parts of
the East and West Indies, are of like Origin," here stating his belief that reef-
building corals are animals. Elected to the Royal Society in 1754, he won its
highest award, the Copley Medal, in 1767 for papers published that year on the
"Animal Nature of the Genus called Corallina" and "Actinia Sociata or clustered
animal flower."
Ellis was in frequent correspondence with Linnaeus and it was largely his
arguments that led to the "lithophytes" (which included the stony corals) being
transferred in the 6th edition of the Systema naturae into the 4th order of the
440 C. M. Yonge
Vermes. Nevertheless even in the 10th edition linnaeus clung to the belief that
corals were animated flowers although in the 12th edition Ellis fmally convinced
him that all lime secreting organisms were animals, so including the coralline algae.
Such was the state of knowledge about corals when the Royal Society took
the major step of promoting an expedition to the South Seas into regions where
coral reefs abound. With the laudable object of establishing more exactly the
distance between the earth and the sun and so aiding the science of navigation, it
had been proposed by Edmond Halley in 1716 that precise observations should
be made during the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This was to occur
on June 6,1761 and again on June 3,1769 and then not again for over a century.
No success attended observations made on the first of these occasions which
rendered more important those planned for the second. To this end, in Novem-
ber, 1767, the Royal Society set up a Transit Committee and one of the sites
chosen for observations was the recently discovered island of Tahiti.
It proved easy to persuade the Admiralty while George III gave money which
must rank as amongst the earliest official grants for purely scientific purposes to
be made in Great Britain. The Society had recommended Dalrymple as leader
but the Admiralty, in their greater wisdom on this occasion, selected lieutenant
James Cook. The work of the Expedition which, after visiting Tahiti, was to cir-
cumnavigate the world, included observations of all kinds many concerning
natural history. Here the Society had its way and Cook was presented, as pas-
senger, with Joseph Banks, aged only 25 but aheady a Fellow, "a gentleman of
large fortune, who is well versed in Natural History." And not with Banks alone
but accompanied by a staff of eight together with Daniel Solander, pupil of
linnaeus whose move to Great Britain had been followed by appointment to the
staff of the British Museum and election to the Royal Society.
Their equipment was impressive. As recorded by John Ellis in a letter to
linnaeus, "No people ever went to sea better fitted out for the purpose of Natu-
ral History, nor more elegantly. They have got a fine library of Natural History;
they have all sorts of machines for catching and preserving insects; all kinds of
nets, trawls, drags and hooks for coral fishing; they have even a curious contriv-
ance of a telescope, by which, put into water, you can see the bottom to a great
depth, where it is clear. They have many cases of bottles with ground stoppers,
of several sizes, to preserve animals in spirits ... besides there are many people
whose sole business it is to attend them for this very purpose. They have two
painters and draughtsmen, several volunteers who have a tolerable notion of
Natural History; in short Solander assured me this expedition would cost Mr
Banks ten thousand pounds."
It was therefore as a direct consequence of the Society's initiative that on
August 28, 1768 H.M.S. Endeavour set sail from Plymouth. After making the
required, but in the event not very fruitful, astronomical observations at Tahiti
and then surveying the coasts of New Zealand, Cook proceeded further west in-
evitably to encounter the east cost of Australia. There, after landing at Botany
Bay, he began the northward journey along the coast of New South Wales sur-
veying and naming every significant feature.
From the time he crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, without knowing it, Cook
was sailing within the distant shelter of the vast complex of reefs that became
known as the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. At their southern end these are
represented by the Swain Reefs some 150 miles offshore but gradually the
outer reefs come closer in with increasing numbers of coral formations arising
within their shelter. One such, now named Green Island, was encountered on
June 10, 1770 when rounding a point he called Cape Grafton to enter the shal-
low indentation of Trinity Bay the northern extremity of which was to be named
Cape Tribulation "because here began all our troubles."
Cook was a careful navigator usually anchoring at night in reef infested waters
but the weather being calm and these inshore waters apparently clear the En-
deavour proceeded gently on her course by the light of full moon. It was a
few minutes before 11 pm on Monday June 11 that, in Cook's words the ship
"struck and stuck fast." It is unnecessary to relate with what difficulty the jagged
hole in her hull, fortunately partly blocked with coral, was sufficiently closed to
allow movement north into the shelter of what is now the mouth of the Endeavour
River. What matters is Cook's encounter with the line of the Outer Barrier.
His first indication of the problems of further navigation came when gazing
to seaward from the 500 foot summit of Grassy Hill where "I saw what gave me
no small uneasiness which was a no. of Sand banks or shoals laying all along the
coast ... the outermost extended off to sea as far as I could see ..." This is
among the most complex stretches of water within the Barrier, a maze of reefs,
some merely breaking the surface at low tide but others having sand cays and
even mangroves upon them with a number of high granite islands.
Cautious progress through these reefs led the repaired Endeavour to the com-
manding mass of lizard Island, 1,179 feet high and only a few miles within the
outermost reefs. From this view point, on August 12, Cook, the first civilized
man to do so, views the line of the Outer Barrier. And in this region it is a line,
the diffuse succession of more southern outer reefs giving place to a succession
of ribbon reefs. A line of white surf generated by a long oceanic swell marks the
crest of reefs which on the seaward side descend into the deep blue of profound
oceanic depths. It was this sight that prompted Cook's comment that ''to my
mortification I discovered a Reef of Rocks laying 2 or 3 Leagues without the
Island, extending in a line NW by SE farther than I could see on which the Sea
broke very high."
He also observed what "appeared to be several breaks or Partitions" in this
"Reef of Rocks" denoted by strips of blue water that penetrate the line of white
surf and yellow to green water over the summit of the reefs. These are kept open,
their sides and bottom swept clean, by the in and out rush of tidal waters.
Through one of these, Cook's Passage a little to the north of Lizard Island, the
Endeavour entered the open Pacific there to become becalmed and carried to-
wards the outer face of the Barrier with final escape into now welcome shelter
through the more northern opening of Providential Channel.
One may wonder what Cook and still more his scientific passengers made of
all this. Cook seems to have accepted coral reefs as a natural hazard of tropical
442 c. M. Yonge
navigation and if asked about their mode of formation would doubtless have
referred the questioner to Banks and Solander. They would have been aware that
corals were animals but perhaps of little more. Shortly after re-entering the
shelter of the reefs they made collections including, as Banks records, "many
curious fish and molluscs besides Corals of many species, all alive," continuing
by deploring "that we had not time to make proper observations upon this curi-
ous tribe of animals but we were so entirely taken up with the more conspicuous
links in the chain of creation as fish, Plants, Birds &c,&c that it was impossible."
The many stony corals or madrepores brought home were studied jointly by
Ellis and Solander although both were to die before the publication in 1786 of
The Natural History of many Curious and Uncommon Zoophytes collected
from Various Parts of the Globe by the late John Ellis Esq., F.R.S. and syste-
matically arranged and described by the late Daniel Solander, M.D., F.R.S. One
notes retention of zoophytes which in a non-scientific manner continues to be
used to denote hydroids and polyzoans until well into the last century.
As largely responsible for Cook's first voyage, the Royal Society could take
pride in the discovery of the greatest of coral formations and the collection of
numerous hitherto unknown corals. The Society was less intimately concerned
with the two later voyages although keenly interested in both planning and re-
sults. In respect of reefs the only further outcome is the attempt by J. R. Forster,
the highly difficult naturalist on the second voyage, to explain the form of atolls
in his Theory of the Formation of Isles in 1778. "By instinct" he considered,
corals grew outward forming a ring to secure "in the middle a calm and sheltered
place."
For a longish period the Royal Society is only very indirectly concerned with
coral reef seas. The crucial observations of the French naturalists, J. R. Quoy
and J. Gaimard, on the circumnavigating voyage of the Uranie and Physicienne
in 1817, that reef-building corals are confined to shallow illuminated waters was
followed by what appeared as the only possible explanation for the form of
atolls, that they occupy the summits of barely submerged volcanic craters.
Darwin changes all this and not by direct observations of reefs but because of
the evidence of earth movements in South America. "Daily," he wrote in his
Journal of Researches, "it is forced home on the mind of the geologist that
nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of the crust
of this earth." When so much had risen so much else must have sunk and his sub-
sidence theory of barrier reef and atoll formation was thought out, as he states
in his Autobiography "on the west coast of South America before I had seen a
true coral reef." What he later saw at Cocos Keeling atoll supported these earlier
thoughts.
Published under the title of The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs in
1842, his arguments received almost immediate acceptance and were enthusiasti-
cally supported by J. D. Dana, naturalist on the U. S. Exploring Expedition of
183842. The Royal Society is not to appear further on the scene until its
further activities result in the presentation of a convincingly argued alternative
theory. During the Second of these International Congresses, this speaker con-
tributed a paper on "The Inception and Significance of the Challenger Expe-
dition" the centenary of the sailing of which we were then celebrating in Edin-
burgh. Here the Royal Society under the major stimulus ofW. B. Carpenter and
Wyville Thomson assumes major responsibility. On October 21, 1871, it ap-
pointed a Circumnavigating Dredging Committee which, in collaboration with
the Admiralty, was to organize the Challenger Expedition of 1872-76.
Of the scientific staff under Wyville Thomson and of the results we are solely
concerned with John Murray and his work on marine bottom deposits. We pro-
ceed immediately to mention of a paper published in the Proceedings of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh and presented on April 5, 1880 with Sir Wyville
Thomson, Vice-President in the Chair, entitled "On the Structure and Origin of
Coral Reefs and Islands" by John Murray. His argument was that the foundation
of barrier reefs and atolls were prepared "by the building up of submarine vol-
canoes by the deposition on their summits of organic and other sediments." The
coral growth would then, he considered, "assume an atoll form, owing to the
more abundant supply of food on the outer margins, and the removal of dead
coral rock from the interior portions by currents and by the action of the car-
bonic acid dissolved in sea-water." No universal subsidence was needed; here was,
as Murray pointed out, a means whereby barrier reefs and atolls were likely to
appear in areas of slow elevation, of rest or even of slow subsidence.
This was an undoubted alternative to Darwin's views with the truth, as soon
became apparent, to be decided only by actual investigation of the basis of rock
on which an atoll rested. This was not a matter easy of decision because it called
for the erection and long continued activity of deep drilling machinery on some
inevitably remote oceanic atoll. The controversy affected the ageing Darwin
deeply; his coral reef book had been his first and so particularly prized contri-
bution to science. In a letter to Alexander Agassiz, another coral worker and
sympathetic to Murray's views, he wrote in May 1881 and so within a year of
his death, of his wish "that some doubly rich millionaire would take it into his
head to have borings made in some of the Pacific and Indian atolls, and bring
home cores for slicing from a depth of 500 or 600 feet."
Plans to stimulate just such an activity began to be discussed during the early
1890s in a series of meetings of the British Association beginning in 1893 when
W. J. Sollas opened a discussion on "Coral Reefs: Fossil and Recent" which re-
sulted in general agreement that only a deep boring in a suitable place would re-
veal how the truth lay. Sollas now gets in touch with Anderson Stuart and later
Edgeworth David, of the University of Sydney, who persuaded the New South
Wales Government to promise the use ofadiamond drill with all necessary facilities
The Royal Society comes into the picture with an allocation of £500 and ap-
pointment of a Coral Research Committee under the chairmanship of T. G. Bon-
ney. This money with later additions was to cover the British costs of an expe-
dition led by Sollas to the atoll of Funafuti in the Ellice Islands in 1896. He was
accompanied by J. Stanley Gardiner, later to work extensively on coral reefs in
the Indian Ocean and eventually to occupy the chair of zoology at Cambridge.
They were joined at Sydney by Charles Hedley, curator of molluscs at the Aus-
444 C. M. Yonge
tralian Museum. Together with the drilling party and their equipment, they were
transported on H.M.S. Penquin to Funafuti to remain there from May 26 to the
end of July.
The drilling apparatus was erected near the margin of the lagoon but pene-
tration proved difficult until, at a depth of 105 feet, "material which flowed
like quicksand, baffling the tool and choking the pipes" (Bonney) stopped
further progress. Another boring was even less successful and the prime object
of the expedition had clearly not been achieved. However, extensive collections
had been made by Gardiner and Hedley and the atoll with its surrounding waters
surveyed in considerable detail.
Activities of this nature in the central Pacific were clearly not suitably organ-
ized from the other side of the globe but fortunately interest was maintained in
Australia. This was largely due to the arresting personality of Edgeworth David,
a Welshman educated at Oxford who, after initial appointment as a geological
surveyor in New South Wales, had been appointed Professor at Sydney in 1891.
Later he was to accompany Shackleton to the Antarctic there to ascend Mount
Erebus and reach the South Magnetic Pole and also to direct Australian mining
on the western front in the First World War. He fust appears on the international
scientific scene by his leadership of a second Funafuti expedition in 1898. But
although boring this time reached a depth of 643 feet and so more than attained
Darwin's target, the cores obtained were entirely of coral. Feeling that the lime-
stone cap must surely have been almost penetrated, a final attempt was made in
the following year, this time under the leadership of A. E. Finkh with G. H. Hal-
ligan responsible for under-water boring in the lagoon. The old bore-hole was
re-opened and drilling continued to a fmal depth of 1114 feet-but still without
encountering the underlying volcanic rock.
The cores were sent to Great Britain where they were examined in detail. The
results of the three expeditions were published in 1904 in a special volume of
the Philosophical Transactions with an accompanying volume of maps and en-
titled "The Atoll of Funafuti; Borings into a Coral Reef and the Results; Being
the Report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society." Some lines may
SUitably be quoted from the Introduction by T. G. Bonney,
Into the controversies about the development of coral reefs, those who have
been concerned in the preparation of this volume have not attempted to
enter. They have endeavoured to state facts and leave to readers to interpret
these for themselves. They trust that arduous and costly as this undertaking
has been, it and the labours of those who have worked out its results have not
been fruitless, and that the mass of information now acquired will be an im-
portant addition to Natural Science. At any rate, the composition, zoological
and chemical, of an atoll down to a depth of 1114 feet has now, for the first
time, been made known.
It might initially be thought that the demonstrated presence of a cap of over

1000 feet of reef limestone proved the occurrence of subsidence but, as the ad-
herents of Murray's views were quick to indicate, the boring might have passed
through the deep marginal talus of coral fragments and not through the center of
the atoll. So, in the event, the three expeditions proved nothing and it was left
to surveys accompanying atom bomb tests after the second World War to reveal
the presence of underlying basaltic foundations by boring to depths of over
4000 feet on Eniwetok atoll in 1952. Here, certainly, Darwin's views were upheld.
The biological results of the Funafuti expeditions largely consisted of papers
by Gardiner and Hedley describing the reef formations with taxonomic studies
of corals and other reef organisms. The calcareous algae, both surf dwelling red
nullipores and the branching green Halimeda to some depth, emerged as major
sources of consolidation and of sediments respectively. The maps revealed the
presence along the exposed reef surfaces of the spur and surge channels the full
Significance of which was only later to be fully realized.
We are now at the beginning of the present century which sees initial interest
in coral morphology and taxonomy extended to embrace more dynamic aspects
covering function and ecology. This is primarily the achievement ofT. Wayland
Vaughan and A. G. Mayor, the latter first assisting Alexander Agassiz and later
to found the Tortugas Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
There is increasing concern with coral physiology, reproduction and growth and
the extent of resistance to such major variants as temperature, salinity and sedi-
ment content. The Dutch, working at Batavia, play their part with discovery that
reefs may establish themselves on a muddy substrate and with experiments on
the significance of the endosymbiotic dinoflagellates present in all reef-building
corals.
Not surprisingly the Australians and particularly those living in Queensland
become keenly interested in the Great Barrier Reef which leads to the foundation
in 1922 of a still functioning Great Barrier Reef Committee. It was an invitation
from the Committee, again by way of the British Association, that was responsi-
ble for the expedition which this speaker took to Australia in 1928 to spend
over a year on Low Isles, a small coral formation north of Cairns and a little
south of Cape Tribulation.
This was not a Royal Society expedition although some money was given and
the organizing committee contained many members of the Society including
Edgeworth David while Stanley Gardiner was joint secretary. Our concern was to
establish a marine laboratory on the small coral cay and there study the con-
ditions of life in coral reef seas from chemical and physical variables by way of
plankton to all aspects of the physiology and ecology of corals and representa-
tive members of the associated fauna. Geographical aspects were covered sepa-
rately by J. A. Steers, later Professor of Geography at Cambridge, who with two
assistants spent some months examining a range of reef formations. He paid a
second visit in 1936.
The only immediate effect of this Expedition was the foundation by the
Japanese in 1938 of a marine station in the rich coral waters of the Palau Islands
with a program largely based on our results. Some excellent work was done but
all ended with destruction when the Americans captured these islands. Later
came the extensive oceanographical and reef surveys carried out in the course of
446 C. M. Yonge
Operation Crosswords at Bikini and Eniwetok and elsewhere in the Marshall
Islands.
Royal Society activities in the Pacific resume with the establishment in 1956
of a Southern Zone Committee under the chainnanship of C. F. A. Pantin. An
expedition to southern Chile was followed in 1965 by a return to coral reef
waters around the Solomon Islands with subsequent co-operation with the Royal
Society of New Zealand in a Cook Bicentenary Expedition to Aitutaki, Cook
Islands in 1969. The Society also established a field station on Aldabra in the
Indian Ocean which, although primarily engaged on terrestrial ecology with par-
ticular reference to the giant tortoises, has contributed to knowledge about coral
reef ecology.
In 1971, aware of the need for further and more precise infonnation about
the nature and foundations of the reefs of the Great Barrier, J. A. Steers came
to the Southern Zone Committee with proposals for another major expedition.
We obtained the interests of the Universities at Brisbane and Townsville and in
the event a Royal Society and Universities of Queensland Expedition was success-
fully mounted in 1973. David Stoddart from Cambridge, who had been involved
in all the recent coral reef activities including Aldabra, was agreed upon as leader
but much the greater proportion of the numerous other participants were from
Australia. Attention was concentrated on the great stretch of reefs north of
Cairns, the more distant regions never more than very superficially known. Fol-
lowing a Discussion Meeting in January 1976, the major results were published
in 1978 in a volume entitled "The Northern Great Barrier Reef' which consists
in almost equal parts of papers that appeared in the A and B series of the Philo-
sophical Transactions.
Reference to that volume reveals the scale of this expedition. Basically it had
to do with geomorphology paying particular attention to the low woody islands
characteristic of the central region and including Low Isles and with the nature
and origin of the sediments of which reefs are such enonnous producers. The
Royal Australian Navy assisted in the geophysical examination of sub-bottom
sedimentary structure and the contact between reef and non-reef rocks. Samples
were taken for carbon dating recent events in the history of the reef area.
Zonation of corals and other benthic fauna was of concern as was the flora
of the reef islands. The ribbon reefs of the central region, through which Cook
had left, later to regain, the shelter of the reefs were found succeeded further
north by a series of newly described deltaic and dissected reefs.
Results of accompanying and earlier archaeological studies reveal that all
events preceding establishment of this vast series of reefs could have been viewed
by the eyes of locally dwelling man over the past 18,000 years. It is indeed only
some 8000 years since the seas began the rapid transgression which brought their
surface around and then over the limestone hills that form the basis of modern
reefs. We may fmally concentrate on what is now known of Low Isles themselves.
First mentioned by Cook, the day before he was wrecked, as "a small low
Island which lay about 2 Leagues from the Main" to avoid which "we hauld off
north," it was later noted by King in 1819 and by MacGillivray, naturalist on the
Rattlesnake, in 1848. It was surveyed in fine detail by Michael Spender during
the 1928/29 expedition and then, in varying detail to show the effect of cyclones
or in connection with new biological surveys but always in relation to Spender's
map, in 1931, 1934, 1954, 1965 and now again in most careful detail in 1973.
For no reef area in the world can changes over a corresponding period have
been so fully recorded. Low Isles, it should be noted, is a complete reef formation
arising in mid-channel between the coast and the inner barrier reefs and so fully
exposed to the SE Trades which blow for about 9 months in the year. There is
here full interplay between the forces of wind and weather on the one hand and
of coral growth-involving the whole range of calcium secreting organisms-on
the other. Striking alterations have occurred as shown in the paper dealing with
these 45 years of change on low wooded islands by D. R. Stoddart and others.
These involve the area of the sand cay with its supporting beach rock, the extent
of the seaward ramparts controlling conditions for coral growth over the reef
flat and for mangroves which are a feature of this and similar islands. Today
these cover a much wider area than in 1928.
What has been learnt from study of these changes is the degree of importance
different reef features possess as evidence for past events. Carbon dating places
the age of the sand cay as around 3000 years so that the length of recorded ob-
servations begins to extend over an, increasingly significant proportion of its
history. We may finally note that the first sight of Low Isles by Cook and this
latest survey 203 years later are linked by the common initial stimulus supplied
by the Royal Society of London.
Early 19th Century Oceanography around Terra Australis
Ian S.F. Jones andJ.E. Jones
1 Introduction
The first attempts to make systematic measurements of the oceans around

Australia appear to have been those made by a French scientific expedition of
1800-1804 led by Nicolas Baudin. At that time marine science was still in its in-
fancy. Nevertheless, it included knowledge of the working of the tides, explained
by Sir Isaac Newton and elaborated upon by Pierre Simon de Laplace, experi-
ments on the salinity of the sea, recorded by Robert Boyle, and an explanation
of the trade winds provided by Edmund Halley. There was topical interest in such
matters as the chemical analysis of sea water, collections of shallow-water ani-
mals, the correlation of information on oceanic winds and currents and the
temperatures of sea waters. The systematic measurement of the surface tempera-
tures was desired partly as an indication of the existence of ocean currents.
Our paper describes some aspects of marine science in Australian waters in
the earliest period of Australian history, from the foundation of the first Europe-
an settlement until the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
In 1788, 18 years after Captain James Cook discovered the fertile east coast
of Australia, until then known speculatively as "Terra Australis Incognita," the
British established an isolated settlement there at Port Jackson. On the voyage
out from England of the First Fleet, systematic daily measurements of atmo-
spheric temperatures were recorded by J. White (1790). This was not, however,
a scientific voyage. It had the very practical aim of conveying some 700 convicts,
with 200 marines to guard them and supplies for founding a distant colony. The
foothold established by the British was at first very precarious, and although
short exploratory voyages were made along the coast north and south of Port
Early 19th Century Oceanography around Terra Australis 449
Jackson, twelve years passed before the British government organized a com-
plete circumnavigation and survey of the continent. For this they sent out
Matthew Flinders in charge of the Investigator in 1801. Their interest in doing so
was doubtless spurred on by the Baudin expedition sent to the same area the
preceding year. There had been one previous scientific expedition to reach Port
Jackson that under the command of Malaspina, sent into the Pacific 1789-1794
by Carlos III of Spain, but its results were not reported.
2 The Baudin Expedition
The French expedition led by Nicholas Baudin had sailed from Le Havre in
October 1800 expressly to explore the southern and northwestern shores of
Terra Australis. Baudin himself had suggested the voyage to the Minister of the
Navy and his proposal had been approved by the Institut National to which it
had been referred. National prestige would be enhanced both by possible geo-
graphic discoveries and by scientific research. Baudin had already led a scientific
expedition to the West Indies between 1796 and 1798.
On board the Geographe, a corvette of 350 tons and the Naturaliste, a slightly
smaller vessel (Fig. 1), was a comprehensive collection of 23 "savants" or scien-
tists. The number included botanists, zoologists, mineralogists, geographers,
draughtsmen, horticulturists, hydrographers and astronomers. On board also was
Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of the distinguished explorer, and himself later
to lead an expedition to the Pacific. The names of two ensigns are worth noting:
Henri de Freycinet and Louis de Freycinet. The latter was to become joint-histo-
rian of the present voyage and leader of the next major scientific voyage to the
Figure 1. The Geographe and Naturaliste at anchor in Port Jackson 1802. (From
Peron and Freycinet 1819).
450 I. S. F. Jones and J. E. Jones
same region. All the scientists were young men and civilians. Without the con-
ditioning of naval discipline they were to prove disrespectful and troublesome
to their 46-year old commander. The rigors of a long voyage, which did not go
according to plan, were to take a heavy toll. At the conclusion of the report made
to the French Government by the Institut National and reproduced by Franyois
Peron (1809, p. 8) in his "Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere" is
recorded "a lamentable catalogue of disasters which happened to the gentlemen
who accompanied the expedition. OUT OF TWENTY THREE PERSONS
RECOMMENDED BY YOU TO THE FIRST CONSUL, ONLY THREE HAVE
RETURNED TO THEIR COUNTRY, after performing the entire voyage. Some
of them being soon disgusted with their employment, were landed and left at
various places-but the rest are no more!" Baudin, who also did not survive the
voyage, was to be the subject of much bitter criticism from Peron for his obstin-
acy and "spirit of opposition" to the scientific gentlemen on board.
Much detailed planning had gone into the preparations before the Geographe
and the Naturaliste sailed.
Our numerous instruments, astronomical, surgical, meteorological and geogra-

phical had been constructed by the most celebrated artists of the capital ...
A numerous library, composed of the best works on marine subjects, astrono-
my, geography, natural history, botany and voyages were collected for each
ship. All the instructions relative to scientific researches were written and
prepared by a committee of the Institut consisting of M. M. Fleurieu,
Lacepede, Laplace, Bougainville, Cuvier, Iussieu, Lelievre, Camus and Langles,
which is sufficient to prove how complete and valuable our instructions must
have been (Peron 1809, p. 14).
A slow voyage and a prolonged stay in Mauritius having lost him part of the
most favorable season for sailing, Baudin reached the Australian coast on May 27,
1801 at Cape Naturaliste. As the western coastline of Australia was surveyed
there were opportunities for the natural historians to examine and collect the
unfamiliar fauna and flora, and at sea to continue the recording at six-hourly
intervals of the sea surface temperature and compare them with those of the
atmosphere. Temperature readings at measured depths were also taken. A
"Memoir on the Temperature of the Sea at its Surface and at Great Depths" was
presented to the Institut by Peron (peron and Freycinet 1819, p. 323) on his
return to France. It is interesting to note the value he saw in such measurements.
He wrote in his memoir,
The meteorologist will obtain from them valuable data on atmospheric vari-
ations in the middle of the Ocean; they will provide the naturalist with vital
knowledge of the habitat of various species of marine animals; the geologist
and the physicist will each find information about the spreading of heat in
the middle of the seas and on the physical state of the interior of the globe,
of which the deepest excavations yet seen can scarcely scratch the surface;
in a word there is not a single science which cannot with advantage use the
results of experiments of this type.
While the ships lay to off Cape Naturaliste in May Peron and a colleague were
able to cast a drag net and bring to the surface a variety of marine life from a
depth of 10-100 fathoms. Surprise was expressed, not only at their phospho-
rescence, but at the temperature of the dredged creatures, which was stated to
be more than three degrees greater than that of the atmosphere and the surface
water. This was seen as an interesting phenomenon. Was it, surmised Peron, an
indication of the water at the bottom of the sea being warmed by heat emanating
from the earth's interior, or did this marine life possess a temperature greater
than that of its habitat?
The Geographe and the Naturaliste, after some three months spent at Timor,
sailed southwards in November 1801 for Tasmania. Here the two ships were sepa-
rated while surveying the east coast, and while Captain Hamelin took the Natu-
raliste directly to Port Jackson, Baudin struggled through Bass Strait with his
crew greatly incapacitated with scurvy and dysentery. While sailing westward
along the coast of South Australia in April, he met Matthew Flinders in the Inves-
tigator in the bay consequently named Encounter Bay. Though rivals, the two
commanders were still courteous. Through interpreters they discussed their re-
spective discoveries. Flinders' purpose was chiefly cartographic. He made measure-
ments of the sea surface temperature daily while in the Atlantic but breakage of
his thermometers terminated this activity before he reached the southern hemi-
sphere (Flinders 1802). He did, however, make a single salinity measurement in
the Great Australian Bight. His aim, to use his own words, was "to make so accu-
rate an investigation of the shores of Terra Australis, that no future voyage to
that country should be necessary for that purpose" (Flinders 1814, p. 143). By
examining Spencer and St. Vincent's gulfs he had proved that there was not in
fact, as was the subject of speculation by the French as well as the British, a
strait running northwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria which would divide the
land mass into two islands.
Baudin worked westward for a short time but against great odds for he had
lost ten men since Timor and more than half his crew were unfit for duty. Sup-
plies were needed from Port Jackson, for which he now sailed around Van
Diemen's Land again. With only four men fit to handle the sails he was unable to
enter the port until a relief crew of English sailors from the Investigator brought
the corvette in. Here there was fresh food and water and the facilities of the
government hospital available for the crew. Five months were spent restoring
them to health. With their sick recovered, ships repaired and stocked with pro-
visions, the Baudin expedition sailed southwards in November 1802. A magnifi-
cent collection of 40,000 natural history specimens was packed in 33 large cases
on board the Naturaliste which was to sail directly for France. Further surveying
was carried out along the southern shores of the continent; the Geographe ex-
plored more closely the northwestern coastline and called again at Timor. m
health again dogged the crew despite, or because of, a month's respite there.
Finally on July 7 Baudin sailed for Mauritius. His journal ends abruptly two days
before he reached the island where he died on September 16. The Geographe
sailed to France in charge of Millius, arriving 24 March 1804 after an absence of
3~ years.
3 Scientific Co-operation
When theNaturaliste reached Port Jackson, a state of war existed between Britain
and France, as indeed had existed for more than 40 of the preceding 140 years.
It is interesting to note that nevertheless the facilities of the port were freely
made available to the Naturaliste and the Geographe. The arms of the French
ships were unlikely to be needed for protection against the ships of other Europe-
an nations, unless they were privateers, for as was the custom, the French com-
mander carried passports of safe conduct furnished by all the governments of
Europe.
Scientific expeditions, such as this we write of, though funded by governments,
were promoted by the learned societies of European countries which had a long
tradition of co-operation, whether their nations were at war or not.
A letter to Sir Joseph Banks dated 16 May 1800 and reproduced in trans-
lation in De Beer (1960, p. 238) illustrates the spirit of co-operation that existed
between members of the Royal Society of London and the Academy of Sciences
in Paris.
Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of London.

The Institut National of France is desirous that several distant voyages useful
to the progress of human knowledge should begin without delay. Its wishes
have been endorsed by our Government which has just issued orders for the
preparation as soon as possible of expeditions led by skilful navigators as well
as enlightened men of science, and will approach the Government of your
country for the necessary passports or safe-conducts for our vessels. Thelnsti-
tut National considers that it is precisely at the moment when war still burdens
the world that the friends of humanity should work for it, by advancing the
limits of science and of useful arts by means of enterprises similar to those
which have immortalised the great navigators of our two nations and the illus-
trious men of science who have scoured sea and land to study nature, Sir,
where they could do so with greatest success.
Then follows a request for Banks' assistance in procuring passports and release of
a French naturalist. The letter is signed by the distinguished names of Jussieu,
Camus, Laplace, Bougainvi11e, Fleurieu, Dutheil and Lacepede.
Members of the Institut exerted themselves to procure the release of Flinders,
unfortunately detained by Governor Decaen for seven years on Mauritius when
he arrived there in 1803, unaware that war had again broken out between the
two nations. It was a pity that Governor King had not given Flinders a copy of
the open letter of recommendation left with him by Baudin in gratitude for the
hospitality shown him at the British settlement. In this case there were, however,
irregularities and misunderstandings which resulted in Flinders' long detention, a
tragic situation for Flinders, anxious to procure a replacement for the Investi-
gator and to publish his Australian charts.
4 Fran~ois Peron
The outstanding scientific figure of the Baudin expedition was Franyois peron
(Fig. 2). As a young man of twenty-two he had joined the expedition at the last
moment and occupied, as he himself puts it, "flfth place of zoologists." As two
of these zoologists left the group at Mauritius and two others were taken ill at
Timor and subsequently died, Peron showed remarkable stamina and zeal to
complete with Mr. Lesueur the valuable collection of more than one hundred
thousand specimens of animals large and small mentioned in the report of the
Imperial Institute. As a result of this collection and his memoirs on a variety of
topics, Peron was enrolled as a member of the Institut, which considered that
his works "would prove an important advantage to the study of natural history
and philosophy" (peron 1809, p. 8).
His memoir on the temperature of the sea is a scholarly paper. His own ob-
servations are compared with those of others such as Irving in northern seas and
of Forster (more correctly, Wales and Bayley) on Cook's voyage into Antarctic
waters. His conclusions drawn from surface temperature readings may not seem
remarkable to us now, but backed by systematic daily measurements at six-hourly
intervals over the entire voyage, they would have been respected as a valuable
contribution to science at that time.
Figure 2. Franyois Peron, the

first oceanographer to visit
Australian waters. (From
Peron 1809).
454 I. s. F. Jones and J. E. Jones
In his journal Baudin writes, early in the voyage, "From the note that citizen
Peron gave me on his observations concerning the temperature of the sea water
it appears that he never would have suspected that it must be warmer than that
of the atmosphere" (Baudin 1974, p. 42). Such comments and some averaged
readings are to be found in Baudin's journal, but a complete data set of Peron's
work has not been sighted by us. Peron died December 1810 without completing
the official account of the voyage; his memoir on temperature was included in a
volume completed by Freycinet (peron and Freycinet 1819).
Peron's conclusions (peron and Freycinet 1819, p. 323) on the temperature
of the sea are of interest:
1. The temperature of the waters of the sea is generally less at midday than that
of the atmosphere in the shade at the same hour.
2. It is constantly greater at midnight.
3. Morning and evening the temperatures are generally more or less equal.
4. The average of a data set of observations comparing the temperature of the
atmosphere and that of the sea surface taken four times a day, at 6 am., mid-
day, 6 pm., and midnight in the same latitude, is constantly greater for the
sea water at each latitude that the observations were made; at least I have not
seen any exception to this rule from 49°N to 45°S.
These conclusions were for sea surface temperatures far from land. For waters
close to shore he concludes that:
1. The temperature of the sea increases as one approaches continents or large

islands.
2. All other things being equal, the temperature of the water at the bottom of
the sea along coastlines near a large land mass is greater than that in the open
ocean.
Peron fmds his observations of the temperature of the waters at different

depths along the West Australian coast in agreement with those of Marsigli and
Saussure in the Mediterranean, and different from those of all other observers
measuring temperatures far from land. In considering causes for the temperature
differences, he concludes amongst other factors, that it does not seem improba-
ble that the animals and plants which cover the bottom of the sea near the shore
could themselves contribute to it by the higher temperature which they appear
to possess.
Peron's interest in measuring the temperature of the ocean at great depth was
frustrated by the time involved in such an experiment (Baudin's lack of cooper-
ation is criticized here) but four such experiments are described in his memoir,
three when the Geographe was becalmed in the tropics. Peron had given consider-
able thought to obtaining an accurate measurement by devising a well insulated
container for the thermometer. This he describes and illustrates. The mercury
thermometer on an ivory rod was enclosed in a glass cylinder and placed inside a
larger wooden container with charcoal ftlling the space between. Outside the
wooden container a third covering of metal was recommended with melted tal-
low filling the intervening space. A mechanism was devised to open swiftly the
lids of these containers and the apparatus was enclosed in a double pouch of
tarred canvas and attached to the sounding line. With a simplified version of this
apparatus, the metal cylinder being beyond their capacity to construct on board
ship, measurements were taken at different depths along the Australian coast
and at 500 feet, 1200 feet and 2144 feet in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
5 Russian Expeditions through Australian Waters
After Peron, the next systematic oceanographic measurements in Australian

waters may have been made on a Russian expedition around the world between
1813 and 1816 in the Suvarov under the command ofM. P. Lazarev. Following
the first Russian circumnavigational expedition of 1803-18061ed by A. I. Krusen-
stern, there was considerable Russian exploration of the Pacific, combined with
an interest in oceanographic research. The self-registering maximum and mini-
mum thermometer was used, it is known,on Krusenstern's and on Kotzebue's
circumnavigation 1815-1818. These two expeditions, concentrating on the
North Pacific, did not pass through Australian waters, but the Suvarov made
Port Jackson a port of call in August 1814, where it was listed as a vessel of
300 tons and 8 guns, bound for the Russian settlement on the northwest coast
of America. No record, however, of oceanographic measurements made on this
voyage has yet been found by us; nor have we found data from the famous
Antarctic expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev in the Vostok and the
Mirny 1819-1821, which called at Port Jackson in September 1820, or from
the Blagonamyerenny and the Otkretie which met at Port Jackson in March
1820 on a voyage of discovery to North Polar regions. Details of all the Russian
vessels to call at Port Jackson in the early eighteenth century may be found in
Fitzhardinge (1965).
Instructions from the Minister of the Navy included in Bellingshausen's ac-
count of his voyage include orders to undertake investigation of tides, wind
directions, atmospheric conditions and currents. "Measurements of the tempera-
ture of the sea should be made and its salinity in different parts and depths;
also measurements of temperature at known depths" (Bellingshausen 1945).
We expect then that oceanographic measurements were also made by Klotch-
kov in the Rurik which visited Port Jackson in July 1822 and by Lazarev in the
Kreiser which visited Hobart in June 1823 and passed through the Tasman Sea.
It would be interesting to locate and examine these data.
6 Louis de Freycinet
The next French scientific expedition to work in Australian waters was that of
Louis de Freycinet, 1817-1820, in the Uranie, a corvette of350 tons. At a time
when the British were more interested in seeking a Northern passage between
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the French again chose to concentrate on the
Southern Seas.
Freycinet, who had been responsible for completing the account of the
Baudin expedition after Peron's death, had established a reputation as a car-
tographer and navigator and was a correspondent of the Academy of Sciences
within the Institut National. His voyage differed from that of Baudin's in that
scientific study, rather than geographic discovery, was its primary purpose. The
maps of the area to be examined were almost complete. National prestige, how-
ever, could be well served by increased knowledge of physical geography, ter-
restrial magnetism, natural history and meteorological and marine science. A
variety of halting places was chosen in advance as most likely to supply speci-
mens for museums and, as usual, an artist, Jacques Arago, was included in the
ship's number to record unusual scenes or fragile specimens. All the scientific
work was done by naval officers. Freycinet had vivid memories of the difficulty
on the Baudin expedition of accommodating civilian scientists to the discipline
of an inevitably rigorous long sea voyage.
The Uranie reached Shark Bay on the West Australian coast on September 12,
1818 by way of Rio de Janeiro and Mauritius and sailed thence to Timor. She
returned to the Australian east coast on 13 November 1819, after visiting the
Molucca, Papuan, Marianas, Caroline and Hawaiian Islands. In approaching Syd-
ney, storms and calms caused them to make a large loop (Fig. 3).
Throughout the voyage two-hourly measurements were made of atmospheric
and sea surface temperatures while fifty-five samples of sea water were collected
for chemical analysis (Freycinet 1844, p. xxxiii). The extensive data set of
temperature readings was included in the volume on meteorology of Freycinet's
official account of the voyage. An interesting series of sea surface temperatures
in the Tasman Sea has been plotted from these data (Fig. 3) and is compared
with Edward's (1979) ten-year mean during the period 1967-1976. Notice that
Freycinet's daily means just south of Sydney were near the seasonal mean, and
he appeared to cross the boundary of the warm East Australian Current near
39° South. This change appears more clearly in Fig. 4 where, in addition, the
Subtropical Convergence may well be at 45°S, near the position suggested by
Deacon (1963, p. 280). Between the Subtropical Convergence and the Antarctic
Convergence the water, according to Deacon (1963, p. 289) is between 14°C and
18°C, substantially greater than Freycinet's value. Could the Subtropical Con-
vergence have been as far north as 39°S in the 1819 summer?
Notice in the plot of sea surface temperature (Fig. 4) the large fluctuations
in the two-hourly temperatures of the sea about the daily means. Fluctuations
of this magnitude are not generally found in these waters and when one notices
the tendency towards values of temperatures above the mean near the middle of
the day and below the mean in the evening, one is tempted to speculate that the
water sample was left on deck in an uninsulated bucket on some occasions before
the temperature reading was made. However, despite this difficulty, Fig. 4 is of
interest as it appears to be the first sea surface temperature section through the
Tasman Sea.
Freycinet's expedition, although conducted with greater success than Baudin's,
was not without its troubles. After a stay in tropical regions dysentery claimed
~------~---------------'--------------~------~100S
28
200S
Z7
26
-25
---
AUSTRALIA _24
------- -
0 300S
23
SURFACE
_ _ 22
TEMPERATURE °C 19'9
DECEMBER
TEN YEAR MEAN

--20
1967-1976 --19
~18
17
40 0S
L-_ _ _ _L-_ _ _ _ _ _ _~~8,~1-------~---~500S

160 0 E
Figure 3. The daily average sea surface temperature plotted at midday for Frey-
cinet's voyage through the Tasman Sea.
458 I. s. F. Jones and J. E. Jones
LAmuoe
52· 50· 38· 35·S
25.-~---L----~----~------~---------L-- ______~L-________- - ,
6 5 31 30 29 28 27 26 DATE
JANUARY 1820 DECEMBER 1819
Figure 4. The two hourly sea surface temperatures recorded by Freycinet be-
tween 26 Dec. 1819 and 7 Jan. 1820 as he sailed south from Port Jackson along
the path shown in Fig. 3.
the lives of four men, malaria another two, and many were ill with these diseases
and scurvy as well. Improvements in hygiene and diet had not completely
removed the risks of a long voyage. On the return section the Uranie was
wrecked in the Falkland Islands without loss of life but with considerable
damage to natural history specimens and to drawings. In a replacement ship,
purchased with considerable difficulty, the expedition reached Le Havre on 13
November 1819, after a voyage of three years and 57 days.
Publications of different aspects of the voyage were authorized by the govern-
ment and received much pUblicity. In his volume on meteorology Freycinet ana-
lyzed his temperature readings and related his fmdings to those of Peron, most
of which he was able to confirm. With measurements at two-hourly intervals he
was able to confirm Peron's finding that at midnight the temperature of the sea
surface is generally greater, in the open sea, than that of the atmosphere above
it, and to state more precisely:
The temperature of the air is generally lower than the temperature of the
water at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m., and 8 a.m., at 4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m., 10 p.m.,
and midnight. The daily mean temperature of the air is likewise lower than
the daily mean temperature of the water.
The temperature of the air is generally higher than that of the sea at 10
a.m., midday and 2 p.m. The maximum temperature of the air is likewise
higher than that of the water (Freycinet 1844, p. 201).
An accompanying atlas was mainly the work of Louis Isidore Duperrey, who
planned and led the next French expedition to the Pacific.
7 Duperrey's Work in the Coquille
In less than two years after the return of Freycinet another expedition had been
planned for much the same region. Its primary aim, again, was scientific rather
than geographic discovery. It had also the aim of locating a site for a possible
settlement in Western Australia, which was not yet recognized as a British pos-
session. The Coquille, a corvette of 380 tons, sailed for the Pacific by way of
Cape Horn in August 1822. Duperrey, who was 35 years old, had held a variety
of positions in the navy before and after his journey in the Uranie and had
written several memoirs on aspects of the scientific work of that expedition.
With him, as lieutenant, was Dumont d'Urville. The Pacific was to be a continuing
interest for d'Urville as the scene of two later expeditions under his command.
Of the ship's company of seventy, six officers and two surgeons were capable of
scientific investigation.
As part of their meteorological work, the officers kept a record of the temper-
atures of the sea and the atmosphere at 4-hourly intervals daily, expressed in
Centigrade. These measurements, though less frequent than those of Freycinet's,
when plotted (Fig. 5) for waters near Port Jackson early in 1824, show the Sub-
tropical Convergence (12°C to 15°C front) near 46°S. The more northerly front,
100 km or so wide, caused a substantial northeast set to the ship, as one would
expect on crossing into warm North Tasman water across a north sloping front.
The statistical data, included in the volume on hydrography of the official
account of the voyage of Duperrey (1829), contain also systematic measure-
ments, expressed in miles per hour, of ocean currents encountered.
Duperrey's expedition, which returned on March 24, 1824 after a circum-
navigation of two years and seven months, was accomplished without serious
damage and without any loss of life.
45° 43 0 .41° 37° 35° 34° S LATITUDE
u
0
w
cr
:::l
4
~
~
I:!:!
10
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 DATE
JANUARY 1824
Figure 5. The four hourly sea surface temperatures recorded by Duperrey (1829)
between 10 Jan. 1824 and 17 Jan. 1824 as he sailed north to Port Jackson.
8 Hyacinthe de Bougainville
To Glose our survey of oceanographic work in Australian waters in the first

quarter of the nineteenth century, mention should be made of the work of
Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of the famous explorer Louis de Bougainville.
An expedition to the Pacific between 1824 and 1826, led by Hyacinthe de
Bougainville (1837), was sent by the French government clearly for political
reasons, although the leadership of a voyage to this region had long been in the
mind of Bougainville, anxious to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father.
Bougainville was only 18 years old when he joined the Baudin expedition in
1800. Twenty-five years later, after service in the Napoleonic wars, he had com-
mand of the frigate Thetis when he was directed to go to Cochin-China and at-
tempt to reestablish diplomatic relations there and obtain trade outlets lost dur-
ing the European wars. Carrying official letters, Bougainville had instructions to
sail by way of the Cape of Good Hope, calling at the Bourbon Islands, Pondi-
cherry, Manila and Macao. He was allowed a free choice of the return journey,
apart from an obligatory visit to Java, and it is not surprising to fmd that he chose
to make his voyage a circumnavigation like that of his father. The choice of route
brought him to Port Jackson on June 25, 1825. His three months stay there he
described as a very pleasant time for all, as if, perhaps, to contrast it with his pre-
vious visit under Baudin's command. It certainly gave Bougainville pleasure to
obtain a concession of land and the services of an architect to erect a lasting stone
memorial to La Perouse at the entrance to Botany Bay where Capt. Phillip, estab-
lishing the settlement in 1788, had encountered the ill-fated explorer before he
disappeared in the Pacific.
Although the Thetis and its accompanying corvette the Esperance were less
well staffed for scientific work than the ships of his predecessors, an important
collection of natural history specimens was gathered and at sea, air and surface
temperature and currents were systematically measured. These were recorded at
6 am., midday, 6 pm., and midnight; that is at the same interval and time as
Peron's. The temperatures published by Bougainville (1837) were expressed in
degrees Reamur, as were Peron's.
Despite Bougainville's comment that the sea-water temperatures were measured
by plunging the thermometer "immediatement" into the bucket in which it had
been drawn from the surface, marked diurnal variations of a few degrees are re-
vealed. See Figure 6 for sea surface temperatures in the Tasman Sea south of
Sydney where a mild front was crossed at latitude 400 S on 23 July 1825.
Two years and three months were spent on this voyage, which concluded at
Brest on June 24, 1826. Personal disappointment was felt by Bougainville at
being prevented by contrary winds and fogs from visiting Tahiti and the Falkland
Islands, both of which had strong associations with his father's circumnavigation.
One result of the visits of Duperrey and Bougainville to Australia was the move
made by the British government to establish a settlement in Western Australia,
just as its settlement in Van Diemen's Land had been sparked off by Baudin's
visit some 20 years earlier. little was attempted in oceanographic research in
Australian waters by the British in this period. To complete Flinders' interrupted
JUNE 1825
Figure 6. The six hourly sea surface temperatures recorded by Bougainville

(1837) between 20 June 1825 and 29 June 1825 as he sailed north to Port
Jackson.
surveying of the coastline Philip Parker King was sent out in 1818 to fill in the
details in the areas still not covered. For this, he was authorized to use any coloni-
al vessel available in Sydney. A botanist, Alan Cunningham, accompanied him on
his survey, but no systematic oceanographic measurements were attempted. It may
fairly be said that oceanography around Australia during the first quarter of the
nineteenth century was dominated by French scientists, some of whom showed
a continuing interest in the region by making multiple voyages to the region.
References
Baudin, N. 1974. J ouma1 of Nicolas Baudin Commander-in-Chief of the corvettes

Ceographe and Naturaliste. Translated by C. Cornell, Libraries Board of
South Australia, Adelaide, 607 pp.
Bellingshausen. 1945. The voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic
Seas, 1819-1821. Translated to English, Hak1uyt Society, London, 473 pp.
Bougainville, H. 1837. Journal de 1a navigation autour du globe. Vol. 1, A. Ber-
trand, Paris, p. 165.
Deacon, G. E. R. 1963. Ch. 12. The Southern Ocean. In: The Sea, M. N. Hill,
General Editor, Interscience, New York 2, 554.
De Beer, G. R. 1960. The sciences were never at war. Nelson, London. 279 pp.
Duperrey, M. L. I. 1829. Voyage autour du monde,-Hydrographie. A. Bertrand,
Paris, p. 133.
Edwards, R. J. 1979. Tasman and Coral Sea ten-year mean temperature and
salinity fields, 1967-1976. CSIRO Aust., Div. Fish. Oceanogr. Rep., 88.
Fitzhardinge, V. 1965. Russian ships in Australian waters, J. Roy. Historical
Soc., N.S.W., 51,113-147.
Flinders, M. 1802. (Unpublished manuscript). Records of the Board of Longi-
tude, Vol. 5 1, London.
Flinders, M. 1814. A voyage to Terra Australis. Vol. 2, G. and W. Nicol, London.
613 pp.
Freycinet, L. C. D. de. 1844. Voyage aut our du Monde-Meteoro10gie. Imprim-
erie Royale, Paris, 666 pp.
Peron, F. 1809. A voyage of discovery to the Southern Hemisphere. Richard
Phillips, London, 314 pp.
Peron, F. and Freycinet, L. C. D. 1819. Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Aus-
trales. Imprimerie Royale, Paris, 471 pp.
White, J. 1790. A journal of a voyage to New South Wales. J. Debrett, London,
299 pp.
The Plankton-Expedition and the Copepod Studies of
Friedrich and Maria Dahl
David M. Damkaer and Tenge Mrozek-Dahl
1 Introduction
15 July 1889 - 11 o'clock-National escorted from Kiel by four steamers,

amid many cheers, kisses, and parting speeches by Admiral Illustrious. One
of the steamers took the folk on board: Geheimrat Mommsen, and Meyer,
Spee, Klein, et al.; the whole Professors' Club was already on the steamer-
shaking of hands, emotional farewells, along with the tears of Heaven and the
loud cheers of the students on the other steamers. Finally the Minister and
the Governor boarded the Stephan. Again the students' ship came nearby,
again a Hurrah! from our ship-and off we went (Dahl, diary).
So began the expedition which became to plankton research what the Chal-
lenger Expedition represents for oceanography in general. It is not the purpose
here to compare that plankton expedition with the Challenger Expedition, even
though some contemporary critics rejoiced in such comparisons; it was empha-
sized at once that the aims of each enterprise were different (du Bois-Reymond
1890). Neither expedition revolutionized techniques, but instead were broader
applications of the achievements of an earlier period.
The cruise of the National was called the Plankton-Expedition, and something
special might have been expected from an expedition that was named for a new
world of living beings, rather than for its ship. Certainly no previous endeavor
was worthy of that name. The recent discovery of the diary kept by Friedrich
Dahl during the Plankton-Expedition prompted us to review the principal results
and influence of those early investigations. The primary arguments against the
expedition's methods and conclusions had been translated into English (lIaeckel
1893). Unfortunately the responses to these criticisms were not translated. We
The Plankton-Expedition and the Copepod Studies of F. and M. Dahl 463
have therefore indicated something from both sides of this sharp controversy.
Our discussion leads to the activities and contributions of Friedrich and Maria
Dahl. Bischoff (1930) published a biographical memoir and a list of the publi-
cations of F. Dahl, emphasizing Dahl's work in terrestrial ecology. There has been
no published account of M. Dahl's life and work.
2 The Plankton-Expedition
What we would call applied marine ecology was expanded by government support
in the glorious decade of 1870-1880. Beside the Challenger Expedition and its
investigative structure which long outlasted the field effort, those years saw the
beginning of similar science/government coalitions elsewhere, particularly the
U. S. Fish Commission (1871) and the Kommission zur Wissenschaftlichen
Untersuchungen der Deutschen Meere (1870) at Kiel.
The intellectual basis of the Kiel Kommission came from the joining of modern
concepts of benthic ecology as outlined by Karl Mobius in 1865, and of eco-
nomic zoology problems as outlined by Victor Hensen around 1868 (Hedgpeth
1957). In 1868 Mobius was named professor of zoology at the University of
Kiel, while Hensen, who was already the director of the Physiological Institute
in the Faculty of Medicine, was named professor of physiology. Hensen was sent
to the Landtag in Berlin by the first Prussian election in Schleswig-Holstein, and
he used his influence there to further a government fisheries research program.
The Kommission was the outcome of Hensen's political activity, and both pro-
fessors were among the Kommission's four charter members (porep 1970).
Hensen's goal at the outset was to study the "productivity of the ocean" as a
framework for maintaining or improving the fisheries. A war postponed field
work until the first investigations of the physical, chemical, and biological con-
ditions of the Baltic Sea in summer 1871. The report of this work contained the
main ideas that later would become routine quantitative surveys of the ocean's
drifting organisms. By 1887 the Kommission's numerous cruises had included
the North Sea, and once even the adjacent Atlantic, and had revealed seasonal
trends within the Baltic. These studies suggested that much could be learned
from the relationship of the distribution and abundance of organisms to physical
and chemical conditions, but only through a quantitative approach. Hensen then
clearly stated the principles and methods of his investigations, and gave the drift-
ing organisms the name plankton. Hensen believed that populations of some
spawning fishes could be estimated from samples of planktonic fish eggs. And
since fish larvae consume other plankton, the productivity of the fisheries must
depend on plankton abundance. Further, he believed that in a sea area of uni-
form physical conditions, a sample from a vertically-hauled fme-meshed net
could give a dependable estimate of the quantity of plankton in that area. Hen-
sen's problem of determining the quantity of all plankton in a stated volume of
water remains unsolved, but methods introduced by him 100 years ago are
still in use.
464 D. M. Damkaer and T. Mrozek-Dahl
In 1888 Hensen petitioned the Royal Academy of Science in Berlin for as-
sistance in extending his plankton researches into the Atlantic high seas. "Two
large expeditions [from England and Italy] having performed the investigation
of pelagic animals in an extensive way, it was necessary to explore one of the
three oceans intensively and with the aid of new methods and with new aims"
(Brandt 1891). Hensen's proposal received the maximum support of the Acade-
my's Humboldt Foundation for Natural Science and Explorations. This was
followed by a larger royal grant, and some additions from the German Fishery
Society and private sources.
The steamer National was chartered and equipped with the latest apparatus,
including electric lighting. Hensen, the leader of the expedition, chose five other
members from the University of Kiel: Karl Brandt (assistant leader and zoolo-
gist), Friedrich Dahl (zoologist), Franz SchUtt (botanist), Otto KrUmmel (physi-
cal oceanographer), and Bernhard Fischer (bacteriologist and physician); a marine
artist, Richard Eschke, completed the scientific staff. Their departure coincided
with the end of the university semester.
The National touched the major biogeographic zones and current systems of
the North Atlantic. Hensen's argonauts covered 16,000 miles in a large figure-8:
from Kiel to the ice-laden currents of southern Greenland, through the Gulf
Stream to Bermuda, across the Sargasso Sea to the Cape Verde Islands, beyond
the equator to Ascension and the expedition's southernmost point, into the
mouth of the Amazon at Pant, and, with time running out, a speedy return to
Kiel by November 7, via the Azores and the English Channel. More than 100
high sea stations were sampled with Hensen's quantitative net, towed vertically
from 200 m, generally, to the surface. These primary collections were supple-
mented by samples from a large, coarse-meshed vertical net and an improved
closing net of Hensen's modification (KrUmmel 1892).
From our distance this cruise of pre-eminent men has an idealistic glow. But
these calculating collectors from Kiel were annoyed by events that vex us still:
poor weather, equipment failures and losses, human failures, unexplainable
accidents, groundings, official ceremonies, a crew reluctant to work on Sundays.
Among the observations of the opening days, Dahl added:
soon we felt the weak swells which made the ship roll slightly; and we had in
consequence the first seasickness (Prof. Br.) ... I could hear in the next room
that those disagreeable movements also went badly for our Leader ... I
dressed lying on my bed, catching my things as they went gliding by .. .
Breakfast was very slightly attended, only three came for it (Km., Hens., and
myself) ... One of our traveling companions did not come up until I o'clock
(Dr. Sch.) ... I am obliged to say that I felt somewhat uneasy.
Perhaps these frustrations had been blunted when Dahl wrote, with satisfaction,
that the flies collected on board after leaving Bermuda were impaled together on
a single pin! And there was continuous testimony to Dahl's excitement and awe
in the variety and beauty ofland and sea creatures from zone to zone. Previously
known only from books if at all, their vivid descriptions filled his diaries. Yet
there was room to record a full-dress traditional equator crossing:
Geheimrat Hensen was invited to come down. He was smeared with soap,
shaved with the large wooden knife, while his hair was cut with the big wooden
scissors; this was followed with an appropriate jet from the steam sprayer.
No neophyte escaped Neptune's retinue; each was baptized with suitable ritual
and personalized verse (Dahl, diary).
The Plankton-Expedition was Germany's first prominent oceanographic explo-
ration (Brandt 1901), and this generated considerable popular enthusiasm. One
month after the cruise, KrUmmel and Brandt presented preliminary fmdings to
the Geographical Society in Berlin (Brandt 1921). The expedition's official and
published name dates at least from that meeting. Early in 1890 du Bois-Reymond,
the secretary of the Academy of Sciences, and Hensen published the initial ex-
ecutive accounts of the Plankton-Expedition (Hensen 1891). The most important
result was that quantitative investigations of oceanic plankton were possible and
fruitful. It was reported that the planktonic plants and animals everywhere sig-
nificantly exceeded in mass the well-known and easily seen larger organisms. The
high seas were generally poorer in plankton abundance than the bays and river
mouths. Furthermore, within the open ocean, the warm tropical seas essentially
had much less plankton than the cold northern seas, in spite of theory and expec-
tation. "Investigation of color, transparency, and plankton contents give parallel
results, and all these show that the pure blue is the color of desolation of the high
seas" (Schutt, in Kriimmel 1892). Without the quantitative sampling methods,
this astonishing fact would not have been easily detected. Basking in the acclaim,
du Bois-Reymond asserted that "our plankton voyage will take a position of its
own within its modest limitation, by the novelty and the beauty of its well-
restricted task." Unknown to him and to Hensen, the critics were about to pounce.
Ernst Haeckel (1893) added insult to the investigation by condemning the
results of the cruise of the National, and making Hensen the prime target in a
war of polemics that brought to bear the considerable resources of both sides.
Haeckel had been a student of Johannes Muller in 1854, at the very root of
plankton research, though as a systematist/morphologist. Haeckel did not at all
understand Hensen's quantitative/statistical approach to biology. Haeckel be-
lieved the opposite of Hensen's principal conclusions. And in this he was not
alone, for the land-oriented notion of the rich tropics and barren north was well
entrenched. Haeckel and his associates implied that Hensen and his colleagues
were imbecile swindlers; and that Hensen's sponsors, presumably up to and in-
cluding the Emperor, should be taken to task for squandering the largest sum
ever available for biological research in Germany. Nullifying Hensen's judgment
on tropical plankton, Haeckel emphasized his own extensive experience and
observations of
extraordinarily rich and valuable material ... innumerable masses ... fabu-
lous wealth of life ... immense swarms of pelagic life ... inconceivable my-
riads ... complexity of composition ... I am convinced that the whole
method employed by Hensen for determining the plankton is utterly worth-
less ... How such work [plankton counting] can be carried through without
the ruin of mind and body I can not conceive.
Haeckel had an imposing hold on his generation, both in and out of scientific
circles (Goldschmidt 1956). Who could resist this onslaught? That Haeckel's
treatise had a great impact can be seen from its additions to our vocabulary:
benthos, nekton, neritic, holoplankton, meroplankton.
Hensen (1891) reluctantly picked up the challenge:
So now Haeckel has called me to make my confession ... He describes my

studies as the most unnecessary, useless, unskilled, unsuccessful, and foolish
ones in this world ... Haeckel stresses my words that I am neither a botanist
nor a zoologist, but only a physiologist, as if I had thereby renounced my
right to join in the discussion ... They say to me that I would make too
many enemies by standing up against Haeckel's party-so be it! ... The re
suIts of the Plankton-Expedition will represent the truth as true and clear a!
it can be within the ability of my co-workers and myself. This depends only
on facts, facts as carefully determined as possible, on measurement, weight,
and number. Against these, all opinions and suggestions will be blown away
like dust.
And what followed were facts, which admirably answered each of Haeckel's
criticisms within the observations and statistical tools of those times.
A more concise rebuttal was offered by Brandt (1891):
Haeckel's attacks can be attributed partly to a lack of insight, partly to mis-

understanding, and finally, partly to gross misrepresentations and irresponsible
falsifications of the findings of other investigators.
Papers by Dahl and others injected the wealth of data being generated from the
Plankton-Expedition. Books by SchUtt (1892) and Apstein (1896) overwhelmed
the opposition, but by then the main battle was over.
As usual in great controversy, both sides were correct on some points. Hensen
did not anticipate the complex behavior and patterns in plankton vertical distri-
bution (Currie 1972), nor were there yet statistical methods for proper analyses
(Lussenhop 1974). And even within Hensen's camp, Lohmann admitted at first
that the paucity of tropical plankton might only be an illusion, if the bulk was
lost through the meshes of the nets. But over the next two decades, Lohmann's
careful researches confirmed that even the abundance of nanoplankton, col-
lected by centrifuging water-samples, followed the net-plankton distribution as
revealed by the Plankton-Expedition (Brandt 1925).
Yet old ideas are not readily put away, especially since a number of rich
tropical areas proved exceptions to the generality. These exceptions had to await
an understanding of relationships between plankton, nutrients, and upwelling.
So that as late as 1923, Herdman was obliged to consider as still controversial
the "alleged deficiency" of plankton in the "genial warm waters of the tropics."
The detailed elaboration of the extensive Plankton-Expedition material de-
manded most of the working power of the Zoological Institute over many years.
This ambitious task eventually embraced 36 scientists, some foreign, whose
The Plankton-Expedition and the Cope pod Studies of F. and M. Dahl 467
monographs contributed to the everlasting usefulness and fame of the Plankton-

Expedition Results. The magnificent illustrations by Werner and Winter and
other superb lithographers have never been surpassed (Goldsclunidt 1956). Even
Haeckel would have had to admit that this was a suitable monument. The last of
the Results appeared in 1926, ending but not completing the series which physi-
cally comprises a dozen large and beautiful volumes.
3 Friedrich and Maria Dahl
In the quantitative plankton investigations, Hensen gathered about him a number

of men recently launched on their scientific careers. The names of his earliest co-
workers are an honor roll of marine biology: Brandt, Apstein, Heincke, Lolunann,
SchUtt, and Dahl. Hensen gave room and responsibility to these devoted disciples,
and his school was a true team effort from start to fmish. Each had a role in the
planning and execution of cruises, the development of results, and, ultimately, in
the successful defense against detractors.
Karl Friedrich Theodor Dahl (Fig. 1) denied tradition by becoming a zoologist
rather than accepting the family fann at Rosenhofer Brok (Holstein), where he
was born in comfortable circumstances on June 24,1856. He was thus a Danish
citizen until Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein in 1864. After four years at the
Gymnasium in Eutin, and an additional year for military duties, Dahl attended
the University of Leipzig in 1877 where, like Brandt and Apstein, he was a
student of Rudolf Leuckart. After additional studies at the Universities of Frei-
burg and Berlin, Dahl went to the University of Kiel in 1881, and there obtained
a doctorate in 1884 with a thesis on the fonn and function of insect appendages.
Dahl's 200-plus publications began in this period, the first papers treating insects,
spiders, and their mimicry and feeding.
Dahl joined the Zoological Institute of the University of Kiel in 1886, and
began working with marine invertebrates from the Kommission's collections. He
also participated in some of the Baltic cruises. In 1887 he became a Privatdozent
for zoology.
Supported by the Kommission and the Royal Academy of Science, Dahl inves-
tigated the invertebrates of the Lower Elbe in 1888-1889 (Dahl 1893). Using
surface net- and dredge-samples, Dahl demonstrated the dependence of the fauna
upon salinity, substrate, current, tide, and temperature. This study was also not-
*
able in that it was the first time that the principles of Hensen's quantitative sur-
veys were applied to benthos. Dahl systematically sifted to 4 m 2 areas, to esti-
mate organism numbers per m 2 • Though these standing stock data were not
measurements of productivity, they were prerequisites to Hensen's long-range
goals of estimating the productivity of the sea. In this study, Dahl was also the
fust to use the experimental device of test squares, to detennine the rate of set-
tling of communities on hard substrates (Hedgpeth 1957).
Dahl's direct contributions to the Plankton-Expedition were mainly in the
analyses of the abundance and the horizontal and vertical distribution of the
Figure 1. Friedrich Dahl (1856-1929), Kiel, ca. 1892.
conunon zooplankton, particularly Copepoda. His timely reports supplemented

the earliest results from plankton volumes. Using five species in the copepod
genus Copilia, Dahl (1892) presented the first detailed specific information on
distribution and abundance of oceanic zooplankton, and demonstrated the pos-
sibilities inherent in quantitative data. Dahl (1894a) was especially intrigued by
the distribution of copepods in the Amazon estuary, and saw parallels with his
earlier studies on the Lower Elbe. He outlined four faunal districts in a classic
pattern related to salinity: freshwater, true brackish, marine coastal, and oceanic.
With species in other copepod genera, Dahl (1894b) provided a quantitative
basis to zoogeographic regions described qualitatively by earlier workers: arctic
(and its southern extensions), temperate, subtropical (with the Sargasso Sea as
center), and tropical (the equatorial currents and their extensions). Coastal and
oceanic divisions, as well as surface, intermediate, and deep zones related to food
conditions, were described within each region. Within subregions, Dahl showed
a generally high uniformity of numbers over large areas. The details of this work
were not surpassed until the cruise of the Meteor in the late 1920s.
Dahl also published several descriptive papers on copepods. He planned a
comprehensive work on copepods, and also expected to work on the Plankton-
Expedition amphipods, but other commitments precluded both projects. Dahl's
other direct contributions to the Plankton-Expedition were his reports on marine
insects, marine vertebrates, and land fauna, mostly collected by himself.
Three years were needed to complete the sorting and counting of the major
taxonomic groups from the Plankton-Expedition collections. Since 1887 when
Mobius became director of the new Zoological Museum in Berlin, Brandt had
been professor of zoology and director of the Zoological Institute at the Uni-
versity of Kiel. In 1890, to assist with the sorting and illustrating of the col-
lections, Brandt employed a young lady who had just come to Kiel from Russia.
Maria Johanna Grosset (Fig. 2) was born in Borornlya, near Kharkov in the
Ukraine, on July 26, 1872, into a family that had fled from the French revo-
lution the previous century. Maria was an honor graduate of the Girls' Gymnasium
in Kharkov, and expected to become a medical student. Germany's medical
schools were open only to men, so her family'S migration to Kiel ended Maria's
academic hopes. Maria combined beauty with intelligence and artistic skill, and
it is not surprising that Friedrich Dahl found her to be as interesting as his
plankton collections. However, Dahl was also attracted to Berlin, lured by
Mobius and a continuing interest in terrestrial arthropods. Dahl began to divide
time between the Berlin Zoological Museum and Kiel. He made the final break
with the Kiel group in 1896-1897, when he was supported by the Museum and
the Royal Academy of Sciences to collect in the Bismarck Archipelago. Most of
that work was with terrestrial organisms, but Dahl made a year-long collection
of quantitative plankton samples, used by Brandt to strengthen the contention
of low tropical plankton volumes. Dahl joined Mobius' museum in 1898, as the
curator of spiders. When this position became permanent early in 1899, Fried-
rich Dahl married Maria Grosset.
For the Dahls, the years before World War I were happy and productive.
Friedrich published a large number of papers on insects, terrestrial isopods, and
spiders. Most of these articles had a definite ecosystems approach, and several
were strictly ecological, dealing with animal behavior and distribution. Perhaps
it was inevitable that Dahl would be the first to apply Hensen's quantitative
techniques in sampling terrestrial arthropods (Dahl 1898, Remane 1940). At the
Zoological Museum, Dahl assisted with the distribution of the Plankton-Expe-
dition materials. But he regretted the inability to honor his earlier commitments
to Hensen's group. Dahl's burdens were not eased by his mentor's echoing words:
"I venture to say that if only the collaborators remain faithful, then the Plankton-
Figure 2. Maria Grosset [Dahl] (1872-1972), Kiel, ca. 1896.
Expedition itself will become distinguished through the very thorough utilization
of its results" (Hensen 1895). Around 1907 Friedrich encouraged Maria to pur-
sue the work he had begun on the corycaeid copepods. To augment the con-
siderable Plankton-Expedition and Bismarck Archipelago material, the Dahls ob-
tained corycaeids from Farran, Steuer, and VanhOffen. So that, oflarge regions,
only the eastern Pacific was not represented. New descriptions, illustrations, and
distribution data were given for all known species (36), including three which
were previously unknown. Working at home, caring for her four children, and
discussing progress during meals, Marie Dahl (1912) completed a monograph of
excellence, one part of a planned series. There are few copepod references that
equal the geographic coverage, organization, illustration, and potency of this
timeless record of duty and perseverance. We mourn the unfmished series, a vic-
tim of war's deprivation, sickness, and death.
After World War I, Friedrich Dahl was again at the Zoological Musewn,joined
shortly by Maria, now also engaged in arachnid research. Dahl recognized a need
for a comprehensive zoological treatise on the fauna of Germany and adjacent
seas, to serve students and specialists alike. Such a work would enable determi-
nation of species, and would also outline behavior, life-histories, and distributions.
Dahl's dream was realized in 1925 with Die Tierwelt Deutschlands, of which he
was the founder, author of the fust three volwnes, co-author with Maria Dahl of
the fifth volwne, and editor of 15 volwnes. After Friedrich's death on June 29,
1929, Maria Dahl continued as editor of this distinguished zoological series until
1968. She died on January 6, 1972, a few months before her hundredth birthday.
4 Influence of Hensen's School
The achievements of Hensen's school were immense. In an age of description and

descendence theory, this group introduced quantitative sampling of natural popu-
lations, and gave defmite forms to the ideas of ecosystems and production. A
few influential scientists ridiculed these developments. Others, like Friedrich
Dahl, perfected them, and transmitted them to different disciplines and other
countries. One branch of Hensen's school led through Lohmann and Brandt to
nanoplankton, the determination of nutrients, and the relationship of production
processes to hydrography. Another aspect, with a stronger element of biogeogra-
phy and application to fisheries, influenced Petersen (Denmark), Gran (Norway),
and Cau11ery (France). Except for Kofoid and C. D. Marsh, investigators in the
United States did not respond readily to Hensen's techniques. Hedgpeth (1957)
suggested that this was a result of the one-sided translation of the Hensen-
Haeckel controversy. However, Reighard (1898) appraised Hensen's methods
optimistically and fairly for the U. S. Fish Commission. And a review by Brandt
(1901) was translated and widely circulated. Therefore there must have been
other reasons for the delayed acceptance of quantitative plankton methods in
this country. A fauna less well-described, an academic emphasis on embryology,
and a scientific fisheries establishment oriented mostly toward fishing and fish-
hatcheries, all contributed to this postponement of plankton ecology. It was not
until after 1910, with Bigelow, that serious marine plankton surveys were under-
taken in the United States.
Acknowledgments
The authors found each other through a fortunate chain of contacts, kindly
arranged by Professor Ernst Mayr. We also thank our friends Karl Banse, Gayle
Heron, and Daniel Merriman for their abundant encouragement and sound
advice. A number of obscure papers were graciously furnished by Wolfram
Noodt and Horst Kurt Schminke. Contribution No. 1144 from the Department
of Oceanography, University of Washington WB-lO, Seattle, Washington 98195.
References
Apstein, C. 1896. Das Slisswasserplankton; Methode und Resultate der quanti-

tativen Untersuchung. Lipsius und Tischer, Kiel, 210 pp.
Bischoff, H. 1930. Friedrich Dahl. Mitt. zool. Mus. Berl., 15(3/4), 621-632.
Brandt, K. 1891. Haeckel's Ansichten liber die Plankton-Expedition. Schr.
naturw. Ver. Schlesw.-Holst., 8(2), 199-2l3.
Brandt, K. 1901. Life in the ocean. Rep. Smithson. Instn., 1900, 493-506.
Brandt, K. 1921. Die zoologischen Arbeiten der Kieler Kommission 1870-1920.
Festschr. Komm. wiss. Unters. dt. Meere Kiel, 76-194.
Brandt, K. 1925. Victor Hensen und die Meeresforschung. Wiss. Meeresunters.,
new series, 20(1), 49-103.
Currie, R. 1972. Quantitative investigations in marine biology. Proc. R. Soc.
Edinb. (B), 73(24), 239-245.
Dahl, F. 1892. Die Gattung Copilia (Sapphirinella). Zool. Jb., 6, 499-522.
Dahl, F. 1893. Untersuchungen liber die Thierwelt der Unterelbe. Ber. Komm.
wiss. Unters. dt. Meere Kiel, 6(3), 149-185.
Dahl, F. 1894a. Die Copepodenfauna des unteren Amazonas. Ber. naturf. Ges.
Freiburg, 8, 1Q:23.
Dahl, F. 1894b. Uber die horizontale und verticale Verbreitung der Copepoden
im Ocean. Verh. dt. zooi. Ges., 4, 61-80.
Dahl, F. 1898. Experimentell-statistische Ethologie. Verh. dt. zooi. Ges. 8(3),
121-131.
Dahl, F. diary. July IS-September 24, 1889. Three booklets, 258 pp.; a probable
fourth booklet was not found. [A xerographic copy in Fisheries-Oceanogra-
phy Library, University of Washington].
Dahl, M. 1912. Die Copepoden der Plankton-Expedition. I. Die Corycaeinen,
mit Beriicksichtigung aller bekannten Arten. Ergebn. Plankton-Expedition
Humboldt-Stiftung, 2(GJ.1), 1-l34, 16 plates.
du Bois-Reymond, E. 1890. Bericht liber die Wirksamkeit der Humboldt-Stiftung.
Sber. preuss. Akad. Wiss. 1890(1),82-87.
Goldschmidt, R. B. 1956. Portraits from memory; recollections of a zoologist.
University of Washington Press, Seattle. 181 pp.
Haeckel, E. 1893. Planktonic studies: a comparative investigation of the impor-
tance and constitution of the pelagic fauna and flora. Rep. U. S. Commnr
Fish., 1889-1891, 565-641. [A partial translation of Haeckel's "Plankton-
Studien," published at Jena in December, 1890].
Hedgpeth, J. W. 1957. Introduction [to treatise on marine ecology and paleo-
ecology]. Mem. geoi. Soc. Am. 67, 1-16.
Hensen, V. 1891. Die Plankton-Expedition und Haeckel's Darwinismus; ueber
einige Aufgaben und Ziele der beschreibenden Naturwissenschaften. Lipsius
und Tischer, Kiei. 87 pp.
Hensen, V. 1895. Methodik der Untersuchungen. Ergebn. Plankton-Expedition
Humboldt-Stiftung I (B), 1-200.
Herdman, W. A. 1923. Founders of oceanography and their work; an introduction
to the science of the sea. Edward Arnold, London, 340 pp.
Krummel, O. 1892. Reisebeschreibung der Plankton-Expedition. Ergebn. Plank-
ton-Expedition Humboldt-Stiftung, 1 (A), 1-371.
Lussenhop, 1. 1974. Victor Hensen and the development of sampling methods in
ecology. J. Rist. BioI., 7(2), 319-337.
Porep, R. 1970. Der Physiologe und Planktonforscher Victor Hensen (1835-
1924), sein Leben und sein Werk. Kieler Beitr. Gesch. Med. Pharm., 9, 1-147.
Reighard, J. 1898. Methods of plankton investigation in their relation to practi-
cal problems. Bull. U. S. Fish. Commn, 17, 169-175.
Remane, A. 1940. Die Vertreter der Zoologie, Meereskunde und Limnologie.
Festschr. 275-jiihrigen Bestehen Christian-Albrechts-Univ. Kiel, 371-380.
Schutt, F. 1892. Analytische Plankton-Studien; Ziele, Methoden und Anfangs-
Resultate der quantitativ-analytischen Planktonforschung. Lipsius und Tischer,
Kiel, 117 pp.
Studies on Estuarine-Marine Dependency
Gordon Gunter
1 Introduction
When I first saw that low salinity body of water Lake Pontchartrain at New
Orleans on July 1, 1931 no one understood its relationship to the sea to the
south. Knowledge of the relationship of such estuarine waters to the sea has been
acquired in my lifetime and, insofar as I have been an observer and participant in
the development, I decided to discuss it here because it concerns a new concept
regarding the seas.
The matter has lately or very recently been called estuarine-shelf dependency
(Rounsefell 1975). It refers to the interdependency of the motile organisms of
the bays and adjacent seas. This designation compares a salinity condition with a
topographic feature. More appropriate would be bay-sea, bay-shelf, estuary-sea
or my own preference estuarine-marine dependency, implying that the motile
popUlations of estuaries are part and parcel largely of those of the shallow sea.
They move back and forth seasonally in a breeding, developing, growing whole
over the seasons and are completely interdependent. Many of the species support
major fisheries. The biological phenomena are physically dependent on tidal
flow, fresh water drainage, sediment movement and deposition and other physi-
cal factors relating to the general oceanography and geology of the shore and
shallow sea. Biologists are first in emphasizing the relationship, probably because
the movements of the animals are so visible and noteworthy.
No one has been working to prove anything regarding dependency and not a
single paper of importance in the development of the thesis, beginning some 85
years ago, carries any indication of it in the title. The development of these ideas
has been comparable to a few painters working on a large canvas at odd times,
Studies on Estuarine-Marine Dependency 475
while paying little or no attention to the others. Then suddenly the picture is
done so clearly that everyone sees it and there is no doubt about what it means.
That has been the mode of development of the estuarine-marine dependency.
The use of the word dependency is more significant in the development of
the concept than in the relationship. Actually what has grown up is an appreci-
ation of the unity of the marine environment, the sea, with its edges and shallow
parts, the bays and estuaries, and the importance of these areas to marine popu-
lations. We could as easily and possibly more properly say the bay-sea unity
principle rather than dependency, but the usage is now established.
2 Development of the Knowledge of Dependency
Peck (1894) pointed out that low salinity areas were important, "because they
were intrusted with so much embryonic larval life of the migratory inhabitants
of the coast." His ideas were quite correct, although he apparently thOUght that
spawning of menhaden took place there, which is not the case. However, it was
many years before the zoologists realized the extent of the long and arduous
journey most motile coastal organisms make as larvae from the place of spawn-
ing in high salinity waters, usually in the open ocean, to low salinity areas in the
upper reaches of the estuaries. Today estuaries are commonly referred to by
fishery biologists, conservationists and coastal management councils as nursery
areas. Peck's remarks are the first ones which showed recognition of this impor-
tant conception.
The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, supports a valuable fishery with
greatest production in Chesapeake Bay and Louisiana but with some production
in every coastal state from Massachusetts to Texas. This crab was first studied
extensively in the Chesapeake by Hay (1905) and in greater detail by Churchill
(1919). These workers noted that in winter the crabs move toward the sea. The
females spawn their eggs always in the southern part of the bay and sponge crabs
are extremely rare in the Maryland part of the bay. But after hatching, the young
crabs move quickly into the upper bay and low salinity waters.
Sandoz and Rogers (1944) found that sponge crabs in Virginia were taken at
salinities of 23.0 to 28.0 parts per thousand. On the saltier Texas coast, Gunter
(1950) found these limits to be 22.9-32.4"100 ,
Various other biologists have verified the general cyclic nature of the life
history of the blue crab as set forth by Hay and by Churchill. On the Gulf Coast
these were Gunter (1950), Daugherty (1952), Darnell (1959), Menzel and Hop-
kins (1956) and More (1969). Due to the size of the Chesapeake Bay, the lower
bay waters are practically oceanic and female crabs seeking high salinity waters
generally migrate to the lower bay. On the Gulf Coast they generally go to the
open Gulf before spawning and 58% of the egg-bearing females found by Gunter
(1950) in Texas waters were taken at salinities above 30.0"100 , mostly in the
open sea.
Gunter (1950) presented curves showing that crabs taken in higher salinity
476 G. Gunter
waters were larger on the average than those found in low salinity waters, even
though the larger males remained in low salinities.
The ftrst work showing the cyclic nature of the seasonal movements outward
and inward over the salinity gradient was carried out on the blue crab in Chesa-
peake Bay. The long movements in that large estuarine system equal movements
out to sea and back again over shorter gradients of salinity in smaller estuaries.
The next advance was made by Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928), when they
stated that the ftshes of Chesapeake Bay diminish in numbers in the winter be-
cause they move out to sea. This is a somewhat cryptic statement, for it shows
an appreciation of large seasonal population movements of ftshes from the bays
to the sea, of which there is no hint before anywhere in the literature. It is also
the ftrst statement in the literature on ftshes related to the bay-shelf dependency,
so far as I can fmd. Furthermore, it stands alone and the authors did not discuss it.
Along various parts of the American Atlantic coast there are various tides
from 8 to 10 or 12 feet . This high double tide has considerable effect on the
washing of small organisms back and forth and makes the study of organisms as
related to the salinity gradient much more difftcult than it is on the Gulf Coast.
There, as Collier and Hedgpeth (l950) have shown, the highest regular tide every
month is 26 inches on the north Gulf, diminishing rapidly every day until it
reaches a few inches above mean tide and then stands there with a fluctuation of
only a few inches. Furthermore, the tides within the bay are considerably damped
and further, most of the time there is only one tide a day. For that reason the
stand of water, on the northern Gulf Coast especially, depends mostly upon the
wind and the direction and the force with which it is blowing much more so than
on the astronomical tides. Thus on the Gulf Coast we are given to speaking of
wind tides. All of this makes for a more stable salinity gradient and currents in
and out of the bays, which are more manageable for water trafftc and the small
denizens within the water. Altogether, except for periods of floods, waterspouts
and hurricanes, the currents are calmer on the Gulf Coast and the movements of
organisms are easier to study.
The next step in elucidating the estuarine-marine dependency was made by
John C. Pearson (1929). He worked with all of the important members of the
croaker family which included the redftsh Sciaenops ocellatus, the croaker
Micropogonias undulatus, the black drum Pogonias cromis and the speckled
trout Cynoscion nebulosus. He worked generally in and near Aransas Pass and
Corpus Christi Pass in an area close to the hypersaline waters of Laguna Madre.
He used all available types of trawls and townets and haul seines ranging from
commercial drag seines to experimental seines from 10 to 450 feet in length.
Meshes varied but he caught ftshes down to 7 mm in length and in such vast
abundance that he could only measure a small percentage of them. He con-
tributed greatly to the knowledge of the life history of these ftshes and demon-
strated in several species that the adults spawn in the open ocean and the young
hatch there and then come through the passes into the bays, doggedly persevering
at times against an outflowing current.
Pearson worked for 14 months and according to Rounsefell (1975, p. 9) "he
delineated the estuarine-continental shelf dependency of the sciaenid fIshes of

the Texas coast." That is a fair and proper appraisal.
Investigations of Shrimp
The Gulf Biologic Station was established by the State of Louisiana at Cameron,
Louisiana in 1905. No great breakthroughs resulted from investigations of shrimp
at this out-of-the-way station in the marshes, but its activities stimulated many
workers. Percy Viosca, working for the Louisiana Department of Conservation,
gave papers in public in 1918, which were published some 30 years later. He said
that the white shrimp, which was fIrst named Penaeus jluviatilis by Thomas Say,
came into the bays from the Gulf of Mexico and grew up there in a period of six
months or slightly less (Viosca 1920).
The Shrimp Investigations of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries were headed up by
Frank W. Weymouth of the Department of Physiology at Stanford University in
1930. They led to a great development in fIsheries research along the Gulf of
Mexico and the South Atlantic coast of this country. Weymouth, Undner and
Anderson (1933) fIrst stated clearly that the shrimp in the bays returned to the
sea. They used data from the Atlantic coast to piece out the general life history
of the shrimp, and Undner and Anderson (1956) used the data from all states
from North Carolina to Texas to write the defInitive life history of this species,
as it is known today. Gunter (1950) showed how his data could explain move-
ments of shrimp between the bays and to the outside. No such single effort has
been devoted to the brown shrimp, which did not come into the fIshery until the
white shrimp had declined in the late 1940s; but dozens of papers have been writ-
ten in various parts of the country from North Carolina to Texas all leading to
the conclusion that the brown shrimp life history parallels that of the white
shrimp although it comes into the bays earlier in the year and leaves earlier at a
smaller size. The life histories differ in details but these are not of importance to
the estuarine-marine dependency. The pink shrimp, Penaeus duorarum, has a
similar life history but it is not abundant in low salinity waters and its movements
are mostly back and forth from shallow to deeper water in rather high salinity
situations.
In the years 1956 to 1959 the total landings of headed shrimp at Gulf Coast
ports averaged about 100 million pounds. The landings at Texas ports averaged
about 42 million pounds. The average annual production of brown shrimp was
about 59 million pounds for the whole Gulf. By utilizing the statistics of Gulf
areas as worked out by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Game and
Fish Commission, Gunter (1962) demonstrated that brown shrimp leave Galves-
ton Bay and with ~thers coming from the east travel down the Texas coast in the
winter to the south Texas and Mexican region between the months of October
and February. There were also indications that these populations, greatly di-
minished in numbers, travel northward again with the coming of warm weather.
Ukewise, tagged white shrimp in North and South Carolina and Georgia migrate
down the east Florida coast during the winter and return in the spring (Undner
and Anderson 1956).
478 G. Gunter
Fish Population Studies in Louisiana and Texas
In connection with the Shrimp Investigations in Louisiana, counts of fishes taken

in trawl catches in Barataria Bay and the adjacent Gulf were the first to afford
comparison of estuaries and the adjacent open sea, only connected by a relative-
ly narrow waterway, Barataria Pass. The data gave indications of the relationships
between the bay and Gulf populations of fishes, and in fact recognition of these
relationships became the key factor in understanding the details of life histories,
movements, seasonal cycles and general biology of all the mobile fishery species
of the shallow Gulf of Mexico.
At first it was planned to study the destruction of fishes by the commercial
shrimp trawlers with a view to ameliorating the situation or at least using the fish.
This problem has not been solved in fifty years but the data provided the begin-
ning toward clarification of the estuarine-marine dependency and various other
details of life and seasonal cycles (Table 1). Graphs were shown of total fishes
taken in inside (bay) and outside (Gulf) waters by months and the figures were
given also in tables. In summary, "the fish population affected by trawls is
greatest from late spring to early fall and is generally greatest in the gulf. The
graphs also indicate that as fall approaches the numbers of fish on the inside be-
come less and the numbers on the outside increase, apparently due to a general
egress of fish from the bay and the gulf" (Gunter 1936, p. 45). This is the same
conclusion stated by Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928) for Chesapeake Bay.
A second paper in this series (Gunter 1938a) compared the inside and outside
catches for the 27 most numerous species, ending arbitrarily with the Larimus
[asciatus, of which 215 specimens were caught. The predominant fishes in the
bays and Gulf were given in the order of their abundance, but not in total num-
bers. Species twice as abundant in the bay or Gulf as in the other area were
listed as dominant in one area or the other.
Gunter (1938a) presented further data on the fish populations of Louisiana
bay and Gulf waters from a different standpoint, chiefly of families and the
prevalence or dominance of species on the inside or outside waters, in what he
referred to as relative numbers. In a later paper (l938b) tables and curves of
abundance for bay and Gulf waters by species were given for twenty-eight
species of fishes. These were discussed in terms of life histories and seasonal
movements between the bay and the sea (Fig. 1).
There was a sequential, seasonal, yearly variation in numbers of the larger

part of the species studied. Knowledge of these variations helps elucidate the
life histories of fishes about which something is known, such as the Otolithi-
dae and some Sciaenidae, and gives new light on many hitherto unstudied
species, which, however, is fragmentary in some instances.
The data were separated for bay and Gulf waters so that movements of
the population from one locality to the other could be pictured in some
instances. Fishes taken in the bay were smaller than those taken in the Gulf.
The bay serves as nursery grounds for most of the species studied, although
most of them seem to spawn in the open Gulf. The young fishes gradually
POL YNEMUS OCTONEMUS
BAY -
GULF ----
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
o N D J
1931
Figure 1. This is a copy of a figure taken from Gunter (1938b) of a simple graph
of the average monthly catches of the thread fin Polydactylus octonemus in Bara-
taria Bay and the adjacent Gulf of Mexico. This material was used in discussing
life histories, seasonal cycles and distributions as related to temperature and salin-
ity. With various species it showed the migrations of fishes from the sea to the
bays and in several ways illustrated the estuarine-marine dependency.
move to the outside as they grow up.

Some fishes are only seasonal residents in the area and the time of their
arrivals and departures were rather definite.
A seasonal biological succession of the fish population is briefly described
and discussed (Gunter 1938b, p. 345).
In 1941 the writer began a study of the shore fishes of the western Gulf of
Mexico in south Texas waters. An attempt was made to sample the whole popu-
lation of fishes every month from stations extending just off the mouth of the
Aransas River in Copano Bay through Aransas Bay to five miles offshore in the
Gulf of Mexico and five miles down the Gulf beach. This covers the typical
physiographic sequence of the Texas Gulf Coast and extends over an airline dis-
tance of forty nautical miles and a salinity gradient from very near fresh water to
pure seawater. Stations were visited from March 1941 to November 1942.
Temperatures and the salinities were taken at each station. One hundred and six
trawl hauls, 146 minnow seine drags, 115 trammel net sets and 23 beach seine
drags were made. All specimens were counted and many were measured. The
temperature ranged from 7.So to 34.9°C and the salinity ranged from what was
called fresh water to 36.8CYoo. The method used covered the living range of a
great many shallow water fishes and the invertebrates, especially Mollusca and
Table 1. Shows tables of the numbers of fishes taken in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, as compared to the adjacent Gulf of Mexico, these .j>.
00
waters being connected by Barataria Pass. Hauls were made by otter trawls of 60 feet wingspread, used by commercial shrimp fisher- 0
men. These appear to be the first tables comparing populations of fishes in the estuarine and marine environments taken by the same
gear (Gunter 1936)
Average Average Average
Common Name Scientific Name Inside Per Haul Outside Per Haul Totals Per Haul
1932
Croaker Micropogon undulatus 13,228 139.2 22,950 388.9 36,178 234.9
White Trout Cynoscion arenarius 2,556 26.9 1,619 27.4 4,175 27.1
Spot Leiostomus xanthurus 430 4.5 794 13.5 1,224 7.9
Yellowtail Bairdiella chrysura 475 5.0 121 2.1 596 3.9
White Trout Cynoscion nothus 15 0.2 426 7.2 441 2.9
Spotted Trout Cynoscion nebulosus 335 3.5 11 0.2 346 2.2
Black Mullet Menticirrhus americanus 101 1.1 243 4.1 344 2.2
Spadefish Chaetodipterus faber 54 0.6 72 1.2 126 0.8
Flounder Paralichthys lethostigmus 109 1.1 6 0.1 115 0.7
Pompano Trachinotus carolinus 18 0.3 18 0.1
Spanish Mackerel Scomberomorus maculatus 4 * 4 0.1 8 *
Sheepshead Archosargus probatocephalus 2 * 2 *
TOTALS 17,309 182.2 26,264 445.1 43,573 282.8
1933
Croaker Micropogon undulatus 20,333 209.3 7,792 132.1 28,725 180.7
White Trout Cynoscion arenarius 1,890 18.9 1,803 30.5 3,693 23.2
Spot Leistomus xanthurus 865 8.7 515 8.7 1,380 8.7
Black Mullet Menticirrhus american us 73 0.7 861 14.6 934 5.9 P
Yellowtail Bairdiella chrysura 532 5.3 157 2.7 689 4.3 0
Spotted Trout Cynoscion nebulosus 463 4.6 7 0.1 470 2.9 s::
White Trout Cynoscion nothus 21 0.2 376 6.4 397 2.5
....::s
(I)
...
Flounder Paralichthys lethostigmus 100 1.0 12 0.2 112 0.7 ....tils::
Spade fish Chaetodipterus faber 25 0.3 72 1.2 97 0.6 Po
.....
(I)
Spanish Mackerel Scomberomorus maculatus 7 0.1 6 0.1 13 0.1
White Mullet Mugil cephalus 7 0.1 7 *
'"0
::I
Pompano Trachinotus carolinus 2 * 2 * tr1
Sheep shead Archosargus probatocephalus 1 * 1 * '"....
s::
§.
TOTALS 24,917 249.2 11,603 196.6 36,520 229.7 ::I
(I)
S=
I»
*Less than 0.1 S·
(I)
0(I)
'0
(I)
::I
Po
(I)
::I
("l
'<
01>-
00
482 G. Gunter
Crustacea. The methods used permitted a comparison of populations and move-
ments, yielding information on life histories and seasonal cycles in Copano Bay,
Aransas Bay and the inshore Gulf of Mexico. The fishes and invertebrates were
treated separately (Gunter 1945, 1950). Remarks on the motile invertebrates,
mostly crustaceans, as related to the estuarine-marine dependency have already
been treated in this article. The regularity with which the stations were visited
and the length of time covered are important points. The study was terminated
by a hurricane, which beached the boat and caused various other inconveniences.
Certain seasonal changes were noted in the fish population coinciding with
seasonal temperature changes ... The overall seasonal changes in the fish
population doubtlessly are caused by temperature changes, whether it is a
direct or indirect cause.
Most marine animals in the temperate zone have definite breeding seasons.
The spring, especially the month of April, was the time when the gonads of
most fishes and crustacea burgeoned. Spring in the water was as evident as it
was on land. In the air at the same time the male gulls became for once very
gallant and called the females when food was found. Although most fishes
spawned in the spring and summer, several of them spawned in the fall and
winter ... Orton (1920) pointed out that most marine animals fall into two
general groups, those that spawn when the temperature reaches or approaches
the maximum and those that spawn when the temperature reaches or ap-
proaches the minimum.
Spawning times by species of the various Texas fishes were given and it was said,
Over six times as many fishes spawned in the spring and summer as spawn
in the fall. Most fishes spawning in the fall and winter were of temperate and
subtropical distribution, while the warm month spawners included a majority
of species that are subtropical and tropical in distribution. Many have not
been recorded north of the Gulf of Mexico.
Table 67 shows that the summer and winter were the seasons of greatest
abundance of small fishes in the shallows of both Copano and Aransas Bay.
On the Gulf beach the summer and fall were seasons of greatest abundance,
with the spring low and the winter decidedly lower (Gunter 1945, pp. 96-102).
The catches of large fish were also compared over the seasons as were the
trawl catches. The very smallest fishes were taken by minnow seines and the
seasonal variations were noted. Tables of catches show that the small shore fishes
declined in the fall more gradually in Aransas Bay, the seaward bay, than in the
Copano, and the low point was not reached until December. The abundance
changes in Aransas Bay in minnow seine hauls seem to lag about a month behind
those of Copano Bay. Small specimens of common croakers, striped mullet and
menhaden all appeared in the minnow catches in February. The first two came
from the Gulf beach. The monthly catches of each species as well as the size
changes throughout the year were shown in individual species accounts. Certain
shore fishes such as Menidia beryllina and Cyprinodon variegatus were among
the most numerous fishes nearshore except in winter. These fishes did not go
into the Gulf but apparently moved offshore. At that time small mullet became
the most abundant.
Warfel and Merriman (1944) had previously reported that some of the fishes
of the shore zone of Long Island Sound were the young of species that became a
significant part of the commercial fisheries at larger sizes ..
Small fishes on the Gulf beach declined sharply in the winter. There was a
gradual decrease in the number of fishes in the trawl catches in both bays during
the fall and winter with low points in December and January. The catches in-
creased again through the spring and in Copano Bay they became overwhelming-
ly predominant. This was maintained through the summer. Then the croakers
moved out and in winter when the anchovies became dominant there were much
fewer fishes of other species. Fish species were more numerous in the Gulf at all
seasons and none was overwhelmingly predominant.
During the spring many fishes which are taken only in the Gulf during the
winter or which were absent entirely begin to come into the bays. Some of
them go only into Aransas Bay and many that go into Copano Bay are taken
there only rarely in the late summer and fall.
During the fall the red fish, Sciaenops ocellata, the croaker, Micropogon
undulatus, and the mullet, Mugil cephalus, begin an exodus from the bays and
go to the Gulf beach where they spawn in the late fall and early winter. The
stingaree, Dasyatis sabina, the hardhead catfish, Galeichthys felis, and the
gafftopsail catfish, Bagre marina, depart and the first two became more numer-
ous in the Gulf waters, while the latter disappears largely even in the Gulf.
Many other fishes largely leave the bay at the same time. The rough silverside,
Membras vagran vagrans, left the bays in the winter. Orthopristes chysopterus
[sic] was found only in the bays in summer but in midwinter it was found
only in the Gulf. Lagodon rhomboides was scarce in the bays in December
and was caught in the Gulf from November and January only. The yellowtail,
Bairdiella chrysura, was taken in the Gulf from November to January only.
The flat croaker, Leiostomus xanthurus, was scarce in the bays in January
and abundant in the Gulf only at that time (Gunter 1945, pp. 99-100).
The movements of 16 more species are similarly described. Examination of

the tables of monthly catches shows that the move toward the Gulf started in
October and continued to December. likewise most fishes returned to the bays
from February to April.
Repeatedly a fish present in both bays first disappeared during the fall in the
back bay, Copano Bay, but returned there later in the spring or summer than in
Aransas Bay, i.e., the stingaree was absent from Copano Bay from November
to February, but was absent from Aransas Bay only in January. The large
general exodus of fishes, commercial white shrimp and other penaeids from
the bays in the fall is the most noticeable fact concerning the seasonal cycle.
484 G. Gunter
After spawning the mullet, the redfish and the black drum became much
more abundant in Copano Bay in the winter. The Gulf hake, Urophycis
floridanus, appeared in the shallow Gulf and bays in the winter only and
remained until spring. Certain other fishes such as the sand trout and the
tonguefish did not enter the bays except from November to April (Gunter
1945, p. 100).
As the temperature rises, U. floridanus, c. nothus and S. plagiusa leave the
bay waters and the first departs from the area entirely. Small peneid shrimp
come into the bays by millions, the crabs spawn in the shallow Gulf and
lower bays, and many different fishes enter the bays including Polydactylus
octonemus, which spends the winter beyond the area studied. The return of
U. floridanus to the shallow Gulf and bay waters in the winter and its depar-
ture in the spring and the reciprocal migration of P. octonemus into the region
in the spring and its departure in the fall are among the notable features of
the seasonal movements of fishes in the bays and shallow Gulf. The catfishes
return to the bays in large numbers in the spring and begin spawning activi-
ties. The speckled trout begins spawning at about the same time. In the spring
and summer young pompano and H. macropthalma appear on the Gulf beach.
The carangids, triglids and many rarely caught fishes return to the shallow
Gulf along with several crustaceans that are taken only in the summer. In mid-
summer and fall many of the fishes enter Aransas Bay and some even go into
Copano Bay. The crab, Callinectes danae, also enters the lower bay in summer
as does a species of squid, Loligo brevipinna LeSueur. The Spanish mackerel,
Scomberomorus maculatus, and other large scombrids and game fishes ap-
proach the Gulf shore and some of the mackerel enter the bays. As the temper-
atures drop in the fall the exodus of the shrimp and many fishes starts again
and the cycle is completed.
Several species of fishes spawn in the Gulf near the passes. This also holds
true for the common shrimp. The blue crab spawns in the Gulf or lower Bay.
The speckled trout, the two marine catfishes, the menhaden, Brevoortia sp.,
the anchovy, A. m. diaphana, and the silverside, M. b. peninsulae, are the
chief species that spawn in the bays. The young of many fishes that spawn in
the shallow Gulf work into the bays in the winter and spring. The bays act as
a nursery ground for these fishes and for the common shrimp, Penaeus setifer-
us, and blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, as well as for those species spawned
within their limits. These animals remain in the bays and grow during the
spring and summer. Most of the fishes that leave the bays when cool weather
begins are the young which have been growing in this nursery area during the
warm months. They are mostly from a few months to almost a year old. The
other numerous component of the seaward fall migrants are the spawners
going to the Gulf to spawn (Gunter 1945, pp. 101-102).
Pass Studies
When Pearson (1929) was studying the goings and comings of the sciaenid fishes
he caught larvae in the passes as they were entering the bays. The writer made no
such observations, but Simmons and Hoese (1959) caught various species of ani-
mals going and coming through Cedar Bayou Pass between Mesquite Bay and the
Gulf. Copeland (1965) made additional studies on Aransas Pass and tried to add
some quantification to this appraisal. He said (p. 20): "The amount of biomass
leaving the shallow, highly productive bays of Texas into the Gulf of Mexico is
almost unbelievable."
Migrations of Texas marine fauna through natural passes was reviewed by King
(1971). Studies of shrimp coming in as postlarvae were initiated by Baxter
(1967, 1970) and this method is now used in Louisiana and Mississippi in pre-
dicting shrimp abundance. Many other works too numerous to mention have
been carried out in connection with life history studies and several are cited in
the series published as the Gulf Marine Estuarine Inventory (cf. Christmas 1973).
These like the earlier works did not particularly emphasize the dependency nor
was it intended in the title.
Several papers covering the Florida marshes, the Cedar Key area and the
Caloosahatchee, of which the most important was the work on Tampa Bay by
Springer and Woodburn (1960), have added a great deal to the ecology of estu-
arine inshore fishes. However, they did not equally emphasize the offshore areas
and thus are not cited as adding to the estuarine-marine dependency information.
3 Some Ramifications of Estuarine-Marine Interdependency

Studies
Gunter (1967) estimated that the 1961 catch of commercial fisheries on the
Gulf of Mexico coast of the United States was 97.5% composed of species from
the estuaries or raised there. At the time the Gulf produced about 28% of the
nation's marine fisheries. The estuaries are of paramount importance to the com-
mercial fisheries. 1
The importance of the estuaries to the marine fisheries are related to conser-
vation, which involves control of pollution and preservation of the natural habi-
tat. The subject is especially related to salinity and osmotic problems and such
things as the origin of catadromous and anadromous fishes. Further elucidation
and clarification of this whole complex problem will be of interest to maricul-
ture for presumably many marine or estuarine species can be raised under artifi-
cial conditions if we learn enough about them. At the Gulf Coast Research Labo-
ratory, studies on the chief commercial shrimp species of North America, Penaeus
aztecus, has shown that these shrimp grow better, have more efficient nutrition
and respire more easily at low salinities when they are small and that as they
grow the salinity optima increase and the animals become better adapted to
higher salinities as they grow up, which would be a natural expectation in animals
moving out to sea (Venkataramiah et al. 1974). The euryhalinity of such diverse
organisms as the anadromous and catadromous fishes is an intriguing problem
1 In April 1978 there was a special meeting at the Florida State University in Tallaltassee
entitled ConfertOIlce on Ecological Processes in Coastal and Marine Systems, in which there
were 27 papers given. Four of these concerned the marine-estuarine dependency and in two
of them, physical and chemical exchanges were considered aside from the biota. Studies of
these factors and their effects on the biota will be the final step in the appraisal of the
estuarine-marine dependency.
486 G. Gunter
related to zoogeography and the paleoecological history of the various species. It
is all related to the estuarine-marine dependency and estuaries are certainly not
transient geological features as has been suggested by some geologists. Further
studies on the estuarine-marine dependency will shed more light on diverse fields
of marine science.
References
Baxter, K. N. 1967. Postlarva1 and juvenile shrimp. In: Report Bureau of Com-
mercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Galveston, Texas, Fiscal Year 1966,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Circ., 268, 14-16.
Baxter, K. N. 1970. Predicting shrimp abundance. In: Report Bureau Commer-
cial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Galveston, Texas, Fiscal Year 1969, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Circ., 343, 13-14.
Christmas, J. Y. 1973. Cooperative Gulf of Mexico estuarine inventory and
Study, Mississippi. J. Y. Christmas (ed.), Gulf Coast Research Laboratory,
434 pp.
Churchill, E. P., Jr. 1919. Life history of the blue crab. Bull. U.S. Bur. Fish.,
36,95-128.
Collier, A. and Hedgpeth, J. W. 1950. An introduction to the hydrography of
tidal waters of Texas. Pub!. Inst. Mar. Sci., 1(2), 125-194.
Copeland, B. J. 1965. Fauna of the Aransas Pass inlet, Texas. I. Emigration as
shown by tide trap collections. Pub!. Inst. Mar. Sci., 10, 9-21.
Darnell, R. M. 1959. Studies of the life history of the blue crab (Callinectes
sapidus Rathbun) in Louisiana waters. Trans. Amer. Fish. Soc., 88, 294-304.
Daugherty, F. M. 1952. The blue crab investigation, 1949-50. Texas Jour. Sci.,
4(1), 77-84.
Gunter, G. 1936. Studies of the destruction of marine fish by shrimp trawlers
in Louisiana. Louisiana Conservation Review,S (4), 18-24,45-46.
Gunter, G. 1938a. The relative numbers of species of marine fish on the Louisiana
coast. Amer. Nat., 72, 77-83.
Gunter, G. 1938b. Seasonal variations in abundance of certain estuarine and
marine fishes in Louisiana, with particular reference to life histories. Eco!.
Monogr., 8, 313-346.
Gunter, G. 1945. Studies on marine fishes of Texas. Pub!. Inst. Mar. Sci., 1(1),
1-190.
Gunter, G. 1950. Seasonal population changes and distributions as related to
salinity, of certain invertebrates of the Texas coast, including the commer-
cial shrimp. Pub!. Inst. Mar. Sci., 1(2), 7-51.
Gunter, G. 1962. Shrimp landings and production of the state of Texas for the
period 1956-1959, with a comparison with other Gulf states. Pub!. Inst.
Mar. Sci., 8, 216-226.
Gunter, G. 1967. Some relationships of estuaries to the fisheries of the Gulf of
Mexico. Part IX Fisheries, pp. 621-638, in: Estuaries, George H. Lauff (ed.),
xv + 757 pp., Publication No. 83, American Association for the Advancement
of Science,"Washington, D.C.
Hay, W. P. 1905. The life history of the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus). (U.S.)
Bur. Fish. Rept., 1904,395-413.
Hildebrand, S. F. and Schroeder, W. C. 1928. Fishes of Chesapeake Bay. Bull.
U.S. Bur. Fish., 43(1), 1-366. •
King, B. D., III. 1971. Study of migratory patterns of fish and shellfish through
a natural pass. Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Tech. Ser., No.9, 1-54.
Lindner, M. J. and Anderson, W. W. 1956. Growth, migrations and spawning,
and size distributions of shrimp Penaeus setiferus. Fish. Bull. U.S. Fish Wild-
life Service, 56(106), 555-645.
Menzel, R. W.and Hopkins, S. H. 1956. Crabs as predators of oysters in Louisi-
ana. Proc. Nat. Shellfish. Assoc., 46(1955),177-184.
More, W. R. 1969. A contribution to the biology of the blue crab (Callinectes
sapidus Rathbun) in Texas, with a description of the fishery. Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department, Tech. Serv., 1, 1-31.
Orton, J. H. 1920. Sea-temperature, breeding and distribution in marine animals.
Jour. Mar. BioI. Assoc., Plymouth, 12,339-366.
Pearson, J. C. 1929. Natural history and conservation of the red fish and other
commercial sciaenids on the Texas coast. Bull. Bur. Fish., 44(Doc. No. 1046),
129-214.
Peck, J. E. 1894. On the food of the menhaden. Bull. U.S. Fish. Comm., 13,
113-126, 8 pIs.
Rounsefell, G. A. 1975. Ecology, utilization, and management of marine fisheries.
The C. V. Mosby Company, Saint Louis, p. 9.
Sandoz, M. and Rogers, R. 1944. The effect of environmental factors on hatch-
ing, moulting and survival of zoea larvae of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus
Rathbun. Ecology, 25, 216-228.
Simmons, E. G. and Hoese, H. D. 1959. Studies on the hydrography and fish mi-
grations of Cedar Bayou, a natural tidal inlet on the central Texas coast. Publ.
Inst. Mar. Sci., 6, 56-80.
Springer, V. G. and Woodburn, K. D. 1960. An ecological study of the fishes of
the Tampa Bay area. Florida State Board of Conservation Prof. Pap., No.1.
104 pp.
Venkataramiah, A., Lakshmi, G. J. and Gunter, G. 1974. Studies on the effects
of salinity and temperature on the commercial shrimp Penaeus aztecus Ives,
with special regard to survival limits, growth, oxygen consumption and ionic
regulation. Contract Report H-74-2. U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experi-
ment Station, Vicksburg, MS. 134 pp.
Viosca, P. 1920. Report of the Biologist. Fourth Biennial Report. Louisiana
Department of Conservation, 1918-1920, pp. 120-130.
Warfel, H. E. and Merriman, D. 1944. Studies on the marine resources of southern
New England. An analysis of the fish of the shore zone. Bull. Bingham Ocean-
ogr. ColI., 9(2), 3542.
Weymouth, F. W., Lindner, M. J. and Anderson, W. W. 1933. Preliminary report
on the life history of the common shrimp, Penaeus setiferus (Linn.). Bull.
Bur. Fish., 48,1-25.
History of Polish Biological Oceanographic Research
Kazimierz Wincenty Siudzinski
1 1721 to 1921
During this period, scientists carried out investigations independently or at

Polish and foreign universities, as well as at various marine stations or during
scientific expeditions (Marikowski 1967).
The first investigator of Polish origin that should be mentioned was a citizen
of Gdansk, Jakub Klein (1685-1759), an eminent scientist widely known through-
out the world. In 1731 he published a paper "Descriptiones tubulorum mari-
norum" in which he described the "tube-houses" built and inhabited by sea
organisms. Three years later he edited a work "Echinodermatum naturalis dis-
posito" which contained a description of sea urchins and included their syste-
matic division. In the years 1740-1749 he elaborated "Historiae piscium natu-
ralls" consisting of five individual studies, for which he was regarded as the first
Polish ichthyologist.
Other Polish scientists of this period were:
a. The priest, Jan Krzysztof Kluk (1739-1796), an outstanding Polish scientist

of the XVIII century, who published a twelve-volume work on natural histo-
ry. In the third volume, "On Reptiles and Fish," he wrote about fishes in the
Baltic Sea.
b. Benedykt Dybowski (1833-1930), an ex-political deportee to Siberia, be-
came famous as an explorer of Lake Baikal and also a collector of flora and
fauna from the Bering and Okhotsk seas. The materials (sponges) obtained
during his travels were worked up among others, by his brother Wfadyslaw
(1838-1910).
History of Polish Biological Oceanographic Research 489
c. Szymon Syrski (1829-1882), head of the Museum of Natural History in Trieste,
discovered the male eel and an organ, the male gonads (later called the Syrski
organ).
d. A group of scientists investigated echinoderms, i.e., Kazimierz Kostaniecki
(1863-1940) and Antoni Wierzejski (1843-1916) examined sea urchin ova;
Mieczyslaw Konopacki (1880-1939) studied the influence of diluted sea water
on the evolutionary stages of the echinoderm; Tadeusz Grabowski (1869-
1940) was able to transplant blastomeres and studied artificial parthenogenesis
in echinoderms and on Mediterranean abyssal Amphipoda; Emil Godlweski
(1875-1944) obtained a hybrid of crinoid and sea urchin experimentally, a
rare case of a successful crossbreed of two species; Kazimierz Kwietniewski
(1873-1924), professor at the universities of Messina, Padua, Pisa and Lvov,
was particularly interested in sea anemones and coraloids inhabiting tropical
seas, and in pteropods. He also carried out investigations on sharks. Mention
should also be made of Jozef Nusbaum (1859-1917) and Mieczystaw Oxner
who studied echinoderm regeneration, and Wlodzimierz Wietrzykowski
(1885-1916) who investigated the very complicated evolutionary cycle of
coelenterates from the Lucernaria group.
e. Botanists from Cracow, Jozef Rostafuiski (1850-1928) and Edward Janczew-
ski (1846-1918), the only botanists of that period, studied the marine flora
in Strasbourg. Rostafuiski investigated the Laminariaceae and Fucus in detail.
On the Fucus ovum he discovered merogonia (1877) and was the first to note
the fertilization of the plant ovum without spermatozoa. Janczewski con-
ducted intensive studies on the evolution of the Cyanophyceae, the Phaeo-
phycae (brown algae) containing a brown pigment, and of red seaweeds.
Among other things, a new seaweed was named Janczewskia for his great
achievements in investigations on red seaweed by a German botanist Laubach.
f. And the well-known scientist, Michal Siedlecki (1876-1940), the first delegate
of the Polish Government to the International Council for the Exploration of
the Sea from 1923 to 1939, studied Protozoa and Annelida, wrote several
books on the biology of fish and also 30 papers on sea fisheries.
From 1899 on, the first Polish books on oceanography and marine biology
appeared: in 1899 by Wiadystaw Ummski (1865-1954), in 1905 by Michalina
Stefanowska (1870), associate professor at the University in Geneva, and later
professor at the University of Poznan; in 1909 by Maurycy Rudzki (1862-1916);
in 1910 by Eugeniusz Kiernik (1877-1921), and many others (Demel 1971,
Marikowski 1967, Ropelewski 1963, Siudzinski 1971a).
2 June 1921 to the Beginning of World War II
The Sea Fishery Office at Wejherowo, where the Sea Fishery Laboratory was
established on 18 June 1921, with its headquarters at Hel marked the beginning
of the second period. After reorganization and renaming, the Sea Fishery Labo-
490 K. W. Siudzinski
ratory became the present Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia. This laboratory re-
mained under the scientific supervision of Poznan University. Professor A. Jaku-
bowski, a zoologist, was its first director, Professor S. Pawlowski being his as-
sistant. Professor S. Pawlowski initiated the organization of a Polish biological
station on the Baltic. This idea was submitted to the Polish Seym on 10 Febru-
ary 1920 by Professor E. Kiernik from Warsaw, a Member of Parliment.
The best known scientist of the period was K. Demel (doctor honoris causa,
professor doctor) (1899-1978). He mainly investigated the bottom fauna of the
Baltic, as well as ecology in its widest sense. However, during the early years he
was engaged in almost all fields of investigations concerning the sea, including
oceanography, biology, ecology, ichthyology and fishing techniques. He wrote
many books and papers, over 200 publications in all.
In 1932 the laboratory changed its name to the Marine Station, the Prof.
Dr. Mieczyslaw Bogucki (1884-1965) became director. Thanks to his organi-
zational abilities, a new building was erected in 1938 in Gdynia, the seat of the
present Institute.
At that time the following scientists had also begun their investigations:
Adam Bursa (marine flora), Zygmunt Mulicki (1908-1965) (zoobenthos), and
Wladyslaw Mankowski (1910-1978) (zooplankton).
The following scientists from further inland also carried out investigations
occasionally, i.e., B. Namystowski and J. WoloszyIiska (Baltic phytoplankton),
H. Hietzman, M. Marchewianka, J. Mrozkowna and K. Starmach (phytobenthos),
J. Rzoska, M. Ramult, B. Kalusza and Z. Kirchner (zooplankton, and, in order
of precedence, copepods, cladocerans, rotifers, protozoans), J. Urbanski (Amphi-
poda and Mollusca), S. Hiller (Bryozoa), H. Raabe and Z. Raabe, who labelled
mollusc parasites, J. Janiszewska and S. Markowski (who investigated fish para-
sites), and others. Investigations in marine biology by direct observation and by
underwater collecting were carried out by R. Wojtusiak and A. and J. Komas.
In the years 1939-1945 the Marine Station was destroyed by the Nazis, and
all its instruments, equipment and library, as well as research vessels were lost.
The latter survived the war in Germany.
3 1945 to the Present (Cieglewicz 1971, Demel 1971, Ropelewski

1963, Siudzmski 1971a)
Of three stages that can be distinguished, the first includes the rebuilding, organ-
ization and recommencement of research in the Baltic. The Sea Fishery Labora-
tory was re-established. On 1 January 1949 it was incorporated into the Sea
Fisheries Institute established in 1928 to support the development of the fisheries
industry. Among other things, the Sea Fisheries Institute purchased two cutters,
one of which, Ewa, was adapted for scientific and research purposes and was
used by the scientists at Hel until 1939.
The Sea Fisheries Institute after 1949 became a purely scientific institution.
Investigations in biological oceanography were taken over by the Department of
Oceanography, the first head of which was K. Demel. He occupied the post until
he became the scientific director of the Sea Fisheries Institute, i.e., until 1958.
His successors in the Department of Oceanography were Z. Mulicki, then W.
Marikowski, and as from 1968 K. SiudziIiski.
During the first post-war years, investigations were restricted to Gdansk Bay
and the central Baltic. The year 1949 was crucial for Polish oceanographic
investigations in the Baltic. The following were then included in investigations:
Arkona, Bornholm and Gotland deeps, and the stupsk Furrow.
After 1952 investigations were extended to COVer the North and Barents seas
where during the fIrst years the ichthyoplankton was studied under the national
program and later under ICES (K.. Siudzhlski, W. Kijowski, P. Ciszewski, L.
Szlachcikowska).
The second stage covered the years 1958-1968 when extensive ecological in-
vestigations Were carried out (K.. Demel, Z. Mulicki, W. Mankowski). The benthos
and zooplankton were studied and a first estimate of the fish food reSourceS
was completed, i.e., the zoobenthos and zooplankton biomass.
Apart from "this, W. Marikowski commenced studies on eggs and larvae of com-
mercial fISh to determine their spawning-grounds. In the case of the zoobenthos
he worked with L. Zmudzitlski, S. Grimm, J. Ostrowski and J. Wiktor (in Szczecin
Lagoon), of zooplankton with K. Wiktor, P. Ciszewski, K. Siudzitlski and in part,
with Z. R6ianska and S. Rakusa-Suszczewski, and of ichthyoplankton with K.
Siudzitlski. Simultaneously, after the war T. Rochon, H. Renk and H. Torbicki
conducted inVestigations on primary production and A. Rumek, D. Szarejko-
Lukasiewicz, Z. Ringer, D. Zembrzuska on the marine flora.
At this stage, the work carried out by W. Mankowski and Z. Mulicki is worth
particular notice. W. Marikowski, an outstanding expert on Baltic plankton and
the general biology of this sea, created the Polish school of studies in this field,
particularly as regards changes in the environment and the Baltic biocoenoses.
He trained many oceanographers and ichthyologists, held responsible adminis-
trative and scientific posts, actively participated in the Polish Zoological and
Hydrobiological Society and the Polish Academy of Sciences, worked in cooper-
ation with various universities and was an expert on the Plankton Committee of
the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.
Z. Mulicki specialized in the biology and ecology of the bottom fauna and
wrote several excellent papers on this subject.
The third stage, from 1968 to the present (Siudziriski 1971a, 1971b, 1976),
Covers investigations on the biological production of various trophic levels in the
Baltic, and the continuation of previous research concerning the ecology and
biological resourCeS of seas and OCeans. During these years, the number of special-
ists employed in the Department of Oceanography increased from 14 to 60. New
laboratOries, i.e., biolOgical-plankton, benthos, biological production, experi-
mental biology, pollution-biotesting, radiology, hydrochemical and physics labo-
flitories, as well as a museum and aquarium were established. Marine parasitologi-
cal investigations Were also resumed. New fields of pollution research Were intro-
duced and therefore some national and international meetings and symposia
were organized. Entirely new investigations were initiated in order to determine
the absolute values of biological production in the Baltic.
The Polish Academy of Sciences appointed the Sea Fisheries Institute to play
a leading and coordinating role in marine investigations, K. Siudzinski being the
head and coordinator of overall investigations in the Baltic within the framework
of the subject "Productivity of Marine Ecosystems." The following institutions
were invited to cooperate with the Sea Fisheries Institute's Department of Ocean-
ography: Medical Academy in Gdansk, the Agricultural Academies in Szczecin
and Olsztyn, the Polish Academy of Sciences' Department of Oceanology at
Sopot, the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management in Gdynia and the
University of Gdansk.
In the years 1971-1975, almost 100 scientists carried out investigations in
these fields in the Baltic and over 300 papers have been submitted for publi-
cation. The main achievements were:
a. the formation of a complex and uniform research group and a system of field
and laboratory investigations;
b. patents were obtained for equipment used in the determination of the magni-
tude of luminous energy, light-field properties, photosynthesis, primary and
secondary production, and the determination of various hydrological parame-
ters;
c. comprehensive work concerning the protection of the marine environment
against pollution;
d. observations of changes in hydrological conditions and their effect on the Bal-
tic biocoenoses, especially on spatial and diurnal migration of fish, deterio-
ration or propagation of various species of Baltic flora and fauna, the determi-
nation of "deserts" in the Baltic deeps, etc.;
e. the determination of the magnitude of biomass and biological production and
the elimination of particular levels of the Baltic trophic network;
f. the synthesis of the first stage of investigations over the years 1971-1973
("Productivity of Marine Ecosystems," Polish Hydrobioiogicai Archives,
Vol. 22, No.3, 1975).
It should be also be emphasized that scientists from this group, i.e., from the
Sea Fisheries Institute's Department of Oceanography and Department of Icth-
thyology, participated in the preparation of materials for the Gdansk Convention
on fishing and the conservation of the living resources in the Baltic Sea and Belts
(Gdansk 1973), and for the Helsinki Convention on the protection of the Baltic
against pollution (Helsinki 1974/1975). The scientific achivements of this group
also served and still serve as material for the work of the Gdansk and Helsinki
Conventions in the field of the production of the living resources and marine
environment in the Baltic Sea.
As already mentioned, after 1960, the Sea Fisheries Institute, and later scien-
tists from other research centers, especially the Polish Academy of Sciences
(Institute of Ecology, Department of Oceanology and other cooperating groups
from various universities) extended investigations outside the Baltic. Polish inves-
tigations embraced the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as the Arctic
and Antarctic. The main reason for expanding the marine investigations was the
search for edible proteins from the seas and the possibility of conducting research
using the research vessels owned by the Sea Fisheries Institute (R. V. Prof.
Siedtecki, R. V. Prof. Bogucki., Mt. Dr. l-ubecki) or fishing vessels adapted for
such work (Mt. Wieczno and in part Mt. Birkut), as well as the installation of
oceanographic and biological stations in the Arctic and Antarctic by the Polish
Academy of Sciences. In order to carry out investigations outside the Baltic,
the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Ecology, as well as the Sea Fisheries
Institute took part in oceanic expeditions, especially on board Soviet and Polish
vessels (R. V. Prof. Siedfecki) and in recent years in systematic studies at research
stations in the Arctic and particularly in the Antarctic. The Polish Academy of
Sciences' program included investigations in the field of bioenergetics and eco-
physiology of marine fauna.
In 1977 (particularly at the beginning of 1977 and 1978), after 200-mile fish-
ing zones were introduced by many countries, practically all the continental
shelves and slopes where Polish fishing vessels had formerly operated, became
the property of these coastal countries. Because of these zones, only a few places
remain where small fragments of shelves are still accessible to foreign fishing
fleets. The political and legislative partition which led to the formation these
zones which had been the source of 95% of the world's fisheries, invertebrates
and utilizable plants, placed world fisheries and many countries, including Poland,
in a new situation.
Following this, it was decided that Antarctic investigations were to be carried
out from the sea (Sea Fisheries Institute) and from the land (polish Academy of
Sciences) by organizing extensive scientific-commercial expeditions to Antarctic
regions by many ships simultaneously. The expeditions were to be coordinated
from the R. V. Prof. Siedfecki and to conduct a survey of krill and fish resources
in these regions, and their exploitation.
On Poland's initiative, in 1977 the socialist countries (Bulgaria, the German
Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union) decided to carry
out an international expedition to investigate the living resources of the open sea
in 1978. In addition, international investigations were continued and even ex-
tended in some of the appropriate shelf waters.
The participation of Polish scientists in international cooperation in the field
of biological oceanography has long-standing traditions. As already mentioned,
during the period 1721-1921, individual scientists worked at universities and
foreign institutions (stations) or took part in international expeditions. Between
the two World Wars M. Siedlecki became the first Polish State delegate to ICES.
A few years later, after 1945, K. Demel together with W. Cieglewicz, Z. Mulicki,
W. Mankowski and others became experts for this organization. W. Cieglewicz
acted as president of ICES during one term of office. Many of our biologists
worked and are working in various international organizations, such as F AO,
UNESCO (W. Slaczka), 10C (C. Druet, vice-president), BMB (Baltic Marine
Biologists) (K. Siudzmski, as president of this organization for many years,
F. Pautsch, I. Drzycimski and others).
Beyond the Baltic, we have conducted expeditionary investigations under
various programs of the socialist and other countries. We also co-operate on the
basis of bilateral agreements, with the USA, Canada and Senegal. As the result
of such an agreement, the Plankton Sorting and Identification Centre was estab-
lished with the participation of the Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia and the
Northeast Atlantic Fishery Center in Woods Hole. The first version of the project
covering the fmancial and organizational side of the Centre was planned by K.
Siudziriski and K. Sherman. In March and June 1973, other versions of the
organization of the Centre were worked out and submitted by the management
of the Sea Fisheries Institute to the Ministry of Shipping for acceptance. In
June 1973 a Polish-American conference on the subject of the agreement con-
cerning fishery and scientific-technical co-operation was held. The project of
the Centre was discussed and after additional suggestions by the Polish and
American representatives, the new and fmal project was drawn up.
On 1 January 1974, with the approval ofW. Polaczek, Director of the Fishe-
ries Central Board and in accordance with the instructions of R. Maj, Director of
the Sea Fisheries Institute, the Plankton Sorting and Identification Centre with
its headquarters in Szczecin, was established at the Sea Fisheries Institute in
Gdynia. From 1 July 1974, work covered by the project was started and in the
first half of 1974 a new building for the Plankton Sorting and Identification
Centre was completed. The head of the Centre, I. Drzycimski, had a substantial
part in the work concerning the building. The official opening took place on
10 December 1974. The work of the newly-established Centre consists of the
sorting and identification of marine plankton, particularly ichthyoplankton,
processing of the results of biological analyses of the plankton samples by com-
puters, and a synthesis of the results.
Special attention should be given to the Oceanographic Museum and Marine
Aquarium in Gdynia, which is organizationally connected to the Sea Fisheries
Institute. The beginnings of the museum and aquarium go back to the twenties
and are strictly connected with the name of K. Demel and the Marine Labora-
tory at Hel. The display room was opened in 1923, when K. Demel, simultane-
ously with his scientific investigations, systematically collected and labelled the
specimens which constituted the nucleus of the present museum. After the war,
in 1945, K. Demel directed the activities of the museum himself, and later in
the fifties, in collaboration with St. Kujawa. In 1979, K. Siudziriski became
manager and custodian of the Oceanographic Museum and Marine Aquarium in
Gdynia. At present, the museum and aquarium are scientific, research, experi-
mental and teaching centers. Extensive ecophysiological investigations are car-
ried out (Le., on the adaptation of freshwater fish or fish-farming in brackish
and salty waters, and on the effect of various physiochemical parameters includ-
ing toxic substances on marine organisms).
Apart from the above-mentioned investigations, the Inter-University Course
in Marine Biology, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1979, played a
substantial role in the history of marine investigations in Poland. The first
course, initiated by biologists and students from Cracow, took place at Hel in
1929. K. Demel, its organizer, was head of the course. Until 1955, Prof. K.
Demel conducted the course himself, later, for two years with P. Ciszewski, and
until 1959 with L. imudzinski. From 1959 K. Siudzinski collaborated with
K. Demel, gradually taking over as head of the course, an office he still holds.
The participants in the course (30-35 persons) are III-year students in the
departments of biology and earth sciences from all university centers in the
country. The course lasts one month and is organized by the Sea Fisheries
Institute and fmanced by the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Tech-
nology. The majority of the pre-war and post-war marine biologists have been
and still are participants in the course.
As can be seen, most oceanographic-biological investigations were and are
carried out at the Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia. Simultaneously, research
in this field was also carried out by other Polish centers (including those further
inland), namely the Biological Station at Gorki Wschodnie near Gdansk (F.
Pautsch, J. Turobojski), the University of Gdansk (W. MaIikowski, K. Wiktor),
the Agricultural Academy in Szczecin (under the supervision of I. Drzycimski),
the Institute of Ecology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (under the super-
vision of R. Klekowski and S. Rakusa Suszczewski), the Jagiellonian University
(R. J. Wojtusiak), the University of LOdZ (K. JaZdzewski), and others.
Development of scientific investigations in the complex sense has been most
dynamic in the Baltic (especially in the years 1971-1975); for oceanic expe-
ditions it has been most marked since the commissioning of the ship R. V. Prof.
Siedtecki and the introduction of joint international investigations within the
framework of various programs.
References
Cieglewicz, W. 1971. The Sea Fisheries Institute's international cooperation in

the field of marine investigations and regulation of fishery. Papers from the
Sea Fisheries Institute. JUBILEE VOLUME. Publication Centre of the Sea
Fisheries Institute, Gdynia. (In Polish).
Demel, K. 1971. On the history of Polish research in the Baltic. Ibidem. (In
Polish).
Mankowski, K. 1967. Oceanographic-biological investigations during our millen-
ium. Studies and materials. Series A, No.4, the Sea Fisheries Institute, Gdynia.
(In Polish).
Ropelewski, A. 1963. Forty years of Polish research in the field of sea fishery.
"Polish Science" XI, No. 2/44/. (In Polish).
Siudzinski, K. 1971a. The history of investigations in the Department of Ocean-
ography. Scientific Symposia of the Department of Oceanography. Fifty
years of Polish oceanological research. The Sea Fisheries Institute, Gdynia
21-22 VII 1971. (In Polish). ~
Siudzinski, K. 1971 b. The future programme of oceanological investigations.
Ibidem. (In Polish).
Siudzmski, K. 1976. Biological oceanography and marine zoology up to the
Year 2000. Poland on the Sea 2000. Oceanographic Studies and Materials,
No. 13. The Polish Academy of Sciences' National Scientific Committee on
Oceanic Research, Sopot. (In Polish).
On the Environment and Unity in Marine Research
C.E. Lucas
Today, we are all environmentalists, or at least very conscious of the environ-

ment, although it seems relatively few years ago that this was far from the case,
and yet a while before that it was taken for granted by most, if not all biologists,
indeed by most thinking people, that the environment was all-important.
The sequence of events-of changing attitudes-since "The Origin of Species"
is most interesting. The point was made in 1917 by Lawrence J. Henderson
(professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard) in his "The Order of Nature"
where, among many other stimulating things he said (p. 3)
Since Darwin's time the fitness of the environment has only occasionally
aroused passing comment without ever entering the main current of scientific
thought.
His own point of view had been made crystal clear a few years earlier in his
seminal book "The Fitness of the Environment" (1913), where he asserted in his
"fmal conclusion" (p. 271):
The fitness of the environment is one part of a reciprocal relationship, of

which the fitness of the organisms is the other. This relationship is completely
and perfectly reciprocal; the one fitness is not less important than the other,
nor less invariably a constituent of a particular case of biological fitness.
In both books, while properly concerned with the environment as a whole, he

gave special attention to the unique fitness of water, and of sea water in particu-
lar, for life and evolution, and I cannot help but wonder what influence he may
On the Environment and Unity in Marine Research 497
have had on another man, whose activities were equally associated with Harvard
and even more with Woods Hole, Henry B. Bigelow, who said, in Science (1930),
"That in the further development of sea science, the keynote must be physical,
chemical and biological unity, not diversity." For both were to my mind real
environmentalists. I want to come back to Dr. Bigelow later, however, after first
considering the founders of the International Council for the Exploration of the
Sea, who showed in their writings and work an absolute conviction that fish and
other marine organisms can only usefully be studied in their environmental con-
text. Perhaps a concern with the sea, in all its aspects, and with a range of animal
life from the smallest to the largest, encouraged such a view.
As Dr. Daniel Merriman put it to me, when kindly inviting me to address you,
the formation of ICES was surely the first time that it was recognized on an
international scale that if we want to know something about commercial
fishes and their fluctuations in abundance we have to know something about
the chemistry and physics of the medium in which they live.
That this is indeed so I will endeavor to demonstrate by delving into the early
history of the Council.
Perhaps first it is worth mentioning the names of some of those whose views
and influence led in the preceding years to the establishment of the Council in
1902. They form an imposing group: V. Hensen, Otto Pettersson, FridtjofNan-
sen, John Murray, Johan Hjort, Walther Herwig, F. Heincke, P. T. Cleve, D'Arcy
Thompson, N. Knipowitsch, to say nothing of Oscar II, King of Sweden and
Norway. In addition, there were present at the inaugural meeting C. G. J. Peter-
sen, Hugh Robert Mill and Walter Garstang, in all quite a galaxy of marine workers.
The many reports and papers in the ICES archives which cover this period of
activity have been surveyed in the Council's Rapport lubilaire of 1928, and in-
deed ably reviewed by Dr. Arthur Went, a recent President of ICES, in his ample
history of the Council over 70 years (Went 1972). If there may have been some
confusion and uncertainty from time to time about the objects of the Council,
whether it was an "academic" body or a "fisheries" body, I am inclined to
think this is because, in the best sense, it was both, with sometimes the empha-
sis in one direction and sometimes the other. What is clear, and not surprising in
view of those concerned, is that it was (and is) a thoroughly scientific body, and
one for whose members the sea, with its bed and its terrestrial and aerial bounda-
ries, was a whole in intimate relationship with the rest of the world.
The Rapport lubilaire makes it clear that, while the Council itself was not
established until 1902, the impetus leading to its foundation went back consider-
ably earlier. Not omitting to mention the earlier expeditions, the introduction
refers to the historic sequence of abundance and scarcity of herring which had
characterized the fisheries of the Skagerak for centuries. In particular, 1870 is
mentioned as the year in which interest in these phenomena and their causes was
intensified. The Scandinavian scientists who tried to investigate this, however,
found not surprisingly that such a task was too much for them. So it was that
498 C. E. Lucas
the early hydrographers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and England began to
collaborate in 1893, and their fmdings led the Swedes to petition King Oscar II
to negotiate through his government with other North Sea governments for even
more extensive and intensive investigations in common. It is very striking that,
both in the original reports of the preliminary Stockholm Conference of 1899
(I.C.E.S. 1903) and in the Jubilee volume, its resolutions are set out in the order,
fIrst, the program for hydrography (which also included plankton) ane, second,
that for fIsh biology (which included investigations of the eggs, larvae and young
of fIsh), followed by a section on the organization of a Bureau Central. I think
that another signifIcant point is that, having agreed on the need for research, and
next on a fIrm program, they then decided that for putting it into effect they
would also need a Council and Central Bureau, provided with a laboratory. They
certainly knew their priorities, and some of their successors might have done bet-
ter to follow their example.
The fIrst volume of the Rapports et Proces Verbaux (I.C.E.S. 1903) makes it
clear that the Council's chief objective was that of a plan whereby the principal
states might institute on a major scale "international co-operation with regard to
the scientifIc exploration of the sea" (p. 11).1 Even earlier, Murray and his col-
leagues had, in 1897, formed the "idea that the Conference should embrace
physical as well as biological investigations," while in a letter in June 1898 Peter-
sen "promised his support in relation to plankton and hydrography by approach-
ing the Swedish Government" (Went 1972, p. 4). At the second preliminary
conference in Christiania in 1901, they decided
that the research work might best be divided into two main divisions, of
which the one had in view the physical conditions of the sea, the other bio-
logical-more especially with regard to the animals most useful as human food.
Naturally, it was seen from the beginning that the study of the physical con-
ditions, of the chemical conditions of the ocean waters, of the currents etc.
was of the greatest importance for the investigation of the problems connected
with life, that on the other hand, the study of floating organisms had particu-
lar worth for the solution of hydrographic problems and consequently that a
sharp line should be drawn between these two main divisions (I.C.E.S. 1903,
Part II).
Wfiat is equally striking is that, at the very fust meeting of the Council, in July
1902, when it established its seat in Copenhagen, it also established under Nan-
sen (with two Assistants, one physical and one chemical) a Central Laboratory
in Christiania. This laboratory did not last long, but it fulfIlled two most impor-
tant functions, the one of standardizing hydrographical work and the other of
designing and testing apparatus, from water bottles to current meters, for use on
IThis early recognition of the need for countries to collaborate in marine research, if real
progress was to be made, is in itself a remarkable point; so much so that it was not until
1961 that this absolute necessity was recognized on a world scale by the establishment
under UNESCO of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
the several national vessels taking part in the international program. Martin Knud-
sen had already drawn attention ,to the value of using "standard" water for halo-
gen determination, and even by 1900 had been providing samples for the conjoint
international quarterly surveys already proceeding (Went 1972, p. 7). Almost
immediately the Central Laboratory was given the responsibility for providing
"standard" water samples (checked against Knudsen's own "standards") under
W. F. Ekman.
Also at the first meeting in July, the Council formally agreed to undertake
international quarterly cruises as from August. Seven countries were involved and
one might wonder whether an international body could act so promptly today!
By August 12 of that year, the Council's Bureau had already issued its first pro-
posals for standardized completion of the relevant forms. Even more surprising
today is the fact that the completed forms of this first August cruise were all
back in Copenhagen by December 19 and the results were ready for publication
in the first volume of the Bulletin des Resultats acquis pendant les Croissieres
Periodiques by the beginning of February 1903. Meanwhile, the second cruise
(with 8 countries) was completed in November. And so it proceeded, quarter by
quarter, tables of plankton analysis in addition to the relevant hydrographical
data appearing from the second Bulletin onwards. Current measurements from
light vessels were initiated in 1904.
It is in no sense to belittle what was undoubtedly the main aim of the Coun-
cil if I draw attention again to the fact that, in the first volume of the Rapport
et Proces Verbaux, the detailed arrangements for all such environmental matters
preceded (as A) the section headed "The biological investigations," primarily
concerned with fish and fisheries (as B). They were not viewed as more impor-
tant, but as prior requirements among equals. These men were not only good
scientists and organizers, they were practical environmentalists in the best sense
of that word! If the supposed problem of over fishing was to be solved, then the
migration and spawning of the principal fishes had to be understood, and from
the beginning they recognized that this would be impossible without information
about their ever-changing environment, biological and physical.
It is perhaps also worthy of note here, and certainly of interest in the present
period of cooperative international investigation of meteorology, oceanography
and climate, that from the preliminary meetings in Stockholm and. Christiania
onwards, the Council was officially concerned with meteorological matters, and
so with the provision of telegraphic facilities for the speedy provision of mete-
orological information. Thus, by 1906 Sweden was drawing attention to the
importance of "the relationship between hydrography and the atmospheric con-
ditions governing the climate of Europe, the migrations and occurrence of her-
ring and the causes of the decrease in the salmon catch in the Baltic" (Went
1972, p. 26).
This is not the place to give a history of the Council's work (which Went has
done so ably), even in the environmental field, but perhaps it is reasonable to
extract evidence for a few more years, up to and even after the temporary hold-
up due to the 1914-18 war. Thus the Council in 1911 set out a scheme for 3-
500 c. E. Lucas
hourly hydrographic observations with plankton sampling, within the areas where
herring was being fished, at seven positions and in several depths, and over a
period of 14 days.
Yet again, in 1912, following on Carl Ostenfeld's reports on the Council's
plankton work to date (to be followed later by his well-known "plankton
resumes," which I like to imagine Bigelow reading while he was planning and
writing up his equally famous report on the plankton of the Gulf of Maine), we
fmd the first mention of H. H. Gran of Norway being appointed as Plankton
Rapporteur, and many will recall that later he worked on the North American
side in the Passamoquoddy Project, along with Michael Graham (also from the
European side), who in turn formed a very close relationship with Dr. Bigelow
in Cambridge and Woods Hole.
Thus it was that during the first few years the Council made considerable
progress in the environmental field. It was possible to say indeed that by 1912
"the life histories of many species, the 'flowering' and conditions over a large
part of the Council's area were gradually being worked out by international
co-operation" (Went 1972, p. 44). The aims had been good and the achieve-
ment (when we think of the scanty resources available) perhaps amazing. As it
often is today, problems arose when thought was given to the significance of
the results, and as early as 1909 there is reference (Went 1972, p. 35) to "at-
tempts to fmd some relation between hydrographic and biolOgical phenomena."
This was not to prove easy. Perhaps the first tentative attempt was Cleve's vali-
ant effort during those early years to use phytoplankton organisms as "indi-
cators" of hydrographical conditions, and therefore of the origins of currents
and water masses, only to be criticized kindly but fundamentally by Gran
(1912, p. 339), in which process he developed our environmental understanding
a step further than Cleve had done, by stressing how the phytoplankton would
respond to gradual changes of the "conditions of existence" in situ.
These references to H. H. Gran bring to mind the famous expedition, de-
scribed in "The Depths of the Ocean" (Murray and Hjort 1912). The cruise of the
Michael Sars, extending from Europe to Newfoundland, had its origins at the
Stockholm meeting in 1899, and more concretely at the 1909 meeting, when
Murray pointed to the need for "systematic observations in the Atlantic." Hjort
responded with enthusiasm; by April 1910 the ship was ready for sea, and in
1912 the book was published. This was not an ICES venture, but Murray and
Hjort were both at the early meetings, and most of its contributors were promi-
nent in the Council's activities. Although the book takes us well beyond the
then area of the Council's activities, most of it was inevitably based on the North
Atlantic area, and primarily the Northeast Atlantic. As such it stands as a tribute,
and indeed it pays tribute, to what had been achieved in the first 10 years of the
Council's history. Throughout, it illustrates the essentially environmental ap-
proach of those early scientists. Even then, Helland-Hansen was relating the local
"Gulf Stream water" to air temperature and the growth of pine trees in Norway.
Gran's phytoplankton so obviously depended on their intimate environment
that such a viewpoint was inevitable for him, and similarly for Hjort, both in his
"Pelagic Animal life" but even more in his section on "General Biology," which
he began with reference to Lamarck, followed by several paragraphs on the sig-
nificance of adaptation to the environment and to the importance of observing
animals in nature.
While these early Council members had even more to learn than we still have
about the complexity of environmental problems, no one can say that they were
not far-seeing from the very beginning. Dr. Merriman was right! I know of no
evidence of any international body demonstrating so early, and so fully and con-
tinuously, its firm belief that the only proper way to study life is, as far as pos-
sible within, and as an interacting part of, the whole which provides its environ-
ment, and which it influences often as much as its environment influences it.
The essence and ultimate object of such an international attitude was later sum-
med up neatly by Henry Maurice (president for 18 years) in his foreword to the
Rapport lubilaire:
The function of the Council is so to coordinate the researches of the nations

adhering to it that each investigation may be an effective and necessary con-
tribution to a well conceived and comprehensive programme of oceanographi-
cal research, and its ultimate aim is to furnish the knowledge essential to the
rational exploitation of the sea. By the rational exploitation of the sea we
mean turning its resources to the best advantage in the present without preju-
dice to the future.
Could we have a better example, so relatively early, and by an administrator, of

the modern attitude to ecology? In its activities and committee structure, it is
fair to say that the later members and officers of the Council have been in no
way behind their predecessors in this essentially rational view of life and the
world it inhabits. Perhaps nowhere is this better revealed than in the early and
continued encouragement of international legislation for the maintenance and
improvement of the fisheries and their environment, on the basis of scientific ad-
vice, but it has been shown equally in their steadily developing association (and
often active collaboration) with other international bodies demonstrating similar
aims as regards the seas. Before the Second World War such bodies were very few,
but already it had begun to work with the United Nations, following the League's
invitation in 1928 to cooperate ''with regard to the question of the rational
exploitation of the sea" (Went 1972, p. 236). little did they realize how far
such an aim would take the international community, and how difficult the aim
would be to achieve, but it did lead in 1930 to the drafting ofa convention for
the regulation of whaling, and was of course followed by others in which the
Council was influential. But it was also in 1930 that a personal collaboration was
begun that was most significant for all of those gathered here today.
It was, I believe, in 1912 that there was to be the first mention of the United
States in the Council's records, indeed specifically an invitation in that year for
the U.S. (and shortly afterwards Canada) to join the Council, which the former
502 C. E. Lucas
accepted though the latter did not. 2 This brings me to the second part of my
contribution for, however exceptional the Council and its members may have
been in their environmental attitude before the 1914-18 war, at least one person,
some 2,000 miles away, was to evolve similar and even more explicit ideas, and
it is interesting that he too was concerned with hydrography and plankton, to
say nothing of his life's love, fish. This was Henry Bigelow, as you all know, and
I would like to use this occasion to do him honor as well as the laboratory he set
off on its illustrious course.
Well before 1931, informal contacts with the North American Council on
Fisheries Investigations, of which Henry Bigelow was a member and sometime
Chairman, had been established. These led to an invitation to Dr. Bigelow to
address the Council in 1931 on his work on the western side of the Atlantic, and
particularly on his program for the newly founded Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. For a number of years the Council had been wanting to link marine
processes on the two sides of the oceans and, that this was an event for the
Council is clearly indicated by the wording used to introduce a recommendation
passed by them at the 1931 meeting, as follows:
The Council has heard with great interest the account given by Dr. H. B.
Bigelow, Director of Wood's Hole Oceanographical Institute, of his plans for
the investigation of the North Atlantic, particularly in its western part. It
welcomes this important new development, and considers the moment oppor-
tune to enter into close co-operation both with the Wood's Hole Oceanogra-
phical Institute and with the North American Council on Fisheries Investi-
gations, believing that such co-operation will be fertile in results. It is of the
opinion that effective co-operation can best be achieved by close personal
touch between the workers and accordingly invites representatives of both
bodies to take part regularly in its deliberations, in order to arrive at unity
of plan and methods in the study of those funamental problems which are
similar or identical on both sides of the Atlantic.
That this connection was important for Bigelow is shown by his reference to
the Council in his famous book on Oceanography where (1931, pp. 8-10) he
first sets out the "conscious alteration of viewpoints from the descriptive to the
analytic" and mentions the need for "practical assistance to the sea fisheries."
He then refers to the "development of an international and official organization
-the Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer," and speculates
whether, without this enforced direction of scientific attention to the North

Sea region we should have come to appreciate, as clearly as we do today
2 Although the U.S. did join the Council in 1912, it was only to leave it after the Great War,
and it (like Canada) was to decline membership yet again in 1947, although both did join
much later. The U.S., however, was represented by observers at the fust meeting after the
war, in 1946 (with Dr. Sears representing Woods Hole), and I believe I am right in thinking
that, at least as observers, they attended every subsequent meeting until they formally
re-joined in 1972.
(1931), that application to the adjacent oceans of principles established by
intensive investigation ... offers the most promising lines of approach to
many of the broad underlying problems of oceanography.
While there is more than a hint in that quotation of what Bigelow was after,
and what views would direct his work and that of the laboratory he was to lead,
it is worth quoting from his book and elsewhere just how he saw this "alter-
ation of viewpoints." I do this with the greater pleasure because of the influence
that reading it in 1931 had on my own developing views as a raw graduate.
After his introduction, Dr. Bigelow plunged in straight away with his defi-
nition of oceanography (1931, p. 3):
It is not so much immaturity that is responsible for the fact that these several
sub~ciences are still grouped together (geophysics, geochemistry and biology),
but rather the realization that the physics, chemistry and biology of the sea
water are not only important per se, but that in most of the basic problems
of the sea all three sub-divisions have a part ... Every oceanic biologist
should, therefore, be grounded in the principles of geophysics and geochemis-
try; every chemical or physical oceanographer in some of the oceanic aspects
of biology.
It is not surprising, therefore, that his final chapter should be entitled "Physi-
cal, Chemical, Geologic and Biologic Unity in the Sea," and in it he clinches his
point firmly. Thus, on page 256
examples of this fundamental unity face the oceanographer at every turn,

for while the nature of the sea water governs the lives of the animals and
plants that inhabit it, at the same time the functions of the latter are as con-
stantly altering the nature of their environment.
After proceeding to demonstrate the validity of this approach (which I am

sure Lawrence Henderson would have appreciated, and may even have stimu-
lated), from marine skeletons of lime and silica to nutrients and alkalinity, he
stresses that "at bottom the composition of the sea water is as much a biologiC
as a chemical problem" (p. 258), and he concludes with ''the intellectual necessi-
ty not only of recognizing, but of acting upon this unity, if we hope ever to gain
any sound understanding of the sea, or the lives of its inhabitants" (p. 263).
To turn to another of Bigelow's writings, his earlier essay in Science on "A
Developing Viewpoint on Oceanography" (Science, June 1930), after discussing
the early history of oceanography, he emphasizes (p. 85) that, even during the
rust 30 years of this century, oceanography had comprised mainly the collection
of facts, so that
after a time ... this fact catching began to lose something of its freshness ...
what is really interesting in sea science is the fitting of these new facts together
... the keynote must be physical, chemical and biological unity, not diversity
504 c. E. Lucas
... Our ventures in oceanography will be most profitable if we focus our at-
tention on the cycle of life and energy as a whole in the sea ... everyone of
us, if he is to draw the veil backward at all, must think and work in several
disciplines. He must be either something of a jack of all trades or so closely in
touch with colleagues working in other disciplines that all can pull together.
Nor does Henry Bigelow limit himself, and the oceanographer, to physics, chem-
istry and biology. As indicated elsewhere, for him geology, climate and mete-
orology were equally involved, and he concluded this essay, which seems to have
been the basis of his subsequent book:
The different disciplines of oceanography inevitably interlock ... Any at-

tempt (conscious or unconscious) to hold them apart can result only in frus-
trating this high aim (of "acting upon this unity") and in setting us backward
to the stage of simply gathering and accumulating facts in unrelated categories.
That this point had to be stressed, even 20 years later, was brought out by Pro-
fessor Sverdrup at an ICES Special Meeting in Fisheries Hydrography which I
was privileged to convene in 1951 (I.C.E.S.1953,p. 7), where he said
The hydrographer and the biologist have at all times to co-operate, but the
success of co-operation will to a great extent depend upon the mutual under-
standing of their respective problems ... Hydrography will not assume a
unique position but must take its place as an integral and indispensable part
of the combined effort.
I believe Bigelow would have a:greed with this, and indeed would have said that
the two can only collaborate successfully when each has convinced the other
that they have problems in view which are of common interest and which they
must plan and tackle in close conjunction. Philosophical justification can indeed
be found for this viewpoint, when we consider that the very word "environment"
has little if any significance for us except in relation to living organisms, a point
which those who proudly claim to study the physical environment, tacitly if not
openly in isolation, should deeply consider. Even the most physically inclined of
them might come to realize that their efforts only have significance because they
are being made by living beings-and presumably for the information and under-
standing of other living beings!
Such at any rate would I believe have been Bigelow'S view, and how well he
put it into practice. Although a major laboratory was being established at Woods
Hole, it was with relatively modest resources that he began (even allowing for
inflation), but what care he took in selecting his first colleagues who, after all,
are the primary resources of any laboratory. To list some of the names is to evoke
memories comparable to those evoked by the list of those who subscribed their
thoughts and efforts to the earlier establishment of the Council. For example,
the staff list at the end of 1932 included the names of Redfield, Rakestraw,
Rossby, Waksman, Iselin, Mosby, and Wilkins (with 10 assistants and 5 visitors,
the total bill for salaries and wages was less than $1O,000!). The names of Mary
Sears, Bill Schroeder and George Clarke were added shortly after, while dis-
tinguished early visitors included C. J. Fish, H. H. Gran, Martin Johnson, C. B.
Wilson, O. E. Sette and Trygve Braarud. Most people on this list contributed
to the first set of Collected Reprints (1933), together with Sverdrup and of
course Bigelow himself. With such a start it is not surprising that Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution has had a distinguished career.
The foundation of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1931 had the
greater impact on myself, because it was in the same year that Professor (now
Sir Alister) Hardy obtained slender funds to extend his small Department of
Zoology in the then University College of Hull to a Department of Zoology and
Oceanography, with the initiation in a very modest way of his Continuous
Plankton Recorder Survey. I had the incredible good fortune to be invited to
join him in his work, and I well remember around that time two visitors of
relevance to my subject today: one was Professor Sir D'Arcy Thompson, a
founder of ICES, and the other (then) Dr. G. L. Clarke. Since then Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution has, to my mind, become the world's foremost
oceanographic institution, while the CPR Survey (now under the U.K. Natural
Environment Research Council) has extended over the whole North Atlantic,
becoming the world's largest and longest-continuing ecological survey. I pre-
sume to mention these in the same breath because, in initiating the survey in
1931, Alister Hardy had in mind concepts which in some ways go right back to
Cleve's, of broad plankton communities as "indicators" of oceanographic con-
ditions, while at the same time foreseeing the CPR Survey as the first attempt
at the marine equivalent of a meteorological survey, an idea that might have
appealed to both Cleve and Bigelow himself.
Despite such early and slender links with Woods Hole as reading Bigelow's
famous book and his memoirs on the Gulf of Maine (and also looking forward
avidly each year to the WHOI reports), it was to be years before I actually man-
aged to see the Institution, in 1949, over two days' relaxation during the inaugu-
ral meeting of ICNAF. Although he was no longer Director, I had the privilege of
meeting Professor Bigelow in his Department at Harvard (as well as the frighten-
ing experience, for a Yorkshireman who had just migrated to Aberdeen, of try-
ing to describe my almost non-existent program for the Marine Laboratory there,
where I had only just taken over the directorship, to a formidable body of Bige-
low's staff and research students). This meeting with him was a privilege indeed,
only to be equalled by the privilege of being invited to contribute to the Dedica-
tory Volume to him on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of
the Institution. I greatly treasure my copy of that volume, duly superscribed in
his own handwriting, and venture to hope that he might have thOUght for a
moment that my own contribution, on "external metabolites," was in some small
way in accord with his far-seeing views on the unity of oceanography, and indeed
of ecology itself.
I believe that Bigelow's conception of the unity of oceanography was perhaps
his major contribution, and one to which we should pay more and more respect
506 C. E. Lucas
and attention, but there was another side to his thought which should not be ne-
glected today. This comes out in his book on Oceanography quite clearly, as
does unity. In his "Introduction," he says that "this conscious alteration of
viewpoint, from the descriptive to the analytic, is one of two chief factors that
gives to oceanography its present tone: the other is the growth of an economic
demand that oceanography afford practical assistance to the sea fisheries" (pp. 8-
9). It was this in fact which led immediately to the mention of ICES and the
stimulating effect the Council had had on oceanography. A major section of his
book, however, is devoted to the "Economic Value of Oceanographic Investi-
gation," from sea fisheries to seasonal weather forecasting. As Dr. Frank R. Lillie
(then Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Oceanogra-
phy to which Bigelow was Secretary) says in his Foreword (p. vi), this part of
the report "was in a very special sense Dr. Bigelow's own contribution," and he
(Bigelow) sets the tone in the very first sentence of that section when he says
(p.185).
There is hardly an aspect of oceanography but affects one or another phase of

modern civilisation; and naturally so, for this science is concerned with the
physical and biological economy of some 70% of the earth's surface.
He then drew a sensible distinction between what he considered the more or less
immediate and direct possibilities of oceanography, as in fisheries, navigation,
non-living resources (including power from tides, etc.) and oceanography as a
possible adjunct to long-range weather and climate forecasting.
This is not, of course, the place to discuss these possibilities, but it does seem
appropriate to refer here to his attitude, which I am not surprised to fmd paral-
leled in an unpublished essay (which he kindly allows me to quote) by Dr. John
Steele, the recently appointed Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu-
tion. Early in his essay John says
To adopt the scientific method is itself a value judgment. This judgment might
be irrelevant to society when science was an arcane pursuit. It might be ac-
ceptable without much thought when applications were minor or beneficial.
But now we must enquire not merely whether this or that piece of science
ought to be done, but, more importantly, whether we, as human beings,
should be permitted to indulge this capricious desire to interfere with society
through the application of one biased viewpoint.
Later, he refers to the technology we have developed in oceanography
based on a large fleet of ships and a complicated instrumentation, which can

gather data at prodigious rates ... There is always a need to go out and look
just to see what is there but this should not be an end in itself ... The earth
sciences by their nature cannot be subdivided.
How Bigelow would have agreed!

The temperature of the Pacific Ocean affects Europe's weather; Arctic and
tropics are linked by whale migrations. Energy policies in the next few decades
will provide the only test of our present ideas about the relations between
climate and the biosphere. In this continuous leapfrog from hypothesis to
hypothesis the application of our scientific knowledge is really one of the
intervening tests. It is part of the scientific process rather than a product.
Research and development are not separable steps.
This takes me to a point of view which I once tried to set out (Presidential
Address to Section D, British Association in 1964), to which I think Bigelow
might have subscribed as I believe John Steele does. Pure and applied research
are indeed not separable; they are ill-defined parts of a continuum, in which the
practitioners of each should be as well informed, and cooperative about the
other's work as possible. Trying to guide, as I was then, the work of an essenti-
ally applied laboratory, I was appealing to our colleagues in the "purer" insti-
tutes and universities not to have too detached (not to say "ivory tower") atti-
tude. Perhaps it is not too much to say that, even at its purest, academic work
is not entirely pure as the driven snow; in one sense at least it is always useful,
i.e., applied if only to the problems and hypotheses the worker has in his own
mind, or those in another academic's mind. Time undoubtedly was, in D' Arcy
Thompson's time, when major scientists saw no limit to their endeavors, when
science truly and evidently was one, as their minds moved from one branch of
science to another, and even over to the arts and to philosophy. Science is still
one, but as research has pushed further the periphery of knowledge and under-
standing, there has come the increasing need for even the greatest brains to
select, with increasing specialization, ever-diminishing parts of that expanding
periphery. All too often this is at rapidly increasing expense, while society feels
an ever-increasing need for knowledge and understanding of particular kinds,
together with a regrettable unwillingness to pay more and more for it. Much as
I subscribe to the view that progress in Research and Development depends, as
it always has done, on the efforts of informed brains, left as unfettered as pos-
sible once they have demonstrated their ability, it seems to be of the very
nature of research (which must lie at the base of all development), especially in
environmental science, that it must become more and more teamwork: team-
work between and across disciplines, between and across pure and applied re-
search and, with necessarily limited resources, directed (in the best sense of that
word) towards those needs which our societies in their various activities have
demonstrated, or at least decided as being the most urgent. As John Steele
concludes, what we need is
an adaptive, essentially exploratory, approach to applied problems ... 1f

future (oceanographic) programs are to have a satisfactory structure then we
must take part in the on-going programs of evaluating their use to society.
I believe that, in the face of today's problems, Henry Bigelow would have en-
dorsed that. Indeed, I believe, from the way he set about things, he would have
508 C. E. Lucas
subscribed to it much earlier than many of us, in 1930 or even earlier, just as I
believe those early founders of ICES would, even earlier, for they certainly be-
lieved, and insisted on arguing and publicizing, the value of their work for socie-
ty. Indeed, they were in advance of society in many ways, and they helped to
lead it in useful directions.
References
Bigelow, H. B. 1930. A developing viewpoint in oceanography. Science, 71, No.

1830,84-89.
Bigelow, H. B. 1931. Oceanography: Its Scope, Problems and Economic Impor-
tance. Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Press, Cambridge.
Gran, H. H. 1912. Pelagic plant life. In: The Depths of the Ocean, J. Murray and
J. Hjort (eds.), Macmillan, London, 307-386.
Helland-Hansen, B. 1912. Physical oceanography. In: The Depths of the Ocean,
J. Murray and J. Hjort (eds.), Macmillan, London, 210-306.
Henderson, L. J. 1913. The Fitness of the Environment. Macmillan, New York.
Henderson, L. J. 1917. The Order of Nature. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Hjort, J. 1912. Pelagic animal life. General biology. In: The Depths of the Ocean,
J. Murray and J. Hjort (eds.), Macmillan, London, 561-659, 660-785.
I.C.E.S. 1903. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer, Rapp. Proc. Verb., Vol. 1.
I.C.E.S. 1928. Rapport Jubilaire (1902-27). Cons. Int. Explor. Mer, Rapp. Proc.
Verb., Vol. 47.
I.C.E.S. 1952. Special scientific meeting on fisheries hydrography. Cons. Int.
Explor. Mer, Rapp. Proc. Verb., Vol. 131.
Murray, J. and Hjort, 1. 1912. The Depths of the Ocean. London, Macmillan.
Steele, J. H. 1978. Unpublished essay (personal communication).
Went, A. E. J. 1972. Seventy years a-growing. A history of the International
Council for the Exploration of the Sea. 1902-72. Rapp. et Proc. Verb., Vol.
165.
Phytoplankton Ecology before 1900: Supplementary Notes
to the "Depths of the Ocean"
F.J.R. Taylor
Johannes Muller to the young Ernst Haeckel at Helgoland in 1854:

"As soon as you have entered into this pelagic
wonderland you will see that you cannot leave it. "
(HaeckelI890. transl. G. W. Field 1893, p. 573)
1 Introduction
H. H. Gran (1870-1955), the renowned Norwegian phytoplanktologist, published

the first English-language review of the field of phytoplankton ecology as a chap-
ter in Murray and Hjort's "The Depth of the Ocean" (1912). Although ostensi-
bly a report on the results of the Michael Sars cruises, each chapter also offered a
summary of the state of biological oceanography up to that time. Gran's chapter
was not intended to be an exhaustive, historical account, only touching on the
principal developments and providing names but not references. This paper is a
small addendum to his contribution.
Although Gran's review was the first in the English language, it was preceded
by several major works in German. Franz SchUtt's (1892a) general report on the
phytoplankton collected by the German Plankton Expedition, appears to be the
first general work on the ecology of marine phytoplankton. He accompanied
this natural history milestone with a more quantitatively rigorous work in the
same year (1892b) which is less familiar to non-German phytoplanktologists than
it deserves. Much better known is the major publication by Viktor Hensen
(1887), Professor of Physiology at Kiel University, because the term "plankton"
was created in the introduction. Hensen proposed it as a replacement for Johan-
nes MUlier's term Auftrieb for the suspended material collected in dip nets, but
Hensen's 1887 work can also be considered as the beginning of quantitative
plankton ecology .
It is not generally recognized that the current use of "plankton" is not in
accordance with its original defmition. On the first page of his work Hensen de-
fines plankton as "everything that drifts in the water, whether shallow or deep,
510 F. J. R. Taylor
living or dead" (1887, p. 1; translated, my italics); i.e., it included non-living
matter and corresponds to the term "seston" as it is used today.
This change in meaning appears to have begun with Ernst Haeckel's "Plankton-
Studien" (1890) from which many terms in common use today are derived, in-
cluding ecology (originally spelled "oecology"), benthos, nekton, oceanic,
neritic, etc. He repeated Hensen's full defmition once, but restricted the whole
of his subsequent discussion to animals and plants without formally redefming
the term. This appears to have led to its use excluding non-living matter.
The early ecology of phytoplankton can be subdivided into a premicroscopic
phase in which only gross manifestations were known without realization of their
source, a phase in which phenomena were linked with their associated organisms
(still continuing) and a mechanisms and systems phase (also continuing).
2 Premicroscopic Observations
Individual phytoplankton cells are virtually invisible to the naked eye. However,
en masse, they can draw attention to their presence chiefly by their discoloration
of the water, occasional luminescence and the destruction of other organisms.
The seasonal greening of coastal water is a regular occurrence in temperate
waters ("spring" -'and sometimes "fall blooms") and in high latitudes ("summer
blooms") but this rarely excited comment. Fishermen and whalers knew of the
usual association of their quarry with patches of greenish, sometimes almost
black, water, but the reason for this association would only become evident by
the mid-19th century.
Far more striking and unusual were discolorations of a reddish-brown, yellow
or even milky white color and the logs and narratives of early marine explorers
are full of such sightings, especially in the tropics. Bainbridge (1957) and Wyatt
(1979) have provided extensive compilations of both early and recent occur-
rences of discolored water. These obvious tropical blooms naturally gave the
impression that phytoplankton was most abundant in these waters, once their
cause was realized. It was only during the German Plankton Expedition in the
late 1800s that a more realistic awareness of the abundance of phytoplankton
in colder waters, and the paucity in tropical oceanic waters, was appreciated
(Schlee 1972).
The tropical planktonic blue-green alga (or, more properly blue-green bac-
terium) Trichodesmium forms filaments of cells and these may occur either as
single fllaments or in densely packed bundles. They periodically form gas vacu-
oles, becoming positively buoyant and rising to the surface where they may be
aggregated, along with other buoyant organisms or objects, in long windrows.
In the packed state they are readily visible to the naked eye, being several milli-
meters long and a few wide. They can resemble small brown wood-chips and
this no doubt led to the name "sea sawdust" applied to masses of such particles
by the crew of Capt. Cook on the Endeavour (as reported by Joseph Banks in
his journal: Collingwood 1868, Beaglehole 1962). When highly aggregated the
Phytoplankton Ecology before 1900 511
color of the masses can range from blood red (when decaying) to an almost
golden greenish brown. Other organisms can also produce a strong reddish or
brown color but, in view of the common abundance of Trichodesmium in
tropical waters, it is likely that many of the early accounts of reddish or golden
streaks and patches in the tropics arose from Trichodesmium aggregations.
C. G. Ehrenberg (1795-1876), one of the most prominent microscopists of
his day, stimulated a controversy by claiming that it was from blooms of
Trichodesmium that the Red Sea got its name. He based this on observations of
blooms at El Tor (At Tur) on the Sinai Peninsula in 1823 during a disastrous,
6-year land expedition which endangered his health and cost the life of his
friend, W. F. Hempfrich. There are several other possible explanations for the
geographic name, including simple reflection of the reddish limestone hills
(see long discussion by Montagne 1844). The Arabic name "Bahhr-Souph"
meanS "plant"-or "algae sea" but this was most likely a misnomer for under-
water thickets of coral, the latter undoubtedly being the underwater "forests"
referred to by Pliny. Other place names could also have arisen from periodic
red tides, such as Vermillion Sea (Gulf of California) and the Yellow Sea, al-
though the latter is more probably due to silt from the Yellow River.
The blood-like color caused by plankton both in marine and freshwater envi-
ronments may have given rise to many legends. The most frequently attributed
phenomenon to this cause is the First Plague of Egypt (Exodus, Chapt. 7), when
the Nile turned to blood (e.g., Fage 1953), but another is the "blood" seen by
the Moabites (II Kings, Chapt. 3). In the Murtensee in Switzerland the red was
said to be due to the blood of Burgundian soldiers drowned there in 1476, and
on the island of Guam ''the blood of San Vitores" annually discolors the reef
near the site of the priest's murder on the beach (R. Tsuda, pers. comm.).
Zooplankton may also be aggregated at the surface in sufficient numbers to
discolor the water. Possibly the most intense orange discolorations are due to
the non-photosynthetic dinoflagellate Noctiluca. Haeckel (1890) coined the
terms "zoocurrents" or "zoorema" for these long streaks of dense plankton ag-
gregations but they are usually termed "windrows." Luminescence, associated
with such plankton patches, also aroused wonder and fear. Aleem (1968) has
summarized the colorful account by Ibn Battouta (1325) of the virgin sacrifices
offered by natives of the Maldive Islands to the fearsome djins (ginni) causing
periodic luminescence. He suspected that the luminescence might have been due
to luminescent worms swarming, but the dinoflagellate Pyrocystis is also a coIl).-
mon cause of topical luminescence .
"Red tides" may be accompanied by selective or wholesale kills of marine life,
and in some regions the name is synonymous with such effects (e.g., the Gulf of
Mexico). Brongersma-Sanders (1957) has reviewed numerous cases of marine
mass mortalities caused by both phytoplankton blooms and non-biological
sources (temperature, vulcanism, etc.). The actual cause of death may be due to
high biological oxygen demand (B.O.D.) on decay of the plankton, or the release
of toxins. Because of their dramatic appearance historians have noted their occur-
rence many times. One of the more striking cases is the aid given to survival of
512 F. J. R. Taylor
starving, besieged Portuguese at Cannanore on the Malabar coast of India in 1507
by a shellfish kill on the nearby shore (Hornell, cited by Fage 1953).
Human deaths due to paralytic shellfish poison originating in planktonic dino-
flagellates were noticed to be partially associated with luminescence by Indians
of the northwest coast of America (Halstead 1965), and their taboo for shellfish
consumption during luminescent periods was a very early public health measure,
the planktological basis for which only became evident in the 1930s.
3 Early Recognition of the Organisms
The first direct observation of individual marine phytoplankton cells appears to

be by Antony van Leeuwenhoek and not by O. F. MUller as claimed by Gran
(1912). In the summer of 1676, Van Leeuwenhoek examined seawater collected
from the Dutch coast at Schevenigen, looking through one of his marvelous hand
lenses. In a letter to the Royal Society of London (published in 1677) he de-
scribed several minute organisms, unfortunately without providing illustrations.
However, his description of one type and its characteristic "jumping" motion is
so graphic that it can reasonably be attributed to the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum,
a common cause of harmless red water in many parts of the world (see Taylor
et al. 1971). Although it is a ciliate, M rubrum is a "functional autotroph" due
to the presence of photosynthetic symbiotic bodies. Van Leeuwenhoek's other
descriptions of marin.e microorganisms either refer to bacteria, non-photosyn-
thetic ciliates, metazoans or are unrecognizable.
The first diatoms were described anonymously from fresh water in 1703. The
flrst scientist to sample seawater with netting to study its microscopic life was
the Dane, O. F. MUller. As Gran (1912) noted, he first saw Ceratium tripos, an
important dinoflagellate, in 1777, and also described several freshwater dino-
flagellates.
Sporadic observations, similar to these, continued to build up a picture of the
composition of the pelagic microflora during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
However, the organisms were looked on as novelties rather than as being of any
major ecological signficance. Various types of ftlters or netting were used to
concentrate the organisms. One observer (G. C. Wallich) even used crinoline while
on his passenger voyage to India around the Cape of Good Hope. However, most
were only effective for zooplankton, any phytoplankters other than the largest
being fortuitously retained. Beginning in 1845 Johannes Muller introduced his
students to the joys of collecting "Auftrieb" at Helgoland, using nets on poles.
One such student was Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) who inherited Muller's interest
in the Radiolaria. Muller (1855) evidently saw the dinoflagellate Pyrocystis in his
zooplankton samples from the Mediterranean but thought they were encysted
Noctiluca.
The fmest netting for the collection of phytoplankton was "bolting silk,"
used by millers for sifting flour (hence Muller Gaze, not derived from Johannes
M. or o. F. M.), continuing in use until nylon nets became available in the mid-
20th century.
Early phytoplanktologists, nearly all seeking new forms to describe, also used
biological ftlters to concentrate their minute quarry. G. C. Wallich, J. Hooker, G.
Norman, F. R. von Stein and others examined the stomachs of various ftlter-
feeding planktonic or benthic invertebrates. Barrel-shaped salps and doliolids
were the favored zooplanktonic sources for smaller phytoplankton, shoreline
ascidians being used by those without access to boats.
Another indirect sources of phytoplankton, again chiefly diatom walls due to
their resistance to animal digestion, was guano collected from the islands off
Peru, Ecuador and S. W. Africa, the diatoms entering the birds via their fish diet.
The microscopic examination of the intense blooms causing water discolo-
rations described in the previous section should also have provided an early indi-
cation of the ecological importance of phytoplankton. After Ehrenberg's obser-
vations on marine blue-green algae in the Red Sea in 1823, many others examined
water discolorations to discover their causes. Probably the best known of these
was the young Charles Darwin. The narrative of his voyage on H.M.S. Beagle con-
tains several descriptions of red water chiefly off the west coast of South Ameri-
ca, including a description of one which, although not illustrated, can be confi-
dently attributed to the common red water ciliate, Mesodinium rubrum (see
Taylor et al. 1971, for many others).
The commonest microscopical source for marine luminescence was found to
be planktonic dinoflagellates such as Noctiluca (non-photosynthetic), Pyrocystis
and Ceratium when water from the Baltic was first ftltered and microscopically
examined by Michaelis (1830), soon followed by Ehrenberg (1834) and others.
Ehrenberg's greatest claim to fame lies in his discovery (Ehrenberg 1840) and
extensive observations on the microfossils which form a signficant part of vari-
ous types of sedimentary rocks, such as diatomaceous earth, chalk and "Tripoli
stone" (used as a polishing stone), summarized in his monumental "Mikrogeo-
logie" (1854-1856). Many of these materials were obviously of marine origin and
contained the remains of resting stages (spores, cysts) as well as the wall compo-
nents of vegetative cells. A favorite source of diatoms for mid-19th century ama-
teur microscopists was "Barbados Earth" (now known as the Oceanic Formation)
and the important living species Skeletonema costatum was first seen in this
material.
Although Ehrenberg's observations inescapably led to the conclusion that
great numbers of diatoms and other siliceous and calcareous microscopic forms
occurred in many parts of the ocean both then and in former times, the ecologi-
cal significance of this escaped him because he was convinced that the diatoms
were multicellular animals (Ehrenberg 1840). He assumed that the vacuoles were
multiple stomachs. The green bodies within were thought to be ovaries. This
animalist view was shared by his American contemporary, J. W. Bailey, who also
found diatoms in large numbers in marine sediments, off the eastern seaboard of
the United States, off Kamchatka, and in material collected by the United States
Exploring Expedition. Contemporary arguments raised for and against this ques-
tion were given by Pritchard (1861).
514 F. J. R. Taylor
4 Recognition of the Ecological Significance of Phytoplankton
It was only in the mid-19th century that the role of phytoplankton as a major
basic food source (Urnahrung) in the sea was realized. Ironically, the fust to whom
this distinction can be awarded was an ex-medical student who followed his
father in becoming a renowned terrestrial botanist. Three years after Charles
Darwin returned from the voyage of the Beagle Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-
1911), signed on at the age of 22 as Assistant Surgeon on the Erebus. The latter,
together with the Te"or, was bound for a four-year exploration (1839-1843) of
Antarctica under Sir James Clark Ross. Joseph Hooker had just completed his
medical degree, but he had read the proofs of his friend Darwin's narrative and
was aware of his microscopic examination of seawater discolorations. Ehrenberg's
long-time patron, Baron Alexander von Humboldt, was involved in drawing up
the instructions for Ross' expedition, no doubt stressing the interest of Ehren-
berg's observations. Samples collected during the expedition were sent to Ehren-
berg at its conclusion.
In the extreme south Hooker was unable to "botanize" as much as his father,
William, had hoped, and he devoted much of his attention to the collection of
marine plankton by two "towing nets" (until he lost all of his gauze on the
third trip south). In his journals he records the first examination of brown, dis-
colored ice (February 15, 1841): " ... when dissolved in water it deposited a
fme sediment ... ;" [it contained] "numerous circular discs, ... ; they were mi-
nutely reticulated, and had often opaque centres" (quoted by Huxley 1918, p.
58). At fust he thought they were some "insoluble salt" from volcanic dust
(only this conclusion appearing in Ross' account of the expedition) but in a
marginal note added later, asserted that he knew they were diatoms at the time.
His microscope was not sufficient to determine the details of the wall structures
and in a letter to Ross in 1844 he notes receiving from Ehrenberg drawings of
Asteromphalos Humboldtii, Cuvierii, Rossii, Darinwii and Hookerii. I think,

Sir, that we are in good company, though I can give you no more idea of
what the species are like further than that the magnified figures resemble
the objects at the far end of a kaleidoscope (Huxley 1918, p. 59).
This (feigned?) frivolousness was replaced by ecological insight in a published

report on the diatoms. The following passages appear to be the first statements
of the real ecological role of diatoms in the oceans of the world:
The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the Antarctic

Ocean, is a truly wonderful fact ... I now class the Diatomaceae with plants,
probably maintaining in the South Polar Ocean that balance between the ani-
mal and vegetable kingdoms, which prevails on the surface of our globe ...
The end these plants serve in the great scheme of nature is apparent, on in-
specting the stomachs of many sea-animals, as above stated. Owing to the
indestructible nature of their shields, they tell their own tale (Hooker 1847,
p.505).
He also drew attention to the very extensive deposits of diatomaceous ooze along
the edge of the Victoria ice barrier.
Shortly afterward a similar conclusion was reached as to the role of Tricho-
desmium in tropical waters by Oersted in 1849 (noted by Gran 1912). Robert
Brown (1868) clearly understood that phytoplankton was the source of food for
the large numbers of pteropods and other Arctic zooplankters seen by many ex-
plorers of the seas of high latitudes, such as William Scoresby, and a full under-
standing of the ecological role of Arctic phytoplankton was expressed by G. O.
Sars as a result of his participation in the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition
of 1876-1878 (also noted by Gran 1897, 1912; see also Brooks 1894).
5 Quantitative Estimates of Biomass and Productivity
By the last quarter of the 19th century the presence and probable significance of
phytoplankton on a large scale in the sea was acknowledged by many contempo-
rary scientists but, while knowledge of the forms and their distribution was
steadily growing, no one had attempted to obtain information which could be
used to determine the amounts or rates of growth of the plankton, essential in-
formation if phytoplankton ecology was to become anything more than vague
generalizations. The first systematic attempt to do this involved the develop-
ment of special net designs by Viktor Hensen (1835-1924), the "Father of Quan-
titative Plankton Ecology" (my appellation). Most of his estimates were based
on vertical hauls', the finest mesh having an aperture size of approximately
50 JLlll (6000 to 65000 meshes per cm 2 ). He employed information from the
mouth diameter, distance of haul and an experimentally determined ftltering
coefficient for each net, to determine'the number or organisms per liter. He was
aware of the possibility of the loss of organisms smaller than the mesh aperture
but believed he was sampling the bulk of the plankton. Hensen had to assume
that the phytoplankton is evenly dispersed, at least to 200 meters, a simplifying
assumption still used for some forms of calculation today, e.g., in connection
with mixed-layer production.
Criticisms of Hensen's methods were soon forthcoming. Haeckel (1890), for
example, was greatly bothered by the latter assumption. He asserted that the
starting point for the study of phytoplankton ecology is the understanding of
the irregularity (or "patchiness" as we would say today) of the organisms' dis-
tribution both in place and time. In this we see early signs of the conflicting
emphasis which still prevails within ecology: the broad simplifying assumptions,
without which it is difficult or impossible to study the macrosystem, versus the
component emphasis by adherents who believe that the assumptions are too
broad to be realistically useful.
C. A. Kofoid (1897) anticipated the better known early 20th century studies
of Hans Lohmann on nanoplankton by showing that great losses of small flagel-
lates occurred when bolting silk nets were used in freshwater. He also found
that the empirically-determined coefficient of ftltration could vary greatly, de-
516 F. J. R. Taylor
pending on the concentration of phytoplankton in the net and resultant clogging.
Unfortunately the Challenger Expedition (1872-1876) had not generated
much useful ecological information on phytoplankton, the sole products in this
area being a taxonomic monograph on the diatoms by Castracane (1886) and
some passing observations by John Murray on the genus Pyrocystis (the first
formal descriptions) and the photosynthetic nature of coccolithophorids.
The first major expedition to yield important plankton data was one specifi-
cally designed for the purpose by Hensen. In the summer of 1889 the steamer
National was chartered and fitted out for the princely swn of 105,600 marks,
including a contribution from the Emperor. For three months Hensen and five
other scientists, including the zoologist-turned-chemist, Karl Brandt, and the
botanist, Franz Schlitt, applied his methods, developed on earlier trials in the
Baltic, to study the cycle of matter (Stoffwechsei) in the North Atlantic using
400 plankton hauls taken on a figure-of-eight cruise track, ranging from Green-
land to the equator. This venture was dubbed the Plankton-Expedition and the
fruits of its phytoplankton investigations were the major reports by Brandt
(1899) and Schutt (1892a,b) (see Schlee 1972 for a fuller account).
Haeckel's (1890) criticism of the Kiel school of phytoplanktologists and Hen-
sen's "exact method" in particular was surprisingly intense and personal. The
limitations on generalization resulting from patchiness is hardly sufficient
grounds for such remarks as: "Even the zoologists of the Plankton-Expedition
at Kiel have not been able to close themselves to this intelligence" (translation)
and one wonders if an invitation to participate in the expedition himself might
have altered his view.
Current opinion certainly favors the recognition of the pioneering value of
Hensen's work. Rapid methods for the estimation of the biomass of plankton
did not come until into the 20th century and still cannot substitute for pain-
staking, slow visual counts in some types of estimations. One can sympathize
with the travails of Brandt (1899), counting one Baltic Sea sample eight hours a
day for eight days. Haeckel recognized the potential for "ruin of mind and
body" in this method, but had no better solutions to offer, adopting the cynical
view that many still hold, that "Mathematical treatment of these does more
harm than good because it gives a deceptive semblance of accuracy."
6 Regulating Factors
The basic physiology of photosynthesis in unicellular, as well as multicellular

organisms, was well understood by the mid-1800s. For example, in Carpenter's
general treatise on the microscope (1856, p. 262), he stated that a plant ob-
tains its constituents "from water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, and is distin-
guished by its power of liberating oxygen, through the decomposition of car-
bonic acid, under the influence of sunlight."
Although the importance of light to submarine life could be inferred from gen-
eral physiological principles, actual experiments on this aspect were almost non-
existent before 1900. Perhaps the most significant, and aningenious blend of ter-
restrial and marine physiology, were the experiments of Paul Regnard (1891) on
the germination of cress and radish seeds at various depths. He determined that
chlorophyll did not form in the seeds deeper than 30 m. Marshall and Orr (1928)
and Holmes (1957) have provided accounts of the further early development of
knowledge on the ecological importance of submarine illumination.
Because of the requirement of light for photosynthesis it was obvious to Wal-
lich (1869, p. 33) that ''the moment we have to deal with the lowest type of life
in the abysses of the ocean, we must seek for some other mode for how nutrition
is effected." He was referring in this context to the Urschleim thought to cover
the deep ocean sediments and named Bathybius haeckel; by Huxley (1868).
Embarrassingly, J. Y. Buchanan demonstrated during the Challenger Expedition
that this was not a primordial acellular creature, but was instead a colloidal pre-
cipitate of calcium sulphate caused by the addition of alcohol preservative to
mud samples (Deacon 1971, Hedgpeth 1974). The presence of coccoliths in the
slime was thought by Huxley (1868) to be an indication of their origin, although
Wallich (1861) had already recognized the cells which gave rise to them, calling
them "coccospheres."
In addition to the ingredients listed by Carpenter as required for photosynthe-
sis, Brandt (1899) also noted the importance of nitrate as a requirement for
photosynthesis, fmding a parallel with Apstein's studies on freshwater phyto-
plankton. Furthermore he was apparently the first to apply Justus von liebig's
"Law of the Minimum" (yield will be proportional to the nutrient in least
amount relative to need) to the marine environment. When frrst applied liebig's
Law dealt with the yield, rather than control of the rate of processes, the latter
being the usual application today. Both Brandt (1899) and Hensen (1887) ob-
served that the natural abundance of phytoplankton was linked to the distri-
bution of nitrate.
The need for phosphorus and nitrate was evident from Miquel's culture ex-
periments (see next section) and the analysis of the constituents of proteins (e.g.,
Brandt 1898) should have made the need for sources of nitrogen, phosphorus
and sulphur evident.
Thus before 1900, the need for light and all nutrients except metals and
vitamins was clearly established, the interaction between these factors explain-
ing why the abundance of phytoplankton was not a simple response to light and
temperature.
7 Culture of Marine Phytoplankton
Although various early attempts were made to culture microalgae, usually dia-
toms, the successful laboratory cultivation of marine phytoplankton developed
principally from the studies of P. Miquel (1890-1893, 1897). Working initially
with freshwater diatoms, he later added ingredients permitting the gr!?wth of
marine planktonic forms in an artificial medium made up in two parts, iabeUed
518 F. J. R. Taylor
A and B, containing multiple ingredients but including nitrates (in A), phosphate
and iron (B). A very similar, although less influential medium was devised by C.
Houghton Gill (published by Van Heurck 1896), which also contained silicate,
omitted by Miquel. As is the case with many media, it was later found that
several of the ingredients were redundant, but these refmements occurred after
1900 (e.g., Allen and Nelson 1910).
Miquel's contribution also included the recognition that, although photosyn-
thetic, the growth of diatoms could be enhanced by a little sterile infusion of
organic matter (although bacterial growth was too great if more than small
amounts were added), and he also claimed to have obtained bacteria-free diatom
a
cultures I'etat de purete absolue by repeated washing with sterile medium.
There is little mention of the growth of other phytoplankters before 1900,
although flagellates, both photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic, were frequent
contaminants, to the annoyance of the diatomologists. Further details of early
work and the developments after 1900 can be obtained from sources such as
Allen and Nelson (1910) and Provasoli et al. (1957).
8 Distribution and Community Composition
Early diatomologists were astounded by the presence of apparently identical

species between roughly similar latitudes in all the world oceans and also both
living and in fossil deposits. Castracane (1886) considered that there were few
discernable distributional differences in the Challenger Expedition material, an
attitude which led him to omit most records of stations at which species were
found and thus his work has minimal ecological value.
Schutt (1892a,b) presented quite a different view as a result of his exami-
nation of the Plankton Expedition material. He maintained that there are charac-
teristic microfloras within the surface currents of the North Atlantic, distinct
changes in composition being noted when sampling beyond their borders.
Haeckel (1890) suggested that communities could be recognized as "poly-
mixic," in which no species or group form more than 50% of the community or
"monotonic." He then recognized a number of monotonic communities domi-
nated by groups of plankton, such as "Polycyttaria-Plankton," "Sagittidae-
Plankton," etc., noting where and when they occurred. Again he emphasized the
variability of their occurrence on various time scales. He maintained that latitudi-
nal effects were greater qualitatively than quantitatively, a view only partially true.
His observations and those of others, on the occasional surface concentrations of
tropical phytoplankton led him to discount the biomass estimates eight times
lower in the tropics than off Newfoundland by the Plankton Expedition.
The early work of the Swedish phytoplanktologist, Per (pehr) Theodor Cleve,
was essentially taxonomic or floristic (e.g., Cleve 1868,1878), but out of the lat-
ter, and his association with the physical oceanographer, Vagn Walfrid Ekman,
Cleve grew more interested in the distributional patterns of phytoplankton in as-
sociation with water masses. His observations in the Kattegat permitted him to
distinguish several water types by their contained phytoplankton, and like
Haeckel, he named each by the principal plankton types: "Tripos-plankton,"
named after Ceratium tripos; "Didymus-piankton," named after Chaetoceros
didymus, etc. Later he added o"thers when his samples covered a wider range and
attempted to recognize Kattegat types in other parts of the ocean.
In essence Cleve took Haeckel's and Schutt's notions of distinctive water-mass
microfloras to extreme, assuming a relative constancy of character within the
same body of water over time and space and attributing changes in one locality
to advection of various water masses and their contained communities into and
out of the region. In this he was partly correct but Gran (1912) criticized his
neglect of autochthonous changes, both within moving water masses and in
coastal localities. For example, Cleve knew of diatom resting spores (which he
termed "endocysts") but did not give much value to the initial popUlation of
local waters from benthic stages. Most of Gran's own contributions to this aspect
were published after 1900. Much early information on this subject has been re-
viewed by Patrick (1948).
It is evident that by the end of the 19th century the field of phytoplankton
ecology was well on its way, with most of the major features having been deter-
mined in the second half of the 19th century. In order to see pre-20th century
phytoplankton ecology in a fuller perspective the readable and informative work
by Schlee (1972) is recommended.
Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to Professor Trygve Braarud for reading the manuscript
and to Ms. Cindy Lewis and the librarians of the Biological Library, University
of California at Berkeley, for access to the C. A. Kofoid reprint collection.
References
Aleem, A. A. 1968. Concepts of marine biology among Arab writers in the Middle
Ages. Bull. Inst. Oceanogr. Monaco, Special No.2, 359-367.
Allen, E. J. and Nelson, E. W. 1910. On the artificial culture of marine plankton
organisms. J. Mar. BioI. Assoc. U.K. 8,421-474.
Bainbridge, R. 1957. The size, shape and density of marine phytoplankton con-
centrations. BioI. Rev., 32, 91-115.
Beaglehole, J. C. (ed.). 1962. The Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks 1768-1771.
Vols. I and 2. Verry Lawrence, Mystic, Conn.
Brandt, K. 1898. Beitriige zur Kenntnis der chemischen Zusammensetzung der
Planktons. Wiss. Meeresunters. Kiel, 3, 43-90.
Brandt, K. 1899. Ueber der Stoffwechsel im Meere. Wiss. Meeresunters. Kiel,
4,215-230.
Brandt, K. 1905. On the production and conditions of production in the sea.
Rapp. et Proc.-Verb. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer, 3, Append. D.
Brooks, W. K. 1894. The origin of the food of marine animals. BUll. U.S. Fish.
Comm., 1893, 13,87-92.
520 F. J. R. Taylor
Brongersma-Sanders, M. 1957. Mass mortality in the sea. Ch. 29 in: Treatise on
Marine Ecology and Paleoecology, J. W. Hedgpeth (ed.), Vol. 1. Geol. Soc.
Amer., Mem., 67, 941-1010.
Brown, R. 1868. On the nature of the discolouration of the Arctic Seas. Quart.
J. Micr. Sci. (n.s.), 8, 240-247.
Carpenter, W. B. 1856. The microscope and its revelations. London.
Castracane degli Antelminelli, F. 1886. Report on the Diatomaceae collected by
H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-1876. Rep. Sci. Res. Voy. Challenger,
Bot., 21,178 pp. + 30 pI.
Cleve, P. T. 1868. Diatomaceerfran Spitsbergen. Ofr. Kg. Vet.-Akad., 24, 661-669.
Cleve, P. T. 1878. Diatoms from the West Indian Archipelago. Bih. Svensk Vet.-
Akad. Handl., 58, 1-22.
Collingwood, C. 1868. Observations on the microscopic alga which causes the
discolouration of the sea in various parts of the world. Trans. Micr. Soc., n.s.,
16,85-92.
Deacon, M. B. 1971. Scientists and the sea, 1650-1900, a study of marine science.
Academic Press, London, New York, 445 pp.
Ehrenberg, C. G. 1834. Das Leuchten des Meeres. Neue Beobachtungen nebst
Uebersicht der Hauptmomente der geschichtlichen Entwicklung dieses merk-
wurdigen Phiinomens. Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berl., 1834,411-575.
Ehrenberg, C. G. 1838. Die Infusionsthierchen als Vollkommene Organismen.
Ein Blick in das tiefere organische Leben der Natur. Leopold Voss, Leipzig,
548 pp. + atlas with 64 pIs.
Ehrenberg, C. G. 1840. Uber nocht jezt zahlreich lebende Tierarten der Kreide-
bildung und den Organismus der Polythalamien. Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berl.,
1839-1840.
Ehrenberg, C. G. 1854, 1856. Mikrogeologie. Das Erden und Felsen schaffende
Wirken des unsichtbar kleinen selbststandigen Lebens auf der Erde. Leopold
Voss, Leipzig, 374 pp. + 41 pI. (88 pp. continuation in 1856).
Fage, L. 1953. Commentaires sur la premiere plaie d'Egypte: l'eau du fleuve
changee en sang. Conf. du Palais de la Decouverte, Ser. A.
Gran, H. H. 1897. Protophyta: Diatomacea, Silicoflagellata and Cilioflagellata.
Rep. Den Norske Nordhavs Exped., 1876-1878,24.
Gran, H. H. 1912. Pelagic plant life. Chpt. 6 (pp. 307-386) in: The Depths of the
ocean, J. Murray and J. Hjort (eds.), MacMillan, London (reprinted J. Cramer,
Weinheim, 1965).
Haeckel, E. 1890. Plankton-Studien. Jenaische Zeitschr. 25, parts 1,2 (also sepa-
rate publ., Gustav Fischer, Jena. Engl. transl., G. W. Field, U.S. Comm. Fish
Fisheries, Rep. 1890-1891, pp. 565-641, publ. 1893).
Halstead, B. W. 1965. Poisonous and venomous marine animals. Vol. 1. U.S.
Govt. Printing Office, 994 pp.
Hedgpeth, J. W. 1974. One hundred years of Pacific oceanography. In: The bi-
ology of the oceanic Pacific. Oregon State University Press, pp. 137-158.
Hensen, V. 1887. Uber die Bestimmung des Planktons oder des im Meere trei-
benden Materials an Pflanzen and Thieren. Komm. Wiss. Meeresunters. Kiel,
1882-1886.5. Ber., Jahrg. 12-16,1-107.
Holmes, R. W. 1957. Solar radiation, submarine daylight and photosynthesis.
Ch. 6 in: Treatise on marine ecology and paleoecology, J. W. Hedgpeth (ed.),
Geol. Soc. Amer. Mem. 67,1,109-128.
Hooker, J. D. 1847. Flora Antarctica. The botany. The Antarctic voyage of
H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus & Terror, in the years 1839-1843. Under the
command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, Kt. R.N. F.R.S. + c. Vol. 1 (dia-
toms pp. 503-519). Reeve Bros., London, 687 pp.
Huxley, L. 1918. Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker O.M., G.C.S.I.
Based on Materials Collected by Lady Hooker. Vol. 1, John Murray, London,
546 pp.
Huxley, T. H. 1868. On some organisms from great depths in the North Atlantic.
Quart. J. Micr. Sci., Oct. 1868,210.
Kofoid, C. A. 1897. On some important sources of error in the plankton method.
Science (n.s.), 6, 829-832.
Marshall, S. M. and Orr, A. P. 1928. The photosynthesis of diatom cultures in
the sea. J. Mar. BioI. Ass. U.K., 15,321-360.
Michaelis, G. A. 1830. tiber das Leuchten der Ostsee nach eigenen Beobachtun-
gen. Perthes & Besser, Hamburg, 52 pp.
Miquel, P. 1890-93. De la culture artificielle des Diatomees. Le Diatomiste 1,73,
93, 121, 149, 165. (Also in: Le Micrographie Preparature 5, 69, 1897).
Montagne, M. C. 1844. Memoire sur Ie phenomime de la coloration des eaux de
la Mer Rouge. Ann. Sci. Nat., 3, 332-362.
Muller, J. 1855. tiber Sphaerozoum und Thalassicola. Monatsber. Berl. Akad.,
1855,231.
Patrick, R. 1948. Factors effecting the distribution of diatoms. Bot. Rev., 14,
473-524.
Pritchard, A. 1861. A History of the Infusoria. Fourth Ed., Whittaker & Co.,
London. 968 pp. + 40 pI.
Provasoli, L., McLaughlin, J. J. A. and Droop, M. R. 1957. The development of
artificial media for marine algae. Arch. Mikrobiol., 25, 392-428.
Regnard, P. 1891. Physique biologique. Recherches experiment ales sur les con-
ditions physiques de la vie dans les eaux. Libraire l' Acad. Med., Paris,S 00 pp.
Schlee, S. 1972. A history of oceanography. The edge of an unfamiliar world.
Robert Hale, London, 390 pp.
Schutt, F. 1892a. Das Pflanzenleben der Hochsee. In: Reisebeschreibung der
Plankton-Expedition, O. Krummel (ed.), Ch. 8, Lipsius & Tischer, Kiel &
Leipzig, 2,243-314.
Schlitt, F. 1892b. Analytische Plankton-Studien. Ziele, Methoden und Anfangs-
Resultate der quantitativ-analytischen Planktonforschung. Lipsius & Tischer,
Kiel & Leipzig, 117 pp. + 16 tables and 1 chart. [Also published as part of
vol. 1 of Neptunia].
Taylor, F. J. R., Blackbourn, D. J. and Blackbourn, J. 1971. The red water cili-
ate Mesodinium rubrum and its "incomplete symbionts": a review including
new ultrastructural observations. J. Fish. Res. Bd., Canada, 28, 391-407.
Van Heurck, H. 1896. A treatise on the Diatomaceae. William Wesley & Son,
London, 558 pp. + 35 pI.
Wallich, G. C. 1861. Remarks on some novel phases of organic life, and on
boring powers of minute annelids, at great depths in the sea. Ann. Mag. nat.
Hist. Ser. 3,43,52-58.
Wallich, G. C. 1869. On the vital functions of deep sea Protozoa. The Monthly
Micr. Journal, Jan. 1869,32-41.
Wyatt, T. 1979. Global patterns of discoloured water and related events in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In: Toxic dinoflagellate blooms, D. L.
Taylor and H. H. Seliger (eds.), Elsevier/North Holland Inc., New York,
Amsterdam, Oxford, pp. 263-268.
The Victorian Aquarium in Ecological and
Social Perspective
Philip F. Rehbock
It is at once an ornament, a toy, a cabinet, a

menagerie, a Jardin des plantes, a Botanico-
Zoological picture, in which every colour has
life; in short 'a thing of beauty and a joy
forever. '
Shirley Hibberd, 1856b
1 Introduction
Victorian culture acquired a new ornament from nature in the 1850s. Both fresh
and salt-water aquaria suddenly became frequent appurtenances in better British
homes, and numerous popular books appeared on their construction, stocking,
maintenance and philosophy. Since then aquarium animals have become common
pets in the households of nearly every social class; public aquaria have burgeoned
throughout the world; and marine biological stations have conducted research in
all manner of artificial aquatic environments.
What touched off the aquarium craze? In particular, what can the aquarium
literature of this period tell us about the mid-Victorian naturalist's awareness
and application of ecological principles? Albert Klee (1967-69) pointed out brief-
ly the British origins of the aquarium, and then chronicled the aquarium "growth
industry" in America from the late 19th century to the present. Elsewhere there
are accounts of the first aquaria (Atz 1949, Hibberd 1856b, ch. 1), but none
more detailed than that of Klee, and none which addresses specifically the social
and ecological issues. Moreover, D. E. Allen (1976) has cited the topic as ripe for
investigation.
2 The Proto-aquarists
The practice of preserving aquatic animals, in indoor containers as well as garden

ponds, dates to Antiquity. Goldfish were domesticated by the Chinese as much
as a thousand years ago, long before their introduction to the West toward the
The Victorian Aquarium in Ecological and Social Perspective 523
end of the 17th century (Hervey and Hems 1968, pp. 76-80). Even earlier, the
Romans kept ftsh in ponds for ornament, entertainment and food, a habit prob·
ably also acquired from the Chinese (ibid., pp. 19-22, Cheever 1861). Occasional
references to indoor ftsh·keeping can be found in British writings of the 16th·
18th centuries (Arderon 1746, Pepys 1970-74, 6,p.ll1, White 1876, l,p. 262,
Atz 1949). But the transition from ftsh·bowl to aquarium, a major shift in phi.
losophy and practice, seems to have occurred in the middle decades of the 19th
century.
The great difference between a fish-globe and an Aquarium is, that in the
one, we keep fish only, whilst, in the other we cultivate many beautiful and
wonderful plants and animals which would not flourish if we changed the
water often.
It should be remembered, when it is found necessary to aerate the water,

that we do not possess an Aquarium: which is a collection of plants and
animals that is self-supporting, self-renovating-that requires only the feeding
of the inhabitants and the watching for accidents (Edwards 1858, p. 20, 90).
Thus the true aquarium, in the 19th century, remains in a healthy state for
months or even years, without requiring any renewal of the fresh or salt·water
medium. This had evidently been a mystery to the earlier ftsh-bowl·keeping natu·
ralists ("proto-aquarists").
The ftrst to attempt deliberately the establishment of a self·sustaining aquari·
urn ecosystem, by balancing the activities of captive ftsh with those of aquatic
plants, is controversial. Germany, France, and Britain might all claim precedence
in the creation of the "balanced aquarium."l LedermUller (1719-1769) appar·
ently set up vessels containing plants and animals in relatively stable combi·
nations for study about 1760 (Ledermtiller 1761, PIs. 67, 87, Bout 1886,
p. 33). His intent is open to question, however, as he must have been aware of
the gas exchange relations existing between the plants, the animals and the
atmosphere. These relations of respiration and photosynthesis were given their
currently accepted chemical interpretation as the result of investigations by
Priestly, Lavoisier, Ingen·Housz, Senebier, DeSaussure, Boussingault and others
during the late 18th and early 19th centuries (see Nash 1952).
In France Charles DesMoulins' (1798.1876) earliest aquarium occupants, pIa·
narians (flatworms), required regular renewal of the water. Once when neglected
for a week, a considerable amount of algae ("confervae") developed. He then
changed the water but left the algae behind to nourish the planarians. In a few
weeks time the algae disappeared, leaving'the water clearer than ever. This sug·
gested that plants were able to purify the water. In his next aquarium, for study·
ing freshwater snails, he included two types of floating plants:
lBut see Atz (1949), Innes (1950) and Jacobs (1956) among others for corrections to this
misnomer.
524 P. F. Rehbock
La temperature etait elevee pour la saison, et l'eau recueillie depuis plus de
24 heures, etait fort sale et deja sensiblement puante. Mon etonnement fut
grand, lorsque Ie lendemain, je trouvai toute l'eau du bocal pure et transpar-
ente comme du cristal, et absolument sans odeur. Je resolus de ne plus changer
l'eau du tout, cette experience m'a parfaitement reussi (DesMoulins 1830,
p.260).
Judging from his limited concluding remarks he did not yet comprehend all
of the chemical exchanges taking place:
L'experience que je viens de relater nous conduit aune remarque generaie

et bien importante: sans les plantes flottantes que la bonte de la divine Pro-
vidence a repandues avec tant de profusion sur les eaux stagnantes, les habi-
tans des con trees marecageuses periraient devores par les fievres epidemiques.
Mais Ie carbone degage par la decomposition des tissus organiques est ab-
sorbe par ces vegetaux aquatiques, employe a leur nutrition, et ils fournis-
sent en echange une exhalation abondante d'air respirable et salubre
(DesMoulins 1830, pp. 260-261).
DesMoulins recognized the primitive state of his experiments and called upon
other naturalists to extend them. To that end, he gave instructions for purchas-
ing and setting up glass containers in the home. But beyond the initial announce-
ment of his success, DesMoulins seems to have published nothing. The only indi-
cation of recognition by his countrymen was in the attempt by the protozoolo-
gist, Felix Dujardin (1801-1860) to adapt DesMoulins' arrangement to salt-water
organisms. Dujardin's moderate success in establishing a self-sustaining marine
aquarium in 1838 (Bout 1886) along with DesMoulins' earlier fresh-water achieve-
ment, stimulated a later French writer to proclaim that, with these events
"L'aquarium, dans Ie sens exact du mot, etait enfm definitivement invente"
(ibid., p. 34). But their "invention" went unnoticed by naturalists elsewhere.
It was in Britain that the aquarium fust became a widely known instrument
of science and entertainment, without reference to French or German predeces-
sors. The rise of the self-supporting aquarium in that country was the result of
the activities of marine naturalists, horticulturists, and chemists.
The Marine Naturalists
In the early 19th century, Scot1a~d tolerated a few eccentric souls who main-
tained vessels of salt-water for the study of local marine and estuarine species.
The most famous was Sir John Graham Dalyell (1775-1851), 6th baronet of
Binns, an Edinburgh barrister. The author of numerous works on the history
and antiquities of Scotland, Dalyell nevertheless devoted much of his time to
meticulous studies of marine invertebrates (Dalyell 184748, 1851-58). Accord-
ing to a posthumous account by his sister (Newman 1973, pp. 3757-3758),
Dalyell maintained marine animals in cylindrical glass vessels of various sizes,
possibly as early as 1790. Generally each vessel held a single animal; no plants
were included, nor was the water aerated by any other means. Hence Dalyell
found it necessary to change the water once or twice a day. A porter brought
several gallons of sea water in an earthenware jar two or three times per week,
enabling Dalyell to keep many of his specimens alive for eight to ten years or
more. One particular anemone, nicknamed "Granny," survived from the time of
its collection in 1828, until 1887, long out-living Sir John and several others to
whom it was passed on (Daly ell 184748,2, p. 203, Thompson 1940, pp. 224-
226).
Salt-water vessels also adorned "the attic" flat of Edward Forbes (1815-
1854) and his fellow medical students, John (1814-1867) and Harry (1816?-
1847) Goodsir, and George E. Day (1815-1872), at the University of Edinburgh
in the 1830s. Presumably they too had fresh sea-water brought up regularly from
the Firth of Forth. Marine invertebrates were thus maintained in a healthy state
for study and later dissection, to the amazement of numerous visitors, including
the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz (Lonsdale 1868,1,97-104).
Forbes' associate, Dr. George Johnston (1797-1855), author of important
works on British zoophytes, sponges and other groups, arranged a vessel for
marine invertebrates in his Berwickshire home about 1842. Corallines and sea-
lettuce were included along with mollusks, annelids and a starfish-a combi-
nation which sustained itself for two months, but an exceptional case, not repro-
ducible nor worthy of wide publicity (Johnston 1842).
And finally, in England, Mrs. Anne Thynne (dates unknown), a devotee of
geology, became fascinated by stony corals (Madreporia), during a trip to Devon-
shire in 1846. Determined to continue her observations in London, she trans-
ported specimens in glass jars of sea-water. A maid aerated the water daily by
pouring it back and forth in front of an open window. The following year Mrs.
Thynne added sea-weeds to her aquarium bowls, but the aeration chore was con-
tinued for fear that the proper "balance" might not have been achieved (as she
later wrote). These precautions were not unrewarded: the madrepores and
other organisms survived and multiplied in London for a period of three years
(Thynne 1859, Lankester 1856, p. 10).
Whether or not these fir~t attempts can be regarded as self-sustaining aquaria,
the fact remains that little attention was paid to them until years later. News of
the successes of Thynne and Johnston, in particular, seems not to have passed
beyond their personal friends. This is anomalous in view of the increased at-
tention paid to marine biology by British naturalists in the 1830s and 40s. For
example, the British Association for the Advancement of Science sponsored a
Dredging Committee during the period 1839-1850, for the acquisition of know-
ledge about the marine invertebrate fauna of the British coasts. And although
this committee (of which both Forbes and Johnston were members) made hauls
and filled collections nearly every summer (Rehbock 1979), there is no evidence
that they made any attempt to keep their organisms alive.
526 P. F. Rehbock
The Horticultural Stimulus
The inception of the Victorian aquarium owes as much to the development of

the terrarium, as to the activities of marine naturalists. The terrarium ("vivari-
um") was the special fancy of Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868). Botanist,
physician, and socially prominent member of London scientific society, Ward
was preoccupied by the desire to grow all manner of local and exotic vegetation,
especially ferns and mosses, in his gardens at Wellclose Square (Anon. 1870).
However, London's sooty air was injurious to many plants, necessitating that
fresh specimens be brought periodically from the countryside. About 1829 a
serendipitous event occurred which was to bring on a small revolution in horti-
cultural practices. Ward had placed a moth chrysalis and some mold in a covered
jar, and quite unexpectedly a fern and some moss arose from the surface of the
mold, growing well without the least attention. Ward then began experiments
to determine the range of plant species which could survive in covered containers
("closely glazed cases"). Covering (but not sealing) the containers had the bene-
ficial effects of keeping in moisture, reducing the level of London air pollutants,
and limiting temperature fluctuations. In addition to facilitating the culture of
many species previously unsuccessful in urban environments, and making "gar-
dens" possible in the homes of the unlanded classes, the Wardian device became
important in transporting live plants on long voyages (Ellis 1839, Ward 1852).
Ward did not announce his success in growing plants under glass to a scientific
audience until the British Association meeting of 1837 (although a letter to
William Hooker describing the method was published the year before [Ward
1836]). Interestingly, Ward hinted at the possibility that animal life might be
promoted "upon the same principles. lam quite certain that a great number of
animals would live and thrive under the treatment" (Ward 1837, p. 505). There
is no indication, however, that Ward had aquatic animals or plants in mind.ln-
deed, Ward's understanding of the physiological processes relevant to his inno-
vation was minimal in 1837.
The Chemical Input
Ward's (1837) report to the British Association was one of several on the subject
of closely glazed cases at that meeting. The Association had established a com-
mittee in 1836 to perform experiments on plants grown under glass, and had re-
quested that Charles Daubeny (1795-1867), Oxford's professor of chemistry and
botany, look into the chemical aspects. Daubeny's research career had been built
upon the application of chemical theory to geological and botanical questions,
including experiments on the influences of soil and light conditions on plant
growth in the early 1830s (Daubeny 1834, 1836, 1837a). But a brief report of
data without conclusions, hurriedly submitted to the Association in 1837 just
before his departure on a tour of America, was Daubeny'S only contribution.
More thorough was the independent study by Daniel Ellis (1772-1841), pre-
sented to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in 1839. The little-known Ellis
(an army surgeon, Glasgow M.D.) had published two books on plant physiology
(1807, 1811); hence, in taking up the ecology of closely glazed cases he was re-
turning to a familiar theme. Ellis discussed, in succession, the factors of humidi-
ty, heat, light and air as they related to plants in "close cases," and in "free atmo-
sphere." He thus corrected Ward's interpretation of the chemical principles
active in closely glazed cases, i.e., the only change in the contained air was one
of expansion and contraction due to daily heating. This change of air, a kind of
circulation with the outer atmosphere, Ward regarded as essential to the plants;
hence, the necessity that the case not be hermetically sealed. Ellis insisted, on
the contrary, that there were two distinctly different processes' ''the first, or
deteriorating, process, in which oxygen gas is consumed," i.e., respiration; and
"the second, or purifying, process, in which oxygen gas is evolved," i.e., photo-
synthesis. Because these processes "mutually counterbalance each other;' there
should be "no difficulty in comprehending how the same identical volume of
air in the plant cases ofMr. Ward should, for so long a period, serve the purposes
of vegetation, without becoming foul from within, or receiving or requiring re-
newal from without" (Ellis 1839, 501-502). Essentially, it was just a larger
version of the experimental apparatus used by DeSaussure 35 years earlier, as
Ellis was well aware.
Thus, while Ward may be credited with instigating the use of the closely
glazed case among horticulturists, the explanation of its successful operation was
provided by the chemists, mainly Ellis. Ward then made tests to see if the self-
sustaining principle of his vivaria might also be applicable to aquaria (hence, the
term "aqua-vivaria," in use through the 1850s). In 1841, "gold and silver fish"
and several species of fresh-water plants were placed in a "large earthen vessel"
of twenty gallons (Ward 1852, p. 57). Ward later referred to the chemical equi-
librium between plants and animals as though such knowledge were almost
second nature: the "plants, by means of their vital actions, as had long been
well known, maintained the purity of the water, and, as in the atmosphere, kept
up the balance between the animal and vegetable respirations" (ibid., p. 58). Yet
there is no evidence to suggest that Ward himself was aware of the chemical
principles involved until they were explained by Ellis. Even then, though Ward
drew particular attention (in the 1842 preface to his book) to the "admirable
paper written by the late Mr. Ellis," he ignored Ellis' discussion of "noxious
gases" in and out of the container.
Ward's contribution to the realization of the self-sustaining aquarium remains
enigmatic. He claimed, and his son reiterated (Ward 1854), that he had consci-
ously attempted to balance the vital activities of fresh-water fish and plants in
1841 or 1842. But no mention of the attempt appeared in print until 1852, by
which time other published experiments h~d clearly substantiated the viability
of aquaria. Considering Ward's prominence socially (if not scientifically) among
London naturalists, it is quite possible that the aquarium idea gained some cir-
culation during the 1840s.
It is curious that the relevant chemical theory should have been available for
so long before being applied to aquaria. Surely by 1804, when DeSaussure syn-
thesized the line of research on photosynthesis dating back to Priestley, know-
528 P. F. Rehbock
ledge of the chemical exchanges among plants, animals, and their environment
should have been adequate for anyone seeking the recipe for a successful aquari-
um. Moreover, the appropriate theory had been applied in an aquatic context in
an English work by 1820. The London chemist, William T. Brande (1788-1866),
Humphrey Davy's successor as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution,
discussed the gas exchange occurring between aquatic plans and animals. But in
spite of Brande's (1819) clear conception of the beneficial effects of culturing
plants along with fishes, no mention of this advice appears in the aquarium
literature until the 1850s.
The most plausible causes for this 40-year hiatus, between the end of the
PriestleY-DeSaussure research and its application to aquaria, would appear to be
(1) that the PriestleY-DeSaussure theory was not yet fully accepted, even by
chemists in the 1840s (Shenstone 1895, p. 89); and (2) that knowledge was
already isolated within scientific specialties. Those scientists most interested in
establishing permanent marine or freshwater systems for research purposes
tended to be naturalists. Their training focused on the taxonomic and anatomic
aspects of zoology and botany, as had been the case since the 17th century. By
comparison, the chemical and physiological facets were of recent creation,
primarily by Continental chemists, not British naturalists.
This oblivion to "animal and vegetable chemistry" in Britain was altered in
the early 1840s by several events. Justus von Liebig's "Organic Chemistry in Its
Applications to Agriculture and Physiology" was published (in German, French
and English editions) in 1840. Liebig (1803-1873) provided new support for the
principles of plant physiology of the Priestley-DeSaussure paradigm. More impor-
tantly, he argued that future progress in natural history would hinge upon the at-
tention given to chemistry by botanists. These ideas flowed more freely among
botanists, horticulturists and practical men than had the writings of earlier chem-
ists, because, as his title indicated, Liebig wished to demonstrate their "Appli-
cations to Agriculture." Moreover, the book and its ideas had an able British pro-
moter in the person of Lyon Playfair.
Two years later Liebig produced the companion work, "Animal Chemistry or
Organic Chemistry in its Applications to PhYSiology and Pathology," completing
his analysis of the cycles between plant and animal kingdoms. Both publications
received further pUblicity by Liebig's participation in the Glasgow and Man-
chester meetings of the British Association in 1840 and 1842.
In Paris, Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas (1800-1884) had also turned from inor-
ganic to physiological chemistry in the late 1830s. His widely circulated essay,
"On the Chemical Statics of Organized Beings" (1841) and subsequent book
with J. B. Boussingault, "The Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organic
Nature" (1842), concisely organized the principles of animal and vegetable chem-
istry which Liebig had separated into two detailed volumes. Dumas placed great
emphasis on the opposing, mutually-serving chemical interactions of the two
organic kingdoms, epitomized in the "Programme of the Discourse" with which
he opened the book (Dumas and Boussingault 1844, p. xiii):
An Animal A Vegetable
is is
An Apparatus of An Apparatus of
Combustion; Reduction;
Possesses the faculty of Is fixed;
Locomotion;
Burns Carbon Reduces Carbon
Hydrogen Hydrogen
Ammonium; Ammonium;
Exhales Carbonic Acid Fixes Carbonic Acid
Water Water
Oxide of Ammonium Oxide of Ammonium
Azote; Azote;
Consumes Oxygen Produces Oxygen
Neutral azotized Neutral azotized
matters matters
Fatty matters Fatty matters
Amylaceous matters, Amylaceous matters,
sugars, gums; sugars, gums;
Produces Heat Absorbs heat;
Electricity; Abstracts electricity;
Restores its elements to the Derives its elements from the
air or to the earth; air or from the earth;
Transforms organized matters Transforms mineral matters
into mineral matters. into organic matters.
According to Dumas, therefore, the animal and vegetable kingdoms stood as

polar opposites. The "balance" of their precisely complementary activities was
the foundation of sustained life on the surface of the earth.
However over-simplified this dichotomization of nature might have been
(see Goodman 1972), the writings of Liebig, Dumas and others stimulated con-
siderable interest in the new physiological chemistry, in Britain as elsewhere
(Holmes 1963). Disagreements over the chemical details reopened the long-
standing rivalry between Liebig and Dumas (drawing further public attention to
the subject); but among naturalists the simply comprehended fact of the chemi-
cal "balance of nature" must have been powerful indeed.
This chemical conception of nature of the 1840s was a crucial element of
the intellectual climate that spawned the sudden interest in aquaria. If the
"circle of organic life at the surface of the globe" depends upon the vegetable
kingdom-"that great laboratory of organic life" (Dumas 1841, pp. 339-340)-
and if such "laboratories" could be successfully established in the isolation of
closely glazed cases, then could not the same "circle of organic life" be achieved
in an aquatic medium? The notion of a "balanced aquarium," a phase first ap-
pearing in British writings at the end of the decade, derives, I believe, from the
peculiar conception of a balanced dualism in nature, then current in the infant
science of physiological chemistry.
530 P.F. Rehbock
3 The Final Consummation
By the end of the 1840s the aquarium movement began to gather momentum in
two directions: toward the publication of experimental studies and popular hand-
books; and the establishment of public aquaria. The seminal publications were
those of Robert S. Warington and Philip Henry Gosse. Warington, moreover,
fmally brought the aspirations of the marine naturalists into clear contact with
the new physiological chemistry.
Robert Warington (1807-1867) pursued a career in practical chemistry in
London, and from 1842 until 1866 was chemical operator of the Society of
Apothecaries. During this period, on a cue from Brande's "Manual of Chemistry"
(Warington 1857, p. 404), he carried out a lengthy series of systematic investi-
gations into aquarium operation which were to be regarded by subsequent
writers as establishing the scientific foundation of the "balanced aquarium"
philosophy. Whereas the intent of the naturalists, from Dalyell and DesMoulins
to Ward, Johnston and Thynne, had been to create a means of observing or enjoy-
ing aquatic species in an artificial setting some distances from their natural envi-
ronment, Warington's goal was to understand the principles of aquarium vitality.
He began in 1849, placing gold-fish, Vallisneria (tape-grass), sand, mud and stones
in a 12-gallon receiver of fresh water. He soon found that the normal decay of
the Vallisneria leaves resulted in turbid water and algal accumulation. This mo-
mentary set-back was alleviated, however, by the addition of pond snails (Lym-
naea) which "restored the whole to a healthy state, thus perfecting the balance
between the animal and vegetable inhabitants, and enabling both to perform their
vital functions with health and energy" (Warington 1851, p. 53). (The scavenging
capacity of these mollusks, though possibly original with Warington in aquaria,
had nevertheless been pointed out by naturalists much earlier [Jeffreys 1830,
p. 371, Ward 1854, p. 412]).
Warington's experiments demonstrated "in a liquid element" that "admirable
balance sustained between the animal and vegetable kingdoms which Dumas had
proclaimed.
The fish, in its respiration, consumes the oxygen held in solution by the
water as atmospheric air, furnishes carbonic acid; feeds on the insects and
young snails; and excretes material well adapted as a rich food to the plant,
and well fitted for its luxuriant growth.
The plant, by its respiration [i.e., photosynthesis] , consumes the carbonic
acid produced by the fish, appropriating the carbon to the construction of its
tissues and fibre, and liberates the oxygen in its gaseous state to sustain the
healthy functions of the animal life, at the same time that it feeds on the re-
jected matter, which has fulfilled its purposes in the nourishment of the fish
and snail, and preserves the water constantly in a clear and healthy condition,
-while the slimy snail, finding its proper nutriment in the decomposing vege-
table matter and minute confervoid growth, prevents their accumulation by
removing them from the field, and, by its vital powers, converts what would
otherwise act as poison, into a rich and fruitful nutriment, again to constitute
a pabulum for the vegetable growth, while it also acts the important part of a
purveyor to its finny neighbors (Warington 1851, p. 54).
The popularizer, Shirley Hibberd, described Warington's achievement in words

anticipating later ecological terminology: "The three tenants of the globe main-
tained each other as in any well-ordered human community" (Hibberd 1856,
p. 8, italics mine).
Over the next several years Warington tried to improve his equilibria con-
ditions by substituting other species of fish, plants and mollusks (Warington
1852). The water did not require changing for a period of four years. In 1852 he
then turned from fresh-water to try his luck with sea-water. Various sea-weeds,
accompanied by periwinkles, were placed in a tank of sea-water from the English
Channel supplied by an oyster boat from the Billingsgate fish-market (Warington
1853). He also modified the aquarium container: the receiver was replaced by a
"shallow earthen pan," and that by a rectangular tank having slate or tinted-glass
sides, back and bottom, with clear glass on only the front, viewing side. This
design prevented excessive algal growth by ensuring that direct sunlight entered
the water only from the surface (Warington 1854).
With the salt-water system viable Warington then tried to vary the inhabitants.
The acquisition of healthy marine specimens in London was a problem until the
naturalist-traveler Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) came to his rescue. Gosse,
the author of numerous popular and pious books on natural history, had taken
to the Devonshire coast for reasons of health, and there began collecting and
dredging for marine organisms. In 1852 he had begun his own aquaria (Gosse
1852, 1853, pp. 228-234,439441), and by 1854 had produced the first book
to be devoted to the subject.
From Gosse, Warington acquired the bulk of his marine materials. This union
of field naturalist and London chemist was the crucial liaison in the evolution of
the aquarium. Before 1852 the aquarium was typically a cylindrical glass jar con-
taining a few fish or an invertebrate, in the possession of a few naturalists who
regarded it as too insignificant to write about; it was nothing more than a new
type of "cabinet" where a favorite species might be kept for observation. After
1852, the aquarium became an environment for an aquatic community. It also
became a hobby for wealthy British families, an industry and a public amusement.
An industry? Both hobbiest and naturalist soon came to depend on a new
breed of merchant/su~plier for their aquarium needs. Gosse had been delighted
with the dredging serVices rendered in Weymouth by a fisherman, Jonah Fowler,
"a clever fellow" who boasted "with delight of the feats he has achieved in the
dredging line for Mr. Bowerbank, Mr. [Sylvanus] Hanley, and Professor [Edward]
Forbes" (Gosse 1854, p. 58). Dredging services and equipment were also avail-
able in Weymouth from the conchologist Robert Damon (1814-1889) (Woodward
1851-56, pp. 428430). The Weymouth naturalist William Thompson, a supplier
for that locale, impressed Gosse that "no one is better fitted to supply what is
most suitable for either public or private Aquaria, on reasonable terms" (Gosse
1854, p. 266). Thompson also sent specimens to London for the Zoological
532 P. F. Rehbock
Society (Hibberd 1856b, p. 38), but soon the ir..dustry had representatives with-
in the city. By 1855 at least two dealers had set up respectable shops: Thomas
Hall, "dealer in Marine and Fresh-water Stock, of Fountain Place, City Road";
and W. Alford Lloyd in St. John's Street, Clerkenwell (ibid., iv, 38). Lloyd
(1815-1880) might well be regarded as the first professional aquarium entrepre-
neur. By 1858 his "Aquarium Warehouse" occupied two adjacent shops on Port-
land Road (Fig. 1), and his illustrated catalogue "of whatever relates to Aquaria"
ran to 128 pages. According to a contemporary account (West 1865, p. 499),
Lloyd maintained
in fifty large tanks and innumerable smaller vessels, at least fifteen thousand
specimens of salt water animals alone. Over his counter sea-water is sold by
the pint, quart, or gallon as commonly as milk or London porter at other
places. He has a large steam factory for the manufacture of tanks, and employs
uninterruptedly fourteen persons in collecting marine objects, besides purchas-
ing largely from amateur collectors.
Lloyd went on to become scientific advisor to many of the builders and adminis-
trators of public aquaria, both at home and on the Continent (Lloyd 1876, Wilson
1962), a vocation he shared with the protozoologist W. Saville Kent (d. 1908),
and the naturalist Henry Lee (1826-1888).
Figure 1. Lloyd's "Aquarium Warehouse" at No. 19 Portland Road, near

Regent's Park. Frontispiece to W. A. Lloyd, A list with descriptions, illus-
trations and prices of whatever relates to aquaria. London, 1858.
The public aquarium concept originated among Ward's circle. Sometime after
1841 the London distiller James Scott Bowerbank (1797-1877), a paleontologist
and close friend of Ward, tried his hand with a jar of fresh-water organisms (Ward
1852, p. 58). Bowerbank's interest, in turn, inspired David W. Mitchell (d. 1859),
secretary of the Zoological Society, to install a ''vivarium'' for fishes at the
Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park. Thus arose the first public aquarium, con-
structed in 1852 and opened for the entertainment of all of London's social
classes in 1853 (Scherren 1905, p. 107, Vevers 1976). During the next twenty
years, aquaria were established throughout the major cities of Europe. By the
1870s Britain herself boasted of nearly a dozen, in Dublin, Sydenham (at the
Crystal Palace), Brighton, Westminster, Birmingham, Manchester, Yarmouth,
Southport, and Scarborough. The 1870s also saw the establishment of the first
marine biological station at Naples.
The goal of the early aquarists had been to establish an aquatic system in
which the organisms could be left entirely alone, except for feeding. Inevitably
the number of fish that seemed aesthetically desirable in a given tank often were
more than could be "balanced" by the plants. Various aeration and filtration
devices accordingly appeared. Typically a reservoir of water was placed some dis-
tance above the aquarium; the water was then allowed to drip in at a controlled
rate, in some cases passing through sponge, charcoal 'or sand (Gosse 1854,
pp. 271-273, Hibberd 1856b, p. 78, Anon. 1873). More elaborate systems (Fig.
2) directed the water down into the tank and up again, to emerge from a central
fountain (see also Klee 1967-69, pt. 2, p. 45).
"After reading the book of Mr. Gosse," one writer reflected, "all the world
wanted to possess an aquarium to verify his assertions and repeat his experi-
ments" (Bout 1886, p. 35). Perhaps it was the success of Gosse's work that led
to the plethora of books and articles relating to the aquarium in the 1850s. To
mention only books, contributions to the genre came not only from naturalists
(Lankester 1856, Sowerby 1857, Jones 1959); but also from science popularizers
(Hibberd 1856a, 1856b, Leach 1856, Merton 1856, Wood 1857, Humphreys
1857, Harper 1858); and from literati (Lewes 1858, Kingsley 1855).
Unquestionably, there were events beyond the realm of science which con-
tributed in large measure to the phenomenal fashion of aquaria in the 1850s.
Foremost among these was the expansion of the British railway system, especi-
ally in the 1840s. A far larger portion of the population was afforded the pleasure
of a sea-side vacation than ever before (hence, the success of popular books on
the sea-shore in this period); and the transport of sea-water and marine specimens
inland became far more practicable. Secondly, both the closely glazed case and
the aquarium tank benefitted substantially from the abolition of the heavy tax
on glass in 1845 (Allen 1976, p. 137). Moreover, the 1850s were years of pros-
perity and confidence, with an expanding middle class in search of education
and edifying leisure activities of modest cost-the "Age of Equipoise," as it has
been called (Burn 1964).
Aquarium promoters were soon to be seen outside Britain. The malacologist
E. A. Rossmassler (1806-1867) was the first to publicize the hobby in Germany.
534 P. F. Rehbock
Figure 2. "Aquarium containing an easily arranged fountain." Note reservoir

atop bookcase, connected by tubing to fountain, and overflow vessel beneath
table. From G. C. Bateman, Fresh-water aquaria. London, 1890, p. 51.
His "Das Susswasser-Aquarium" (1857) had reached four editions by 1880.

American works had begun to appear by 1858 (Edwards 1858, Butler 1858).
By 1860 the aquarium fashion had lost its momentum in England. Hibberd
acknowledged the waning of the fever, but felt that the decline had its brighter
side:
The 'aquarium mania' may be considered as fairly dead: it died out proper-
ly and completely; but the aquarium remains, and every earnest student of
botany and zoology will prize it as a triumph of art acting as the handmaid of
science. We rarely hear of 'aquarians in trouble' now-a-days, because the
thousands who set up aquaria, without the least idea that to be successful
they must be managed on philosophical principles, have long ago given them
up as 'troublesome' (Hibberd 1860, p. 73).
In America aquarium-keeping was still on the upswing. An 1864 government

report announced that "aquaria are now quite common in the large cities of the
north and east, and the taste for them is on the increase" (West 1865, p. 449).
As the public aquarium at Regent's Park had drawn the fancy of England to the
invention, so P. T. Barnum's introduction of aquaria at the American Museum in
New York in 1856 demonstrated their beauties to Americans. Barnum even
financed expeditions to the Caribbean for tropical fish. The latter innovation, as
developed by German entrepreneurs at the turn of the century, inaugurated a
new phase of aquarium history.
Acknowledgments
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the very able bibliographical sleuthing of Ms.

Kathryn Creely, whose enthusiasm for this project helped to get it underway,
and the Honors Program of the University of Hawaii for making Ms. Creely's
services available to me. I would also like to thank Charles J. Deluca, Curator
of the Waikiki Aquarium, for his generous assistance, and Dean E. Alison Kay
for her comments on a previous draft.
References
Allen, D. E. 1976. The naturalist in Britain. A social history. Allen Lane, London,
xii + 292 pp.
Anon. 1868. [Obituary-Robert Warington]. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., 16, xlix-I.
Anon. 1870. [Obituary-No B. Ward]. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., 18, ii-iv.
Anon. 1873. A marine aquarium for inland students. Nature, 10, 260-261.
Anon. 1949. Rossmaessler the pioneer. Aquarium, Phila., 18,218-219.
Arderon, W. 1746. A letter from Mr. Wm. Arderon, F.R.S. to Mr. Baker, F.R.S.
on keeping of small fish in glass jars: and on an easy method of catching fish.
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., 44, 23-27.
Atz, J. W. 1949. The balanced aquarium myth. Nat. Hist., 58, 72-77, 96.
a
Bout, H. 1886. Notes pour servir l'histoire des aquariums. Terre et la vie, Bull.,
Soc. Acclim., 3, 30-44.
Brande, W. T. 1819. A Manual of chemistry. J. Murray, London, xlvii + 652 pp.
Burn, W. L. 1964. The age of equipoise: a study of the mid-Victorian generation.
Allen & Unwin, London, 340 pp.
Butler, H. D. 1858. The family aquarium; or Aqua vivarium. A 'new pleasure' for
the domestic circle: being a familiar and complete instructor upon the subject
of the construction, fitting-up, stocking, and maintenance of the fluvial and
marine aquaria, or 'river and ocean gardens'. Dick & Fitzgerald, New York,
121 pp.
Cheever, D. W. 1861. The aquarium. Atlantic Monthly, 8,322-337.
Dalyell, J. G. 184748. Rare and remarkable animals of Scotland, represented
from living objects: with practical observations on their nature. Van Voorst,
536 P. F. Rehbock
London, Vol. I, 270 pp.;Voi. 2,324 pp.
Da1yell, J. G. 1851-58. The powers of the Creator displayed in the Creation; or,
observations on life amidst the various forms of the humbler tribes of ani-
mated nature: with practical comments and illustrations. Van Voorst, London,
Vol. I, vi + 286 pp. + 70 pI.; Vol. II, x + 359 pp. + 46 pI.; Vol. III, li + 111
pp. + 29 pI.
Daubeny, C. 1834. On excretions from the roots of vegetables. Rep. Br. Ass.
Advmt. Sci., pt. 2,598.
Daubeny, C. 1836. On the action of light upon plants, and of plants upon the
atmosphere. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., 149-176.
Daubeny, C. 1837a. Memoir on the degree of selection exercised by plants, with
regard to the earthly constituents presented to their absorbing surfaces. Trans.
Linn. Soc. Lond., 17,253-266.
Daubeny, C. 1837b. On the growth of plants confined in glass vessels. Rep. Br.
Ass. Advmt. Sci., pt. 1,505-508.
DeSaussure, N. T. 1804. Recherches chimiques sur la vegetation. Chez la Ve.
Nyon, Paris, viii + 327 pp.
DesMoulins, C. 1830. Note sur les moyens d'empecher la corruption dans les
bocaux ou l'on conserve des animaux aquatiques vivants. Act. Soc. Linn. Bor-
deaux, 4, 257-272.
Dumas, J. B. A. 1841. On the chemical statics of organized beings. Phil. Mag.,
3rd ser. 19,337-347,456-469.
Dumas, J. B. A. and J. B. Boussingault. 1844. The chemical and physiological
balance of organic nature: an essay. 3rd ed., H. Bailliere, London, xii + 156 pp.
Edwards, A. M. 1858. Life beneath the waters; or, the aquarium in America. H.
Bailliere, New York, 168 pp.
Ellis, D. 1807. An inquiry into the changes induced on atmospheric air, by the
germination of seeds, the vegetation of plants, and the respiration of animals.
W. Creech, Edinburgh, xiii + 246 pp.
ElliS, D. 1811. Farther inquiries into the changes induced on atmospheric air,
by the germination of seeds, the vegetation of plants, and the respiration of
animals. W. Blackwood, Edinburgh, ix + 375 pp.
Ellis, D. 1839. Description of a plant case, or portable conservatory, for growing
plants without fresh supplies of water and air, according to the method of
N. B. Ward, Esq; with physiological remarks. Gdnr's Mag., 15, 481-505.
Goodman, D. C. 1972. Chemistry and the two organic kingdoms of nature in the
nineteenth century. Med. Hist., 16, 113-130.
Gosse, P. H. 1852. On keeping marine animals and plants alive in unchanged sea-
water. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2nd ser., 10,263-268.
Gosse, P. H. 1853. A naturalist's rambles on the Devonshire coast. Van Voorst,
London, xvi + 451 pp.
Gosse, P. H. 1854. The aquarium: an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.
Van Voorst, London, xiii + 278 pp.
Harper, J. 1858. The sea-side and aquarium; or, anecdote and gossip on marine
zoology. W. P. Nimmo, Edinburgh, xi + 188 pp.
Hervey, G. F. and Hems, J. 1968. The goldfish. Rev. ed. Faber & Faber, London,
271 pp.
Hibberd, S. 1856a. The book of the aquarium and water cabinet; or, practical
instructions on the formation, stocking, and management, in all seasons, of
collections of fresh water and marine life. Groombridge & Sons, London,
148 pp.
Hibberd, S. 1856b. Rustic adornments for homes of taste, and recreations for
town folk, in the study and imitation of nature. Groombridge & Sons, London,
vi + 353 pp.
Hibberd, S. 1860. Management of aquaria. Recreative Sci., 1, 73-77.

Holmes, F. L. 1963. Elementary analysis and the origins of physiological chemis-
try. Isis, 54, 50-81.
Humphreys, H. N. 1857a. Ocean gardens: the history of the marine aquarium,
and the best methods now adopted for its establishment and preservation. S.
Low, London, viii + 112 pp.
Humphreys, H. N. 1857b. River gardens; being an account of the best methods
of cultivating fresh-water plants in aquaria, in such a manner as to afford
suitable abodes to ornamental fish, and many interesting kinds of aquatic
animals. S. Low, London, vii + 107 pp.
Innes, W. T. 1950. The editor's letter: celebrating the centenary of the 'balanced
aquarium'. Aquarium, Phila., 19, no. 1, 12-13.
Jacobs, D. L. 1956. Balance in the aquarium. Aquarium, Phila., 25, no. 6, 192-
195.
Jeffreys, J. G. 1830. A synopsis of the testaceous pneumonobranchous Mollusca
of Great Britain. Trans. Linn. Soc., Lond., 16,323-392.
Johnston, G. 1842. A history of British sponges and lithophytes. W. H. Lizars,
Edinburgh, xii + 264 pp.
Jones, T. R. 1858. The aquarian naturalist. A manual for the seaside. Van Voorst,
London, xviii + 524 pp.
Kingsley, C. 1855. Glaucus; or, The wonders of the shore. Macmillan & Co., Cam-
bridge, 165 pp.
Klee, A. J. 1967-69. The history of the aquarium hobby in America. Aquarium,
Farmingdale, 1, no. 2 - 2, no. 11, various pagination.
Lankester, E. 1856. The aquavivarium, fresh and marine; being an account of the
principles and objects involved in the domestic culture of water plants and
animals. R. Hardwicke, London, 71 pp.
Leach, F. S. 1856. Plain instructions for the management of the aquarium, or
tank for gold, and other fish, water plants, insects, etc. Dean & Son, London,
46 pp.
Ledermiiller, M. F. 1761. Mikroskopische Gemuths- und Augen-Ergotzung: beste-
hend, in ein Hundert nach der Natur gezeichneten und mit Farben erleuchteten
Kupfertafeln, sammt deren Erkliirung. C. de Launoy, Nurnberg, 206 pp. +
100 pI.
Lewes, G. H. 1858. Sea-side studies at Ilfracome, Tenby, the Scilly Isles & Jersey.
W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh/London, ix + 414 pp.
Liebig, J. von. 1840. Organic chemistry in its applications to agriculture and
physiology. Taylor & Walton, London, xiv + 387 pp.
Liebig, J. von. 1842. Animal chemistry; or, Organic chemistry in its application
to physiology and pathology. J. Owen, Cambridge, Mass., xl + 347 pp.
Lloyd, W. A. 1858. A list with descriptions, illustrations, and prices of whatever
relates to aquaria. Hayman Bros, printers, London, 128 pp.
Lloyd, W. A. 1876. Aquaria: their past, present, and future. Am. Nat. 10,611-
621.
Lonsdale, H. 1868. Biographical memoir of John Goodsir. In: The anatomical
memoirs of John Goodsir, W. Turner (ed.). Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh,
2 vols.
Merton, F. S. 1856. Handbook to the aquarium ... with some observations on
... British fresh-water shells. London.
Nash, L. K. 1952. Plants and the atmosphere. Harvard case histories in experi-
mental science, Case 5. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, ix + 122 pp.
Newman, E. 1873. Notice of official handbook to the marine aquarium of the
Crystal Palace Aquarium Company, by W. A. Lloyd. Zoologist, 2nd ser. 8,
3741-3758.
Pepys, S. 1970-74. The diary of Samuel Pepys. R. Latham and W. Matthews
538 P. F. Rehbock
(eds.), Univ. of Calif. Press, Berkeley, 9 vols.
Playfair, L. 1842. Abstract of Professor Liebig's report on "Organic chemistry
applied to physiology and pathology." Rep. Br. Assoc. Advmt. Sci., pt. I,
42-54.
Rehbock, P. F. 1979. The early dredgers: 'Naturalizing' in British seas, 1830-
1850. I. Hist. BioI. 12.
Rossmaessler, E. A. 1857. Das Susswasser-Aquarium. Eine Anleitung zur Herstel-
lung und Pflege desselben. H. Mendelssohn, Leipzig, vi + 88 pp.
Scherren, H. [1905 J . The Zoological Society of London. A sketch of its develop-
ment and the story of its farm, museum, gardens, menagerie and library.
Cassell & Co., London, xii + 252 pp.
Schmidt, A. 1867. Nekrolog [E. A. Rossmassler). MalakozooI. BI., 14, 183-190.
Shenstone, W. A. 1895. Justus von Liebig, his life and work (1803-1873). Cassell
& Co., London, 219 pp.
Sowerby, G. B. 1857. Popular history of the aquarium of marine and fresh-water
animals and plants. L. Reeve, London, xvi + 327 pp.
Thompson, D' A. W. 1940. Science and the classics. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford,
viii + 264 pp.
Thompson, W. 1853. On marine vivaria. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2nd ser. 11,382-
386.
Thynne, A. 1859. On the increase of madrepores; with notes by P. H. Gosse,
F.R.S. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 3rd ser., 3,449461.
Vevers, H. G. 1976. Management of a public aquarium. In: The Zoological
Society of London 1826-1976 and beyond, S. Zuckerman (ed.), Academic
Press, London, pp. 105-118.353 pp.
Ward, N. B. 1836. Letter from N. B. Ward, Esq. to Dr. Hooker, on the subject
of his improved method of transporting living plants. Companion Bot. Mag.,
2,317-320.
Ward, N. B. 1837. Reports on the subject of the growth of plants in closed
glass vessels. Rep. Br. Assoc. Advmt. Sci., pt. 1,501-505.
Ward, N. B. 1852. On the growth of plants in closely glazed cases. 2nd ed. Van
Voorst, London, x + 143 pp. (Ist ed., 1842).
Ward, S. H. 1854. On the growth of plants in closely-glazed cases. Proc. R.
Instn. Gt. Br., 1,407412.
Warington, R. 1851. Notice of observations on the adjustment of the relations
between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, by which the vital functions
of both are premanently maintained. Q. II. Chern. Soc., 3,52-54.
Warington, R. 1852. Observations on the natural history of the water-snail and
fish kept in a confined and limited portion of water. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.,
2nd ser., 10, 273-280.
Warington, R. 1853. On preserving the balance between the animal and vegetable
organisms in sea-water. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2nd ser., 12, 319-324.
Warington, R. 1854. Memoranda of observations made in small aquaria, in which
the balance between the animal and vegetable organisms was permanently
maintained. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2nd ser., 14,366-373.
Warington, R. 1855. On the injurious effects of an excess or want of heat and
light on the aquarium. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2nd ser., 16,313-315.
Warington, R. 1857. On the aquarium. Proc. Instn. Gt. Br., 2, 403408.
West, R. A. 1865. Fresh and salt-water aquaria. Report of the Commissioner of
Agriculture for the year 1864. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., pp. 446-470.
White, G. 1876. Natural history and antiquities of Se1borne, with notes by
Frank Buckland. A Chapter on antiquities by Lord Se1borne. And new let-
ters. Macmillan & Co., London, Vol. 1, xxii + 308 pp.; Vol. 2, viii + 283 pp.
(lst ed., 1789).
Wilson, D. P. 1962. The semi-closed circulation system at the Plymouth Labo-
ratory. Bull. Inst. Oceanogr., Monaco, no. special, lB (Ier Congres Internation-
al D' Aquariologie, Monaco, 1960), 13-27.
Wood, J. G. 1857. The common objects of the sea shore; including hints for an
aquarium. G. Routledge, & Co., London, 204 pp.
Woodward, S. P. 1851-56. A manual of the Mollusca; or, Rudimentary treatise
of recent and fossil shells. John We ale, London, xvi + 486 pp.
The Development of Biological Studies in the
Ocean Environment
T.R. Parsons
1 Introduction
During the 1800s the first organized attempts were made to study the world's
oceans and their resources. A brief reswne of the dates for the establishment of
some of the more important organizations and laboratories is given in Table 1. In
setting up these organizations and laboratories it was well recognized at the time
that the study of the fish of the sea could not be separated from a study of their
environment. This is found in various quotations written at the time. For ex-
ample, the work of the U.S. Fish Commission (Goode 1884) was described as
being divided into three sections. The first of these was "The systematic investi-
gation of the waters of the United States and the biological and physical prob-
lems which they present." This purpose was reinforced by the first Commissioner,
Professor Baird, who insisted " ... that to study the food-fishes would be of little
importance, and that useful conclusions must needs rest upon a broad foundation
of investigations purely scientific in character." This statement was supported by
a subsequent Commissioner of Fisheries, the Hon. Marshall Macdonald (Prince
1907) who said:
The knowledge to be obtained by such investigations is absolutely necessary

as a foundation upon which to build an intelligent, rational administration of
our fishery interests. A knowledge of life in its relation to environment is an
important subject which biological investigators have not heretofore suffi-
ciently dealt with, but which, it seems to me, is necessary in order to give
practical value to special studies of different species. After all, it is the re-
lations and interdependence of life to the aggregate and of conditions influ-
The Development of Biological Studies in the Ocean Environment 541
Table 1. Some of the earliest organizations and laboratories founded for the
purpose of conducting studies on the biology of the sea
Organization Date
The Royal Commission to Investigate Fisheries Problems 1863
Marine Laboratory of the Prussian Commission (Kiel) 1870
Commission zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen der
Deutschen Meere 1871
United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries 1872
Stazione Zoologica (Naples) 1873
U.S. Fisheries Commission Laboratory (Woods Hole) 1885
Marine Biological Association Laboratory (Plymouth) 1888
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 1902
encing it adversely or otherwise, that mainly concern those who are seeking
to apply scientific methods of investigation to economic problems.
In Canada it was also recognized that biological studies of the environment

were an important part of studying fisheries. To quote from Professor Prince,
the Commissioner and General Inspector of Fisheries in Canada, appointed in
1892: "The study of the 'environment' of fish and fisheries is as necessary as
the study of the fish themselves ..." (prince 1907). Yet in spite of these early
beginnings towards a broadly based research program on marine ecology, we
find that 100 years after the establishment of the U.S. Fish Commission, it was
only in the 1960s that there was any serious attempt made to connect fishery
resources with their environment. In reviewing the last 100 years of the com-
mission's work Roedel (1972) states, "This last decade-the 1960s-has also
brought forth most clearly that resolution of environmental problems is critical
if we are to have any fish left for us."
From these questions it is apparent that from the beginning ecological investi-
gations of the seas were supposed to be part of fisheries investigations. In fact,
for nearly 100 years, this intention was not carried out; research paths on the
biology of the marine environment became separated. The one branch pursued
the fish to the exclusion of the environment, the other branch pursued studies
on the environment to the exclusion of the fish.
2 The Separate Development of Fisheries and Biological

Oceanographic Science
The two lines of research on the biology of seas appear to have started to diverge
by the 1900s. The first of these was characterized by the fervent desire of natu-
ralists to collect and name biological specimens of all kinds, including marine
plants and creatures. The second line of research grew out of an economic need
to explain the decline in the number of fish, an observation which had become
most apparent in the North Sea by the latter half of the nineteenth century.
542 T. R. Parsons
A recent historical appraisal of the naturalist's role in the development of
marine biology has been given by Allen (1976). In this account Allen attributes
interest by the public in all kinds of seashore phenomena to the increased access
to remote areas brought about by the development of better roads and railways,
particularly in Britain. This, coupled with the increased leisure time of a wealthy
middle class, gave rise to a number of popular texts describing marine organisms
which were readily sold to the pUblic. The most famous of these early near-shore
naturalists was perhaps Edward Forbes who later was to pursue more profession-
al studies further offshore in various dredging expeditions.
Another recent account by Schlee (1973) summarizes the development of the
second avenue of marine biological science with respect to fisheries. In her ac-
count Susan Schlee documents the rise of the International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea (ICES) as an intergovernmental body devoted to answer-
ing a single question-why does the abundance of fish fluctuate? However, in
attempting to answer this question it is apparent that within the work of ICES
the question of fish fluctuations soon b~came diversified into various committees
dealing with hydrographic data, plankton and specific fish stocks. Thus, one
gains the impression that a great deal of interest was focused on all aspects of
oceanography by the problems of fisheries fluctuations in the late l800s. How-
ever, in terms of actual solutions to fisheries problems, little progress was made
aside from scale-dating of fish by Heincke and age-year-class observations of Hjort.
Victor Hensen, a physiologist turned planktonologist, seems to have made
the most progress in attempting to understand how the biology of the sea func-
tions. In 1887, he coined the term 'plankton' and introduced quantitative
methods for its study. His Plankton Expedition in 1889 on the National demon-
strated where most plankton grew, i.e., in the North Atlantic as opposed to the
tropics as was expected. Hensen's colleague, Karl Brandt, demonstrated this was
due to nutrient limitation in the tropics but not in the North Atlantic. Physical
oceanographers then showed that this was due to temperature-induced stratifi-
cation in the southern tropics, but nutrient regeneration due to storm-induced
mixing in the north. Thus, although Hensen's methods were never officially
accepted by ICES it seems that almost alone he was able to accomplish more in
terms of how the ecology of the ocean worked than all the committees of ICES
put together. In this respect Hensen was not motivated by fisheries, but by his
own interest in the sea. This seems to support the notion that pure science as
practiced by Hensen, i.e., science for science's sake, was far more productive than
problem-solving-motivated science as originally put forth by the ICES.
Too often the motivation behind fishery management has not, in fact, been re-
lated to an understanding of the fluctuations in fish stocks, but has been the re-
sult of political and economic considerations. Thus nearly seventy years after the
noble beginnings of ICES and other fisheries commissions we find the comment
by the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (McHugh 1968)
that "the economic and social-political structure of fisheries and fishery manage-
ment tends to nullify many of the potential gains from biological research."
From these introductory remarks I intend to follow the pattern of biological
research in the ocean with a view to further determining where ideas may have
been fruitfully pursued and where others may have been unfortunately neglected.
3 The Relation between Fish Catch and Fisheries Science
It is almost tautological to say that any nation which catches fish will have de-
veloped some expertise in fisheries science and that this will be reflected in pub-
lished works of marine biological scientists. What may be less obvious, however,
is the relative emphasis which has been given to papers dealing with fisheries
problems. On the one hand this may pertain to direct exploitation, on the other
hand, to studies on the fishes' environment.
In Figures 1 and 2, the percentage of papers dealing directly with fish exploi-
tation in the Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada and in the Bulle-
tin of the United States Fish Commission have been plotted since 1900, respec-
tively. Both curves show the same tendency; that is, up to about 1930, more
than 50% of papers published pertained to the fish's environment. At the time
of the depression there was a great increase in the number of papers in both
journals which dealt directly with the exploitation of fish. This reached a maxi-
mum in the 1940s which coincided with a general food shortage. However,
while the U.S. publication was given over almost entirely to papers on fish, the
Canadian publication never had less than about 30% of its papers dealing with
the marine environment. This, to some extent, reflected a difference in policy of
the Fisheries Research Board of Canada in always giving some appreciable funds
to environmental research compared with its U.S. counterpart. Starting in the
late 1950s, and developing rapidly in the 1960s, both countries showed an in-
crease in the number of papers published on the marine environment, a phenome-
non which to some extent reflects the increased awareness of the potential ef-
fects of pollutants on the hydrosphere and also the need for the development of
alternative theories of fish management.
The great increase in fish catch which occurred in both countries during the
period ca. 1930-1960 seems to follow the increase in papers on fish exploitation,
although the direct causative agent here must be attributed to engineering ad-
vances in the catching of fish and to the expansion of fishing grounds. However,
while the technical ability to find and catch fish increased dramatically, there
was no such dramatic increase in man's ability to understand the consequences
of this exploitation. This same period was the golden age of the fish population
dynamic model together with the much sought after maximum sustainable yield
(MSY). The management philosophy was enshrined in the texts by Beverton and
Holt (1957) and Ricker (1958). The purpose of these models was to manage the
fishery but not to understand the ecology of the fish or the consequences of
fishing. As Larkin (1977) puts it " ... the dogma was this: any species each year
produces a harvestable surplus, and if you take that much, and no more, you can
go on getting it forever and ever (Amen)." Thus, research on the ecology of fish,
the interaction of different species with the biota and the effect of the environ-
544 T. R. Parsons
i6 60 t
5.0 -
100 u)
t= 90
•
(Xl
...J
<t: 4.0 0
f- 80
0 Cfl
...J 70 Z
a..
X 60 3.0 2...J
W ...J
0: 50 (Xl
0
LL 40
I 30
... ~ 2.0 ~
U
U
0: ~O LO
f-
;3
20
<t: O_~/O
w I
Cfl 10 Cfl
W 1800
0: LL
190409 14 19 24 29 34 39 44 49 54 59 64 69 74 79
cf2.
YEARS
Figure 1. The percentage of scientific papers dealing directly with the exploi-
tation of fish in the Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada compared
with the total catch of fish from the Canada Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Cen-
sus of Industry, Part III Fisheries 1917-1975 and Canada Fisheries Annual, 1952. *
f 60 1
6 100 • • • • 5.0 -;
Cfl
I- 90 (Xl
<t: • o ...J
f- 80 4.0 LL
o
• •
0 70
...J Cfl
a.. Z
X 60 3.00
W
0: 50
• ...J
...J
0
LL 40 • 2.0 Ee.
I
U 30 • • I
U
0:
<t: 20 1.0 ~
W U
Cfl 10
W
0: 1899 • I
Cfl
190409 14 19 24 29 34 39 44 49 54 59 64 69 74 79 LL
cf2.
YEARS
Figure 2. The percentage of scientific papers dealing directly with the exploi-
tation of fish published in the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission
compared with the total catch of fish from National Marine Fisheries Service,
Fishery Statistics of the United States. *
*In Figures 1 and 2 the use of 5-year intervals has resulted in the exclusion of occasional
volumes containing published material indicating a greater scatter of points without affect-
ing the general trend shown.
ment on the whole food chain of the sea, were subjects of little interest to the
fisheries scientist at a time when the fish harvest was increasing exponentially.
The brakes which were applied to this exploitation did not come from a better
understanding of the resource but from legislation which had to be continually
imposed to restrict various fisheries. The fact that in most cases legislation re-
stricting a fishery followed in hindsight to a decrease in catch and not as a result
of foresight from the use of a population dynamic model, should have been an
indication to funding agencies that "science" was not working for the benefit of
the resource.
For the future it appears that further expansion of world fisheries can only
take place by utilizing stocks at lower trophic levels, such as small fish (e.g.,
capelin in the North Atlantic) or zooplankton (e.g., krill in the Antarctic). Since
these lower trophic levels in the food chain are tied more directly to the envi-
ronment than the top predators, it would appear even more necessary to further
advance environmental studies in connection with future fisheries management.
4 The Development of Scientific Ideas Governing Biological

Research in the Oceans
In this section, I shall not deal to any great extent with the people who carried
out the scientific exploration ofthe seas, but rather with the ideas which in hind-
sight can be given as typical examples of the research practiced during a particu-
lar period. Thus, reference to the work of anyone author is generally made as an
example of a contemporary study, rather than as a claim to the originality of a
certain idea by one person. In this respect my examples have tended to come
from the North American and Western European literature as being the most
readily available; this is a matter of convenience and not intended as a slight on
scientific literature in which similar ideas may have been put forward in other
countries where the literature is less accessible to the author.
In the introduction I suggested that marine biological studies diverged at
about the turn of the century into studies connected with the exploitation of
fish resources and studies on the biology of the seas, excluding for the most part,
the fish. These developments can be followed by example publications shown
(Table 2).
On the left hand side of Table 2 an attempt has been made to cite publications
on the ecology of the seas. Two classical works which summarize 19th century
thinking on ocean ecology, including large sections on the fish of the sea, were
written by Johnstone (1908) and Murray and Hjort (1912). For approximately
the next two decades biological oceanographers seem to have concentrated on
two particular themes; one was the classification of marine planktonic organisms
as exemplified in such works as Lebour (1925) and Hart (1934), and the other
was the elucidation of changes in the nutrient regime as characterized by the
work of Atkins (1923) as well as the work of Wattenberg in Germany and Rake-
straw in the United States. When we come to the presentation of the next synthe-
546 T. R. Parsons
Table 2. Some examples of publications on the biology of the seas (ca. 1900-
1980)
Year Research on the ecology of the sea Research on fisheries
1900
1905 "Conditions of life in the sea"
(Johnstone 1908)
1910 "The depths of the ocean"
(Murray and Hjort 1912)
1915 "On the question of the biologi-
cal foundations of fisheries"
(Baranov 1918)
1920 "The phosphate context of fresh
and salt waters in relationship to
the growth of algal plankton"
(Atkins 1923)
1925 "The dinoflagellates of Northern "Fluctuations in the year classes
seas" (Lebour 1925) of important food fishes (Hjort
1926)
1930 "Phytoplankton of the south-
west Atlantic" (Hart 1934)
1935 "Modern theory of exploiting a
fishery and application to North
Sea trawling" (Graham 1935)
1940 "The oceans" (Sverdrup, Johnson
and Fleming 1942)
1945 "Factors controlling phytoplankton
on George's Bank" (Riley 1946)
1950 "Some aspects of the dynamics
of populations important to the
management of commercial
marine fisheries" (Schaefer
1954)
1955 "The chemistry and fertility of "On the dynamics of exploited
sea waters (Harvey 1957) fish populations" (Beverton and
Holt 1957)
1960 "Environmental control of photo- "Handbook of computations for
synthesis in the sea" (Steele biological statistics of fish popu-
1962) lations" (Ricker 1958)
1965 "Theory of food-chain relations in "Interspecific competition and
the ocean" (Riley 1963) exploitation" (Larkin 1963)
"Photosynthesis and fish production
in the sea" (Ryther 1969)
1970 "Marine pollution and sea life" "The early life history of fish"
(ed.) (Ruivo 1972) (Blaxter 1974)
1975 "The ecology of the seas" (Cushing "Fish population dynamics"
and Walsh 1976) (Gulland 1977)
"Marine ecology" (Kinne 1978)
1980
sis volume which included biological oceanography, the coverage of fish is con-
tained in less than 50 pages out of a total of 1087 (Sverdrup et al. 1942). Later,
in a book dedicated "To all those creatures who live in the sea" and containing
a section on "The Environment of the Flora and Fauna," Harvey (1957) indexes
only one page as referring to fish.
By the late 1940s there is some attempt to provide a synthesis of ecological
ideas in Riley's (1947) model of plankton on Georges Bank. These ideas were
carried further by Steele (1962) and the importance of fish was eventually rein-
troduced in papers such as those by Riley (1963) and Ryther (1969). Finally,
in recent works as exemplified by the "Ecology of the Seas" and the several
volumes on "Marine Ecology" we have returned to some consideration of fish
as part of the biology of the oceans. In addition, a new aspect to ocean research
was added to the late '60s with an influx of studies on ocean pollution and its
effect on the marine biota (e.g., Ruivo 1972).
Taking the opposite route on the right hand side of Table 2, research on
fisheries has generally been characterized by various developments of the popu-
lation dynamic model which, for many years excluded interspecific competition
between species as well as the role of the environment in controlling the abso-
lute abundance of various fish species (e.g., Baranov 1918, Schaefer 1954,
Beverton and Holt 1957, Ricker 1958). As Larkin (1978) has commented, the
application of population dynamic models has often been so specific in terms
of a particular fishery as to be of little scientific value in obtaining a general
understanding of how a particular species of fish was sustained as a predator in
the ocean.
Although fisheries science was dominated by developments of population dy-
namic models, there were occasional recognitions towards the need to under-
stand more about the ecology of the fish. Examples of these studies were Hjort's
(1926) work on larval fish followed many years later by a symposium on "The
Early Life History of Fish" (Blaxter 1974V In the area of interspecific compe-
tition there also exists an appreciable gap between a consideration of this prob-
lem by Graham (1935) and the sophisticated paper by Larkin (1963). Finally,
in Gulland's (1977) book on fish population dynamics, a recognition that fish
communities are driven by differences in ecosystems is given in a chapter by
Regier.
From this brief history of ideas as represented by various publications which
have appeared over a period of eighty years it is apparent that there has devel-
oped, and still exists, a partial vacuum in marine ecology concerning processes
governing the top predators, how they compete among themselves and how
they are affected by their environments. From terrestrial ecology it is well
documented that the success of the most abundant predators depends on a source
of energy at some lower trophic level. This is as true for Arctic lynx as it is for
1 It is noticeable in a temporal sense that in this modern text Hjort's work is quoted on the
first page of the first paper-how many other scientific texts in different disciplines still
quote the findings of a scientist which were made more than 50 years ago, are still popular,
and yet are still lacking in substantiation?
548 T. R. Parsons
African lions on the SerrengettL The most noticeable difference, however, be-
tween top terrestrial predators and top marine predators (such as the commer-
cial fish and excluding the marine mammals) lies in the fact that terrestrial
predators are generally K-selected strategists while fish are generally r-selected
strategists. Thus fish tend to lay large numbers of eggs from which a few animals
survive the rigors of the environment to become adults. On the other hand ter-
restrial carnivores have few young which are generally well protected, in spite of
the environment. Since the former are much more dependent on their environ-
ment for survival it would seem important to emphasize environmental studies
in connection with fisheries as was advocated much earlier at the time many
marine biological stations and organizations were created (Le., prior to 1900).
For the biological oceanographer the question is not only what makes a com-
mercial species of fish so biologically successful, but what, in a practical sense,
is the effect of removing 60 million tons of fish per year on the total ecology of
the sea? Ironically millions of dollars of research funding has been given to the
study of marine pollution in the absence of any appreciable evidence that a
single major fishery of the world has, in fact, suffered from pollution of the
hydrosphere. In contrast, the effects of over-fishing are well documented 2 in
terms of catch and the partial elimination of species. However, the same effect
of over-fishing on total ecology of the sea remains unexamined, either by the
fisheries scientist or by the biological oceanographer.
Top predators of the sea are not limited to commercial fish stocks and the
study of non-commercial predators, such as the ctenophores and medusae, must
form an integral part of the study of predation in the ocean. In the latter studies
it is noticeable to fmd that the early biologist who used dip nets to study the
ecology of the sea (Hardy 1967)3 had an appreciation of the abundance of "jel-
lies" in the sea which disappeared when fast plankton tows became more fashion-
able and in which jellyfish collections were largely destroyed. Only recently
(Hamner et al. 1975) has the role of "jellies" as predators in the sea been reintro-
duced by direct observations using SCUBA divers.
2To quote from Larkin (1977), "It is therefore inevitable, in my view, that fishing has
eliminated some substocks, and this applies to herring, or cod, or ocean perch, as much as
to salmon or lake trout. Indeed I would argue that it is best to assume that it is true of all
species until it is demonstrated to be otherwise."
3Professor Hardy's account of dip netting is worth quoting (p. 113) "I now repeated the
performance of Sunday and rode again in the bo'sun's chair beneath the bows; this time I
road in triumph, fishing out treasure after treasure as they came floating towards me on
the very gentle undulating swell. An experience never to be forgotten."
References
Allen, D. E. 1976. The naturalist in Britain-a society history. David Allen,

London, pp. 123-132.
Atkins, W. R. G. 1923. The phosphate content of fish and salt waters in its re-
lationship to the growth of algal plankton. J. Mar. BioI. Assn., U.K., 13, 119-
150.
Baranov, F. I. 1918. On the question of the biological foundations offisheries.
Nauch. Iss. Ikhtiol. Inst. Izv., 1(1),81-128 (Translated from Russian by
I. F. C. Min. Agric. Fish., 1938).
Beverton, R. J. H. and Holt, S. J. 1957. On the dynamics of exploited fish popu-
lations. Min. Agric. Fish., Fish. Food (U.K.) Fish. Invest., Ser. 11,19,533 pp.
Blaxter, J. H. S. 1974. The early life history of fish. Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
764 pp.
Cushing, D. H. and Walsh, J. J. 1976. The ecology of the seas. Blackwell Sci.
Publ., Oxford, 467 pp.
Goode, G. B. 1884. The status of the U.S. Fish Commission in 1884. U. S.
Comm. Fish Fisheries, Commissioner's Rept., 1139-1180.
Graham, M. 1935. Modern theory of exploiting a fishery, and application to
North Sea trawling. J. Cons. Expl. Mer, 10,264-274.
Gulland, J. A. 1977. Fish population dynamics. J. Wiley and Sons, New York,
372 pp.
Hamner, W. M., Modin, P., Alldridge, A. L., Gilmer, R. W. and Hamner, P. P.
1975. Underwater observations of gelatinous zooplankton. Sampling prob-
lems, feeding biology and behaviour. Limnol. Oceanogr., 20, 907-917.
Hardy, A. 1967. Great waters. Collins, London, 542 pp.
Hart, T. J. 1934. Phytoplankton of the south-west Atlantic. Discovery Rept.,
8,1-217.
Harvey, H. W. 1957. The chemistry and fertility of sea waters. Cambridge Univ.
Press, 234 pp.
Hjort, J. 1926. Fluctuations in the year classes of important food fishes. J. Cons.
Expl. Mer, I, 5-38.
Johnstone, J. 1908. Conditions of life in the sea. Cambridge Univ. Press, 332 pp.
Kinne, O. 1978. Marine ecology, Vol. IV. Dynamics. Wiley-Interscience, New
York, 746 pp.
Larkin, P. A. 1963. Interspecific competition and exploitation. J. Fish. Res. Bd.
Canada, 20, 647-678.
Larkin, P. A. 1977. An epitaph for the concept of maximum sustained yield.
Trans. American Fish. Soc., 106, 1-111.
Larkin, P. A. 1978. Fisheries management-an essay for ecologists. Ann. Rev.
Ecol. Syst., 9, 57-73.
Lebour, M. V. 1925. The dinoflagellates of northern seas. Publ. Mar. BioI.
Assoc., Plymouth, 250 pp.
McHugh, J. L. 1968. The biologist's place in the fishing industry. Bioscience,
18,935-939.
Murray, J. and Hjort, J. 1912. The depths of the ocean. Macmillan and Co.,
London, 821 pp.
Prince, E. E. 190 I. Marine Biological Station of Canada. Contrib. Can. BioI. Sup-
pI. 32nd Ann. Rept., 1-8.
Prince, E. E. 1907. Prefatory note. Further contributions to Canadian biology,
39th Ann. Rept. Dep. Mar. Fish., Fish. Branch, Ottawa, iii-iv.
Ricker, W. E. 1958. Handbook of computations for biological statistics of fish
populations. Bull. Fish. Res. Bd. Can., 119.300 pp.
550 T. R. Parsons
Riley, G. A. 1946. Factors controlling phytoplankton on George's Bank. J. Mar.
Res., 6, 54-73.
Riley, G. A. 1963. Theory of food-chain relations in the ocean, pp. 438-455.
In: The Sea, M. N. Hill (ed.), Publ. Interscience, New York.
Roedel, P. M. 1972. Research and the fisheries services second 100 years. Fish.
Bull., 70, 537-539.
Ryther,1. H. 1969. Photosynthesis and fish production in the sea. The produc-
tion of organic matter and its conversion to higher forms of life vary through-
out the world ocean. Science, 166,72-76.
Ruivo, M. 1972. Marine pollution of sea life. Pub 1. Fishing News (Books) Ltd.,
London, 624 pp.
Schaeffer, M. B. 1954. Some aspects of the dynamics of populations important
to the management of commercial marine fisheries. Inter. Am. Trop. Tuna
Comm. Bull., 1, 25-56.
Steele, J. H. 1962. Environmental control of photosynthesis in the sea. Limnol.
Oceanogr., 7,137-150.
Sverdrup, H. U., Johnson, M. W. and Fleming, R. H. 1942. The oceans: their
physics, chemistry and general biology. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs,
N.J., 1087 pp.
Physical Oceanography in India: An Historical Sketch
Sucharit Markanday and P.S. Srivastava
1 Introduction
Anthropologists and archaeologists agree that the beginning of civilization in

India was around 4000 B.C. in the northwestern and central areas. Not much is
known about the early period, but it is generally believed that by early in the
3rd millenium B.C. this civilization had developed a primitive village culture.
Then, in a still unexplained great advance, these people developed one of the
world's earliest civilizations.
Until recently little work has been done to collect and collate information on
the contributions of the ancient Indians in the field of oceanography; this is be-
cause scientists are generally not familiar with the original sources, while classical
scholars pass by the most valuable work as of no literary merit. In this article a
survey has been made of the contribution by Indians to physical oceanography
from the Harappan times (about 3000 B.C.) to 1947. The study has been classi-
fied into seven historical periods, viz.: Indo-Aryan (3000-600 B.C.), Jain and
Buddhist (600-325 B.C.), Mauryan and Kushan (322 B.C.-320 A.D.), Gupta and
Harsha (320-650 A.D.), Rajput (650-1200 A.D.), Muslim (1200-1757 A.D.), and
British (1757-1947 A.D.). It may be noted here that certain events, not specifi-
cally oceanographic, have also been discussed to project a comprehensive picture
of the intellectual thinking of the ancient Indians.
552 S. Markanday and P. S. Srivastava
2 The Indo-Aryan Period (about 3000-600 B.C.)
The Indo-Aryan period can be broadly classified into Harappan and Vedic peri-
ods. The scientific knowledge of this period as related to oceanography is dis-
cussed below.
Harappan Period (about 3000 B.C.-1500 B.C.)
The Harappan economy was agriculture-based, hence there was the need to ob-
serve the seasons. It is believed that the Harappans had a lunar calendar of 29.5
days . A similar contrivance for a yearly calendar may also have been made
(Sankalia 1978).
The Archaeological Survey of India did a detailed survey of the Ghagger
(Saraswati) Valley in the Kathiawar Peninsula from 1953 to 1962 . The ancient
town of the Harappans at Lothal (Fig. la), situated at the head of the Gulf of
Cambay, was one of the important fmdings of this survey. Among other archaeo-
logical fmdings in the Lothal town is a large brick inland dock with wharfs and
jetties (Fig. 1b). The tidal range at the head off the Gulf of Cambay is about
INDUS
CIVILIZATION 8 • y
""Uk HOVwtcc
ht.U .... ...,... . . , 0'
u.u., "'O\IIIOCI
iOIoI' ..... "O\IOiCII a I .. C .. L
Figure 1a. The extent to which the Harappan civilization had spread, and the
important places of the Indo-Aryan period (after Rao 1973).
Physical Oceanography in India: An Historical Sketch 553
6 m. Hence, to effectively operate the dock it was essential for the Harappans to
have a good knowledge of the tides in the area. A close study of the Lothal dock
reveals that the Harappan ocean-engineers had also solved the problems of de silt-
ing in the dock and the maintenance of a constant water level in the channel
(Rao 1956-1957, 1970, 1973). Three perforated stone anchors and a Persian
Gulf seal have been found at Lothal.
An Indus type of seal found in Mesopotamia has been dated from 2950-
2220 B.C. (Wheeler 1964). Indian teak has been found in the Babylonian remains
of the 3rd millenium (Sircar 1967). The above finds give positive evidence that
trade with west Asian ports had been well established in the Bronze Age. The
outstanding feature of the wind system over the Arabian Sea is a seasonal re-
versal of its direction, associated with the northeast and southwest monsoon
seasons. Without the knowledge of these changing winds the Harappan vessels
could not have made their voyages; thus the Harappan sailors must have had at
least a conceptual knowledge of the monsoon winds.
Trade at Lothal seems to have declined around 1500 B.C., followed by the
decline (or migration) of the Harappan civilization.
Vedic Period (1500 B.C.-600 B.C.)
The end of Harappan civilization caused much turmoil in the Indian sub-conti-
nent, and until 600 B.C. little archaeological evidence of maritime activity is
available. However, a survey of the Hindu epics has been made to gather infor-
mation on maritime activity during the Vedic period. Prabasa (Somnath), the
place of Hindu holy rites in the epic Mahabharata, has been identified as a Vedic
port on the Kathiawar coast. Mula-Dwarka, an estuarine port in the village of
Figure 1b. An artist's concept of the Lothal dock (after Rao 1973).
Kanjetar, is Dwarka of Mahabharata. Other important ports of the Vedic period
are Sopara and Colliena, located near Bombay, and Sudam-puri, situated on the
southwest coast of Saurashtra.
Trade between India and Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible. It says that
Solomon's (1015 B.C.) ships brought goods from Ophir (or Sophir). Certain
words used in the Hebrew text of the Book of Kings and Chronicles of the Old
Testament are of Tamil origin. The above facts suggest that there had been trade
with Jerusalem during the Vedic period.
Vedic astronomy was of an advanced order. The Jotishavedanga or Vedang-
jotisa is the first Indian astronomical treatise. It is attributed to Lagadha (about
7th century B.C.) and describes the principles of the calendar and Vedic cos-
mology. The year had 366 days, divided into three seasons. This treatise had a
great impact on Buddhist and Jain astronomy (Filliozat 1963).
Aryans compiled the four Vedas around 1500 B.C.-1000 B.C. The Brahmanas
are commentaries on the subject matter of the Vedas, and are dated about 1000
B.C.-700 B.C. The Satapatha Brahmana suggests that the cause of water motion
in the sea is wind. This fact is corroborated by modern physical oceanography.
3 Jain and Buddhist (600 B.C.-325 B.C.)
Jain
Suriya-Pannatti (understanding the sun) and Chandra-Pannatti (understanding

the moon) are two important astronomical texts of the Jains.
Two chapters of the book Vrhatksetrasamasa have been designated Lavana
Adhikara and Kalodahi Adhikara. In the former chapter the Lavana Ocean is
discussed, including its dimensions, abysses, tidal action, islands and the depths
of water. In the same manner the latter discusses the Kalodahi Ocean (Tripathi
1969, Dube 1967).
The book Jivajivabhi-gawa describes inner and outer coasts, tidal areas and
geographic description of tides. Avasyakacurni and Brihatkallpasutrabhasya are
full of references to sea voyages. In these books nautical language is used for
words like push, moving forward and backward, etc. Mention is also made of
oars and rudders (Tripathi 1969).
Buddhist
The Pali literature of the Buddhists gives references to ocean trade and navi-
gation. The Jatakas, stories relating to the earlier birth of Buddha, refer to sea
voyages and trade with west Asia (Kingdom of Bavern, identified as Babylon).
Samudra Vanika Jataka refers to tides. Surparaka Jataka provides information
about a developed stage of maritime activity (Cowell 1973). The science of
marine navigation is given a specific nomenclature. The concept of gravity is
also mentioned.
Arya Sura's Jatakamala gives evidence of the knowledge of oceanography
during the Buddhist period and describes a maritime code. It tells the story of
Suparanga, a clever navigator, who withstood the fury of a cyclonic storm and
kept the ship afloat by keeping the sides firm by reinforcement with stones and
sand. Similar techniques are used in the present day to avoid heavy rolling during
rough seas. The navigation of those days with the help of astronomy, flora and
fauna, color of the sea, birds, rocks, etc., has been discussed by Speyer (1971).
The red water phenomenon off the west coast of India is also described. Arya
Sura in addition distinguished between waves and currents.
In the Nidesa the ocean is divided into three horizontal layers. It also men-
tions that the movement of the surface layer is due to wind, and that land-locked
seas are not turbulent. Mahanidesa reports that ships from Tamralipli and Palura
(near Gopalpur in Orissa) used to call at Sadaj Gumpe and Takkola on their way
to southeast Asian ports. Hamsavati (identified as Pegu) in southern Burma is
mentioned (Tripathi 1969).
Menader or Milinda (in Pali) was the enlightened Greek King who ruled north-
west India about 200 B.C. Milindapanho is a book in the form of questions and
answers between King Milinda and an Indian intellectual, Nagesna. Questions
regarding the qualities of a ship navigator, anchor, mast, seamanship, pilot, etc.,
are answered by Nagesna. While discussing the qualities of a pilot, Nagesna also
describes the navigating apparatus, identified by Rhys-Davids (1963) as a mag-
netic compass.
Ashoka (302 B.C.-232 B.C.) maintained trade and cultural relations with the
southern kingdom (Sri Lanka) and the western kingdoms (Antiochus II, King of
Syria; Ptolemy II, King of Egypt; Magas, King of Cyrene in North Africa,
Antogonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia; Alexander, King of Epirus). The facts
mentioned in the Buddhist texts have often been corroborated by Greek writers.
Herodotus (middle of the 5th century B.C.) refers to a number of Indian products
in Greek markets. From the above facts it appears that the Indians of the Bud-
dhist period had a good knowledge of ocean navigation.
4 Mauryan and Kushan Period (322 B.C.-320 A.D.)
The Mauryan period reflects a significant development in Indian history since

events can be dated with some precision. Panini, the Sanskrit grammarian of the
4th century B.C., in his Ashtadhyayi, refers to navigable ocean and two kinds of
islands. The epic Ramayana (600 B.C.-200 B.C.) describes the concept of waves,
the relation of tide with the moon, and the influence of the ocean on climate.
The phenomena of red tides are also mentioned.
Kautilya's Arthashastra furnishes valuable information on administration of
ports and navy. It also lists rules and regulations of navigation. The Puranas
(500 B.C.-700 A.D.) likewise give information about the oceans. The concept of
seven continents and the causes of tides are discussed (Tripathi 1969, Singh
1972). Strabo, Arrian, Pliny, Ptolemy, and the author of Periplus give evidence
of the maritime activity of the Indians. It seems that the Indians established
colonies in west Asia, and it is believed that an Indian colony in the region of
the upper Euphrates River west of Lake Van was established as early as the 2nd
century B.C. Socotra Island (Sukhatara Davipa in Sanskrit) was also colonized.
In the Periplus the name of the sea goddess of Gujarat, Sikotari-mata, is
mentioned. A number of Indian ports are also cited in Periplus: Hastabra (Hatab
on the Kathiawar coast); Colliena (Kalyana); Mandager (Mandad); Pala,eputmae
(pal) near Bombay. Muziris (Fig. 1c) near Cranganore, in South Canara, is also
referred to in Periplus; this site has been excavated and the evidence fOU11d shows
that it was in operation during the 1st to 2nd century A.D. (Ramachandran
1970, Rao 1970).
Though Greek writers mention ports on the eastern coast of India, evidence
from the Tamil literature, viz. Chilappathikaram seems to be more accurate. It
describes the ports of Poompohar (Kaveripattinam in Tamil Nadu); Po duke or
Paduca (Arikamedu near Pondicherry); and Kaimapara (Konark in Orissa). Exca-
vations at Kaveripattinam have exposed a brick jetty dateable to 300 B.C. Exca-
vations conducted at Paduca have identified a warehouse of the 1st century A.D.;
Paduca was a Roman trade-treaty port, and Roman pottery of the 1st century
A.D. has been unearthed there (Ramachandran 1970, Rao 1970). At Dhanya-
katka near Amaravati in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, an embarkment with wharf
and a navigational channel, with rouletted ware, dated as about 200 B.C., have
been discovered. At Tamlik or Tamralipti on the mouth of the Ganga, an estu-
arine port dating from the 2nd to 3rd century A.D. has been unearthed (Rama-
chandran 1970, Rao 1970). The tidal bore in the river Ganga and its tributaries
is an important oceanographic feature in the area; navigators for the above peri-
od must have had knowledge of these tidal bores, otherwise they would not have
been able to operate their boats.
INDIAN OCEAN
Figure 1c. Ancient sea routes connecting India with the Arabian and south-east
Asian countries (after Ramachandran 1970).
Literature on ship building is lacking in the earlier Indian writings. The only
book that discusses ship building is Yuktikalpatara, written by Bhoja, King of
Dhara (4th century A.D.). Details on the type of wood to be used, dimensions
of ships, decorations, furnishings, mast size, cabin size, etc., are presented, includ-
ing a list of a few selected metals to be used for construction. The use of iron
nails for joining the bottom planks was prohibited because it was supposed that
they would be attracted by magnetic reefs, exposing ships to danger; the con-
cept of n'agnetic reefs was widespread up to the 14th century A.D. (Gopal1970,
Ramacha,ldran 1970).
There are five important Hindu astronomical books known as Siddhantas.
Surya Siddhanta is the oldest (about the 6th century B.C.). According to Al-Biruni
it was written by Lata. The book is divided into 14 chapters (Table 1). Accord-
ing to Surya Siddhanta the earth is a sphere. Five planets and their ascending and
descending modes are mentioned, noting that planets do not describe perfect
circles, but move in epicycles (Filliozat 1963). The Paitamaha Siddhanta (second
half of the 1st century A.D.) provides a method of locating moving celestial
bodies relative to a fixed point and expresses angular distances in degrees and
minutes. It uses the 12 rasi (zodiac) signs dividing the sky into 12 parts, each of
30°, thus giving a precise method for the determination of angular distance
(Filliozat 1963). The Pau/isa Siddhanta also includes methods for calculating the
exact length of a day and predicting eclipses. Vasistha Siddhanta gives a method
for determining the exact length of the day, a rough means for predicting
eclipses, a method of locating moving celestial bodies by fixed points of refer-
ence and expressing angular distances in degrees and minutes (Filliozat 1963).
The Romaka Siddhanta (sometime between the 2nd and the 6th centuries
A.D.) gives a lunar-solar cycle and a method for evaluating the length of the year,
which agrees with the techniques of Ptolemy and Hipparchos. Romaka Siddhanta
Table 1. Chapters of Surya Siddhanta

Chapter no. Subject of discussion
1 Measurement of time
2 Sine tables*
3 Meridians, cardinal points, equinoxes and solstices
4&5 Eclipses of moon and sun
6 Graphical projection of eclipses
7 Planetary motions
8 Inclination of the nakshatras (constellations) to
the eliptic
9 Helical rising and setting of stars
10 Relative motions of sun and moon
11 Evil conjunctions
12 Cosmography
13 Elementary astronomical instruments
14 Computations of the calendar
*Earliest known sine tables

is more accurate than Paitamaha Siddhanta. Romaka Siddhanta also gives 150
tables of equations of anomaly (Filliozat 1963). Pancha Siddhanta, written by
Varahamihira, summarizes the concepts of earlier Siddhantas. In addition it
describes the conjunctions and motions of celestial bodies and various meteoro-
logical phenomena (Filliozat 1963).
5 Gupta and Harsha Period (320 A.D.-650 A.D.)
The Gupta period (320 A.DA76 A.D.) is known as the golden age of Indian
history. Indian science and arts reached their creative peaks.
Aryabhatiya, a comprehensive astronomical text written by Aryabhata (late
5th or early 6th century A.D.), introduced the principles of epicycles and the
rotation of the earth (Filliozat 1963). Brahmasphuta Siddhanta and Khandak-
hadyaka (6th or early 7th century A.D.) written by Brahmagupta, describe the
mean and true planetary motions and conjunctions of planets (Filliozat 1963).
Mahabhaskariya (7th century A.D.), written by Bhaskara I, records the longi-
tudes of planets, and their connection with time, place and directions.
6 Rajput Period (650 A.D.-1200 A.D.)
This period of history has been well documented. Dhanapala's Tilakamajari gives
a good account of the ships and shipping industry of the period. It tells about
the regulations of sails and masts, types of anchors', naval expeditions, and the
importance of astronomical knowledge for navigation (Gopal 1970, Ramachan-
dran 1970).
The Tamil book,Permapanarrupadai, mentions important naval battles of the
period. Raja Raja in 983 A.D. led successful expeditions against Sri Lanka.
Rajendra conquered Kadarma (Kedah of the Malay Peninsula) (Gopal 1970). It
may be pointed out here that in those days naval victory was closely associated
with a knowledge of wind and waves, and that there is every likelihood that
Indians of those days had a good knowledge of these oceanographic parameters.
The navigation of Indian ships was facilitated by the presence of the compass,
which had .been discovered by ancient Indians.
An important treatise on astronomy and mathematics, Siromani Siddhanta,
was compiled by Bhaskar II. This deals with arithmetic, algebra, motion of
planets, etc.
7 Muslim Period (1200 A.D.-1757 A.D.)
During this period Indian astronomers and mathematicians came in close contact
with their counterparts from Arabia and China. Jacques Devitry, in his book
History of Jerusalem (1218 A.D.), mentions the use of compass by ancient Indi-
an navigators. Abu Hanifa Dainuri, the Arab pilot (12th century A.D.), included
12 of the 16 types of winds in his work on nautical science from the Jain book
Avasyakacurni (Ral 1970). Din Ahmed Ibra Majid, an Arab navigator, prepared
a map of the Indian Ocean based on ancient literature; this map is presented in
his book Mohit (1554 A.D.), and he also discusses monsoon winds. Dampier, the
17th century buccaneer, published a detailed chart of winds over the Indian
Ocean; he also mentioned the cyclonic storms in the Indian seas.
Europeans started coming to India by the end of the 15th century A.D. How-
ever, the Indians retained their supremacy in the seas around India until the mid-
18th century A.D. The Russian voyager, Afaniasing Nikitia, came to India in
1469 A.D. on an Indian ship. A good description of the Indian shipping activities
of the Muslim period was presented by Marco Polo, who visited India in the 13th
century A.D.
8 British Period (1757 A.D.-1947 A.D.)
The late Muslim and early British periods are the history of battles for naval
supremacy among the various European nations that came to India for trade.
During this period the Indian sub-continent was in great turmoil. It was only
after the British established themselves in India that they contributed significant-
ly to the knowledge of physical oceanography. The Madras Meteorological Ob-
servatory was established in 1792. James Copper published the first climatologi-
cal atlas on the winds and cyclones in the Indian seas in 1801, based on the re-
ports of the ships plying the Indian Ocean. The tidal observations in the Hooghly
(at Calcutta) were started in 1767 (Wadia 1938).
The establishment of the Trigonometrical Survey and Pratt's work, with other
evidence from Bongner and Maryrertuis, led to the theory of isostasy (Chapin
1952, Glass 1955,Pratt 1855, Wadia 1938).
The hydrographic surveys in the Indian coastal areas were begun in 1832 by
the Indian Navy. The marine survey department of the Indian Navy was estab-
lished in 1874, and RIMS Investigator I was commissioned in 1881. In 1908
Investigator I was replaced by Investigator II (Rao 1938). The systematic col-
lection of physical oceanographic data started after Sewell took over as Surgeon-
Naturalist (Sewell 1925, 1929, 1952). Raman (1921, 1922) made some of the
earliest observations on the optical properties of the sea. Some work was also
done on coastal dynamics and harbor engineering during the last quarter of the
19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century (Ash 1938). The various
oceanographic ships which passed through the Indian Ocean also contributed to
the knowledge of physical oceanography.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mr. K. Satyanarayana, editor, Indian Journal of Marine

Sciences, and Dr. A. K. Malhotra, Manager of Projects, E. I. L., for their keen
interest and valuable suggestions.
References
Ash, W. C. 1935. Progress of engineering in India during the past twenty-five

years. In: The progress of science in India during the past twenty-five years.
B. Prasad (ed.), The Indian Science Congress Assn., Calcutta, 457-574.
Chapin, S. L. 1952. Expeditions of the French Academy of Sciences, 1735.
Navigation, 3,120-122.
Cowell, E. B. 1973. The Jataka. E. B. Cowell (ed.), Cosmo Publications, Delhi,
1-6.
Dube, B. 1967. Geographical concepts in ancient India. The National Geogra-
phical Society of India, Research Publication, B. H. U. Press, Varanasi.
Filliozat, J. 1963. Ancient Indian science. In: A general history of sciences
(ancient and medieval science). R. Taton (ed.), A. J. Pomerans (tr.), Thames
and Hudson, London, 133-160.
Glass, H. B. 1955. Maupertuis, a forgotten genius. Sci. Amer., 193, 100-110.
Gopal, L. 1970. Indian shipping in early medieval period. In: India's contri-
bution to the thought and culture, Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee,
Madras, 10S-122.
Pratt, J. H. IS55. On the attraction of the Himalaya Mountains, and of the ele-
vated regions beyond them, upon the plumbline in India. Phil. Trans., 145,
53-100.
Ramachandran, K. S. 1970. Ancient Indian maritime ventures. In: India's con-
tribution to the thought and culture. Vivekananda Rock Memorial Commit-
tee, Madras, 71-S 2.
Raman, C. V. 1921. The colour of the sea. Nature, lOS, 367.
Raman, C. V. 1922. On the molecular scattering of light in water and colour of
the sea. Proc. Roy. Soc., London, A, 101, 64-S0.
Rao, H. S. 1935. Progress of zoology in India during the past twenty-five years.
In: The progress of science in India during the past twenty-five years. B.
Prasad (ed.), The Indian Science Congress Assn., Calcutta, 353-433.
Rao, S. R. 1956-57. The excavations at Lothal. Lalit Kala, New Delhi, 83-89.
Rao, S. R. 1970. Shipping in ancient India. In: India's contribution to thought
and culture. Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee, Madras, S3-107.
Rao, S. R. 1973. Lothal and Indus civilization. Asia Publishing House, Bombay,
New Delhi, London, New York.
Rhys-Davids, T. W. 1963. The questions of King Milinde, Part II. Dover Publi-
cations, New York.
Sankalia, H. D. 1975. Reading the mind of the Harappans. Sci. Today, 12(12),
2S-35.
Sewell, R. B. S. 1925. Geographic and oceanographic research in Indian waters.
Mem. Roy. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 9(2), 27-50.
Sewell, R. B. S. Geographic and oceanographic research in Indian waters, V. The
temperature and salinity of surface waters of Bay of Bengal and Andaman
Sea, with reference to Laccadive Sea. Mem. Roy. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 9(5 &
6),207.
Sewell, R. B. S. 1952. Deep sea oceanographic explorations in Indian waters. J.
Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 50, 705-717.
Singh, M. R. 1972. Geographical data in the Early Puranas: a critical study.
Punthi Press, Calcutta.
Sircar, D. C. 1967. Cosmography and geography in early Indian literature (Sir
William Meyer Endowment Lectures in History, 1965-66, University of
Madras), D. Chattopadhaya, Calcutta.
Speyer, J. S. 1971. The Jataka Mala of Arya Sura. Banarsidas, Delhi, Patna,
Varanasi.
Tripathi, M. P. 1969. Development of geographic knowledge in ancient India.
Bharatiya Vidya Parakashan, Varanasi.
Wadia, D. N. 1938. Progress of geology and geography in India during the past
twenty-five years. In: The progress of science in India during the past twenty-
five years. B. Prasad (ed.), The Indian Science Congress Assn., Calcutta,
86-132.
Wheeler, R. E. M. 1964. The Indus civilization, supplement to the Cambridge
History of India. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Switzerland's Contributions to the Aquatic Sciences
over the Centuries
Hermann Heberlein
1 Introduction
At this Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography it is appro-

priate to recall the contributions of Swiss origin regarding investigations of the
oceans and inland waters. This is especially true because Columbus O'Donnell
Iselin (1904-1971), twice Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
was a descendant of an old Basel family (Iselin 1927). Furthermore, Max Blumer
(1923-1977), organic geochemist especially well known for his work on oil spills
in the vicinity of Woods Hole (Anon 1977), was born and educated in Basel.
The origins of aquatic investigation in Switzerland lead back to the Middle
Ages. For example, there are color prints of flippers contained in the vademecum
of town-fortification planning, the Handbuch zur Stadtebefestigung of the con-
vent of Rheinau (about 1430), now in the Central Library in Zurich (Fig. 1).
Most probably the flippers were used for crossing rivers or citadel-trenches, for
the original commentary reads: "Wilt uber Wasser gan, leg dy schuch an" (if
thee will cross the water, put thy shoes on). A little later H. Wblfli (1470), pre-
bendary at the cathedral in Berne, on his journey to Jerusalem, described and
drew "fishes flying over 100 paces."
2 16th-17th Centuries
G. Mangold (approx. 1498-1576) wrote a book on fishes of the Lake of Con-

stance. C. Gessner (1516-1565) devoted many of his works to life in the sea,
having derived his information both from books and correspondence with men
of science and from his own experiences. His famous "marine" work, Historia
Animalium Libri 1111, was published by Froschauer in Zurich in 1558. J. Duvil-
Switzerland's Contributions to the Aquatic Sciences over the Centuries 563
Figure 1. About 1430. Handbook town-
fortifications (Rheinau). Flippers for cross-
ing rivers and castle-moats.
--
lard's (1532-1610) lengthy Carte du Leman contains 19 carefully drawn and de-
scribed species of fishes and freshwater crabs. Matthaus Merian (1593-1650) is
well known for his town engravings on copperplate in which he included several
sea organisms.
3 18th Century
Many physicians were also natural or physical scientists, as was the case with
Karl Nikolaus Lang (1670-1741) from Lucerne. Besides his medical work he col-
lected fossils, and he is considered the founder of palaeontology in Switzerland.
As a physician he pointed to the supposed medical efficacy of fossils, which he
called Figurensteine (Fig. 2), and to the teeth of sharks he assigned the power to
heal poisoning, smallpox, pestilence and fever. J. J. Scheuchzer (1672-1733),
from Zurich, was much concerned with water, the life in it and with marine fos-
sils in many of his works and famous maps. Two great wooden panels (2.6 x
1.5 m) in Zurich's town hall show paintings of fishes from the Lake of Zurich
and the Limmat River by J. Melchior Fussli (1677-1736) (Fig. 3). S. Hogger
(1680-1737) from St. Gall designed merchant ships and warships for King Carl
XII of Sweden, and on long cruises studied the sea and was the author of the
treatise De Fluxu et Refiuxu Maris. Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1771), a physic an
and physical scientist from Basel, published an important work on hydrody-
namics. "The Origin and Real Cause of Tide and Flood on the Sea" was the title
of C. Binninger's book (Breslau 1761). A. v. Haller (1708-1777), from Berne,
travelled extensively as a boy and became a physician; he is well known for his
botanical work and his poems and drawings of the waters and the frightening
sea. Horace Benedict de Saussure (1740-1799), from Geneva and known for
564 H, Heberlein
,,
j \)nPl'.1 '111,11" ,'" , Figure 2, Lang, K, N, "Figurestones," Am-
'''\'1 J}UIIIH
monite shells breed godlike dreams (Egypt),
Figure 3, Fussli, 1. M, Panel

of town hall, Zurich (fishes of
the Lake of Zurich and the
river Limmat),
climbing Mont-Blanc (1786), was the inventor of the hair-hygrometer and special
thermometers with which he explored the bottom of ten Swiss lakes and took
measurements down to 1,800 feet in the sea, Johann Waber (1751-1793) grew
up in London and Berne, In England he was called John Webber, and as a painter
with a biological degree he accompanied Captain James Cook on his third expe-
dition (1776-1780), He drew and painted the life of the visited primitive races
and the material collected from the sea; he is best known for his portrait of
Captain Cook and the scene of his death on Hawaii.
4 19th Century
J. K. Horner (1774-1834) from Geneva made exact measurements in the mouth

of the river Elbe and wrote the proceedings for Otto von Kotzebue. Another
Geneva citizen was G. H. (General) Dufour (1787-1875). During the Separatist
War (1847) he was appointed high commander of the Swiss army, and his map
of Switzerland (1: 100,000), where he was of course confronted with waters, is
still valid. He is less known as a builder of such bridges as the Grand Quai and
lIe J. J. Rousseau in Geneva. He left manuscripts on shipbuilding and Sur la
Marine des Anciens. L. T. Frederic Colladon (1792-1862) was probably the first
man who descended in a diving-bell to a depth of 30 feet in an attempt at marine
exploration in 1820 off Howth near Dublin. He stayed down one hour and ob-
served and measured the bottom and currents, sea animals, color of the water,
etc. Being a physician, he was interested in the nourishment of divers inside the
diving-bell, who were supplied with bread and brandy "in order to regain soonest
their strength." A relative, J. Daniel Colladon (1802-1893) experimented with
underwater sound near Montreux in 1826. He and J. C. F. Sturm hung a 125-kg
bell in the water and measured the sound speed at 1,437 m/sec. despite the fact
that Colladon was practically deaf! One of the most famous Swiss marine scien-
tists, especially in the U.S.A., was Louis Agassiz (1807-1873). At the age of
twenty-five while still in Neuchatel he had already begun his five volumes on
fossil fishes and two volumes on freshwater fishes. In 1846 he went to the United
States and became a professor at Harvard University. In the year of his death he
founded the marine-biological station, the Anderson School for Natural History.
His is the remark, "I cannot afford to waste my time by earning money." influ-
enced by Agassiz, A. H. Guyot (1808-1884) left Neuchatel for the U.S.A., where
he became the co-founder and first director of the Meteorological Office of the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Godefroy Lunel (1814-1891) came to
Geneva as a zoological preparator and became director of the New Museum; his
Histoire Naturelle des Poissons du Bassin du Leman with beautiful drawings was
published with his son, Alphonse, in 1874. A. v. Marlot (1820-1867), a geologist
from Berne, was one of the first to explore Lake Geneva archaeologically; assisted
by the archaeologist F. Troyon from Lausanne and F. Forel, on 22 May 1854,
near Morges, he used a self-constructed diving helmet, a tube and a pneumatic
pump (Fig.4). J. W. F. Coaz (1822-1918) is the author of more than one hundred
papers on the formation of lakes, flooding, the characteristic seaballs of Lake
Sils and the local fishery. J. J. Wild (1828-1900), son of the respected engineer
Jean-Jacques, studied in Zurich, Berne and Leipzig and went to England as a pro-
fessor of languages. C. Wyville Thomson invited him to take part in the Chal-
lenger Expedition (1872-1876) as an artist; a number of his drawings and paint-
ings are included in the official Challenger Reports. He was also the author of
Thalassa (1877). Louis Agassiz brought his son, Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910),
to the United States where he studied at Harvard University and became devoted
to the marine sciences. He went on expeditions aboard the Blake and the Alba-
tross and published many scientific works. The Scripps Institution of Oceanogra-
566 H. Heberlein
Figure 4. Morlot, A. Underwater archaeology. Lake dwelling in the Lake of

Geneva (1854 near Morges).
phy gave his name to its first research vessel (1907-1917) as well as to a second
ship (1962-1976). O. Heer of Zurich published "The primeval world of Switzer-
land" (Die Urwelt der Schweiz, 1865) with special attention to the coral islands
of the Jurassic sea. F. Alphonse Forel (18.41-1912), the founder of limnology,
wrote three volumes, Lac Leman, which are still cited in the U.S.S.R. as the
"cookery book of oceanography." Forel considered Lake Geneva a biological
entity that had to be explored in every detail from its surface to its bottom,
induding not only its biology but also such phenomena as seiches. Conrad
Zschokke (1842-1918) from Aarau was an engineer who learned about a foun-
dation system that could be used under water at considerable depth and is given
credit for the design of hydro-electric plants, wet-docks and dry-docks in St.
Malo , La Rochelle, Cherbourg, Bordeaux, Marseille, Dieppe, Livorno, Genoa,
Venice, Cadiz, Penang, and other places. H. Fol (1845-1892), who took his
medical degree in Geneva and Jena, participated in several marine expeditions
and worked at the laboratories of Messina, Villefranche and Nice with E. Sara-
sin (1843-1917); he was lost with the yacht Amphiaster somewhere in the
Mediterranean without leaving a trace. A textile manufacturer from Winterthur,
C. Weber-Sulzer (1845-1915) put together a valuable coral collection of some
600 fossil and 640 recent specimens, most of them on exhibit at the Municipal
Scientific Collections of Winterthur. E. Yung (1854-1918), a natural scientist
with a professorial chair in Geneva, was the author of more than 100 scientific
works; he was in contact with the marine stations at Roscoff, Banyuls-sur-Mer,
Villefranche, Concarneau, Bergen and especially Naples, and was among the
first to submerge with a "scaphander" in the Gulf of Naples and to urge (1880)
marine scientists to make use of diving. Arnold Lang (1855-1914), from Aargau,
was a student of geology and zoology in Jena were he met Ernst Haeckel. He
worked at the Naples station for seven years and then returned to Haeckel who
was then laboring over the Radiolaria material of the Challenger Expedition.
Subsequently he lectured for 25 years at the University of ZUrich and became
director of the Zoological Museum. He was the co-founder (1878) of a "working-
table" that is still reserved for Swiss investigators at the Zoological Station at
Naples. E. Penard (1855-1954) from Geneva gave up a career in banking when he
heard about Forel's work and devoted himself to the study of plankton. He was
the author of more than 85 scientific papers and several novels for the young,
which brought him the nickname of the "Jules Verne of Geneva." The geobotan-
ist C. Schroter (1855-1939), academic lecturer at Zurich, advanced our know-
ledge of lakes by his own and his students' investigations. Friedrich Zschokke
(1860-1936), from Aarau, became a professor at the University of Basel, and was
much interested in local hydrobiology besides working at the station at Naples.
5 20th Century
The phYSician, E. Guglielminetti (1862-1943) from Valais devoted much of his

life to marine medicine and the rescue of crews from sunken submarines. He
studied aquatic physiology with the use of respirators in collaboration with
Driigerwerke in Lubeck, and he participated actively in the erection of the
marine-medical Institute of Toulon. Most important for Lucerne and its region
was H. Bachmann (1886-1940), a professor of natural history who took his
students on excursions to the fens and to the Mediterranean which he knew
from visits at the Zoological Station at Naples. He is responsible for the estab-
lishment of a limnological laboratory (1916), which has recently been expanded
and modernized, at Kastanienbaum near Lucerne (Fig. 5), and he was also
curator of the "Naturalien-Kabinett," today's Museum of Nature in Lucerne.
G. Huber-Pestalozzi (1877 -1966), a typical private scholar of the times, practiced
both medicine and limnology; he was highly regarded by specialists, and his
scientific publications appeared in periodicals and books both in Switzerland and
abroad. O. H. Ammann (1879-1965), the bridge builder from Feuerthalen/
Schaffhausen, was well known in the United States as an engineer who was con-
fronted with the problems of underwater construction in planning the Lincoln
Tunnel beneath the Hudson River, New York (Fig. 6).
The most famous Swiss deep-sea pioneer is certainly Auguste Piccard (1884-
1962). Together with his twin brother, Jean, he studied physics and mathematics
at Zurich. While still a student, he became fascinated by deep-diving, especially
after he had read Chun's report on the Valdiva Expedition (1898-1899). He be-
came aware of the fact that deep-sea fishes taken in plankton nets were often
mutilated to the extent that they were of little scientific value, and he hoped to
build a deep-sea vessel in which man could submerge to the bottom of the sea
and investigate the unknown life in its natural environment. At this time the
University of Brussels offered the young imaginative graduate from Zurich a pro-
fessorial chair, and Piccard became involved with radioactivity, magnetism, the
theory of relativity, seismology, etc. In this period also he began, with E. Stahel,
his first balloon ascents and the exploration of the stratosphere; the "flying pro-
fessor" (with his compatriot Kipfer) eventually reached an altitude of 16,940 m
568 H. Heberlein
Figure 5. Bachmann, H. Founded
the Hydrologic Laboratorium Kas-
tanienbaum (1916-1938).
Figure 6. O. H. Ammann, bridge

building with underwater pier,
Lincoln Tunnel, beneath the Hud-
son River near New York.
in 1932. Only after his return to Switzerland and the end of hostilities, was he
able to undertake his fIrst submerging experiment with an unmanned vessel in
1948, near Dakar, down to 1,380 m. With great determination and in cooperation
with the Italians, Piccard then set about designing the submarine Trieste. In
1953, with his son Jacques, he descended to 3,150 m in the Mediterranean, and
subsequently to 3,700 m. In 1960, with the slightly modifled Trieste, Jacques
Piccard and Lt. Walsh, in cooperation with the U. S. Navy, descended in the
Mariana Trench to the deepest point of the sea bottom hitherto attained,
10,916 m. Auguste Piccard, who stored numbers and dates only in his brain and
rarely left written plans and formulas, was certainly one of the great savants of
this century; his mind ranged over physics, mathematics, the theory of relativity,
atomics, chemistry, biology, engineering and law with equal ease.
6 Appendix
I conclude with a list of other Swiss who were concerned with aquatic sciences.
A. Herport (1641-1730): pearlfishinginEastIndia. A. J. G. Marcet (1770-1822):
measurements in the Dead Sea, the River Jordan and in different oceans. H. R.
Schinz (1777-1861): fish book. J. A. Favre (1815-1890): local waters, turbidi-
ty currents Lake of Geneva. K. Vogt (1817-1895): Professor of zoology with
great marine-limnological influence in Geneva. E. Claparede (1832-1871):
marine publications and contacts with Naples. C. Keller: published (1882-1895)
books on marine zoological dispersal through the Suez Canal. E. O. Imhof (1855-
1936): explored the sea (Naples, Trieste) and mountain lakes. J. Heuscher
(1858-1912): studied freshwater plankton, fish diseases and the transparency of
water. Hans Schinz (1858-1940): fens, algal flora and the seaballs in Lake Sils.
O. Fuhrmann (1871-1945): aquaculture and fish diseases. Th. Stingelin (1872-
1932): specialized in freshwater plankton, as did the hydrobiologist from
Basel, C. Burckhardt-Siegin (1874-1946). E. Argand (1879-1940): continental
drift. A. Naef (1883-1949): author of a monograph on fossil cuttle-fish. P.
Steinman (1885-1975): wrote on the "Fishes of Switzerland." J. G. Baer
(1902-1975): started studying medicine and turned to marine problems. H.
Manger (1916-1960): explored the Lago Maggiore, the river Melezza and the
lakes of Sempach and Engadine in the 1940s with self-designed diving equip-
ment.
References
The names in parenthesis ( ... ) are not those of the author but the personage's
described by the author of the book or paper cited.
(Agassiz, A.) 1912. Ritter, W. M. The Marine Biological Station of San Diego:
its history, present conditions, achievements, and aims. Univ. California
Pu blications in Zoology, vol. 9, no. 4.
(Agassiz, L.) 1939. Fueter, E. Grosse Schweizer Forscher. Atlantis, Zurich.
(Ammann, O. H.) 1979. Technorama Publikation 2. Winterthur.
(Bachmann, H.) 1940. Huber-Pestalozzi, G. Sonder-Abdruck aus dem Archiv
fiir Hydrobiologie, Bd. XXXVII. Zurich.
(Baer, J. G.) 1975. Extrait du Bulletin de la Societe Neuchateloise des Sciences
Naturelles. Imprimerie Centrale. Neuchatel.
Bernoulli, D. 1738. Hydrodynamik oder Kommentare iiber die Krafte und
Bewegungen der Fliissigkeiten. Dulsecker, J. R. Strassburg.
(Blumer, M.) 1977. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Annual Report
1976.
Burckhardt, G. 1900. Faunistische und systematische Studien iiber das Zoo-
plankton der grosseren Seen der Schweiz und ihrer Grenzgebiete. W. Kiindig.
Geneve.
Coaz, J. 1884. Mittheilung tiber Seeballe. Mitteilungen der naturforschenden
Gesellschaft Bern.
(Colladon, J. D.) 1893. Mallet, M. A. Extrait des Memoires de la Societe des
Ingenieurs Civils de France. Paris.
570 H. He berIein
Colladon, L. T. F. 1826. Relation d'une Descente, en Mer, dans 1a Cloche des
P10ngeurs. Lagier, J. Paris.
(Dufour, G. H.) 1979. Hauri, H. H. and T. F. Peters. The development of sus-
pension bridge construction from the earliest attempts to the beginnings
of wire cable bridges. Convention & Exposition. Boston.
Duvillard, J. 1588. Carte du Leman. Publiee par P. L. Bader, Geneve.
(Eberle, E. W.) 1977. Foundation Pro Helvetia. Swiss in American life. Muller,
Werder. Zurich.
(Fatio, V.) 1906. Yung, E. Extrait des Archives des Sciences physiques et natu-
relIes. Geneve.
(Favre, J. A.) 1890. Rive, L. de 1a. Schweiz. Naturforschende Gellschaft. Davos.
(Fo1, H.) 1965. La transparence de l'eau et Hermann Fol. No. 59, Museees de
Geneve.
(Fore1, F. A.) 1962. Ambuh1, H. Der Bergrunder der Limno10gie. Separatab-
druck aus der Neuen Zucher Zeitung. Zurich.
(Fuhrmann, 0.) 1945. Biographie. Schweiz. Naturforschende Gesellschaft.
Freiburg.
(Fussli, J. M.) 1939. Escher, K. Die Kunstdenkmaler des Kantons Zurich. Birk-
hauser. Basel.
(Gallatin, A.) 1977. Foundation Pro Helvetia. Swiss in American life. Muller,
Werder. Zurich.
Gessner, C. 1558. Historia animalium libri 1111. qui est de piscium & aquatilium
animantium natura. Forschauer, Zurich.
(Guglielminetti, E.) 1944. Kiimpfen, W. Docteur Goudron, Erfinder der Strassen-
teerung, Forscher, Arzt, Diplomat und Weltenbummler zugleich. Artemis.
Zurich.
(Guyot, A. H.) 1977. Foundation Pro Helvetia. Swiss in American Life. Miiller,
Werder. Zurich.
Haller, A. von. 1969. Versuch schweizerischer Gedichte. Neu-ver-legt bei Herbert
Lang, Bern.
Heer, O. 1865. Die Urwelt der Schweiz. F. Schulthess. Zurich.
Herport, A. 1669. Eine kurtze Ost-Indianische Reiss-Beschreibung. G. Sonn1eit-
nero Bern.
Heuscher, J. 1903. Untersuchungen uber die bio1ogischen und Fischereiverh"a1t-
nisse des K1onta1ersees. E. Zwing1i. Pfliffikon.
(Hogger, S.) 1754. Leu, H. J. Allgemeines Helvetisches, Eydgenossisches oder
Schweitzerisches Lexicon. Zurich.
Huber-Pesta10zzi, G. 1961. Das Phytoplankton des Susswassers. Systematik und
Bio10gie, Teil 5. E. Schweizerbart. Stuttgart.
Imhof, O. E. 1892. Ueber das Leben und die Lebensverhaltnisse zugefrorener
Seen. H. R. SauerIander. Aarau.
Iselin, C. O'D. 1927. The log of the Schooner Chance. Privately printed at the
Gilliss Press, New York.
(Jaag, 0.) 1970. HorIer, A. Sonderdruck aus "gwf" Wasser/ Abwasser III. Jahr-
gang, Heft 4. ETH, Zurich.
Keller, C. 1882. Die Fauna im Suez-Kanal und die Diffusion der mediterranen
und erythraischen Thierwelt. H. Georg. Basel, Geneve und Lyon.
(Lang, A.) 1916. Dem Andenken des Freundes und Lehrers gewidmet. Gustev
Fischer. Jena.
Lang, B. F. M. 1748. Historia, Vitae, Fatorum, et Obitus Caroli Nicolai Langii.
Particu1ae X Musei He1vetici Quod Turici editur inserta.
(Lang, K. N.) Bachmann, H. Biographie. Brunner & Hauser. Zurich.
Lune1, G. 1874. Histoire naturelle des poissons du bassin du Leman. H. Georg.
Geneve.
Manger, M. und H. Mislin. 1944. Unterwasseruntersuchungen uber den Gehorsinn
der Fische. Schweiz. Naturforschende Gesellschaft.
Mangolt, G. 1952? u. 1557. Fischbuch. Von der Natur und Eygen-Sils-schafft
der Vischen, insonderheit deren so gefangen wed end im Bodensee. Item wie
man Visch und Vogel fahen solI. Zurich.
(Marcet, A. J. G.) Dubois, G. Naturalistes Neuchatelois du XXe siec1e. Editions
de la Baconnil~re. Neuchatel.
(Merian, M.) 1972. Wiithrich, L. H. Das Druckgraphische Werk von Matthaeus
Merian d. Ae. Barenreiter. Basel.
(Morlot, A. v.) 1979. Martin-Kilcher, S. Ferdinand Keller und die Entdeckung
der Pfah1bauten. Grauwiller. Liestal.
Naef, A. 1922. Die Fossilen Tintenfische. Eine Palaozoologische Monographie.
Gustav Fischer. Jena.
Penard, E. 1916. L'Atoll. Roman d'Aventures pour 1a Jeunesse. Ed. Atar.
Gen'eve.
Piccard, A. 1957. Cesar, C1eoptre et Einstein. E. Jenger. Burgdorf.
Piccard, A. und E. Stickelberger. ca. 1955. Das grosse Sterben unserer Alpen-
pflanzen. Lapfe-Benz. Rorschach.
(Saussure, H. B.) 1939. Fueter, E. Grosse Schweizer Forscher. Atlantis, Zurich.
(Semmes, R.) 1977. Foundation Pro Helvetia. Swiss in American life. Muller,
Werder. Zurich.
(Scheuchzer, J. J.) 1933. Steiger, R Verzeichnis des wissenschaftlichen Nach-
lasses von Johann Jakob Scheuchzer. Gebr. Fretz. Ziirich.
(Schinz, H.) 1941. Peyer, B. Biographie. Ueberreicht vom Kuratorium der
Georges und Antoine C1araz-Schenkung. Basel.
Schinz, H. R. 1836. Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der Fischer. Brodtmann.
Schaffhausen.
(Schrater, C.) 1939. Huber-Pestalozzi, G. Prof. Carl Schrater und seine Bezie-
hungen zur Seenkunde. E. Schweizer bart. Stuttgart.
Steinmann, P. 1936. Die Fische der Schweiz mit 45 Tafe1n. Sauerlander. Aarau.
(Wilber, J.) 1955 und 1956. Henking, K. H. Die Siidsee- und Alaska-sammlung
Johann Waber. Beschreibender Kata10g. Sonderdruck aus dem Jahrbuch des
Bernischen Historischen Museums in Bern.
(Weber-Sulzer, C.) 1964. Schaeppi, H. und H. Rutz. Die Korallensammlung
Dr. h. c. Carl Weber-Sulzer in den naturwissenschaftlichen Sammlungen der
Stadt Winterthur. Naturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft. Winterthur.
(Werdmiiller, J. R) ca. 1972. Pesta10zzi, A. Auf den Spuren von General Johann
Rudolf Werdmuller in der Aegais 1664-1667. Kommissionsverlag Berichthaus.
Zurich.
Wild, J. J. 1878. At Anchor. A narrative of experiences afloat and ashore dur-
ing the voyage of H.M.S. "Challenger" from 1872 to 1876. M. Ward. London.
(Walfli, H.) 1929. Bloesch, H. Reise nach Jerusalem IS 20/152l. Veraffentlichung
der Schweizer Bibliophilen Gesellschaft. Bern.
Yung, E. 1880. La station zoologique de Naples. Archs. Sci. Phys. Nat. 4.
(Zschokke, C.) 1939. Fueter, E. Grosse Schweizer Forscher. Atlantis. Zurich.
Zschokke, F. 1895. Die Fauna hochgelegener Gebirgsseen. Separatabdruck aus
den Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Basel.
Traditional Chinese Ichthyology and Its Encounter with
Jesuit Science: An Historical Survey
Elleanor H. Crown
To employ the word "ichthyology" for the material under consideration in this
study requires at least an explanation. The Chinese wordyu, normally translated
'fish," is no more scientifically descriptive than its English counterpart. This is
true in modern as well as traditional terms. For example, in a study of the fish
terminology of a certain group of Hong Kong boat people, the following defi-
nition of the corresponding Cantonese word it was made: "'fish.' Free-swim-
ming, shell-less aquatic animals, and some other aquatic forms. Includes sea mam-
mals, cephalopods, and the abalone as well as 'true' fish" (Anderson, p. 83).
Many fish names are binomes, the second element of which is yit. Its presence
or absence is of little importance except in those cases in which the first element
is not a fish name, for example, ch'ing-yu (the black carp) consists of the ele-
ments ch'ing (dark) and yit (fish). Ch'ing alone would not identify a fish. Other-
wise, it is redundant and, at least in written texts, can be used or dropped at will.
Both Ii-yu (carp-fish) and Ii (carp) are freely used. This is comparable to the rela-
tively free choice in English of either "hammerhead" or "hammerhead shark."
The texts discussed in this study are greatly varied in both time and style and
follow no consistent pattern of organization. Indeed, some eschew organization
altogether. We must assume that the animals included in a book about yu to
have been considered yu by the author, but in other cases, we are dealing with
material that is presented with no such identifiable heading. We are sometimes
aided by the inclusion of yu in a name but can in no way exclude varieties which
are named in other ways. In the broadest sense, yu includes almost any freely
moving animal which lives in or near the water and is capable of swimming, and
some others. For the purposes of this paper, "ichthyology" will be used, when no
other term suffices, to indicate the study of yu, hereafter referred to as "fish."
Traditional Chinese Ichthyology and Its Encounter with Jesuit Science 573
Perhaps the earliest motivation for fish classification was mythological. The
importance of water in the history of China has been more than adequately docu-
mented. With approximately 7000 miles of coastline, rivers that could spell
bounty or disaster and lakes and streams which furnished food both for the belly
and the poetic inspiration, it is not surprising that a wealth of mythological
material was spawned about the denizens of the wet world. The celestial dragon
himself has his roots in the water and it was the dragon king to whom one made
supplication for water control. As with any body of mythological material, the
stirrings of embryonic science, at least the science of observation, can be seen.
One of the best known Chinese "bestiaries," the "Classic of Mountains and
Waters," which existed as a unified text by the third century B.C., contains a
substantial number of aquatic creatures some of which are obviously the
products of both observation and imagination. The number of winged fish, for
example, leave little doubt that actual flying fish were not unknown, at least by
hearsay, to the creators of the work.
The book was subsequently illustrated with woodcuts which may have super-
seded the text itself in popularity and since they were created from the names
and descriptions alone and not from observation of natural specimens, they may
have clouded the possibility that the original text contained any accurate infor-
mation. Imagine, for example, that someone who had seldom seen a fish except
on his dinner plate were given the following description and asked to draw a
picture from it: A parrot fish has the head and beak of a parrot, marvelous
coloration and flies through the water eating coral reefs.
We find in this work a striking parallel to certain early Western scientific
writings. Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) wrote, in the introduction to the section
on aquatic animals of his "Natural History," that one finds in the sea a counter-
part to everything on earth. The "Classic of Mountains and Waters" offers a wide
variety of transformed land creatures - aquatic pigs, fowl, tigers, humanoids,
etc. It is only natural that early classificatory attempts would assign the charac-
teristics of better known terrestrial animals to the less observable species of the
underwater world.
From antiquity, an understanding of fish was enhanced by the practical
pursuit of aquaculture, a very old science in China, which developed along with
other agrarian activities as early as four thousand years ago. (For a brief history
of Chinese aquaculture, see Ling.) The first species to be cultivated was Cyprinus
carpio, the common carp. It is obvious from such fish-breeding texts as Fan Li's
Yang-yii Shu (ca. 500 B.C., translated by Ted S. Y. Koo in Ling) that much was
known about the mating, environmental requirements, habits and diet of this
fish. Although the information is often couched in mythological rhetoric, it is
quite scientifically sound. The author described a proper pond for the raising of
carp which was a microcosm of the world as it was known to contemporary
Chinese cosmology. He stressed the need for aquatic vegetation, an undisturbed
environment and adult male and female specimens to achieve spawning. The lat-
ter requirement may seem obvious to the modern reader, however the spontane-
ous generation of fish from decaying bottom vegetation was a persistent myth in
574 E. H. Crown
early China. In order to keep the mature fish from "flying away" the pond was
to be protected by "heavenly guardians," turtles, which contributed by thinning
out the stock. The author was aware that the carp is not cannibalistic and that it
is both easy and inexpensive to raise thus making it a perfect candidate for aqua-
culture. In addition, the carp has a very long history as the preferred meat fish in
China, although this taste may have been partly conditioned by the fact that
carp were easily bred and therefore available.
Beginning as early as the seventh century A.D. other species of fish were cul-
tured and systems of polyculture were developed. Fish were, and continue to be,
raised in harmony with aquatic botanical crops.
One case in point which illustrates the lengths to which fish breeding prospered
and turned effete in China is the fancy goldfish. Before the eighteenth century,
goldfish were bred to eliminate dorsal fins, to exaggerate caudal fins, to show
bizarre coloration and markings and to produce such grotesque oddities as the
celestial with its bulging eyes gazing forever upward. Even today, such specimens
can be viewed and purchased in Chungshan Park in Peking where their care and
breeding is supervised by a woman who claims she can tell a good fish from a
bad one when it's hardly out of the egg.
Another Significant impetus for the investigation of fish was its use as a medici-
nal source. One cannot, however, separate medicine and diet in traditional Chi-
nese terms; they were both part of what kept the body in balance with nature and
sustained and restored good health. Fish were recognized as an important dietary
staple both for their good taste and their nutritive value. Li Shih-chen's (1518-
1593) Pen-ts'ao Kang Mu, an exhaustive pharmacopoeia based on earlier sources
(many of which are unpreserved elsewhere) as well as the author's personal obser-
vations and analysis, gives detailed information on types of fish and fish products.
Organization of the text is quite advanced and includes for each variety (and
sometimes for certain body parts of the fish in question-scales, skin, organs,
oil, etc.) all or some of the following information: etymology of the name and
alternate nomenclature, distribution, seasonality, contrasts and comparisons
with other varieties, mythology, flavor and food type (hot or cold, wet or dry,
etc. These elements were to be kept in balance in a proper diet. Such knowledge
could be used to alleviate physiological problems characterized by an imbalance),
important medicinal uses, traditional medicinal uses and additional medicinal
uses. The text listed 31 scaled fish, 28 scaleless fish and 9 additional topics which
include a few fish and certain fish products.
Another element which contributed to the compilation of ichthyological data
was the Chinese penchant for tour-de-force cataloguing which can be seen not
only in scientific texts but in literary works as well. The fu, prose-poetry of the
Han dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.), for example, is replete with lists of biological
phenomena. In 1544, Yang Shen's Yi-yii T'u-tsan ("Illustrated Remarkable
Fishes") was compiled. Although the title of this book would lead one to expect
not only text but also pictures, I find no evidence that the work was ever in fact
illustrated. However, the only edition I have seen is a microfIlm of a partially
damaged copy from the Peking University Rare Book Collection. This edition
contains 105 entries and since they correspond directly to those in the Yi-yu
T'u-tsan Chien (discussed below), I believe the edition to be at least textually
complete. For each entry, most of which are individual fish names, there were
composed one or two short poems which give a bit of information, factual or
mythological or both, about the fish in question. A 1630 work, Yi-yu T'u-tsan
Chien ("Comments on Illustrated Remarkable Fishes") by Hu Shih-an expands
this text to include not only the verses but also a vast commentary drawn from
many sources, often designed to present documentation for the poetic material.
Although this book postdates by a few years one of the Jesuit writings which
will be discussed later, there is no evidence that Hu Shih-an was aware of its
existence.
The organization of this work in no way rivals that of Li Shih-chen's Pen-ts'ao
Kang Mu. No categories were established for the presentation of material although
classical sources are quoted in more or less chronological order. It is an attempt
to exhaust contemporary knowledge of fishes by presenting as many references
as possible. This kind of tour-de-force scholarship demonstrated the compiler's
acquaintance with vast numbers of texts but there is no indication that he him-
self made any conclusions based on observation of natural specimens or analysis
of the material he gathered. Nevertheless, the work is of great value as a topical
reference tool in this field.
There are 105 entries which include fishes, aquatic mammals, reptiles, crus-
taceans, cephalopods and a requisite number of imaginary creatures drawn from
works such as the "Classic of Mountains and Waters." A few entries include
more than one type of fish which are grouped together for comparison or con-
trast. References are drawn from dictionaries, philosophical texts, poetry,
histories and local gazetteers, pharmacopoeias, works on agriculture, fish breed-
ing and fishing, records of strange phenomena, travelogues and others.
The preceding works do not exhaust but do characterize the state of Chinese
ichthyological science through the early seventeen century. A substantial num-
ber of fish and other aquatic animals had been identified and named. Regional
and temporal differences in nomenclature had been analyzed. Although no
systematic attempt had been made in the area of taxonomy, similarities and dif-
ferences among species had been observed and noted. These include physical
characteristics such as size, shape, fin types, coloration and patterning as well as
distribution, food type and medicinal use. Preservation and preparation of fish
as a foodstuff had reached a high degree of sophistication. Many uses other than
food had been found for fish products, such as octopus ink for writing and shark
skin for decorating weapons. The domestication of fish for food and pleasure
had produced considerable information not only on the habits and environmen-
tal needs of various species but also on breeding techniques.
There was little differentiation between science and myth. A few great scien-
tists like Li Shih-chen recognized the importance of firsthand observation but
the majority of compilations such as Yi-yu T'u-tsan Chien collected available
data from all sources and reported it with no attempt to make judgments about
the scientific quality of the material in question. The mythology concerning any
576 E. H. Crown
fish was obviously as important as the observable details, perhaps more important
Sometimes myth and science cooperated; for example, a magical numerology
designated that a dragon was endowed with 81 (Le., 9 x 9) scales. The carp, being
the lord of fishes and having the power to transform itself into a dragon and fly
away when it achieved an advanced age, was assigned 36 (Le., 6 x 6) scales. This
is a close approximation to the lateral line scale count on carp specimens.
There are many parallels that can be drawn between the state of the art in
ichthyology in China and the West at that time. Both traditions are characterized
by works more concerned with pharmacology or myth-theology than with classi-
fication. Both are indelibly imprinted by the labors of a few great scientists, men
who avidly consumed information and produced in kind, usually making contri-
butions in many fields of scientific endeavor. Both contained a relatively free
intermingling of material drawn from mythology, literature, folk tradition and
hearsay as well as from the observation of natural specimens.
A further similarity which will be significant to the remainder of this study is
that both China and Europe were caught up by the spectacle of the fantastic and
with the lure of distant, and therefore exotic, places and their attendant strange
wildlife. Fishes that transformed themselves into terrestrial or airborne creatures
were much more interesting than those that remained waterbound. Aquatic ani-
mals who devoured unsuspecting seamen and entire vessels often attracted more
attention than those who were content with a diet of plankton. Fishes that
could only be seen by travelling great distances or reported from the hearsay evi-
dence of travelers inspired the imagination of some more than the familiar
specimens in their own pools, ponds, rivers and bordering seas.
When these two traditions met, the results were destined to be interesting.
The Jesuits arrived in China in the sixteenth century bringing with them their
culture which they assumed superior, their sophisticated scholarship, their
unquestioned religion and a lot of traditional nonsense. Their toehold on the
mainland of China was accomplished primarily by the persistence of Matteo
Ricci (1552-1610) who on the one hand would not take "no" for an answer and
on the other possessed and gave willingly of his knowledge in fields that interested
the Chinese court. Ricci's world map, prepared in 1584, brought to the Chinese
their first glimpse of the actual arrangement and shapes of continents and bodies
of water over the surface of the earth and showed them for the first time the
physical relationship between China and the rest of the world. Realizing the
Sinocentricity of the people of the Middle Kingdom, Ricci cleverly moved China
to the central area of his map, but he did not alter its relative size or orientation.
He had his critics, some of whom complained that the map was not to be trusted
since it included unreliable and fantastic descriptions. (For several comments on
Ricci's map by contemporary Chinese, see Ch'en.)
Nevertheless, the map was much more success than failure, coming as it did at
a time when China was beginning to develop considerable interest in Western
countries. Ricci's map provided significant contributions to geographic knowledge
-the use of meridians and their computation in the field, translation of geogra-
phic terms into Chinese (many of which have remained unchanged to the pres-
ent), the concept of the sphericity of the earth, its unity and the size and shape
of its land and water masses. These and other geographic data were unknown to
China before that time. In addition to the map per se, Ricci ftl.led the "empty"
spaces with comments about the peoples, fauna, flora, climate, etc., of the
various regions.
In spite of detractors' comments that the map contained elements of the fabu-
lous and mysterious, Ricci's comments are remarkably sound. True, he perpetu-
ated a number of myths, for example, that snakes and insects introduced into
England lose their poisonous capabilities. He also presented a few charming
whimsies such as the Country of Dwarfs where the people are a foot tall, give
birth at the age of five, are old at eight and are often carried off by cranes. Ken-
neth Ch'en argues that his descriptions of areas bordering China are in part bor-
rowed from Chinese sources. These include creatures with human bodies and
oxen feet and capricious cannibalistic humanoids with their mouths in their
necks. At least Ricci cannot be blamed for the origination of all the fabulous
elements in his world map. Basically, Ricci's map is surprisingly free from the
exploitation of the fantastic considering the fact that he was dealing with the
entire world little of which he had seen and most of which had a legacy of exotic
lore which must have been known to Ricci. Had Ricci known that the Chinese
had a passion for the bizarre that probably exceeded that of his own culture, he
might have included more, but, if Ricci exercised restraint in this area, his suc-
cessors did not, and the Chinese were not to be kept in ignorance for long.
In order to expand upon the geographical material available in Ricci's map,
two Jesuits, Pantoja and Alenyi, completed a world geography in Chinese which
was printed in 1621 and is usually attributed to Alenyi alone. This work, Chih-
fang Wai-chi, consists of five fascicles, one on Asia, one on Europe, one on
Africa, one on the Americas and a fifth devoted to the seas of the world. One
section of the latter is titled "Sea Life," and it is in that section that the material
relevant to this study is found.
Alenyi lists 25 kinds of marine life. Among them are fish, aquatic and semi-
aquatic mammals, aquatic birds, aquatic "beasts," reptiles, aquatic humanoids,
and cephalopods. Most were given names transliterated or translated from their
Latin names. The significant aspect of this naming process is that it reveals the
Jesuit writers whose Sinological skills were adequate for the composition of ac-
ceptable Chinese prose made little attempt to learn anything about Chinese sea
life, to study the vocabulary of natural science or to identify the animals they
transported from Europe with comparable Asian animals.
In the identification of Alenyi's creatures, we are sometimes guided by the il-
lustrated work K'un-yu T'u-shuo which postdates Chih-fang Wai-chi by approxi-
mately fifty years. Its author, Ferdinand Verbiest, copied almost verbatim from
Alenyi in the body of this text but in his section of illustrations he gives addition-
al facts as well as pictures which aids both in identification of the animal and
identification of the source of information about the animal.
The rationale behind Alenyi's choice of aquatic wildlife is somewhat unclear.
After an introduction echoing Pliny's precept that all things on earth have their
counterparts in the sea, Alenyi comments that there are many newly discovered
fish, and indeed, he lived in an age when zoological data from the Americas and
578 E. H. Crown
from Scandinavia and Russia were just becoming known to the Western Europe-
ans. His expressed purpose was to pass on knowledge of these new species.
Nevertheless, he apparently could not resist the temptation to pass along some
of the more spectacular among those fish known since antiquity.
Some of Alenyi's creatures were, in fact, relatively new, at least to Western
European readership. In 1555, Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) produced his Historia
de Gentibus Septentrionalibus which was published with woodcut illustrations in
both Latin and Swedish. As well as presenting information about the material
culture of Northern Europe, this book is replete with the sea lore of Scandinavia
and contains the first printed and illustrated account of the sea serpent, a gigan-
tic worm-like creature capable of trapping large vessels in its coils and devouring
them along with their crews and cargo. Either Alenyi did not believe Olaus Mag-
nus' account of this monster or did not consider it spectacular enough to include
in his limited chronicle. Still, many of his aquatic animals derive, probably direct-
ly, from Olaus Magnus' work.
The whale, of course, was not unknown in Europe, but the varieties of whales
and whale behavior presented by Olaus Magnus offered a spectacle of aquatic hor-
ror previously undocumented in European scholarship. In addition to the general
term balena, he gave special descriptive names to some of these monsters, for ex-
ample, Physeter, the blower. All whale-derived animals, whether they resemble
dragons, tusked boars or actual whales were depicted with dual smoke-stack
blowholes which appear in the illustrations of whales in Europe for many years.
Alenyi introduced to China the pa-Ie-ya, a transliteration of balena. This ani-
mal was described as an immense fish with two water spouting cavities in its
head. On sighting a boat, the balena would raise its head and pour water into the
vessel, swamping it. Alenyi's comments on "whale control" come directly from
Olaus Magnus. When a whale was sighted, the crew would toss casks of wine into
the water which would be devoured by the whale causing its demise. Alenyi
also reported the capture of whales in shallow water and the extraction of oil
from their carcasses.
Verbiest's illustration of the balena, although it does not come directly from
Olaus Magnus' woodcuts, is obviously derivative from them and became the
standard Chinese picture of the balena later copied into such works as the eigh-
teenth century illustrated encyclopedia, Ku-chin T'u-shu Chi-ch 'eng.
It is somewhat surprising that neither Alenyi, Verbiest nor the Chinese made
the rather obvious connection between the balena and the ching-yu (whale)
which was certainly known in China. The identification may have been pre-
vented by the contrast between the woodcut supplied by Verbiest and the tradi-
tional Chinese picture of the whale which endowed it with scales, fins, a graceful
fish tail and a dragon head, contrasting with the fleshly, big-mouthed, double-
spouted balena.
In Alenyi's geography, there are a number of sea "beasts" which correspond
to various of Olaus Magnus' whales. One is described as a huge creature taken by
sailors to be an island upon which they would anchor, go ashore, cook their
dinner and depart. Only after they saw their island sink behind them did they
know that they had anchored and dined on a living creature. The Chinese were
not supplied with a picture of this animal but Magnus' history contains a wood-
cut of a ship anchored at the head of a ferocious double-spouted whale, the crew
sitting happily on its back cooking their dinner in a kettle over a campfire.
Alenyi brought to China the dolphin, "benevolent fish," which was said to
rescue drowning swimmers and one of which was reported to have committed
suicide after accidentally wounding to death a child it was rescuing. Historians
of classical science will recognize echoes from Pliny the Elder and many other
sources in these stories. He also speaks of the sawfish which could cut through
the hulls of vessels and was the mortal enemy of balena. The sawfish is no
stranger to modern China, being among the sacred fish of southern Chinese boat
people (Anderson, p. 98), but it seems to have been unknown to seventeenth
century ichthyology.
The octopus appears in Alenyi's list noted for its ability to change colors.
The Chinese were not without their own octopus lore. Indeed, the octopus oc-
cupies a number of pages in Yi-yu T'u-tsan Chien. It was, according to one
legend, the transformation of a pen pouch dropped overboard which turned into
an animal retaining the shape of the pouch and the ink supply in its belly. It is
called the "raven thief' because of its reputed ability to float on the water and
lure unsuspecting ravens to believe it a piece of food. When they swoop down
for a bite, the octopus wraps them in its tentacles and carries them beneath the
surface of the sea. Octopus meat was considered both tasty and nutritious. How-
ever, the characteristic of color transformation seems to have escaped the
Chinese, and, again, Alenyi's creature was not recognized as the same animal.
One of the most interesting creatures brought to China by Alenyi was the fish
he called la-wa-er-to, ellegado, the Nile crocodile. He identified it as a king of
e-yu, the Chinese saltwater saurian which as late as 1912 invaded the mouths of
southern Chinese rivers and is a probable prototype for the dragon. Alenyi's
knowledge of the term e-yu is of interest because it is the only beast in his aquatic
bestiary with which he associates any Chinese term and because Chinese saurians
were so little known in the West that it was not until 1869 that the Chinese alli-
gator was finally documented for Western science by Swinhoe.
It is in his description of the crocodile that Alenyi best reveals himself as a
traditional scholar. It came part and parcel, not from any accounts of "newly
discovered" species, but straight from the pages of Pliny the Elder and other
archaic sources. Almost every existent crocodile legend was repeated by Alenyi,
its reputation for having the largest ratio of grown size to birth size of any ani-
mal, its ferocity, its appetite for humans and animals, the misconception that in
contrast to all other animals the crocodile has a hinged upper rather than lower
jaw, Pliny's assumption that the crocodile has no tongue, etc.
The major enemies of the crocodile were said to be the ichneumon and the
dolphin. The clever ichneumon, probably the Egyptian mongoose, was praised
by Pliny for its ability to kill both the crocodile and the asp. Alenyi or someone
before him confused the two stories and Chih-fang Wai-chi states that the ichneu-
mon coats itself with mud before battling the asp, presumably to protect it from
the venomous bite. Once inside the saurian, all accounts agree that the ichneu-
mon gnaws out the stomach and viscera and emerges through the belly wall of
580 E. H. Crown
the dead crocodile. The dolphin was believed capable of stabbing crocodiles in
their soft underbelly, a probable confusion with the shark.
Had all of this material gone unnoticed by Chinese readers, it would have
been of no importance, but this was not to be the case. Alenyi's book was found
by a Chinese writer who was interested in the unusual. This author, Lu Tz'u-yiin
(fl. 1662-1683), produced several works on interesting places, mountain folk
songs and other similar topics as well as a "translated history" in which he bor-
rowed from the first four fascicles of Alenyi's book. In addition, he wrote a
chronicle of the sea, Yi-shih Chi-yu. This work begins with a list of East seas and
West seas, some of which are given minimal descriptions-location, tidal con-
ditions, currents, etc. The body of the text, however, is devoted to "strange
creatures," and it is obvious that his interest lay in that area.
Lu admits (or rather brags) that he took one-fourth of his material from Chih-
fang Wai-chi. Depending on how you count, his percentage is quite accurate. If
all dragons and all rhinos are counted as one each, there are 64 animals in Lu's
text. Among his 64, he included 13 of the 25 animals from Chih-fang Wai-chi.
He also described 12 kinds of precious and semi-precious stones and metals.
Lu included the balena and the crocodile whose names he rendered pa-le-ya-
yu and la-wa-yu, respectively, thus insisting that they be tagged as "fish." From
his account of balena, he omitted the practical aspect of oil extraction but re-
tained the major portion of the description. He followed Alenyi in his account
of the crocodile but moved the ichneumon to the heading "sea rodents" which
also contained an animal whose hair it was said could be woven into fabric.
In addition Lu took from Alenyi two mer-persons, two "sea beasts" capable
of overturning vessels, the octopus, the dolphin, the sawfish, the walrus and the
pilot fish. He did not skip a single fish capable of great destruction but left out
some of the less colorful entries.
The alterations in language from Chih-fang Wai-chi to Yi-shih Chi-yu are con-
sistent and superficial. By this, I mean that minor variations exist in almost
every sentence and that with very few exceptions neither add nor subtract any-
thing of substance. My first impression was that Lu Tz'u-yiin was attempting to
improve upon the syntax of the "barbarian" Jesuits, and I believe this can be
substantiated in a few places. However, for the most part, we merely see Lu ex-
ercising the editorial license which has always been the right of the Chinese edi-
tor of texts, especially those which fell outside the domain of the hallowed clas-
sics. There is evidence for speculation that when Lu felt on unsure ground about
the actual nature of the animal he was describing, he left the text intact (or left
it out), but, when dealing with those things that seemed clear to him, he rear-
ranged and added touches of his own.
The most obvious alteration in the text is the elimination of all Christian
references. Lu was willing to accept the Jesuits' word as far as science was con-
cerned but certainly not willing to preface his sections with Alenyi's catch-
phrase, "When the creator ..." Most striking is the account of a woman from
the sea who the Jesuits claimed had the wit to prostrate herself before a crucifix.
Lu, with no compunction, substituted a Taoist deity figure. He was willing, how-
ever, to accept the fact that she had small red dorsal fins and skin that hung
down and covered her body like a robe.

Aside from his Western discoveries, Lu included dragons of all kinds. He went
into substantial detail about rhinos, their varieties and some of their legendary
history. There is but one "Classic of Mountains and Waters" fish in his collection
even though every one of them would have been appropriate. It is clear that Lu
was making no exhaustive attempt to cover all knowledge about fish, even exotic
fish, such as we see in other texts. He presents his reader with a delicatessen
rather than a supermarket, picking and choosing among the spicy morsels and
leaving the staples to be marketed by others. Certainly his selection of thirteen
of the fishes in Chih-fang Wai-chi indicates his opinion that these foreign imports
were among the tastiest tidbits in the world of fish fancies.
The significance of this wholesale inclusion of Western myth-natural history
in a Chinese work which purports to be historical is multifaceted. It demonstrates
that at least some Chinese had sufficient trust in Western science to accept with-
out reservation a rather improbable assortment of zoological species. The inclu-
sion of many of these animals in later encyclopedic works also supports such an
assumption. This material strengthens the documentation that the Chinese were
growing increasingly aware of and interested in every aspect of the world beyond
their boundaries.
There can be no doubt that Alenyi's and Verbiest's choices of the most bizarre
and spectacular zoological specimens from their own tradition increased the like-
lihood that they would arouse the interest of the Chinese. As far as their own
knowledge of European zoology is concerned, they appear unacquainted with the
most advanced efforts of their day. Alenyi shows no familiarity with the works
of Conrad Gesner, for example, and Verbiest appears to have borrowed only a
few illustrations from Gesner's extensive work. For the most part, Verbiest fol-
lowed Alenyi who relied on tradition-bound Jesuit sources. But, even from such
works as Pliny, the spectacular rather than the commonplace was chosen. The
Chinese, with their own penchant for the exotic, could not have been indifferent.
What this means to the scope of natural science history in China is a difficult
issue to resolve. I believe it can be safely said that the Jesuits contributed little
to the advancement of ichthyology in China. Although their skills in other
branches of science were quite advanced, their expertise in this field was limited
both by the state of the art in pre-Linnaean Europe and by their scholarly tra-
dition. They paid little, if any, attention to Chinese progress and achievements in
the field. They contributed a few animals names which remained for some time
as distinct foreign terms and increased the number of spectacular sea specimens
in the Chinese repertoire. It is particularly revealing that Lu Tz'u-yiin, the writer
who appears to have been most interested in Jesuit natural history, was a con-
noisseur of exotica not a scientist and pharmacologist like Li Shih-chen nor a
bibliophile such as Hu Shih-an. When the encyclopedic texts of the eighteenth
century were compiled, the balena, the Nile crocodile and others appear as
anachronistic as the multi-bodied, human-headed, chicken-footed fish of the
"Classic of Mountains and Waters," interesting because they had once been docu-
mented in a Chinese source, but worth little serious consideration as biological
specimens.
On the History of Arab Navigation
A.A. Aleem
1 Introduction
In ancient history, the Indian Ocean was known to the Egyptians, Greeks and
Romans. The first organized maritime expedition was that sent by Queen Hat-
chepsut of Egypt (1478 B.C.) to explore the southern Red Sea and Somali
Coast. Chronicles of this expedition were engraved on the walls of the queen's
temple in Egypt (Aleem 1972). For these ships, sailing north-south presented no
problem; sailors utilized stars and dead reckoning for direction.
The Indian Ocean features again in geography books such as Almagest of
Ptolemy written in the 2nd century B.C. Earlier, the astronomer Eratosthenes
(225 B.C.) of Cyrene (Aswan), Egypt measured the circumference of the earth
by measuring the difference in latitude between Alexandria and Aswan, knowing
the distance between the two cities and utilizing the position of the sun at noon
above each city in the summer solstice. In the 1st century A.D. an unknown
scholar, also from Alexandria, wrote the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (cf.,
Schoff 1912).
For centuries before Islam (before 622), Arab pilots from Oman, Yaman and
Hadramut in Southern Arabia circumnavigated the Indian Ocean which was then
known as the Great Sea or the Green Sea, or subnamed after bordering countries
or coasts such as the Sea of India, Sea of Lawry (Arabian Sea), Sea of Faris
(persian Gulf), Sea of Harkand (Bay of Bengal) or Sea of Zing (East African
Coast). Those Arabs traded with China, India, East Africa and the intervening
islands. A Chinese traveller by the name of Fa-Hian described in 414 A.D. the
luxurious homes of Arab merchants who lived in Ceylon.
Pre-Islamic Arabs had a good knowledge of the stars and their movements
On the History of Arab Navigation 583
relative to the mansions of the moon, of wind directions and seasons and of ocean
currents (Aleem 1967). AI-Sufi (10th century) described 250 stars in his book
("Images of the Planets") in their chaste Arabic names.
Islam spread qUickly from Arabia into the surrounding lands and in less than
two centuries (650-813) the Moslem Empire extended from Middle Asia to the
Atlantic coasts of Iberia and Morocco. It thus became necessary to describe land
and sea routes for mail and commerce, adjust positions of town and describe the
geography of countries. Information on dimensions of seas, tides and navigation
could be traced in such geographical books known as Al Masalek Wal Mamalek
or "Kingdoms and · Routes," most of which were written between the 9th and
12th centuries. These books were illustrated by maps which collectively formed
the "Atlas of Islam." Of particular interest is the map of al-Idrisi (1154) who
was commissioned by the Norman King Roger II in Palermo, Sicily, to write a
book on the geography of the world. AI Idrisi's map (Fig. 1) is of particular inter-
..
!I Jl
Figure 1. Map of the World by AI-Idrisi (1154) showing the Mediterranean,

Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, India and China.
On West Africa feature the Land of Ghana, the Congo River which is seen joined
with the Nile and some islands to the west of the African coast.
584 A. A. Aleem
est inasmuch as it shows a rounded earth, devoid of pictures of animals, featur-

ing also the land of Ghana and some islands to the west of Africa. Al Idrisi also
made a map of the world on a silver sphere.
The legacy of ancient Greece, India and Persia had already been translated
into Arabic in special institutions supervised by the Caliphs of Bagdad themselves
such as al Mansour (762) and al Mamun (813). Contributions to mathematics
and astronomy soon followed and rendered a great service to navigation. Obser-
vatories were thus established in such places as Bagdad, Cairo, Samarkand,
Toledo and Cordova, resulting in numerous astronomical tables (zigs) and
almanachs.
Besides, several travel books and cosmographias were written and these also
enriched the knowledge of the sea (Aleem 1968b).
Arab nautical directions such as those ofIbn Magid (Kitab al Fawayed 1475)
and Sulayman al Mahri appeared at a much later date and were considered by
Ferrand (1921-3) and De Saussure (1928), who commented on the Arabian
astro-navigation, as the best of their kind until the close of the 15th century
(see Aleem 1968a).
Turkish navigation, based largely on Indian Ocean Arabic nautical directions,
flourished during the 16th century. Mention is made here of two important
works, viz. a book called Bahria ("Navigation") by the Turkish Admiral Pirie
Rais (1470-1554) and another Mohit ("The Ocean") by Sidi Ali Hussein (1570)
(see Tomaschek 1897). Pirie Rais is also credited for a unique map of the world
of which a piece (Fig. 2) remains in Istanbul at present.
The Indian Ocean since the early 16th century has thus become an area of
great enterprise by the Portuguese, Turks (Ottomans), British and Dutch. The age-
long seafaring tradition of this ocean is difficult to understand without reference
to the Arabs. In this article, a brief survey of Arab contributions to navigation
is attempted. This is mainly based on the Arabic literature referred to above.
2 Nautical Expressions and Etymology
As-Safina (al Sa/ina) is the Arabic word for ship. It is derived from the verb
sa/ana, meaning to cut through, since the ship cuts its way through the water.
There are at least 200 words for the ship in the Arabic language, signifying dif-
ferent types of ships ranging from a small houri to a vessel carrying over 400
passengers in addition to cargo, and from commercial to war ships. Reference to
these is found in classical poetry, as well as in historical and geographic books.
Instruments and weapons used in maritime combats appeared during the 9th and
10th centuries. These such as swords, shields, arrows, clubs, axes, chains and
nepht (chemical causing fire similar to the Greek Fire). Responsibilities of the
fleet admiral are spelled out in a rare document issued by the Caliph of Bagdad
(Kodama 932, Kitab-ul-Kharag) to one of his Amirs. This document throws
light on marine war strategies, training of sailors, selection of officers, aspects of
ship maintenance as well as on nautical matters. A description of a sea maneuver
Figure 2. Part of the World Map made by the Turkish Admiral Pirie Rais (1470-
1554) author of "Bahria." The map is drawn on parchment. It shows the West
African Coast and part of the Coast of South America. (This photo after the
original drawing in Topkai Sarai Library in Istanbul. Courtesy Saudia).
586 A. A. Aleem
undertaken by the fleets of al-Murini, Sultan of Morocco, was also narrated by
an eye-witness.
Both al Massoudi (947) and Ibn Jabir (1185) comment on protecting ships in
the Indian Ocean and Red Sea against fouling organisms: "holes being fIlled
with palm fibers soaked in whale oil and plugged with Naura (a sort of calcium
plaster) and painted with tar."
Ships east of Suez were built of wood from India as well as from coconut
wood (Cocos nucifer L.). The herab (keel) was made of hard wood, while ribs
and plates were made of a softer wood. The latter were fixed together with ropes.
Nails were not used in Indian Ocean ships until the 15th century. Ibn Jabir (I.c.)
thinks that such ships resist impacts on coral reefs to a better extent than those
rigged with nails.
Indian Ocean ships also differed from the Mediterranean Sea ships in having
the lateen sail which is easier to manipulate with wind, unlike the quadrangular
sail of the Mediterranean.
Expressions Pertaining to the Nature of Sea Bottom Features in Arabic

Geographical Literature
AI Idrisi (1154) refers to the word Akaseer for sand banks not suitable for navi-
gation, in contrast to Dhahra (Zahra) for coral reefs, while cyclonic winds were
frequently referred to as al Tannin. Linear units start with isba (finger), zira
(arm), qama (fathom) until the farsakh (= 6305 yards). The zam is an Indian unit
of distance adopted by the Arabs. It is equal to the distance covered by a sailing
ship during 3 hrs at an average speed of 4 knots, thus it is equal to 12 nautical
miles.
Indian Ocean pilots had at their disposal a common language of nautical ter-
minology derived from different languages, such as Muallem (Arabic for pilot),
Banani (Indian for sailor), Rahmang (Persian for book of the route), etc. On the
one hand nautical terms or words derived from the Arabic language feature in
European languages nowadays; these such as: Arsenal, Admiral, Almirante
(Spanish for Admiral), Rais (chief), Monsoon, Tariff, Magasin, Cheque, Cable,
Douane (from Arabic Diwan), Mistico and Madrata (names of battle ships). On the
other hand, words of foreign etmology are commonly used at present in the Ara-
bic language, such as: Anchor, Nautique, Stolos, Astrolabe and so forth.
3 Sea Voyages and Sea Routes
Arabic sea tales such as those of "Sinbad the Sailor" or the ''Wonders of India"
by Ibn Shahryar (905) reflect not only romantic stories of treasure islands or
breath-taking scenes of struggle for survival in stormy, endlesss seas, but also
many original observations and sound information on nautical matters. The
"Voyage of SU/ayman the Merchant" written by Ibn Wahab (851) (Ferrand
1922a), for example, gives a vivid description of the maritime route to India
and China, with a narrative on the living conditions of the Indian and Chinese
people. Arabian and Persian ships covered this route to China in four cycles,
each lasting for a lunar month, viz.:
1. From Siraf and Muscat the ships headed for Klim (present day Quilon) on
the Malabar Coast in India.
2. From Klim to "Ungbalus" Island (Nicobar) in the Sea of Harkand (Bengal
Bay), stopping at Cape Com orin on the southern tip of India.
3. From Ungbalus to "Kalebar" Island on the southwest of Malaya, then
across Malacca Sound to the Island of Tioman (north of Singapore) and
from there to a place called Kadrang (believed to be present day Cape St.
Jacques in Saigon), then to a place called "Sunderfulat" or the "Gates to
China," an island on the Vietnam coast.
4. From Sunderfulat across the South China Sea to the Island of Hainan and
from there to Khanfu (present Canton) in China. It is believed that some
ships went as far north as Korea or even to Japan. The word Wak- Wak of the
north is interpreted by some writers as referring to either of these places. This
is in contrast to Wak- Wak of the south which is Madagascar.
During this long voyage, pilots described places offreshwater, made notes on
tides, typhoons and volcanoes. Reference to one such volcano in Sumatra is made
as such: "smoke is seen by day and fire at night, with hot and cold springs aris-
ing from the base of the mountain." Canton already in the 9th century had had
a large community of Arab and Persian merchants in whose hands most of the
outer trade of China was entrusted. They were also privileged by the Emperor
of China in having their own courts of justice and mosques.
Ships usually started their journey from Muscat in Oman with the N.E. mon-
soons during November or December, stayed the summer in Canton and sailed
back with the N.E. trade winds in fall. The return journey also lasted four
months. Navigation from Arabia to Cape Comorin was coined as being "under
the wind."
While Hadramuti pilots and traders usually sailed east and some settled in
Malaya, Java or Sumatra, the Yamani tribes of Azds mostly sailed to East
Africa, settled in Zanzibar, Madagascar or Sofola (20 0 S). The Sultans of Zanzi-
bar ruled over this island until recently. Ibn al Fakih (902) described the diffi-
culties of navigation in the Sea of Barbara, while al Massoudi (947) praised the
experience of Omani and Sirafi sailors in these rough waters.
Evidence of Arabs sailing south and west in the Atlantic Ocean dates back
to the 10th century. AI Massoudi (947) tells the story of a man from Cordova
who recruited some sailors and they sailed in this ocean, returning back after a
long absence with "enormous wealth." It is no coincidence that al Idrisi (1154)
also refers to eight Arab cousins from Usbon who sailed with the east winds for
11 days reaching rocky islands then while heading south for 12 more days they
encountered an Island with many sheep. The head of the tribe inhabiting this
island ordered that the strangers be taken back, eyes blind-folded, to the main-
land with the west wind, where they landed far south of the Moroccan Coast.
588 A. A. Aleem
Some authors believe that those adventurers must have reached the Canary
Islands. News of another man called Ibn Fatima who sailed along the West
African Coast and appeared in Madagascar date back to 1250. Whether Ibn
Fatima traversed the African river-net to the east or sailed around the Cape is
not known. Should this story be true, I endorse the trans-African route. Refer-
ence to this story is made by the geographer Ibn Said (1274). These stories,
recorded in geographical and historical books from the 10-13th centuries, must
be considered as precursors to the great maritime voyages of the 15th century.
They show that, at least, the Atlantic Ocean was not altogether untapped before
Columbus and the Portuguese ventured to sail west and south (Fig. 1).
A fourth important route for Medieval Arab navigation was of course the
Mediterranean Sea. Ships carrying spices and silk sailed from Syrian and Egyptian
ports to Napoli, Venice and Genoa, as well as to the Magreb along north Africa.
Ibn Jabir started his voyage in 1183 from Andalus to Cueta (Gibraltar) then via
Majorca, Minorca, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete to Alexandria.
It is interesting to mention that Italian ships from Genoa and Venice used to
trade with Egypt during the Crusades, bringing wood and iron to Alexandria in
the 10th Century, in spite of the embargo imposed on these commodities by the
Byzantine Emperor Leo V. Egypt exported Natrun, minerals, linen, silk fabrics
and manufactured leathers in return.
Sea islands such as Cyprus, Crete, Sicily and Malta were in the hands of the
Arabs for centuries. The latter left an ethnic impression on the language and
people inhabiting these islands.
4 Arab Contributions to Astro-Navigation
There is little doubt that an able seaman of the 9th or 12th century would require
at his disposal a practical instrument to measure the altitude of celestial objects
and good tables to locate his position at sea. These in turn are the product of
advancements in mathematics and astronomy. In both diSciplines the early Arabs
excelled. The immediate, practical application was manifested by multitudes of
day to day readings of star altitudes and solar declination culminating in the
astronomical tables (zigs) that came out of Islamic observatories in Bagdad,
Samarkand, Toledo and the like during the 8th-12th centuries.
Al Fazari (771) was the first to construct an Arabic astrolabe (graduated
according to the Arabic calendar). This instrument (Fig. 3) was perfected by the
Arabs during the 9th century, whether in Moslem Spain or in the East and al-
ready in the 11 th century al Zarkali (1050) designed the integral astrolabe in
Toledo. This scholar is also credited for the "Toledo Tables."
Al Khwarizmi excelled in algebra and astronomy and his work in these disci-
plines as well as on Indian methods of calculations (De Numera Indica) written
between 835-844 had been translated, much later, into Latin by Adelard of Bath
and Gerard of Cremonia.
Al Khwarizmi (9th century) designed a staff for measuring altitudes referred to
as al Khwarizmi's "stick." The same author is credited for the "sined quadrant."
Figure 3. An Arabic astrolabe made by Ibrahim al Sahli of Toledo (Moslem

Spain) in August 1068, engraved in Kufi-Arabic. The star map on the front of
the astrolabe includes pointers showing the position of 28 stars and a circle
divided into the l2-zodiacal divisions showing the course of the sun during the
year. The map can be turned like a modern star-planisphere to show the appar-
ent rotation of the stars. (Courtesy Saudia).
590 A. A. Aleem
The astrolabe was first mentioned in European literature during the 11 th
century in an essay by a clergyman (contractus de Vehringen 1054), while the
first quadrant was due to Robert d'Ingles of Montpellier in the 13th century
(1276). The quadrant attributed to the German astronomer Regiomontanus in
1468 was constructed according to the work of Levi ben Gershon, a Jewish
savant of the 14th century, to whom the so-called Jacob's Staff is credited (Oren
1968). It would be interesting to trace the relations between AI Khwarizmi's
Staff of the 9th century and Jacob's Staff. It is known that Jewish scholars in
Spain have translated Arabic sciences to either Hebrew or Latin. For example,
Ibn Esra (1093-1167) of Toledo translated al Khwarizmi's work on astronomy
and on Indian methods of calculation into Hebrew in the 12th century.
AI Battani's (852-929) astronomical tables left an impression on the great
maritime expeditions from Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries.
This author is known to have laid the foundations of modem trigonometry. In
less than 50 years after al Battani, trigonometry had another substantial advance
at the hands of Abul Wafa (980) (see Carra de Veaux 1931), who was able to
discover equations such as:
sin A cos B + sin B cos A

sin (A + B) =- - - - - - - -
R
This and similar questions rendered great services to astronomers such as

Copernicus (16th century). While this was the situation of plane trigonometry
in the 10th century, another Moslem, Nasir-ul-Din al Tousi (1274), was able to
lay the foundation of spherical trigonometry in a treatise which has been trans-
lated into French. Ibn al Haytham, known to Europe as al Hazan, had made
Arabic logarithms long before John Napier. However, Arab pilots, who were
aware of these achievements, soon discovered that neither the astrolabe nor
the Quadrant were quite adequate for work at sea. They developed their own
altitude instruments which, briefly speaking, were wooden tablets of various
sizes tied in the center to a string, graduated by knotting into a scale according
to trigonometric functions. They used to stretch the tablet with the arm so
that the lower edge is on the horizon, while the upper touches the star; the num-
ber of knots released gives the altitude in units of isba. Surely this technique was
more practical since it allowed the pilot to know the altitude quickly by feeling
the knots in the dark. The different sizes of tablets also allowed readings of wide
altitude angles.
Since the trajectory of the polar star was at a position about 3~o away from
the true pole in the 15th century, it was necessary to make a correction for the
latitude. For this purpose Arab navigators utilized the guards of the Small Bear
(B and 'Y) known as the two Farkads. The six phases of these stars are described
in detail by Ibn Magid and al Mahri (15th century). This cycle together with
bearings of the mansions of the moon were also taken to determine time (sidere-
al time).
The Regimento do Astrolabio et do Quadrante considered as the earliest sur-

viving written "directions" in Europe that refer to the "guard" of the Small
Bear dates back to the 16th century.
Arabs also invented altitude sailing, i.e., to measure the difference in altitude
of the polar star at the beginning and end of a navigational cycle and convert this
difference (in isM) into distance. Thus a difference in altitude of 1 isM is equal
to 10 37' or to 97 nautical miles (Arabian azimuthal wind-rose is divided into
224 isM). While Ibn Magid had been using this method to check his distances
for over 40 years, the method was known to the Portuguese only towards the
end of the 15th century.
Ibn Magid is credited also for improving the magnetic compass by mounting
the needle on gimbals and adapting it to a box, together with the azimuthal
windrose, divided into 32 rhumbs, representing the rise and set of 16 stars. Use
of this compass in the Indian Ocean preceded its use in the Mediterranean. At
first the magnetic needle was allowed to float on water by mounting it on a ring
of thin wood or wood of balsa. It was later on made in the shape of a fish
(Aleem 1968a).
Attempts to measure longitude by the method of "lunar distances" have also
been used by Ibn Magid. He repeatedly measured angular distances of the moon
for several bright stars during many years. However, a tabulation of his results
are not to be found among the works now known. In his book entitled Kitab al
Fawayed (1475) (Book of Useful Directions), this author states that "AMuallim
(pilot) must know the position, time of rise and set of stars, their longitude and
latitude, their distances, mansions of the moon, etc." In his introduction he
stresses that this "science" [navigation] is one of the exact sciences since through
it, we are able to know latitude and longitude of places with precision, hence
the position of Qibla. It is to be added that Arabs paid great attention to position
finding as well as to time for determining the Qibla of Islam (direction of Mecca)
for prayers.
5 Impact of Arab Navigation on the Great Maritime Explorations
Waters (1972) attributes the modem advances in position-finding at sea (hence

impact on advances in oceanography) to the navigational developments of the
13th century by Italian scholars and seamen and to Portuguese in mid-fifteenth
century who "first developed the science of nautical astronomy."
It is unfortunate that the role of Arab scholars and seamen has been over-
looked in this and other Anglo-Saxon works on the history of navigation. This
is probably due, as eloquently expressed in Dr. Carruther's (1968) speech dur-
ing the closing session of the First International Congress at Monaco, to the
language barrier.
Arab scholars and seamen have given, since the 9th century to European
knowledge, among others, Arabic numerals, trigonometry and logarithms which
592 A. A. Aleem
facilitated calculations. This is in addition to the astrolabe, in a new refined
form, the quadrant represented by al Khwarizomi's Staff and several accurate
astronomical tables and almanachs.
Without such tools, together with the lateen sail introduced from the Indian
Ocean through the Arabs, the great maritime voyages would not have been pos-
sible. It is to be added that until the beginning of the 15th century, Portuguese
pilots had no quadrants and were using cumbersome Roman numerals.
The science of astro-navigation is undoubtedly an Arab development. Already
in the 5th century Omani and Hadramuti seamen were traversing the Ocean to
Africa and China where "only water and heaven may be seen" depending ex-
clusively upon their knowledge of stars and sea currents.
Altitude sailing, correction of latitude through the guards of the Small Bear
as well as lunar distances were practiced by Arab pilots of the Indian Ocean
long before their counterparts in the Mediterranean Sea.
The same is true also of the mariner's compass. In this regard, the Encyclo-
pedia Italiana (1933) states that
in the middle of the lIth century, mariners at Amalphi (Sorrento), Venice as

well as those from Majorca learned from Arab pilots that the magnetic needle
has a peculiar property of being directed to the North; as such it could be
used in navigation. When the needle was fixed to balsa wood or to a light
ring of wood and kept floating on water, it will assume a position pointing to
the North, when it settles (my translation).
We must not forget also that sailing west and south in the Atlantic Ocean had,
as already pointed out, been attempted by Arabs from Spain and Portugal since
the 10th century. News of these adventures coupled with a motive to reach Indi-
an spices, via a route other than that controlled by the Arabs in the Middle East,
were strong drives behind the great maritime expeditions from Spain and Portu-
gal towards the end of the 15th century. A secondary motive was religious.
Prince Henry the Navigator, who was also a Grand Master of the Order of Christ,
wanted to outflank the Moslem "infidels" of the East and join with the Oegen-
dary) kingdom of Prester John. He also had in mind a motive to reach Ghana
from the sea, where Arabs used to bring "gold and slaves." Thus the Prince's ef-
forts were devoted to West Africa; he managed to reach Guinea in 1455 but died
in 1460. His path was followed in 1462 by Diego Gomez. Finally Bartholomeo
Diaz succeeded to round the tip of South Africa in 1488. Ten years later Vasco
de Gama reached India.
It is evident that with medieval nautical knowledge of the Indian Ocean Arabs
reached the Mediterranean via various channels viz.:
1. Through Moslem Spain, where a strong movement of translation from Arabic

into Latin and Hebrew existed as early as the 11 th century.
2. Through seamen and traders voyaging freely between East and West.
3. Through scholars, historians, and clergymen who accompanied the Crusades
to the East.
However, Arab nautical knowledge during the 16th century lagged behind that
of Spain or Portugal. The main reason for this is to be sought in the strong sup-
port given by these countries to navigation, while Arab pilots worked as individ-
uals with no power to back their efforts.
Further advances in nautical science were made by the British. Thus the back-
staff was invented in 1595 by Captain John Davis, Hadley's Quadrant followed
in 1731 and soon after Harrison's first time machine came out in 1735.
6 Identity of Vasco de Gama's Pilot to India
Vasco de Gama arrived at the small port of Malindi on Kenya in March 1498
after losing two of his ships on the East African coast. He had to look for a pilot
from the area to guide him to India before sailing on the 24th of April. The iden-
tity of this pilot remained obscure. It was Ferrand (1922b) who identified him
as Ahmad ibn Magid, the famous Omani pilot. Ferrand based his conclusion upon
passages from a history book by Al Nahrawali (1577) relevant to the incident.
Ferrand was followed by others such as Kratchkovsky (1955) and Schomovsky
(1957). However, after looking more carefully into Ibn Magid's works, I have
come to a different conclusion. The encumbent pilot is most likely a Moslem
pilot from Gujarat, as had been suggested by Portuguese historians (Aleem
1968a), but certainly not Ibn Magid. Al Nahrawali's story goes on to say that the
Portuguese used to face heavy losses of men and ships in their attempts to reach
India. It was not until an able pilot named Ahmad Ibn Magid had shown them
the way, while intoxicated by alcohol given to him by the Portuguese Admiral.
This story seems unfounded for the following reasons:
1. Al Nahrawali's manuscript was written 79 years after Vasco de Gama's first

expedition. Had the story been true, it would have been mentioned by the
author of Muhit, a serious treatise on navigation written by the Turkish Admi-
ral Sidi Ali Hussein in 1557, i.e., twenty years earlier than al Nahrawali's
book. Neither Hussein nor other contemporaneous pilots had identified Ibn
Magid as the encumbent pilot.
2. The story is in contradiction with Ibn Magid's integrity and morals (see
Aleem 1968a).
3. It is rather naive to think that a man like De Gama would trust a drunkard to
guide him across an unknown ocean.
4. Al Nahrawali's book infers that he guided the Portuguese around South
Africa, where Ibn Magid had no experience.
5. Al Nahrawali's book also lacks accuracy in other places. For example, the
conquest of Harrnuz by Albuquerque in 1507 was made before building the
Citadel at Goa and not after.
6. Convincing evidence, however, comes from Ibn Magid himself. Nowhere in his
books or poems (Urjuza) , even in the 3-Urjuza published by Schmovsky, is
there any reference to his guiding a Portuguese ship, neither of De Gama nor
of any of his successors such as Pedro Alvares Cabral (1500-1501) or Joa de
Nova (1501-1502) who sought the help of pilots to India from Africa.
594 A. A. Aleem
Ibn Magid certainly witnessed the arrival of the Portuguese to the Indian
Ocean, but he was highly suspicious of their activities. In one of his Urjuza he
says that "the people of India were bewildered of these Francs. Have they come
to rule over or are they crazy robbers?"
As a man of the sea, Ibn Magid does not refrain from admiring the knowledge
of the Portuguese, especially that they come from the Southwest, a route which
he himself had not experienced.
References
Arabic Literature:
Al Battani (Albategius). 877-929. Astronomical tables (translated to Latin in

1140 by Plato of Tivoli and revised by Carlo Nallino in 1892, Torin).
Al Fazari (Jacoub). c. 770. (Astronomical tables and treatise on the use of armil-
lary sphere).
Al Idrisi (Abu Abdullah Mohammad). 1154. Nuzhat al Mustak (Pub!. by P.A.
Jaubert 1836-1840, Paris).
Al Khuwarizmi (Moh. Ibn Ahmad). 835-844. Astronomical tables & Indian
methods of calculation).
Al Massoudi (Abul Hassan). 947. Moroug al Dahab (Prairies of Gold, etc.) (Pub!.
by Barbier de Meynard 1861-1877, Paris).
Al Nahrawali (Kotb-ul-Din). 1577. Al bark al Yamani fil Fatih al Osmani (On
the conquest of Yaman by the Ottomans) Ms 2024 Cairo.
Al Sufi (Abdul Rahman Abu Hussein) (lOth Century). (Images of Planets).
Al Zarkali (Arzachel). 1029-1087. (Toledo Tables).
Ibn al Fakih (Ahmad al Hamadani). 902. Kitabul Buldan (Pub!. De Goeje, 1855,
Leiden).
Ibn Jabir (also written Gabir). 1183-1185. (The Voyage) see also Wright 1907.
Ibn Magid (Shihab-ul-Din Ahmad). 1475. Kitab al Fawayed.
Ibn Said (Abul Hassan Ali al Garnati). 1274. (Geography).
Ibn Shahyar (Buzruk). 905. Agayeb al Hind (Wonders of India).
Ibn Wahab (al Qurashi). 851. (The voyage of Merchant Sulayman) (cf. also
Ferrand 1922a).
Kodama (Abul Farag Ibn Gafar). 932. Kitab ul-Kharag.
Foreign Literature:
Aleem, A. A. 1967. Concepts of currents, tides and winds among Medieval Arab
geographers in the Indian Ocean. Deep-Sea Res., 14,459-463.
Aleem, A. A. 1968a. Ahmad Ibn Magid, Arab navigator of the XV century and
his contributions to marine sciences. Congr. Int. Hist. Oceangr. 1, Bull.
Inst. oceanogr., Monaco, Special No.2, 565-580.
A1eem, A. A. 1968b. Concepts of marine biology among Arab writers in the Mid-
dle Ages. Congr. Int. Hist. Oceanogr. 1, Bull. Inst. oceanogr. Monaco, Special
No. 2,359-367.
Aleem, A. A. 1972. Fishing industry in ancient Egypt. Second Int. Congr. Hist.
Oceanogr., Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, (B) 73, 333-343.
Carra de Vaux (Baron). 1931. Astronomy and mathematics, in: Legacy of Islam,
Sir Thomas Arnold and A. Guillaume (eds.), Oxford, 367-397.
Carruthers, J. N. 1968. Allocution de M. Ie Docteur J. N. Carruthers. Congr. Int.
Hist. OCeanOgr. 1, Bull. Inst. oceanogr., Monaco, Special No.2, 682-683.
De Saussure, L. 1928. Commentaire des instructions nautiques de Ibn Magid et
Su1ayman a1-Mahri. In: Ferrand, 1928.
Encyclopedia italiana. 1933. Article Bosso1a, 8,163.
Ferrand, G. 1921-3. Instructions nautiques et routiers arabes et portugais der
XVe et XVle sieeles. Tom. 1- Le pilote des mers de l'Inde, de 1a Chine etc.
Texte arabe, reproduction phototypique du Ms. 2292 de 1a Bibliotheque
nationa1e de Paris (325 pp. de texte arabe). Tom. 2- Reproduction photo-
typique des instructions nautiques de Su1ayman a1-Mahri et Ibn Magid (ms.
2559) 308 pp. de texte arabe. Paris.
Ferrand, G. 1922a. Voyage de Marchand Su1ayman en Inde et en Chine. Paris.
Ferrand, G. 1922b. Le pilote arabe de Vasco de Gama et 1es instructions nau-
tiques des Arabes aux XVe siecle. Ann. Geogr., 31(172), 289-307.
a
Ferrand, G. 1928. Introduction l'astronomie nautique arabe. Bibl. geogr. arab.,
1, Paris.
Kratchkovsky, I. U. 1955. Istoria Arabskoi Geograficheskio 1iteratury. Moscow
and Liningrad (Arabic translation by S. O. Hashim, Cairo).
Oren, O. H. 1968. Jews in cartography and navigation from the XIth and XVth
centuries. Congr. Int. Hist. Oceanogr. 1, Bull. Inst. oceanogr. Monaco, Special
No.2,189-197.
Schoff, W. H. 1912. Perip1us (The Perip1us of the Erythrean Sea, Travel and
Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. Translated by
W. H. Schoff, New York).
Schomovsky, T. 1957. Tri neizrestyne Posti Akhmada ibn Majida, arabskogo
lotsmana Vaskide Gamy. Akad. Nauk (Instituta Vostokvedenia). Moscow and
Leningrad.
Sidi Ali Husein. 1570. Mohit (d. Tomaschek).
Tomaschek, W. 1897. Die topographischen Capite1 des indischen Seespiege1s
"Muhit." Ubersetzt von Dr. Max Bittner, mit-einer Ein1eitung etc. Wien.
Waters, D. W. 1972. Navigation and hydrography, oceanography's eyes. Second
Int. Congr. Hist. Oceanogr., Proc. Roy. Soc., Edinburgh, (B), 73, 1-11.
Vila do Infante (Prince-Town), the First School of
Oceanography in the Modem Era: An Essay
James H. Guill
1 Introduction
Henry of Portugal died on 13 November 1460 on the remote and lonely promon-
tory of Sagres. Isolated from the political world of Europe by sheer rock cliffs
dropping sharply into the Atlantic Ocean, blocking all those who would enter
without his permission by thick crenelated stone walls, Henry died as he lived-
self-denying, uncomplaining, dedicated and driven, with an absolute faith in God
and in his destiny. Prone to make errors, sensitive to the criticism of peers and
even of his brother, Portugal's King Edward, Henry's constant prayer, self-denial
from worldy pleasures, and unyielding determination won for him a place in the
mainstream of history unmatched since the time of Christ. Before Henry, the
world was moving in one direction. After Henry, it was moving in another. All
the wars, the philosophies, the dictators, and the technologies from his day to
the Space Era did not make an impact on world history such as that inscribed on
the rolls of the human story by Henry and his navigators. The heart of this
activity which led to the European discovery of the largely unknown world was
Henry's School of Oceanography at Sagres and Ter9anabal, known as the Vila do
Infante or Prince-Town (Zurara 1453).
2 Background
Henry was born at Porto, Portugal, on March 4, 1394, the fourth son of John I
of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, a daughter of England's John of Gaunt
(Oliveira Martins 1947). His oldest brother, Alphonse, had died in infancy, but
Edward and then Peter stood in line for kingship before Henry. In his youth
Vila do Infante (Prince-Town), School of Oceanography, 1418-1470 597
Henry's future was unknown and insecure. Inheriting a deep religious conviction
from his mother, his spirit was counterbalanced by ambition and unrest which
was more his father's nature. Even as a youth, Henry dreamed of success in a
great enterprise, perhaps derived from the medieval notion of the great quest for
the Holy Grail, a concept which still inspired the imagination of the young nobil-
ity of Europe at the turn of the 15th century. Henry's chance came in 1415.
Two great battles mark that year. Conducted in concert, an English army led by
Henry's cousin, Henry V of England, and supported by a Portuguese contingent
under Alvaro Vaz de Almada, the Count of Avranches, won the great battle of
Agincourt. In the same year, the Portuguese, led by John I of Portugal with
English support, conquered the Moroccan city of Ceuta. Appropriately, Henry
along with his brothers Edward and Peter was knighted in the principal mosque
in Ceuta (which was quickly converted to a Christian Church). One year later, in
1416, he was given command of Portugal's African enterprises.
Henry returned to Portugal with his father and brothers in 1415 but soon had
to return to Ceuta. In 1418 the city was surrounded on the landward side by a
large Moslem army sent by the ruler of Fez and harassed on the seaward side by
ships from the Moslem Kingdom of Granada (southern Spain). Henry gathered
a fleet, embarked an army, and proceeded to Ceuta, only to find that the Portu-
guese forces under Count Peter de Meneses had broken the Moslem siege. Henry
then planned an attack against the Moslem kingdom of Granada with his reinforc-
ing squadrons, but received an urgent message from his father to abandon the
plan and return to Portugal.
The siege of Ceuta in 1418 focussed Henry's attention on the lack of know-
ledge that the Portuguese had of the Mediterranean and African coasts of Moroc-
co and of the state of development of the interior. The extent of the Moslem
forces, the size and character of their coastal towns, and the nature of their ship-
ping were essentially unknown except perhaps to a few Jewish traders who had
contacts both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Morocco.
Henry retired to Lagos on the Algarve coast, where he placed his ships under
the command of Lancelot de Pessanha, the hereditary Admiral of Portugal.
Henry, recognizing the dearth of oceanographic information available to the
Portuguese, initiated construction of a school and fort at Sagres, a jutting craggy
peninsula a few miles west of the excellent harbor at Lagos. On the opposite
Peninsula, called Ter~anabal, he built a town which he called Vila do Infante
(prince-Town). Concurrently, he began to gather trained seamen, astronomers,
cartographers, shipbuilders, navigation instruments, and instrument makers. He
was determined to learn the sea, the geography of the African coast, to improve
his ships, and to flank his Moslem enemy by initiating seaborne operations. Thus
began the Portuguese endeavor which did not end until future Portuguese gener-
ations rounded Africa, reached India, Malaysia, China, Japan, Indonesia and sent
colonies to the New World scattered widely from New England to southern Brazil.
598 J. H. Guill
3 Prince-Town
The Portuguese school of oceanography located at the southwestern tip of Port-

ugal existed from about 1418 until the last decades of the 15th century. It
flourished in the 1440s and 1450s. After Henry's death in 1460 the school was
maintained until 1470 under the direction of Henry's adopted son, Prince Ferdi-
nand, but began to deteriorate after the death of Ferdinand in 1470. Under the
rule of King John II (1481-1495), who gathered the power of the State unto his
person as conceived by Machiavelli, the center of the Portuguese overseas projects
was shifted to lisbon and the Tagus estuary.
The school of oceanography at its zenith was a flourishing community. The
school actually consisted of two elements. The fortified learning center was built
on the narrow promontory called "Cape of Sagres." This cape had been known
in Roman times as "promontorium sacrum," a site of pre-historic religious stone
formations similar to Stonehenge in England. Henry blocked the access to the
cape by constructing a fortified stone wall across the narrow neck leading to the
promontory (Fig. 1). Behind the wall he built a chapel, barracks, school build-
ings, and supply buildings. He added training aids such as a giant compass rose
(Fig. 2) and a ship simulation platform (Fig. 3). The simulation was designed to
hold a segmented stern of a sailing ship of the day, rigged with lines and pulleys
Figure 1. Henry's School of Oceanography at Sagres Promontory.
Figure 2. Compass Rose at Sagres.

so that ship motion could be simulated. Students, armed with astrolabe or with a
water compass known as a "bitacula," practiced ocean navigation on the rocking
ship simulation. Charts were stored, used for training, issued prior to each planned
voyage, and returned with notations to the school for further study and updat-
ing by master chartmakers. living conditions in the school were harsh, disciplined,
and demanding, when compared with present-day schools of oceanography.
Henry supported the operation of the school by creating a town called Vila
do Infante (prince-Town) on neighboring cape Teryanabal which faced Sagres
(Martins da Silva Marques 1944, doc. 459). The two capes formed a natural bar-
rier to the strong northerlies that frequently visited this area, and the bay between
them formed a natural anchorage. In a document issued on 19 September 1460
Henry described the purpose of Prince-Town as providing support, supplies,
lodging, and spiritual renewal for the crews of the many "carracks, ships, galleys,
and other vessels which anchored there." Teryanabal was the operations center,
providing housing, supplies, and real-time navigational support and Sagres was
the training center, archive for charts, books, and other documents, and center
for the development of nautical instruments.
Figure 3. Ship Simulation Platform at Sagres.
4 Personnel
An enterprise, such as Henry undertook, required a breadth of talents and disci-

plines. Not only did Henry collect all available books on astronomy, astrology,
navigation, shipbuilding and exploration from all quarters, but he also included
in his enterprise personnel from any nation or culture. The preponderance of
personnel at Sagres, at Teryanabal, on the voyages which he directed, or assigned
to the Portuguese territories which he captured or colonized (Ceuta, Alcacer-
Ceguer, Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, or Cape Verde) were primarily Portu-
guese. But careful genealogical study reveals that Henry placed personnel from
600 J. H. Guill
Spain, Flanders, Brabant, Hainault, Picardy, Italy, England, Ireland, Germany,
and Bohemia in important posts. Moreover, Sephardic Jews, Hispanic Moslems,
and later on blacks from Guinea entered into Henry's enterprise.
Henry had two sisters who were influential in providing substantial personnel
for his school of oceanography and his explorations and settlements. The elder
was Beatriz, a half-sister of Henry and daughter of King John I and of Ines Pires
Esteves. This half-sister had been born illegitimate while John was still Master of
the Military Order of Avis and before the battle of Aljubarrota which made him
king. After John became king of Portugal and married Philippa, a daughter of
England's Duke of Lancaster, John's past indiscretions were regularized. Beatriz
was declared legitimate and her marriage with Thomas FitzAlan, England's Earl
of Arundel, a second cousin to Philippa, was arranged. Thomas FitzAlan died in
1415 from dysentery contracted during the English capture of Harfleur, just prior
to the English victory at Agincourt. Subsequently, Beatriz married John Holland,
Earl of Huntingdon and Duke of Exeter, lieutenant-general of Aquitaine, the
principal English province in France. Beatriz died at Bordeaux, the capital of
Aquitaine, on 23 October 1439. Beatriz was influential in obtaining English sup-
port in the capture of Ceuta, in the settlement of Madeira and the Azores Islands,
and in Henry's initial efforts in exploration of the African coast.
Henry's second sister was Isabel, who in 1429 married Philip the Good, Duke
of Burgundy. At that time Burgundian dominions included Holland, Guelders,
Brabant, Hainault, Namur, Luxemburg, Franche Comte, Flanders, Charolais, and
Artois, and exercised strong influence over neighboring provinces, such as Picardy.
Isabel called on the nobility of the Burgundian provinces to provide colonists
and seamen to enter into Henry's service. Flemish nobility became Henry's cap-
tains, especially in the settlement of the Azores Islands, entire Flemish families
became colonists, and Flemish seamen manned his ships. It has been estimated
that as many as 5,000 Flemish entered Henry's enterprise.
5 Ships and Shipbuilding
Prince Henry himself described the ships of his enterprise as "naus, gales, car-
racas, barcas, and navios" (Martins da Silva Marques 1944, doc. 459, doc. 463).
These are standard ships found in the Mediterranean or in northern Europe dur-
ing the 15th century. Neither the Mediterranean galleys, driven primarily by oars
with a main sail as a supplement, nor the north Europe round-bottomed mer-
chant vessels were suitable for ocean exploration. These ships were at the mercy
of currents, e.g., the Canary Current, storms or adverse winds. The discovery of
the island of Porto Santo in 1418 was accidental, caused by the inability of a
small ship to control its course during a storm which arose near the African
coast, driving the ship relentlessly to sea until it encountered the island.
Data collected on ship design and ship handling and on requirements for ocean
navigation gave rise to the caravel (carob-vela), a ship combining the characteris-
tics of the Mediterranean "carob" and a flexible, controllable forward sail in ad-
dition for maneuverability, could tack across winds and across currents and was,
on a comparative basis, quite seaworthy. Oars were still carried by the caravel,
but these were reserved for cahns or for operations close to shore.
The first caravel was built at the shipyard in Lagos in the early 1450s, possi-
bly 1452. With the advent of the caravel, progress along the African coast acceler-
ated and the full colonization of the Azores Islands located more than 700-1,000
miles into the Atlantic was undertaken.
6 Nautical Instruments and Simulation Techniques
The primary instruments of navigation used by Henry and his navigators were
the astrolabe and the bitacula (Beazley 1913). The astrolabe was originally
developed by the Greeks and had been carried into the Middle Ages by astrol-
ogers. By the 12th century both the Moslems and Jews in the Hispanic Peninsula
employed the astrolabe for astrological purposes. The Spanish Moslem Azarkiel
(1029-1087) had improved the instrument. Henry and his navigators adapted the
astrolabe and improved it for ocean navigation. Indeed, how to use an astrolabe
on the rolling deck of a small caravel must have presented a considerable chal-
lenge. Henry's answer to this challenge gave rise to ship navigation simulation. At
Sagres we fmd the remains of a ship simulator which was used to train pilots and
navigators (Fig. 3). The astrolabe was developed to the point at Henry's school
wherein Portuguese astrolabes were purchased and used by other nations up
through the 17th century (e.g., an astrolabe designed and fabricated by the Port-
uguese Lopo Homem was found on the 17th century wreck of the Spanish ship
Neuestra Seima de las Atoches).
The second major instrument developed by Henry in his school of oceanogra-
phy was the "bitacula." Originally this was a wooden tub partially filled with
water on which floated a magnetized wooden fleur-de-lis pointing to magnetic
north (Fig. 4). The "bitacula" combined the elements of the Rosa Ventorum
with the magnetic needle. A gigantic wind rose can still be found at Sagres (Fig.
2), undoubtedly used in training pilots in noting wind direction and in training
in the use of the bitacula. Eventually, the bitacula was raised above the deck of
the ship to a pedestal to reduce the effects of deck movements. The bitacula be-
came known in English as a compass stand and was called initially a "bittacle"
and eventually "binnacle," a corruption of the Portuguese name.
Figure 4. Early "bitacula" used by Henry's

navigators.
602 J. H. Guill
7 Ocean Currents and Winds
When one of Henry's navigators, schooled in the rudiments of navigation, trained

in basic seamanship, and armed with the best chart then devised, set forth to ex-
plore the African coast in the early years, it was an uncertain affair. As we noted
above, the island of Porto Santo was discovered by accident, brought about by a
sudden storm. The Portuguese mariners were familiar with the southward-flowing
Canaries current and they found the prevailing winds also flowing southward.
The return to Portugal by retracing the outgoing route was sometimes impossible;
a wide arc into the Atlantic in order to catch the prevailing winds in the latitudes
on a parallel with Lisbon was found feasible. On one of these arcs, Gonyalo
Velho, a knight of Henry's Military Order of Christ, encountered the island of
Santa Maria in the Azores Archipelago. Soon the Azores became a stopping
place for Henry's captains on their return voyage from the African coast. The
currents and winds of the Atlantic gradually became plotted and courses for
navigation drawn up (Fig. 5). Outbound ships used the Canaries current and
the prevailing winds; inbound ships used the Azores Arc to return home.
As Henry's captains ventured further south along the African coast, they
encountered the doldrums and then a reversal in currents and winds. Slowly,
Figure 5. Henry's navigation courses in the 1450s.

painstakingly, data was collected, plotted, analyzed and new navigation routes
and procedures initiated. Finally, a figure-8 concept was derived which encom-
passed both the South Atlantic and North Atlantic. This figure-8 concept, the
proof of which was a primary objective of the voyage of Bartolomeu Dias in
1486-1488, was demonstrated as being correct by Vasco de Gama on his voyage
to India in 1497.
8 Cartography
Charts were the guides and summary of knowledge gained in Henry's school of
oceanography. The early charts were the work of many persons. The charts
were issued at the beginning of a voyage and were returned to Sagres, along with
notes and comments, on the return from the voyage. Debriefmgs were held after
each voyage. The charts were updated and modified, as the data from a voyage
might indicate. Then the chart was reissued for the next voyage. Cartographers,
who reflected the expanding knowledge of oceanography, became highly re-
spected in the technical professions in Portugal.
During the 16th century, cartographers became known individually and
their works widely recognized. During Henry's early efforts, however, Portu-
guese charts did not identify cartographers, since they represent the work of the
school and not an individual cartographer. Few of these 15th century Portuguese
charts have survived (Corte sao ).
9 The Contributions of Henry and his School of Navigation
Ceuta was the pivot of Portuguese history. Vila do Infante, encompassing the
promontories of Ter~anabal and Sagres, was the heart of their oceanic discoveries.
From Ceuta the African coast extends westward a short distance, then swings
southward toward the equatorial regions. In Henry's time, the coasts southward
were unknown and the ocean to the west known even less. There were Arabic
maps of north Africa but these were partially drawn from knowledge, partially
from conjecture, and largely from tradition. On these charts the Mediterranean
coast of Africa was represented fairly accurately, but the Atlantic coast was quite
vague, especially south of that great barrier to geographic knowledge, the Sahara
desert. In the region of central Africa the maps were nebulous. little was known
of these regions, and no one knew how far south Africa really extended.
The Atlantic was a fearful, but unknown expanse of water. Existing maps
showed the Antilles, the isles of St. Brandon, and other land bodies. Tales of
strange islands, sea monsters, and tortuous seas passed among the seamen of the
day, growing and changing in the re-telling. To many, the ocean near the equator
was a boiling mass of water, to be feared, to be avoided, but not to be navigated.
Henry set forth to explore this sea and the inhospitable African coast with
certain failure staring him squarely in the eye. The area to which he was dedicated
604 J. H. Guill
for the survival of the Portuguese contingent in Ceuta (3,000 troops had re-
mained under the command of Count Peter de Meneses) had none of the pre-
requisites for successful ocean navigation. The ships which he had at his com-
mand were not designed for the rigors and distances of the high seas. The navi-
gation instruments were crude and not adapted to ocean navigation. The Moroc-
can shore southward from Tangier had steep cliffs, dangerous breakers, and a
600-mile stretch of forbidding Sahara desert coast where no fresh water nor
other supplies could be obtained.
The expense of the undertaking perhaps provided even greater obstacles to
ocean exploration. Along the African coast and in the unknown Atlantic there
was no promise of return on investment. In fact, the safe return of the ships and
crews presented a great risk. Nothing was Henry to obtain of value for many
years of his enterprise except experience, knowledge, and the challenge of the
quest. These intangible items were hardly acceptable to the bankers who sup-
plied money after Henry exhausted his own assets. Existing Portuguese docu-
ments decry the enterprise, appeal to the king to stop the effort, and chastise
Henry for failure to return a profit. If the director of such exploration had been
less stubborn than Henry, the project would have been soon abandoned.
The accidental discovery of Porto Santo and subsequently Madeira offered
Henry some relief. The islands provided a forward post for coastal operations
and were agriculturally attractive. Henry divided the uninhabited islands of
Porto Santo and Madeira into three captaincies, sent colonists, and placed a
trusted captain in charge of each. In 1424 he sent a fleet under Fernando de
Castro to conquer the Canary Islands, which were inhabited and had been
claimed by Castile since the 14th century. This fleet stopped at Madeira on the
outbound voyage to obtain supplies.
After the discovery of the Azores in 1432, these islands provided mid-Atlantic
supplies for Henry's navigators (Martins da Silva Marques 1944, doc. 316). By
the decade of 1440, Henry, now using Porto Santo and Madeira as supply centers
on the outbound voyage and the Azores on the return leg, sent ships further
along the African coasts. Past the Sahara, Henry's ships found the basis of eco-
nomic return. Spices, ivory, gold and then slaves were returned to Portugal.
From the islands he received dyes, wood products, sugar, wine, and miscellane-
ous agricultural products. The enterprise, based on his school of oceeanography
and the practical exploitation of oceanic knowledge, was beginning to pay its
way. The military purpose for which the school had been founded now began to
change to one of scientific discovery, economic return, and religious and politi-
cal expansion.
The technical knowledge developed by the school in the early formative
years can perhaps be best illustrated by the voyages of Christopher Columbus
and Vasco de Gama. Both voyages were based on Henry's early work in ship
design, ocean currents, prevailing winds, navigational instruments, and personnel
trained in his service or in the Portuguese service immediately after Henry's
death. Vasco de Gama employed the figure-8 navigational route on both the out-
bound voyage to India and upon his return. Christopher Columbus used the
Azores arc concept of navigation, extending the outward voyage to the New
World but his return voyage was directly on the parallel to the Azores Islands
and to lisbon. Neither voyage could have been undertaken without the base
built by Henry on the promontories of Ter9anabal and Sagres.
Note
Most of the research in this essay was made by the author on the site of Henry's
school and in the archives in the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon and also in old
records in the Azores Islands.
References
Beazley, C. R. 1913. The Early History of the Compass and the First Scientific
Maps, History, II.
Cortesao, A. Cartographic Indications of Otherwise Unknown Early Portuguese
Voyages, Aetas, II, 111-116.
Martins da Silva Marques, J. 1944. Descobrimentos Portugueses. Lisboa. Com-
pilation of Portuguese documents. Document 316, Royal Charter Granted
to Henry to "Populate" the "Seven" Islands of the Azores; Document 373,
Letter of Henry Granting the Lordship of the Island of Jesus Christ, Third
of the Islands of the Azores, to Jacome de Bruges, Native of the County of
Flanders; Document 459, Letter of Henry from the Vila do Infante (Prince-
Town); Document 463, Public Reading of the Testament of Henry of Portu-
gal at City of Evora, Portugal, on 29 November 1460.
Oliveira Martins, J. P. 1947. Os Filhos de D. Joao I. 7th Edition. Lisboa, Edi90es
S.I.T.
Zurara, G. E. da. Cronica de Guine, 1453. Contemporary chronicle of the deeds
of Henry of Portugal, Paris manuscript edited by Jose de Bragan9a. Barcelos,
Portugal, Livraria Civiliza9ao, 1973.
King Carlos of Portugal, a Pioneer in European
Oceanography
Luiz Saldanha
The great interest in studying the sea in its many aspects that arose in many
European countries and in America in the second half of the 19th century, as
manifested by scientific voyages and the creation of marine laboratories, also
had its repercussions in Portugal.
It is not surprising that such interest had its roots in the industrially developed
countries where culture was current-whether the aims were simply to advance
knowledge (life at the depths?) or to help clarify great biological problems (the
origin of life and of species), or were of more practical intent (cable-laying).
How is it, then, that such a small and poor country as Portugal, where the
rate of illiteracy was so high, man~ged to be among those that contributed to
this early stage of the oceanographic sciences?
The impetus came from one man, King Carlos de Braganya, who reigned
from 1889 to 1908. Carlos I was a highly intelligent and sensitive person, much
interested in humanism in all its aspects. Thus, we note in passing that he was a
talented painter and that he published a lavishly illustrated catalog of the birds
of Portugal. As he himself wrote, he had a "passion de la mer" from childhood,
and with money and a yacht at his disposal, it was natural that one of his fields
of interest was the sea and all that dwelled therein.
In 1897 Carlos began his paper on the main achievements of his first cruise
on Amel-ia in 1896 as follows:
The numerous oceanographic researches that foreign countries have carried

out in recent times with such auspicious results, the importance of these
studies for the fisheries industry, one of the most important in our country,
and the exceptional variety of bathymetric conditions of the sea along and
King Carlos of Portugal, a Pioneer in European Oceanography 607
off our coasts, suggested to us last year the idea of the scientific exploration
of our sea, and to make available, by regular work, not only a knowledge of
the fauna of our continental shelf but also that of the abysses that are found
in certain regions only a few miles off the coast, a situation almost unique in
Europe.
These words indicate clearly what Carlos had in mind. They also reflect the
strong influence of Prince Albert of Monaco and the results the latter had ob-
tained in his earlier work off the Azores. Furthermore, the presence of deep
canyons so near the Portuguese coast presented an intriguing opportunity for
intensive work, for although Forbes' Azoic theory had been rejected several
decades before, relatively little was known about life in these sites.
More importantly, perhaps, Carlos de Branganc;a shared Thoulet's view that it
was advantageous to study a relatively small region of the ocean in detail rather
than large areas from which it was possible to obtain only more general data. So
it was that he wrote in 1902 that despite the fact that some stations had been
occupied by such famous oceanographic vessels as Challenger, Porcupine, Talis-
man, and Princesse Alice near the Portuguese coast, a methodical study of these
waters was a necessity in order to gain a full understanding of them.
"On 1st September 1896 we had the pleasure of beginning the first national
oceanographic cruise in the seas of Portugal." So wrote King Carlos in 1897
about the first service in the cause of science undertaken by Amelia, named in
honor of his Queen.
The yacht had been constructed in England by Allsup & Sons in 1878. She
was solid iron, three-masted, 111 feet in length, 147 tons and could make 9-10
knots. The proposed program for the first cruise was to carry out soundings to
1500 m and dredgings to 600 m, to fish with long-lines, to study the pelagic
fauna, and to make observations on the "physics" of the sea. To this end he
took on board some Negretti and Zambra reversing thermometers, two water
samplers and several densitometers (Chabaud's model), two Blake beam trawls,
four dredges of different sizes, a polyhedric trap (Hirondelle model), plankton
and other nets and fishing gear. Except for its maneuverability, Amelia was ill-
suited for oceanographic service. There was little deck-space for work, no place
for a laboratory, and in fact no adequate room for storage of scientific equip-
ment and gear; furthermore, the anchor winch was too weak for trawling.
For these reasons Carlos acquired a second Amelia, also built in England
(at Leith), 148 feet long, 301 tons, 10-11 knots. The cruises of 1897 and 1898
were conducted on this vessel (Fig. 1); however, she also lacked laboratory
space as well as adequate quarters for the larger crew required for work further
offshore. The King therefore purchased a third English yacht, the Yacona,
built by J. Scott & Co.; this third Amelia was 180 feet in length, 650 tons, 12-
14 knots. She was also armed with several types of guns, including a harpoon-
gun for cetacean work. Most important, there was good space and the smoking
room was transformed into a laboratory with a zinc-covered table for wet work,
facilities for the microscopist, racks for oceanographic instruments including
608 L. Saldanha
-.
Figure 1. The frontispiece of the diary of the cruise of 1897, depicting the
second Amelia.
Buchanan's water samplers, and shelves and cabinets for chemicals, dissecting
instruments, glassware, and reference books. Furthermore, the laboratory could
easily be transformed into a dark room for photographic purposes and for the
study of luminescence in fishes and invertebrates.
The published works of King Carlos deal mainly with the results obtained
during the cruises of these three Amelias between 1896 and 1900.
Despite all the improvements for efficient scientific work at sea on Amelia
III, the King was still not satisfied and in 1901 he obtained a fourth Amelia,
the former Banshee, built by Ramage and Ferguson, 234 feet and 993 tons. The
letters from Carlos to Prince Albert in 1904-05 and the log of the yacht show
that much more intensive work was carried out during her operations at sea, al-
ways with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, however, the results were never
published-presumably because of the political disruptions of the times and the
premature death of the King in 1908. This fourth Amelia was later renamed
Aviso (dispatch boat) 5 de Outubro after the day of the Republican revolution
in 1910; she carried on considerable hydrographic work for two decades.
With regard to the obvious improvements in collecting gear and instrumen-
tation that took place with the acquisition of the successive Amelias, among
them the use of steel cables (after Beloc and Lord Kelvin) and the Luca's appa-
ratus employed by transatlantic cable-laying vessels, it is interesting to note the
close communication between Carlos de Bragan~a and the Prince of Monaco.
Albert I not only offered Carlos much encouragement but went into great detail
about operational methods and the utilization of special gear. Thus his letters
include drawings to show the precise location of weights on the cable when
trawling, instructions as to the length of cable required to dredge or trawl at
different depths, the details of handling trawl nets, how to construct a "faubert"
(hempen mop or tangles attached to the dredge for the capture of echinoderms,
sponges, corals, etc.), and many other pertinent observations. It is interesting
also that in a letter in 1899 the Prince proposed to the King that he present the
results of his investigations to the French Academy of Sciences.
Bragan~a's main interest lay in the fishes, but extensive collections of all
kinds of marine animals were preserved. These collections, somewhat decimated
over the years, are now housed at the Aquarium Vasco de Gama in Lisbon. They
were studied not only by the King himself but also later by others such as Vilela
(1936) on the stomatopod and decapod crustacea and Gon~alves (1942) on
fishes. And to this day the collections are available for use by modern workers.
Bragan~a (1904) himself published a detailed work on the sharks obtained on
the cruises between 1896 and 1903. In the introduction he repeats his conviction
that a more thorough knowledge of the ichthyofauna would be beneficial to the
commercial fisheries. He goes on to suggest that a catalogue of the Portuguese
species with accounts of their distribution, reproductive periods, seasons of avail-
ability of migratory species off the Portuguese coast, and the best methods of
capture would be of interest. With reference to distribution, he notes in passing
that well before the refutation of Forbes' theory that 300 fathoms was the limit
of animal life, the Portuguese fishermen long-lined for "abyssal" sharks and inci-
dentally brought up large sponges (Hyalonema andAsconema). In his detailed de-
scription of long-lining for sharks he includes a curious detail, namely the rubbing
of certain parts of the line with the liver of a macrourid fish, Macrocephalus laevis,
" ... whose extraordinary qualities of phosphorescence have the property of at-
tracting fishes." He notes also that the examination of the stomach contents of
sharks is an important tool for deep-sea biologists in their search for rare specimens
in good condition " ... that sharks swallow whole due to their extreme voracity."
In this work on sharks Carlos attempts a brief classification of sharks on the
basis of distribution: coastal and abyssal, the former divided into sedentary and
pelagic. He gives definitions of these categories, but points out that the distinc-
610 L. Saldanha
tion between coastal sedentary and abyssal is not always clear. With reference to
the distribution of the abyssal forms, he believes that temperature and pressure
are important factors.
The main bulk of the King's work on sharks is an account of the different
Portuguese species with synonymies, appropriate references, common names,
listings of specimens collected on each cruise, and in many cases measurements
and notes on morphology and distribution. There are dichotomous keys for
species identification, colored illustrations of some, and tables of bathymetric
distribution. One long-nosed shark is described as a new species (Odontaspis
nasutus Bragan9a 1904), later recognized as a synonym of Mitsukurina owstoni
Jordan, 1898.
As indicated earlier, Carlos de Bragan9a was much concerned with the prob-
lems of the commercial fisheries. His work on "The Tuna Fishery at Algarve in
1898" (1899) states that while he was working in the area with deep canyons
off the coast at Sesimbra he decided to undertake annual well-organized cruises
to the south off the province of Algarve where the capture of migrating tuna by
trap nets was the most important fishery. His plan was to make systematic ob-
servations from Amelia on the temperature and transparency of the water and
on the prevailing currents. He also distributed cards to the owners of the tuna
fisheries for recording daily catch by species and other information-surely one
of the earliest methodical attempts to record catch statistics. By this method he
hoped to provide substantial information on the occurrence and abundance of
the tunas in the Algarve fishery. However, the work was carried out for only one
year. Carlos' account of the results (1899) includes keys for the different species
of tunas off the Portuguese coast, with frne illustrations of their particular char-
acteristics, notes on their food, reproduction, distribution and migrations, mak-
ing reference to the work carried out at other laboratories such as that at the
Marine Station of Endoume in Marseille. The occurrence, behavior and abundance
of the Algarve tuna for the year 1898 is also carefully documented with accom-
panying graphs, tables and charts.
Nor was the King's interest in the commercial fisheries confined to the above-
mentioned. At the turn into the 20th century the Portuguese fishermen became
much concerned about the introduction of steam trawlers, fearing the depletion
of resources by engine-powered vessels, as opposed to the conventional methods
used by boats under sail. To test the efficiency of the new procedure he hired
the steam-driven Machado, which then fished off Sesimbra at different depths
with the catches (several tons) being counted by species and measured.
Bragan9a's broad interest in oceanography is evident from the wide variety of
his studies. Thus he released floats in particular areas to gain a knowledge of
local currents and made the observation that there was a surface coastal move-
ment of water flowing to the north between Cape Espichel (38°26') and Aveiro
(40°35') at the end of November and the beginning of December 1896. The
King's notes also reveal his interest in the topography of canyons and their bot-
tom sediments, and in this connection he undertook the construction of a bathy-
metric chart of Portuguese waters in a scale of 1/100,000. Neither did the inter-
'7"-"-- -I-- I
.. :':""" - - ~
""" !-1./- - a.. I~ ~J...:-_ ..... ~:' --- -
6/.......,...:..<-- ;v~t/.r--,;:" 'i'. ,,,'1'-,.-----. -----C--?.L7~_1,:,a: lor' ,
d .. LOI../t/JI.--...r-, .... ~ /.<:"r'~(~~-N':¥I-~a./qjJ,7.;"7~~-Jl~·
,/~.. ./'~.. ,(J~: -?-:r"'~~-J o/~ : t..J--.'-., 1--1" ;
"~ '.L-- . I. t ~r_#IlA..-f-?-r-·tI.,.,tc.-. c-...-- ~---- ~'a.-...·~- ~ a.,/~;".'.-.......-
p(. ....,.; .
tL- __,r. ~ / •. _k~ h 1'."cj"I.n· t'.".I'..1..J: ..... //'JV) ""-r »._ ....... , o';""'FJ..;J~ $ " S-:"#-
;:..I!- .~.~/J'.n) ¥f:-~'I...·P.' . r.J ..... ,., ... ~_ ... ~~9." j'..<.:_:/~.~ _: .A~~:
.t ....... ~ L:fa'..fi-;IP/'/. • .'....~{-";);/l..-...~~/~·~- ...... /~~r',........ ~~c:
(d, ... ..h- /,.-n· L./,- j.J ,I.I'''''}·II'/...J..- ~ ~.~ .......... """¥~~8:.n'4'~
rr:I',rj ~ ,f"'j ... 9. ~ ;:.... , ; ~ .. /.p: .. - - .. ~ ..r.-_ ......t.-; !~~~
,. I'......~..
,;; .~.-.(", ..~
j
~
.... ..
'1 /-
- ----
~~-
~ --==
=>-
-
. ..--
- -~ '-- ~-~-
- ~ - :::;-. ==--
a.. /). tv.... ~ ,c ~ ((d'-./~'O (/'. P .~. (':rt-l./_~'1. rC'"./i{j - .e. --

~ ..il! ''r''''''' -: .Lr. _Ll"'~; Q ...~.~;
J, .
:.... Z'. I'",) L J" ",;-.---c"'-; ....
~ ,A'i:•• •••• p-,; '-.>...... ~_--" Jv-'-- ..... IJ______ lO.... if~
... ( - - _ ( " . • J.L'_· +:'~h C>--
Figure 2. A watercolored page of the diary of the cruise of 1897. The king
depicts himself seated and working, watched by the members of his crew.
612 L. Saldanha
tidal zone in marine birds escape his attention. Furthermore, he organized several
exhibitions in Lisbon and Oporto to show the public his collections and to
demonstrate the results of his investigations. As an extention of his activities
aboard the first Amelia, he also created a small marine laboratory at the fortress
of Cascais, one of his summer residences; this was the forerunner of such labo-
ratories in Portugal.
Despite the obvious fact that the King had no problem in financing his vari-
ous projects in the marine sciences (and had no obligation to write reports!), he
needed assistance to accomplish all he did. He had several people helping him on
cruises, but his most important collaborator was A. Girard. Prince Albert wrote
to Carlos in 1896 about Girard that" ... je ne crois pas possible d'avoir un com-
pagnon de travail plus intelligent, plus zele ni plus agreable," and Carlos himself
makes gracious acknowledgment (1899) to him and attributes much of the suc-
cess of the early cruises to Girard's zoological knowledge and exceptional quali-
ties. It would be interesting to know more about his precise role in the King's
oceanographic endeavors, but clearly his assistance in no way detracts from the
monarch's achievements.
Carlos, as he signed his paintings, was an accomplished artist in his own right.
His works include studies of Portuguese rural life, landscapes, and, quite natural-
ly, ships. His papers include drawings of his yachts, and the diary of the 1897
cruise (Fig. 1) is lavishly illustrated with his own watercolors (Fig. 2).
In conclusion, and without overlooking the work of such predecessors as
Bocage and Capello, it is clear that Carlos de Bragaw;:a was a pioneer in the
marine sciences in Portugal and that by his contributions to the knowledge of
its coastal waters he provided a strong impetus to the development of oceanogra-
phy. He was assassinated by political opponents in the streets of Lisbon on Feb-
ruary 1, 1908, in his 45th year-a tragic loss to the field of endeavor he loved
so much.
References
Bragan9a, C. de. 1897. YachtAmelia. Campanhaoceanognificade 1896. Imprensa

Nacional, Lisboa. 20 pp.
Bragan9a, C. de. 1899. Pescas marltimas, I - A pesca do atum no Algarve em
1898. Result invest. scient. Yacht Amelia, 104 pp., 3 plates, 8 graphics and
maps.
Bragan9a, C. de. 1902. Rapport preliminaire sur les Campagnes de 1896 a 1900.
1 - Introduction, Campagne de 1896. Bull. Camp. scient. Yacht Amelia, 1,
112 pp., 1 map, several illustrations.
Bragan9a, C. de. 1904. Ichthyologia. II - Esqualos obtidos nas costas de Portugal
durante as campanhas de 1896 a 1903. Result. invest. scient. Yacht Amelia,
115 pp., 2 color plates.
Bragan~a, C. de. not published. Yacht Amelia. Diario da campanha de 1897.
Existing in the Aquarium Vasco de Gama, Lisbon (a fac. simile was pub-
lished in 1979 by the Portuguese Navy and includes the paper by Ruivo,
1957, and another on the artistic activity of the King).
Diario nautico do iate real D. Amelia. Existing in the Arquivo Geral de Marinha,
Lisbon.
Gon9a1ves, B. D. 1942. Peixes. Co1ec9ao Oceanografica de D. Carlos I, Trav. St.
BioI. mar. Lisbonne, 46, 108.
Ruivo, M. 1957. D. Carlos de Bragan9a Naturalista e Ocean6grafo. Conferencia,
ed. Funda9ao da Casa de Bragan9a, 43 pp., 1 fac. simile, 7 plates (2 in color).
Vile1a, H. 1936. Crustaceos Decapodes. Estomatopodes. Co1ec9ao Oceanogra-
fica D. Carlos I. Trav. St. BioI. mar. Lisbonne, 40, 215-242.
Studies of the Acceptance of Plate Tectonics
1. L. Lemke, M.H. Nitecki and H. Pullman
1 Introduction
Reviewing the significance of oceanography's contributions to the newly emerg-

ing plate tectonics view of the earth, Sir Edward Bullard wrote in 1969 that:
... the main processes of geology can be understood only when the oceans
have been studied; no amount of effort on land could have told us what we
now know (Bullard 1969, p. 88).
Whether or not geologists or historians of science will ultimately accept this

opinion, it must certainly have seemed true in 1969 that without the weight of
the oceanographic evidence, neither the general hypothesis of continental drift,
nor the specific model of the emerging plate tectonics theory would have found
much acceptance among geologists generally.
The research and research-in-progress which we report here consists of a
series of studies designed to provide some evidence of when, why, and by whom
the continental drift/plate tectonics theory was accepted. The studies are surveys
of U.S. geologists and geologists in many other parts of the world, as well as of
some non-geologists for purposes of comparison.
Patrick Hurley, writing in 1968 for a wide audience under the title, "The
Confirmation of Continental Drift," observed that:
As recently as five years ago the hypothesis that the continents had drifted
apart was regarded with considerable skepticism, particularly among Ameri-
can investigators (Hurley 1968, p. 57).
Studies of the Acceptance of Plate Tectonics 615
In his view it was not until the Geological Society of America meeting in San
Francisco in 1966 that the majority of American geologists began to accept the
theory. All the prior evidence, from the reconstructions and paleontological hy-
potheses of Wegener (1929) and Du Toit (1937), through Vening Meinesz' studies
of trenches and island arcs, to the post-war work of Ewing and Heezen on the
mid-ocean ridges, Blackett and Runcorn on polar wandering, and Hess' and
Dietz' proposals of the sea-floor spreading model, had not been enough "to sway
the preponderance of American scientific opinion" (Hurley 1968, p. 61). Hallam
(1973) goes so far as to say that before the mid-1960s "open adherence to this
doctrine [Le., continental drift] would have put at serious risk the attainment
of tenure by junior faculty members" (p. 105).
It seems generally agreed that sometime between about 1965 and 1971 there
was a general shift in the attitude of geologists generally to the continental
drift/plate tectonics theory, with North American geologists having been the
most skeptical. After the appearance of Vine, Matthews, and Wilson's studies of
the patterns of magnetic reversals, earlier evidence seems to have taken on more
Significance for many geologists. New evidence (e.g., from the deep-sea cores,
seismic studies, and other paleomagnetic work) accumulated rapidly once the
new model had become a framework for further studies.
In all this the role of oceanography and marine geology and geophysics and
the evidence they provided was crucial. Whether we accept Bullard's opinion or
not, it would certainly seem that the initial acceptance of continental drift/plate
tectonics by the majority of geologists, at least in North America, was based pre-
ponderantly on the evidence of ocean studies.
If one accepts Kuhn's notion of revolutions in science through changes of
research paradigms (Kuhn 1970), the 1960s were a period of revolution in the
earth sciences (cf. Hallam 1973, Wilson 1971, MacArthur and Pestana 1974).
But it may be well to remember that there are some dangers for a discipline in
the heady new days of a new paradigm. When one theory or model monopolizes
efforts to interpret data, a diScipline misses the critical debate and critical analy-
sis of alternatives that occurs when different views are competing. One theory
may triumph to the point where its remaining critics are not seriously listened
to, but are isolated as 'outsiders' or tolerated as cranks. Consider for example
the following difficulties.
The discovery of magnetic anomalies in the oceans was used to interpret and
to substantiate the idea of sea-floor spreading and became key evidence in sup-
port of the plate tectonics theory. The studies of patterns of magnetic anomalies
in the ocean floor enabled the age of formation of the oceanic lithosphere to be
determined and permitted the rate of spreading and production of new oceanic
crust in different parts of the oceans. Data derived from deep-sea drilling per-
mitted the interpretation of the gological relations beneath the ocean floor and
further confirmed the predictions of plate tectonics theory. There is an almost
universal tendency to interpret such data in the light of plate tectonics, e.g., the
generally geologically recent age of sediments on the ocean floor, yet there is
some question whether we could have arrived at the plate tectonics theory if
only the deep-sea drilling data were available? Probably not.
616 J. L. Lemke, M. H. Nitecki and H. Pullman
The deep-sea drilling, magnetic anomalies, seismic profiling, seismology, and
sediment studies provide evidence for support of the plate tectonics theory as
well as providing information on the geological history of the crust in the light
of the theory. Yet some of these interrelationships are beset with difficulties
because the modeling of the oceanic lithosphere is itself based partly on the
interpretation of magnetic anomalies and sea-floor spreading rather than on the
direct data: great care thus needs to be taken not to introduce circularity into
the arguments.
It is now becoming clear that, as with all scientific models, the plate tectonics
model of the continents and ocean basins is much more complicated than origi-
nally envisioned. It appears to us, standing a bit outside the field itself, that the
resolution of much of the data's problems of interpretation is not always con-
sistent. While we have no reason at all to doubt the general applicability of the
plate tectonics theory, we feel that the unquestioned acceptance of the theory
may somewhat hamper the deciphering of the complex results coming out of
oceanographic research.
Whatever the ultimate fate of plate tectonics as a theory, its relatively sudden
and rapid acceptance by geologists in the mid- and late 1960s offers a rare op-
portunity for historians and sociologists of science to study a major, recent scien-
tific revolution and examine the processes and patterns of acceptance of a major
new scientific theory. We ourselves are neither historians nor sociologists, and
only one of us is a geologist (and not a specialist in plate tectonics or oceanogra-
phy, but a paleontologist). Our curiosity prompted us to begin a study which has
now grown larger, and perhaps more significant, than we had at first expected.
Hopefully our results will provide a unique kind of data for future investigators
of this period and more immediately may provide some insights and raise some
questions of special interest to those who work in the earth sciences.
2 The U. S. Study: 1977
In mid-1977 we surveyed a random sample of about 300 Fellows of the Geologi-

cal Society of America and active members of the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists in an effort to learn something about when and why
geologists categorizable in a variety of ways had come to accept plate tectonics
theory, if in fact they had done so.
As reported in Geology (Nitecki, Lemke, Pullman, and Johnson 1978), we
found that only about 30% of U.S. geologists say they had accepted the theory
prior to 1961. (The figure of 22% printed in that paper was an error; it did not
include the 7% who say they had accepted the theory even before 1940.) By
1977, 87% had come to accept the theory, with nearly half having accepted it
during the decade of the 1960s. There was no significant relation of a geologist's
age to his or her apparent readiness to accept the theory, contrary to the hy-
pothesis that changes in accepted scientific beliefs are mainly the result of their
acceptance by a new generation of younger scientists, who in time displace their
still unconvinced elders (cf., Hull, Tessner, and Diamond 1978, on the Darwinian
revolution).
Only about 3% of our sample were marine geologists, and it is difficult to
generalize about them as a subgroup, though we may say that they seem to be
more familiar than the average geologist with the literature on continental
drift/plate tectonics which contains the original evidence and arguments for and
against the theory, as one would expect. They are also more likely to have taught
a course in which the theory was discussed. But they are not statistically differ-
ent from the profession as a whole in their estimation of the present status of
the theory (40% say 'essentially established', 47% say 'fairly well established',
13% say 'inadequately proven' in the full sample), though they may be slightly
more confident about the future of the theory.
Our data also give an indication of the familiarity of geologists in general
with that important body of evidence from ocean studies which was (and may
still be) the principal support of the theory. Of five such bodies of work asked
about in the survey, we found that 18% reported themselves unfamiliar in 1977
with the work of Ewing and Heezen on oceanic ridges, 19% did not know of the
work of Hess and Dietz on sea-floor spreading, and 26% were unfamiliar with
Vine, Matthews, and Wilson's work on magnetic anomalies and sea-floor spread-
ing. Forty-eight percent of geologists would seem not to know the work of W.
Jason Morgan, Xavier Le Pichon, D. P. McKenzie and R. L. Parker on the move-
ment of plates, and 53% are unfamiliar with the work of Opdyke and Hays on
polarity reversals and deep sea cores. (Among our marine geologists, the cor-
responding figures for these last two are 17% and 30% unfamiliar, respectively.)
We were particularly struck in interpreting our findings not so much by the
lack of familiarity of many geologists with the relevant literature-the situation
is as bad or worse for the non-ocean studies-as by the fact that those who do
not know the evidence seem to hold the same opinions about the validity of
the theory (pro or can) as those who do. (For some minor qualifications, see our
Geology paper.) Combining this with the evidence we have that, apart from
those who had accepted the theory prior to 1960, 'conversion' of the rest seemed
to occur at about the same time regardless of how long they had known about
the theory. We were led to the hypothesis that at some time in the mid- or late
1960s, there may have been a sort of 'chain reaction' or general shift in opinion,
which more or less uniformly altered the attitude of the majority of the profes-
sion as a group, and which was not, at least in most cases, the result of individual
judgments of the accumulating evidence and arguments for and against the theory.
The size of the sample of geologists in this study proved too small for us to
draw firm conclusions about the processes of acceptance of plate tectonics by
U.S. geologists. We were also curious whether it was true that attitudes outside
the U.S., especially among Southern Hemisphere (Gondwanaland) geologists
had followed a different pattern over time. Finally we had not specifically asked
in our survey what had influenced a person's opinion of the theory, nor had we
sought to discover anything about the general attitudes of geologists toward cri-
teria and evidence for the acceptance of a new scientific theory. These consider-
ations formed the basis of planning for a second, much larger survey.
3 The International Survey: 1979-1980
A new survey was prepared in 1979 to explore some of the hypotheses generated
as a result of the U.s. survey of 1977. The new survey is directed at three groups:
U.S. geologists will be surveyed again, some U.S. biologists and anthropologists
will be surveyed for purposes of comparison, and geologists in Australia, India,
South Africa, Japan, Scandinavia, and the U.K. will be surveyed for the first
time. We hope also to include geologists in the Soviet Union in the new survey.
The questions will in many instances repeat those asked in the first survey,
but some will ask for the more precise information we need to resolve some key
points (e.g., time of first encounter and of first acceptance, degree and range of
familiarity with the literature, etc.). There will also be new items. We are asking
respondents to tell us their estimation of the relative importance of several fac-
tors in their judgments of the theory, and to tell us which published evidence or
arguments were most influential for them.
We are also adding in the new survey a set of items designed to assess attitudes
to several issues which we believe bear on the process of acceptance of a new
scientific theory, or which others have suggested may do so. Thus we are asking
respondents to what extent they agree or disagree that individual scientists
should read the original evidence and arguments for and against a theory before
forming their own opinion, or may rely on the judgment of others without hav-
ing done so. We are interested in whether they believe their colleagues are overly
eager to accept new theories, or overly reluctant to do so, and what criteria they
feel are important in judging a new theory. We are asking whether they believe
that younger researchers are more likely to accept new theories, and whether
they agree with a Simplified version of Kuhn's notion of scientific revolution by
paradigm shift. Because of its special relevance to the debate about plate tec-
tonics reconstructions, and because of the international nature of the sample, we
are asking for an opinion of the importance of studies of a region originating
with the local geologists.
We are taking pains with the new survey as with the first one to insure that
the language of the items and the list of relevant literature are not biased toward
the plate tectonics theory and against its critics, or toward acceptance at a par-
ticular time having been 'premature' or 'long overdue'. We are particularly inter-
ested in the opinions of geologists who do not accept the theory.
In the original survey we also tended to equate the terms continental drift
and plate tectonios, or to equivocate between them, because of the shifting ter-
minology during the key period of the 1960s in which we were interested. We
did ask in that survey what the proper relation between the terms was and found
that those most familiar with the literature considered them to be only 'loosely
related'. The new survey uses only the term 'plate tectonics' when speaking to
geologists, but for non-geologists we will include a preface to the questionnaire
derming the two terms and relating them to one another in a simple way. It must
be left to a detailed historical study to determine to what extent those who ac-
cepted the theory in its earlier, pre-tectonics guise made a second judgment
about the later, more specific plate tectonics model.
At the time of writing, the results of the international survey are not yet
available, but they will have been reported at the Congress in September 1980
and published thereafter both in the U.S. and in the other countries surveyed.
4 The Significance and Limitations of the Survey Studies
Ideally, the processes of acceptance of a new scientific theory should be studied

by direct observation, while they are happening. Since major new scientific
theories do not come along all that often, and since those foresighted enough
to realize that a particular development is the precursor of a theory that will
eventually be accepted are generally more interested in studying the theory it-
self rather than the social and scientific processes surrounding its acceptance,
such an ideal study may never be done. If the processes of acceptance of a new
theory are indeed, as we suspect, social ones, then there would also be great
problems of methodology for such a direct observational study. Who would be
observed? Which conferences would be studied? What processes of communi-
cation should be the focus of the study? How indeed are social phenomena in
the large to be observed as they occur? Would it be useful to attempt to survey
a cross section of a scientific discipline at frequent intervals during the critical
period of acceptance of a new theory, were one able to see that such was indeed
occurring?
If we concede that the ideal approach may not be a very practical one, what
are the alternatives? Sociologists do study social phenomena in the large, but
generally they examine only slowly changing processes, or examine changes only
after they have occurred. Few social phenomena are regularly monitored whether
they happen to be interesting at any given moment or not. When a significant
change is noticed, researchers must hope that someone before them has recorded
the data that they need.
Historical investigation necessarily suffers from the limitation that the data
it works with were not prescribed by the historian. One works from the docu-
ments and evidence that are available and makes of them what one can. The
scientist, even in a non-experimental discipline, can at least prescribe what data
shall be gathered, and, if it can be gathered, then it is the problem and the theory
which have selected the data, rather than the other way around. The weakness
of scientific methods is that we are often limited in what we can discover by the
fact that we do not collect data for which our problems and theories do not al-
ready have a place. Hence the often drastic character of scientific revolutions,
in which new kinds of evidence, and not just more evidence of the same kinds
guide the development of a field which has adopted a new paradigm.
Our studies are based on retrospective survey methods. They do not tell us
that in fact 30% of U.S. geologists had accepted the continental drift hypothesis
before 1960, but only that 30% have told us that they recall or believe in retro-
spect that they did. Unless there were surveys of the profession in or before
1960 which posed this question-and there are not likely to have been such be-
cause it would probably not have been an issue of wide concern among geolo-
gists then-there is no way that a historian or sociologist of science could ascer-
tain how many had in fact accepted the theory by that time. Historians must
work from mainly written documentation in such matters. They can analyze the
publications of the period, the reports of conferences, perhaps even the corre-
spondence and diaries of geologists. They cannot very well expect to find infor-
mation on the opinions of a representative sample of the profession as a whole.
They are likely to concentrate on the individuals who were prominent supporters
and critics, and about whom they will have direct evidence, and some may de-
velop a theory in which the role of these people is exaggerated if only by the
necessary neglect of the rest of the profession and its opinions. Note that this
kind of problem is much greater in the study of recent science when the sizes of
the scientific professions have grown very large. For examples of these problems,
see Hull, Tessner, and Diamond (1978).
In studying matters not simply offact, but of processes of judgment or change
of attitude, the problems are still worse. Even the prominent leaders of the
battle, pro and con, will be recording what they believe bears on the truth of the
theory rather than what the historian or sociologist may consider to bear on
their beliefs about the theory. At the level of individuals, it may be pointless to
inquire why X was so persuaded by Blackett and Runcorn's data and arguments,
but Y was not. What one would like to know is really whether X and Y were
respectively typical of categorizable groups of geologists who were and were not
persuaded. This, however, is just what retrospective survey methods, despite
their obvious limitation of being retrospective, can provide.
Ultimately, we should not be satisfied even with an analysis of the differences
between social groups whose attitudes to the theory followed different courses
in time for different reasons. We would like to know something about the under-
lying structure of attitudes and beliefs not only about geological facts and re-
lations, but about the nature of their work as scientists and the nature of science
and its processes and norms, in the profeSSion as a social whole. That structure
is no doubt a complex, heterogeneous, and internally differentiated one, but still
one with some detectably orderly relations between the beliefs and attitudes of
one subgroup and those prevailing in another. It is also very likely a structure
that is embedded in the larger system of beliefs and attitudes in which geologists
participate as members of a particular society and a particular cultural tradition.
This brief excursus into some often-debated questions will serve, we hope, to
make clear the perspective from which our group approaches its studies of the
processes of acceptance of the plate tectonics theory and to indicate why we
have chosen to extend the domain of our study geographically and culturally to
such a widely diverse international sample of the profession, and to extend it
methodologically to include a survey of more general attitudes toward the pro-
cesses of science.
There are no data comparable to that we have been gathering to document
the Darwinian revolution in biology or the Quantum revolution in physics. Let
us hope that, imperfect as it is, this work will be of some service to future students
of the history of the earth sciences, as well as of more than passing interest to
those of us whose curiosity will not let us wait to hear the judgments of history
from others.
References
Bullard, E. C. 1969. The origin of the oceans. In: Continents Adrift, J. T. Wilson
(ed.), W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 88-97.
Du Toit, A. L. 1937. Our wandering continents. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.
Hallam, A. 1973. A revolution in the earth sciences. Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 105-113.
Hull, D. L., Tessner, P. D. and Diamond, A. M. 1978. Planck's Principle. Science,
202, 717-722.
Hurley, P. M. 1968. The confirmation of continental drift. In: Continents Adrift,
J. T. Wilson (ed.), W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, 57-67.
Kuhn, T. S. 1970. The structure of scientific revolutions. Second edition. Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, Chicago.
MacArthur, R. P. and Pestana, H. R. 1974. Is continental dift/plate tectonics a
paradigm-theory? In: Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of the
History of Science, Tokyo and Kyoto, Vol. 3, 105 -1 08.
Nitecki, M. H., Lemke, J. L., Pullman, H. and Johnson, M. 1978. The acceptance
of plate tectonics theory by geologists. Geology, 6, 661-664.
Wegener, A. 1967. The origin of continents and oceans. English translation of
the fourth German edition (1929). Methuen, London.
Wilson, J. T. 1971. Continents adrift. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
How Secure is Plate Tectonics?
A. Hallam
1 Introduction
I have already written at some length on the mass conversion of the earth sciences
community to a mobilist paradigm in the 1960s, in terms of a Kuhnian revolution
(Hallam 1973). Consequently, rather than elaborate further on this subject, I
would prefer to explore for this symposium some related matters more appropri-
ate to a time when plate tectonics has been widely accepted and applied to many
fields of geology and geophysics with great success for over a decade.
The kinds of questions I wish to pose are as follows. To what extent can it be
argued that plate tectonics has now entered a phase of 'normal science' as defmed
by Kuhn? How much faith can be placed in the plate tectonics paradigm, and
how falsifiable is it? Is it likely to have a long and successful future in an essen-
tially unmodified form or can we conceive of alternative world view that might
possibly come to supercede it? Before an attempt is made to answer such ques-
tions it will be necessary to pay attention to some modern philosophical views
about the nature of scientific activity, including the reaction to Kuhn's major
work (1962).
Most scientists blithely ignore the writings of philosophers and are content to
pursue their research interests guided by the traditions established within their
subjects (one might wryly add that their work is perhaps none the worse for
that). Two writers, however, Sir Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, have had an in-
fluence extending far beyond the limits of a rather esoteric profession.
One of Popper's most Significant achievements in his ''The Logic of Scientific
Discovery" (1959) was to undermine the conventional inductivist view of science
dating back to Francis Bacon. This view has been impliCitly accepted by gener-
How Secure is Plate Tectonics? 623
ations of geologists and received eloquent expression in the well known article of
Chamberlin (1890). However, the notion that we commence our scientific ob-
servations in a kind of state of innocence, with the mind a tabula rasa unguided
by a ruling theory, has long been discredited. Nowadays we recognize that obser-
vations are theory-loaded and that we need grounds for choice of observations
to be made.
The essence of Popper's views is perhaps most neatly encapsulated in the title
of another of his books, "Conjectures and Refutations." We are at liberty to
throw up any number of speculative hypotheses but to qualify as scientific theo-
ry they must be potentially refutable by means of experiment or observation.
Popper emphasized the asymmetry between verification and falsification of
scientific theories. In strictly logical terms no amount of confirmatory experi-
ments or observations can be held to verify a given theory, but just one crucial
experiment or set of observations can falsify it. Falsification should thus be a
primary goal of the good scientist. This view is in sharp contrast to the inducti-
vist position, where the emphasis is upon verification.
Although "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" has been generally acknow-
ledged as an intellectual tour de force, Popper has been criticized for applying
too rigorously strictly logical criteria and not exhibiting enough knowledge of or
insight into the way the operations of science are actually conducted. There are
in fact few 'crucial' experiments-they only appear thus in retrospect (Lakatos
1978). In Ziman's opinion (1978) Popper's demarcation criterion that an accep-
table scientific theory should in principle be falsifiable is strategically sound but
tactically indefensible. It turns out, in practice, that almost any 'theory' is to
some extent 'falsified' by the relevant observations: the question then hinges on
whether this failure is to be treated as a genuine objection or whether, pending
conceivable improvements in formulation or computation, it may temporarily be
overlooked.
Kuhn aligns himself firmly with those, such as Polanyi (1958) and Ziman
(1978) who insist that a proper understanding of science can only be obtained
by paying careful attention to how scientists actually operate and interact, which
implies conSidering a whole range of psychological and sociological factors. His
basic thesis is that science progresses not by gradual accumulation of knowledge
but by radical changes of paradigm or world-view following longer periods of
'normal science' in which the characteristic activity is the comparatively hum-
drum one of 'puzzle solving'. Kuhn's seminal work has not, of course, escaped
criticism from philosophers of science, as well illustrated in the book edited by
Lakatos and Musgrave (1970). Kuhn was accused of 'psychologism', that is, pay-
ing too much attention to purely rational criteria, of not giving a sufficently
clear defmition of what is meant by 'paradigm' and of making too sharp a dis-
tinction between normal and revolutionary science. The most frequently ex-
pressed criticism was that Kuhn's monistic view-only one paradigm for a given
subject at a particular time-was unduly restrictive.
Although Kuhn made a trenchant reply to his critics (1970) I feel that there
is a need for a somewhat more penetrating account of scientific change than he
624 A. Hallam
provides, such as that outlined by the late Imre Lakatos (1970), a philosopher
who deserves to be more widely read by scientists.
Lakatos argues that scientists are guided by what he terms research pro-
grammes which consist of methodological rules, some indicating which paths of
research to avoid (negative heuristic), and others which paths to pursue (positive
heuristic). All scientific research programs may be characterized by their 'hard
core'. The negative heuristic forbids us to attack this hard core, protected by a
belt of auxiliary hypotheses, which must bear the brunt of critical tests and
which must be adjusted or replaced if necessary to defend the core of beliefs.
A research program is successful if all this leads to a progressive problem shift,
unsuccessful if it leads to a degenerating problem shift.
Newton's gravitational theory is cited as the classical example of a successful
research program. In the Newtonian program the negative heuristic protects the
hard core of the three laws of dynamics and the law of gravitation, which are
irrefutable by the methodological decision of its protagonists. In the early years
numerous apparent anomalies and counter instances were successfully converted
into corroborating instances and the threat of 'defeat' turned into 'victory';
meanwhile the empirical content increased progressively.
The positive heuristic of the program, which dictates the long-term research
policy, consists of a partly articulated set of suggestions or hints on how to mod-
ify and render more sophisticated the 'refutable' protective belt, and may lay
out a program that lists a sequence of ever more complicated models simulating
reality; it can forge ahead with almost complete disregard of 'refutations'.
It seems to me that Lakatos' account, of which the foregoing is a very inade-
quate digest, gives a richer and more satisfying description of scientific activity
than either Popper or Kuhn. Most scientists are not engaged for the bulk of their
professional lives in either dreaming up or refuting radical new theories. On the
other hand, the term 'puzzle solving', for the dominant periods of 'normal
science', appears to trivialize their activity. There may indeed be times when one
paradigm quickly gains ascendancy over another, as in the earth sciences 'revo-
lution' over a decade ago, but Lakatos allows more than one paradigm to coex-
ist. One may well be in a progressive, another in a degenerating phase, as new
observations or experiments tend to corroborate one set of auxiliary hypotheses
and refute the other, or two coexisting paradigms may have equal claim to
serious attention. For such cases the term revolution is clearly inapposite.
likewise, Chamberlin's (1890) method of multiple working hypotheses appears
sensible enough at this level. The underlying theory, corresponding to Kuhn's
paradigm, operates at a more general (? higher) level and is of necessity less
amenable to direct challenge.
I also ally myself with Ziman (1978) when he states that the goal of science
is a consensus of rational opinion over the widest possible field, and am content
to leave the purely epistomological problems to the philosophers. There is no
sure way of achieving certainty or eliminating fallibility, which is far from admit-
ting that scientific beliefs are at the whim of fashion or fancy. Ziman goes to
great pains to establish that they are more strictly controlled and rational than
any other sphere of thought, by appeals to empirical data, logic and common
sense. Scientific communication is normally more universal and less ambiguous
than any other mode of discourse and is dependent not merely on language and
algebraic formulae but on what is termed pattern recognition. This refers to
diagrams and pictures whose meaning cannot be deduced by formal logical or
mathematical manipulation, and is obviously of major importance in sciences
such II geology and biology. Scientific knowledge is not so much 'objective' as
'interlubjective' .
2 Application to Geology
I assume that few will dissent from the view that by normal scientific criteria
plate tectonics has proved a highly successful theory. It has wide scope, consider-
able explanatory and predictive power and a beautiful first order simplicity. It
accounts for the wealth of oceanographic data brought to light since the second
world war in a way that the deposed paradigm denying continental drift conspicu-
ously failed to do. Hypotheses based on the theory have survived a diversity of
tests involving, for instance, seismology, deep-sea drilling and the divergence
through time of different continental polar wandering paths. Apparent anoma-
lies, such as the uncrumpled young sediments in certain deep sea trenches, have
been satisfactorily explained away.
Are we now the victims of this success-can the younger generation of earth
scientists anticipate future breakthroughs of comparable magnitude? It is cer-
tainly true that what one might call the "surprise factor" has diminished in the
literature of recent years. More and more researchers are treading quite well-
worn paths and having to work harder and in more detail to discover something
of real novelty. In fact many fields seem to have achieved the stage of "normal
science," if we are to continue to use Kuhn's term. A graduate student at a
major oceanographic institute might be given the task of analyzing in detail a
small sector of ocean floor, which could involve sorting out some little local
problems that emerged from an earlier reconnaissance study of magnetic anoma-
lies, acting on the assumption that plate tectonics is true. This is obviously puzzle
solving in the Kuhian sense.
If there were nothing more to it than that one could hardly expect the imagi-
nation of a wider public to be deeply stirred for long, and research funding
sources might become increasingly reluctant to pay an ever more expensive bill.
But of course there is much more to it. When one considers the whole range of
geology, one can hardly fail to be impressed at the way in which plate tectonics
has thrown new light on, for instance, mountain building, igneous and metamor-
phic processes, metallogenesis, eustatic changes, palaeoclimatology and palaeo-
biogeography. These, and other, research fields have been revitalized by the new
paradigm and I believe that a good case could be made for arguing that not just
the quantity but also the quality of the relevant research has increased. In other
words we tend nowadays to operate on a higher level of understanding than in
626 A. Hallam
the old "stabilist" days, which is not to deny the numerous problems and uncer-
tainties that lie ahead, or the marked differences in quality of particular pieces
of research.
Now this impressive progress in geology has depended on the implicit assump-
tion that plate tectonics is true. Utilizing the Lakatos terminology, one could say
that the plate tectonics research program is in a progressive phase, with the hard
core of basic belief being protected from direct assault by a series of auxiliary
hypotheses that are still being generated. Some of these are being corroborated
by new data, others refuted, but the fundamental tenets have of necessity
remained immune.
Such a state of affairs should be very worrying to a strict Popperian, because
it appears to imply that plate tectonics is not directly falsifiable and hence not
scientific. The limitations of this stark approach have been outlined in the fore-
going section and I would rather use Ziman's more modest consensus principle
in conjunction with the Lakatos model. The dramatic switch of a consensus of
earth scientists to a mobilist paradigm is now a fact of history (for an attempt at
quantitative documentation, see Nitecki et al. 1978). What we are entitled to ask
now is: can we conceive of a further consensus switch in the future, away from
plate tectonics? Is it just another fallible theory that will have to be abandoned
as knowledge increases, or will it serve as the unshakeable core of our science
for the foreseeable future, rather as the Darwinian theory of evolution by natu-
ral selection operates in biology? (Critics of Darwinian theory have complained
that it is virtually impossible to falsify!)
It should be evident that if plate tectonics is to be rejected in the future, a
whole series of awkward new discoveries in a range of disciplines must be made,
such that the protective belt of auxiliary hypotheses cannot, in the collective
judgment of the geological consensus, cope with the anomalies that arise.
3 Fu ture Prospects
Forecasting the future is notoriously hazardous but I am willing to speculate for

the purpose of provoking discussion.
From the foregoing comments it should be apparent that I consider it highly
unlikely that there will be any dramatic change in the immediate future. Even if
anomalies emerge and accumulate, plate tectonics has been far too successful in
the last few years to be abandoned without intensive efforts being made to ex-
plain them away within the framework of existing theory. For the longer term
let us consider three possibilities.
1. Despite the heroic efforts of the Meyerhoffs and a few others I see no pros-
pect whatsoever of a counter revolution to a stabilist paradigm denying con-
tinental drift, for the sorts of reasons presented elsewhere (Hallam 1973).
Many of the objections raised to plate tectonics (see Kuhle 1974) have proved
unconvincing to the geological consensus; others can be readily accommodated
by slight modifications to current theory.
2. It is conceivable, though unlikely, that plate tectonics could be replaced by
another mobilist paradigm, that invoking an earth that has expanded rapidly
since the early Mesozoic (Carey 1976, Owen 1976). This paradigm, which can
perhaps account for many of the new oceanographic data as well as plate tec-
tonics, differs fundamentally in denying the basic tenet that the amount of
crust created at oceanic ridges equals the amount destroyed in subduction
zones. One could imagine a research program devoted to demonstrating, for
instance, that extrapolation back through time from the existing pattern of
ocean floor magnetic anomalies leads to a conclusion inconsistent with the
preservation of constant earth radius; also that the phenomena of active con-
tinental margins can be satisfactorily explained without invoking subduction,
and that there must have been continuous continental crust across the Tethy-
an ocean gap accepted today by the majority of geologists.
There are, however, serious geophysical objections to overcome, and other
major geological phenomena satisfactorily accounted for by plate tectonics
must be plausibly explained away. These include orogenic and igneous activi-
ty prior to the Mesozoic, and the huge late Cretaceous marine transgression.
At present the model of rapid earth expansion in the recent geological past
appears to create more problems than it solves.
3. By far the likeliest possibility is that plate tectonics will continue to be ac-
cepted by the consensus, but perhaps with some significant modifications.
Consider for instance the article of Jordan (1979), who points out that while
existing theory has been very successful in describing the production and de-
struction of basaltic ocean crust, seismological data reveal substantial con-
trasts between subcontinental and suboceanic mantle extending down for
several hundred kilometers implying deep root zones that travel coherently
with the continents. This challenges a basic tenet of plate tectonics, that the
plates are confined to the lithosphere (called tectosphere in Morgan's original
(1967) article), which averages a mere 100 kilometers in thickness, and slides
over a weaker asthenosphere signified by the low velocity zone.
Jordan goes on to develop a speculative model, consistent with seismological

and petrological data, involving basalt depletion of the upper mantle beneath
cratonic regimes. While not able to judge the technical merits of this model my
non-specialist reaction is that it is plausible and ranks as just the kind of con-
structuve modification of existing theory that one can reasonably anticipate in
the future-the apple cart is not thereby upset. Ironically, somewhat similar
argwnents based on seismic and heat flow data were put forward in pre-plate
tectonics days by Macdonald (1963), who inferred that the upper mantle was
significantly different under the continents and oceans, Macdonald's conclusion
that this denied the possibility of continental drift was nevertheless rejected and
his data later reinterpreted by others who accepted plate tectonics. Such is the
power exerted by the dominant paradigm.
We are probably only at the beginning of a long debate about the character
of the mantle, improved knowledge of which is obviously vital to a proper
628 A. Hallam
understanding of the forces controlling plate motions. Without this plate theory
is bound to remain incomplete. Failure to provide a plausible mechanism was
one of the major reasons why Wegener failed to convert the consensus to his
mobilist views. Are we that much the wiser today?
References
Carey, S. W. 1976. The expanding earth. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 488 pp.

Chamberlin, T. C. 1890. The method of multiple working hypotheses. Science,
15, 92-98.
Hallam, A. 1973. A revolution in the earth sciences. Oxford Univ. Press, 127 pp.
Jordan, T. H. 1979. The deep structure of continents. Sci. Am., 240(1), 70-82.
Kuhle, C. F. (ed.). 1974. Plate tectonics-assessments and reassessments. Am.
Ass. Petrol. Geol. Mem., 23, 514 pp.
Kuhn, T. S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Univ. Chicago Press,
172 pp.
Kuhn, T. S. 1970. Reflections on my critics. In: Criticism and the growth of
knowledge, I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.), Cambridge Univ. Press, 231-
278.
Lakatos, I. 1970. Falsification and the methodology of scientific research pro-
grammes. In: Criticism and the growth of knowledge, I. Lakatos and A. Mus-
grave (eds.), Cambridge Univ. Press, 91-195.
Lakatos, I. 1978. Anomalies versus 'crucial experiments'. In: Mathematics,
science and epistomology: philosophical papers of Imre Lakatos, J. Worrall
and G. Currie (eds.), Cambridge Univ. Press, 2, 285 pp.
Lakatos, I. and Musgrave, A. (eds.). 1970. Criticism and the growth of know-
ledge. Cambridge Univ. Press, 281 pp.
Macdonald, G. J. F. 1963. The deep structure of continents. Rev. Geophys., 1,
587-665.
Morgan, W. J. 1967. Rises, trenches, great faults and crustal blocks. J. geophys.
Res., 73, 1959-1982.
Nitecki, M. H., Lemke, J. L., Pullman, H. W. and Johnson, M. E. 1978. Accep-
tance of plate tectonic theory by geologists. Geology, 6, 661-664.
Owen, H. G. 1976. Continental displacement and expansion of the earth during
the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Phil. Trans. roy. Soc., A 281, 223-291.
Polyani, M. 1958. Personal knowledge. Routledge & KeganPaul, London, 410 pp.
Popper, K. R. 1959. The logic of scientific discovery. Hutchinson, London,
480 pp.
Popper, K. R. 1969. Conjectures and refutations: the growth of scientific know-
ledge. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 3rd Edn., 347 pp.
Ziman, J. 1978. Reliable knowledge. Cambridge Univ. Press, 197 pp.
Early Observations and Investigations of El Nino:
the Event of 1925
Warren S. Wooster
In a classical paper published in 1931 , Gerhard Schott described the Peru Current
and the tropical region to its north as seen in normal years and during the Niiio
events of 1891 and 1925. The descriptions were based in large part on obser-
vations made by German merchant ships-sailing ships in 1891-and compiled
in the Deutsche Seewarte. By chance, additional information was available from
two American biologists who worked in the region in 1925, Robert Cushman
Murphy in Peru and William Beebe aboard Arcturus between Panama and the
Galapagos Islands.
In the years since publication of Schott's paper, much has been learned about
average oceanic conditions and their seasonal variations in the eastern Tropical
Pacific Ocean. Major and minor Nino events have occurred, some relevant scien-
tific observations have been made, and a plausible explanation of the phenome-
non has been developed. It is interesting now to compare these early observations
and Schott's interpretation of them with present knowledge and ideas.
1 The Peru Current and EI Nmo
The Peru Current is an eastern boundary current with its predominant near-
surface flow being toward the equator. The mean current is relatively broad and
shallow, and its speed is low Oess than one knot). Even under apparently unper-
turbed conditions, poleward surface currents have been reported, and a poleward
undercurrent (the Peru-Chile Undercurrent) is a permanent feature. Another
notable feature of eastern boundary currents is coastal upwelling associated with
equatorward surface wind stress; upwelling along the Peruvian coast is particular-
630 W. S. Wooster
ly well developed, especially in (southern) winter. As in similar regions elsewhere
in the world, the upwelled coastal waters are highly productive and are the habi-
tat of major pelagic fisheries.
Seasonal changes in some surface characteristics of the Peru Current and the
adjacent waters of the eastern tropical Pacific have become relatively well known
because of the accumulation and analysis of merchant ship observations, for ex-
ample by the National Marine Fisheries Service (see NMFS 1979). The annual
progression of sea surface temperatures has been established (Wooster and Sievers
1970, Zuta and Uroquizo 1972). Information on changes in surface salinities,
currents, and winds, especially offshore, is much less abundant, and seasonal
changes in subsurface oceanic conditions are only poorly known. Yet the general
features of the anomaly known as El Nmo, at least as observed off the Peruvian
coast, have become reasonably well established.
Each year during southern summer, the southeast trade winds are weakest,
and the intertropical convergence zone is farthest south. Coastal upwelling is
less intense (and its effects are masked by increased solar warming of surface
waters); the equatorial front which divides the cold, salty waters of the Peru Cur-
rent from the warm, fresher waters of the eastern tropical Pacific is more diffuse
and lies farther south than in other seasons.
Occasionally the summer conditions are abnormally developed in both time
and space, with warm surface waters extending far south of their usual limits
and for months after the usual autumn withdrawal. These oceanic anomalies are
often accompanied by unusual rainfall and by biological disturbances.
Most defmitions of EI Nino focus on the local manifestations of what has be-
come recognized as a very large scale event. For the purposes of the present
paper, EI Nino is considered to be a large-scale perturbation in the ocean and
atmosphere of the tropical Pacific whose consequences are seen most clearly in
the eastern tropical Pacific. Nino events differ widely in intensity and duration.
The characteristics of major events, as indicated by coastal temperature anoma-
lies, have been summarized as follows (Wooster and Guillen 1974): they begin
in February-May and last for ten to fourteen months; maximum temperature
anomalies occur in May-July and commonly have values of 2.0-4.0°C, followed
by a second maximum of about the same magnitude in December or January;
the intermediate minimum is usually in September or October when the anoma-
ly decreases to O.s°C or less.
The record of Puerto Chicama (7° 42'S, 79°27'W) surface temperatures,
which began in 1925, shows (Fig. 1) that the event of that year was as intense
and long lasting as any since and was certainly in the category of such major
events as those of 1957-58 and 1972-73.
Early Observations and Investigations of EI Nmo: the Event of 1925 631
Figure 1. Monthly anomalies "C

PUERTO
of sea surface temperature at +4 CHICAMA
7°42'S, 79°27 ' W
Puerto Chicama, Peru (from
Miller and Laurs 1975).
+4
+2
OATA END
SEPT 1973
°c~----------~------------------~
2 Schott's Picture of Average Conditions
Much of Schott's paper is devoted to establishing the regional norm . He con-

structed along-shore temperature profIles from surface temperatures and salini-
ties of Emden (September 1927) and Nitokris (November 1929). These show
four upwelling zones between 300 S and 50 S. From La Libertad (2°S) to Antofa-
gasta (23°S), coastal temperatures are high in (southern) summer, low in winter.
Farther north, a sudden increase of temperature and decrease of salinity mark
the presence of the equatorial front. At Balboa, in the Gulf of Panama, tempera-
tures are sharply lowered from January to April when the maximum northeast
trade winds cause upwelling in the Gulf.
Ship drift and surface temperatures are combined in schematic figures of sur-
face flow in winter (August-September), in summer (February-March), and in
March of the 1891 Nino event (Fig. 2). The picture is relatively simple in winter.
Schott identifies a principal divergence line (III) running to the northwest along
632 w. S. Wooster
100 •
10 l---~I--+-.:::----f".o;;:---+W~~----+-Il0
so Aug. Sept.
100 ' 90' W-l . 80'
Figure 2a
Figure 2. Ship drift and surface temperature; averages for August-September (a)
and February-March (b) compared with March 1891 (c) (from Plate 20 of Schott
1931).
the tongue of lowest water temperatures and, to its north, a convergence line
(I) that we now call the Equatorial Front lying between the relatively cool South
Equatorial Current (the westward extension of the Peru Current) and the warm,
low-saline Equatorial Countercurrent.
Schott's picture of nbrmal summer conditions is much more variable and con-
fusing. The cold water convergence (III) extends only to the Galapagos; the
equatorial front lies a few degrees south of its summer position and is even south
of the equator west of Galapagos on the occasions when the surface current is
eastward. Cold water reaches southward from the Gulf of Panama, and a grand
convergence of four different currents and/or water masses is illustrated at about
2°N,83°W.
Early Observations and Investigations of El Nino: the Event of 1925 633
100' 90 ' 70 •
,--=-----"----+--?'----'r--'~\\'t_-----r___l l0
........-24 '
2S '
22 '
21 '
~ Febr, Marz ~o 19 ' III
90 'W-l , 80 ' 70 •
Figure 2b
In Schott's view, most of the oceanographic events, both normal and ab-
normal, can be related to the distribution of atmospheric pressure and the pre-
vailing winds. Lowest pressures are observed on the Peruvian coast in January-
March when they are highest in Panama. This reflects the seasonal migration of
the meteorological equator which is farthest south, reaching the geographical
equator east of Galapagos, in the fIrst months of the year. During this period,
northerlies extend across the Isthmus of Panama to the northern border of
Ecuador. In the vicinity of the meteorological equator, light winds or calms and
rains and thunderstorms are common. An unusual southward extension of these
features could account for many of the observed characteristics of EI Nmo. The
rainfall at Piura in northern Peru is a well-known indicator of unusual conditions.
Schott speaks of an annual encroachment of warm waters off northern Peru and
refers to this regular happening as a countercurrent (Gegenstromung) called
"el Nmo."
634 W. S. Wooster
100 . 90 '
101 '!----~,_____-__+_-_____'c,....."r__'_o.._________+~=-__I_-___4'_'1._+__I
4,.- ••••
~~~=--~~---~~~--------+-_Io·
1°1==::::;:::::::-:::--t--":::"'~~79'fvAr-----H10
----24·
~ ....
---23'
-c,•.••..
4i-' ... .
~,~------I-------+-~~-+-~~4M1
"""" ...,
~22 '. 20 '
M Ii rz 21 _&tob,Stromrlcl>tung
30 im Stiirungsjahr 1891 .... erfJllmt. "
100' 9O'W-L . 80'
Figure 2c
3 The Niiio Event of 1925 Seen by Murphy and Beebe
Before looking at Schott's interpretation of what transpired in 1925, it is inter-

esting to review what was actually observed by Murphy and Beebe.
Murphy (1926) was in Peru and Ecuador from December 8, 1924, until
March 12, 1925. He speaks of EI Niiio as a ''warm countercurrent" appearing
annually at about Christmas time, but with much stronger manifestations at
longer intervals, traditionally seven years but as great as 34 years (he considers
the 1925 event to have been the strongest since 1891).
In 1925 during the first weeks of January, sea surface temperatures were
normal along the Peruvian coast. About 10 January at Talara (5° 45'S), the
temperature abruptly increased and during ten days rose 6.7° to about 26.6°C.
Strong southward flow past Punta Pariiias (4° 45'S) was observed on 21 January,
and heavy and continuous rains began in northern Peru on 27 January. By mid-
March, high temperatures were observed much farther south: Callao (12°05'S),
26.7°; Mollendo (17°00'S), 26.1 0; Antofagasta (23° 40'S), 21.1 0.
Early Observations and Investigations of El Nmo: the Event of 1925 615
Murphy reported a return to normal by mid-April, first evident on the
southern coast of Peru and with normality restored during May. The observed
high temperatures suggest that coastal upwelling was not occurring during the
disturbance. Meanwhile, between Panama and the Gulf of Guayaquil, somewhat
cooler temperatures were observed, this being explained by Murphy as the con-
sequence of northern hemisphere upwelling off Colombia and Ecuador caused
by the observed northerly winds.
Evidence for an actual countercurrent (as opposed to a mere cessation of
upwelling) is presented by Murphy. This includes longer transit times for north-
bound steamers between late January and April, with southward currents of half
to slightly less than two knots being inferred. Off Punta Paritias on 21 January,
southward speeds of 1 to 1~ knots against the prevailing wind were observed
during a ten-hour period.
Secondary effects of the "countercurrent" included death of plankton, failure
of local fisheries, invasion of nearshore waters by tropical fauna, death or ex-
patriation of seabirds, and abnormal precipitation. The latter was associated with
the change from southerly to northerly winds in late January along the outer
coast of Ecuador and much of the Peruvian coast. The exceptional rainfall off
northern Peru occurred during the period when the sea surface temperature
equaled or exceeded the mean temperature of the atmosphere.
Murphy points out the similarities between the events of 1891 and 1925. For
the former case he cites unpublished accounts of eyewitnesses as they relate to
abnormal rains and flooding. There are also some unusual biological observations
from near Talara: "its [Corriente del Nitio] presence is often marked by the ap-
pearance of yellow-bellied water snakes, many of which are cast up on the beach
dead or dying"-"After dark the sea broke in phosphorescent lightenings all
along the coast. During the day it was covered with blood-like patches many
acres in extent caused by minute organisms, whether animal or vegetable I can-
not say" - "Hammer-headed sharks were always to be seen ... Our boat was,
however, frequently followed by huge man-eating sharks such as one usually
sees only about Panama. In addition to innumerable kinds of fish large and small,
the current carried great quantities of long yellow and black water snakes ...
One afternoon riding along the beach I flushed a fair-sized alligator which
hoisted its tail and dashed into the sea ... I am of the opinion that he drifted
down from Guayaquil."
To these accounts of 1891, Murphy adds for 1925 a detailed log of the rains
in Talara and Piura and descriptions of the destruction in Trujillo (8°07'8) where
the March rainfall (395 mm) was more than ten times normal and where 95,000
tons were said to have fallen on 24 March 1925. Oceanic indicators of the event
near Trujillo included sea surface temperatures 8.3°C higher than normal and
southward flow in the roadstead. The atmospheric pressure was unusually low-
"This condition obtained until March 14th after which date no further baromet-
rical data are obtainable since the apparatus was destroyed by the caving-in of
the roof of the building." The latter correspondent, writing in May 1925, con-
sidered that normal conditions were being restored from early April, but other
letters speak of rains much farther south (to at least Antofagasta) later in the
636 W. S. Wooster
winter and abnonnally high temperatures in Trujillo at least through October.
Murphy reports other features of the 1925 event. The March rains washed
35,000 tons of guano into the sea and leached the nutrients out of much more
that remained. Adult guano birds died and their eggs and young were aban-
doned. Coastal salinities were sharply reduced by the excess fresh water. At its
maximum the river Piura, usually dry, was discharging at the rate of 70 x 106
m 3 per day. Rainfall was also heavy on the semi-arid coasts of Ecuador.
In an interesting historical note, Murphy records "it had been suggested that
the march which Pizarro made through Piura, while on his triumphal journey
toward Cuzco [in 1533] was possible only because he chanced to land upon the
desert shores during one of the rare anos de abundancia, years of abundant
water and vegetation." He concludes "that the demonstration of El Nino are
seasonal and rhythmic, and that the causes behind them are meteorological in
the broadest sense." Periodic "wet years" may have characterized the region
back into Tertiary time, and Murphy advances without comment a possible ex-
planation (of H. H. Clayton) that during periods of unusually low solar radi-
ation, the belts of high pressure usually near the 30th parallels are displaced
toward the equator.
Beebe (1926) was conducting zoological and oceanographic studies from
Arcturus in 1925, and during the period March 28 to April 20 was operating
in the region between Panama, the Galapagos Islands, and Cocos Island. He was
aware that the cold waters nonnally found in Galapagos were associated with the
westward extension of the "Humboldt" (Le., Peru) Current and looked forward
to sampling them for non-tropical fauna. By 13 April, off the east coast ofIsla
Isabela (Albennarle), he notes "The problem of the current on the east coast of
Albermarle is a puzzling one. On the official maps a steady northwest stream of
from one to two and three-quarters knots is given-cold, Humboldt waters. This
time the temperature has been no lower than elsewhere, and the organisms have
not appreciably taken on a cold current character ... Raining tonight. We are
now imputing the unusual season to the eruption [of a volcano on the northern
end ofIsabela] ."
Passing southward, a search was made for the expected cold water. On April
21, "a squally, rainy day, most unlike this region ," the noon position was
1°00' S. By April 23, the ship had reached 2°33' S, 89° 44'W, the surface tempera-
ture was still relatively high (23.45°C), and "no signs of the Humboldt Current
yesterday ... The drift to the east last night was almost nil, as compared with
that the preceding night, which was strong to the northwest. This shows either
that the cold Humboldt Current has been driven far to the southward, or it is
temporarily overlaid by the Panama Equatorial Current." "It was late in April
when I completed my vain search for the Humboldt Current south of the Galapa-
gos. After making certain that there were no signs of it within a radius of at least
one hundred miles south of the Archipelago, I decided to steam north ..."
Earlier on the cruise, Beebe had observed another remarkable phenomenon,
an enormous "current rip" between Panama and Galapagos, fIrst sighted on
April 1, 1925 at 2°26'N, 85°23'W. This was a frontal zone, "a wall of water
against which all the floating jetsam for miles and miles was drifted and held,"
marking the convergence along a NE-SW line of "two warm, westwardly flowing
streams of water." Other features of the front were strong currents ("the throw
and shift of the currents was so strong hereabouts that the nets and lines were
often swept beneath the keel"), a foam line, a change in surface roughness ("on
the southern side of the line the water showed dark and rough, while to the north
it was lighter and smoother"), and an accumulation of pelagic creatures (birds,
mammals, fish) feeding on the organisms concentrated along the front.
Beebe relates the feature to the "inexplicable shifting or absence of the true
Humboldt Current." On the afternoon of the first day, the ship was placed in
the front where the wind and current were from the east. During the night "we
drifted eleven miles to the west, the current being about one and three tenths
knots, and we turned completely around twice, but never left the heart of the
rip." There was a temperature difference across the front of 4° at the surface
and 2° as deep as 500 m. On the southern (cold) side, the flow was about 2.5
knots, on the north about 1.5 knots. More than a day was spent working in the
frontal zone-from noon to noon, the ship had drifted to 2°08'N, 86°l7'W,
some 60 miles to the southwest, and always in the front.
4 The Nino Event of 1925 Interpreted by Schott
To describe the 1925 event, Schott plots the distribution of sea surface tempera-
ture from ship observations as a function of time and latitude along a nearshore
section between Balboa and Valparaiso; the northern portion is shown in Fig. 3.
As he notes, such presentations are sensitive to the selection of observations,
especially when data are scarce and there are significant offshore gradients
JAN MAR APR
15'-T-----;+-_--T-_-+_---'1r-
1001r-----_-'l 5 _----;_----";15
50 ' .... "

N "
"-
"\ \
\
\
\
0° \
" "- ,
\
Figure 3. Isopleth diagram of

surface temperature (from 10°
steamer observations) along a
coastal section during the Nmo
event of 1925 (adapted from
Plate 22 of Schott 1931 ). 15" ~--'-------'------'---_ ___"____-'---'-----___L_---I
638 W. S. Wooster
(Schott complains that some steamer captains stop keeping meteorological logs
when they reach the Pacific, as if conditions there were better known than in
the Atlantic !).
The warm water (temperature above 25°C) reached southward nearly to l5°S,
near Pisco, the greatest penetration lasting for little more than a week, in mid-
March. Between Santa Elena (2 016'S) and Pisco, sea surface temperatures were
4°_5° higher than normal, with maximum anomalies reaching 7°C. The speed of
southward penetration seems not to have exceeded 1 kt; from Cabo Blanco
(4°21'S) to Pisco, the front penetrated in 44 days and withdrew (in late March)
in only 13 days. During the disturbance, winds were not always from the north
or northwest, but also included "rotating southerly breezes."
The isopleth diagram also shows the development of a cold (less than 25°)
water tongue from the Panama Bight, with minimum temperatures (less than
20°) in mid-February. As noted earlier, the cold water is attributed to upwelling
off Panama during the period of strong northerly winds. Schott links the timing
of this development with that of the southward movement of the warm Niiio
front. As he puts it "We may assume that every occurrence of the warm Nmo
current in southern latitudes is directly linked in time to the cold water upwell-
ing in northern latitudes, from the Gulf of Panama to Malpelo Island and farther
south." Salinity data from the Panama Bight were not available for the 1925
event, but using Albatross density measurements from 1891, Schott shows that
the cold upwelled water is of high salinity (more than 34%0). The warm, rela-
tively fresh Nino water is seen to have come primarily from farther west, between
Galapagos and 85°W.
Ship drift observations from 1891 are also drawn on for indications of surface
circulation during Nino events (Fig. 2). Schott concludes that "the Nino current
gets its water from far out in the Pacific and ... there is a tremendous shift of
the equatorial countercurrent to the southern hemisphere." The convergence
line between the equatorial countercurrent and the North Equatorial Current is
said to be displaced southward during Nino years. Unlike normal years, cool and
salty Peru Current waters are not present north of the equator, and the cold
waters south of the frontal zone observed by Beebe in 1925 are attributed to the
Gulf of Panama upwelling (hence only tropical animals were observed by Beebe).
Atmospheric observations from 1891 show the meteorological equator lying
in a WNW-ESE direction, reaching 2° -4°S east of Galapagos. In 1925, lowest at-
mospheric pressures (2-3 mm below average) at Puerto Chicama coincided with
highest temperatures. Schott believed that minimum pressures (the meteorologi-
cal equator) were at 6°-8 0S on the coast. Heavy rains occurred in the vicinity of
the low pressure belt and were augmented by the northerly winds bringing rain
to a region normally dominated by the dry southeast trade wind.
Schott summarized his view of EI Niiio as follows:
The Nino current, which occurs on the Peruvian coast in some years and al-
ways in the first three months of those years, and which has such inconveni-
ent, even damaging, consequences on land and sea, is not a local phenomenon
and by no means originates in the warm, humid Gulf of Guayaquil. It is a
Early Observations and Investigations of El Nmo: the Event of 1925 639
very extensive oceanic disturbance which in turn is caused by an equally vast
atmospheric disturbance by which the meteorological equator changes from
a northern to a southern latitude during such a period. The disturbance in-
cludes those parts of the southern hemisphere near the equator, extending
west for at least 1000 miles or approximately 2000 km from the west coast
of South America. The equatorial calm belt (doldrums) with its downpours,
thunderstorms, and (in southern latitudes) monsoon-like north and northwest
winds is shifted south by approximately 200-300 miles or more, which causes
a large portion of the cool saline water of the Peru Current to be displaced or
overlaid (which, remains undecided) by northern hemisphere warm and salt-
poor water coming from the so-called countercurrent. According to experi-
ences to date, these Nino currents do not seem to go measurably beyond
14°S along the Peruvian coast and thus do not reach Chilean waters.
5 Comparison of Schott's Description with Current Interpretations
A widely accepted explanation of El Nino was advanced by Wyrtki (1975) who

recognized it as the dynamic response of the tropical Pacific Ocean to atmo-
spheric forcing. He noted that during the year or more before a Nino event,
southeast trade winds are unusually strong and cause intensification of the
oceanic circulation in the South Pacific subtropical gyre. As a consequence,
excess water is accumulated in the western Pacific; this is evidenced by an in-
creased east-west slope of sea level. When the wind stress eventually relaxes,
the excess water flows eastward, perhaps as an equatorially trapped Kelvin
wave. Warm water then accumulates off Ecuador and Peru.
A statistical test of this and other Nino theories (Barnett 1977) confirms that
variations in the trades are associated with major adjustments in the basin-wide
sea level field. Sea level changes are found to be effective predictors of sea sur-
face temperature, suggesting that advection dominates the heat balance of the
eastern tropical Pacific. Southward flow of warm water across the equatorial
front, and local changes in the intensity of coastal upwelling seem to have less
effect on the heat budget of Peruvian coastal waters than does horizontal ad-
vection from the west.
In comparing Schott's description with these modern interpretations, the
following features seem noteworthy:
Scale
While Schott focussed on observations along the west coast of South America
and in the eastern tropical Pacific, he recognized that the Niiio phenomenon was
of large scale and extended at least 2000 km offshore. He placed the southern
limit of the disturbance at about 14°S. Current models involve the whole width
of the tropical Pacific; atmospheric changes extend to higher latitudes where the
distribution of pressure in the subtropical highs affects the intensity of the trade
wind circulation. No clear picture has yet emerged as to the extension of the
Niiio disturbance on the Chilean coast.
640 W. S. Wooster
Timing
That El Nino appears off Peru in the first months of the year is as true today as
it was in 1925. But Schott talks only of the changes during these months (his
isopleth diagram stops in mid-April), and he appears not to recognize that dis-
turbed conditions normally last ten to fourteen months. In fact, the Puerto
Chicama data (Miller and Laurs 1975) suggest that the 1925 event endured
well into 1926.
Forcing
Schott and present day authors agree that the Nino event is occasioned by
changes in the atmospheric circulation. However, despite Schott's recognition
that the scale of the event is large, his discussion concentrates on local changes
in the atmospheric pressure distribution and in the location of the meteorologi-
cal equator (Le., the Intertropical Convergence Zone). While these local changes
are associated with local weather conditions (e.g., heavy rains), they do not
anticipate the event (as would consideration of pressure changes over a much
larger region) and hence have little predictive value.
Source of Warm Water
Because Schott's viewpoint is essentially meridional, he presents detailed data

only for the southward extension of warm water, presumably from the tropical
region off Ecuador (but not from so small a place as the Gulf of Guayaquil).
Observational support is much less compelling for his proposal that the warm
water is provided by a southward shift of the (North) Equatorial Countercurrent.
But it is here that Schott's intuition brings him close to the views of modern
oceanographers who have had access to a much broader data base. Two possible
mechanisms for bringing warm water into the eastern tropical Pacific, the Equa-
torial Undercurrent (Cromwell Current) and the South Equatorial Countercur-
rent, were unknown to Schott. On the other hand, his opinion that the develop-
ment of El Niiio is always associated with enhanced upwelling in the Gulf of
Panama is not generally accepted nor is it accommodated in the present paradigm.
In conclusion, it appears that within the limitations of the data available to
him, Schott developed a remarkable insight into the phenomenon of El Niiio.
His principal failure was underestimating the magnitude of the time and space
scales involved. But even had he realized that much of the Pacific and its over-
lying atmosphere participated and that changes on this grand scale began a year
or more in advance of the Peruvian manifestation, he could not have tested such
ideas. Even now, although the data base is much better, especially with the avail-
ability of satellite observations, satisfactory tests of current ideas have still to be
completed, and there remain features of El Nino that are poorly understood.
References
Barnett, T. P. 1977. An attempt to verify some theories of El Nino. J. Phys.

Oceanogr., 7,633-647.
Beebe, W. 1926. The Arcturus adventure. G. P. Putnam, New York, 439 pp.
Miller, F. R. and Laurs, R. M. 1975. The El Nino of 1972-1973 in the eastern
tropical Pacific Ocean. Bull. Inter-Amer. trop. Tuna Comm., 16, 403-448.
Murphy, R. C. 1926. Oceanic and climatic phenomena along the west coast of
South America during 1925. Geogr. Rev. N.Y., 16,26-54.
National Marine Fisheries Service. 1979. Fishing information. Southwest Fishe-
ries Center, La Jolla, monthly.
Schott, G. 1931. Der Peru-Strom und seine nordlichen Nachbargebiete in nor-
maIer und anorma1er Ausbildung. Ann. Hydrogr. mar. Meteorol., 59, 161-169,
200-213,240-252.
Wooster, W. S. and Guillen, O. 1974. Characteristics of El Nino in 1972. J. Mar.
Res., 32, 387-404.
Wooster, W. S. and Sievers, H. A. 1970. Seasonal variations of temperature, drift,
and heat exchange in surface waters off the west coast of South America.
Limnol. Oceanogr., 15,595-605.
Wyrtki, K. 1975. El Nino-the dynamic response of the equatorial Pacific Ocean
to atmospheric forcing. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 5,572-584.
Zuta, S. and Urquizo, W. 1972. Temperatura promedio de la superficie del mar
frente a la costa peruana, periodo 1928-1969. Bol. Inst. Mar. Peru, 2, 462-
519.
Oceanography Development in Peru
S. Zuta and L.A. Flores
1 Introduction
The Peru coastal waters, located on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean between
3°30'S-18°30'S, part of the anticyclonic gyre, are of great interest due to the
conspicuous features of upwelling and El Nino. They have a marine life rich in
species and with the greatest single fishery in the world.
History reveals a growing national and foreign interest in the sea and its re-
sources off Peru; thus, from past centuries the following names come to mind:
Zarate (1555), Frezier (1716), Hall (1825), Lartigue (1827), Humboldt (1849),
and Laughton (1870). The Guano Company, established in 1909, marked the
beginning of marine science in Peru with the formation of its Technical Section
in 1910 (Schweigger 1950). However, the first step toward a research institute
in Peru was the creation in 1954 of the Consejo de Investigaciones Hidrobio-
logicas (C.I.H.B.) (Schaefer 1967). The Instituto de Investigacion de los Recursos
Marinos (IREMAR), established with the joint support of Peru and FAO
(Schaefer 1967), began its activities in 1960; T. Sparre directed its functions in
the fields of oceanography, biology, and technology (Einarsson and Mendiola
1963). Thus begun, systematic marine research has been continued since 1964
by the Instituto del Mar del Peru (IMARPE). After 1972 other Peruvian insti-
tutions such as Instituto Geofisico del Peru (IGP), Direccion de Hidrografia y
Navegacion de la Marina (DHNM), Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal
(UNFV), etc., have also initiated programs of oceanographic research.
Since 1958 an intensive monitoring program of the marine conditions up to
150 miles off the coast of Peru has been carried out with the following ships:
BAP Bondy (1958-1963), BAP Unanue (from 1964 on), SNP-l (from 1969 on),
Oceanography Development in Peru 643
Tareq-II (1975-1979) and Humboldt (from 1980 on). In 1964 quasisynoptic

observations were started along the entire coast from some 25 fishing fleets
(Eureka Operations). In the first half of 1980 a remote sensing observational
program by airplane (V ACOM Operations) was begun in cooperation with
IMARPE-PESCA of Peru and FSU (USA).
2 Fields of Research
In Peruvian coastal waters there is a variety of fishes, cetaceans, sea lions and
shellfish. There is also a huge population of guano birds on the islands and coastal
points, a matter of critical importance in the marine ecosystem. Furthermore,
the expansion of the oil and mining companies along the Peruvian coast has
created the need to study the marine pollution caused by such industries in
order to preserve the natural conditions of the sea and its resources. There has
also been a long-standing interest in such phenomena as tsunamis, swells, and
the unusual cooling and warming that affect coastal activities in a variety of
ways. Thus, Peruvian marine research focuses on many aspects of the sea. While
it gives emphasis to the fields associated with the living marine resources used
for fish meal, human food, etc., it also involves the larger role of the marine
environment and the permanent air-sea interaction.
3 The Guano Birds
Three species, the gUalwy, piquero and alcatraz, constitute the population of
guano birds (Tovar 1978). The guano produced by them is of economic impor-
tance as a fertilizer and is used partly in national agriculture and partly for ex-
port. However, a significant amount remains in the place of production (D.
Cabrera, personal communication), so that the figures given in Tables 1 and 2
do not represent the total amount of guano produced by the birds.
The abundance of guano birds and consequently of guano production, has
been marked by great fluctuations over the years (Tables 1 and 2); these are
associated with changes in the anchovy population and the environmental con-
ditions. These changes have been drastic in the last 25 years, the period in which
the anchovy industry underwent rapid development and a subsequent decline.
Thus there were the well-known anomalous warm periods of 1957, 1965, 1972
and 1976, and there were extraordinary mortalities and emigrations in 1911,
1917,1925,1939-1944,1957-1958 and 1965, with emigrations in certain cases
all the way between ION and 40 0 S (Jordan 1964, Jordan and Fuentes 1966).
On the other hand, there was a great expansion of the populations in most of
the 1950s, particularly in 1955.
The study of guano birds has traditionally been closely linked to the Guano
Company (Compafiia Administradora del Guano), which established a guardian-
ship in the islands as early as 1910 (Schweigger 1950); since 1964 the study has
644 S. Zuta and L. A. Flores
Table I. Yearly Statistics of Guano Production in Peni for period 1909-1938.
In columns II and III the data is given for campaign. See footnote to Table 2.
National National
Year Consume Export Total Year Consume Export Total
MT MT MT MT
1909-10 23,790 46,170 69,960 1937-39 143,903 5,420 149,323
1910-11 21,938 58,480 80,418 1938- 148,514 17,421 165,935
1911-12 33,889 65,266 99,155 1939- 137,105 14,927 152,032
1912-13 33,837 36,425 70,262 1940- 121,152 121,152
1913-14 34,078 34,477 68,553 1941 114,442 8,474 122,896
1914-15 30,607 43,917 74,524 1942 83,220 83,220
1915-16 42,678 18,706 61,384 1943 89,445 89,445
1916-17 51,211 51,211 1944 78,284 78,284
1917-18 79,408 79,408 1945 90,853 81 90,934
1918-19 72,892 71,892 1946 102,126 102,126
1919-20 50,926 50,926 1947 148,301 148,301
1920-21 57,351 4,064 61,415 1948 168,473 168,473
1921-22 54,683 6,045 60,728 1949 161,550 33 161,583
1922-23 63,743 24,028 87,771 1950 221,342 2,350 223,692
1923-24 85,935 23,142 109,077 1951 243,708 39 243,747
1924-25 109,146 22,332 131,478 1952 136,492 95 236,587
1925-26 97,411 21,128 118,539 1953 241,937 1,072 143,009
1926-27 68,301 10,983 79,284 1954 170,056 905 270,961
1927-28 72,485 12,657 85,142 1955 309,563 12,397 321,960
1928-29 106,271 16,208 122,479 1956 312,620 10,669 323,289
1929-30 116,694 29,774 146,468 1957 171,534 27,645 300,179
1930-31 92,453 32,487 124,940 1958 149,379 13,789 163,168
1931-32 73,531 16,500 90,031 1959 108,879 12,376 121,255
1932-33 88,638 47,357 135,995 1960 114,620 12,974 127,594
1933-34 115,402 48,803 164,205 1961 126,201 16,866 143,067
1934-35 131,840 14,463 146,303 1962 130,420 13,335 143,755
1935-36 127,051 154 127,305 1963 190,350 13,806 204,156
1936-37 133,595 375 133,970 1964 182,769 6,641 189,410
also become a part of the activities of IMARPE and Pesca Peru (Departmento de
Fertilizantes). Among the more important contributions in this field are those of
Lavalle (1917, 1924), Murphy (1925), Schweigger (1939), Avila (1953), Barreda
(1959), Vogt (1940, 1964), Jordan (1959, 1963, 1964), Jordan and Cabrera
(1960), Jordan and Fuentes (1964, 1966), Diez Canseco (1966), Tovar (1968,
1978), and Fuentes (1969). The following facts are apparent:
The guano birds are an important natural resource associated with the eco-
system of the coastal waters; they form the basis for the guano industry, which
was very important before the anchovy industry. The three species of the
population are subject to fluctuations of different sizes, with depressions
from emigrations and mortalities mainly due to the absence of food in ab-
normal environmental conditions such as during the EI Nino phenomena.
Table 2. Yearly Statistics of Guano (II), Guano birds (III) (end of reproductive
cycle), anchovy catches for fish meal (IV), and marine fish catches (V) for human
food (those with asterisk include cockles and other small shellfish) in Peru 1
Year Guano Birds Anchovy Fish Food
(MT) (Millions) (MT) (MT)
I II III IV V
1946 102,126 33.3
1951 243,747 7,000
52 236,587 16,000
53 243,009 37,000 30,610
54 270,961 43,000 35,552
55 321,960 27.8 58,708 40,316
56 323,289 22.0 118,725 48,044
57 300,179 6.6 325,624 50,199
58 163,168 6.1 737,019 61,498
59 121,255 11.0 1,908,698 88,676
1960 127,594 11.0 2,943,602 102,266
61 143,067 12.6 4,579,709 112,573
62 143,755 17.0 6,274,624 140,000
63 204,156 18.1 6,423,244 <128,469
64 189,410 14.7 8,863,367 152,217*
65 169,790 16.5 7,233,479 131,526*
66 55,505 4.4 8,529,821 153,911*
67 64,891 4.6 9,824,624 202,229*
68 35,111 4.3 10,262,661 155,513*
69 20,112 5.2 8,960,460 166,492*
1970 50,225 4.7 12,276,977 185,381 *
71 21,328 4.5 10,281,784 206,396*
72 47,112 6.5 4,448,511 212,897*
73 33,088 1.8 1,847,945 295,166*
74 8,951 R 2.5 3,559,611 318,835*
75 13,334 R 2.5 3,070,894 292,244*
76 - No Work 3.5 3,870,176 333,840*
77 27,295 R 3.0 700,112 474,020*
78 31,300 R 4.5 1,207,525 579,561 *
79
R = rich only.
1 Sources of data for Tables 1 and 2.
Column II - (a) 1909-64: Memoria SENAFER, 1964, Lima-PERU; (b) 1965-73: Inf. 45,
IMARPE, 1978, H. Tovar; (c) 1974-7~: Pesca Peru, Dpto. Fertilizantes (D. Cabrera).
Column III - (a) 1946: Area de Aves y Mamiferos Marinos, IMARPE, H. Tovar y N. Galarza;
(b) 1955-60: Inf. 10, IMARPE, 1966, Jordan r Fuentes; (c) 1961-74: Inf. 45, IMARPE,
1978, H. Tovar; (d) 1975-78: Aves y Mamiferos Marinos, IMARPE, H. Tovar y N.
Galana.
Column IV - (a) 1951-54: Bol. Vol. 1, N°5, IMARPE, Schaefer; (b) 1955-62: Inf. 24,
IREMAR, 1964, Vasquez y Tsukayama; (c) 1963-67: Inf. 1M-57. IMARPE, 1969,
Vasquez; (d) 1968-69: Inf. 30, IMARPE, 1969, Vasquez y Paz; (e) 1970-71: Inf.
IM-101, IMARPE, 1972, Vasquez et al.; (f) 1972-78: Area Monitoraje de Anchoveta,
IMARPE, I. Tsukayama. ,
Column V - (a) 1953-62: Inf. 19, IREMAR, 1963, -Doucet y Garcia; (b) 1963 (estimado):
Inf. 1M-57, IMARPE, 1970, Vasquez; (c) 1964: Inf. IMP-3, IMARPE, 1964, Vasquez y
Paz; (d) 1965-67: Inf. 26, IMARPE, 1969, -Borgo et al.; (e) 1968: Inf. 30, IMARPE,
1969. Vasauez v Paz: (f) 1969-78: Sec cion Estadlstica. MIPE. 1979.
646 s. Zuta and L. A. Flores
The anchovy fishery is the main limiting factor of the guano bird popu-
lation; it was responsible for its decline and that of the guano industry.
The normal distribution of guano birds off Peru is mainly between 6-16° S;
in abnormal conditions emigrations occur between 10N and 40° S.
Annually each bird produces about 16 kg. of guano; each eats about 90 kg.
of anchovy, its main food, catching the fish down to a depth of two fathoms.
The birds are one of the main predators of the anchovy.
There. are about 70 islands of varying sizes off Peru, and these are of great
ecological importance as places where the birds have resting periods of fOl!lr
months for the incubation and care of the young.
4 The Peruvian Anchovy (Engraulis ringens J.)
The anchovy industry commenced in the early 1950s with very low catches, and
grew spectacularly after 1958 (Table 2), reaching the highest volume of catch
per year in 1970 (12.3 million tons). In fact, the anchovy fishery became an im-
portant part not only of the national but also of the world economy.
The systematic studies on the fishery and the biology of the Peruvian anchovy
were started by IREMAR in 1960, with H. Einarsson as a leader (Boerema et al.
1967), and have been continued by IMARPE since 1964. These studies cover the
life history, behavior, population and exploitation of the anchovy, as well as
those aspects related to its ecosystem. It should also be noted that during the
first half of the 20th century the Guano Company undertook limited studies in
this field.
There are many contributions on the biology of the anchovy; among the more
important are: Sears (1941), Schweigger (1946), Avila (1946, 1953), Landa
(1953), Barreda (1950, 1957), Mifiano (1959, 1968), Mendiola (1959, 1971,
1978), Jordan (1959), Mendiola et al. (1969), Einarsson y Mendiola (1963),
Chirinos and Chuman (1968), Chirinos and Alegre (1969), Jordan and Malaga
(1972), Santander and Castillo (1973), Malaga (1974). Among the contributions
on the fishery are those of Lara (1965), Saetersdal et al. (1965), Boerema et al.
(1967), Murphy (1967), Schaefer (1967, 1970), Gulland (1968), Sanchez and
Lam (1968), Tsukayama (1969), Vasquez (1970), Valdivia (1978). The con-
ception of the monitoring system for the anchovy (IMARPE 1975) came from
Dr. G. L. Kesteven (F AO).
Some of the highlights of our knowledge of the anchovy are:
The anchovy is an important pelagic fish of the coastal upwelling eco-

system off Peru and Chile. It attains lengths up to 18 cm., weights up to 25
grams, and has a life-span of close to 3 years. It is used mainly as fish meal
when it reaches more than 9 cm. The anchovy feeds mainly on phytoplank-
ton, secondarily on zooplankton, and exhibits some degree of cannibalism.
The anchovy population has been subject to great fluctuations in abundence
over the years and there is considerable evidence of over-exploitation coinci-
dental with the El Nino of 1972-1973. The species is now under protective
regulations in order to enable the population to recuperate to appropriate
commercial levels.
The main centers of distribution of the anchovy lie between 7-9°S, 12-
14°S and 16-18°S, apparently with seasonal migrations both northward and
southward.
The schools of anchovies are of different sizes, mainly in the top 10-20 m.
but down to 100 m., and sometimes mixed with another species.
Abnormal changes in the environmental conditions, such as those caused
by EI Nino, introduce changes in the diet, the fat content and the pattern of
distribution and reproduction of the anchovy. The main predators of the
anchovy are the commercial fishery and the guano birds, and the main com-
petitor of this species is the sardine (Sardinops sagax).
5 The Marine Resources for Human Food
According to Chirichigno (1974), there are 617 species of Peruvian salt water
fishes. However (right-hand column in Table 2), a serious fishery for these re-
sources was begun only in the 1950s, following the EI Nino of 1972-1973 and
the subsequent collapse of the anchovy fishery. Their exploitation then increased
dramatically.
The scientific expeditions carried out by the R/V Anton Bruun (1965-1966),
Bettina (1965), Chatyr Dag (1971), and Prof. Mesyatsev (1972-1973) revealed
the nature and richness of the demersal and pelagic resources for human food
(M. Samame, personal communication). Shortly thereafter commercial exploi-
tation was undertaken by Spanish, Polish, Cuban, Soviet and Peruvian ships. In
an attempt to control this growing fishery on a rational basis, IMARPE under-
took field work aboard SNP-l, Tareq-II and BIP Humboldt, with priority given
to the study of the following species (those with an asterisk are also used for
fish meal):
1 - Merluza * (Merluccius gayi 9 - Cachema (Cynoscion analis)

peruanus)
2 - Sardinia* (Sardinops sagax sagax) 10 - Liza (Mugil cephalus)
3 - Jurel* (Trachurus simmetricus 11 - Lorna (Sciaena deliciosa)
murphyz)
4 - Caballa* (Scomber japonicus 12 - Pejerrey (Odontesthes (Austro-
peruanus) menidia) regia regia)
5 - COjinoba (Seriolella violacea) 13 - Cabinza (Isacia conceptionis)
6 - Tollo (Mustelus whitneyz) 14 - Machete (Brevoortia maculata
chileae)
7 - Coco (suco) (Paralonchurus 15 - Falso Volador (Prionotus
peruanus) stephanophrys)
8 - Cabrilla (Paralabrax humeralis) 16 - Choros (Aulacomya ater)
The statistics on this marine fishery were begun by CIHB in 1959 and im-
proved by IREMAR and IMARPE (Borgo and Paz 1966, Borgo et al.1967, 1969,
Vasquez and Paz 1964, 1969, Vasquez et al. 1970, 1973). These statistics in-
clude such information as the fresh, salt, frozen, and canned products.
There have been numerous studies of the behavior, population and exploi-
tation of these marine resources for human food, among them: Chirinos and
Chuman (1964), del Solar (1972), Doucet and Garcia (1963), Sanchez and Lam
(1968, 1969, 1973), Minano and Castillo (1971), Santander and Castillo (1971,
1973, 1977), Chirichigno (1974), Mejia et a1. (1974), Samame (1971, 1977),
Samame et al. (1978), and Jordan et al. (1978). Significant facts are:
The main commercial species in order of importaBee are: merluZlI, slIrdi1Ul,

jurel, cojinoba, cabrilla, ctlbinztl, COCO, /ornll, CtfChelff1l and tollo. The main
areas of distribution of pelagic and demersal species is located between
30 30' S_9° 00' S on the continental shelf and slope. The species are mostly in
mixed schools, with seasonal changes in the geographic distribution and
structure of the populations associated among other things with periods of
reproduction. The populations of sardina and jurel have shown an apparent
increase in recent years following the oceanographic events of 1972 and 1976.
The merluza, which is used mostly for fish meal, is also an excellent raw ma-
terial for salting and artificial drying. The bonito, a pelalic species that was
very important in the national market, particularly in Lima, almost disap-
peared from the fishery in the decade of the 1970s. The [also volador (Prio-
notus stephanophrys) and cangrejo nadador (Euphylax dovii) are biological
indicators of warm waters, and the extraordinary abundance of the latter in
abnormal periods such as 1972-1973 creates difficulties for the active fishe-
ries.
The whale industry was established in the 1950s with three main companies:
Ballenera Paracas, Consorcio Ballenero (Pisco) and Ballenera del Norte (now
consolidated with Ballenera Victoria del Mar, Paita). Research on whales started
through two laboratories first established by IREMAR, one at Tierra Colorada
(paita) and the other at Pisco; this activity continues at Paita by IMARPE. See
Saetersdal et al. (1963), Mejia (1964), Paliza (1964); statistics on whales were
compiled by P. Ramirez and J. Valdivia (personal communication).
6 Physical and Chemical Aspects
In the past century, the contributions of Carranza (1891), Humboldt (1849),

Raimondi (1891), Carrillo (1892), etc., were related mainly to the surface cur-
rents and EI Nifio. In the first half of the present century, the contributions of
Lavalle and Garcia (1918), Murphy (1923, 1926), Zorell (1928), Schott (1931,
1932), Schweigger (1931), Sheppard (1933), Wiist (1935), and Lobell (1942)
also dealt mainly with EI Nino.
The first two oceanographic cruises making physical and chemical obser-
vations in Peruvian coastal waters were the Cruise VII (1928-1929) of the R/V
Carnegie (Sverdrup 1930), and the Discovery I (1931) of the R.R.S. William
Scoresby (Gunther 1936). The latter did extensive work and for the first time
the terms Peru Coastal Current and Peru Oceanic Current were introduced.
In the second half of the 20th century, particularly in the decade of the
1950s, the contributions of Schott (1952), Barandiaran (1954), Posner (1954),
Sears (1954), Wooster (1952), Wooster and Popovici (1958), Schweigger (1958),
and Reid (1959) are of wider scope and consider physical and chemical proper-
ties, surface and subsurface currents, El Nifio, upwelling, etc. It is in this period
(1958) that W. Wooster was instrumental in the institutionalization of oceanogra-
phic research in Peru.
Since the beginning of the 1960s IMARPE has been in charge of oceanogra-
phic research, particularly of the physical and chemical aspects. Its staff has
been involved in several cooperative works with institutions from USA, USSR,
Japan, Germany, Canada and Sweden, and it has participated in regional pro-
grams with Colombia, Ecuador and Chile, as well as in such international pro-
grams as EASTROPAC (1967-1968) and FGGE/GARP (1979). In the 1970s
both national and international efforts were directed at getting a better know-
ledge of the variability of the hydrological conditions, the circulation and the
air-sea interaction, with emphasis on coastal upwelling and El Nino because of
their implications for biological productivity, the fisheries and the climate.
FAO, IOC, ASO, SCOR, CPPS, etc., gave great support in the lODE (1971-1980).
Obviously, the characteristic of the last two decades, particularly the last one,
was the accumulation of a variety of contributions on the physical, chemical and
biological aspects of the coastal waters. At the national level, the main contri-
butions on nutrients, marine production, and the relation with the environment
are those of Guillen (1971, 1973), Guillen and Rondan (1968,1974), Guillen
et al. (1971, 1977, 1978). In the area of physical oceanography see Schweigger
(1961), Popovici (1962), Mugica (1972), Zuta and Guillen (1970), Zuta and
Urquizo (1972), Zuta et al. (1976, 1978), and Zuta and Santander (in press).
Scientists from foreign countries, mainly from USA and USSR, have made
numerous contributions from descriptive, numerical and theoretical points of
view: Wooster and Gilmartin (1961), Wyrtki (1963, 1967, 1978), Bjerknes
(1961, 1966,1972), Cochrane (1967), Stevenson et al. (1970), Tsuchiya (1975),
Smith (1978), O'Brien et al. (1978), Barber et al. (1978), Dugdale (1968), etc.
Of the knowledge thus obtained the following general facts are significant:
The hydrological and biological regimens are regulated mainly by coastal

upwelling and the El Nino phenomenon. The coastal upwelling develops
above 100 m, with important seasonal and inter-annual changes along the
coast. It is stronger in May-June and August-September. The El Nino phe-
nomenon, an abnormal macro-scale event of the ocean-atmosphere system,
had its spectacular manifestations off Peru in 1891, 1925, 1941, 1957, and
1972, and was of moderate intensity in 1965 and 1976. It causes great
temporal changes in the circulation and hydrological conditions above 200 m.
The oxygen minimum layer is a dominant feature below 100 m; it gets
closer to the surface near the coast and is more conspicuous south of l2°S.
The northwest surface flow gives rise to a meandering along the coast; it
is stronger in winter and weak in summer, and its intensity increases northward.
The southward subsurface flow, below 50 or 100 m, is mainly related to
the southeastward extension of the Cromwell Current and the South Equa-
torial Countercurrent. The former seems to be dominant in the coastal area
north of 90 S and to play an important role during El Nino events. The sub-
tropical surface waters are dominant most of the year south of 60 S and show
a quasi-permanent penetration toward the coast between 9-12°S. On the
other hand, the equatorial surface waters are a prominent feature north of
60 S from November to March. The equatorial subsurface waters are the main
source of coastal upwelling, although Subantarctic Water is another source
south of l4°S in December and February.
The values of phosphate, silicate and nitrate are low in the surface layer,
but show a sharp increase toward the thermocline located above a depth of
100 m. The maxima of nitrites above 300 m are the result of processes of
nitrification and denitrification, and seem to be associated with interactions
between equatorial subsurface waters and temperate subantarctic waters.
Chlorophyll "a" and organic production have the' highest values as much as
50 miles from the coast and in the upper 50 m, being lower in winter and
higher in summer.
At the present time marine pollution is a localized problem related to the
wastes of the mining companies and of the fishery manufacturing industries.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Instituto del Mar del Peru (IMARPE), as part of
its marine research programs.
We thank I. Tsukayama, M. Samame, M. Flores, and N. Galarza for letting us
use their data, and N. Ramirez for typing this manuscript. We wish to thank
Drs. Daniel Merriman and Mary Sears for their valuable suggestions and great
patience in reviewing and putting the manuscript in its final form.
References
Avila, E. 1946. Estudios preliminares sobre la edad de las anchovetas (Engraulis

ringens J.). Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 22(8).
Avila, A. 1953. El Nino en 1953 y su relacion con las aves guaneras. Problemas
basicos referentes ala anchoveta. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 29(5), 13-19.
Barandiaran, J. F. 1954. Investigacions oceanognificas en la costa norte del
Peru. Rev. de Mar Peru, 39(3), 225-251 + 15 graphs.
Barber, R. T. 1967. The distribution of dissolved organic carbon in the Peru
Current System of the Pacific Ocean. Stanford Univ., Ph.D. Oceanography.
Barreda, M. 1950. Informe sobre las investigaciones efectuadas con relacion al
desove de la anchoveta de la Bahia de Pisco. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano,
26(5).
Barreda, M. 1957. El Plancton de la Bahia de Pisco. Suplem. Cient. Bol. Compo
Admin., Guano, 33(9), 7-24.
Barreda, M. 1959. Recuperaci6n de guanayes caquecticos en cautividad. Bol.
Compo Admin., Guano, 35 (4).
Bjerknes, J. 1961. El Nino study based on analysis of ocean surface tempera-
tures 1935-57. Inter-Amer. Trop. TunaComm. Bull., 5(3), 219-307.
Bjerknes, J. 1966. Survey of El Nino 1957-58 in its relation to tropical Pacific
meteorology. Inter-Amer. Trop. Tuna Comm. Bull., 12(2), 1-62.
Bjerknes, J. 1972. Large-scale atmospheric response to the 1964-65 Pacific

equatorial warming. Jour. Phys. Oceanogr., 2, 212-217.
Boerema, L. K., Saetersdal, G. Tsukayama, I., Valdivia, J. E. y Alegre, B. 1967.
Informe sobre los efectos de la pesca en el recurso peruano de anchoveta. Bol.
Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1(4), 133-186.
Borgo, J. L. y Paz, A. 1966. La pesqueria maritima peruana durante 1965. Inf.
Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, IMP-9. "
Borgo, J. L., Vasquez, I. y Paz, A. 1967. La pesqueria maritima peruana durante
1966. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 19, 1-118. , ,
Borgo, J. L., Vasquez, I. y Paz, A. 1969. La pesqueria maritima peruana durante
1967. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 26,146.
Carranza, L. 1891. Contracorriente maritima observada en Paita y Pacasmayo.
Bol. Soc. Geogr., Lima, 1, 344-345.
Carrillo, C. N. 1892. Disertacion sobre las corrientes oceanicas y estudios de la
Corriente Peruana 0 de Humboldt. Bol. Soc. Geogr., Lima, 11,72-110.
Chirichigno, N. 1974. Clave para identificar los peces marinos del Peru. Inf. Inst.
Mar, Callao, Peru, 44, 1-387.
Chirinos de V., A. y Alegre de H' J B. 1969. Madurez sexual de la anchoveta
(Engraulis ringens J.) en los periodos reproductivos 1961-68. Bol. Inst. Mar,
Callao, Peru, 2(3), 80-126.
Chirinos de V., A. y Chuman, E. 1964. Notas sobre el desarrollo de huevos y
larvas del pejerrey. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1(1), 1-31.
Chirinos de V., A. y Chuman, E. 1968. Validez de la lectura de otolitos para
determinar la edad de la anchoveta (Engraulis ringens). Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao,
Peru, 22, 1-34.
Cochrane, J. D. 1967. Preliminary report on the Texas A&M Eastropac Cruise,
21 January to 10 April 1967. Texas A&M Univ., Ref. 67-5-T. 21 pp. (unpub-
lished manuscript).
Del Solar, E. 1945. Pesqueria altura. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 21(5).
Del Solar, E. 1972. Addenda al Catalogo de Crustaceos del Peru. Inf. Inst. Mar,
Callao, Peru, 30, 1-21.
Del Solar, E., Sanchez, J. y Piazza, A. 1965. Exploracion de las areas de abun-
dan cia der merluza (Merluccius gayi peruanus) en la costa peruana a bordo
del Bettina. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 8,1-27.
Diez Canseco, O. 1966. Defensa de los recursos naturales del Peru. Bol. Compo
Nac. Fertilizantes (CONAFER), 4(1 a14).
Dugdale, R. C. 1968. Dinamica de produccion biologica en ecosistemas de
afloramiento. Un program a de investigacion unificado del Comite Nacional
IBP de los Estados Unidos.
Doucet, W. E. y Garcia, J. E. 1963. El mercadeo de pescado en Lima: Prefer-
encias de los consumidores. Inf. Inst. Invest. Recurs. Mar, Callao, 19, 1-23.
Einarsson, H. y de Mendiola, B. R. 1963. Descripcion de huevos y larvas de
anchoveta peruana (Engraulis ringens J.). Inf. Inst. Invest. Recurs. Mar,
Callao, 10),1-23.
Fuentes, H. 1969. Las poblaciones de aves guaneras despues de 1965. Inf. Esp.
Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1M-54, 1-15.
Guillen, O. 1971. El Nino phenomenon in 1965 and its relations with the pro-
ductivity in coastal Peruvian waters. In: Fertility of the Sea, 1, 187-196.
Guillen, O. 1973. Carbon chlorophyll relationships in Peruvian coastal waters.
In: Oceanography of the South Pacific 1972, Wellington, 373-385.
Guillen, O. Aquino, R. Valdivia, B. y Calienes, R. 1978. Contaminacion en el
Puerto del Callao. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 62, I-54.
Guillen, 0., Calienes, R. y de Rondan, R. I. 1977. Medio ambiente y productivi-
dad primaria frente a1 area Pimentel-Chimbote. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
3(4),107-159.
Guillen, 0., de Mendiola, B. R. and de Rondan, R. I. 1971. Primary productivity
and phytoplankton in the coastal Peruvian waters. In: Fertility of the sea,
1,157-185.
Guillen, O. y de Rondan, R. I. 1968. Productividad primaria de las aguas costeras
del Peru en el ano 1964. Bol. Inst. Mar, Peru, 1 (7), 349-376.
Guillen, O. y de Rondan, R. I. 1974. Productividad de las aguas costeras frente
al Peru. I Parte: Medio Ambiente y Producion Prim aria. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar,
Callao, Peru, IMP-148.
Gulland, J. A. 1968. Informe sobre la dinamica de la poblacion de anchoveta
peruana. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1 (6), 305-346.
Gunther, E. R. 1936. A report on oceanographical investigations in the Peru
coastal current. Discovery Reports, 13, 107-276.
Humboldt, A. Von. 1949. Cosmos: a sketch of a physical description of the
universe, 1, 311-314.
Jordan, R. 1959. El fenomeno de las regurgitaciones en el guanay y un metodo
para estimar la ingestion diaria. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 25 (4).
Jordan, R. 1963. Un anruisis del numero de vertebras de la anchoveta peruana
(Engraulis ringens J.). Bol. Inst. Invest. Recurs. Mar, Callao, 1(2), 2543.
Jordan, R. 1964. Las emigraciones y mortandad de las aves en el inviemo y
otono de 1963. Inf. Inst. Invest. Recurs. Mar, Callao, 27, 144.
Jordan, R. y Cabrera, D. 1960. Algunos resultados de las anillaciones de guanay
efectuadas durante 193941. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 26(1).
Jordan, R., Csirke, J. y Tsukayama, I. 1978. Situacion de los recurs os anchoveta,
sardina, jurel, y caballa a Junio de 1978. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peni, 56, 1-34.
Jordan, R. y Fuentes, H. 1964. Resultados de los censos graficos de aves guaneras
efectuados durante el ciclo reproductivo 1962/63. Inf. Inst. Invest. Recurs.
Mar, Callao, 22,1-15.
Jordan, R. y Fuentes, H. 1966. Las poblaciones de aves guaneras y su situacion
actual. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 10, 1-31.
Jordan, R. y Malaga, A. 1972. Resultados de la primera marcacion experimental
de anchoveta (Engraulis ringens J.) en la mar. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
39,1-24.
Landa, A. 1953. Analisis de muestras diarias de fitoplancton superficial en
Chimbote, Julio 1951 a Junio 1952. Bol. Cient. Compo Admin., Guano, 10),
63-65, 24 pp., illustrations.
Lara, J. 1965. Crecimiento de 1a flota pesquera industrial a131 de Diciembre de
1963. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 2, 1-12 + 22 cuadros + 10 graficos.
Lavalle, J. A. de. 1917. Informe preliminar sobre 1a causa de 1a mortalidad de las
aves ocurrida en e1 mes de Marzo del presente ano. Mem. Compo Admin.
Guano, Seccion Tecnica.
Lavalle, J. A. de. 1924. Estudio de 1a emigracion y mortalidad de las aves gua-
neras ocurridas en los meses de Mayo a Junio del ano 1923. Mem. Compo Ad-
min. Guano, Seccion Tecnica.
Lavalle, J. A. de y Garcia. 1918. La contracorriente ecuatorial como causa deter-
minante del fenomeno marino conocido con e1 nombre del "aquaje." Bol.
Soc. Geogr., Lima, 33, 313-330.
Lobell, M. G. 1942. Some observations on the Peru coastal Current. Trans. Am.
Geophys. Un., 2, 332-336.
Malaga, A. 1974. Las marcaciones de anchoveta en e1 mar durante Febrero y
Agosto de 1973. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1M-ISS.
Mejia, J. 1964. Marcacion de cacha10tes frente al Peru. Inf. Inst. Invest. Recurs.
Mar, Callao, 26, 1-18.
Mejia, J., Velez, J. y Alarcon, H. 1974. Contraste de hipotesis como un medio a
juzgar 1a identidad de 1a merluza en e1 area peruana. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao,
Peru,IM-1S9.
Mendiola, B. R. de. 1959. Breve estudio sobre la variacion cualitativa anual del
plancton superficial de la Bahia de Chimbote, 1954-1955. Bol. Compo Admin.,
Guano 34(3).
Mendiola, B. R. de. 1971. Observaciones sobre el alimento de la anchoveta (En-
graulis ringens J.) durante el crucero 6908-09. InL Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao,
Peru,IM-82.
Mediola, B. R. de. 1978. EI alimento de la anchoveta Engraulis ringens J. en un
area de afloramiento (San Juan). Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 49,1-15.
Mendiola, B. R. de, Ochoa, R. y Calienes, Gomez 0.,1969. Contenido estomacal
de anchoveta en cuatro areas de la costa peruana. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
27,1-30.
Minano, J. B. 1959. Algunas apreciaciones relacionadas con la anchoveta peruana
y su fecundidad. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 35 (3).
Minano, J. B. 1968. Estudio de la fecundidad y ciclo sexual de la anchoveta (En-
graulis ringens J.) en la zona de Chimbote. Bol. Inst. Mar, Peru, 1(9),505-553.
Minano, J. B. y Castillo, J. 1971. Investigacion biologica preliminar de la cabrilla
Paralabrax humeralis (Valencinnes) en Chimbote. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao,
Peru, IM-83.
Murphy, G. I. 1967. Analisis preliminar de la dinamica de poblaciones de la
anchoveta peruana. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, IMP-IS.
Murphy, R. C. 1923. The oceanography of the Peruvian littoral with reference to
the abundance and distribution of marine life. Geogr. Rev., 13, 64-85.
Murphy, R. C. 1926. Oceanic and climatic phenomena along the west coast of
South America during 1925. Geogr. Rev., 16, 26-54.
Mugica, R. 1972. Oceanograf{a del Mar Peruano. Hist. Marit. Peru, I, 216-474.
O'Brien, 1. J., and Hurlburt, H. E. 1972. A numerical model of coastal upwelling.
J. Phys. Oceanogr., 2,14-26.
Paliza, O. 1964. Desarrollo morfologico del feto de cachalote, Physeter catodon
L. Bol. Inst. Invest. Recurs. Mar, Callao, 1(5), 137-166.
Popovici, Z. 1962. Corrientes oceanicas y 1a pesca peruana. Anuario de Pesca,
Lima, 1961/1962, 162-172.
Posner, G. S. 1954. The Peru Current. Scient. Amer., 190(3),66-71.
Raimondi, D. A. 1891. Feromeno llama do "EI Pintor." Bol. Soc. Geogr., Lima,
1,58-67.
Reid, J. L. Jr. 1959. Evidence of a South Equatorial Countercurrent in the Pacific
Ocean. Nature, 1~4, 209-210.,
Saetersdal, G., Mejia, J. y Ramirez, P. 1963. La caza de cachalotes en el Peru
Bol. Inst. Inv. Recurs. Mar., Callao, Peru, 1(3),45-84.
Saetersdal, G., Tsukayama, I. y Alegre, B. 1965. Fluctuaciones en la abundancia
aparente del stock de anchoveta en 1959-1962. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
1(2),33-104.
Samame, M. 1971. Observaciones de la madurez sexual y desove de la cachema
Cynoscion analis (Jenyns) de Paita. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, IM-81.
Samame, M. 1977. Determinacion de la edad y crecimiento-de la sardina
Sardinops sagax sagax (1). Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 3 (3),95-112.
Samame, M., Flores, L. A., Vilchez, R. y Castillo, J. 1978. Estructura, distri-
bucion y abundancia de peces demersales. Crucero Tareq-I1, 7605 (13 de
Mayo-3 de Junio 1976). Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 47, 1-28.
Sanchez, J. y Lam, R. 1968. Estudio sobre la variacion del contenido de grasa
en la anchoveta peruana (Engraulis ringens J.). Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
24, 1-29 + 29 tables + 9 figuras.
Sanchez, 1. y Lam, R. 1969. EI procesamiento del pescado para el consumo
humano en el Peru. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 28, 1-32 + 12 cuadros + 5
fotos + 1 figura.
Sanchez, J. y Lam, R. 1973. Tecnolog{a del salado y secado artificial de la mer-
luza (Merluccius gayi peruanus). Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 43, 1-34 + 7
caudros + 6 fotos.
Santander, H. y de Castillo, O. S. 1971. Desarrollo y distribucion de huevos y
larvas de jurel Trachurus simmetricus murphyi (Nichols) en la costa peruana.
Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 36, 1-23.
Santander, H. y de Castillo, O. S. 1972. Distribucion de huevos y larvas de cabal-
la Scomber japonicus peruanus (Jordan y Hubbs) en la costa peruana. Inf.
Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, IM-l03.
Santander, H. y de Castillo, O. S. 1973. Estudio sobre las primeras etapas de
vida de la anchoveta. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 41, 1-30.
Santander, H. y de Castillo, O. S. 1977. Variaciones en la intensidad del desove
de sardina Sardinops sagax sagax (1) en la costa peruana en los anos 1966-
1973. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 3(3), 73-94.
Schaefer, M. B. 1967. Dinamica de la pesqueria de la anchoveta Engraulis ringens,
en el Peru. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1 (5), 189-304.
Schaefer, M. B. 1970. Men, birds and anchovies in the Peru Current-dynamic
interaction. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc., 99 (3), 461-467.
Schott, G. 1931. Der Peru-Strom und seine nordlichen Nachborgebeite in nor-
maIer Ausbildung. Ann. Hydrogr. mar. Meteorol., 59, 161-169, 200-213,
240-252.
Schott, G. 1932. The Humboldt Current in relation to land and sea conditions
on the Peruvian coast. Geography, 17 (96), 87-98.
Schott, G. 1952. La Corriente Peruana. Bol. Soc. Geogr. Lima, 69(3-4), 3-10.
Schweigger, E. H. 1931. Observaciones oceanograficas sobre la Corriente de
Humboldt. Bol. Compo Admin., Guano, 7(1), 3-39.
Schweigger, E. H. 1939. Aves guaneras-Estudios sobre su biolog{a. Bol. Compo
Admin., Guano, 15 (8).
Schweigger, E. H. 1946. El Dorado frente a la costa peruana. Bol. Compo Admin.,
Guano, 22(8).
Schweigger, E. H. 1958. Upwelling along the coast of Peru. Jour. Oceanogr.
Soc., Japan, 14(3),87-91.
Schweigger, E. H. 1961. Anomalias termicas en el Oceano Pacifico Oriental y
su pronostico. Bol. Soc. Geogr., Lima, 78 (314), 3-50.
Sears, M. 1941. Que es el plancton y porque debemos estudiarlo. Bol. Compo
Admin., Guano, 17.
Sears, M. 1954. Notas sobre la corriente costanera del Peru. Bol. Cient. Compo
Admin., Guano, 1,135-179.
Sheppard, G. 1933. The rainy season of 1932 in southwestern Ecuador. Geogr.
Rev., 23, 210-216.
Smith, R. L. 1978. Poleward propagating perturbations in currents and sea levels
along the Peru coast. J. Geophys. Res., 83(C12).
Stevenson, M., Guillen, O. and Santoro, J. 1970. Marine Atlas of the Pacific
coastal water of South America. Univ. of Calif. Press, Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 23 pp., 99 charts.
Sverdrup, H. U. 1930. Some oceanographic results of the Carnegie's work in the
Pacific. The Peruvian Current. Trans. Geophys. Un., 10th and 11 th Annual
Meeting, 257-264.
Tovar, H. 1968. Areas de reproduccion y distribucion de las aves marinas del
litoral peruano. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 1(10),523-546.
Tovar, H. 1978. Las poblaciones de aves guaneras en los ciclos reproductivos de
1969/70 a 1973/74. Inf. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 45,1-13.
Tsuchiya, M. 1975. Subsurface countercurrents in the eastern equatorial Pacific
Ocean. 1. Mar. Res., 33, 145-175.
Tsukayama, I. 1969. Una nueva medida de la pesca por unidad de esfuerzo en
la pesqueria de anchoveta (Engraulis ringens J.) en la Peru. Bol. Inst. Mar,
Callao, Peru, 2(4),129-156.
Valdivia, J. 1978. The anchoveta and El Nino. Reun. Cons. into Explor. Mer.,
173,196-202.
Vasquez, I., Hidalgo, R. y Perez, E. 1973. Resumen de la pesquer{a de anchoveta
y otras especies, para reducci6n, enero-julio 1973. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao,
Peru,IM-143.
Vasquez, I. y Paz, A. 1964. La pesquer{a peru ana durante 1964. Inf. Esp. Inst.
Mar, Callao, Peru, IMP-3.
Vasquez, I. y Paz, A. 1969. La pesqueria maritima peruana durante 1968. Inf.
Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 30, 1-93.
Vasquez, I., Paz, A. y Hidalgo, R. 1970. Desembarque de pescados, mariscos y
otros anima1es marinos, Enero a Junio 1970. Inf. Esp. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
IMP-72.
Vogt, W. 1940. Una depresion ecologica en la costa peruana. Bol. Compo Admin.,
Guano, 16(10),307-329.
Vogt, W. 1964. Informe sobre las aves guaneras. Bol. Corp. Nac. Fertiliz. Lima,
Peru, 2(9), 648.
Wooster, W. S. 1952. Exploraci6n oceanognifica del Pacifico Ecuatoria1 Oriental.
Bol. Soc. Geogr., Lima, 69(3-4), 79-82.
Wooster, W. S. y Popovici, Z. 1958. Investigaciones oceanograficas en e1 norte
del Peru: El crucero BAP Bondy realizado del 24 de Febrero a1 9 de Marzo,
1958. Rev. Mar, Lima, Peru, 43(3), 412420.
Wooster, W. S. and Gilmartin, M. 1961. The Peru-Chile Undercurrent. J. Mar.
Res., 19(3),97-122.
Wiist, G. 1935. Humboldt-Strom, nicht Peru-Strom. Petermanns Georg. Mitt.,
1935,81 (12), 439-441.
Wyrtki, K. 1963. The horizontal and vertical field of motion in the Peru Cur-
rent. Bull. Scripps Inst. Oceanogr., 8 (4), 313 -346.
Wyrtki, K. 1967. Circulation and water masses in the eastern Equatorial Pacific
Ocean. Int. Jour. Oceanol. Limnol., 1 (2), 117-147.
Wyrtki, K. (In press.) El Nino-An abnormal event in the ocean atmosphere
system.
Zorell, F. 1928. Der El Nino-Strom in Jahre 1925. Ann. Hydr. mar. Meteor.,
56,166-175.
Zuta, S., Enfield, D., Valdivia, J., Lagos, P. y Blandin, C. 1976. Aspectos f{sicos
del fenomeno E1 Nino 1972-1973. FAO Inf. Pesca, 185,3-61.
Zuta, S. y Guillen, O. 1970. Oceanograf{ca de las aguas costeras del Peru. Bol.
Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru, 2(5),157-324.
Zuta, S., Rivera, T. and Bastamente, A. 1978. Hydrologic aspects of the main
unwelling areas off Peru. In: Upwelling ecosystems, R. Boje and M. Tomczak
(eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, pp. 235-.
Zuta, S. y Urquizo, W. 1972. Temperatura promedio de 1a superficie del mar
frente a 1a costa peruana, periodo 1928-1969. Bol. Inst. Mar, Callao, Peru,
2(8),462-519.
Zuta, S. y Santander, H. (En prensa.) EI ambiente oceanico y su re1acion con los
organism os marinos. 1er Semin. Nac. de Sisto Ecolog. Recurs. Natur. y Medio
Ambiente, Junio 1974, Lima.
Oceanography and Geophysical Theory in the First Half of
the Twentieth Century: The Dutch School
Rachel Laudan
The study of the ocean basins during the past century has led to new and unex-
pected results in a number of fields. Perhaps the most striking of these is the plate
tectonic revolution that took place in geology in the 1960s, stemming in large
measure from the discoveries of oceanographers (together with those of the
paleomagnetists). This revolution in the earth sciences has been widely hailed as
producing a theory of a scope and precision hitherto unknown in these sciences.
It is developments in the prehistory of this revolution that I shall examine in
this article, in particular the oceanographic expeditions undertaken by Dutch
geophysicists between the wars, the data they collected, and the theories that
they put forward to account for the data.
There are two interlocking tales to be told, one specifically about the develop-
ment of Dutch oceanography, the other of wider historical significance. With
respect to the former, how was it that Felix Yening Meinesz (1887-1966), the
most important of the Dutch oceanographers, came to develop a very influential,
although also extremely speculative theory of the earth from a background in
technical issues in geodesy? With respect to the latter, what was the role played
by the Dutch oceanographers in the history of continental drift and plate tec-
tonic theory? Although they were always much more sympathetic to the mobilist
position than most of their North American or British colleagues, the Dutch were
not to accept drift wholeheartedly until the 1960s. Nonetheless, Yening Meinesz
and his colleagues were to argue vehemently for the existence of convection cur-
rents in the mantle and for their efficacy in mountain building, a position that
was to be a key factor in Hess' development of the sea-floor spreading hypothe-
sis. I shall argue that it is a mistake born of hindsight to see the crucial division
of geophysicists in the first half of the century as bei.lg that between the perma-
Oceanography and Geophysical Theory: The Dutch School 657
nentists and the mobilists. Equally important were the divisions between differ-
ent theories of mountain building. The Dutch, as stout advocates of an important
but unpopular theory, paved the way for the fresh combination of theoretical
elements that was to lead to the geological revolution of the 1960s.
Vening Meinesz, in fact, started his career neither as an oceanographer nor as
a geophysicist, the two fields in which he was later to make his reputation.
Rather, he was trained as a civil engineer, and after receiving his degree from the
Technical University of Delft in 1910, he joined the staff of the gravimetric sur-
vey that was being made of the Netherlands at the time (Nieuwenkamp 1976).
In the course of this work he encountered enormous difficulties when he tried to
fmd a stable platform for the gravity pendulums on the peaty subsoil that under-
lay much of Holland. As a result he undertook an investigation of the theoretical
aspects of this problem for his dissertation research. From this he developed a
method for eliminating the interference by swinging several pendulums at the
same time in the same apparatus but with different phases. During the succeed-
ing half dozen years he used the method with considerable success at a number
of different locations in the Netherlands. This experience gave him a splendid
opportunity to tackle a problem that thus far had defeated geodosists, namely,
the measurement of gravity at sea. Geophysicists, particularly those American
geophysicists concerned with isostasy, had been pointing out for some time that
gravity measurements at sea were essential to complement those already taken
on land, to help determine the figure of the earth more accurately, and, most
importantly, to test the widely-held belief that the surface of the earth as a
whole was in a state of isostatic balance. This belief sprang in part from a num-
ber of gravity surveys that had been carried out at the turn of the century in
different parts of the globe (Heiskanen and Vening Meinesz 1958, 129-130). The
Norwegian Schi¢>tz had worked in the Arctic during Nansen's polar expedition
in the years 1893-1896, Bonsdorff had surveyed Spitzbergen in 1905, and in
1909, Hayford had published his computations on the effect of major masses on
the plumbline deviations in the United States. All three had concluded that iso-
static equilibrium prevails. Between 1909 and 1912, Hayford and Bowie of the
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Helmert in Germany published major theo-
retical studies on isostatic equilibrium, using versions of Pratt's hypothesis that
the crust underlying high mountains is less dense than the crust under the oceans,
thus compensating the respective mass surplus and deficiency of the two regions.
With this assumption they could reduce all the observed gravity anomalies. Ob-
viously, extending gravity surveys over the oceans would be a further test for
the theory of isostasy. But there were severe instrumental difficulties. Taking it
as axiomatic that the unsteady base provided by a ship would make measure-
ments by the standard method with gravity pendulums impossible, most workers
at the beginning of the twentieth century had concentrated on alternative meth-
ods, generally involving barometric measurements. But even the best known of
these, undertaken between 1901 and 1909 by Hecker with the help of the Nor-
wegian Meteorological Service, were rejected by American workers as insuffi-
ciently reliable for them to consider copying the method (Ewing 1938,47-48).
658 R. Laudan
So it was with high hopes that Vening Meinesz undertook the ambitious pro-
ject of making gravity measurements on board ship using a pendulum apparatus.
But even with his new apparatus he failed at first. The movements of the ship
were so much more pronounced than the slight unsteadiness of the land surface
on which he had previously worked that it was impossible to take measurements
except in periods of the most exceptional calm. It was only when he adopted a
new platform for the apparatus-the submarine-that he succeeded. Making use
of the fact that waves are a surface phenomena, and quickly damped with depth,
Vening Meinesz persuaded the Dutch Navy to allow him to use a submarine and
in 1923, after some initial instrumental problems that he fairly quickly resolved,
he managed to measure gravity at sea. Then followed a decade and a half in
which Vening Meinesz undertook lengthy ocean voyages, often under trying and
even dangerous circumstances, in order to take measurements in numerous dif-
ferent parts of the world, a task that eventually earned him the nickname of
"The Diving Dutchman" (Holmes 1965, 958). Indeed, his method worked so
well that a wide net of gravity stations was established with considerable dis-
patch. By 1938, over 1,200 gravity measurements at sea had been completed,
800 of them by Meinesz himself in the East Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, the West
Indies, and at a number of stations over the major ocean basins (Ewing 1938, 52-
56). The remainder were made by the United States, Japan, Russia, France, and
Italy, for the most part in waters close to their own territories. Initially Vening
Meinesz' measurements appeared to support the belief that isostatic equilibrium
did obtain over the oceans, where he found only small positive anomalies (Jef-
freys 1929, 223). However, once he reached his final destination in the Nether-
lands East Indies, the observations began to give very surprising results.
There were, of course, obvious practical and political reasons for a Dutch geo-
physicist to choose this location, but for anyone interested in the nature of the
earth's gravity field there were also strong intellectual reasons. As Vening Meinesz
reported to the Dutch Academy of Science in 1930: "The principal reason for
making the gravity research in the archipelago was the desire to get a complete
and detailed gravimetric survey of one of the most extensive fields of tectonic
activity of the earth; the frequency of earthquakes and numerous other indi-
cations make it probable that the tectonic stresses and movements are particular-
ly strong here. If, therefore, gravity can help to get an understanding of these
processes, chances were good that the data obtained in this region would be
valuable in this regard" (Veining Meinesz 1930, 567). Sure enough, Vening
Meinesz' instinct that gravity surveys would be revealing in such an area, which
was already known to be tectonically active, proved correct. For he quickly
found that "the archipelago shows abnormally large [negative] isostatic anoma-
lies," which, he commented, led to the conclusion that "apparently isostasy is
not maintained where tectonic activity takes place, as is often supposed to be the
case" (Vening Meinesz 1930, 568). Given the general consensus at the time about
the universality of isostatic equilibrium, this result was naturally unexpected by
the community of scientists involved in geodetic work, though as Vening Meinesz
acknowledged, perhaps this should not have been so, as "isostasy means floating
equilibriwn of the earth's crust, and the presence of tectonic forces may be ex-
pected to disturb the equilibriwn" (Vening Meinesz 1930,568).
Before attempting to account for the anomalies that he had observed, Yening
Meinesz disposed of the possibility that they were either the result of an experi-
mental error with his new and relatively untried apparatus, or the result of a
faulty isostatic reduction. He dismissed the former as implausible because of the
magnitude of the anomalies, which was much too great to be attributed to experi-
mental error. He dismissed the latter, because although he was not convinced
that the Hayford-Bowie reduction he had used was the right one (indeed, he was
later to produce his own system of regional isostatic reduction) nonetheless since
it was a method of local reduction, any anomalies introduced by the method it-
self would be correlated with the topography. Here he was lucky. Unlike the to-
pography of most parts of the sea floor, the contours of the East Indian Archi-
pelago were relatively well known due to the efforts of the oceanographers on the
Snellius Expedition, which was simultaneously exploring the region. Using their re-
sults, Yening Meinesz was able to show that ''the deviations of isostasy do not show
a clear parallelism with the topography of the earth's crust; they appear to be
remarkably independent of it." Thus the anomalies could not be merely apparent
and the result of the method of isostatic reduction used (Vening Meinesz 1930,
568). So abandoning further consideration of these possible technical difficul-
ties, Yening Meinesz went on to consider the available theoretical explanations.
He considered four possibilities, discarding three of them. The origin of the
negative gravity anomalies was clearly not deep-seated, he thought, since the
change from the belt of strong negative anomalies to the surrounding slight posi-
tive anomalies was abrupt rather than gradual and "if the origin of the anomalies
were seated at a depth greater than 40 km., this mass distribution would have to
be complicated and improbable to produce the surface effect" (Vening Meinesz
1930, 570). Neither did he think that the cause lay in the surface layer of the
earth's crust because of the independence of the topography and the anomaly
field. Further, he dismissed what had initially been his favorite hypothesis, the
theory that "the cause may be found in the action of forces which are pressing
down or pushing up the crust out of its equilibriwn position" (Vening Meinesz
1930,570), for despite the lack of overall correlation with topography, many of
the negative anomalies coincided with chains of islands, and many positive anom-
alies with deeps. He thought it highly unlikely that islands were being pushed
down, and the deep sea basins pushed up. Finally, he announced what he be-
lieved to be the hypothesis "which covers all the facts" (Vening Meinesz 1930,
570). Explicitly accepting the model of the earth "deduced by Jeffreys from the
seismic data" (Vening Meinesz 1930,571), he argued that it was plausible to as-
swne that the strip of negative anomalies was caused by some abnormal accumu-
lation of light surface material in a sub-surface denser layer and proposed that
the "cause is a downward folding of the whole earth's crust with the exception
of a thin surface layer" (Vening Meinesz 1930,570-571). He believed this sur-
face layer to be no more than a few kilometers thick, when compared with the
20 kilometer thickness of the main part of the earth's crust. This picture of the
660 R. Laudan
geological structure causing the negative gravity anomaly was, according to
Vening Meinesz, in agreement with "the Airy hypothesis of isostasy, which sup-
poses that the isostatic compensation of a mountain system is formed by a root
of lighter crust material embedded in the sima layer" (Yening Meinesz 1930,
561). Nonetheless, in one respect, his theory differed from Airy's, in that "not
every surface fold is accompanied below by a downward fold, while the preva-
lent view is that every fold develops its isostatic compensation directly below it"
(Yening Meinesz 1930,571). In Vening Meinesz' view, it was this lack of exact
correlation between the surface folds and the downbuckled folds that accounted
for the lack of exact correlation between the isostatic anomalies and the local
topography.
Almost without exception, the geological community accepted Meinesz' down-
buckling hypothesis as they came to learn about it during the 1930s. But before
we turn to look at the reception of his theory, we need to consider two further
questions that Vening Meinesz raised: first, what was the connection between
this downbuckling and other geological structures; second, what was the cause
of such a departure from isostatic equilibrium?
In answer to the first question, Vening Meinesz believed that his downbuckled
root of sial was nothing other than a geosyncline in the process of formation. He
argued that his results confirmed the theories of other geologists who had worked
in the same area, like Molengraaff and Brouwer (Molengraaff 1913, Brouwer
1925), and had already suggested that the Archipelago was in the "first stage of
a mountain building process" (Yening Meinesz 1930, 571). Vening Meinesz
thought that "in the long run [the surface layer] forms overthrust sheets in the
manner as has been stated by the geologists in the Alps and other mountain
systems" (Yening Meinesz 1930, 571). He was reinforced in his belief that nega-
tive anomaly belts were the key to understanding the formation of geosynclines
by the famous experiments carried out by Philip Kuenen. Kuenen had been the
geologist on the Snellius Expedition in 1929 and 1930, and had collaborated
with Vening Meinesz in his report on the gravity measurements (Kuenen 1935,
Vening Meinesz et al. 1934). Although Kuenen's major area of research was the
nature and origin of the submarine canyons found along the edges of the conti-
nental shelves, on his return to Holland he attempted to simulate the structures
found in the East Indies in the laboratory (Kuenen 1936). Despite the usual dif-
ficulty of scaling down all the important properties of the earth's crust, he suc-
ceeded in producing for the first time in experimental geology an apparatus in
which a relatively rigid layer, formed of a mixture of paraffin, vaseline and oil,
was floated on a fluid substratum. In previous simulations of mountain formation,
all layers had been solid and had buckled up under stress (Daly 1926,225-226).
But when Kuenen's model was subjected to compressive stress, it produced a
down fold of the type that Vening Meinesz had postulated occurred in the East
Indies. If material that was weaker than the crust was placed in the initial down-
fold, it became folded and overthrust in a manner resembling the deformations
found in alpine areas. Kuenen named this whole structure a tectogene, and his
experiments quickly became classic and widely regarded as offering impressive
support for Vening Meinesz' views.
During the rest of his life, Vening Meinesz was to continue to argue that his
gravity measurements gave important support for the theory of geosynclines.
But he was also to link this account of the formation of mountains in geosyn-
clines to the answer to the second of his questions, namely, what was the cause
of the downbuckling of the earth's crust. Summarizing the evidence a quarter of
a century later in 1955, he argued that "if we examine the pattern of the great
geosynclines over the earth's surface, we cannot doubt that their cause must have
a world-wide character. The geology in these belts points to horizontal compres-
sion in the crust, at least during the later stages of their development" (Vening
Meinesz 1955, 319). He went on to point out that most scientists believed that
there were only two hypotheses that might explain the phenomena "(1) the
thermal-contraction hypothesis, and (2) the hypothesis of subcrustal current
systems of such large horizontal dimensions that, vertically, they must involve
at least a great part of the thickness of the mantle and probably the whole
mantle" (Vening Meinesz 1959,319). Jeffreys had revived the thermal-contraction
hypothesis during the period when Vening Meinesz had been carrying out his
gravity surveys, and the hypothesis had remained the dominant account of
mountain building during the intervening period. Why, then, did Vening Meinesz
opt for convection currents in the mantle rather than thermal contraction?
In a lengthy chapter that he wrote in ·'The Earth and Its Gravity Field"
(Heiskanen and Vening Meinesz 1958, ch. 11), he summarized the evidence that
he had collected for the existence of convection currents; the nature of the
crustal deformations of southeast Asia and the isostatic anomalies there; the mag-
nitude of crustal shortening in folded mountain belts; the polar wandering dis-
covered by Runcorn and his colleagues which, at this time, Vening Meinesz, fol-
lowing Runcorn, put down to a shift of the crust over the interior of the earth
(Runcorn 1954); Bowen's shift on the formation of basalt and the necessity of
finding some mechanism by which it could be produced throughout earth histo-
ry (Bowen 1928); regularities in the spherical harmonics of the earth's topogra-
phy (Prey 1922, Heiskanen and Vening Meinesz 1958); the episodic character of
tectonic revolutions (Umbgrove 1947). He dismissed Birch's objection that the
earth's mantle was not solid enough to allow convection currents (Birch 1951)
by suggesting that if density changes found seismically are caused by a change of
state and not chemically, then this difficulty would be overcome.
However, this was Vening Meinesz' position in the 1950s and initially, the
question of the cause of the downbuckling attracted little of his interest. He
simply remarked tersely that it "must be caused by a strong tangential pressure
in the earth's crust" (Vening Meinesz 1930, 512). This, he concluded, looking at
all that was known of the geology of the East Indies and particularly at Visser's
work on the distribution of earthquakes, "must be looked for in a South East
tendency of the Asian continent" (Vening Meinesz 1930,574, Visser 1930). But
what in turn caused this lateral push Vening Meinesz did not ask. The main theo-
ry at that time that discussed the lateral movement of continents was, of course,
Wegener's theory of continental drift. Unlike the English and American geologists
who worked in the northern hemisphere, the Dutch geologists who worked in
the highly tectonically active region of the East Indies were quite sympathetic
662 R. Laudan
to this theory. Molengraaff, for example, was one of the only two geologists
sympathetic to Wegener's ideas at the overwhelmingly hostile symposium held
by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in 1926 (Frankel 1978,
132). Meinesz, too, was receptive to the idea that it might be possible for the
continents to move, as he himself in his own hypothesis assumed "the horizontal
movement of the Asiatic continent" (Vening Meinesz 1930,576). However, he
thought that there was a real conflict between his own picture of the earth's
crust and the mechanism that Wegener postulated for drift. "If the hypothesis
given in this paper about big crustal foldings is right" commented Meinesz, "the
ocean floors appear to have enough strength for folding processes to take place.
This appears to be contradictory to the mechanism of continental drift advo-
cated by Wegener" (Vening Meinesz 1930,576).
Vening Meinesz lefthe matter rest until 1933, when Escher, the professor of
geology at Leyden, explicitly linked Vening Meinesz' results with the convection
current hypothesis propounded by Arthur Holmes a year or two earlier. Escher
agreed with Vening Meinesz that the "deficit of gravity in the East Indian Archi-
pelago" could "only be explained by a root of the earth's crust buckled down-
wards," and he suggested that it was caused by "two opposing currents in the
substratum" (Escher 1933,682). He quoted the earlier paper in which Holmes
had argued that "the only kind of process competent to provide compression
and at the same time to exert a downward drag against gravity would seem to in-
volve the operation of two opposing subcrustal currents which approach the
strip and turn down beneath it" (Holmes 1931,447).
By early in 1934, Vening Meinesz, who had communicated Escher's paper to
the Dutch Academy of Sciences, was seriously considering the Holmes-Escher
convection current hypothesis (Yening Meinesz 1934). He agreed with these two
authors that convection currents probably existed, though he wanted to modify
their specific hypotheses. He began by stressing that positive gravity anomalies,
as well as negative ones, were frequently found on the earth's surface, particular-
ly over the oceans. It was these positive anomalies, as much as the negative ones
which he had already explained by his downbuckling hypothesis, for which
Vening Meinesz hoped to account by invoking deep-seated convection currents.
As in the case of the negative anomalies, he believed that the positive anomalies
were an important feature since they showed up whichever method of isostatic
reduction was used. He rejected the hypothesis, favored by some authors, that
they could be caused by any stable feature of the earth's crust, such as a change
in density. If this were the case, then by analogy with the rapid isostatic adjust-
ment observed in the deltas of the Nile and the Mississippi, the anomalies would
presumably disappear rather rapidly. The convection-current hypothesis, how-
ever, avoided the difficulties of the previous explanations by assuming "stationary
dynamic processes in the substratum" (Vening Meinesz 1934,39).
Turning to the nature of these convection currents, Vening Meinesz suggested
that the cooling of the surface of the earth that he believed to have occurred
would generate such currents. Furthermore, he thought that the effect ofradio-
activity would be to make the substratum under the continents warmer than that
under the ocean, leading him to suggest (contrary to the view of the later theo-
rists of the 1960s) that convection currents would rise under the continents and
sink under the oceans. Applying the theory of viscous fluids to the currents that
he thought would occur, Vening Meinesz concluded that the gravity "anomaly is
positive above descending columns and negative above rising ones" (Yening
Meinesz 1934, 43). "So," he said, "we see that the results of our investigation
agree with the actual facts; over the oceans, where we may expect the descend-
ing currents, fields of positive anomalies are found. This fact, which took us so
much trouble to explain otherwise, is fully made clear by the supposition of
convection-currents and this appears to the writer to be a strong support of the
hypothesis" (Yening Meinesz 1934,43). Vening Meinesz went on to consider the
possible geological effects of the convection current hypothesis. As he put it "The
probability of these considerably tangential forces working on the crust makes it
also likely that the convection-currents will bring about shifts of the whole crust
with regard to the core of the Earth. This would imply movements of the poles
with regard to the crust. So these movements, which many geologists have wanted
to admit for explaining climatic changes that otherwise appear inexplicable, are
by no means impossible in the light of the convection hypothesis" (Yening
Meinesz 1934,4445). Thus, in 1934, Vening Meinesz, like Holmes, believed that
convection currents were important. But unlike Holmes, he did not think that
they could cause the movement of continents through the crust. Rather, the most
they could do at the surface of the earth was to cause local areas of buckling or
tension in a strong crust. However, he was prepared to consider the possibility
that these currents could shift the entire crust over the interior of the earth.
Vening Meinesz' account of convection currents was gradually incorporated
into a general theory of earth history in which the periodic overturn of convec-
tion currents was the most important factor (Heiskanen and Vening Meinesz
1958, Ch. 11). He came to postulate the existence of an original ur-continent,
which was later torn apart by mantle currents. The first turnover involved the
whole mantle, created the iron-nickel core of the earth, and probably formed the
major geosynclines. The second group of convection currents operated in the up-
per half of the mantle only, split the ur-continent and carried North and South
America away from Eurasia, explaining the similarity in the two coastlines-here
Vening Meinesz said that despite the superficial similarities to Wegener's theory,
he thought the split occurred earlier in earth history than did Wegener. It was
only after this time that the sialic ur-continent could have become rigid, preserv-
ing the coastline shapes, while the ocean floor must have remained soft enough
to allow the continental fragments to move through it. During the third stage,
the convection currents probably operated in the upper third of the mantle, and
pushed together basalt to form the mid-ocean ridges, while pulling open the deep
basins associated with island arc systems. Although not identical to Vening
Meinesz' theory, the "brilliant summary" (Hess 1962,599) written by one of
his colleagues, Umbgrove (Umbgrove 1947) was deeply indebted to Vening
Meinesz' account, and was the fullest exposition of this version of the periodic
theory of earth history. By 1964, in his short text, "The Earth's Crust and
664 R. Laudan
Mantle," Yening Meinesz had changed his mind about continental drift. The new
evidence that impressed him, over and above that originally given by Wegener,
was Runcorn's "geomagnetic arguments, based on the fact that magnetized rocks
indefmitely retain their magnetization, and that, therefore, rocks showing a mag-
netization that does not fit the geomagnetic field of their present position, must
have undergone a transition" (Yening Meinesz 1964,76). He regarded the theory
of continental drift and the theory of convection currents in the mantle as mutu-
ally supportive. Therefore, he insisted that, since he believed that drift was caused
by the periodic turnover of convection currents "Continental drift must have
been limited to the orogenic periods of the earth's history" (Yening Meinesz
1964, 76). Furthermore, he remained committed to the view that convection
currents rose under the continents and sank under the oceans. A couple of years
later he died, as the geological community was in the throes of a revolution that
his work had helped to engender.
This leads directly to the wider question ofYening Meinesz' influence on the
scientists who were instrumental in bringing about the plate tectonic'revolution.
Most of these scientists, at least in the early stages, were convinced that convec-
tion currents had an important role to play in the movement of continents, and
were quite prepared to admit that they were influenced by Yening Meinesz' advo-
cacy of such currents, even though he did not accept drift until the end of his
life. Unlike Holmes, who did connect convection currents with drift, but did
little extra research to establish their existence, Yening Meinesz' accumulated
important additional evidence with his work on negative gravity anomalies and
later on spherical harmonics. An important intermediary in, presenting Yening
Meinesz' data and theories to the American community of scientists was David
Griggs, of Harvard University, whose masterly paper (Griggs 1939), marshalling
the evidence for convection currents in a nontechnical way, was to be constantly
cited by scientists looking for an alternative to the thermal contraction theory
of mountain building. Perhaps even more important was Harry Hess, whom
Yening Meinesz had taught to carry out gravity surveys in the West Indies be-
tween the wars, and who wholeheartedly accepted the downbuckling hypothesis
(Hess 1938). Later, in his 1962 paper on sea-floor spreading, regarded by many,
particularly in America, as the start of the current revolution in geology, Hess
quoted Yening Meinesz as his source for the claim that "a single-cell (toroidal)
convective overturn took place, resulting in the formation of a nickel-iron core,
and at the same time the low-melting silicates were extruded over the rising links
of the current to form the primordial single continent" (Hess 1962, 600). He
later quoted Yening Meinesz again, with respect to his work on spherical har-
monics, agreeing that the peak shown in "two values from the third to the fifth
harmonic would correlate very nicely with mantle-size convection currents" and
that even the "lower-order spherical harmonics show quite unexpected regulari-
ties" (Hess 1962, 610). Where Hess departed radically from Yening Meinesz (and
from other earlier workers on convection like Holmes), was that he suggested
that the convection currents rise at the mid-ocean ridges rather than under the
continents. With this model of the interior of the earth in mind, Hess then went
on to construct his theory of the relation between continents and oceans. This
does not concern us here, but what is interesting to note is that as the theories of
sea-floor spreading and later plate tectonics, gathered support, the idea of
convection currents, which had been so important in the early stages, gradually
assumed less and less importance. Indeed, the role of conv~ction currents in the
various theories we have mentioned shifted constantly. Yening Meinesz had
originally introduced them as a more satisfactory way of explaining negative
gravity anomalies in particular and the theory of mountain building in general
than the thermal contraction hypothesis. This remained an important minority
view for thirty years, until the 1960s, when with increasing evidence for the
movement of continents, Yening Meinesz and Hess, in different ways, used
convection currents to explain the movement of continents. But once the scien-
tific community became convinced, largely as a result of paleomagnetic investi-
gations, that continents (orrather plates) did move, then convection currents, the
theoretical entities that had helped spawn the discussion, were relegated to the
list of subjects too speculative to playa major part in the theory. These complex
developments indicate how misleading it can be to see the history of contempo-
rary geology and geophysics simply in terms of the position scientists took on
the permanency or mobility of continents and oceans.
Early in the nineteenth century, Charles Lyell had considered the obstacles
facing the geologists. High on his list were the problems stemming from the fact
that man lives on land. "If we were inhabitants of another element," he remarked,
"if the great ocean were our domain instead of the narrow limits of the land,
our difficulties would be greatly lessened" (Lyell 1830,81). That such difficul-
ties have now been lessened is due to the efforts of pioneers like Yening Meinesz.
References
Birch, F. 1951. Remarks on the structure of the mantle, and its bearing on the
possibility of convection currents. Trans. Am. Geophys. Un., 32,533-534.
Bowen, N. L. 1928. The evolution of igneous rocks. Princeton University Press,
Princeton, 334.
Bowie, W. 1917. Investigations of gravity and isostasy. Spec. Publ. No. 40, U.S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington.
Brouwer, H. A. 1925. The geology of the Netherlands East Indies. Macmillan,
New York, 160.
Daly, R. A. 1926. Our mobile earth. Scribner, New York, 342.
Escher, B. G. 1933. On the relation between the volcanic activity in the Nether-
lands East Indies and the belt of negative gravity anomalies discovered by
Vening Meinesz. Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch., 36, 677-685.
Ewing, M. 1938. Marine gravimetric methods and surveys. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc.,
79,47-70.
Frankel, H. 1978. Arthur Holmes and continental drift. B.l.H.S., 11, 130-150.
Griggs, D. 1939. A theory of mountain building. Am. 1. Sci., 2,611-650.
Heiskanen, W. and Vening Meinesz, F. A. 1958. The earth and its gravity field.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 470.
Hess, H. H. 1938. Gravity anomalies and island arc structure with particular
reference to the West Indies. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 79, 71-96.
666 R. Laudan
Hess, H. H. 1962. History of ocean basins. In: Petrologic studies: a volume to
honor A. F. Buddington, A. Engel et al. (eds.), Geol. Soc. Am.
Holmes, A. 1931. Radioactivity and earth movements. Trans. Geol. Soc. Glas-
gow, 18, 559-606.
Holmes, A. 1965. Principles of physical geology. Revised edition. Neison, Lon-
don and Edinburgh.
Jeffreys, H. 1929. The earth. Second edition. Cambridge University Press, Cam-
bridge, 229.
Kuenen, P. H. 1935. Geological interpretation of the bathymetrical results. The
Snellius Expedition, 5. Brill, Leyden, 124.
Kuenen, P. H. 1936. The negative isostatic anomalies in the East Indies, with
experiments. Leidische Geol. Mag., 8,169-214.
Kuenen, P. H. 1950. Marine geology. John Wiley, New York, 568.
Lyell, C. 1930. Principles of geology, Volume 1. John Murray, London, 459.
Marvin, U. 1973. Continental drift: the evolution of a concept. Smithsonian
Institution Press, Washington, 239.
Molengraaf, G. A. F. 1913. Folded mountain chains, overthrust sheets and
faulted mountains in the East Indian Archipelago. Compo rend. 12 congr.
geol. intern.; 689-702.
Nieuwenkamp, W. 1976. Vening Meinesz, F. A. Dictionary of Scientific Biogra-
phy.
Prey, A. 1922. Darstellung der Hohen-und Tiefen- verhiiltnisse der Erde durch
eine Entwick1ung nach Kugelfunktionen bis zur 16. Ordnung. Nachr. Akad.
Wiss. Gottingen, Math-Physik., 11, 1-29.
Runcorn, S. K. 1954. The earth's core. Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 35,49-63.
Umbgrove, J. H. F. 1947. The pulse of the earth. Nijhoff, de Hage, 319.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. 1930. Maritime gravity survey in the Netherlands East
Indies, tentative intcrpretati0n of results. Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch.,
33,566-577.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. 1934. Gravity and the hypothesis of convection currents
in the earth. Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch., 37, 3745.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. 1959. Plastic buckling of the earth's crust: the origin of
geosynclines. In: The crust of the earth, A. Poldervaart (ed.). Geol. Soc. Am.,
Spec. Papers, 62, 319-330.
Vening Meinesz, F. A. 1964. The earth's crust and mantle. Elsevier, Amsterdam,
124.
Vening Meinesz, F. A., Umbgrove, J. H. F. and Kuenen, P. H. 1934. Gravity ex-
peditions at sea, 1923-1932. Waltman, Delft, 208.
Visser, S. W. 1930. On the distribution of earthquakes in the Netherlands East
Indian Archipelago. II kon. Mag. en Meteor. Observatiorium te Batavia,
Verhandeling No. 22, Welteureden.
Wegener, A. 1915. Die Entstehung der Continente und Ozeane. Friedrich Viewig
und Sohns, Braunschwig, Germany. (The second edition was published in
1920, the third in 1922, the fourth revised edition in 1924, and the fifth
edition revised by Kurt Wegener in 1936.)
Belgium and the Early Development of Modem
Oceanography, Including a Note on A.E Renard
Guy T. Houvenaghel
1 Introduction
Our knowledge of the oceans has expanded gradually. At first seamen almost ex-
clusively gathered geographical information. Charts were drawn and explorations
were planned in conjunction with economic and naval interests. During the golden
ages of the 16th and early 17th centuries, Flemish geographers were famous:
Mercator (1512-1594), Ortelius (1527-1598), Plancius (1552-1622). Flemish
sailors took part in the discovery of unknown parts of the oceans. Examples are
Simon de Gordes (?-1600; Strait of Magellan), Lemoine (1545-1625; Cape Horn),
Pancius (1552-1622; Indonesia) and Jan Seghers who wintered in Spitzbergen in
1666. Following this period, the Flemish stayed away from the development of
maritime activities because of religious wars and political instability. During the
18th and 19th centuries, in the maritime nations, population increase, food re-
quirements, colonial politics, and overseas trade induced growing interest in ocean
sciences. Specialized expeditions were sent out to gather geographical, physical,
chemical and biological data. Besides the navy, these expeditions were also sup-
ported by academies and scientific societies.
After the independence of Belgium (1830), renewed maritime activities be-
came possible. The reconstruction of Antwerp harbor some years earlier by
Napoleon, who used it as an important military base for the invasion of England,
helped greatly. But most of the exploration and scientific activities overseas were
devoted to the African continent where, at the end of the century, Belgium estab-
lished an important and rich colony.
During the 19th century the need for scientific knowledge increased at uni-
versities as well as at academies and scientific societies; such institutions became
668 G. T. Houvenaghel
the centers of education and research. In Belgium, fundamental research was de-
voted to the marine environment. The fame of some Belgian scientists gave them
the opportunity to be associated with foreign oceanographic expeditions. Scien-
tists worked also in biological marine stations, at the Belgian coast or abroad. All
these research activities at universities, scientific institutions and by individual
endeavor, some at the level of international scientific collaboration, provided an
important and fundamental basis for progress in our knowledge of the oceans.
The aim of this paper is to describe the contributions of Belgium to the early
development of ocean sciences.
2 Belgium and the History of Modern Oceanography
Much of the progess in oceanography is promoted by international organizations.

In oceanography, as in meteorology, international cooperation is necessary for a
better understanding of global systems. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873),
head of the Naval Observatory (United States), had in 1839 started to compile
meteorological and oceanographical data from the logbooks of navy and mer-
chant ships. From these data he deduced surface currents and winds from which
he drew charts. In exchange for raw data he provided cooperating ships' captains
with his charts, which the sailors could use to select better courses and save sail-
ing time. To handle all the data, and to achieve a better areal coverage and pre-
cision, Maury organized the first bank for environmental parameters. Increased
efficiency, however, was only possible through international cooperation. There-
fore he organized the "First International Science Conference on Oceanography"
in Brussels in 1853 to stimulate cooperation, exchange and standardization of
weather and oceanographical data. This meeting is commonly accepted as an im-
portant turnin.g point in oceanography.
3 The Development of Zoology and the Marine Sciences in

Belgium
Research on marine life was at first based on preserved specimens collected on

the shore. Scientists concerned with descriptive and experimental work, especi-
ally at a time when techniques like microscopy became popular, were more and
more attracted by field work and by aquaria where freshly collected or dredged
specimens could be kept alive. Many biological stations were established along
the European coasts during the second half of the 19th century. The first was
established on the Belgian coast at Ostend in 1843 by Pierre Joseph Van Beneden
(1809-1894), a promotor of zoology in Belgium. Pharmacist and medic, he
turned to zoology and studied in Paris with Cuvier. Although he specialized in
crustaceans, both fossil and recent, he also worked on many other invertebrates
(hydroids, bryozoans, molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths, ascidians) of the
Belgian coast in his self-financed laboratory at Ostend, which was located near
Belgium and the Early Development of Modern Oceanography 669
an oyster farm and close to the fishing harbor. Thus specimens as well as infor-
mation about the sea and the seabed were gathered by professionals. The Os tend
laboratory very soon became famous. Van Beneden welcomed many leading
foreign scientists of the time: Ehrenberg, Johannes Muller, Max Schultze,
Quatrefages, Liebig, Greef and Lacaze-Duthiers. (Lacaze-Duthiers, some years
later (1872), founded on behalf of the Sorbonne of Paris, the Station Biologique
de Roscoff in Brittany on the coast of the English Channel; and some time later,
the laboratory at Banyuls on the Mediterranean coast.)
Among the pioneer works on living marine specimens, P. J. Van Beneden
demonstrated the life cycle of a cestode and thus refuted the Aristotelian dogma
of spontaneous generation, a theory which was also criticized by Pasteur some
years later.
A student of Van Beneden, G. Gilson (1859-1944), at the Catholic University
of Louvain continued the work at the North Sea coast after Van Beneden's death.
He organized, also using his own money, a laboratory at Ostend where, about
1900, he started the systematic exploration of the Southern Bight of the North
Sea which he called the Flemish Sea. Dredgings, plankton, fishing and basic hy-
drology (temperature, salinity, currents, etc.) were carried out. Later, when he
became director of the Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle in Brussels, the Ostend
laboratory was taken over by the museum (1927) and renamed Institute d'Etudes
Maritimes. Material collected during the exploration of the Belgian coast was ad-
ded to the collections of the museum. Through Gilson's work Belgium became ac-
tive in North Sea research and therefore closely associated with the establishment
of the Interntional Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen.
A son, Edouard Van Beneden (1846-1910), also a zoologist, succeeded the
first professor of zoology at the University of Liege, an entomologist called
Lacordaire. There he developed a renowned school of embryology working main-
ly with tunicates and cerianthids dredged along the Belgian coast. The students
of E. Van Beneden visited different marine laboratories-such as Wimereux,
Roscoff and Banyuls in France and Naples in Italy. Among them were: Charles
Julin (1857-1930) studying tunicates, Paul Cerfontaine (1864-1917) who was
concerned with the embryology of Amphioxus and also published a posthumous
work of Van Beneden on cerianthids, and Desire Damas (1877-1959).
The work of Damas on appendicularians led him to the biological stations of
Helgoland in Germany and Drobak and Bergen in Norway. When in Drobak,
Damas met the Norwegian oceanographer, Johan Hjort, and sailed with him on
the Michael Sars. He then turned to biological oceanography and contributed
well recognized papers on the copepods of the Norwegian Sea (1905), on the
micro- and mesoplankton distribution (1909), on fish eggs and fish growth, and
on the biology of the Gadidae (1909), the most fished species in the northeast
Atlantic. In 1905, Damas also participated in an expedition of the Duc d'Orleans
in the North Atlantic, an expedition led by A. de Gerlache (see below). At the
end of his long stay in Norway (1904-1909) Damas became assistant and later
professor at the Bergen Institute of Oceanography whose director at that time
was Helland-Hansen. Back in Belgium, Damas helped Gilson for some time in his
investigation of the southern North Sea, but very soon left because of disagree-
ments. The death of E. Van Beneden in 1910 gave Damas the opportunity to
join the University of Liege where he managed to continue work on the marine
fauna at the Belgian coast. He kept a small trawler at Blankenberghe, where he
had a maritime laboratory. When the boat was put up in Liege for the winter,
he undertook limnological work in the Meuse River. This led him to start a career
in limnology. In 1922 Damas representing the University of Liege participated in
a cruise organized by Helland-Hansen in the northeast Atlantic down to the
African coast.
At the State University of Ghent, at the time of its foundation in 1835, the
professor teaching zoology and anatomy, Franr;:ois-Joseph Cantraine (1801-
1863) had studied in Holland with Temminck. He may be considered the first
marine zoologist in Belgium. After having travelled through all Europe, he
focused his interests on the Mediterranean Sea. He described a new species of
fish and produced a memoir on Mediterranean malacology (1840) which included
some ecological and ethological observations. At the University of Ghent, further
development of the biological sciences was almost exclusively in physiology.
Among the more typical marine works were Victor Willem's (1866-1952) field
observations and Orner Van Der Stricht's (1862-1925) studies on the fertilization
and maturation in sea planarians.
At the Free University of Brussels, the early development of zoology was en-
tirely in the hands of medics until one of them, E. Yseux, included on his staff
former students from Brussels like Brachet, Francotte, Lameere and de Selys
Lonchamps who went to Liege to specialize with Van Beneden.
Another zoologist, a graduate of the University of Brussels, Georges Albert
Boulenger (1858-1937) joined Louis Dollo (1857-1931) who is well known for
his works on dinosaurs, at the Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle. In close contact
with the Englishman Moseley, he was very much influenced by the Challenger
discoveries. He contributed to the ichthyology of Antarctic waters when study-
ing collections from the Belgian Antarctic Expedition on the Belgica (see below).
He discussed zoogeographical theories concerning the cold water fauna and re-
futed the bipolarity theory proposed by Pfeffer (1890) and Murray (1896).
Boulenger, who became a specialist of African ichthyology, went to London to
work with Gunther at the British Museum and stayed there for the rest of his
life. He published 876 papers devoted to herpetology and ichthyology, especially
their systematics. For fish alone he described no fewer than 1096 species,
chiefly from African fresh water.
On returning from Liege, A. Brachet set up a very fine school of embryology
in Brussels while Auguste Lameere (1864-1942), helped by Francotte and
de Selys Lonchamps, developed the zoological sciences. Lameere, an excellent
professor and gifted zoologist, was mostly concerned with the land and fresh-
water faunas and entomology. His few marine works at the Station Biologique
de Roscoff were on dicyemids, parasites of cephalopods. Later Lameere paid
more attention to freshwater biology when he became director of the Station
Biologique d'Overmeire, founded by Rousseau and located near the lakes of the
ScheIdt valley. His masterpiece was the Manuel de la Faune de Belgique, with the
first volume appearing in 1895. The marine and littoral fauna of Belgium is ex-
tensively described for the first time. The material had been assembled during
collecting parties organized with the botanistJean Massart (see below). Lameere's
assistant, Marc de Selys Lonchamps, worked on tunicates and phoronids and
contributed monographs on those groups to the famous Fauna und Flora des
Galles von Neaples (1903). He collaborated too in handling the zoological speci-
mens from the Belgica Antarctic Expedition.
One cannot ignore the enormous contributions of the well-known malacolo-
gist Pelseneer, who was, according to many people, the most prominent zoolo-
gist there has ever been in Belgium. Certainly he was the most "marine" one.
Born in a middle-class, well-educated family, the primary education of Pelseneer
was enriched by studying music and painting with artist friends of his parents.
With them too he took pleasure in collecting plants and exploring the Belgian
coast during holidays. A young marine biologist was born. At the Athenee, the
public secondary school, his science teacher, himself, a botanist and a malacolo-
gist, stimulated the enthusiasm of his pupil. At the age of 17 Pelseneer accumu-
lated a very fme shell collection from the Belgian coast for the Malacological
Society. During the following years he published many papers dealing with the
littoral fauna and organized dredgings in order to add to his faunistic data. Like
Lameere whom he met as a student at the University of Brussels, Pelseneer was
familiar with the theories of Lamarck and Darwin which were then strongly re-
sisted in Belgium. After getting his doctorate (1884), Pelseneer completed his
training by visiting the laboratory of Alfred Giard in Lille (France) and Universi-
ty College in London where he worked with Ray Lankester and met Thomas
Huxley, both strongly Darwinist. They taught him morphology and phylogeny
with an evolutionary outlook. The relations of Pelseneer with Giard and his
school were deep and permanent. During his summer he joined them at the labo-
ratory ofWimereux where soft and rocky shores provide a rich research area. His
contacts with his English mentors were also excellent. Thomas Huxley associated
him with his works on Spirula and Ray Lankester asked him to write the volume
on molluscs for his well known "Treatise on Zoology" (1907). In contrast with
his extremely well recognized scientific activities, much appreciated abroad, his
career and research facilities in Belgium were more limited. After having occupied
the provisional position of stagiaire at the Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle,
where he was never appointed, he left for the Zoological Station at Naples to
prepare his thesis at the University of Brussels in 1888 where he then started
two courses: biological oceanography and biology of molluscs. For financial
reasons, the University could not afford to pay for a second professor in zoology.
Pelseneer left the University and, waiting for better days, found a job as teacher
of chemistry in a secondary school. In both state universities of Ghent and Liege,
each time a position became vacant in zoology, the Catholic government re-
jected his candidacy because of his philosophical opinions. Supported by the
numerous prizes, doctorate honoris causa and affiliations to many academies
and scientific societies, and in spite of his low rank in the Belgian education
system, he was nominated in 1919 to the position of secretaire perpetuel of the
Academie Royale de Belgique.
To summarize the scientific contributions of Pelseneer is a difficult and long
task. Most of his work is devoted to the molluscs, covering morphology, phyloge-
ny, ethology, ecology, zoogeography and even genetics. All groups of molluscs
were examined. The studies in biology led him to analyze the relations of animals
with the environment, a way of thinking relatively new for the period. His eco-
logical contributions concerned temperature and salinity adaptations, estuarine
life, larval dispersion by currents, etc. His analysis of molluscs taken on the world-
wide expeditions of the Challenger, of the Siboga in the Far East and of the
Belgica in the Antarctic gave him m~terial to understand their world distribution.
He took part in the major zoogeographical discussions of the times; he argued
about the Weber line between Asia and Australia, discussed the origin of the·
freshwater and lake fauna, and refuted the theory of bipolarity of Pfeffer and
Murray for which he proposed an alternative theory. Among his numerous titles
and honors, Pelseneer was also elected as member of the Council of the Institut
Oceanographique in Paris.
4 The Development of Botany and the Marine Sciences in Belgium
The study of marine algae started with the Flore cryptogamique complete des
deux Flandres by Jan Kickx (1803-1864), professor of botany at the University
of Ghent. At the same time, Charles Morren (1807-1858), from the University
of Liege showed some interest in algae. An early study on marine plankton in-
cluded the observations of L. F. Verhaeghe on the phosphorescence of Noctiluca
which he communicated to the Academy in 1848. The main contribution of
Belgian botany to early oceanography was produced by a rich "autodidact," a
talented microscopist from Antwerp called Henri Ferdinand Van Heurk (1838-
1909). He accumulated an enormous number of plankton samples from the North
Sea for diatom studies. The nicely illustrated Synopsis des Diatomees de Belgique
(1880-1885) and the Traite des Diatomees remain classical reference books.
Alphonse Meunier (1857-1918), professor at the University of Louvain, also
contributed to the knowledge of phytoplankton in the North Sea with four volu-
minous memoirs illustrated with abundant plates. He also analyzed plankton
samples taken in Arctic waters by the Belgica Expedition of the Duc d'Orleans.
The macroalgae received some attention from E. de Wildeman (1866-1947), a
student of Leon Errera at the University of Brussels. When he joined the State
Botanical Garden, he took charge of the department of cryptograms. He pub-
lished a flora including the Belgian algae and carried out some work on overseas
algae among which were those collected in the Antarctic by the Belgica Expe-
dition. Another important algologist was Jean Chalon (1846-1921), a secondary
school teacher from Manur, who studied the macroalgae from the rocky shores
of Brittany (France) especially at the Station Biologique de Roscoff. It is inter-
esting to note that Chalon was one of the first and most generous donors to
support financially this young station. Thanks to his initiative Belgian scientists
Belgium and the Early Development of Modem Oceanography 673
started to visit and use more and more regularly the facilities available at Ros-
coff. Since then and with the fmancial help of the Belgian government, a re-
search table is available there for Belgian scientists.
At the University of Brussels, Jean Massart (1865-1925) professor of botany,
associated with the zoologist A. Lameere and some other collaborators such as
the medic and botanist Jean De Meyer, the geographer Hegenscheidt and the
entomologist G. Severin, organized field explorations throughout the country,
the laboratoire ambulant. They explored also in detail the Belgian coast where
there are soft bottom shores, dunes and saltmarshes. This systematic herbori-
zation provided Massart with abundant material for a phytogeographical analyses
which led to the publication of his masterpiece, Esquisse de la Geographie bota-
nique des districts littoraux et alluviaux de Belgique (1907), in which he defined
geomorphological and phytosociological environments such as the "slikke" and
the "schorre" terms still in use today to describe mudflats. Together with Blom-
mer, Massart also published in 1904 a huge photographic album describing the
typical phytosociological patterns of vegetation in Belgium including dunes and
saltmarshes. Familiar with the Wimereux laboratory, Massart took part in shore
exploration and participated in the recognition of zonation patterns of algae on
the rocky shores. During World War I, a large part of the lowlands along the Bel-
gian coast in the vicinity of the estuary of the Yser River near Nieuwpoort were
flooded by the sea when dikes and sluices were destroyed. After the war, Massart
installed a botanical laboratory at Nieuwpoort for organizing the reclamation
and recolonization of plants in the battlefields where the environment remained
salty for many years.
5 Belgian Deep-Sea Expeditions
Except for some local and limited fishing and dredging cruises off the Belgian
coasts, there was no participation in the exploration of the oceans until the Bel-
gian Antarctic Expedition at the end of the 19th century (1897-1899). This
expedition was proposed and organized by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery
(1866-1934). Deeply attracted by the sea de Gerlache left the university (he was
a student in applied sciences at the University of Brussels) and started to sail, in
1883, on world-wide trading ships. Back in Belgium in 1890 he settled down for
a while and became lieutenant on the state-owned ferries of the Ostend-Dover
line. Willing to live more actively, he offered his services, but without success to
King Leopold II and to Stanley at the time they organized the exploration of
the Congo. He then asked the Norwegian Nordenskjold whether he could join his
expedition to the Antarctic, but was not accepted. Influenced by numerous ef-
forts in polar research developed in other European countries such as Holland,
Denmark, Norway and Sweden, he started thinking about organizing a Belgian
Antarctic expedition. He set forth his plans before the Societe Royal BeIge de
Geographie and collected enthusiastic support from its members and also from
other scientists such as Van Beneden, Pelseneer and Renard. The project was
fmally accepted at the end of 1894 and immediately de Gerlache started with his
preparations. For training he sailed on fishing boats to Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen.
He visited also a specialist in Arctic navigation and oceanography, Nansen. In
1896 funds having been raised by subscription, with some governmental help
(but with no support from the Crown) and especially from private donors (among
them E. Solvay, Lady Osterrieth, Errera, Brugmann, the Baron Lambert ...) a
three masted barque, an ex-Norwegian seal hunter, was purchased. She was 30 m
long with a tonnage of 336 tons and equipped with a 35 HP engine. Arriving in
Antwerp in July 1897, she was renamed Belgica and sailed for the Antarctic one
month later after a short refit. The crew was international. The first mate was
the Belgian G. Lecointe (1869-1929) and the second mate was Norwegian Roald
Amundsen (1872-1928) who became famous after reaching the South Pole in
1911. The surgeon and photographer, an American, Frederick Cook, joined dur-
ing the Belgica's call in Rio. The scientific party was composed of the Belgian
Emile Danco (1869-1898), a physicist, the Romanian E. Racovitza, a naturalist,
and the Poles A. Dobrowolski and H. Arctowski, geologists and meteorologists.
Initially, the program was scheduled to last for two years with a return to Mel-
bourne during the winter ... Caught in the ice, they escaped further south but
remained trapped for the entire winter. This was the first winter man ever spent
in the Antarctic. During the drift with the ice which took 13 months and covered
about 2000 km, the southernmost position reached was 71°36'S and the lowest
air temperature recorded was minus 43.l°C. Freed from the ice on 14 March
1899, the Belgica sailed immediately back to Belgium where she arrived on the
5th of November. Although shortened by this unintended wintering, the expe-
dition could not continue longer because of a shortage of funds, but never-
theless it brought back very valuable material. The scientific results dealing with
physics, meteorology, oceanography, geology, botany and zoology were con-
tributed by more than 80 scientists and have been published in a huge series
called Expedition antarctique Beige, Resultats du voyage du S. Y. Belgica en
1897-1898-1899 sous Ie commandement de A. de Gerlache de Gomery. nine
volumes appearing between 1901 and 1949.
Shortly after his return, de Gerlache delivered well-received lectures and wrote
in 1902 a narrative of the expedition, a fme liteNuy work, which received an
award in France from the Academie Fran~aise. At the same period de Gerlache
proposed many projects for deep-sea expeditions, some scientific, others com-
mercial (export, fishing, whaling). In 1901 he sailed in the Persian Gulf com-
manding a Belgian 500-ton sailing yacht called Selika. The scientists on board
were French, among them Charles Perez who later became director of the Station
Biologique de Roscoff. De Gerlache also joined the Frenchman Jean Charcot
who organized the first French Antarctic Expedition. However, after disagree-
ments he left Charcot's ship Le Fran~is in Brazil.
After his banishment from France in 1866, the Duc d'Orleans emigrated to
England. He dreamed about oceanographic expeditions in Arctic waters. He en-
gaged de Gerlache with his now famous ship Belgica in 1905 for a cruise along
the east coast of Greenland to latitudes never before reached. After this first
cruise in 1905 the Duc d'Orleans bought the Belgica which, still under the Belgian
flag and with de Gerlache commanding, sailed in 1907 to explore the Kara Sea,
resulting in eleven scientific memoirs. A third polar expedition designed by the

Duc d'Orleans and de Gerlache was launched in 1909 to visit the east coast of
Greenland, Spitzbergen and Fran<;:ois Joseph Land.
With all these Antarctic and Arctic activities in Belgium, it is not surprising
that the First International Congress for the Study of Polar Regions was organized
in Brussels (1906) and also the International Polar Commission was founded in
1908 with its headquarters there. However, de Gerlache, less appreciated in offi-
cial circles in Belgium, did not become the Belgian delegate to this Commission
until 1909. Abroad de Gerlache's fame was great. Sir Ernest Shackelton received
much help from him when preparing the Endurance Expedition. In France,
Charcot always declared that "he sailed in de Gerlache's wake" and Nansen, in
Norway, was in close correspondence. Although he was never proposed for
membership in the Academie Royale de Belgique, de Gerlache became a member
of the Comite National de Geodesie et de Geophysique in 1920 and of the
Comite National de Geographie in 1922. On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary
of the Belgica Antarctic Expedition, the Societe Geographique de France deco-
rated him; and in 1929 he was elected a corresponding member of the French
Academie des Sciences. De Gerlache, who became expert in maritime affairs for
the Belgian government, died in 1934 after having given to Belgium a modern
merchant navy school and a three-masted training ship. However, Belgium never
gave him the opportunity to stimulate or develop deep-sea expeditions and
oceanic research.
6 Belgium and the Challenger Expedition
The Challenger Expedition (1872-1876) initiated the era of modern oceanogra-

phy. Much has been written on it at the occasion of the Second International
Congress on the History of Oceanography held during the centenary of the Chal-
lenger. A tremendous amount of material collected world-wide and down to the
greatest depths ever sounded became available to scientists. This global scale also
generated evidence to support fmdings and theories on an ocean-wide scale; it
represents a fundamental step in the evolution of science especially at a time
when theories such as Darwin's were postulated as being universal.
The exploitation of the data and samples of the Challenger was also the first
large-scale scientific program ever planned and completed. The geological and
biological samples obtained from the 180 dredging or trawling stations represent
a huge amount of material to be worked up. Not less than 7000 odd biological
specimens were sorted, preserved and classified into the main systematic groups
and given to specialists for study. About half of the species collected by the Chal-
lenger appeared to be new to science. Specialists for particular systematic groups,
from many countries in the world were solicited. This intelligent policy devel-
oped by the organizer of the Challenger Expedition, Sir Wyville Thomson and
later Murray, made possible the rapid and qualified analysis of all this unique
and priceless material. Great names of non-British scientists were the Germans,
Haeckel, Hertwig, Kblliker, Selenka, Schultze, Von Ledenfield, Von Linstow,
and others from France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, United States, etc.,
such as: Agassiz, Hoek, Sars ... Two Belgian scientists were among them. They
both undertook a large part of Challenger's work. P. Pelseneer took charge of all
the molluscs. The other was A. F. Renard, a geologist and mineralogist, who
studied all the deep-sea bottom deposits and the rocks collected on islands dur-
ing shore parties.
Renard edited together with J. Murray, the most fundamental work on the
deep ocean, "Report on Deep-Sea Deposits, based on the specimens collected
during the voyage of the Challenger" published in 1891. Before the Challenger
practically nothing was known about the deep ocean. This study on bottom de-
posits, with their mineralogical analysis, the identification of their origin, their
distribution and the general classification of all ocean's deposits, is one of the
most original and fundamental of the Challenger's reports. It still remains a clas-
sic to which modern oceanographers frequently refer. The recent volume on
"Oceanography, Concepts and History" edited by M. B. Deacon 1978 and de-
voted to the most prominent emergence of concepts leading to the develop-
ment of modern oceanography, includes the paper by Murray and Renard "On
the Nomenclature, Origin and Distribution of Deep-Sea Deposits." The basic dis-
tribution of the deposits and their classification is still in current use with only
some minor changes and additions dealing mostly with coastal terrigenous and
glacial sediments. It is interesting to note that Renard also analyzed among the
huge Challenger material, the strange and locally abundant nodules containing
such metals as manganese. These data on the deep sea answered most of the
questions asked when the Challenger's project was planned. They also brought
to the attention of oceanographers, geologists and biologists information on the
relationships between the physical and chemical environment and living orga-
nisms. The contribution of Murray and Renard may thus be considered as a
fundamental step towards the emergence of modern oceanography, if not geo-
chemistry and even ecology. Nowadays, very often, when referring to the Chal-
lenger's deposits, only Murray's name is given; Renard's name is very seldom
mentioned except when bibliographical references are quoted. Explanation for
this could be that Murray's name is commonly associated with the deep sea
among English speaking scientists since he published with the Norwegian J. Hjort
another famous book on the subject called "The Depths of the Oceans" (1912).
Murray (Merriman 1972) was also a central and important figure of the Chal-
lenger organization. Sir Wyville Thomson engaged him as naturalist while study-
ing at Edinburgh. He took part in setting up the expedition and during the cruise
he collected and observed the bottom deposits, the pelagic organisms, the verte-
brates and the protozoans. After the cruise he helped Thomson in organizing the
data and specimens and in publishing the results. When Sir Wyville died in 1882,
Murray continued all these tasks including the publication of the results.
In Belgium too, although Renard was a fme geologist and mineralogist, his
name is not.very often mentioned. He became professor of geology and mineralo-
gy at the University of Ghent. Some biographical notes, more or less detailed,
published during his life (1886), shortly after his death (1903, 1913), and later
in 1953, shed some light on his education, research teaching and philosophic
evolution. Although his contributions to geology and mineralogy, not to mention
the Challenger work, were important and abundant (87 scientific titles), in the
F/ori!ege des Sciences en Belgique (a masterpiece published by the Academie
Royale de Belgique of about a thousand pages devoted to the history of Sciences
in Belgium during the 19th and early 20th centuries), the chapter dealing with
the earth sciences give neither biographical information on Renard, nor an ex-
planation of his scientific work! Just a few scattered sentences record that Renard
published a chart of the ocean bottom in collaboration with Murray (p. 424), an
allusion to other works in mineralogy (p. 425), and mention of a textbook writ-
ten by him (p. 428). Today, three-quarters of a century after Renard's death,
his name and work are ignored by many. In recognition of the importance of his
contributions to the fields of marine geology and oceanography and the many
consequences of his fundamental Challenger work, we will give a short biographi-
cal note on Renard with the intention of explaining how he became such an ex-
pert in mineralogy that Sir Wyville Thomson called him to Edinburgh to analyze
the Challenger samples.
7 A. F. Renard, a Major Contributor to the Early Development of

Marine Science
Education
Alphonse Frans;oise Renard, born in Renaix in 1842, was the son of a modest
carpenter. At the age of 12 he worked in a factory. Two years later a Jesuit,
noticing his intellectual ability, arranged for him to join the college (secondary
school). In 1863 he became a Jesuit novice and in 1865 a priest. He worked then,
from 1866 to 1870, as a teacher of German and English in a Jesuit college. At
this time he started to study the sciences on his own. While staying at the Maria
Laach Abbey in the Eifel, a volcanic region of Germany, he became interested
in geology. There he obtained permission to continue studying science and went
to the University of Vienna to specialize in chemistry and mineralogy. When
Bismark expelled the Jesuits from the German empire (1872), Renard came back
to Belgium and taught cheIT'istry at the Jesuit college in Louvain. He combined
religion, teaching and research in geology. This latter activity increased progres-
sively and soon became his main occupation. This turning point in Renard's
career transformed him from a young open-minded fellow with a strict Jesuit
education, into one of the most eminent geologists of the 19th century.
Research
While studying in Germany and in Vienna, Renard came into close contact with
leading personalities in mineralogy such as F. Zirkel. The latter was the founder
of modern petrography and developed the microscopic examination of thin
sections in polarized light, a technique proposed for the first time some years
before by the English Sorby (1862). Soon after Renard's return to Belgium, he
became associated with Charles de la Vallee Poussin to study the eruptive rocks
of Belgium and northern France. Renard carried out all the mineralogical obser-
vations while his associate was in charge of the stratigraphy. This work, com-
mended by the Academy (1874) and published in 1876 is his first (during his
career he produced 87 scientific titles contributing to the progress of geology,
mineralogy, crystallography and oceanography). By the extensive use of tools
like microscopy and microchemistry, Renard could undertake detailed analyses
of rocks and, from their composition, deduce their origins and mechanism of
formation and evolution. Renard's scientific work in geology is explained in
some details in Buttgenback's notice published by the Academie Royale de Bel-
gique in 1953. However, in the Florilege des Sciences published by the same
Academy, very curiously, F ourmanier made almost no mention of Renard's
works and influences on the development of geological sciences in Belgium and
abroad. At that time Renard was fully involved with science. After July 1877
he was curator at the Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle in Brussels, a position
that he kept until his voluntary resignation in November 1888. More and more
active in research, Renard took little part in religious tasks. He left the Com-
pagnie de Jesus in 1883 but remained an ordinary secular priest. The aim of
Wyville Thomson, when he called Renard to Edinburgh in 1878, was to get the
help of a mineralogist to assist Murray in the examination and description of
the marine deposits collected by the Challenger. Renard's career was already
well advanced (12 titles) and well appreciated, especially in mineralogy and
microscopy. The amount and the importance of Renard's work was such that it
was arranged that a report on all available samples of deep sea deposits should
be published conjointly by Murray and Renard. In 1881 and 1882, Renard spent
several months in Edinburgh where he sorted and made preliminary examination
of the samples. Descriptions and conclusions, including a discussion of the origin
of the deposits and their universal classification, a huge amount of work, were
issued in the penultimate volume of the official Challenger Reports in 1891. For
Murray, this contribution ended a 20-year involvement with deep-sea deposits.
For his part, Renard worked about 13 years on the project (1878-1891). He con-
tributed to the entire volume (583 pages) except for Chapter N. The introduction
states that "Renard thinks it should be stated that the chapter N dealing with
the material of organic origin has been written wholly by M. Murray." In the
field of deep-sea deposits, Renard produced seven other papers among which is a
notice on the classification, formation and distribution of deep-sea sediments
published in 1884 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a
similar paper in French, also in 1884, appeared in the Bulletin du Musee Royal
d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique. While working on the Challenger's deep-sea
samples, Renard was also given the responsibility of examining all the rocks col-
lected from oceanic islands during the expedition. He started with a "Report on
the Petrology of st. Paul Rocks" in the first volume of the narratives of the
cruise published in 1882. Later he produced a concluding paper in the Challenger
Belgium and the Early Development of Modem Oceanography 679
Reports (1888) and no less than 18 others dealing with particular islands or
rock formations.
Shortly after the Krakatoa eruption in 1883, Renard examined the ashes
produced by this volcanic explosion. He explained their formation and their abil-
ity to disperse in the air to great distances. This contribution published in 1883
helped in understanding the deep-sea sediments of volcanic origin.
Some time later, when the Antarctic Expedition of the Belgica (1897-1899)
returned to Belgium, he analyzed together with the geologist on board (Arctow-
ski) all the bottom samples collected off the Antarctic continent. Renard de-
scribes them as terrigenous.
Academic Career
Most of the Challenger work of Renard occurred during the time he was curator
at the Museum. In 1888 he left and became, after some controversy, professor at
the State University of Ghent. Although he had left the Jesuits five year earlier
but remained a priest, he met much antagonism among both Jesuits and Liberals,
a powerful anticlerical political party in those days. Renard's teaching was of
high quality in geology, mineralogy, crystallography, paleontology and physical
geography including oceanography. His personal experience and numerous con-
contacts developed both with German and British scientists were a great help.
His ideas for teaching at the university were very modern. Among other reforms
he favored the intensive use of practical work, field work and personal research
done by students. Renard also took part in officially recognizing a new science
in Belgian universities: geography.
Renard's scientific activities led him to be elected correspondent of the
Academie Royale de Belgique in 1882 and full member in 1898.
Many things were changing in science and philosophy at the end of the 19th
century. Renard felt that his religious convictions became incompatible with his
scientific beliefs. He became familiar with the growing theories and explanations
on the origin and development of the earth and of life through his studies in
geology (metamorphism ...) and paleontology. These theories were opposed to
numerous dogmas of the Catholic church.
Renard left the church completely in 1900, some time after his mother's death.
He got married in London in 1901 and joined a free thinking society. He never
took part, in these years, in politics although he supported free thinking. He man-
aged to avoid personal involvement in the controversy related to his defection
from the church. Some tried to get him out of his academic positions. Many
newspapers in Belgium published very critical articles about him and his family.
These years were very hard for Renard since besides his philosophical con-
flicts, he suffered a long and painful illness. He used his last energies to translate
into French one of Darwin's famous titles, "GeolOgical Observations on the Vol-
canic Islands," explored during the Beagle expedition. This translation was pub-
lished in 1902.
In July 1903, after a four-month-long agony, Renard died protected against
an antagonistic work by his wife and close friends, among them Ernest Solvay
and Adrien de Gerlache.
Belgium last one of its greatest scientists from the end of the 19th century, a
great geologist and an oceanographer too.
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge Professor P. Dumont, geologist at the Free University of

Brussels for discussions and support during the preparation of this paper and
Robert Stanburry for his fruitful advice during writing.
References
Anonymous. 1886. Renard (Alphonse-Fran9ois). Biographie academique. Acad.

Roy. Irelg., 1886, 1-4.
Anonymous. 1866 to 1978. Biographies nationales. Acad. Roy. Belg., vols. 1
(1866) to 40 (1978).
Anonymous. 1913. Liber memorialis, notices biographiques. Universite de Gand,
Gand, 2, 618 pp.
Brien, P. (ed.) 1968. Florih!ge des sciences en Belgique pendant Ie XIXe siecle
et Ie debut du XXe siecle. Acad. Roy. Belg., Bruxelles, 1067 pp.
Buttgenbach, H. 1953. Notice sur Alphonse Renard, membre de l'Academie.
Ann. Acad. Roy. Belg., 387-413.
Deacon, M. 1972. The Challenger Expedition and Geology. Proc. Roy. Soc.
Edinb., 72B, 145-153.
Deacon, M. 1978. Oceanography; concepts and history. Benchmark Papers in
Geology, Academic Press, New York, Vol. 35. 416 pp.
Fievez, C. 1904. A. F. Renard. Eloge fait a la Societe Beige d'Astronomie.
Larcier, Bruxelles, 8 pp.
Fourmanier, P. 1968. Esquisse de l'histoire des sciences de la terre en Belgique
pendant Ie XIXe et la premiere moitie du XXe siecle. In Florilege des Sciences
en Belgique, P. Brien (ed.), Acad. Roy. Belg., Bruxelles, 409-429.
Halkin, L. and Harsin, P. 1936. Liber memorialis. Universite de Liege de 1867 a
1935. Notices biographiques. Universite de Liege, Liege, 2, 643 pp.
Mansion, P. 1913. A. F. Renard (1888). In Liber memorialis (Anon.). Univ.
Gand, Gand, 2, 292-301.
Merriman, D. 1972. Challengers of Neptune: the "Philosophers." Proc. Roy.
Soc. Edinb., 72B, 15-45.
Murray, J. and Hjort, J. 1912. The Depths of the Ocean. Macmillan, London.
Murray, J. and Renard, A. F. 1884. On the nomenclature, origin and distri-
bution of deep-sea deposits. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 12,495-521.
Murray, J. and Renard, A. F. 1891. Deep-sea deposits. Rep. Scient. Res. Voy.
H.M.S. Challenger, Geol., 583 pp.
Renard, A. F. 1882. Report on the Petrology of St-Paul Rocks. In Narrative of
the Cruise of H.M.S. Challenger, 1.
a
Renard, A. F. 1883. Les cendresvolcaniques tombees Batavia Ie 27 aout 1883.
Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg. (3eme ser.) 6,495-501.
Renard, A. F. 1883. Sur la nature du Fond des Grandes Mers. Bull. Acad. Roy.
Belg. (3eme ser.) 6,932.
Renard, A. F. 1888. Report on the rocks specimens collected on oceanic islands
during the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger 1873-1878. Rep. Scient. Res. Voy.
H.M.S. Challenger.
Renard, A. F. 1900. Carte Bathymetrique de la region exploree par la Belgica.
Goffin: Bruxelles.
Renard, A. F. and Arctowski, H. 1902. Notice preliminaire sur les sediments
marins recueillis par I'Expectition de la Beigica. Mem. Acad. Roy. Beig., 61,
1-30.
Renard, A. F. and Murray, I. 1884. Notice sur la classification, Ie mode de
formation et la distribution geographique des sediments de mer profonde.
Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Belg., 3, 25-62.
The Forsters' Offenses against Convention during and after
Capt. Cook's Second Voyage around the World and the
Governmental Reprisals
Walter Lenz
1 Introduction
Today, in the days of national and international oceanographic data centers, it

is no longer customary to report on the carrying out of major research projects,
on their successes and on their difficulties. One contents oneself with listing the
performed measurements in the agreed format, as the Roscop form for example,
and delivering them to the data banks. Solely for internal use, reports on the
course of the cruise are written by the chief scientist and/or captain. A short
newspaper article sometimes appears in the case of extraordinary expeditions or
experiments.
In the past, however, detailed cruise reports in the form of extended journals
were published as books and made available to the general pUblic. The profession-
al world was kept informed on the research activities of the time by such reports,
since the scientific evaluation of these cruises was often only published after
very many years-something which has not changed up to the present time.
2 The Problem
The great achievement of father and son Forster in this connection is the fact
that, with their description of James Cook's second cruise around the world,
they created a new geme of travel description which contrasted with the dry
'narratives' which were customary until that time. They dispensed to a great de-
gree with fatiguing enumerations of individual data such as water depths, wind
directions and positions-since interested parties could find these particulars in
The Forsters' Offenses against Convention 683
the ship's log books. They undertook the task of describing features in their natu-
ral environment often referring to comparable items in other regions. Thus, the
reader became an eye witness and was given enough information to form an
opinion about the reported observations.
As interesting as this approach might be for the reader, those responsible for
a research cruise seemed rather suspicious of it. This is the subject of the follow-
ing text; now almost 200 years after their time the Forsters, who even were
proved to have had a not inconsiderable influence on Alexander v. Humboldt,
have been reproached for all manner of negative qualities, in particular arrogance,
inaccuracies and plagiarism, e.g., by Beaglehole (1961)1 and by Deacon (1971).
I do not wish to insinuate that these authors have purposely used the same argu-
ments against the Forsters which had been used against them in their lifetimes. I
believe that their negative assessment of the Forsters' achievements are only based
on insufficient information. The correction of this misconception is the purpose
of this article. It is based on the collected works of George Forster, which have
been in the process of being published by the Berlin Academy of Sciences since
1958 (9 volumes up to now)2 as well as on the biography of Johann Reinhold
Forster by Hoare (1975).
3 The FOl"Sters' Assignment in Capt. Cook's Second Voyage round

the World
When the British Admiralty decided to dispatch Cook (1728-1779) on a second

voyage round the world, it was to demonstrate the British interests in the South
Sea. Due to a suggestion of the Royal Society of London, Cook was especially
ordered to search for the southern Continent, the existence of which was by
then predicted by geographical theorists. In addition, it was again planned to send
a naturalist with Cook as on his first circumnavigation. At that time it had been
Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) who became 1777 president of the Royal Society.
He had planned to participate again, but he withdrew only 6 weeks before the
departure of the Resolution and the Adventure when he learned that his desires
for an extra superstructure to house him and his fellow scientists and their ser-
vants could not be fulfilled due to the anticipated instability of both ships.
From among several applicants to substitute for Banks,3 Johann Reinhold
Forster (1729-1798) was chosen, who "from all hands is admitted to be one of
the fittest persons in Europe for such an undertaking," as the Earl of Sandwich,
first Lord Admiralty, wrote to Lord North, the Prime Minister on June 8, 1772
IOn page xlii: " ... yet there is nothing that can make him [J. R. Forster) other than one of
Admiralty's vast mistakes ... Dogmatic, humourless, suspicious, pretentious, contentious,
censorious, demandinj!;, rheumatic, he was a problem from any angle ... "
2in the following cited as Georg Forsters Werke.
3 0ne of which was Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), a natural philosopher who had been de-
barred from participation on grounds of religion by the Board of Longitude! Priestley was a
Dissenter.
684 W. Lenz
(Hoare 1976). J. R. Forster, whose ancestors were Scottish and whose great-
great-grandfather emigrated to Prussia around 1642 after his properties were ex-
propriated by the Cromwellian forces, had come back to Britain in 1766, where
only four years later his name was well:known amongst naturalists (Hoare 1975)
and where he had even become a Fellow of the Royal Society as reported by
Beaglehole (1961).
J. R. Forster became the first government-paid naturalist on a British explor-
ing expedition. He received £4,000 for all his expenses including scientific equip-
ment, which he purchased within ten days' time and which cost him £1,500.
From this money he had to support his large family in London for more than
three years, he had to pay for food on board for himself and his son George
(1754-1794), whom he took with him on the voyage as his assistant, and also
paid the young Swedish natural historian Dr. A. Sparrman (1748-1820), whom
he persuaded to participate when they reached Cape Town. Forster had already
recognized that he and his son alone could not fulfill the duties they had under-
taken. But what kind of duties were these? Since no written directions had been
given to J. R. Forster as to what was expected of him in detail, he made up his
own mind about his goals as a naturalist on this important mission.
He was an ambitious man and because he had no estate to depend on 4 after
his return from the South Seas, he was forced to improve on the results which
Banks had brought back from the first voyage of Cook. But also from the purely
scientific point of view much was expected of him as can be deduced from a
letter to him from Linnaeus in the year 1772: "it is you that all who love and
treasure natural science should look!" Therefore it is obvious why he saw
himself in a position as he declared on board the Resolution: to be the King's
scientist-appointed by order of an enlightened monarch, who had not merely
to collect butterflies and dried plants, but to discover new animals, new plants
and perhaps one or more substances that might be useful to mankind in general,
as he wrote in his journal on December 21, 1773. Not only did he find at least
220 new species of plants, 114 new species of birds-about half of them aquatic
-and 74 new species of fishes (Hoare 1975), but he also wrote notable contri-
butions on geography and comparative anthropology. In his "Observations"
(1778) he devoted almost sixty pages to his "Remarks on the Water and the
Ocean" among other topics.
4 The Reprisals upon the Forsters after Their Return
When the Forsters came back to London, they were almost completely ignored
by the public while the naval personnel-particularly Capt. Cook-received a great
welcome, as can be traced from newspaper accounts (Kahn 1968). This must
have been quite disillusioning to the Forsters, especially since they thought they
would be honored even more than Banks and Solander after Cook's first voyage
4Letter of J. R. Forster to Th. Pennant, June 23, 1772; cited in Hoare (1975) as are all
other letters which are mentioned in this paper without reference.
because they had taken such great care to observe everything they could and had
gone to so much trouble and expense. Yet, it seems that this did not bother the
Forsters. At least George Forster did not mention one word of it in his letters.
On the contrary, he wrote S about the progress his father was making in finishing
his paper, Characteres genernm plantarnm (1776) and that the writing of the his-
tory of the voyage would be entrusted to his father, who was planning to com-
bine his journal with that of Capt. Cook as had been promised him before the
voyage started. What did follow, however, is testimony to the despotism of the
British government in those days 6 and is illustrated in some examples given below.
Promises were withdrawn step by step. When J. R. Forster presented a speci-
men of his writing, it was rejected by the Admiralty, although no reason was
given. It was decided instead that the publication of the voyage should be divided
into a narrative part to be prepared by Capt. Cook-or compiled by a person to
be named by the Admiralty-and a Natural History part to be written by J. R.
Forster. 7 The latter drew up a new draft of his section, which again was not ac-
cepted, but required to undergo further revision. When J. R. Forster saw the
changes, he called it a castration, which would lead to a book of aphorisms only,
and he refused to accept it. The answer was an order by the king to proceed with
Capt. Cook's narrative alone (Hoare 1975). At this point the Forsters decided to
publish on their own. The father started to work on his "Observations made dur-
ing a Voyage round the World" (1778), while the son wrote his "A Voyage round
the World" (1777) within a couple of months, using his and his father's journal.
The latter came out only six weeks before Cook's book-not compiled by him,
however-and sold for just the same price as the Forsters', although it contained
many expensive copper plates. Since the money J. R. Forster had for the sup-
port of his family was shrinking, he applied for the few positions that were then
open. But he was always rejected because he was known as a "quarrelsome" man.
Even his petitions to the king were returned unopened-possibly they may never
have reached the sovereign.
The years went by and the father Forster was forced to borrow money and to
sell parts of his library in order to feed his family. All his efforts to gain a per-
manent job failed, while all the others participating on such ventures were well
furnished with posts in the Navy or elsewhere. His indebtedness grew to such a
degree that he was even threatened with being thrown into prison by his credi-
tors. In the end, just before he escaped from England, he seemed to have lived
under surveillance at his home in London for this reason.
In July 1780, J. R. Forster finally left England to accept a post in Halle in
Prussia as a professor of natural history and mineralogy after having been freed
from his indebtedness by the masonic lodges in Germany. His son George, then
24 years old and already a Fellow of the Royal Society, had left England almost
two years before to become a teacher in the Gymnasium in Kassel in Prussia.
SG. Forster to Spener, 19.9.1775, Georg Forsters Werke XIII, 1978.

6It was the time of the beginning of British oppression as a reaction to the pressure for more
independence in North America.
7 Agreement 13 April 1776, Georg Forsters Werke IV.
686 W. Lenz
5 Reasons for Falling into Disgrace
Well before the Resolution arrived in England it was rumored that Cook had had
cause to be most dissatisfied with Mr. Forster, the father (Kahn 1968). This
news might have left the ship in letters mailed in Cape Town by some officers
and might have been the cause for the cold reception the Forsters experienced.
Cook himself was certainly not the informant, because there is no hint in his
journals about the disputes he sometimes had with the elder Forster about
what ought to be done. Such disagreements are quite natural even today between
naval men and civilian scientists aboard naval ships.
There actually were many arguments between the Forsters and their ship-
mates, which started on the very first day they were on board, when J. R. Forster
pointed out to the master that the Resolution went adrift off its mooring in
Plymouth Sound. This was true and could have caused great damage to the ship.
On that same day Forster offered money to the master to exchange cabins, be-
cause his was completely unsatisfactory for his work. It was too small, wet, and
he had to share it with a cannon. Cook, who had decided to provide better
quarters for the Forsters, was not able to do so. Besides these and other super-
ficialities the Forsters also could not condone the profligacy and lewdness of
their shipmates, which certainly made them no friends. There was even an in-
stance when in the absence of Capt. Cook, a lieutenant gave the order to shoot
Forster! It was on the island of Tana in the New Hebrides. Such events must
surely be evaluated with respect to the extraordinary situations in those unknown
areas far from civilization and home.
But the main reason for the oppression of the Forsters might be found in the
"Voyage around the World" by George Forster (1777), when he devoted con-
siderable space to criticism of the prevailing customs in England. In the preface
he wrote 8
The history of captain Cook's first Voyage Round the World was eagerly read
by all European nations, but incurred universal censure, I had almost said
contempt.
and, giving an example where an important observation had been suppressed, he

continued:
I shall only observe, that the above remark will give an adequate idea of the
authenticity of a performance, which is submitted to censure and mutili-
lation, before it is offered to the public.
He concluded:
The philosophers of the present age, to obviate the seeming contradictions in

the accounts of different travellers, have been at the trouble to select certain
8 The following quotations refer to the Voyage round the World in Georg Forsters Werke I,
1968.
authors in whom they have placed confidence, and rejected as fabulous the
assertions of all the rest .... Facts were collected in all parts of the world,
and yet knowledge was not increased. They received a confused heap of dis-
jointed limbs, which no art could reunite into a whole.
To give an idea of the point of view the Forsters had in regard to civilization,
three examples are given below from their visit to Tahiti. They were selected
randomly and give evidence enough for interpretation, I think.
Page 165:
Indeed a variety of wild species sprang up amidst the plantations, in that beau-
tiful disorder of nature, which is so truly admirable when checked by the
hand of industry, and infinitely surpasses the trimness of regular gardens.
Page 178:
We had flattered ourselves with the pleasing fancy of having found at least
one little spot of the world, where a whole nation, without being lawless bar-
barians, aimed at a certain frugal equality in their way of living, and whose
hours of enjoyment were justly proportioned to those of labour and rest. Our
disappointment was therefore very great, when we saw a luxurious individual
spending his life in the most sluggish inactivity, and without one benefit to
society, like the privileged parasites of more civilized climates, fattening on
the superfluous produce of the soil, of which he robbed the labouring multi-
tude.
Page 182:
It were indeed to be wished, that the intercourse which has lately sltbsi&.ted
between Europeans and the natives of the South Sea islands may be broken
off in time, before the corruptions of manners which unhappily characterises
civilized regions, may reach that innocent race of men, who live here fortu-
nate in their ignorance and simplicity. But it is a melancholy truth, that the
dictates· of philanthropy do not harmonize with the political systems of
Europe.
Margaret Deacon (1971) gives the source from which she draws her opinion that
the Forsters must be condemned as plagiarists. It is a pamphlet of Wales (1778)9
in which besides a couple of mistakes he accused the author of the "Voyage" of
mentioning observations without saying who made them. Supposing Wales was
right, although it cannot be proven exactly, one has to keep in mind that the
purpose of the "Voyage" was merely to inform the public about the discoveries
of the newest British expedition and to earn money and, of course, establish a
reputation. If it had been meant to be a purely scientific contribution, then
9Wales held an appointment as an astronomer on the Resolution and he subsequently ob-

tained a position at the Royal Mathematical School in Christ's Hospital of the Navy. His
"Remarks" were immediately replied to by George Forster (1778).
688 W. Lenz
naturally it would have been an offense against convention in those days as it
would be today. If the "Voyage" was interpreted in this way, then it was not the
fault of the Forsters, who had never stated that it contained only their own ob-
servations.
6 Epilogue
Certainly not everyone disliked the Forsters in contemporaneous England, as is

indicated by the fact that J. R. Forster received an honorary degree of Doctor of
Civil Laws from Oxford University in 1775 and that, in 1776, his son George
was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The question remains why these scientists-belonging to the most qualified in
their time-did not get half-way satisfactory positions outside the civil service in
a country, from which Enlightenment spread, where people like David Hume
and Adam Smith could work unhindered. Maybe the passion of the father For-
ster for admiration did not allow him to stay apart from the center of the scien-
tific community, which was and is today in some way governmental in his field.
Otherwise it must be credited that he was not willing to sacrifice his critical spirit.
If the Forsters could have stayed in England a few more years, they probably
would have found better circumstances, since the result of the election in 1782
forced J. R. Forster to write! 0
I congratulate old England on the happy event of the total Change of the
Ministry, of Men & I hope of measures: both which Your country stood
much in need of: however it is really pity that this Change could not be
brought about, till the Country was bleeding at all veins ....
References
Beaglehole, J. C. (ed.). 1961. The journals of Captain Cook on his voyages of

discovery, II. The voyage of the Resolution and Adventure, 1772-1775.
Hakluyt Society., Extra Series, No. XXXV, Cambridge, xlii pp.
Deacon, M. 1971. Scientists and the sea 1650-1900-a study of marine science.
Academic Press, London, New York, 445 pp.
Forster, G. W. 1968. I - A voyage round the world. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin,
711 pp.
Forster, G. W. 1972. IV - Streitschriften und Fragmente zurWeltreise. Akademie-
Verlag, Berlin. 5 16 pp.
Forster, G. W. 1978. XIII Briefe bis 1783. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin. 1008 pp.
Forster, G .. 1778. Reply to Mr. Wales' remarks. B. White, J. Robson & P. Elmsley,
London, 53 pp. (Also contained in Georg Forsters Werke IV, 8-48).
! °Letter of J. R. Forster to B. Vaugham, 10 April 1782. Wellcome Institute of the History

of Medicine, London, to which I tender my thanks for permission to use its material.
Forster, J. R. 1778. Observations made during a voyage round the world, on
physical geography, natural history and ethnic philosophy, especially on:
I. The earth and its strata, 2. Water and the ocean, 3. The atmosphere,
4. The changes of the globe,S. Organic bodies and 6. The human species.
G. Robinson, London, 649 pp.
Forster, J. R. and Forster, G. 1776. Characteres Generum Plantarum quas in
Insulis maris australis collegerunt, descriptserunt, delinearunt. B. White,
T. Cadell & P. Elmsley, London, 152 pp.
Hoare, M. E. 1975. The tactless philosopher: Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-
98). The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 419 pp.
Kahn, R. L. (ed.). 1968. The history of the work. In: Georg Forsters Werke I.
A voyage round the world. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 676-709.
Wales, W. 1778. Remarks on Mr. Forster's account of Captain Cook's last
voyage round the World, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774 and 1775. London,
110 pp.
The Meteor Expedition, an Ocean Survey
William J. Emery
1 Origin of the Meteor and the German Atlantic Expedition
As a consequence of the Versailles Treaty the German Navy was not permitted
to send her vessels to foreign ports. In 1919, a member of the German Admiral-
ty, Captain Nippe, proposed that a German Naval vessel be outfitted and sent
out on a major oceanographic expedition. In this way a Gennan naval ship
would be allowed to visit and "show the flag" in foreign ports, bringing a touch
of home to Germans living abroad. Calling upon the proud tradition set by
earlier German research expeditions, the plan found favor with the chief of the
Admiralty. An unfinished Class C gunboat named Meteor (Fig. la) was selected
for this purpose. With a displacement of 1300 tons, a length of 75 m and a keel
depth of 4 m she was considered ideal for the task. The name had been inherited
from an earlier gunboat which had distinguished itself in 1870 by defeating the
French ship Bouvet.
From the start efforts to outfit the unfinished Meteor were fraught with diffi-
culty. A report that the hull had been sold proved to be false but changes at the
shipyard, where the ship had been left, required that the ship be quickly trans-
ferred to Kiel and put on the rolls of the German Marine Control Commission
as a replacement for an older survey vessel. During this time Captain F. Spiess
took over the German Naval Hydrographic Department and in this position be-
came responsible for the future of the Meteor. Many years of service as a ship's
officer in the hydrographic service had convinced Captain Spiess of the impor-
tance of oceanographic research. He regarded it as the "most interesting and
pleasant" (Spiess 1928) duty in the navy. To this personal commitment of its
future captain, the Meteor and her scientists owe much of their success.
The Meteor Expedition, an Ocean Survey 691
Earlier contact with Dr. Alfred Merz, from the Berlin Institut fUr Meeres-
kunde, had convinced Captain Spiess that he was the man to plan, organize and
lead a future oceanographic expedition. Before Merz was consulted, however,
the Gennan Naval Observatory proposed a two year, around the world expedition.
A series of physical, biological and meteorological measurements were planned
by the observatory, which would be carried out in an east-to-west global circum-
navigation. On the basis of this plan it was decided that the Meteor would not be
annored as a typical gunboat and that the deck would be built up with labora-
tory and living space for the scientists. These modifications were fmally approved
in 1920.
Financial conditions in post-war Gennany caused the project to be repeatedly
postponed until 1923. During this time a plan, drafted by Dr. Merz, was pre-
sented to the Naval Observatory by the director of the Berlin Institut fUr Meeres-
kunde. This proposal was for a three-year expedition to study the relatively un-
known circulation of the Pacific Ocean. Due to its location far from the centers
of European science, the Pacific had been studied very little and Dr. Merz was
anxious to carry out a basic series of physical, geological, biological and meteoro-
logical observations. The plan was strongly endorsed by Admiral Behnke, the Ad-
miralty Chief and plans were made to gather a scientific staff for the expedition.
The size of the Pacific required that the Meteor have a range of 12,000 nm.
This meant that more expensive diesel engines would need to be installed and
the ship's hull sealed to carry diesel fuel. This change alone added 3.5 million
marks to the cost of outfitting the ship. At the same time runaway inflation more
than doubled this cost which persuaded the Admiralty to no longer regard the
Pacific Expedition as an important project. Efforts to secure private financing
for the expedition, although supported in principle by both scientists and indus-
trial leaders, were frustrated by the continued devaluation of the Gennan mark.
Although modifications of the Meteor were completed in 1923, when the mark
stabilized, plans for the Pacific expedition were dropped.
A new opportunity for an oceanographic expedition arose when the Secretary
of State, Mr. Schmidt-Ott, in an address to the Berlin Oceanographic Society,
stated that he was anxious to support a research cruise which would again estab-
lish respect for the name of German Science. Dr. Merz was quick to take advan-
tage of this statement and, having learned from his earlier experience, proposed
a two year expedition in the Atlantic. Minister Schmidt-Ott realized the value of
such an expedition and as president of the Emergency Council for Science, agreed
to support the scientific costs of the expedition. The Navy agreed to provide the
ship, the Meteor, and her crew.
2 The Atlantic Expedition
In contrast to the Pacific, the Atlantic had been fairly well sampled by earlier
oceanographic expeditions. Earlier Atlantic expeditions, many of which had been
Gennan (Spiess 1928), had established the general structure of the Atlantic
Ocean, and thus an Atlantic Expedition had to be more than a cruise for explo-
692 W. J. Emery
Figure la
Figure Ib
Figure 1. Figure 1 (a) The research vessel Meteor. (b) Captain Spiess with the
scientific staff. From left to right: Mener, Wattenberg, Wiist, Pratje, Spiess, Kuhl-
brodt, Schumacher, Hentschel, Reger, Boehnecke. (c) Meteor in the hurricane.
(d) Dr. Wiist and assistant titrating on the afterdeck in the tropics.
Figure Ie
Figure Id
ration. Observations taken during these earlier expeditions had been brought
together by Merz into a card me and studied as vertical temperature and salinity
sections to provide a picture of the mean vertical circulation (Merz and Wust
1922) in the Atlantic. From these studies Merz and his student, GeorgWust, con-
cluded that the meridional circulation, in the Atlantic, should be separated into
four layers rather than two as previously believed. With such questions in mind,
Merz designed a program of systematic sampling in the Atlantic, that would
focus on a description of the ocean's circulation, both surface and subsurface.
694 W. J. Emery
Thus the Meteor Expedition became the first major oceanographic program to
concentrate on physical oceanography.
The achievement of Merz's goal, to understand the circulation of the Atlantic,
was made easier by the development of the dynamic method. As discussed by
Bjerknes (1901) this method allowed the computation of relative geostrophic
currents from careful measurements of temperature and salinity. Hence some
knowledge of the current field could be inferred from a series of hydrographic
stations rather than direct current observations. Merz (1925) planned to take full
advantage of this method of current computation and laid greatest emphasis on a
series of hydrographic stations to be taken along zonal sections, called proftles
(Fig. 2). Due to the number of observations available in the North Atlantic, Merz
Figure 2. Cruise plan of the Meteor Expedition.

limited sampling to south of 20 0 N and planned short "zig-zag" portions of the

cruise track to sample adequately the strong, coastal currents. As a reference for
relative dynamic current calculations, Merz planned a number of deep ocean
moored stations, where direct current measurements using a new "repeating"
current meter, provided by V. W. Ekman, would be used to calibrate the geo-
strophic currents.
Fully aware of the need for systematic measurements in all disciplines of
oceanography and meteorology, Merz included in his research program biologi-
cal, geological, chemical and meteorological observations. In addition two new
echo-sounders were to be installed and evaluated during the cruise. All of these
many programs put a demand on the limited space available on the Meteor.
3 Alfred Merz
A discussion of the Meteor Expedition would be incomplete without some in-

sight into the life of Alfred Merz, the "spiritual father of the expedition" (Spiess
1928). Born on January 24, 1880 he grew up as the son of a school director in
Perchtolsdorf, near Vienna. He showed early promise as a student, graduating
with honors from Vienna University with a degree in geography. Even as a
student he displayed talent for independent research in oceanography (then a
part of geography) carrying out measurement programs in the Adriatic Sea and
the Gulf of Trieste. Work on the latter led to his appointment as a lecturer at the
Berlin Institut fUr Meereskunde. Here he stimulated a group of young students
to take data from coastal light vessels and inland seas. The program was inter-
rupted by the outbreak of the First World War and Merz became an oceanogra-
phic advisor to the German Navy. During this time a new group of students
gathered around Merz and contributed to his research. Although not terribly pro-
lific in his publications, Merz concentrated on his students and classes. He inte-
grated his research studies with his lectures and his students were involved in all
the latest developments. Soon after becoming professor in 1921 he developed
his plan, at the urging of the Navy, to carry out a major oceanographic research
expedition. As has been discussed, circumstances prevailed and what Merz had
hoped to be a three-year cruise to the Pacific became a two-year systematic
survey of the Atlantic.
4 The Meteor Commission
In early May 1924, the president of the German Emergency Society for Science
called a meeting of a small group of interested people to discuss the Atlantic
Expedition. Dr. Merz, who had become its director, represented the Berlin Insti-
tut fUr Meereskunde; the Naval Observatory was represented by its director,
Captain Capelle, and the Aeronautical Observatory sent its director, Professor
Hergesell. The director of the Zoological Museum in Hamburg, Dr. Lohmann,
attended as did the director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Physics, Dr.
696 W. J. Emery
Haber. Three people led by Captain Spiess attended from the German Hydrogra-
phic Office and the government was represented by the Minister of the Interior
and the Culture Minister. The responsibility of this group was to plan the expe-
dition in every detail and select those scientists who should participate. Once the
ship was at sea this group was to ensure that the expedition continued to receive
support in the form of supplies and material.
Even at their first meeting the commission had to wrestle with divergent
opinions. Some members wanted the expedition separated into two halves with
a three month break in between. Captain Capelle suggested that the first half
concern itself with meteorology only while the second half would collect ocean-
ographic data. Both of these suggestions were in conflict with the comprehensive
plan developed by Merz. The capable leadership of Minister Schmidt-Ott was
demonstrated by his ability to lead the discussion until all had arrived at a com-
mon solution. Fortunately all fmally agreed that Merz's plan held the most
promise for both oceanography and meteorology and that only through such a
systematic plan could the expedition contribute badly needed observations.
The commission decided that the selection of the scientific staff (Fig. 1b)
should be made according to scientific ability rather than position at their insti-
tution. The commission members agreed that the expedition should be led by
Dr. Merz. His first assistant was Dr. Schumacher, from the Naval Observatory,
who specialized in stereo-photography of surface waves and studies of the marine
boundary layer. From the Berlin Institut fUr Meereskunde came Dr. Boehnecke,
a technical expert, and Dr. Loewe who, like Boehnecke, was interested in sea
water chemistry from hydrographic samples. The latter participated only in the
trial expedition whence he decided that his salinity method was not sufficiently
accurate. For the main expedition his place was taken by Dr. G. Wiist, an earlier
assistant and student of Merz's. After Merz's death, in June of 1925, Wiist took
over the leadership of the oceanographic data collection and study. He also played
a crucial role as scientific consultant to Captain Spiess, who, following Merz's
death, assumed full responsibility for the expedition.
The most senior scientist on the staff was a biologist, Dr. Hentschel, from the
Zoological Museum in Hamburg. The geologist for the first half of the expedition
was Dr. Pratje who was replaced later by Dr. Correns. One of the few existing
marine chemists, Dr. Wattenberg, was also part of the Meteor's staff. He special-
ized in the study of nutrients and inert gases. Two meteorologists, Dr. Reger from
Lindenberg and Dr. Kuhlbrodt from Hamburg, completed the scientific staff.
Professor Defant, who became the director of the Berlin Institut following Merz,
joined the expedition for the last three sections. Since the analysis and publi-
cation of the Meteor data had become his responsibility he wished to partici-
pate in some of the data collection.
5 The Ship's Crew
As early as 1920 a training program had been started for future Meteor crew
members. Many candidates were men who had served on other German survey
vessels and thus already had experience in the collection of hydrographic data.
Once the plans for the expedition were set these crewmen were also taught about
the scientific treatment of the data they were to collect. In order to complete
all the work planned it would be necessary for some of the ship's crew to also
serve as scientific assistants. Thus certain individuals were sent to various insti-
tutes to receive additional training in the field of oceanography and meteorology.
One important scientific component, the acoustic depth (echo) sounder, was
the complete responsibility of the Navy and thus the ship's crew. Acoustic sound-
ing devices were being newly developed and hence the Meteor was equipped with
two systems from different manufacturers. One, similar to the American "Fath-
ometer" 010yage of the Meteor 1930) was made by Atlaswerke and the other by
the Signal Gesellschaft of Kiel. The "Atlas" sounder could record graphically
down to 815 m while the "Signal" sounder required the operator to listen for
the return signal and thus was best suited for deep soundings. Simultaneous shal-
low soundings agreed to within 10 and 20 meters. Continually manned by mem-
bers of the ship's crew soundings were made every 2 to 3 nautical miles which
provided new resolution to the picture of the ocean's floor. Many of the new
speculations regarding the movements of deep water masses were aided by the
improved knowledge of the bottom topography.
6 The Trial Expedition and Refit
Merz and Spiess decided that to test both men and equipment, a four-week trial
expedition should take place. Any and all problems encountered on this test-
cruise could be corrected before the main two-year expedition left home. Since
it was winter, plans were to take the ship south towards the Canary Islands. After
a short "shakedown" cruise for the ship's crew, the Meteor left on the trial expe-
dition January 20, 1925. Participants on this pre-expedition were the same as
later with a few exceptions. As was discussed above, Wust did not go, while a
famous visitor, Dr. V. W. Ekman, brought along his new repeating or serial cur-
rent meter for testing. As part of the ship's equipment a new anchor system had
been developed that would make it possible to anchor in the deep ocean. The
system depended on a new strong, 7,500 m anchor cable which was wound
around a large supply roll, giving the ship the appearance of a cable vessel. At-
tempts to use this system during the trial expedition revealed its many weak-
nesses and changes were made upon return. Improvements were also suggested
for the acoustic profiler along with a change in the sails. The existing sails added
2 knots to the ship's speed and Captain Spiess felt that refitting to a series of
square sails would improve the angle of attack and hence the ship's speed. Efforts
to again try for diesel engines were soon dropped.
698 W. J. Emery
A major improvement was in extending the smoke stack and changing the dis-
tribution of heat. More efficient use of the available heat would hopefully save
fuel and thus increase mileage. Also to improve fuel efficiency a new propellor
was installed. Even with these changes the Meteor remained a "coal eater" and
additional coal storage had to be created.
7 The Atlantic Expedition
On April 16, 1925 the Meteor left for Buenos Aires to start work on the planned
sections in the South Atlantic. After re-fueling and re-provisioning the ship left
Buenos Aires, June 3rd, and proceeded to the first hydrographic station at the
start of a section along 42°S. Dr. Merz was in charge at this time in spite of an
old illness which had started bothering him in Buenos Aires. By the fifth station
along this line his condition had worsened so that Captain Spiess decided to re-
turn to Buenos Aires. Here Dr. Merz turned the leadership of the expedition over
to 'Captain Spiess. An additional 50 tons of coal were loaded and the Meteor
returned to take up the series of stations where she had left off. Bad weather
along this section, in the Roaring Forties, made work difficult. Winds of 12 mls
and a strong sea added challenge to the careful collection of hydrographic
samples. As work along the profile progressed the weather worsened and snow
was common. Thick cloud cover made accurate navigation extremely difficult.
The weather finally degenerated into a hurricane (Fig. 1c), during which the
Meteor proved herself a seaworthy vessel. Following the hurricane the Meteor
made a brief stop at Robben Island where she got a new coat of paint prior to
her arrival in Capetown.
In reviewing the work along the first section, Captain Spiess (1926) reports
that in spite of the continual bad weather almost all of the 20 intended stations
had been taken. Measurements at these stations had yielded 240 pairs of temper-
ature and salinity values, 65 biological centrifuge samples, 26 plankton net
samples, 14 geological cores and 4 sediment grabs. Chemical analyses produced
360 measurements of ion concentrations, 340 values of oxygen content and 110
values of phosphate content. Seven evaporation measurements were made along
with many stereo-photographs of surface waves. The acoustic depth sounders
had revealed that much of the bottom had been incorrectly charted.
After a brief rest in Capetown, the Meteor started out on July 27, 1925 to
begin work on profile 2 (Fig. 2), westward along 29°S. Here the weather was
more favorable and only four days of storm were encountered. As a result the
work at the hydrographic stations proceeded faster than planned and each was
completed in 8 rather than 12 hours. At the end of the hydrographic stations the
Meteor was anchored and currents were measured for 43 hours at three depths
with Ekman's serial current meters. Along this profile a total of 29 stations were
made resulting in 630 pairs of temperature-salinity measurements.
Shortly before the end of the second section news arrived of the death of
Dr. Merz in Buenos Aires. After returning to Buenos Aires, the crew and scientific
staff of the Meteor held a service in memory of Dr. Merz at his graveside. Captain
Spiess spoke about the life of Dr. Merz and acknowledged that the Meteor Expe-
dition had lost its "father." Now it was up to those who remained to carry out
the plan laid down by Merz to its fullest.
After 10 days in Buenos Aires work began on the third profile eastward along
49°S. Other than thick fog, which, with the possibility of icebergs required a
careful deck watch, the weather was favorable. The coming of spring had resulted
in better conditions than had been found along the first section at 42°S and all
20 stations were completed as planned.
A second stop in Capetown lasted 14 days after which the Meteor returned to
work westward along 35°S, completing section 4. The weather was again stormy
and constant west winds greatly increased the already rapid rate of coal consump-
tion. Captain Spiess decided to shift the profile northward to 32~oS in hopes of
avoiding the westerlies. Here easterly winds were found and the use of the sails
reduced the drain on the coal supply. The weather improved in general and all
19 deep hydrographic casts were completed.
The fifth cross section was the farthest south and thus was an experience in
ice infested waters. Few careful hydrographic casts had been taken in this region
where Merz believed many of the deeper water masses were formed. The Meteor
travelled southward along the coast of Argentina (Fig. 2) and sailed through the
inland waterway to Punta Arenas, Chile. From there the ship went south to
Deception Island, taking closely-spaced stations across the Drake Passage. Merz's
plan then took them back north to 55°S where the section continued eastward
to South Georgia Island. Thence the section stretched eastward to Bouvet Island
and then south to the edge of the ice at 63° 50'S. During this southward excur-
sion the weather was very good with temperatures above freeZing and weak west
winds. Turning north a series of stations was taken on the way to Capetown.
In strong contrast to profile 5 in the Antarctic, the sections in the equatorial
Atlantic (6-10) were made in the heat of the tropics. A total of 97 hydrographic
stations were completed in temperatures as high as 30°C. On this coal burning
ship the heat became a serious problem and tents were set up on the main deck
for sample analysis (Fig. Id). There was no similar escape for those in the engine
room who labored in 50-60°C heat.
The calm weather did have a scientific advantage, however, as it made pos-
sible the execution of a number of anchor stations. Here, as before, the Ekman
current meter was used to make direct current observations. At the same time a
series of hydrographic casts was made to study the temporal changes of water
mass structure at a specific point. Serial measurements were carried out over
more than a tidal cycle to determine the importance of the residual mean flow.
It was hoped that these simultaneous data sets would permit calibration of all
geostrophic current calculations.
In these waters the Meteor also had an opportunity to act as a rescue vessel.
Receiving an SOS from an English freighter, the Cawdor Castle, the Meteor went
to give aid. Finding the vessel hard aground, Captain Spiess sent the navigation
officer to confer with the English captain about an effort to free the ship. On
700 W. J. Emery
the first attempt the tow line broke and a second effort met with no success.
Noticing that the Meteor was being drawn toward shore herself, Captain Spiess
broke off the rescue and turned the task over to the whaling ships now arriving
in response to the SOS. Low on coal the Meteor left for port where they learned
via radio that the British freighter had been abandoned.
Between sections 11 and 12 (Fig. 2) the Meteor resupplied in Recife (then
Pernambuco), Brazil, where Dr. Merz's successor at the Berlin Institut, Dr.
Defant, joined the expedition. Although he did not assume the role of chief
scientist he played an important part in advising and consulting with Captain
Spiess regarding various scientific questions.
After three more sections the Meteor turned for home, arriving on May 29,
1927. In two years and two months the ship had travelled more than 67,500 nm;
had collected data at 310 hydrographic stations (Table 1), had anchored 10 times
in the deep ocean and consumed 8,800 tons of coal. Following the plan estab-
lished by Dr. Merz the Meteor had carried out the first systematic hydrographic
survey of an entire ocean basin. The careful analysis of these data, in concert
with existing data from the North Atlantic, would establish a clear picture of the
steady-state conditions in the Atlantic.
Table 1. Summary of Oceanographic Observations

Hydrographic Observations Current Observations
Number of Temperature- Number of Duration (hr)
Profile Stations Salinity Anchor of Current
Pairs Stations Measurements
Crossing to (I) (30) (I)
Buenos Aires
I 20 420
II 29 630 42
III 22 540
IV 19 420
V 49 770
VI 24 693 48
VII 21 564 26
VIII 22 1041 28
IX 13 559 42
X 17 673 28
XI 17 768 36
XII 16 660 42
XIII 21 950 38
XIV 20 695
Sum 310(311) 9383 (9413) 9 (10)
8 The Results and Their Relevance Today
As was the custom, set by the Challenger, the results of scientific investigations
using the Meteor data were to appear as a series of report volumes. Various
members of the scientific staff worked on different sections giving weight to
those aspects considered most important by the individual. Wust (1935), follow-
ing ideas shared earlier by Merz, undertook a study of the deep and bottom
water masses, their distributions and spreading patterns. He referred to these
collectively as the "stratosphere" of the ocean, by analogy to the atmosphere,
and thus titled one of his sections the "Stratosphere of the Atlantic Ocean."
In it he introduced the core-layer method of tracing water mass distributions
and established the four-layer structure of the deep and bottom-water masses
that we use today. His ideas and section diagrams were the basis for the dis-
cussions of Atlantic water masses found in Sverdrup et al. (1942) which reflects
how well Wust's ideas were accepted. Even today investigators, such as Reid
(1978), still base much of their studies on the data and descriptions resulting
from the Meteor Expedition.
The energy and capacity for work embodied in Dr. Defant were expressed
by the many volumes he produced from Meteor data. To complement Wust's
deep and bottom water study, Defant (1936) wrote a companion section titled
"Die Troposphaere" covering the data collected in the upper 800 m. Again some
of the fundamental concepts of the upper ocean were introduced, and although
the text itself is seldom read the ideas are carried forth in the textbooks authored
by Defant and his contemporaries. His two-volume text (Defant 1961) on
physical oceanography is based largely on studies of data collected during the
Meteor Expedition. His interest in waves, tides and other short period phenomena
found exercise in working with the data collected at the anchor stations. From
his analysis came many of the early discussions of internal waves and tides.
Unfortunately, time and another world war succeeded in submerging many of
these important results. Many of the Meteor volumes lay untouched and unread
in various libraries while modern oceanographers struggle to rediscover some of
their fmdings. Often we do not realize how much of our present understanding
of the Atlantic and its circulation is due to the work of those aboard the Meteor.
Recognized in its time as an accomplishment in careful ocean surveying its results
were quickly accepted and incorporated into the literature of the Atlantic. Thus
the results live on in the work of others. It is possible, however, that if we return
to the original reports, we will be able to gain added insight into the structure
and circulation of the Atlantic.
Acknowledgments
My interest in the Meteor Expedition stems from my recent efforts to edit

translations of some of the scientific volumes of the Meteor Reports. The
"Stratosphere" by Wiist has already appeared and work is progressing on Defant's
"Troposphere." All of the publication costs involved in these translations have
702 W. J. Emery
been borne by the Office for the International Decade of Ocean Exploration of
the U.S. National Science Foundation, as part of their program of scientific
translations. Most of the information in this chapter comes from the 1928
volume by Spiess (see references) which describes the expedition in every detail.
This volume is also being translated. The interest and concern of Dr. Curt Collins
.of the National Science Foundation is greatly appreciated. The assistance of
Mrs. Tina Miller of the U.S. National Technical Information Service is also grate-
fully acknowledged. All figures and tables are reproduced with the permission
of the publishers Verlag von Dietrich Reimer and Walter de Gruyter & Co.
References
Bjerknes, V. 1901. Circulation Relativ zur Erde. Ofers. K. Vetensk. Akad.

Forhandl. No.1 0, Stockholm.
Defant, A. 1936. Schichtung und Zirkulation des Atlantischen Ozeans, Die
Troposphaere. Wiss. Ergebn. Deutsch. Atlant. Expedit. auf dem Forschung
und Vermessungschif Meteor 1925-27,6(1). Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin
and Leipzig.
Defant, A. 1961. Physical Oceanography, Vols. I & II. Pergamon Press, New
York, Oxford, London, Paris.
Merz, A. 1925. Die Deutsche Atlantische Expedition auf dem Vermessungs und
Forschungsschiff Meteor. Vorbericht, Sitzungsberichten der Physikalish-
Mathematischen Klasse der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
No. XXXI.
Merz, A. and Wiist, G. 1923. Die Atlantische Vertikal Zirkulation. 3 Beitrag.
Zeitschr. d.G.f.E., Berlin.
Reid, J. 1978. On the mid-depth circulation and salinity field in the North At-
lantic Ocean. J. Geophys. Res., 83, 5063-5067.
Spiess, F. 1926. Die Deutsche Atlantische Expedition auf dem Vermessungs und
Forschungsschiff Meteor, Bericht des Expeditionsleiters. Zeitschr. d.G.f.E.,
Berlin.
Spiess, F. 1928. Die Meteor Fahrt, Forschungen und Erlebnisse der Deutschen
Atlantischen Expedition, 1925-27. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin.
Sverdrup, H. U., Johnson, M. W. and Fleming, R. H. 1942. The Oceans, their
physics, chemistry and general biology. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs,
N.J. 1087 pp.
"The Voyage of the Meteor" (book review). 1930. Geogr. J., 75,174-176.
Wiist, G. 1935. The Stratosphere of the Atlantic Ocean. Scientific Results of
the German Atlantic Expedition of the Research Vessel Meteor, 1925-27,
Vol. VI, Section 1, English translation, W. J. Emery (ed.). Amerind Pub.
Co., New Delhi, 1978.
The Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger Charts
of the Gulf Stream
Philip L. Richardson
1 Introduction
In September 1978 I found two prints of the first Franklin-Folger chart of the
Gulf Stream in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Although this chart had been
mentioned by Franklin in 1786, all copies of it have been "lost" until now.! The
Franklin-Folger chart was not only excellent for its time,2 but it remains today
a good summary of the general characteristics of the Gulf Stream. Because of its
historical role in our understanding of the Stream and in the development of
oceanography, I would like to discuss its depiction of the Gulf Stream relative to
later charts and recent measurements.
There were three versions of the Franklin-Folger chart; the first was printed
ca. 1769-70 by Mount and Page in London, a second was printed ca. 1778 by
Le Rouge in Paris, and a third was published in 1786 by Franklin in Philadelphia.
The last is the most widely known and reproduced of the three. However, its
projection is different from the first two, and the Gulf Stream has been modified.
Since no copies of the first version had been located, some historians had
doubted it had ever been printed (Brown 1938). Indeed, until a print of the first
chart was discovered, the oldest known Gulf Stream chart was not by Franklin
and Folger but one published by De Brahm in 1772.
! A note describing the discovery and showing a facsimile of the whole chart can be found in
Richardson (1980). A third print has been recently (1979) discovered by Louis de Vorsey in
the Naval Library, London.
2 For a description of the early ideas and charts of the Gulf Stream see Pillsbury (1891),
Stommel (1958), and Deacon (1971). The following three papers describe the history and
significance of the Franklin-Folger charts: Bache (1936), Brown (1951), and De Vorsey
(1976).
704 P. L. Richardson
2 Background
While Benjamin Franklin was in London as Deputy Postmaster General for the
American colonies (1764-1775) he was consulted as to why mail packets sailing
from Falmouth, England to New York were taking weeks longer than merchant
ships traveling from London to Rhode Island. In October 1768 Franklin discussed
this problem with his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket ship captain with an
intimate knowledge of the Gulf Stream then in London. Folger sketched the
Stream on a chart and added written directions on how to avoid it when Sailing
from England to New England. Franklin then forwarded the chart to Anthony
Todd, Postmaster General, with an accompanying letter dated "Craven Street,
October 29, 1768" (Brown 1951).
Discoursing with Captain Folger a very intelligent Mariner of the Island of

Nantuckett in New England concerning the long passages made by some Ships
bound from England to New York I received from him the following Infor-
mation Vizt
That the Island in which he lives is Inhabited Chiefly by people concerned
in the Whale Fishery, in which they employ near 150 Sail of Vessels, that the
Whales are found generally near the Edges of the Gulph Stream, a strong Cur-
rent so called which comes out of the Gulph of Florida, passing Northeasterly
along the Coast of America and turning off most Easterly rurining at the rate
of 4, 3-1/2, 3 & 2-1/2 Miles an Hour; that the Whaling Business leading these
I
people to Cruise along the Edges of the stream in quest of Whales, they are
become better acquainted with the Course, Breadth, Strength and extent of
the same, than those Navigators can well be who only cross it in their Voyages
to and from America, that they have opportunities of discovering the strength
of it when their Boats are out in pursuit of this Fish, and happen to get into
the Stream while the Ship is out of it, or out of the stream while the ship is
in it, for then they are separated very fast, and would soon lose sight of each
other if care were not taken, that in Crossing the Stream to and Fro' they fre-
quently in the same meet and speak with Ships bound from England to New
York, Virginia & ca , who have passages of 8, 9, & 10 weeks, and are still far
from Land, and not likely to be in with it for some time, being engaged in
that part of the stream that sets directly against them, and it is supposed that
their fear of Cape Sable Shoals, Georges Banks or Nantuckett Shoals, hath
induced them to keep so far to the Southward as unavoidably to engage them
in the said Gulph Stream, which occasions the length of their Voyage, since in
a Calm it carrie's them directly back, and tho' they may have fair Winds, yet
the Current being 60, 70 Miles a day, is so much subtracted from the way
they make thro' the Water; At my request Captain Folger hath been so oblig-
ing as to mark for me on a Chart, the Dimentions Course and Swiftness of
the Stream from its [sic 1 first coming out of the Gulph, where it is narrowest
and strongest; till it turns away to go to the Southward of the Western Islands,
where it is Broader and Weaker, and to give me withall some written directions
whereby ships bound from the Banks of Newfoundland to New York may
avoid the said Stream, and yet be free of danger from the Banks and Shoals
abovementioned. As I apprehend that such Chart and directions may be of
The Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger Charts of the Gulf Stream 705
use to our Packets in Shortning their Voyages, I send them to you that if
their Lordships should think fit, so much of the Chart as is contain'd within
the red Lines may be engraved and printed, together with the remarks at the
Charge of the Office; or at least that Manuscript Copies may be made of the
same for the use of the Packets. The expence of the former would not much
exceed the latter, and would besides be of general service, with much esteem
I am &c B. Franklin.
The Franklin-Folger chart was printed by Mount and Page in London ca.
1769-70 (Franklin 1786). In March 1775 Franklin left London and sailed for
home. The next year he was sent as an envoy to Paris to negotiate a treaty with
the French government. During his two transatlantic crossings in 1775 and 1776
Franklin measured the temperature of the Gulf Stream and discovered that it
was warmer than the water on either side (Franklin 1786). The discovery re-
kindled his enthusiasm for the Gulf Stream chart, and he had it copied and
printed by Le Rouge shortly after he arrived in Paris. Franklin no doubt wanted
to provide copies of the chart to ships carrying arms and supplies from France to
the American colonies. Although the Le Rouge version is undated, the back of
the copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale has the note "communique par M. de
Franklin en 1778."
In 1785 Franklin, then 79 years old, sailed back to America from France on
the London packet and wrote his "Maritime Observations" published in 1786.
Included in this paper was the third and best known version of the Franklin-
Folger chart and a review of its history:
About the year 1769 or 70, there was an application made by the board
of customs at Boston, to the lords of the treasury in London, complaining
that the packets between Falmouth and New-York, were generally a fort-
night longer in their passages, than merchant ships from London to Rhode-
Island, and proposing that for the future they should be ordered to Rhode-
Island instead of New-York. Being then concerned in the management of the
American post-office, I happened to be consulted on the occasion; and it
appearing strange to me that there should be such a difference between two
places, scarce a day's run asunder, especially when the merchant ships are
generally deeper laden, and more weakly manned than the packets, and had
from London the whole length of the river and channel to run before they
left the land of England, while the packets had only to go from Falmouth, I
could not but think the fact misunderstood or misrepresented. There hap-
pened then to be in London, a Nantucket sea-captain of my acquaintance, to
whom I communicated the affair. He told me he believed the fact might be
true; but the difference was owing to this, that the Rhode-Island captains
were acquainted with the gulf stream, which those of the English packets
were not. We are well acquainted with the stream, says he, because in our pur-
suit of whales, which keep near the sides of it, but are not to be met with in
it, we run down along the sides, and frequently cross it to change our side:
and in crossing it have sometimes met and spoke with those packets who
were in the middle of it, and stemming it. We have informed them that they
were stemming a current, that was against them to the value of three miles an
hour; and advised them to cross it and get out of it; but they were too wise to
be counselled by simple American fishermen. When the winds are but light,
he added, they are carried back by the current more than they are forwarded
by the wind: and if the wind be good, the subtraction of 70 miles a day from
their course is of some importance. I then observed that it was a pity no notice
was taken of this current upon the charts, and requested him to mark it out
for me, which he readily complied with, adding directions for avoiding it in
sailing from Europe to North-America. I procured it to be engraved by order
from the general post-office, on the old chart of the Atlantic, at Mount and
Page's, Tower-Hill; and copies were sent down to Falmouth for the captains
of the packets, who slighted it however; but it is since printed in France, of
which edition I hereto annex a copy.
3 Observations of the Gulf Stream
Franklin, in his own hand, notes some of the data that went into the chart-the
position of whales along the edges of the current and the drift of boats and ships
in it. Each captain kept records of his whale catches, and because of the tenden-
cy of whales to keep to the sides of the Stream, a plot of the whale catch gave
limits for the Stream. Franklin notes that the velocity in the Stream was deter-
mined when a ship was out of the Stream and boats pursuing whales happened
into it. The rate of separation between ship and boat gave the velocity of the
current.
Another method that might have been used to measure the speed of the Gulf
Stream was to lower a weighted line from a whaleboat. The deep portion of the
line acts as an anchor and the surface current flowing past the boat can be
measured (Williams 1793, Truxtun 1794).
By 1768, captains like Timothy Folger accumulated considerable knowledge
of the Gulf Stream. Of the nearly 150 Nantucket vessels employed in the whale
fishery, nearly half were in the Gulf Stream region (Stackpole 1953). As their
livelihood was strongly influenced by it, whalers were observant of ocean cur-
rents, and their observations were rapidly exchanged, both at sea and at home.
The oceanographic knowledge of the Nantucket men was seldom written down
and much of it has been lost. Fortunately, we have a rare summary of it in the
Franklin-Folger charts of the Gulf Stream.
4 The Franklin-Folger Charts of the Gulf Stream
The ca. 1769-70 Mount and Page Chart
Two prints of the Mount and Page chart, unknown for many years, were found
by the author in the Department des Cartes et Plans of the Bibliotheque Nation-
ale in Paris3 an enlargement of the northwestern part of one is shown in Fig. I.
3 Address of the Bibliotheque Nationale is: 58 rue Richelieu, 75084 Paris Cedex 02. The
charts are identified as follows: Portefeuille 117, Division 0, Pieces 7 and 7': Mount and
Page: A New and Exact Chart.
Figure 1. The Franklin-Fo1ge\ chart of the Gulf Stream printed by Mount and
Page in London ca. 1769-1770.
The Stream is shown as a series of short dashed lines, perhaps the quick modifi-
cation of an earlier plate. Superimposed on it are arrows and speeds in agreement
with those listed in Franklin's 1768 letter to Todd, except that the units in the
letter to Todd are miles per hour: "4 minutes" off present South Carolina,
"3-1/2" east of Cape Hatteras, "3" south of Cape Cod, "2-1/2" south of Nova
Scotia and south of Newfoundland. Also superimposed on the Gulf Stream is
a sailing vessel cleverly taking advantage of the favorable current.
The Gulf Stream begins in the Straits of Florida and runs northward with its
left edge near the edge of the continental slope. After passing Cape Hatteras, it
moves away from the coast, keeping a distance of 100 km from George's Banks
and 120 km from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It reaches its northern-
most latitude, 41 0 40'N, south of Sable Island near 57°W4 and then runs south-
eastward. The width of the Stream increases from about 140 km off Florida to
475 km south of Sable Island, and then it narrows to about 420 km at its eastern
end near 44°W.
On the chart to the east of Newfoundland are instructions on how to avoid
both Stream and banks and shoals when sailing westward as mentioned in Frank-
lin's 1768 letter to Todd.
The ca. 1778 Le Rouge Chart
The second version (Fig. 2) of the Franklin-Folger chart, printed by Le Rouge in

France, is an exact copy of the northwestern part of the Mount and Page chart.
The two are on the same scale, and when overlaid, the main features-land,
islands, Gulf Stream-coincide exactly. The details are identical down to the
placement of the current arrows, the speeds and the decorative ships.
A few minor differences between the charts are worth pointing out: (1) Le
Rouge's is much the most attractive of the three Franklin-Folger versions. Nu-
merous delicate lines run parallel to the current and new lines are added at the
center where it widens. The edge of the Stream has been modified slightly and
has small amplitude waves along it.
The "Remarks" on the Le Rouge chart are similar to those found on the
Mount and Page chart, but they have been translated into French. The only sig-
nificant change in text is the elimination of the words "Gulf Stream" and their
replacement by the word "Courrant."
The 1786 Poupard Chart
The third version (Fig. 3) of the Franklin-Folger chart, engraved by James

Poupard, was published in Philadelphia as a figure in Franklin's 1786 article. On
this chart the Gulf Stream has much the same character as on the earlier versions,
4The prime meridian falls through Lizard Point which is on the southwestern coast of Eng-
land and 5.2 0 in longitude west of Greenwich. Hence it is necessary to add 5.2 0 longitude to
the values of the chart to make them agree with present-day longitudes, and this has been
done in this paper.
Figure 2. The Le Rouge version of the Franklin-Folger Gulf Stream chart

printed in Paris ca. l778.
N.EAIARltS -..)
.....
Upu ,b~ NlWix.ti",/r_ o
NEWFOUNDLAND TO NEW.YORIt.
I,."J,r""'oid,W
GULPH STR·.EAM
0" nl had, .,.d QII. tin .tfur 'b~ StU,ALI tballi. t. lIN S,rdb'UlllrJ if
Nalf/"eld aM if 8t. G.Q1'K1·1 B""h.
A Ft~eE~rd~::~e !t~~~~~;, B;::Swi[1 ~:{o~~~~~~!;~~ill

you draw near the lfie of Sabin, whieh we commonly par.. In l.a~
titude 43. Southward of thi$ ifie, the current ;. found to extend
itfelf 01.1 far North iLS ,,1 0 "lei Or Jo', then it turn. towudo the.E.
8 . .E. or S.'E. tE.
G:;:;~?gJ;{:~ :::ea..J~~ ;~f~~~~ i~l:!tifti~~;:r:a~:r ~:~a.~;;

the (UrT~nt fouthward of thufe bank. reache. at far North al J9°.
The {boa!. arthof" banko lie in 410 3.5'.
After having palled St. Georg ..•• Banko, you muft, ,to cleu Nan-
tucket, form your come fo iLS to pais betwcCD the Iatltudel 380 JrJ
and 40" 4.S'.
The Illoft fouthem part of the fhowof Nantucket Ue in about
,,00 4.5'. The northem part of the current di«CUy to thefouth of
NiLIltu~kct ili felt i.n about latitude 380 Jd.
By obCerving thefe direCtions and keeping between the fl:uam

and the 1h~<lII, the pallage from the Banks of Newfoundla.nd to
~e~f!or:y~e~ill~~eo~~:~~~;a;aJf ~he c;d:yd~:~~~t~:~~~h
move. contury to the Gulph Stream. Whereat if to avoid the
fho~}o you keep too far to the fouthward, and get into that ftu:1m.
yeu will be retarded by it at the rate of 60 or 10 miles a d~y.
The Nantucket wble.men being eJ:tremcly well acquainted with

the Gulph Stream, i~ " coude, fl:rength ~nd extent, by their con·
~:~~Pt::~~eB~=:~I,n~h~: !fte~1~h~~ n;,,~:m;,.~e!~:~~~~ 1::
ooe of them, Capt. Folger, and eaufed to be engraved on the old
chart in London, lor the bCllefit of navig:l.!on, by
B. FRANKLIN.
Note, The Nantucket captaiIl$ who are acquainted with this

ftre~m, mKe their voyages from England to BoftofJ in a~
fhort a time generally ao owen takc in going from Boftoll
to Enghmd, vi:l:. from 2.0 to JO clap.
A firanger may know when he il in the Gulph Stream, by

the warmth of the wat(r, which is much greater than that
of the water on each fide'of it. If then he i. bound to the
weftw:l.rd, he IhQuld croft th; nreuu to get Otlt of it u Coon ~
a.poffiblc.
B. F.
r"
:;:tl
g:
~
0-
Figure 3. The Poupard version of the Franklin-Folger Gulf Stream chart published in Philadelphia in 1786 with Franklin's '"o
"Maritime Observations." =
but a close look reveals some important differences. The chart has a different
projection; meridians are not parallel, and in many places in North America they
are several degrees in error even after adding the 5.2° longitudinal effect. Ber-
muda is shown south of Long Island rather than south of Nova Scotia. Because
he used a different projection, Poupard was not able to trace the Le Rouge
chart. In transferring the Gulf Stream he made several changes. The Stream is
400 km at its widest point, narrower than shown on the earlier charts, and it
flows within 20-25 km of George's Banks. This small passage between shoals and
Stream must have discouraged navigators. The current arrows and speeds were
drawn at roughly the same locations but "2 minutes" has been added south of
Newfoundland.
Poupard added several decorative ships, one of which is stemming the Gulf
Stream. Franklin must have been amused by this and by the inset in the lower
right corner showing himself in discussion with Neptune. The insert in the upper
left hand corner is a chart for the migration of herring, an illustration for a
paper by John Gilpin (1786).
The familiar "Remarks" on the left side of the chart were retranslated from
the Le Rouge version, clarified somewhat and the words "Gulf Stream" appear
again. Franklin added several comments that were not present earlier: (1) he
repeats his description of how the map came into existence, much as in the letter
to Todd and in his 1786 paper, and (2) he mentions an "eddy current, which
moves contrary to the Gulf Stream" located between the Stream on the south
and the shoals to the north, which is in agreement with recent observations of
the currents there.
Two Bizarre Reproductions of the 1786 Chart
Franklin's 1786 chart and the accompanying Gulf Stream chart were very popu-
lar and were reprinted many times. Usually the chart was carefully and accurate-
ly copied, but there are some exceptions. These differ markedly from the origi-
nal and explain the evolution of charts that were successively copied. These also
serve as a reminder that it is important to use original sources. The first (Fig. 4)
which appeared in a French translation of Franklin's article (Franklin 1787) is a
mirror image of the 1786 chart, a bottom view of the Gulf Stream in which its
width has been decreased-continuing the trend begun by Poupard. The second
(Fig. 5) is included in Smyth's (1906, Vol. IX) copy of Franklin's article, and
combines the Gulf Stream path and Gilpin's herring migration pattern on the
same chart. A fish tail has been added to the Gulf Stream which continues east-
ward from the longitude where the Franklin-Folger chart stops and divides into
two nearly equal branches, one flowing northeastward toward 49°N 300 W, the
other southwestward toward 23°N 45°W. Since Franklin wrote that the Gulf
Stream flowed south of the Azores, Smyth certainly did not get his ideas from
Franklin.
The origin of the fish tail can be traced to Duane (1808) who constructed it
based on the suggestions of Volney (1804) who cites Strickland (1802). Strick-
Figure 4. A chart included with a French reprint (Franklin 1787) of Franklin's

Maritime Observations paper.
land measured warm surface temperatures northeast of the Grand Banks and
concluded that a branch of the Gulf Stream flows northeastward and that it
probably continues entirely across the Atlantic until it ultimately strikes the
coast of Ireland and the Hebrides. Evidently Smyth (1906) copied the chart
given by Sparks (1938) who had copied Duane's (1908) chart.
5 Comparison with Other Early Charts of the Gulf Stream
Before 1770 charts of the Atlantic indicated only the most rudimentary and
bizarre features such as major surface currents crossing in mid-ocean or ending
abruptly at sea coasts. The Franklin-Folger chart was a major improvement and
it served as a basis for all but one subsequent 18th century chart of the Stream.
Pownall (1787) clearly acknowledges Franklin, and incorporated several of
Figure 5. A chart included with Smyth's (1906) reprint of Franklin's Maritime

Observations paper.
Franklin's notes and corrections in his paper and chart. The Gulf Stream is
similar to Franklin and Folger's but it continues southeastward, extending
entirely across the Atlantic and intersecting Africa. Current arrows show the
main circulation of the Atlantic so as to almost vanish as it approaches the
African coast.
Jonathan Williams (1793, 1799) and Captain Thomas Truxton (1794), both
on Franklin's last cruise in 1785, published charts with the familiar Franklin-
Folger Gulf Stream. Williams included sea surface temperatures that he had
measured and added arrows indicating countercurrents measured by ship drift
on both sides of the Gulf Stream (Williams 1799).
The only chart made independently of Franklin and Folger during this period
was published by De Brahm in 1772 (see Brown 1938,De Vorsey 1976). During
a trip to England in 1771 De Brahm tracked the Gulf Stream from off Charles-
ton, South Carolina to 71 oW, a distance over 1000 km. From 71°W he extrapo-
lated the Gulf Stream northeastward until it joined near 46°N 35°W another
current setting southeastward. The two currents continued southeastward, passed
north of the Azores and made a large clockwise tum first southward then south-
westward. De Brahm's chart was the first recorded attempt to follow and plot
the path of the Gulf Stream; it also shows the width of the Stream to be about
100 km, very close to the generally accepted instantaneous width today.
The next two significant improvements in charting the Gulf Stream were by
Rennell (1832) and Iselin (1936). Rennell plotted and analyzed a great many
ship drift observations. These were based on accurate navigation made possible
with chronometers. As can be seen on Rennell's charts and in his description, the
Gulf Stream's complex structure such as meanders, eddies, and countercurrents
began to be recognized.
During the 19th century the subsurface temperature structure of the Stream
began to be measured; the strong temperature gradient across the Stream gave its
position. Because these observations were difficult and time consuming it is only
quite recently that Iselin (1936) accumulated a sufficient number to make a
good chart of the Stream.
6 Comparison with Recent Charts of the Gulf Stream
The Franklin-Folger ca. 1769-70 chart shows a combination of mean and instan-
taneous measurements of the Gulf Stream that agrees well with modem measure-
ments. The current vectors superimposed on the Stream are typical instantaneous
speeds found in the high velocity part of the current. These high speeds are much
greater than the mean speed of the surface currents which is on the order of 0.5
knots because the Stream meanders and an average includes low speeds as well as
high speeds. All but one of the speeds are written to the north of the Stream's
centerline where the high speed axis exists. The chart also shows the mean limits
of the Gulf Stream, the region covered by its meanders. Modern observations of
the meanders (Niiler and Robinson 1967, Hansen 1970) indicate that they in-
crease in amplitude towards the east as shown by Franklin and Folger; south of
Sable Island where the Stream crosses the New England Seamounts, particularly
large meanders are formed (Fuglister 1963, Richardson, Wheat and Bennett 1979).
Franklin and Folger show the Gulf Stream reaching its northern limit at the
longitude of Sable Island and from here flowing southeastward to 44°W, where
the drawing of the Stream stops. What happens to the Gulf Stream after it
reaches 44°W was apparently not well known to Folger or too difficult to draw.
In his 1768 letter to Todd, Franklin wrote that the Gulf Stream flows "to the
southward of the Western Islands [Azores], where it is Broader and Weaker."
Even today the circulation at the eastern terminus of the Gulf Stream and the
pathways of its recirculation are poorly understood and subject to considerable
debate. Does the Gulf Stream sweep around the North Atlantic in a broad, slug-
gish gyre with a major part of the Stream flowing northeastward into the New-
foundland Basin (Iselin 1936, Sverdrup, Johnson and Fleming 1942, Stommel
1958), or is all the Gulf Stream water recirculated to the southwest in a tight
gyre (Worthington 1976)?
At least three modern, independent, circulation schemes exist that look very
similar to the eastern part of the Franklin-Folger Gulf Stream: (1) Worthington
(1976) shows the Stream gradually decreasing in transport as it flows southeast-
ward toward 35°N 42°W, flow lines of the Stream peel off from the main cur-
rent and recirculate toward the southwest; (2) Mann (1967) shows the Gulf
Stream flowing toward 38°N 44°W where it splits, approximately half the water
flowing northeastward and half southward; (3) paths of numerous free-drifting
buoys moving eastward in the Stream rapidly fan out near 44~W, some buoys
moving northeastward, some continuing southeastward and others moving
southward and westward (Kirwan, McNally and Coehlo 1976, Richardson, Wheat
and Bennett 1979). In short, we can say that the Franklin-Folger chart of the
Gulf Stream is in agreement with modern oceanographic measurements.
Acknowledgments
This paper is Contribution No. 4263 from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution. I thank F. C. Fuglister, who suggested to me that the Franklin-Folger
map of the Gulf Stream was a very good summary of the Stream, and who spent
many hours discussing various aspects of the Stream with me. The librarians at
the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris were very helpful in my search for the Mount
and Page and Le Rouge charts. Funds for this work were provided by the Office
of Naval Research under contract N00014-74-C-0262, NR 083-004 and the
United States-France Exchange of Scientists Program which is funded by the
National Science Foundation and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
This article was written during a year that I spent at the Museum National
d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. I thank H. Lacombe and J. Gonella who helped
arrange my visit and all the members of the Laboratoire d'Oceanographie
Physique who made my stay a pleasant one.
References
Bache, F. 1936. Where is Franklin's first chart of the Gulf Stream? Proc. Am.
Phil os. Soc., 76, 731-741.
Brown, L. 1951. The river in the ocean. In: Essays honoring Lawrence C. Wroth.
Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine, 69-84.
Brown, R. H. 1938. The De Brahm charts of the Atlantic Ocean, 1772-1776.
Geogr. Rev., 28,124-132.
Deacon, M. B. 1971. Scientists and the sea, 1650-1900, a study of marine
sciences. Academic Press, New York, 445 pp.
De Brahm, W. G. 1772. The Atlantic Pilot. T. Spilsbury, London, 25 pp.
De Vorsey, L. 1976. Pioneer charting of the Gulf Stream. The contributions of
Benjamin Franklin and William Gerard De Brahm. Imago Mundi, 28, 105-120.
Duane, W. 1808. The works of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, in Philosphy, Politics,
and Morals, Vol. 3. W. Duane, Philadelphia.
Franklin, B. 1786. A letter from Dr. Benjamin Franklin to Mr. Alphonsus Ie Roy,
Member of Several Academies, at Paris. Containing sundry maritime obser-
vations. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., 2,294-329.
a
Franklin, B. 1787. Lettre de Monsieur Benjamin Franklin Monsieur David
LeRoy, membre de Plusiers Academies, Contenant differents observations
sur la marine. Lagrange, Paris, 72 pp.
Fuglister, F. C. 1963. Gulf Stream '60. In: Progress in Oceanography. Pergamon
Press, London, 1,265-383.
Gilpin, J. 1786. Observations on the annual passage of herrings. Trans. Am.
Philos. Soc., 2, 236-239.
Hansen, D. V. 1970. Gulf Stream meanders between Cape Hatteras and the Grand
Banks. Deep-Sea Res., 17,495-511.
Iselin, C. O'D. 1936. A study of the circulation of the western North Atlantic.
Pap. Phys. Oceanogr. Meteorol., 4, 101 p.
Kirwan, A. D., Jr., McNally, G. and Coehlo, J. 1976. Gulf Stream kinetics inferred
from a satellite-tracked drifter. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 6, 750-755.
Mann, C. R. 1967. The termination of the Gulf Stream and the beginning of the
North Atlantic Current. Deep-Sea Res., 14,337-360.
Niiler, P. P. and Robinson, A. R. 1967. The theory of free inertial jets II. Tellus,
19,601-619.
Pillsbury, J. 1891. The Gulf Stream: Methods of the investigation and results of
the research. Appendix No. lO-Report for 1890, United States Coast and
Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C., 461-620.
Pownall, T. 1787. Hydraulic and nautical observations. Printed for Robert
Sayer, London, 17 pp.
Rennell, J. 1832. An investigation of the currents of the Atlantic Ocean and
those which prevail between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic. Publ. for
Lady Rodd by J. G. and F. Rivington, London, 359 pp.
Richardson, P. L. 1980. Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger's first printed
chart of the Gulf Stream. Science, 207, 643-645.
Richardson, P. L., Wheat, J. J. and Bennett, D. 1979. Free-drifting buoy trajec-
tories in the Gulf Stream System (1975-1978), a data report. Woods Hole
Oceanogr. Inst. Techn. Rept. No. WHOI-79-4. Unpublished manuscript.
Smyth, A. H. 1906. The writings of Benjamin Franklin. The Macmillan Co.,
New York, 10 vols.
Sparks, J. 1838. The works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 6. Hilliard, Gray and
Co., Boston.
Stackpole, E. A. 1953. Sea-hunters; the New England whalemen during the two
centuries 1635-1835. J. B. Lippincott Co., New York, 510 pp.
Stommel, H. 1958. The Gulf Stream: A physical and dynamical description.
University of California Press, Berkeley, 202 pp.
Strickland, W. 1802. On the use of the thermometer in navigation. Trans. Am.
Philos. Soc., 5, 90-103.
Sverdrup, H. U., Johnson, M. W. and Fleming, R. H. 1942. The oceans, their
physics, chemistry and general biology. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey, 1087 pp.
Truxtun, T. 1794. Remarks, instructions and examples relating to the latitude
and longitude. T. Dobson, Philadelphia, 105 pp.
Volney, C. F. 1804. A view of the soil and climate of the United States of
America. J. Conrad and Co., Philadelphia, 446 pp.
Williams, J. 1793. Memoir of Jonathan Williams on the use of the thermometer
in discovering banks, soundings, etc. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., 3, 82-96.
Williams, J. 1799. Thermometrical navigation. R. Atkin, Philadelphia, 98 pp.
Worthington, L. V. 1976. On the North Atlantic circulation. The Johns Hop-
kins Oceanographic Studies. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore,
Maryland, 6, 110 pp.
William De Brahm's "Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot,"
an Empirically Supported Eighteenth-century Model of
North Atlantic Surface Circulation
Louis De Vorsey, Jr.
1 Introduction
William Gerard De Brahm was born on August 2, 1718 in Koblenz, where his
father, Johann Phillip von Brahm, served as court musician to the Elector of
Triers.! As a member of the lesser nobility, young De Brahm appears to have
secured an excellent early education, the details of which are still to be deter-
mined. His adult writings and· scientific accomplishments point to a rich and
varied background which probably included serious study of classical and modern
languages, mathematics, history, geography, literature, biblical literature, philos-
ophy, and most importantly, the bourgeoning experimental sciences which were
influencing Europe so profoundly in the wake of the Renaissance (De Vorsey
1971,1974a).
After a successful period of service in the Imperial Army of Charles VII, dur-
ing which he achieved the rank of captain engineer, De Brahm renounced his
Roman Catholic faith and resigned his army commission. Thus at the age of
thirty he found himself and his young wife nearly destitute in the troubled and
fragmented Germany of the mid-eighteenth century. Fortunately he was be-
friended by the influential Senior of the Evangelical Ministry of Augsburg,
Samuel Urlsperger. Urlsperger was one of the two non-British Trustees for estab-
lishing the colony of Georgia in America. Through his good offices De Brahm
was placed in charge of a contingent of 156 German-speaking emigrants bound
for new homes in far-off Georgia.
! Soon after his arrival in America in 1751, William dropped the "von" and adopted the
more fashionable "De" prefix.
William De Brahm's "Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot" 719
Once arrived in Georgia, De Brahm's talents as a military engineer and sur-

veyor made him a much-sought-after individual. In 1752 he was summoned to
Charleston and commissioned to design and oversee the construction of a com-
prehensive system of fortifications for the city. Later he served an interim term
as South Carolina's surveyor-general of lands and journeyed deep into the Indian
territory that is now eastern Tennessee to design and construct ill-fated Fort
Loudoun. In Georgia he acquired landholdings and was appointed as one of the
two first surveyor-generals of land in the colony'S new royal government in
1754. As tension between Britain and France heightened during the mid-1750s,
De Brahm played a key role in devising schemes of defense and building fortifi-
cations in Georgia. Their effectiveness was never tested since no French invasion
of the Atlantic seaboard was ever mounted and Britain emerged from the Seven
Years War as an unqualified victor. Among the territorial spoils won as a result
of the victory was the former Spanish colony East Florida (De Vorsey 1974b).
Realizing their nearly total ignorance of the geography of their newly acquired
dominions in Spanish Florida and French Canada, royal administrators in Lon-
don recommended the establishment of two new imperial offices. These were
the surveyor-generalships of the Northern and Southern districts of North Amer-
ica, which were divided by the Potomac River and a line running due west from
its head. The surveyors-general were to undertake comprehensive and detailed
geographic surveys of their respective districts and employ the data collected in
accurate charts and maps as well as textual reports (De Vorsey 1971).
De Brahm was appointed to fill the southern post and another military
surveyor-cartographer, Samuel Holland, fllied the northern? In addition to fill-
ing his post as director of the General Survey, De Brahm was also to serve as
the surveyor-general of lands in the newly established British administration in
East Florida. It was expected that he would thus gain his livelihood since he re-
ceived no salary for his work in the General Survey. In the early weeks of 1765
De Brahm left his home and position in Georgia and took up residence in St.
Augustine, the capital of East Florida. The next six years saw him undertaking
arduous surveys along the east and south coasts of Florida. In 1771 an increas-
ingly rancorous feud with the governor of the colony led to his being recalled to
London for a hearing growing out of the governor's charges against him. In due
course he was exhonerated and, in 1775, returned to continue his surveys with
the Armed Ship Cherokee. Unfortunately, his arrival in Charleston coincided
with the outbreak of the American Revolution there and his ship was comman-
deered by South Carolina's governor for his escape. De Brahm, who remained
staunchly loyal to his King, found himself a prisoner-at-Iarge in Charleston. After
a considerable time he was allowed to leave on a ship bound for France. Back in
London, De Brahm found himself ignored by bureaucrats who were too preoccu-
pied by the war being fought in America to spend much time worrying about the
petitions and memorials of an eccentric sixty-year-old surveyor (De Vorsey 1970).
2 For a discussion of Holland's work and career see Willis Chipman, "The Life and Times of
Major Samuel Holland, Surveyor General, 1764-1801," Ontario Historical Society Papers
and Records 21 (1924), 11-90.
720 L. De Vorsey, Jr.
Apparently suffering a breakdown of some sort in 1778 he retired from the

scene as an invalid for several years. In the late 1780s he became a Quaker and
turned his attention increasingly to spiritual and mystical concerns. In 1790 he
settled in the Philadelphia area and began the publication of a number of wildly
mystical books on biblical themes.
De Brahm died during the early summer of 1799 at his apparently comfort-
able estate known as Belair near Philadelphia. An intriguing glimpse of him in
his twilight years was provided by Plowden C. J. Weston, who published a por-
tion of his manuscript description of South Carolina. Weston wrote the follow-
ing in 1856: "I know nothing of De Brahm's life; but he lived within memory
of persons now alive, much addicted to alchemy, and wearing a long beard.,,3
2 Florida Surveys and the Gulf Stream
In addition to surveying Florida's terrestrial features, De Brahm had been di-

rected to pay careful heed to coasts, inlets, channels, harbors, tides and sound-
ings as well as to anything else which would contribute to the safety of shipping.
Not unexpectedly the Gulf Stream soon became one of his concerns.
De Brahm's first direct references to the Gulf Stream occurred in a lengthy
letter to the British Board of Trade in which he reported on his coastal surveying
efforts during February and March, 1765 (De Vorsey 1971). It seems probable,
however, that he possessed some knowledge of its general nature and location
even before taking up his Florida duties. His first references indicate that he
was already forming an appreciation of the dynamic qualities of the Gulf
Stream, particularly the significance of its lateral shifts under the influence of
various wind conditions. He also came to gain some appreciation of its breadth
when he was blown across it by violent winds. In describing his sophisticated
approach to hydrographic surveying De Brahm wrote, "Besides the geometrical
Operations on Shore [I] performed also Loxodromical Surveys with two Vessels
and Boats upon the Coast, in order to obtain the Soundings, and, of the Florida
Stream, its Settings to the North, as also its distance from the Shore" (De
Vorsey 1971).
The earliest of De Brahm's maps to show the Gulf Stream along the coast
of Florida are now in the collection of the Library of Congress, Geography and
Map Division (Phillips 1912). They had been sent to the Board of Trade in Lon-
don in 1765 to illustrate the results of his first surveying efforts along the
Florida coast (De Vorsey 1974c). In addition to a detailed view of the coast
from Cape Canaveral to Key Biscayne these manuscript maps indicate local
compass variation and provide a considerable amount of information on current
and tidal conditions. They are particularly significant since they were unknown
to Ralph Brown when he published his article on De Brahm's Atlantic charts
(Brown 1938). In addition to their carefully executed cartography the sheets
3Plowden Charles Jennett Weston (ed.) Documents Connected with the History of South
Carolina. Printed by the author for private distribution, London, p. 157.
contain lengthy verbal descriptions and commentaries on sailing directions for

safe inlet passage, soil quality, vegetation and aquatic life. Both the Gulf Stream
and an inshore counter-current are shown and discussed in detail. On his "Chart
of Cape Florida according to the surveys made May 13 & 29, 1765," De Brahm
fIrst indicated his original understanding of the cause of the Gulf Stream. He
wrote: "The Florida, vulgarly called Gulf Stream, [is] whirled by the Trade
winds round and out of the Gulf of Mexico along the southern and eastern coast
of Florida."
De Brahm's surveys and observations in the vicinity of the Florida Keys ap-
pear to have done much to sharpen his speculations concerning the GulfStream's
causes and effects as well as its general position in the scheme of North Atlantic
circulation. His charts of this area like those farther north clearly delineate the
position of the currents' landward edge as well as its color and velocity. The
velocity and magnitude of the Gulf Stream in its exit from the Gulf of Mexico
had a dramatic effect on De Brahm. Among other ideas it led him to develop a
highly original hypothesis concerning the formation of the keys and reefs which
form Florida's southern extension. This hypothesis is all the more interesting
because De Brahm chose the cartographic medium in articulating it. Briefly, he
was arguing that the keys and their paralleling line of reefs were the fragmented
remnants of two palaeo-peninsulas which had formerly extended southwest
from the main bulk of southern Florida. In addition to supporting his hypothesis
his chart served to emphasize the location of Hawk Channel, the navigable water-
way which lies between the keys and reef. The chart titled "The Ancient Tegesta
now Promontory of East Florida ... 1771" was published in the following year
in "The Atlantic Pilot" (De Vorsey 1974a).
An abrupt halt was called to De Brahm's activities in Florida in 1771 when he
was ordered to come to London to reply personally to charges of malfeasance
committed in his office as East Florida's Surveyor-General of Lands. This recall
culminated a long and often bitter feud between De Brahm and the colony's
governor. Three years were to elapse as the leisurely wheels of the London bu-
reaucracy turned until a Board of the Treasury held a hearing and decided that
he should be reinstated in his provincial post. De Brahm departed Charleston on
July 24, 1771 aboard the Polly and arrived in London September 8th of the
same year.
3 Transatlantic Voyage aboard the Polly, 1771
De Brahm's suspension involved only his provincial office; he continued func-

tioning in his role as surveyor-general for the Southern District throughout. In
this latter role he remained very active, utilizing the several weeks of the voyage
to London to forward his investigation of the Gulf Stream. He lost no time in
making this fact known through a letter addressed to "Mr. Urban," the editor of
the widely circulated Gentleman's Magazine. 4 In this letter, De Brahm omitted
4Gentleman's Magazine (1771), 41,436.

any mention of his suspension and stated that he had been "constrained to
undertake, July last a ... tedious expedition across the Atlantic Ocean" in order
to reconcile problems he had encountered in fixing accurate longitudes for his
surveys in Florida. According to his computations made on the voyage he had
determined that the Charles Town lighthouse was 80°42',43" west of the Lon-
don Meridian. This is within 50' of the figure usually given in modem Pilots
and Atlases-an amazing feat of reckoning in the absence of a chronometer.
The published letter continued:
[I] have also traced the Florida commonly called Gulf Stream, with all its
windings from the dry Tortugas, the westernmost of the Martiers along the
Atlantic coast to the Newfoundland bank; likewise all the different deviations
of the magnetical from the solar amplitudes, as also the precise latitude and
longitude near America of no variation: vessels bound from any part of
America through the new Bahama Channel to Europe may take the benefit of
that stream, which will not only guide them clear of all shoals projecting from
the Capes on the coast of North America, but also accelerate their voyage in
a near incredible measure from twice to sixtimes the distance to what I found
by my hexodronie, when corrected by my daily observation. As I am con-
vinced of the utility my discovery affords to the public, I would not lose a
day to communicate it to your publication. I am, Sir, your most humble
Servant, Wm. Gerard De Brahm, His Majesty's Surveyor for the Southern dis-
trict of N. America.
Thus in 1771, through the medium of one of the most widely read magazines
in the English-speaking world of his day, De Brahm announced his convictions
concerning the significance of the Gulf Stream to shipping from America to
Europe. While local understanding of the Gulf Stream was a part of the working
knowledge of groups of mariners such as those operating from Havana to Spain
or the Nantucket whalers, it appears that many transatlantic navigators were
largely ignorant of the current's power and direction. Consequently De Brahm's
notice, coming as it did a full seventeen years before Benjamin Franklin's "A
Letter ... to Mr Alphonsus Ie Roy ... Containing Sundry Maritime Obser-
vations," probably represents the earliest published description of the Gulf
Stream as a potentially valuable navigation routeway.s
4 "The Atlantic Pilot"
Once established in London De Brahm settled into a very productive routine and
soon published his book "The Atlantic Pilot." In addition to describing sailing
conditions along the Keys and east coast of Florida it contained the first pub-
lished chart to show the Gulf Stream as a major feature of the North Atlantic.
SBenjamin Franklin, "A Letter from Dr. Franklin, to Mr Alphonsus Le Roy Member of
Several Academies, at Paris, Containing Sundry Maritime Observations," Trans. Am. Phil.
Soc. 2 (1786), 294-329.
The contents and nature of "The Atlantic Pilot" were effectively summarized by
De Brahm in the "Advertisement" which preceded the text. It stated:
Advertisement
The following directions which the ATLANTIC PILOT presents to the public
are from authentic discoveries on the promontory formerly called Tegesta,
now His Majesty's southernmost province on the continent of North America,
known by the name of East Florida, terminating the southern extent of the
Western Atlantic or North American coast; Herein the former condition of
the said promontory is deduced, by reasonable conclusions, from its present
appearance; its climate and natural products are made known; and, what is
more essential, and universally wanted, the tracing of the Florida, commonly
called Gulf stream, between the Havannah on Cuba and the Martiere islands
along the Western Atlantic coast, as far as 45° 30' north latitude and 35° west
longitude from the meridian of London, is obtained by observations and
actual surveys, made by
William Gerard de Brahm, Esq.
His Majesty's Surveyor General of the Southern District
of North America, From the year 1765, to the year 1771
The text which follows is written in the first person with De Brahm assuming the
role of the Atlantic Pilot. Contemporary reviewers gave the book a favorable re-
ception and portions of De Brahm's text were later included in a number of
published works. A French translation which appeared in Paris in 1788 omitted
the Atlantic chart and so the most important portion insofar as the Gulf Stream
was concerned.6
It is to that chart that attention should be turned to gain an appreciation of
De Brahm's growing comprehension of the Gulf Stream. A study of this chart
and the text of "The Atlantic Pilot" can leave no doubt that his earlier ideas
concerning the current had grown into a broader and fairly sophisticated hypoth-
esis as a result of his 1771 voyage. He wrote:
The great weight of the sea inclosed within the vast extent of the Mexican
gulf is set in agitation by the trade-winds, as is generally agreed; whereby the
famous Florida stream is supposed to be effected, and thence called Gulf
stream; ... but this stream is in reality carried into the gulf of Mexico by
these trade-winds, and therein circulates at large;
In 1765 he wrote of the "Gulf Stream wheeled by the Trade winds round and
out of the Gulf of Mexico," whereas in this 1772 discussion he clearly places
the Gulf Stream as an integral part of a larger Atlantic system. The engraved
chart falls a bit short in showing this although a manuscript chart on which it
may have been based shows it more satisfactorily (De Vorsey 1971).
6 W.Gerard De Brahm, "Recherches Faites Par Ordres de sa Majeste Britannique Depuis

1765 Jusqu'~ 1771. Pour rectifier les Cartes & Perfectionner la Navigation du Canal de
Bahama." (paris, 1788).
724 L. De Vorsey, Ir.
After the above quoted comment on the cause of the Gulf Stream De Brahm's
discussion continued as follows:
... but at the place of its issue, anxiously compressed by the islands Cuba
and Bahamas on one side, and the promontory [Florida] on the other, [it] is
constrained to curb its current suddenly and often, in order to take its vent
on the east side of said promontory at Cape Florida, through the New Bahama
Channel into the Atlantic Ocean, with a N.b.E. direction; which direction at
Cape Canaveral, in latitude 28° 20' 50", it exchanges [for] a N.N.E. Course,
in which it continues as far as Charles Town, from whence it runs with a N.E.
turn to latitude 42° and 68° west longitude from London, then E.b.N. to the
bank of Newfoundland, and unites, about 40° west longitude ... with the
currents issuing out of St. Lawrence's Gulf, Baffin's Bay, and Hudson's
Straits, with which it takes a S.E. departure towards the western islands
[Azores] , probably joins the current setting out of the Strait of Gibraltar,
and proceeds as far as the coast of Africa, until it falls in with the trade-winds
again, and returns, after its rotation in the ocean to the gulf of Mexico.
Thus, it can be seen that in 1772 De Brahm was presenting the Gulf Stream in
terms of a complete North Atlantic surface gyre in part hypothetical and in part
observed and empirically supported. It was a concept far in advance of that held
by Benjamin Franklin during this period (De Vorsey 1976).
As mentioned above, De Brahm was eventually exhonerated of all the charges
filed against him by East Florida's governor. His fortunes had risen notably when
Lord Dartmouth assumed the office of secretary of state for the Southern De-
partment in 1772. Dartmouth had a deep personal interest in American affairs,
particularly Florida land development and colonization schemes. He recognized
De Brahm as an authority on Florida and became his patron and benefactor.
De Brahm even enjoyed at least two audiences with King George III arranged
by Dartmouth (De Vorsey 1971).
5 "The Continuation of The Atlantic Pilot"
Through Dartmouth's good offices De Brahm was assigned the Admiralty armed
ship Cherokee for his use in continuing the Florida surveys. After lengthy prepa-
rations De Brahm and his party left England for the southern coasts of America
in the summer of 1775.
The extended voyage was in no way to be a simple passage of return for
De Brahm. To the contrary, he employed the many weeks of the Cherokee's
slow southern voyage to conduct an ambitious oceanographic survey. In De
Brahm's words:
Setting out on my voyage from England to America I had two objects in view,
both equally interesting for Navigation and the Learned world. The one was
to discover the breadth and directions of the constant currents upon the
coast of Europe and Africa, and whether [they cross] the Atlantic from Africa
to America as I always supposed. The other object was the preciseness of fix-
ing the Line of No Variation.
De Brahm's diligent efforts toward these and additional scientific goals were de-
scribed in a revealing manuscript he titled "Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot."
In a letter which he addressed to Lord Dartmouth from Charleston after the
1775 voyage aboard the Cherokee, De Brahm reported the completion of "The
Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot" as follows:
I have during my unhappy confinement in this place made out my Report on

160 pages in folio containing all my Astronomical and physical observations
made between Greenwich and America laid down in 88 tables to be submitted
to the best Judges. 7
The phrase "unhappy confmement" is in reference to the fact that the patriots
in charge of Charleston were treating De Brahm as a prisoner at large because he
refused to abjure his allegiance to King George III. Annoying as this and the
denial of the use of his survey ship was to De Brahm, he appears to have made
good use of his time in Charleston. Among other things he managed to marry a
wealthy and socially prominent widow before being allowed to sail for France in
the Spring of 1777.
His letter continued to describe what he felt to be the chief results of his
voyage and observations as follows:
The results from these observations are first the Different changes of Magnetic
Azimuths from Europe to America on both sides [of] the No Variation Line,
which I have crossed three times and once touched. Secondly, the System of
the Great Stream with its mean circulation along the European and African
Coast, across the Atlantic Ocean between the Tropic and Equator to America,
and after washing these shores, its returning across the Atlantic ocean from
the Northern parts of America to the Northern parts of Europe [.] The third
is the change of weight in the Atmosphere upon the weather to come ...
Significantly, De Brahm was reporting accomplishments under three major

headings-declination, Atlantic surface circulation, and meteorology, whereas his
original plan for the voyage included only the first two. Because of the limited
7The only known copy of this manuscript is in the collection of the Houghton Library at
Harvard University. It is clear that De Brahm intended it to be included as an integral part
of his earlier "Report of the General Survey of the Southern District ..." which he had
personally presented to the King. Like the "Report" it is written in eighteenth century
copperplate by a skilled copyist and would have been suitable for presentation. From a
note in De Brahm's hand at the beginning of the bound manuscript it can be seen that
such a presentation was never made. Had the American Revolutionary War not intervened
De Brahm would have doubtlessly gone on to publish "The Continuation of the Atlantic
Pilot" as he had "The Atlantic Pilot." This was not to be and it is only now that his find-
ings are being "submitted to the best Judges."
space available only De Brahm's findings concerning North Atlantic surface cir-
culation will be discussed here in any sort of detail.
Appropriately De Brahm began his 1775 work with an opening paragraph
which fonned a capsule review of his experience with the Gulf Stream as it
stood prior to the voyage on the Cherokee. He wrote:
In my Directions under the name of the Atlantic Pilot, I have partly accounted
for the current known by the apellation of Florida, or commonly called, the
Gulf Stream, I now endeavour to treat that subject more fully, and to trace
the whole Stream which, when performing the General Surveys in the
Southern Latitudes, I have traced from the Dry Tortugas, the westernmost
extent of the Florida Keys, that is to say, from the Gulf of Mexico, as far
north as Latitude 38° by Observation, and as far East as 69° West Longitude
from London by Account; in this Latitude and Longitude, this current pro-
ceeded farther to the Northward, then the ship Polly . .. in which I went to
England, departed East (De Brahm 1775).
Following this summary De Brahm went on to tell how he had discovered

that at about 36° to 33° west from London and 45° 39' N. the ship had been
carried to the southward by a current. He was convinced of this by observing
"a Ripling, as of a Current from the Northward, extending home to the Ship."
Although he paid but little attention to these things at the time he later thought
more about them in connection with, "the many Waters, issuing out of immense
Sources as well as those dissolved in the great Northern Reservoirs, from Snow
and Ice, fonning immense waters in their Season as well as those out of the
Gulfs of St. Lawrence, Hudson and Baffm ... also out of the Icy, North, Baltic
and Mediterranean, among the other Seas (who recruit with their outward cur-
rents the Stream now in question)."
De Brahm wrote that he would not be surprised if his inclusion of the Mediter-
ranean as contributing to the Atlantic water budget drew criticism. This was be-
cause the surface flow in the Straits of Gibraltar was from the Atlantic into the
Mediterranean. He pointed out, however, that the net flow through the Straits
must be from the Mediterranean outward to the ocean otherwise the enclosed
sea would have overflowed its banks drowning millions long before. In his words,
"this outsetting Current (under tow) when once it is freed from the upper Cur-
rent, raises itself to the level of the Ocean, and exercises its power" by joining
the Atlantic gyre. Exactly how this vertical movement of the submerged cur-
rent's force took place is not explained.
Now convinced that he was dealing with a system of interrelated components,
De Brahm decided to name it "George, in Honor of His Majesty King George the
3rd, my most gracious Sovereign, and because it became more precisely known
to me when I met its issue out of St. George's Channel." De Brahm further held
that this strong current flowing southward along the eastern rim of the Atlantic
Basin, ''would infallibly traject the Torrid Zone and enter the Southern Seas,
were it not for the Trade Winds on both sides [of] the Equator, and a contre
acting power of an undoubted similar Stream in the Southern Hemisphere." In
his words the George Stream or current, "bends its Course from Cape Verde
Islands, under the Tropic of Cancer, as far as nearly Longitude 55° to the West,
where it divides into a N.W. and W. branch." The West Branch became the Gulf
Stream after being reinforced "by waters of Pannuco, Palmas, Bravos, Mississippi,
Mobile and Apalachicola Stream," and being "swelled as it were with renewed
Power forces its rout through the narrow vent ... between the Islands [of] Cuba
and Bahamas ... [and] the Promontory of East Florida." The Northwest branch
was further described as following the familiar course of the Gulf Stream along
the eastern seaboard and Newfoundland Banks which De Brahm had previously
outlined three years before in The Atlantic Pilot. In presenting this radical con-
struct De Brahm admitted taking encouragement from an anonymous "great
man" who had advised that "Short sighted minds are unfit to make Philosophers,
whose business it is to describe incomprehensible theories of the World and
their Causes."
His complete verbal summary of the Atlantic circulation gyre, or "George
Stream," should be read with the manuscript chart which was included with
"The Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot" at hand (Fig. 1). The summary De
Brahm provided states:
This George Stream, circulates along Europe, Africa and America to the
South of Latitude 23° and to the North of Latitude 45° and has its Center
in the Ocean in Latitude 34° and Longitude 40° West from London. The
strength of this Stream depends on places of Reinforcement viz at the outlet
of the Gulf of Mexico, at the meetings of the branches of the North American
Gulfs, and out of the European Seas. It depends also. on Seasons of prevailing
South, North, East and West Winds as for instance, South Winds keep this
Stream within its mean Channel, in a moderate Current with Eddies on both
Sides. North Winds confine it near the European, African and American
Shores, and increase the strength of its currents, but leaves no room for Eddies
between the Stream and the Coasts. N.E. and East Winds (from my experi-
ence) bring the stream in the narrowest Channel home to the American
Shores, this Current has at that time its greatest velocity; whence I conclude,
that N.W. and West Winds have the same effect upon the Current of George
Stream on the banks of Europe and Africa, but the near centrical or inside
Eddy of this Stream, I apprehend, is not subject to any Vicissitude, but keeps
its rotation in an opposite direction from the Streams Current, and in equali-
ty of Velocity (being once set in action) the smallest supply will be sufficient
to conserve a motion within itself; whence it may happen, that the Eddy in
some places is of greater Activity, than the Streams Current at the same
place, especially on distances of the Stream's trajects from Africa to America,
and from the latter to Europe, where the Current of the Stream must prove
itself to be of the least Velocity (De Brahm 1775).
The bulk of De Brahm's effort during the Cherokee's slow progress across
the Atlantic during the summer of 1775 was devoted to accumulating the
empirical evidence which he deemed necessary to support his theoretical con-
struct of the George Current System. His chief task involved the accurate deter-
mination of current direction and velocity with the crude techniques and navi-
gation equipment which the eighteenth century had to offer. De Brahm indi-
cated his full appreciation of the nature of the problem confronting him in the
following observation.
to discover the Directions and Courses of George Stream, Astronomical Ob-

servations of Latitude and Longitude (the latter compared with the ships
account) are the only Channels ... The happy issue thereof, will greatly de-
pend opon the distinguishing application of both the Commander and Master
of the Cherokee; two of the best Navigators in His Majesty's Service, and
who are indefatigable in all their operations and calculations they spare no
pains and nothing engages their attention in preference to the Employment of
their Time in this special Service. They keep the most precise account. I ven-
ture to affirm a better was never kept on board any of His Majesty's Ships.
From the Ships Accounts (when they run before or remain behind my ob-
servations) I shall be able to conclude that in the first place the Log is swept
from the Ship by an Eddy or Contre current, and in such case, will give more
knots than the vessel in reality went; and in the second place, the ship being
favoured with the Stream's Current, must expect to have the Log floated
home to it, so that she does not appear to make by her Log the Distance to
which she is entitled by the Wind which is in her favor (De Brahm 177 5).
While an examination of the Captain's and Master's Logs of the Cherokee fails
to reveal anything unusual or extraordinary about them, De Brahm was certainly
correct in his methodology of ocean current determination. Writing more than
75 years after De Brahm the ocean current researcher A. G. Findlay stated quite
categorically:
The only means of detecting currents in the open ocean is the comparison of
a ship's reckoning with astronomical observation: unless the latter be good
the former are worthless; and as the general drift of the water is in longitude
... the estimates are more difficult or inaccurate, as the means employed are
less worthy of dependence ... Without correct sea longitude no estimates of
currents can be formed (Findlay 1853).
The "Log" upon which the Cherokee's Master depended in his reckoning of
the ship'S progress was the basic speed finding instrument employed onboard
eighteenth century sailing ships. It was a piece of wood tied to a cord or light
line which was dropped overboard. At the instant the wooden log-ship entered
the water a minute or half-minute glass was turned. As the log-ship drifted astern
it was allowed to draw out the line from a free running spool or reel until all the
sand in the glass had run. The length of line that had paid out was measured with
marked knots in the line and converted by a factor to nautical miles which would
be traversed in an hour at the rate observed or knots.
A f R C A
I •
." •• I
u \ 'll'<: .'
~ - .• _ '~. ~I
! .. ,.v... o
r
...:::
::;,
<:
Q
-<
;z.
:~ -<
u
Figure 1. De Brahm's "Chart of the Atlantic Ocean" showing his George Stream
system of North Atlantic surface circulation. (Redrawn from the ms. original in
the Houghton Library),
De Brahm was well aware of the limitations of the log's accuracy. On this
score he observed:
... however Inventious the log is to measure the ships way, it has no provision
as yet, by which it may be known whether it runs from or to the ship or
whether it remains where it did fall on the surface of the sea when thrown
overboard (De Brahm 1775).
In his earlier "Report on the Southern District" De Brahm had suggested a num-
ber of improvements which he felt were needed on several surveying instruments
of his day. With reference to the sea log he recommended that, "the Reels of the
Lock [log] tines [should] run in a frame between two points in lieu of running
upon a stick, on which they move with the greatest heavyness" (De Vorsey
1971). With respect to timing glasses he advised that, "The Minute Glasses not to
be cemented of two but blown together of one glass." It is not certain whether
these refinements were employed on the Cherokee in 1775.
De Brahm did consider the purchase of an invention he called a "perpetual
log" which had been patented by William Foxon of Deptford a few years before.
Priced at six guineas, Foxon's mechanical log was intended to remain in the sea
and record the ship's progress on three dials. One dial indicated the way made in
one minute while the other two showed the record for an hour and full day
respectively. De Brahm resisted buying it because he felt it would give erroneous
distances when the ship was in strong currents.
Of course the ship's true position was required in order to determine the influ-
ence of any currents which might be encountered in any given period of time.
For this reason De Brahm devoted a major portion of "the Continuation of the
Atlantic Pilot" to a detailed record of his many celestial observations and position
fixes. 'Early in the manuscript he stated that he felt an obligation "to spare no
expense in providing and fitting myself with the best Astronomical Aparatus."
Absolutely essential to his scheme was the means of accurately determining
the ship's longitude. With John Harrison's successful perfection of the chronome-
ter in the 1760s the determination of longitude by comparing ship's apparent
time with Greenwich time became feasible. De Brahm was among the vanguard
of navigators employing this new technological breakthrough. On May 29,
1775, John Arnold, the watch maker who had supplied the chronometers for
Captain James Cook's second voyage, and Reverend John Usher, professor of
astronomy at Dublin, delivered "the promised timekeeper No. 10" to De Brahm
onboard the Cherokee at Spithead. Reverend Usher provided a signed certificate
which attested to the accuracy of Arnold's pocket watch in comparisons made
with the observatory clock at Greenwich. When the Cherokee called at Plymouth
De Brahm took the opportunity to visit another pioneer horologist, Thomas
Mudge. Mudge refused to let De Brahm have one of his time pieces but did com-
pare the Arnold chronometer with the regulating clock he kept at his home. In
addition to the Arnold chron6meter De Brahm also employed a Holmes Watch
in his observations made aboard the Cherokee.
For the determination of latitude De Brahm began the voyage utilizing a
Ramsden sextant. On July 14, however, an unexpected roll of the ship caused
it to fall and damage occurred making it inaccurate. From that date onward ob-
servations were made with a Dollond sextant. Both Jesse Ramsden and John
Dollond were well-known London instrument makers of the day. These instru-
ments were used in determining the sun's altitude above the horizon at noon
which was easily converted into the latitude of the ship at the time of the obser-
vation. In De Brahm's words, "To draw a latitude from two (solar) Altitudes,
either in the Fore or Afternoon, is one of the happiest improvements of astrono-
my, for its great use in Navigation is beyond expression ... the nearer to the
Meridian these Observations are made, the more exact proves the latitude re-
sulting from them" (De Brahm 1775). Although a solution to the double alti-
tude problem in navigation was not really very new it had been greatly improved
in 1771. In that year special tables to aid the calculation were published in the
Nautical Almanac.
De Brahm provided a good glimpse of the practical side of his navigation
technique in his account for July 18, 1775. Bad weather had made observations
impossible on the 16th and 17th. On the 18th he wrote:
I set now with Zeal about making Observations, the Noon was so pleasant,
that I could not help securing several Altitudes to get a good Latitude. To
fix a place exactly in its Latitude and Longitude, Astronomers endeavour
to make many observations with the utmost care, and out of the many they
choose the mean. In order that I may not be confined to one observation,
I take several near Noon Altitudes of the Sun, my nephew Mr. Ferdinand
De Brahm, the Commander and the Master all take Meridional Observations,
these altitudes together taken by several eyes with different and indeed all
good octants, cannot but make any choice of the mean between them very
exact, so that (whatever error may be committed) it will be so well divided,
that the Result cannot be but slightly affected. This I am persuaded is the
surest method, as it is impossible to secure the Meridional spot on the Sea
so as to repeat the operation on another day (De Brahm 1775).
With so much attention being devoted to accurate observations there can be

little doubt that the Cherokee's quarter deck was a busy place in clear weather
much of the time.
6 De Brahm's Influence
It was indeed unfortunate that De Brahm's arrival in Charleston on September 7,

1775, coincided with the outbreak of the American Revolution there. His wife
died onboard the ship the morning after anchoring in the harbor and he under-
standably left the Cherokee for the town at the first opportunity. The Cherokee
was almost immediately pressed into military duties and after a short period
became the refuge of South Carolina's royal governor and his party.
With any hope for a resumption of his Florida surveys dashed by the Revolu-
tionary War, De Brahm was fmally allowed to return to England via France in
1777. Although he mentioned resuming his Atlantic surveys on this voyage it
does not appear that De Brahm ever prepared any journal of them. In a signed
letter in his own hand attached to the "Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot"
manuscript, De Brahm stated that, "this ... contains my last expedition estab-
lishing the system of the Atlantic currents in the Ocean of the Northern Hemi-
sphere" (De Brahm 1775). Due to the distractions caused by the War and its
outcome and his personal misfortune the "Continuation" manuscript remained
"unrequested in my possession" until De Brahm presented it to the British
Consul General in Philadelphia on November 1, 1798. What became of the
manuscript for the next fifty years until 1848 when Henry Stevens, the anti-
quarian book dealer, sold it along with other De Brahm manuscripts to Harvard
University is unknown.
While his early published charts and descriptions of the Gulf Stream and North
Atlantic circulation presented in "The Atlantic Pilot" exerted some early influ-
ence on the course of oceanographic research it would appear that the far more
comprehensive findings of De Brahm's "Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot"
went totally unrecognized. It is only now, more than two centuries later, that
De Brahm's forward looking hope that "from these results Navigation in these
seas (I hope) will draw considerable advantage, especially if [the Gulf] stream's
changes discover themselves to the future diligent investigators," is being real-
ized. To what extent De Brahm's observations and findings can be of use to
modern oceanographers bent on unraveling the mysteries of the Gulf Stream
only time will tell.
References
Brown, R. H. 1938. The De Brahm charts of the Atlantic Ocean, 1772-1776.

Geogr. Rev., 28,124-132.
De Brahm, W. G. 1775. Continuation of the Atlantic Pilot. Unpub. ms. Houghton
Library, Harvard University.
De'Vorsey, L., Jr. 1970. William Gerard De Brahm, eccentric genius of south-
eastern geography. Southeastern Geographer, 10,21-29.
De Vorsey, L., JI. 1971. De Brahm's report of the general survey in the southern
district of North America. University of S.C. Press, Columbia, S.C., 264 pp.
De Vorsey, L., JI. 1974a. The Atlantic Pilot. University Presses of Fla., Gaines-
ville, Fla., 109 pp.
De Vorsey, L., Jr. 1974b. La Florida revealed: the De Brahm surveys of British
East Florida, 1765-1771. In: Patterns and process: research in historical geogra-
phy, R. Ehrenberg (ed.). Howard University Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 87-
102.
De Vorsey, L., Jr. 1974c. British East Florida on the eve ofrevolution,ineigh-
teenth century Florida and its borderlands, S. Proctor (ed.). University Presses
of Fla., Gainesville, Fla., pp. 78-10l.
De Vorsey, L., Jr. 1976. Pioneer charting of the Gulf Stream: the contributions
of Benjamin Franklin and William Gerard De Brahm. Imago Mundi, 28, 105-
120.
Findlay, A. G. 1853. Oceanic currents, and their connection with the proposed
central-American canals. Jour. Roy. Geogr. Soc., 23.
Phillips, P. L. 1912. The Lowrey collection. Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C., pp. 341.
Considerations on the Medical Use of Marine Invertebrates
Jean Theodorides
1 Introduction
A curious chapter in the history of zoology, medicine and pharmacology is con-

stituted by the past use of marine animals for medical purposes. According to
various authors (1) , the utilization of animals or parts of them as drugs has a
very old origin-Oriental and mainly Egyptian. In ancient civilizations the links
between man and animals were much stronger than now. With vertebrates the
use of their various parts or organs in medicine has in part a totemic origin. But
for the invertebrates, we are not so well informed as to why they were chosen to
appear in the various pharmacopeias in the East as well as in the West.
The present paper is restricted to the Porifera, Coelenterata, Echinodermata,
Mollusca, and Crustacea, including recent researches on the occurrence of vari-
ous substances having antibiotic, antitumoral or anti-inflammatory action in
vitro which may one day be used for medicinal purposes.
2 Porifera (Sponges)
There have been several ways in which the "soft" sponges (Demospongiae) were
used in medicine and surgery (2).
Spongia usta
The use of sponges burned to ashes (spongia usta) is very old and was practiced
until the end of the 18th century (3). They are mentioned in the Indian materia
medica (4) as deobstruent and astringent; mixed with oil they were applied to
Considerations on the Medical Use of Marine Invertebrates 735
"swollen glands" (goiter) and given internally for dysentery, diarrhea and other
bowel disorders.
In the Western world they were also used tb cure "glandulous tumors" or
scrofula (i.e., extra-pulmonary tuberculous lesions). According to Arndt (1937,
p. 1592) this use is mentioned in the Chirurgia of Roger the Salernitan (ca.
1180 A.D.) and according to Blanchard by Arnaldo of Villanova (1238-1314),
the former adding
After that several physicians had recognized the inefficacy of calcinated

sponge, this drug was considered as an inert and ridiculous one; but later the
chemical analysis having showed the presence of iodine, one reverted to the
ancient opinion and thought that calcinated sponge could be efficient against
goiter.
And it is precisely for this affliction as well as scurvy that sponge ashes were pre-
scribed (5). They were still mentioned in the London Phannacopoeia of 1824
among the Praeparata ex animalibus (6).
The sponges used in medicine were collectively designated under the name
Spongia officinalis, but in fact as many as five different species were involved,
at least for the Adriatic, according to O. Schmidt (7): s. adriatica, S. quarneren-
sis, S. zimocca, S. equina, S. mollissima.
Use of Sponges in Anesthesia
Sponges have also been utilized for anesthetic purposes. Before the invention of
modern anesthetics, pieces of sponges were impregnated with the juice of hyp-
notic plants such as poppy, mandragora, henbane, and hemlock. They were then
dried and at the time of their utilization wetted with hot water and applied to
the mouth and nostrils of the patient (8). This use of sponges is known from the
9th century A.D. (Bamberg A ntidotarium ) and is mentioned in theAntidotarium
of Nicolaus Salernitanus (1140 A.D.), of which the first printed version appeared
in 1471. Their origin is, however, much older, probably Alexandrian or Byzan-
tine. Although in such preparations the plant extracts played the major part, the
sponges being only the substratum receiving them, the latter are sometimes men-
tioned, for instance in the 1140 Antidotarium quoted above, where, after the
enumeration of the plants used in one of the recipes, one reads: haec omnia
simul in vasa mitte et ibi spongiam marinam novam qualis de mare exierit (9).
According to Baur (1929), who experimented with these preparations on
laboratory animals, the latter would have had in fact no anesthetic action at all
and should be considered as "a legend in the history of anesthesia." This opinion
is not, however, shared by Deffarge (1928).
736 J. Theodorides
Surgical Use
If the utilization of sponges has been rather limited in medicine and pharmacolo-
gy, it has not been so in surgery, where they were frequently used to stanch the
blood or clean the wounds during and after operations, and also to widen natural
or accidental body orifices such as the cervix uteri or fistulous tracts. Blanchard
(10) has recalled the various modes of this latter utilization: wax sponges
(spongia cerata), which would become dilated under the influence of heat; string
sponges (spongia compressa), wetted with water or egg albumen; gum sponges
(spongia gummata), impregnated with gum.
Another use was that of removing foreign bodies (su~h as fish bones) from
the esophagus by tying the sponge to a long stick. According to Arndt (1937,
p. 1591), this method was already advised by the Arabic surgeon Abulcasis
(10th century A.D.) (11).
Contraceptive Use
This utilization of sponges is mentioned in the Talmud and was frequent in

Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries (12). The sponges wetted with
lemon juice or a solution of quinine were introduced into the vagina.
Present Researches
We now know that a broad spectrum of antibiotic substances are present in

various species of Porifera (13), such as ectyonin, extracted from Microciona
prolifera Ver (14); halitoxin, from Haliclona viridis; and other antibiotics from
Verongia gigantea, Agelas sp., etc.
More recently (15) 30 species of temperate zone Demospongiae have been
tested for antibacterial activity. The results obtained showed that a higher per-
centage of temperate (87%) than tropical (58%) species produced active extracts,
and that sponge extracts inhibited the growth of marine bacteria more than
that of non-marine forms. The studies also showed that 46.5% of the extracts
tested inhibited growth of gram-negative bacteria, while only 6.5%inhibited
that of gram-positive.
Furthermore, extracts of different sponges are cytotoxic in vitro for cells
from human carcinomas, and two compounds having a strong antitumoral action
(spongouridine and spongothymidine) have been extracted from a Caribbean
sponge (Cryptotethya cryptas), which contains arabinosyl-cytosine (ara-C), a
powerful inhibitor of various malignant cells (sarcoma-180, Ehrlich carcinoma,
L 1210 leukemia).
3 Coelenterata (Corals)
The calcareous "skeleton" of these Anthozoa reduced to a powder was found in

the old pharmacopeias, the red coral (Corallium rubrum) being considered as the
most efficient: astringent, cicatrizing, and diuretic. The black coral (c. nigrum) ,
not to be confused with the black variety of C. rubrum, was another recommended
species of Anthozoa. Antipathes arborea was believed to constitute a drug that
was efficacious against all pains, but its effect was in fact purely imaginary.
In classical antiquity, the coral was mentioned by Dioscorides (16) and Pliny
(17) who, as usual, added a "magical" influence:
Branches of coral used as amulets for children have the reputation to protect
them against colics, vesical affections and calculi; calcinated coral pulverized
and taken with water is efficient; the same if it is drunk with wine or water;
if there is fever, it is somniferous. It resists a long time to calcination, but it
is said that if this drug is drunk too often, it may destroy the spleen. Coral
ashes are a relief for those who spill or spit blood; they are mixed to opthal-
mic preparations; it is indeed astringent and 'cooling'; it helps restoring ulcer-
ated fleshes and erases scars.
The red coral was also mentioned in the Indian materia medica (18), where it
was purified by boiling and prepared for medicinal use by being calcined in
covered crucibles and then reduced to a powder. It was considered as an antacid,
astringent, tonic forthe nerves, laxative and diuretic. Its main uses were in cough,
phthisis, asthma, genito-urinary diseases, scrofulous afflictions and as a tonic for
headache, giddiness and vertigo.
In Arabic medieval materia medica, coral is mentioned in the Aqrabadhin of
Al-Kindi (ca. 800-870 A.D.), who recommended it with other substances in prep-
arations to be used as a dentrifice or collyrium (19); it is also present in the
pharmacopeia of Al-Samarqandi (l3th century A.D.), where it is recommended
with other substances as a coagulant for the cure of hemorrhoids (20).
In the Western world the coral is found in various books of materia medica
such as that by Adam Lonitzer (1528-1586) (21). In this work it is considered as
a cardiotonic fortifier and euphoriant; it was further supposed to strengthen the
gums, whiten the teeth, and be useful in the cure of gonorrhea, hemoptysis and
several other diseases.
In the 17th century, Gansius (22) devoted a whole monograph to corals, to
which he attributed magical, therapeutical and even aphrodisiac properties, and
Vandewiele (1964, p. 359) has noted the presence of Corallium album and C.
rubrum in various Belgian pharmacopeias of the same period, namely Pharma-
copeia bruxellensis (1641) and Antidotarium gandavense (1652).
As R. Blanchard (1889, p. 212) has observed, by the time of Nicolas Lemery
(1645-1715), who was the author of Pharmacopee universelle (1697 and many
further editions) and Traite universel des drogues simples (1698 and many later
editions), the coral had already lost much of its fame. It was considered as alka-
line due to its richness in calcium carbonate and, once reduced to powder, it
738 J. Theodorides
was utilized for cases of stomach acidity, diarrheas and hemorrhages. These
Anthoza were present in various preparations such as the Magisterium coral-
lorum (white powder obtained after the reaction of vinegar on coral), the
Electuarius de gemmis, the Dimargaritum frigidum, the Confectio Alchemes,
the Confectio de Hyacintho, the Pulvis liberans seu contra Pestem, the Pulvis
restrictivus, the Diamorum and the Pleres Archonticon, a powder meant for
melancholic, anorexic and amnesic patients. According to the same author,
coral powder was incorporated into various plasters such as the Emplastrum
nigrum (vulnerary), Emplastrum opodelticum (escharotic) Emplastrum de crusta
panis (antivomitive).
At the beginning of the 19th century corals were still found in various phar-
maceutical preparations (troches, dentrifices, etc.) (23). A dentrifice consisting
of a dye and a syrup with coral powder dissolved in Berberis sap is also recorded
(24).
Present Researches
Antimicrobial substances have been extracted from several genera of gorgonian

corals (Antillogorgia, Rhipidogorgia, Briareum, Plexaura, etc.) (25). Some hor-
mones such as prostaglandins (which stimulate smooth muscle, depress blood
pressure and exert tranquilizing effects on the central nervous system) have
been isolated from the gorgonian, Plexaura homomaZla (26). Crassin acetate, a
diterpenic compound (cembranolide) extracted from Plexaura and Pseudoplex-
aura, has a strong antitumoral activity (27). Furthermore, an extract of Gorgonia
ventalina has extended the life of mice with lymphocytic leukemia by 36-40
percent (28).
4 Echinodennata
Echinoidea (Sea-urchins)
Sea-urchins (Sphaerechinus sp?) are mentioned in Book II of the Materia medica

of Dioscorides (29). Their contents were said to be useful in the treatment of
stomach and intestinal disorders and also to have diuretic properties; the ashed
test was used to cure various skin diseases. Sea-urchins are also mentioned in
Book XXXII of Pliny's Historia naturalis (30). They were thought to act as
counter-poisons and their ashes to be effective against baldness and ulcers;
mixed with vinegar, they were considered a cure for epinyctida (a sort of eye
pustule) and scrofulous tumors; when squashed with their spines and drunk
with wine, they were recommended to cure calculi and stop menstruation. These
echinoderms appear in various western pharmacopeias as late as Lemery's
Traite universel des drogues simples (1698); they were considered as "aperitive,
detersive, incisive, digestive, resolutive and able to clean old ulcers" (31). Today
they are no longer used as drugs, but their gonads are eaten raw, their edibility
being restricted to the period between September and April because of the pos-
sibility of poisoning by a ptomaine that was isolated at the end of the last
century (32).
Asteroidea (Starfishes) and Ophiuroidea (Brittle Stars)
They contain toxic substances that have been isolated during the last two cen-
turies (33), but we do not have much information concerning their use in medi-
cine. We do know, however, that in folk medicine of Brittany a dried starfish
was hung around the neck as a protection against madness and epilepsy in honor
of Saint Gilles, who was the patron of insanes and epileptics (34).
Holothurioidea (Sea Cucumbers)
They were eaten dried or smoked in the Far East (China, Indochina, Malaya,
Philippines) under the name of "trepang" (35). They were alleged to have aphro-
disiac properties, a fact which is quite certainly associated with their phallic
morphology rather than the presence of any real aphrodisiac substances.
Present Researches
Recent research on toxic substances from echinoderms has been summarized, and
some of these substances have possible therapeutic properties (37). Such is the
case with extracts from starfishes (Asterias, Acanthaster, Asterina) which are ef-
fective against the virus of influenza B in embryonic chicks, as well as a protein
extracted from Asterias forbesi which has anti-inflammatory properties (38).
The properties of sea cucumber toxins and anti-tumor agents have been re-
viewed by Nigrelli and Jakowska (39) and Nigrelli et al. (40). The latter reported
the effects of holothurin, a saponin extracted from the Bahamian sea cucumber
(Actinopyga agassizi); this steroid suppresses the growth of Krebs-2 ascite tumors
and sarcoma -180 in mice, and it also increases the phagocytic activity of leu co-
cytes and blocks cholinergic neuromuscular transmission. Aqueous extracts
from Stichopus japonicus are effective against Ehrlich ascitic tumors in mice,
and the steroid glucoside holotoxin shows high activity in vitro against various
fungi, but has scarcely any activity against gram-positive and gram-negative
bacteria (41).
5 Mollusca
The oldest available information, at least for the Western world, on the medical
use of molluscs is to be found in the works of Hippocrates (5th century B.C.).
This has been well summarized by Locard (42). Most of the marine species
mentioned in the Hippocratic corpus belong to the Gastropoda and Pelecypoda.
These animals were supposed to have two "principles," each one acting in its
740 J. Theodorides
own way: the flesh, which is "heavy" and difficult to be digested, and the juice,
which has laxative properties. Among the Gastropoda (43) there are mentioned
the purple shell (Murex), the limpets (Patella), and the whelks (Buccinidae);
among the Pelecypoda, the mussels (Mytilus), the scallops (Pecten) and the
clams (Tellinidae).
Cephalopoda (cuttlefishes and octupuses) are also mentioned as drugs in the
Hippocratic writings. They were mainly used for gynecological purposes: after
the delivery of the child, the woman should take "garlic boiled or grilled in
wine and oil with small octopuses and cuttlefishes grilled on charcoals" (44).
If menstruation appears in a pregnant woman, she should use "dry donkey
manure, red earth and cuttlefish shell well ground and mixed applied with a rag
as a pessary" (45). It was also supposed that octopuses would help conception if
eaten half-cooked with a simultaneous use of troches made of a mixture of
Spanish niter, coriander and cumin applied on the genital parts.
Several molluscs are mentioned in Book II of Dioscorides Materia medica
(46). The purple shells of whelks were burned to ashes and used to clean the
teeth and cure ulcers. Mussels were used mixed with honey as collyria and their
flesh would cure the bites of dogs, and clams would release the belly and pre-
vent the growth of eye-lashes.
The operculum of some exotic gastropods (Strombus) was burned and used
against hysteria and epilepsy; these opercula were later utilized as perfume (47).
Depilatory properties were attributed to the "sea-hare" (Aplysia depilans), a
marine opisthobranch, when used as a liniment, and the cuttlefish (Sepia)
"shell" ground to a powder was used in the preparation of collyria, for denti-
frices, and also to remove spots from the skin.
Among the Latin authors mentioning the use of molluscs in medicine, Pliny
the Elder is by far the most important (Historia naturalis Book XXXII) (48).
He discusses the "sea-hare" (Aplysia), to which, as with most authors of antiqui-
ty, he attributes poisonous properties (49). Oysters (Ostrea) are considered
good for the stomach, useful against tenesmus and ulcertaions of the bladder;
cooked in their shells, they are a remedy for catarrh and the ashed shells mixed
with honey would be efficient against tonsilitis, parotiditis, tumors and
indurations of the breasts; when the ashes are mixed with water they cured
head ulcers, burns and could also be used as a dentifrice; mixed with vinegar
they were thought to be a remedy against rashes and eruptions of the pituitis
(hypophysis) and when crushed raw, they cured scrofulae and chilblains.
The purple shells (Purpura, Murex) were considered good counterpoisons.
Thus the flesh of elongated shells (Pinna or Solen) was effective against pain
of the liver, and the juice of mussels (Mytilus) was helpful for the bowels and
the bladder and advised against dropsy, hepatitis, arthritis, diseases of the
lungs, liver and spleen, and catarrh. The ashed shells would cure carcinomata,
dog bites, and freckles. The washed ashes would also be good for dimness of
the eyes and other ocular afflictions, as well as tooth and gum aches. The ashes
of the cuttlefish "shell" were recommended as by Dioscorides against freckles,
fleshly outgrowths, and for the extraction of foreign bodies from the skin and
"wet" ulcers, sometimes mixed with pork grease. Cuttlefish eggs were supposed
to act as a diuretic.
Some of the molluscs (Ostrea, Murex, Sepia) are also mentioned by Celsus
(lst century A.D.) in his De Medicina (Book II), according to Caprotti (1977,
p.138).
With regard to the Oriental Middle Ages, it is well known that the "shell"
of the cuttlefish was recommended in collyria by various authors (Maimonides,
Siddiqi, etc.). AI-Kindi (9th century A.D.) prescribed it in a salve for skin spots,
gum ailments and dentifrices (50). M. Levey also notes (l966, p. 272) that in
early Muslim times, a brownish liquor of cuttlefish "shells" which had decayed
in the earth was used for the same purposes. AI-Biruni (51) (lOth century A.D.)
mentions the odoriferous opercule (Azfar al-Tib) of various gastropods which
had been discussed earlier by Diosco;ides (vide supra). These opercules were
used in incense and fumigation and were in great demand in India as recently
as the present century (cf. G. Petit, supra). These "marine snails" (Onychia
marina) were prepared as follows:
They will be dipped in a vessel containing water and salt for three days,
then washed with warm water, dried and cooked with other species dried
on sand and grilled to crispness (not to be burned).
Various molluscs were used in traditional Indian materia medica. The porce-
laneous shells of gastropods were soaked in lime juice, calcinated and ashed; the
resultant silicate of magnesia (Shanka bhasma) used by itself or in combination
with other substances (tamarind seed ash, asafetida, pepper, ginger, etc.) as a
carminative and for dysentery, dyspepsia, diarrhea, jaundice, gonorrhea, and
even earaches and eye troubles. Among the pelecypods, the pearls of mussels
(Mytilus margaritiferns) were boiled in plant juices and powdered and used in
several preparations for a wide variety of maladies. Oysters were supposed to
have aphrodisiac qualities (53), and their ashed shells to be beneficial for abdomi-
nal tumors and liver and spleen enlargements. Among the cephalopods, the
cuttlefish "shell" (80-90% calcium carbonate) was used as an antacid or sedative
and when powdered or made into a paste to relieve otorrhea and skin diseases.
Chopra et al. (54) note that various preparations of cuttlebone mixed with
Datura juice or lime juice or rose water are still in wide use in India as a home-
made remedy for earaches or skin diseases.
Chinese traditional materia medica (55) includes many molluscs. According
to Philpots quoting Debeaux (56), the Chinese used the powdered shells of
oysters in some skin diseases. The valves of Ostrea talienwanensis and of other
species were calcined until white, pulverized, and then mixed with the juice of
certain plants as a dressing for ulcers. Fresh oysters were used to cure freckles.
Most of the molluscs used in Chinese medicine are mentioned in the ben-ceJOs (or
pen ts'aos), i.e., compendia of materia medica. They were classified under the
name JU!, and abalones appear in the Tang ben-cao compiled during the T'ang
period, ca. 659 A.D. Many other species are mentioned in the Ben-cao gang-mu
742 I. Theodorides
by LI Shl-Zhen, ca. 1593 A.D.; among them are Ostrea gigas Thunb., Cypraea
macula Adams, Haliotis gigantea Gmel., Arca inflata Reeve, and Sepia esculenta
Hoyle. Sepia was used as a remedy for purulent otorrhea, pain around the
umbilicus and pain and swelling of the pudendal regions (57). "Mother of
pearl" (nacre) was supposed to have anti-demoniac and antitoxic properties
and was associated with the heart and liver meridians of traditional Chinese
medicine. Concha cypreae (purple shell) was cleaned with pure water, ground to
a powder and was assumed to have sedative properties. In the traditional Chinese
medicine it was associated with the "liver vessel," that is to say, to the "liver
meridian" of the acupuncturists, providing a soothing action, removing fever and
reinforcing visual acuity.
In Europe various molluscs, particularly oysters, were used for medical pur-
poses well into the 19th century (58). They were recommended for chronic af-
flictions of the stomach, dyspepsia, scrofula and osteomas, scurvy, tuberculosis,
etc. Their powdered shells were used as absorbants and antacids against diarrhea;
they were also prescribed as aperitive, stomachic, diuretic, detersive and litho-
triptic. As late as 1850 omelets with various herbs and ground oyster shells were
eaten as a supposed preventative against rabies (59); these shells as well as those
of pulverized mussels were composed of calcium carbonate and sodium chloride
(60). "Mother of pearl" and mussel pearls were used for the same purposes (61).
Sauvy (1810, p. 29) mentions nacre tablets that were absorbant and roborant;
they were made from pulverized nacre mixed with sugar and gum mucilage. It is
interesting to note that the cuttlefish (Sepia) has been used in homeopathic
medicine (62). It is still listed in the British Pharmaceutical Codex (1934), and
Stedman's Medical Dictionary (1950) says:
A tincture prepared from fried and powdered sepia is used in such conditions
as dyspepsia, chronical nasal catarrh and facial neuralgia in pregnant women.
The dosages ranges from the 6th to the 30th potencies.
Present Researches
During the second half of the present century several medically important sub-
stances have been discovered in various marine molluscs (63). Antiviral and anti-
bacterial constituents have been isolated from abalones (64) and clams (65)
which are active against polyoma and influenza A virus and gram-negative and
positive pathogenic bacteria. Similar substances have been found in oysters,
queen conch (Strombus) , sea snails, etc.; mercenene, extracted from the clam
(Mercenaria mercenaria), inhibits the growth of carcinoma and sarcoma cells as
well as Rous sarcoma virus (in vivo and in vitro) and influenza A virus in chick
embryos (66). Extracts of Stombus gigas are active against lymphocytic leuke-
mia in mice. Murexine (Urocanylcholine) extracted from the purple gland of
Murex trunculus and related species (M. brandaris, Tritonalia erinacea) shows
intense nicotinic and curariform actions and is used experimentally as a muscle
relaxant (67). In cephalopods extracts of Loligo spp. contain substances that

have antiviral and antitumoral activity in vivo (68). Eledoisin has been ex-
tracted from the posterior salivary glands of Eledone moschata and E. aldro-
vandii; it has a strong hypotensive action, particularly on dogs, and a stimulant
action on smooth muscles (69). Octopamine (70) is found in the salivary glands
of Octopus vulgaris, O. macropus and Eledone moschata; this chemical induces
cardiovascular adrenergic responses in anesthetized dogs and cats. Tetramine
extracted from the salivary glands of whelks (Neptunea) (71) has curare-like
effects and stimulates the parasympathetic system in mammals. Acrylcholine
has been isolated from the hypobranchial gland of another whelk (Buccinum
undatum) and causes contraction of smooth musculature and hypotension in
mammals (72). In the same way aqueous ext,racts of the hypobranchial gland of
the gastropod, Thais lapillus, produces vasoconstriction and hypotension in
rabbits (73); however, senecioylcholine (resembling murexine) is present in ex-
tracts of the hypobranchial glands of Thais j7oridana.
6 Crustacea (Decapoda)
The medical use of marine Crustacea, mainly decapods, has been known since
Chinese antiquity (74). Thus, excellent illustrations of crabs are found in treatises
of materia medica such as the Tcheng lei pen ts'ao (1108 A.D.) and another
treatise on crabs was published earlier by Fou Kong (1059 A.D.).
As regards the utilization of Crustacea in European classical and Renaissance
medicine, they are mentioned in the Materia medica of Dioscorides (Book II,
Chapter 12) and in Pliny's Historia naturalis (Books IX and XXXII) (75). Dios-
corides mentions not only marine but also freshwater species such as the crayfish
(Astacus j7uviatilis) and the freshwater crab Potamon (Eutelphusa) edule. The
ashed Crustacea were mixed in wine with gentian powder and used as a counter-
poison especially against rabies; the bite of the mad dog was considered to be
''venomous'' and identical with snake bite or the sting of spiders or scorpi-
ons. In the same way Elianus and Pliny believed that wild animals (boar, deer,
etc.) bitten by a snake would look for freshwater or marine crabs which they
would eat to cure themselves. The same use is mentioned by Pliny (76) who
also advises it against the alleged poisoning by the sea-hare (Aplysia).
The supposed curative properties of marine Crustacea are mentioned in the
works of various physicians, naturalists, or compilers of antiquity and the Mid-
dle Ages such as Galen, Athenaeus, Elianus, Isidorus of Sevilla, Avicenna (Ibn
Sina), Albert the Great, Arnaldo of Villanova, etc. These authors, as well as
several others of the 16th century, also advise the use of Crustacea for dietetic
purposes as being beneficient for patients suffering from anorexia or general
weakness; astrolOgical and other esoteric considerations are not absent from
these prescriptions. Some authors such as Mizauld (1520-1578) and J. Cardan
(1501-1576) even give the dates and hours at which the use of these animals
would be most favorable. Since cancer usually manifested itself in the chest,
744 J. Theodorides
drugs concocted from crabs were given to treat afflictions of the lungs or the
breast. Clearly there is a relation between the Latin name of the crab (Cancer)
and its use against cancer.
Another indication of the use of marine Crustacea is to be found in the
Hippocratic corpus and Diocles of Carystos; this involves their alleged diuretic
properties in the cure of renal or vesical lithiasis. Alessandro Benedetti (ca.
1450-1512) indicated that marine crabs added to mother's milk would pre-
vent urinary troubles in the new-born infant. According to others, the ashes of
crab shells or lobsters' rostra would ease the expulsion of renal calculi.
In Arabic pharmacology, Al-Kindi's medical formulary (77) recommended
that crabs burned to ashes were useful for chaps on the feet and also against
calculi:
Wonderful drug for calculi, which is a remedy from a Greek source. A crab,
which in appearance is speckled with black due to dampness is completely
pounded (and administered). The calculi are removed and do not return,
with God's leave.
In the same formulary shrimps (probably burnt to ashes) are mentioned as an

ingredient of several collyria. A shrimp ("a marine decapod crustacean, with
small tail and thin shell-like skin") is also mentioned under the Arabic name of
Irbayan in AI-Biruni's book on pharmacy (78); it was used "as a good tasting
diet and as an aphrodisiac." Furthermore, crabs are mentioned in the Minhilj
ad Dukk[m, an official handbook by Abu I-Munii Da'ud, a Jewish physician who
lived in Cairo in the 13th century (79). These Crustacea are discussed in Chapter
7 as follows: they should be incinerated in a copper container and this operation
should take place during the summer, after the rising of the star Sirius.
Other decapods were used in gynecology, obstetrics, odontology, otorhino-
laryngology and against various infectious diseases (boils, scabies, etc.). During
the 18th century an oily preparation from a hermit-crab (Paguridae) from
Martinique was prescribed in various European countries against rheumatism.
Although freshwater Crustacea were preferred to marine forms as having "sweet-
est" humors, the latter were also used. Thus Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566)
says that the "common marine crab" (belonging to the Portunidae) can be used
"instead of freshwater ones against the bite of the mad dog, if it is previously
washed in barley or pimpernel water."
Grmek and Guinot (1965, p. 66) believe that some authors of the Renais-
sance used the Greek word IUXPKLVOS to designate crabs in the modern sense of
the word (i.e., Brachyura), while others used it to include other decapods (Rep-
tantia) such as crayfish and lobsters. Several medieval and Renaissance authors
support the latter hypothesis, while others such as Pietro Mattioli (1501-1577),
the well-known commentator on Dioscorides, is of the opinion that when the
Greek authors used KCXPKLVOS they means real crabs and not crayfish. The parts
of the crabs used for medical purposes were primarily "flesh," i.e., the muscles,
but the "shell" was also ground up, pulverized and calcined. The old pharma-
copeias included many drugs containing parts of crabs such as: pulvis cancrorum,
aqua cancrorum, trochisci cancrorum, sirupus, oleum, tinctura, unguentum
cancrorum, etc.
From the decapods, the gastroliths of crayfishes, etc. (calcium carbonate
(63%) and calcium phosphate (18%)), were ground in a powder from which
troches were made and used for stomach acidity. This substance also was used in
the composition of various drugs such as Hyacinth's and Stahl's tempering
powder (80) and also dentifrices. They appear in the old pharmacopeias under
the names of lapilli cancrorum, lapides cancrorum and oculi cancrorus. Some
other decapods such as the sea-cicada (Scyllarides) were prescribed to ease
conception by Simeon Seth, a Byzantine physician of the 11 th century. Another
possible use of decapods is cited by Guinot and Grmek (81). It deals with the
presence of an anti-coagulating substance in the hepatopancreas of crayfishes
and lobsters. This was studied at the end of the last century by Abelous and
Billard (82) and was found to be efficient not only with the hemolymph of
Crustacea, but also with the blood of mammals (rabbit, dog); these results are
summarized in Billard's thesis (83). The discovery of heparin, isolated in 1916
by Mclean from dog's liver, proved to be much more important and allayed
researches on anticoagulants from Crustacea, the exact nature of which has yet
to be determined.
Present Researches
Compared with the other groups of marine invertebrates, there have been only a
few recent works on the possible medical use of substances extracted from Crus-
tacea. It should be noted, however, that a nonspecific bactericidin has been in-
duced in the West Indian spiny 10bster,Panulirus argus, by intracardial injection
of live or formalin-killed bacteria isolated from the normal intestinal flora of
this decapod (84).
7 Recapitulation
It is evident that marine invertebrates (sponges, corals, echinoderms, molluscs,

Crustacea) have been used for medical purposes since ancient times both in the
East (China, India, Near East) and in the West (Europe). This is confirmed by
their presence in various pharmacopeias as late as the last century. Except in
some cases such as the efficacy of iodine from sponges on goiter or of crab
gastroliths or oyster shells on stomach acidity, most of the alleged beneficial
action of drugs containing extracts from marine invertebrates was wholly illuso-
ry. On the other hand, researches carried on since the 1950s have shown the
presence in various marine invertebrates of antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-
tumoral and other substances that may quite possibly prove to have medical
applications in the future.
746 J. Theodorides
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank all those who have helped me with documentation and their
useful advice: Professor E. Ackerknecht (Zurich), Professor P. Grasse (Paris),
Professor and Mrs. C. Levi (Paris), Mr. A. Clastres (Gif-sur-Yvette), Dr. D. Guinot
(Paris), Dr. G. Mazars (Strasbourg), Dr. M. Wong (Paris).
Notes and References
1. Mac Kinney, L. C. 1946. Animal substances in materia medica. J. Hist. Med.

1, 149-170; Vandewiele, L. J. 1964. Les animaux, leurs parties et leurs ex-
crements, dans les pharmacopees communales des Pays-Bas meridionaux. J.
Pharm. Belg., 1964,351-370; Thomas, P. H. 197 . Animal remedies in a
fourteenth century Welsh manuscript. Proc. XXIII Int. Congr. Hist. Med.
London, 197,2,1221-1226.
2. Arndt, W. 1937. Schwamme; in Pax und Arndt. 1937. Die Rohstoffe des
Tierreichs, I, Heft 2,1580-1613.
3. Blanchard, R. 1889. Traite de Zoologie Medical. Paris, I, p. 181.
4. Nadkarni, K. M. 1927. The Indian materia medica. Bombay, 1138-1139.
5. Beauregard, H. 1901. Matiere medicale zoologique, Paris, p. 388 remarks
that the ashes of sponges contain 1.16 to 2.14% of potassium iodate (iodure)
as well as bromides, calcium carbonate and phosphate.
6. Trease, G. E. 1964. Pharmacy in History. London, 175.
7. Quoted by Blanchard, op. cit., p. 178.
8. Baur, M. L. 192 7. Recherches sur I'histoire de l'anestMsie avant 1846. Janus,
31,24-39,63-90,124-137,170-182, 213-225, 264-270; De ffarge , A. 1928.
Les epongeS somnift\res it base de drogues vegetales: histoire critique. These
Pharm. Toulouse. 291 pp.
9. Baur, M. L., op. cit., p. 29.
10. Baur, M. L., op. cit., p. 180-181.
11. The museum of the military hospital of the Val-de-Griice, Paris, possesses in
its collections (Musee historique, 3201) a sponge fastened to a stick which
was used for the same purpose by the military surgeon P. F. Percy (1754-
1825).
12. Himes, N. E. 1963. Medical history of contraception. New York, cf. p. 72-
75,182,248.
13. Baslow, M. H. 1969. Marine Pharmacology. Baltimore, cf. pp. 86-92, 2nd
ed., 1977; Halstead, B. W. and Courville, D. A. 1965. Poisonous and veno-
mous marine animals of the world. Washington, 1,271-278; Ruggieri, G. D.
1976. Drugs from the sea. Science 194, 491-497.
14. Nigrelli, R. F., Jakowska, S. and Calventi, I. 1959. Ectyonin, an antimicro-
bial agent from the sponge, Microciona prolifera Verrill. Zoologica 44, 173-
176; Jakowska, S. and Nigrelli, R. F. 1960. Antimicrobial substances from
sponges. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 90,913-916.
15. Berquist, P. R. and Bedford, J. J. 1978. The incidence of antibacterial activi-
ty in marine Demospongiae: systematic and geographic considerations.
Marine BioI. 46, 215-221. Burkholder, P. R. and Ruetzler, K. 1969. Anti-
microbial activity of some marine sponges. Nature 222, 983-984.
16. Materia medica, V, par. 121-122 (quoted by E. Emmanuel, 1938. Les medi-
caments chimiques des anciens Hellenes. Prakt. Akad. Athinon 13, 517).
17. Histoire naturelle, Livre XXXII. Paris, 1966, pp. 29-30.
18. Nadkarni, op. cit., pp. 1087-1088.
19. Levey, M. 1966. The Medical Formulary or Aqriibiidhin of AI-Kindi trans-
lated with a Study of its Materia Medica. Madison, pp. 116, 118,243-244.
20. Levey, M. and Noury al-Khaledy. 1967. The Medical Formulary of Al-
Samarqandi. Philadelphia, pp. 185,221.
21. Theodorides, J. and Grmek, M. 1966. Remarques sur l'utilisation des ani-
maux dans la matithe medicale au XV Ie siecle. Anal. Med. Hist., I, 23-27.
22. Joannis Ludovici GansU n medici Francofurtensis Corallorum historia.
Frankfurt, 1669,248 p.
23. Galangau, J. M. A. 1807. Fragmens sur les zoophytes etles litophytes et
sur quelques preparations dont ces corps animaux font partie. These Phar-
macie Montpellier, 47 p.
24. Dorvault, P. 1893. L'Officine, 13th ed. Paris, p. 396.
25. Burkholder, P. R. and Burkholder, L. M. 1958. Antimicrobial activity of
horny corals. Science 127,1174; Baslow, op. cit., pp. 108-109.
26. Weinheimer, A. J. and Spraggins, R. L. 1969. Tetrahelron Lett. 59,5185.
27. Levi, C., Potier,'P' and Sevenet, T. 1978. L'Operation SNOM. Courrier du
CNRS 29,49.
28. Ruggieri, D., op. cit., p. 493.
29. Les Six Livres de Dioscoride. Lyon, 1559, p. 113 & seq.
30. Op. cit., pp. 41,44,46,52,57,65,66.
31. Blanchard, R., op. cit., p. 279.
32. Mourson, J. and Schlagdenhauffen, F. 1882. Nouvelles recherches chimiques
et physiologiques sur quelques liquides organiques. C. R. Acad. Sci. 95, 791.
33. Halstead and Courville, op. cit., pp. 538-545.
34. Delamarre, P. 1951. Medecine populaire et saints guerisseurs de la folie en
Bretagne. Mem. Soc. Fr. Med. 4, 24-31.
35. Pabisch, H. 1937. Essbare Holothurien und der gegenwiirtige Stand der
Trepang-Industrie. C. R. 12e Congo Int. Zool., Lisboa, 1937, 3, 2182-2192.
36. Halstead and Courville, op. cit., pp. 539-588.
37. Baslow, op. cit., pp. 171-192; Ruggieri, op. cit., pp. 494-495.
38. Prendergast, R. A. and Suzuki, M. 1970. Invertebrate protein stimulating
mediators of delayed hypersensitivity. Nature 227, 277-279.
39. Nigrelli, R. F. and Jakowska, S. 1960. Effects of holothurin, a steroid sapo-
nin from the Bahamian sea-cucumber (Actinopyga agassiz i) on various bio-
logical systems. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 90, 884-892.
40. Nigrelli, R. F. et aI. 1967. Substances of potential biomedical importance
from marine organisms. Fed. Proc. 26, 1197-1205.
41. Shimada, S. 1969. Antifungal steroid glycoside from sea cucumber. Science
163, 1462.
42. Locard, A. 1885. Histoire des Mollusques dans l'Antiquite. Mem. Acad. Sci.
Belles Lett. Lyon, 75-312.
43. Hippocrate. Oeuvres. trad. Littre. Paris, 1839-1861, II, p. 551.
44. Ibid., VIII, p. 85.
45. Ibid.,p.459.
46. Boss, K. J. 1969. The shells of Dioscorides of Anazarba. Ann. Rept. for
1969 of the Amer. Malac. Union, 54-55; Caprotti, E. 1977. Molluschi e
medicine nel 1° secolo d.c. Conchiglie 13, 137-144.
47. Petit, G. 1923. Parfums et remedes tires d' opercules de Gasteropodes
marins. La Parfumerie Moderne (reprint). 8 pp.
48. Pline l'Ancien, Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 1966, Livre XXXII, passim.
49. In fact a toxic substance called "aplysin" has been extracted by Winkler
et aI., 1962 (In: Halstead and Courville, op. cit., 709-715) from the digestive
glands of Aplysia sp. which might be a cholinester.
50. Levey, M., op. cit.. p. 272.
748 J. Theodorides
51. Hamarneh, S. K. 1973. A1-Biruni's Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica.
Karachi, 152 p. (cf. p. 73).
52. Nadkarni,op.cit.,pp.1094-1095, 1124-1129.
53. It is for the same purpose that Casanova used to eat great quantities of raw
oysters (cf. G. Ranson, Les Huitres. Paris, 1951, p. 103).
54. Chopra, R. N., Ghosh, S. and Dutt, A. T. 1938. Some inorganic preparations
of the Indian indigenous medicine. 6. Samudraphena (Sepia officinalis shell).
Ind. J. Med. Res. 26,485-486.
55. Read, B. E. 1937. Chinese Materia Medica, turtle and .,hellfish drugs. Peking,
95 p.; Dr. M. Wong, personal information.
56. Philpots, J. R. 1890. Oysters and all about them, Vol. I. London and Lei-
cester, p. 277; Debeaux, J. O. 1865. Essai sur 1a Pharmacie et 1a Matiere
Medica1e des Chinois. Paris, 120 p.
57. Lane, F. W. 1960. Kingdom of the octopus: the life history of the Ceph-
alopoda. New York, p. 172.
58. Blanchard, R. 1890. Traite deZoologie Medicale. Paris, II, 155-156;Ozenne,
C. M. L. 1858. Essai sur les Mollusques consideres comme Aliments, Medi-
caments et Poisons. These Med., Paris, No. 222.
59. Lagriffe, L. 1976. Un traitement de la rage: l'omelette aux huitres. Med.
Nord et Est 11, 128, 131.
60. Sauvy, F. H. F. 1810. Essai sur l'histoire naturelle, l'analyse chimique et
les usages pharmaceutiques des testacees, des ecailles d'huitres, de la nacre,
des perles, des coraux et des ecrevisses. These Pharmacie Montpellier. 44 pp.
61. Lefevre, E. L. and Mabille, J. 1888. Huitre. In: Dict. Encyclop. Sci. Med.
(Dechambre). 14,456-474; Vandewiele, op. cit., 359-360.
62. Lane, F. W., op. cit., pp. 173-174.
63. Baslow, op. cit., pp. 123-161.
64. Li, C. P., et al. 1962. Antimicrobial agents from mollusks. Trans. N.Y. Acad.
Sci. 2(24),504-509.
65. Li, C. P., et al. 1965. Antiviral activity of paolin from clams. Ann. N.Y.
Acad. Sci. 130,374-382.
66. Schmeer, M. R. and Huala, C. V. 1964. Mercenene: in vivo effects of mul-
lusk extracts on the sarcoma 180. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 118, 374-382.
67. Erspamer, V. 1948. Osservazioni preliminari, chimiche e farmacolo giche
sulla murexina. Experientia 4,226-228; Erspamer, V. and Benati, O. 1953.
Identification of murexine as Imidazolyl-( 4 )-Acryl-choline. Science 117,
161-162.
68. Prescott, B., et al. 1964. Isolation and characterization of antiviral substance
from marine animals. Fed. Proc. 23, 588.
69. Erspamer, V. and Anastasi, A. 1962. Structure and pharmacological actions
of eledoisin, the active endecapepeptide of the posterior salivary glands of
Eledone. Experientia 18,58-59.
70. Erspamer, V. 1952. Identification of octopamine. Nature 169,375.
71. Asano, M. 1952. Studies on the toxic substances contained in marine ani-
mals. I. Locality of the poison of Neptunea (Barbitonia) arthritica Bernardi.
Bull. Jap. Soc. Sci. Fish. 17,73-77.
72. Whittaker, V. P. 1960. Pharmacologically active choline esters in marine
gastropods. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 90,695-705.
73. Roaf, H. E. and Nierenstein, M. 1907. The physiological action of extract
of hypobranchial gland of Purpurea lapillus. J. Physiol. 36, V-VII; 1907.
Adrenaline et Purpurine. C. R. Soc. BioI. 59, 773-774 (reply to an article
with the same title published by R. Dubois, ibid., 636-637).
74. Information on "small crabs" is to be found in the book Bo-Wu-Zhi by
Chang Hua (Jin Dynasty, second half of the 3rd century A.D.; ct. Acta
Zoologica Sinica, 1976,22,65.
75. Grmek, M. D. and Guinot, D. 1965. Les Crust aces dans la matiere medicale
europeenne au XVIe siecle. Rev. Hist. Sciences 18, 55-7l.
76. Pline l'Ancien. Histoire naturelle, Livre IX. Paris, 1955, p. 69. Livre XXXII.
Paris, 1966, p. 40.
77. Levey, M., op. cit., pp. 281, 306.
78. Hamarneh, S. K., op. cit., p. 7l.
a
79. Fenton, P. 1975. Contribution l'histoire de la Parmacologie Le Minhaj ad
Dukkan d'Abu I-Muna Da'ud al-Isra iii. Rev. Hist. Med. Hebr. 115,105-109.
80. Blanchard, R., olf'cit., II, p. 239.
81. Guinot, D. and Grmek, M. D. 1968. Observations sur l'action anticoagulante
de I'hepatopancreas des Crustaces: une etape meconnue dans I'histoire des
anticoagulants. Actes Xle Congo Int. Hist. Sci. (Varsovie-Cracovie 1965), V,
227-232.
82. Abelous, 1. E. and Billard, G. 1897. De l'action anticoagulante du foie des
Crustaces. C. R. Soc. BioI., 10e serie, 4, 991-993.
83. Billard, G. 1898. De l'action du suc hepatique des Crustaces sur la circu-
lation et la coagulation du sang. These Med. Toulouse.
84. Evans, E. E., et al. 1968. An induced bactericidin in the spiny lobster Panu-
lirus argus. Proc. Soc. Exp. BioI. Med. 128,394-398.
85. I have mentioned only the researches on the groups discussed herein. In
fact, substances of possible medical applications have been found in other
groups of marine invertebrates such as polychaet worms, Echiurians Mero-
stomata (horseshoe crabs), Hemichordata, etc. Cf. P. N. Kaul and C. 1.
Sincermann (eds.). Drugs and Food from the Sea: Myth or Reality? Norman
(Oklahoma), 1978.
The Siting and Development of Mediterranean Harbors
in Antiquity
Avner Raban
1 Introduction
The lands of the Eastern Mediterranean have traditionally been studied as isolated
units from the point of view of their history and civilizations. Only when a socie-
ty reached an organizational and economic level that produced surpluses and a
technology that required imports of raw materials and produced fmished manu-
factured goods for export have historical studies ventured outside that civili-
zation's boundaries and begun to investigate imperial military campaigns, over-
land trade routes and the trading cities along these routes. This approach, investi-
gating first the isolated civilization, and then its closest neighbors, has been fol-
lowed very consistently.
A glance at the map, however, shows that the entire system of ancient civili-
zations lay around a single basin-the Mediterranean Sea. Yet in spite of this
obvious common geographical denominator, the number of studies based on this
fundamental circumstance is surprisingly small, especially when we consider that,
before the invention of the steam engine, the sail was the only efficient means of
propulsion.
Documents from as early as the third millenium B.C. describe vessels 50
meters long. In spite of the limitations of the simple square sail, these ships,
with crews of 24-36 men, could transport 300400 tons of cargo and covered the
distance from the Nile Delta to Byblos in four to 14 days. The overland alterna-
tive, carrying an equal weight of cargo, would have required over 5,000 mules
and donkeys and an equal number of drivers and armed escort, and would have
taken two or three months.
These facts were always known and it may reasonably be asserted that from
The Siting and Development of Mediterranean Harbors in Antiquity 751
the very first days of international commerce an effort was made to convey goods
by sea. This chapter will attempt to describe the interaction of geography, tech-
nology and politics on harbor building in the eastern Mediterranean from the
Bronze Age through Roman times.
2 The Paleo-geography of the Mediterranean Coasts
Fifteen thousand years ago the end of the last glaciation during the Wiirm was
followed by a period of relatively rapid warming, which caused a fast rise in sea
level. This process, lasting less than 10,000 years, raised the surface of the Medi-
terranean about 100 meters, to approximately its present level. The fall in level
that had accompanied the glacial period had altered the erosional base and caused
vertical entrenching of river beds, particularly on those coasts where the conti-
nental slope was narrow or relatively steep. The subsequent rise of sea level
flooded these channels and formed a coastline with many flooded river valleys.
Stratification of silt carried to the coast by rivers began to predominate only
after the sea level had stopped rising, about 5,000 years ago. Since then the
courses of most rivers flowing into the Mediterranean have become filled through
the interaction between the sand deposited by coastal currents and mud stratifi-
cation around the elevated erosional base from river floods; in some cases a delta
projecting into the sea has begun to reform. In some areas an equilibrium was
reached hundreds of years ago, as, for example, at the mouths of the rivers of
Israel, Syria, southern Anatolia, Sicily and North Africa; elsewhere tectonic pro-
cesses have slowed the rate of filling, as is the case along the coasts of Aegean
Anatolia and parts of the Greek coast. Here the process has been unidirectional
for the last 5,000 years.
3 Settlements in Israel
The period of maximum flooding, when valleys were flooded with sea water and
estuaries penetrated far into the coastal plain, seems to have coincided with the
beginnings of commercial and cultural links between the different shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. Historical documents from Egyptian and Syrian sources as
well as archaeological research support a scheme of settlement as follows.
The coastal plain of Israel was densely populated as early as the Neolithic
Period. With the last stage of the rise of sea level, however, this flowering declined
and the form of settlement changed. Instead of the villages scattered along the
top of the coastal kurkar ridge, fortified trading cities grew up further inland on
the upper reaches of rivers flowing through the more easterly kurkar ridge. The
sites chosen combined several factors. They were higher than the marsh flats;
they were on a dry ridge, permitting longitudinal movement parallel to the
coast; they were close to the highest point reached by the sea water or on a river
deep enough for shipping by commercial cargo vessels; they were at a point where
the water table interface provided abundant shallow wells for drinking water.
752 A. Raban
More than 25 settlements of this kind, both on the coast and up river, have
been excavated and researched, including Jaffa, which lies on the ancient course
of the River Ayalon. These investigations show that the distribution of settle-
ments matches the topography described above remarkably closely. In most of
the large fe/s, moreover, the settlement stage at the beginning of the second
millenium B.C. is more marked. This is the period when international commerce
flourished on a wide scale in the Mediterranean.
4 Ships of the Bronze Age
The palaeo-geography described above will certainly have affected the design
of ships. Two types of sailing vessels developed: a solidly built ship of deep
draft which could carry maximum cargoes with minimum effort, capable of
sailing in the open sea night and day; and a smaller ship, easier to maneuver;
suited for short hauls, which required night anchorages and daily re-victualling.
Different economic and political conditions determined the use of one or the
other type. While the coaster was suitable for itinerant trading and for casual
and unplanned barter, the cargo ship was intended to cross large open seas to
reach a distant preselected destination where there was a reasonable certainty of
exchanging goods profitably. Generally, probing by coasters seems to have pre-
ceded the stage of established trading.
A third kind of boat developed in cultures of subsistence economies and
local military operations were usually directed at simple coastal settlements
which could be taken by force. In these circumstances fast maneuverable ships
were required, manned by oarsmen. In Greece and in the Aegean Islands, where
small sepamte political units persisted up to the middle of the first millenium
B.C., this type of ship was found in considerable numbers.
Artistic representations of the Mediterranean vessels of the Bronze Age dis-
play all three types: fast, multi-purpose ships, powered primarily by oars, ap-
peared in Egypt as early as the fourth millenium B.C. and also in the Aegean
Sea; coasters frequently appear in descriptions from Crete, Cyprus, the coast
of Syria and Israel; large cargo vessels, driven by sail alone, appear in Egyptian
wall drawings and are mentioned in hieroglyphic documents as Canaanite.
With the exception of the Egyptian river boats, Mediterranean vessels of the
Bronze Age were characterized by being bi-directional and symmetrical in
structure. The ship had a sharply pointed bow and a stern of equal length. The
single mast, placed at the center of the long axis of the ship, supported a large
square sail. In many cases only the location of the rudder made it possible to
identify the direction of movement.
The rudder had attained a high degree of perfection in the Egyptian river boats
as early as the third millenium B.C. Hence it is surprising that the rudders in the
frescoes from Thera, 1,000 years later, and in the ships of the Sea Peoples were
no more than large plain oars, their efficiency limited to the physical strength of
the helmsman. This technological backwardness can be explained only by the
frequent need to transfer the rudder from one end of the ship to the other. Such
a method of changing direction was necessary in narrow rivers. This again con-
firms our ideas on the geography of this period.
5 Bronze Age Anchorages
The decline of the economic and political systems of the Middle Eastern civili-
zations at the end of the Bronze Age was followed by a decline of sea trade,
which lasted for several centuries. During this time the river courses fIlled up
with mud and were blocked by coastal shoals. When marine commerce revived,
and large fleets appeared once more, river estuaries suitable for shipping existed
only in the west (particularly the Aegean coast of Anatolia, the Gulf of Corinth,
the west coast of Greece and the southern shores of Sicily and Spain).
A good example of a highly advanced Canaanite harbor of the second milleni-
urn B.C. is that found at Achziv. The ancient tel is located on a rocky shoreline,
to the north of which is the mouth of the River Keziv and to the east the course
of the River Sha'al. Archaeological excavations at the eastern margin of the forti-
fication system of the Middle Bronze Age have revealed that its builders diverted
part of the waters of the two rivers through a moat running from the east to the
north of the tel. They succeeded in creating a protective ring around the city to
ensure that the silt-laden winter floods would not block the estuary to the south
of the tel and to allow the maintenance of a canal suitable for shipping and
anchoring. Nevertheless, the river mouth to the south soon became blocked with
sand transported by the coastal current and stratified by the action of the
breakers. To overcome this difficulty an entrance canal was cut running from the
neck of the estuary to the rocky shoreline between the earlier river mouth and
the tel. In this way a natural barrier of rocky reefs was created which prevented
the accumulation of sand and the blocking of the artificial entrance to the ship
canal. A similar degree of understanding of coastal circulation and the appli-
cation of methods to prevent such damage can be found in other parts of the
eastern Mediterranean basin of the same period.
A different type of anchorage was found at Tel Nami on the coast of Israel
about 25 km south of Haifa. On this stretch of the coast a kurkar hill projected
into the sea and was joined to the sandy beach by a low tombolo. Research has
revealed that this rocky hill served to support a small settlement in the Bronze
Age Period. At that time the hill was an island completely separated from the
shore by a narrow channel. To preserve this channel and its use as a natural and
convenient anchorage, a massive retaining wall was built along the eastern edge
of the island, with a parallel wall built along the beach opposite. These retaining
walls retarded the formation of a tombolo to a certain extent but they could
not prevent sand being carried in by the coastal current and its becoming strati-
fied. To inhibit this process the waters of the River Ma'arot were diverted through
an artificial canal and the waters of the lagoon on the marsh flats were diverted
into the strait. It appears that the water flowing in the river was sufficient to
754 A. Raban
carry the sand laid down by the waves away from the floor of the shipping canal.
The fact that the settlement on the island did not persist beyond the Bronze
Age and was not later renewed indicates that together with the crisis in marine
commerce that followed the rise of the Sea Peoples nature succeeded in filling
the strait with sand and forming a stable tombolo.
The types of anchorages described above became specialized as intermediate
trading posts, anchorages for coastal shipping, and a settlement system combin-
ing an agricultural hinterland and sea commerce in a single ethnic and cultural
unit. However, in most of the lands around the Mediterranean Sea the political
and cultural units that flourished had a distinctly continental character. The
maritime civilizations were able to set up trading posts on the coastal edges of
the continental powers, offering their fast export and import services that were
cheap and effective.
Miletus, on the southern rim of the Meander Valley on the Aegean coast of
Anatolia, is this type of exit port. Today Miletus is situated about 10 km from
the sea, but at that time it was a peninsula at the extreme point of a broad and
deep marine inlet. To reach the town from the river valley it was necessary to
cross a bay 20-30 km long. This location of Miletus was chosen so that it would
be isolated and at some distance from the continental hinterland, a safe distance
from the land neighbors, but at the same time close enough to make trading pos-
sible. The peninsula location was so good that Miletus remained an independent
trading port through both the Hittite and Lydian empires. Similar exit ports
were pre-Hellenic Smyrna, Ephessos, Klazomenae and Phocea.
6 Iron Age Harbors
Although the Bible, Assyrian documents and reliefs, the writings of Homer,
Herodotus, Thucydides and other Hellenic authors all shed considerable light on
the trading activities, technology, geographical discoveries and spread of cultural
values by the Phoenician mariners, archaeological finds also teach us about the
physical base of the maritime operations of this period. The fall of the Hittite
Empire, the repeated sackings of the coastal cities, the decline of Egypt, and the
collapse of the civilizations in Crete and Greece irrevocably distorted the eco-
nomic base of international trade. International agreements, regular shipping
lines and trade routes were replaced by individual trader vessels plying the shores
hoping to be able to barter. In the middle of the 10th century, about 200 years
later, Hiram I, King of Tyre, gradually succeeded in rebuilding what was destined
to be the greatest maritime civilization of all time. The river courses in the
eastern Mediterranean had become too shallow for large scale trading and thus
the need arose of an improved and larger alternative to the Bronze Age anchor-
ages. The first artificial ports built into the open sea were developed at this time.
The earliest breakwater so far discovered is at Tabat el-Hammam on the
Syrian coast, near the remains of the settlement identified as Phoenician Sum-
mur. Here a small tel was found on a rocky hill that projects into the sea and
forms the southern boundary of an elongated sandy bay. From the northwest
side of the hill a wide wall, over 6 m, is built into the sea, extending 30 m to
the northwest and then turning at an angle to the north for a distance of 100 m
more. On the inner side of the wall well-carved dressed stones, very long and
narrow, were laid parallel to one another, with their long margins meeting ex-
actly so that only the narrow heads formed the exposed surface of the wall. This
would seem to be an extravagant and expensive procedure, for only 10% of the
dressed stone is exposed. The advantage of this technique was that it was pos-
sible to build a straight wall rising perpendicularly from the sea floor above the
surface of the water so that a vessel could berth alongside for easier cargo
handling; in addition, it was a structure that would not be destroyed by waves.
The building of "headers" of this kind proved to be so stable and permanent
that it was adapted in the construction of fortification walls and towers in land
settlements in the Levant and Israel, and later it was also incorporated into Greek
military architecture. From other excavations it can be shown that this sea wall
may have been built before the 9th century B.C.
The situation is different at Atlit, a minor Phoenician settlement south of
Haifa. The port of Atlit lies on the northern side of a rocky peninsula which is
joined to the mainland by a low narrow tongue. As at Sidon, the Phoenicians
did not make use of the natural bay to the south of the cape, but built instead
an artificial sheltering wall on its north side. The harbor was constructed with
two separate wings. A gap of 200 m between the wings formed the harbor en-
trance, from the east, like that at the port of Haifa. The plan of this harbor had
a double purpose. A gap in the western side created a permanent current across
the port area and out through the port entrance which prevented the accumu-
lation of layers of sand inside. The two wings were distinct from one another
and without any link with the mainland; this would prevent the danger of sud-
den attack on the storage sheds and the houses of the town by crews of ships
anchoring off the northern wing.
Atlit, therefore, may be seen as the earliest example of what developed in
the Hellenic period into the double port, whose units were the external port that
served as an emporion and international anchorage for foreign ships, and an in-
ternal port that was an anchorage close to the settlement serving local vessels.
An additional technical detail in the marine building at Atlit harbor is the per-
sistent effort to set the jetties on a broad base of stone rubble in an attempt to
prevent undermining of the base of the wall by currents.
From these descriptions, it can be concluded that the Phoenician harbor
builders of the Iron Age had a wealth of experience in hydraulic engineering and
in sound technological solutions to the problems posed by the sea and coastal
circulatory processes. The important ports of the time belonged to one of two
types. They were on a peninsula on the side not exposed to winter storm waves
or on an island close to the shore near a topographical obstacle restricting free
movement to the mainland behind. This type, whose beginnings are found
mainly in the Aegean region (Miletus', Smyrna, Lerna, Essine, Tyrins) continued
to flourish in Anatolia. More advanced types were found on the eastern sea-
board (Sidon, Akko, Tyre, Arwad) and the main Phoenician trading posts in the
west (Motya, Thapssos, Trapani, Melaei in Sicily; Utika in Tunis; and Cadiz).
756 A. Raban
Another type was located in places where the river bed or a natural lagoon close
to the shoreline could still be used, where the anchorage basin was widened by
dredging and quays were built around the sides. The link with the sea was through
a natural channel or an artificial canal. This type was widespread in the new
Phoenician colonies in the west (Carthage, Selinunte, Tharssos, Heraclea Minoa,
Toscanos), and it appears that they constituted a factor in detennining the
locations of the Greek colonies in Sicily (Megara-Hiblea, Camerina, Gela, Agri-
gentum), France (Marsala), North Africa (Cyrenia, Tripolis) and Cyprus (Salamis).
7 Greek Harbors
In the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. several Greek cities embarked on the develop-
ment of merchant fleets and the establishment of a political and economic
system based on overseas colonies. The Corinthians made use of the marshy
region to the north of their city and dredged a series of anchorage basins and
ship canals in it, the Lechaion. In southeastern Sicily, emigrants from Corinth
selected a rocky promontory to the north of a large bay and there established
the largest center for maritime trade in the west, Syracuse. Other cities followed
their example. However, the principal sea trading activity at this time arose in
the Ionian cities on the Anatolian coast (Miletus, Kyme, Phocae) and in the
Dodecanese (Lesbos, Samos, Chios).
The ancient tradition of shipping in the Aegean region had been based pri-
marily on long, narrow ships that sailed over short distances and were propelled
by a large crew of oarsmen, but with the advent of long range maritime com-
merce and the development of heavy merchant ships powered by sail and manned
by small crews, it became necessary to develop deep water ports protected from
storms and from raids by enemy fleets. In the face of the military superiority of
their numerous enemies, the inhabitants of the Aegean world could not make do
with the open harbors of the type that predominated in the east. By adopting
the technology developed by the Phoenicians and by strictly adhering to the
principle of the double port, a harbor of the limen kleistos (closed port) type
rapidly developed.
The Greeks of the port cities did not have the manpower and technology
needed to build sea walls of matching dressed stone, but the rocky coastline of
chalk and limestone cliffs provided an abundance of cheap, accessible building
stone. Therefore, they developed a new type of breakwater, sea wall and jetty.
No more the vertical wall from the sea floor rising above the surface, but a mas-
sive mole of enormous rocks strewn on the sea bed and rising to the level of the
surface, with a built quay only on the section above this. Good examples of the
first such harbors are found at Samos, Mytilene and Cnidos. At Mytilene the
topography was exploited to build a double port. Two long moles were built
and then walls on top of them, and according to the evidence of Strabo an
artificial basin was built large enough to hold 50 triremes. Similar double harbors
were built at Syracuse, Kizikos, and Aegina.
Another most impressive example is to be found at Cnidos. A double harbor
was built and a canal was dug across the tombolo whose minimal width was
more than 6 m and whose sides were walled with header stones. This linking
canal existed as early as the 5th century B.C. and its primary use was to allow
the passage of warships from one side to the other, hidden from the eyes of an
enemy conducting a naval blockade.
Moles like those at Cnidos were also laid down in the eastern bay of Samos,
but even earlier. The unique feature of the port at Samos was that for the first
time it consisted of an anchorage closed by breakwaters lying in a line that was
the direct continuation of the land wall of the city. The narrow entrance, which
could be closed off, thus completed a well-protected port that fitted efficiently
into the general system of fortification.
Henceforward, this military concept dominated other building considerations,
particularly on the coasts of Anatolia and the Aegean Sea. Any city that hoped
to maintain its profits from maritime trade, its economic independence and its
naval fleet took pains to build its harbor in such a way as to include two or
three separate anchorages joined by a ship canal built at the rear and not visible
from the sea side. Phaselis, in Anatolia, had three such anchorages.
Several technological and functional advances necessitated by the increased
use of ships in warfare and by the development of closed harbors developed in
the beginning of the 5th century B.C. The first advance was water flow through
the anchorage by creation of a permanent current from the rear of the harbor
to its entrance. Such a flow could be created relatively easily, especially in ports
whose openings faced the direction opposite the seasonal winds and storms. Be-
cause of much greater silting on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, southern
Sicily and North Africa, it seems that the development of this system began
much earlier in these areas, where sluice canals were cut through the rock. The
second advance was the development of mooring installations to ensure the
stability of the ships berthed alongside the quay. They also served as pivots
around which ropes running from the tops of the masts could be drawn. In this
way a floating ship could be laid on its side to permit checking the parts normal-
ly under water. This system is still widely used on the coasts of Syria, Anatolia
and the Aegean Sea.
Another installation that was perfected at that time was the shipyard. Usually
the installations for checking, building and storing ships were located in the in-
ner anchorages of the closed ports. Storage in special houses covered by a roof is
apparently the continuation of the Greek tradition of beaching boats. Since
sailing was seasonal and specialist manpower in shipbuilding was expensive,
efforts were made to lengthen the useful life of ships as much as possible, par-
ticularly in the case of the more costly and complex vessels, the triremes. They
were used rarely and therefore the Greeks preferred to store the fleet in special
structures, neoskania, built on the coast at the edge of the inner harbor. These
neoskanias are well known from historical literature and their physical remains
have been found at the port of Zea in Piraeus, Oeainodai in Akranina, Apollonia
in Libya, and Syracuse. Special slipways were developed so as to permit the
758 A. Raban
triremes to be launched and made operational quickly. These slipways are found
at the foot of Cape Sounion (Fig. 1) at the entrance to the Seronic Gulf. Slipways
for shipbuilding and repairing were also built, and examples may be found today
at Kalimnos and in the fishing villages of Sicily, Sardinia and southern Spain .
~l t~~~·:.~ \::. ~::1 i ,:.~·:<~

.'\.·.. • .
-r ',~ .
•~lj. ~.
::-:-~~~~"':,~ :::.~~~.::: :'/;' . ..' . ...4'

O
•• t 2l4~
a
~,.
b
Figure 1. Trireme houses at Cape Sounion: (a) plan, (b) vertical section, (c)
reconstructed view (after Travlos).
Figure Ie
8 Roman Period
While the ports that originated in the Roman period used a variety of technolo-
gies that had not previously existed, the most important innovation was the
development of sea cement. Vitruvius, in the ftrst century B.C., wrote explicit
directions for casting large blocks and even entire sea walls on the spot. The
instructions call for the mixture of "Terra Rosa earth" and volcanic dust in a
ratio of 2: 1 and the erection of cofferdams made of oak beams. For places
where currents or wave action make the construction of cofferdams impossible,
Vitruvius provided an ingenious method of sliding blocks into the sea by the
erosion of sand from sloping platforms. There are also directions as to how to
proceed with marine masonry in the absence of volcanic dust and in places
where the bottom was soft, the latter involving the use of charred alder or
olive pilings (Vitruvius, Book V, Chap. XII, paragraphs 2-6) (Fig. 2).
So far, there. have been no discoveries of remains of marine structures earlier
than Vitruvius' time that could have served as a source for the technique de-
a
-I • 10.
I
I 0 I o.
b ~ - I-
Figure 2. Reconstruction of hydraulic structures built according to Vitruvius:

(a) Book V, Chap. XII, paragraphs 34, (b) Book V, Chap. XII, paragraph 5
(based on Schlager's researches at Side).
scribed by him. However, the Claudian port of Ostia (the first seaport of Rome),
built two generations later, was constructed according to his recommendations.
It appears that the Roman methods developed principally because of the need to
contend with the problem of establishing on a muddy sea floor massive structures
that would not sink or collapse under the weight of the mass of stone rather
than because of a shortage of large dressed stone. This was the reason for their
preference for combining piles and wooden walls with a filling of cast aggregate.
The rapid development of the Roman Empire brought major economic
changes in its train. The wealth accumulated in the metropolis created a large
and highly varied demand and the need arose for harbor facilities that could
handle great quantities of goods on a regular basis. Thus great ports for the ex-
port of produce were established in Sicily and North Africa (Messina and Leptis
Magna), and transit ports, to transfer goods from the Indian Ocean, flourished
again (Alexandria).
But before this happened, a small poor agricultural country produced a local
king with great political and business acumen and with the ambition of reviving
the works of King Solomon. Herod of Judaea discovered the importance of the
transit trade and took steps to gain control over the entire land bridge and the
overland trade routes. He then saw to it that goods from the East went to his
Mediterranean ports for shipment to Rome. In order to ensure that the goods
reached the Roman markets at a season that would maximize his profits, he
needed a port facility where a large merchant fleet could spend the winter
months, when there was no sailing, undergo repairs and fitting out, and load
cargo so as to depart immediately with the start of the sailing season. In this
way the goods would reach the markets weeks before the cargoes from smaller
ports, where merchant ships would arrive for loading only after wintering in
the ports of the west (primarily Kantharos, at Piraeus). These considerations
seem to be the basis of the greatest, most daring and most sophisticated enter-
prise of marine engineering ever undertaken.
In the last quarter of the first century B.C., Caesarea arose on the eastern
coast of the Mediterranean-the first man-made port on the open sea without
dependence on topographic features of a cape or bay. The historian Josephus
Flavius describes the port thus (in two places: Antiquities af the Jews, Book
XV, Chapter 9;and Wars afthe Jews, Book Y, Chapter 21).
Now he [Herod] observed a place near the sea, which was very proper for
containing a city, and .... he adorned it with a haven that was always free
from the waves of the sea ... The King ... overcame nature and built the
haven larger than was the Pyreeun (at Athens) and it had towards the city a
double station for the ships. It was of excellent workmanship; and this was
the more remarkable for its being built in a place that of itself was not
suitable to such noble structures, but was brought to perfection by materi-
als from other places, and at very great expenses. This city is situated in
Phoenicia, in the passage by sea to Egypt, between Joppa and Dora, which
are lesser maritime cities, and not fit for havens, on account of the impetu-
ous south winds that beat upon them, which rolling the sands that come
762 A. Raban
from the sea against the shores do not admit of ships lying in their station;
but the merchants are generally forced there to ride at their anchors in the
sea itself. So Herod endeavoured to rectify this inconvenience, and laid out
such a compass towards the land as might be sufficient for a haven, wherein
the great ships might lie in safety; and this he effected by letting down vast
stones into twenty fathoms of water, most of them being fifty feet in length,
and nine in height and ten in breadth, and some still larger. But when the
haven was filled up to that depth, he enlarged that wall which was thus al-
ready extant above the sea, till it was two hundred feet wide; one hundred
of which had buildings before it, in order to break the force of the waves,
whence it was called Procumatia, or the first breaker of the waves; but the
rest of the space was under a stone wall that ran round it. On this wall were
very large towers ... There were also a great number of arches where the
mariners dwelt. There was also before them a quay (or landing place), which
ran round the entire haven, and was a most agreeable walk to such as had a
mind to that exercise; but the entrance or mouth of the port was made on
the north quarter, on which side was the stillest of the winds of all this
place ... At the mouth of the haven were on each side three great Colossi,
supported by pillars, where those Colossi that are on your left hand as you
sail into the port are supported by a solid tower; but those on the right hand
are supported by two upright stones joined together, which stones were
larger than that tower which was on the other side of the entrance.
The remains of the harbor thus described are mostly found today deep below
the surface of the water. It was built according to the plan of the Hellenistic
limen kleistos, being well enclosed and with a separate inner anchorage. The
overall area of the harbor, including both anchorages, enclosed a water surface
of over 50 acres and it appears to have had berthing quays of a total length of
over 1500 m, not including additional finger jetties that have not yet been
investigated.
The technological innovations used for the first time in Caesarea allow us to
state that the imperial ports of the early Roman Empire included the following
features:
1. the controlled and integrated use of building with stone, building of regular
courses (including the joining of stones with lead casting) and formation of
blocks of conglomerate both under the water and above it;
2. the use of breakwaters strong and broad enough for the construction of
storage buildings and re-Ioading quays on their inner side;
3. the proper combination of peripheral quays and fmger jetties to increase
transshipment area and allow for the simultaneous loading of as many ships as
possible;
4. the functional division of the various sections of the quay according to the
size of the ships, nature of cargoes and destination;
5. the effective incorporation of the large harbor in the overall city planning
system and fortification and defense lines, with the possibility of closing the
main harbor entrance with a chain;
6. the development of the technology of lighthouse building as a permanent

feature which allowed entry and exit during the night as well as the day;
7. effective solutions to the problem of strong waves and the onslaught of
winter storms, which allowed greater flexibility in selecting harbor sites with
regard to the economic considerations of hinterland and foreland rather than
topography.
The technology of building harbor installations in the first century B.C. thus
appears to have attained a level no less than that of ours today, and in fact from
that time on harbors have been built on the basis of financial and economic
considerations only.
References
Carter, S. R. 1978. The submerged seaport of Aper1ae, Turkey. Int. Jour. Nauti-
cal Archaeol., 7,177-186.
Delano Smith, C. 1978. Coastal sedimentation, lagoons and ports in Italy. In:
Papers in Scientific Archaeology, H. McBlacke, T. W. Potter, and D. B. White-
house (eds.). Brit. Archaeo1. Rev., suppl. ser., 41,25-33.
Flemming, N. C. 1968. Archaeological evidence for eustatic change in sea level
and earth movements in the Western Mediterranean, during the last 2000 years.
Spec. Pap., Geol. Soc. Amer., 109.
Flemming, N. C. 1971. Cities in the Sea. New York, 189 pp.
Flemming, N. C., Czartoryska, N. M. G. and Hunter, P. M. 1973. Archaeological
evidence for eustatic and tectonic components of sea level change in the
South Aegean. In: Marine Archaeology, D. J. Blackman (ed.), Colston papers,
23,1-66.
Flemming, N. C., Raban, A. and Wagshal, N.1978. Tectonic and eustatic changes
in the Mediterranean coast of Israel, in the last 9000 years. In: Progress in
Underwater Science, J. Gamble and R. Yorke (eds.), London, 3, 33-94.
Fritsch, C. T. 1960. The Link Marine Expedition to Israel. Miami, 32 pp.
Frost, H. 1972. Ancient harbours and anchorages in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In: Underwater Archaeology: a Nascent Discipline, Unesco, Paris, 95-114.
Frost, H. 1973. The offshore island at Sidon and other Phoenician sites in the
light of new dating evidence. Int. Jour. Nautical Archaeo1., 2, 75-95.
Frost, H. 1975. The Pharos Site, Alexandria, Egypt. Int. Jour. Nautical Archae-
01.,4,126-130.
Frova, A. 1966. Caesarea Maritima. Roma.
Goodchild, R. 1956. Harbours, docks and lighthouses. In: Oxford History of
Technology, E. Singer et a1. (eds.). Oxford, 2, 516-524.
Hurst, H. 1976. Excavations at Carthago, 1975: second interim report. Anti-
quariesJour.,56,177-197.
Jameson, M. H. 1973. Haliesis at Porto Cheli. In: Marine Archaeology, D. J.
Blackman (ed.), Colston papers, 23, 233-260.
Kenny, E. 1947. The ancient rocks on the promontory of Cape Sounion. Annu-
al Brit. School Archaeo1., Athens, 42, 194-200.
Knoblauch, P. 1969. Neuere Untersuchungen an den Hafen von Agina. Bonner
Jahrbuch, 169.
Knoblauch, P. 1974. Die Hafenan1agen der Stadt Agina. Archaio10gilcon Deltion,
Athens, 27,50-85.
764 A. Raban
Knoblauch, P. 1977. Die Hafenanlagen und die Anschliessenden seemauren von
Side. Ankara.
Ledman-Hartleben, K. 1923. Die Antiken Hafenanlagen des Mittelsmeeres, KLIO
14,1923.
Linder, E. 1967. La Ville Phenicienne d'Atlit .... Archeologia, 17, 25-29.
Linder, E. and Raban, A. 1977. Introducing Underwater Archaeology, New
York.
Meiggs, R. 1973. Portus in: Roman Ostia, 2nd ed., Oxford.
Poidebard, A. 1938. Un Grand Port Disparu: Tyre ... , Paris.
Poidebard, A. and Lauffray, J. 1951. Sidon, Amenagements Antiques du port de
Saida ... , Beirut.
Revere, R. B. 1957. 'No-Man's Coast': ports of trade in the Eastern Mediterrane-
an. In: Trade and Market in the Early Empires, K. Polyani et al. (eds.), Glen-
coe, Illinois.
Schafer, J. 1967. Beobachtungen zu den Seeseitigen Maueen von Larymna in
der Leoris. Archaol. Anzeiger, 4, 527-45.
Scranton, R. et al. 1976. Kenchreai, Eastern Port of Corinth, Leiden.
Sears, J. 1904. Oeniadae, the ship's sheds. AJA, 8,227-234.
Shaw, J. 1967. Shallow water excavations at Kenchreai. AJA,7l, 223-231.
Shaw, J. 1972. Greek and Roman harbour works. In: History of seafaring based
on underwater archaeology, G. F. Bass (ed.), London, 87-112.
Schlager, H. 1969. Die Text Vitruvs im Lichte der Untersuchungen am Hafen
von side. Koldeway Gessellshaft.
Schlager, H., Blackman, D. J. and Schafer, J. 1968. Der Hafen von Anthedon.
Archaeol. Anzeiger, 5, 21-102.
Schlager, H. and Schafer, J. 1971. Phaselis, zur Topogrphie der Stadt und des
Hafengebeites. Archaol. Anzeiger, 8, 542-561.
Taylor, L. C. 1974. Sea ports, an introduction to their place and purpose.
Glasgow.
Testaguzza, o. 1964. The Port of Rome. Archaeology, 17, 173-179.
Sebastos, the Harbor Complex of Caesarea Maritima,
Israel: The Preliminary Report of the 1978 Underwater
Explorations
Robert L. Hohlfelder and John P. Oleson
1 Introduction
Prelude to Excavation
From the 28th of May to the 21st of June, 1978, a team of three individuals
conducted a preliminary archaeological survey of the harbors and shoreline of
Caesarea Maritima, the major Roman and Byzantine city on the coast of ancient
Palestine (Frova 1965, Levine 1975a, 1975b, Ringel 1975). This ancient metrop-
olis and its extraordinary port and habor facilities were constructed by Herod
the Great at the end of the First Century B.C. (Oestreicher 1962) and were in
use until ca. 640 A.D., when the city and its environs fell to Arab conquerors.
The site of Caesarea (32°30.s'N, 34°53.5'E) is located ca. 45 km south of the
modem city of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast of Israel and now embraces
the farms, residences and industries of Kibbutz Sdot Yam.
This team participated in the 1978 archaeological campaign of the Joint Expe-
dition to Caesarea, a consortium of American and Canadian universities and col-
leges headed by Professor Robert J. Bull of Drew University, under the auspices
of the Center for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa, which holds the
permit for underwater explorations at Caesarea (Bull, in preparation). During
the fifth week, an aerial photographic survey of the coast from the aqueduct
system north of the city limits (Olami and Peleg 1977) to the southern termi-
nation of the Byzantine city wall was carried out from a tethered aerodynamic
balloon operated by Professor and Mrs. J. Wilson Myers of Michigan State
University.
The harbor complex of Caesarea was identified by the ancient historian,
766 R. L. Hohlfelder and J. P. Oleson
Josephus (bAD. 37/8) (Jewish War, I, 408-414; Jewish Antiquities, XV, 331-
341). In 1960, Edwin A. Unk with a group of archaeologists and divers made
the first underwater exploration in Caesarea's now submerged main or Herodian
harbor (Fritsch and Ben-Dor 1961, Fritsch 1961). More recently, the Center
for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa and the Israel Undersea Explo-
ration Society have conducted several probes, surveys and training exercises in
the main harbor and along the coast to the north and south. The most extensive
of these was for the Israel Electric Company in 1976 to collect evidence of
major earthquake displacements, data necessary for the planning and construc-
tion of a new generating facility south of the ancient city (Neevet al. 1978,
Flemming and Raban 1978, Flemming et al. 1978). Mr. Avner Raban of the
Center for Maritime Studies has carried out several seasons of underwater survey
and small-scale excavations in the Herodian harbor of Caesarea, constructing a
detailed map of the immediate area, with drawings of some of the structural
remains visible along the shore and below water (Raban and Under 1978).
The First Phase of Excavations
Owing to its size, historical significance, state of preservation and accessibility

to archaeologists, Sebastos presents a unique laboratory for marine archaeolo-
gists and other scholars concerned with the maritime affairs of ancient Mediter-
ranean societies. Preliminary surveys of the harbor complex have confirmed the
importance of the site and have identified loci of archaeological interest. Only
through stratigraphic excavations, employing and refining techniques of under-
water survey and excavation developed elsewhere in the past two decades (Lewis
1973, Oleson 1977, Shaw 1978), can the potential of Caesarea's harbors be real-
ized. To this end, the Center for Maritime Studies of the University of Haifa has
begun the formulation of a long range program for its exploration. The Center
will continue its own field work (Raban and Linder 1978) and will coordinate
the efforts of the international scholarly community for various projects in the
submerged sections of the Caesarea harbors. Under the Center's aegis the authors
will begin excavations and detailed mapping of the southern bay area (Fig. 1),
extending to the piscina promontory (Flinder 1976) in 1980 or 1981.
The excavations on land adjacent to the southern bay have revealed a major
commercial and governmental district and have recovered the city plan for this
section of Caesarea (Bull, in preparation; Holum et al., in preparation). Of par-
ticular importance is a complex of horrea or warehouses which has been un-
covered adjacent to the shoreline (in Field C, Fig. 4). Although no traces of
ancient port facilities are visible in the sea and no remains of a seawall or quay
have been uncovered on land, it seems most likely that such structures existed.
At the very least, the southern bay probably served as a secondary anchorage
which handled the bulk of Caesarea's seaborne commerce during the time the
main Herodian harbor was in use. Thus, this whole stretch of coast may have
been used for commercial purposes. Moreover, if the main harbor did fall into
disuse in the third century A.D. owing to earthquake damage as has been sug-
Sebastos, the Harbor Complex of Caesarea Maritima, Israel 767
Figure 1. Sketch map of Se-
bastos, the Harbor Complex
of Caesarea Maritima.
C
A
E
S
A
R
HARBOR E
A
M
A
R
I
T
I
~ M
1 A
,
0
,
100
,
200
~ SUbmer'Qed Sections
gested by Linder and Raban (1978), the southern bay might have assumed even
greater importance for the next four hundred years (fourth century through the
Arab destruction of 639/640). To judge from extant literary sources and the
archaeological data now being uncovered, Cae~rea achieved a zenith of impor-
tance and prosperity in the late Roman-early Byzantine empire. Caesarea's
harbors , or harbor if only the southern bay functioned from the fourth century
on, provided the major point of entry and exit to the Holy Land during thIs
period of the city's history.
Such speculation of the southern bay's role in the life of the city and region
must bear the test of archaeological investigations. A series of controlled air-lift
excavations (conducted within metal caissons or hollow cylinders) for underwater
excavation is most desirable in the sands covering the ancient harbor floor in the
southern bay. The marine excavator recovers detailed stratigraphic data not
normally available in underwater archaeology. Where this method of excavation
has been employed at other harbor sites in the Mediterranean the results have
been impressive (Lewis 1973).
Other air-lift or dredge trenches, which will not employ caissons because of
the presence of bottom rubble, are also planned on and near the submerged jetty
which extends to the southwest from the southern Herodian breakwater and
may have served as a northern protective arm for the southern bay. Ifit is a man-
made structure and not a natural kurkar (the local name for clastic limestone)
reef, it is hoped that its date of construction and its configuration in ancient
times can be determined. In either case, it will be measured and plotted on the
master map of Caesarea Maritima now under preparation by Professor R. Und-
ley Vann of the University of Maryland and of the Joint Expedition to Caesarea
Maritima staff. Similar probes and mapping are planned for the southern termi-
nus of the bay in and around the reefs (?) surrounding and extending from the
piscina promontory.
In association with the underwater explorations in the southern bay, several
land probes in the harrea district are planned in conjunction with the Joint Ex-
pedition. As mentioned above, this agency's 1979 campaign established the city
plan for this zone of the urban complex (Holum et aI., in preparation). The data
produced by the land excavations and from the underwater explorations, when
collated with literary testimony and other archaeological evidence, should permit
the reconstruction of the history of this section of Caesarea's harbor complex
and perhaps establish the chronological relationship between the Herodian Har-
bor and the southern bay.
2 Objectives
The chronology of the development and the pattern of use of various parts of
the harbor complex are still matters of some conjecture (Lehmann-Hartleben
1923, Oestreicher 1962, Linder and Leenhardt 1964, Under and Raban 1975,
Levine 1972a, 1975b, Ringel 1975). The Joint Expedition survey had as a
major goal the isolation and identification of specific zones of archaeologi-
cal interest in the harbor where excavations might solve certain chronological
and topographical problems. In addition, the 1978 underwater investigation
was intended to confirm and expand the work of previous surveys and to pre-
pare a record of extant remains on land and in the sea associated with the anci-
ent harbor facilities. A preliminary map of the underwater and shoreline features
was prepared on the basis of the information gathered, and a photographic
record of the area was compiled. The careful inspection of the entire harbor com-
plex and the clarification of the problems involved in its interpretation allowed
the selection of severallaci for future excavation, both on land and underwater.
These are now scheduled to begin in 1980 or 1981 under the aegis of the Center
for Maritime Studies (for the underwater areas) and the Joint Expedition (for
the shoreline sites).
3 Topographical Limits of the Study
Although the principal remains of the harbor installations of Sebastos are concen-
trated along a ca. 500 m length of shoreline off a Crusader stronghold dating
from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D., the survey encompassed an addi-
tional stretch of coast ca. 750 m north and south of this focal area. The entire
ca. 2.0 km length of coastline, extending in the north from the shoreward termi-
nus 9f the Byzantine city wall to a reef off the Kibbutz Sdot Yam yacht club on
the south, was carefully examined for structures at or near sea level which might
have had a bearing on maritime activities or provided evidence of a change in the
configuration of the shoreline since antiquity. Some of the major landmarks are
(from north to south): the ancient synagogue, the Crusader fortifications and
adjacent post-antique breakwaters, submerged sections of ancient seawalls (Fig.
2) the remains of the Herodian inner and outer harbors, the southern bay, the
piscina promontory below the Roman theater (Flinder 1976) (Fig. 3), the tower
at the south terminus of the Byzantine city wall, and two long, narrow kurkar
reefs carrying rock-cut basins adjacent to the yacht club (Levine 1975a, 1975b,
Ringel 1975).
The landmarks in or below the water consist of a scattering of irregular kur-
kar reefs at or just above sea level, projecting above submerged, sloping reefs of
the same material which form an irregular fringe along the coast ca. 10 m to
ca. 300 m wide before terminating in white sand or occasional rubble on the sea
bottom, generally at a depth of ca. 3.0 m. Movement of bottom sand changes
this outline somewhat from year to year. The general absence of silt has fortu-
nately prevented the growth of Poseidon grass. The only major structural land-
marks visible below sea level are the prominent, well-defined remains of the
north and south breakwater arms of the Herodian harbor and a mole constructed
of ancient columns within the modern harbor area. The maximum water depth
in this area of the harbor, toward the inner edge of the south mole, is ca. 10 m.
4 Water Conditions and Diving Procedures
The wind and water conditions at Caesarea Maritima are changeable, and fre-
quently difficult. The prevailing current, which runs parallel to the shore from
south to north, can be very strong and seas are frequently heavy. The winds are
generally southwesterly (cf. Josephus, Jewish War, I, 409-10) but can change
rapidly and dramatically in direction and force. The hot desert wind from the
south or east calms the sea somewhat, but is usually followed by a few days of
heavy seas. Fortunately, the sandy character of the sea bottom generally makes
any turbulence short-lived. Visibility is usually worst around the north and south
breakwaters, an area where there is now a certain amount of man-made pollution,
along with a rich growth of the flora and fauna.
In water deeper than one meter the survey was generally carried out by all
three divers at once, with SCUBA gear, spaced approximately three meters apart
Figure 2. Northern section of c-oastline and reefs of the Southern Bay and exca-
vations of the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima, Field C. (Photograph by
Professor J. Wilson Myers) .
-the photographer in the middle flanked by the archaeologists. In this way a

wider swath could be examined and the photographer was able to move in either
direction. Notes were made of the character of the sea bottom and of the struc-
tures encountered, and samples of bedrock and building materials were taken .
For successive dives in the outer fringe of the harbor, a boat was rented and
anchored over the dive site. Otherwise the survey dives were planned to begin
and end at or near the shoreline. The shallow water over the site generally allowed
"bottom times" of over one hour. In some shallow areas the survey was made by
two or three divers with snorkels only. The resulting freedom of movement
made it possible to examine the reef surfaces as well as the surrounding waters.
Figure 3. Southern section of coastline, reefs and piscina promontory of the

Southern Bay. (Photograph by Professor I. Wilson Myers).
A careful survey of structures on the beach was carried out on foot. The infor-
mation gathered each day was entered on an archaeological map of the site. Al-
though this was only preliminary and schematic in its detail ,and coverage, the
procedure provides a basis for initial interpretation of the harbor and selection
of areas where excavation may be useful. In general, the survey-like the descrip-
tion given in the following sections-proceeded from north to south, and from
shallow to deep water. Approximately 100 man hours were spent in the water,
and the same on land.
772 R. L. Hohlfelder and I. P. Oleson
5 Topography and Geology of the Shore and Sea Bottom
The undulating coastline has alternate sandy gravel or rubble stream beaches,
occaSionally interrupted by promontories formed of kurkar, backed by earth
and kurkar erosion banks from 1 to 5 m high containing archaeological strata
with wall or floor stubs. The kurkar bedrock at Caesarea, and the local building
stone made from it, is a sandy limestone which consists of shell fragments of
pellet size, identifiable shell fragments, pellets of calcium carbonate, and quartz
sand. This stone, typical of the Mediterranean beaches of Israel, was formed by
the petrifaction of Pleistocene dunes (Flemming et al. 1978, p. 133). The hard-
ness of the rock depends on its composition, especially on the concentration
of well-cemented hard quartz grains. The resulting differential erosion is prob-
ably largely responsible for the random pattern of reefs scattered along the
coastline at or just above sea level. As elsewhere along the coast of Israel the
rock peninsulas and islets are abraded by wave action, resulting in the formation
of uniform, flat terraces, generally surrounded by a raised rim, a concretion
formed by vermetid gastropods and algae (SafrieI1974, pp. 1113-1115, flem-
ming et al. 1978, pp. 133-134). A type of coralline alga prevalent at and just
below the surf zone deposits a thick (up to 0.05 m) porous stratified calcareous
coating which gradually covers the bedrock and rubble spill in these areas,
frequently bridging isolated blocks and cementing them into a solid mass.
At several points along the shore, notably near the north terminus of the
Byzantine city wall, and along the beach extending from the Crusader Castle
south to the piscina, there are large, thick plates of beachrock extending into
shallow water formed of large shell fragments and grains of sand cemented to-
gether by calcium carbonate. This rock with its larger particles and the pattern
of formation differs from the kurkar (Alexandersson 1972). The stone apparent-
ly builds up rapidly in thick layers within the beach mass. Exposure to the surf
results in erosion of the beach sand and the disintegration of the stone, which
cracks into fairly regular blocks and gradually disappears. The inclusion of oc-
castional potsherds and sea-worn marble fragments in the visible strata of beach-
rock at Caesarea reveal that at least some of these deposits have formed since
Classical Antiquity. It is likely that the stones and blocks forming the ancient
breakwaters have been laid on top of a series of reefs or islets not unlike those
still visible along the shoreline, although extending farther offshore and deeper.
Traces of bedrock presently appear at several points beneath the south mole,
and excavation will probably reveal bedrock at several more points beneath
the sandy basin floor.
6 Remains of the Herodian Harbor of Sebastos
The physical traces of the breakwaters protecting the Herodian harbor of Sebas-
tos are clearly visible in aerial photographs and can frequently be traced even
from shore as a dark pattern on the white sand. These structures have conse-
quently been mentioned or discussed at some length in several published accounts
of the city, generally in connection with Josephus' descriptions. There is, how-
ever, no detailed published description of the character of the remains presently

visible below water or of the evidence they provide for the design, construction,
and functiOning of the original installation (Flemming et al. 1978). The harbor
was protected by two massive structures: a south mole ca. 500 m long (measured
from the modern breakwater) with a highly irregular outline, but generally form-
ing an arc bending outward and north towards the seaward termination of the
north mole. The north mole, in turn, projects outward from the shore almost
due west for ca. 270 m to the harbor entrance, which is presently ca. 12 m wide.
The tumbled blocks and rubble forming the north mole has a fairly regular out-
line ca. 30 m across. Both moles are connected to the present shoreline by shal-
low kurkar reefs but the south mole is now largely obscured by later building.
The shoreward end of the north mole reef is more or less on line with the north
wall of the Crusader fortress, at a point where it has been eroded by the sea to
leave large masses of masonry on top of the rock. The base of this wall is built
on the same material composing the reefs, on a stratum that projects out
ca. 100 m from the water line with only a slight covering of tumbled blocks and
rubble before becoming completely obscured by the structure of the mole. The
mass of the mole then is fairly uniform in configuration and materials, consisting
of a central core of irregular limestone rubble with fairly steep sides and a
peripheral margin of smaller rubble disappearing into the sand. At its outer end,
adjacent to the ship channel, it is more massive and regular, and five or six large
blocks have survived more or less intact, displaying large, square, lead settings
projecting from shallow depressions in the stone. The blocks and fastenings sug-
gest the presence of a large structure at this point, possibly the tower mentioned
by Josephus (Jewish War, I, 413 ; Jewish Antiquities, XV, 338).
The beginning of the ancient south mole is approximately on line with the
outer edge of the present modern breakwater and its shoreward extension is
concealed by the modern and Crusader-period construction on the present south
breakwater connecting it with the shore. The large masses of kurkar around which
the breakwater has been constructed, however, are clearly visible at the south-
west corner and along its south edge, rising to a height of ca. 2.0 m above sea
level. The Crusader citadel was built on a mass of stone approximately 5.0 m
higher and any ancient structure in this area must surely have taken account of
this tall mass (Frova et al. 1965, p. 42, Neev et al. 1973, p. 255, Levine 1975b,
p. 15). Since none of the promontories and reefs presently visible in the immedi-
ate vicinity of Caesarea equal this particular formation in terms of size, height
above sea level, and projection from the present shoreline, it is likely that its
configuration determined the location of Strato's Tower, the hypothetical
Sidonian harbor which preceded Herod's foundation (Ringel 1975, Levine 1975a,
1975b). It is possible that the tower itself was located in the mass of stone later
adapted for the Crusader citadel. At the southwest point of the bedrock forming
the seaward end of the south mole there are two perpendicular rock-cut channels
(ca. 1.0 m wide) with vertical grooves for sluice gates near their outer ends. These
channels intersect, connecting the sea with a rock-cut channel which disappears
under the modern breakwater fill to the north. The channel floors are slightly
below modern sea level. While Raban and Linder (1978) believe that these
774 R. L. Hohlfelder and I. P. Oleson
sluices are part of an anti-silting system for the harbor, it appears that the small
size of the channels would be more appropriate for another piscina, now obscured
by modem construction, but probably similar to the one located to the south
near the Roman theater (Flinder 1976).
The irregular outline of the submerged section of the south mole begins im-
mediately seaward of the modem breakwater, at a depth of ca. 3.0 m. For much
of its length the south mole is structurally similar to the north: a high, well-
defined ridge of large rubble blocks is surrounded by a margin of smaller stones
disappearing into the sand. There are, however, also some important differences,
most notably the broad spread of the smaller rubble spill around the central
core; testimony both of the greater force of the waves at this point and of the
larger bulk of this arm. In addition, the core of the south mole appears to be
discontinuous at several points towards its outer end, where there is a corre-
spondingly wider spread of the rubble spill. The northern terminus of the arm
consists of a high peak of tumbled irregular masses of limestone rising to within
2 m of the surface, with a sloping fan of smaller pieces of rubble spreading out-
ward in all directions and visible from the air. At the ship channel the spill forms
a rounded mass of rubble only ca. 1.0 m high, strongly suggesting that the origi-
nal channel has been partially obstructed from this direction, a conjecture also
supported by its present dimensions. Just outside the harbor entrance can still
be seen the well preserved concrete cores of the two "great stones" mentioned
by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, XV, 338; Jewish War, I, 413). Large masses of
stone-possible projections of the bedrock-jut out of the sand at several points
around the periphery of the spill, separated from it by several meters of sand.
Approximately halfway along the inner face of the south mole a curving row
of limestone blocks faces the inner edge of the spill. They are badly worn, and
somewhat scattered by wave action but obviously they have preserved at least
part of their original configuration. It seems unlikely that they can have fallen
or gradually shifted from an originally higher position without becoming more
scattered than they are at present, i.e., they may well be at or near their original
position. The same is true of a roughly square platform of blocks at the north
edge of the base of this mole, in a depth of ca. 3.0 m approximately 25 m west
of the northwestern termination of the modem breakwater. Flemming et al.
(1978) hypothesizes that the differential in level between these features and
those along the shore and within the modem harbor was caused by the sinking
of a geological plate west of a fracture parallel to the shore, cutting across the
two moles near their bases. Neev et al. (1973) holds this mechanism responsible
for the formation of the marked termination of kurkar ca. 150 m offshore along
this whole stretch of coast. link dated the seismic destruction of the breakwater
arms to ca. A.D. 130 on the basis of an amphora found beneath some of the
rubble (Fritsch and Ben-Dor 1961).
Another striking feature of the south mole is the presence of at least three
large, cubical blocks of concrete (ca. 4.0 m on aside) whose upper surfaces carry
the impressions of two heavy, perpendicular beams (ca. 0.20 m sq.) which bi-
sected each side and crossed at the center. These beams probably held together
the sides of the wooden formwork into which the concrete was poured. Most of
this mole is kurkar rubble, but the occasional large, amorphous masses of con-
crete suggest the presence of further cubical concrete masses which have since
disintegrated.
The configuration and extent of the navigable body of protected water
within the two ancient breakwaters evidently have changed considerably since
their construction. Most striking is the presence of shallow reefs and a sloping
face of sea-smoothed bedrock in its northeast quadrant which restricts its maxi-
mum depth to ca. 2.0 m. The greater portion, however, is much shallower, and
there are a number of small, isolated sea-level reefs, one of which supports a
breakwater constructed since World War II, and another serving as the seaward
terminus of a quay (?) of granite columns laid side by side sometime in the post-
classical period, possibly by Crusaders in the thirteenth century. Blocks and
columns are scattered in the shallow area 50 m south of this quay, lying direct-
lyon bedrock. To the east of this section, toward the present beach, the bedrock
disappears beneath sand and a tumble of blocks and shapeless rubble.
The Center for Maritime Study's survey of the site uncovered the foundation
of a Crusader quay (?) wall and a circular tower of Hellenistic or Herodian date
in the sand off the present harbor beach (Raban and Linder 1978). Avner Raban
has also probed a possible Herodian quay wall in front of the foundations of a
large temple within the Crusader fortifications. The fill west of the wall (in the
limited area tested) lacks any artifacts below a level with Late Roman and
Byzantine material, suggesting a harbor area which had silted up after this period.
The quay wall carried an erosion notch ca. 0.30 m below present sea level (Flem-
ming et al. 1978, pp. 146-7, Raban and Linder 1978, p. 243, Levine 1975b, p.
15), and its lower reaches had been encrusted with barnacles. This area could
represent the inner basin hinted at by Joesphus (Jewish Antiquities, XV, 332,
Ringel 1975,p.37).
7 The Remains to the North
The shore and sea bottom north of the Herodian harbor have changed greatly
since antiquity, probably due to currents caused by construction of the Herodi-
an breakwaters (Frova et al. 1965, p. 42). Erosion has removed a 500 m section
of the High Level Aqueduct, and the seaward terminations of the so-called By-
zantine and Herodian walls have been lost. There are high erosion banks along al-
most the entire coast, and reefs extending seaward from 50 to 100 m suggest a
recession of the shore. At sea level in this area there is a complex of walls and
concrete piers jutting out diagonally from shore ca. 20 m just below the syna-
gogue, ca. 200 m north of the Crusader wall. The outer edge of the wall faces
northwest, and the upper surface carries the impressions cut for heavy dove-tail
clamps. A gabled marble sarcophagus lid with corner palmettes-only roughly
fmished-lies on the bottom ca. 50 m from shore, between two small islets just
north of the base of the north harbor mole.
8 The Remains to the South
The shoreline south of the Herodian harbor has apparently not receded to the
same extent as the stretch to the north, but some alteration has taken place,
judging from the presence of blocks in shallow water and of walls eroding from
banks on the shore. Linder and Leenhardt (1964) have identified an anomaly
detected by means of the Edgerton "mud-penetrator" sonar system in the sand
just to the south of the southern breakwater area as a third breakwater, facing
southward to protect a basin on the east, in front of th~ blocks of vaulted ware-
houses on the shore. Only excavation can verify this hypothesis. A dark pattern
of fairly regular shape appears in somewhat the same area in some aerial photo-
graphs, but visual inspection of the bottom in 1978 did not supply any convinc-
ing evidence for a man-made structure. Tumbled rubble is present, and occasion-
al outcroppings of kurkar bedrock, but no blocks. A perforated, drop-shaped
stone anchor was noted in this area (ca. 0.70 m in length), as well as a number of
post-Classical or modern iron anchors, but no architectural features. A long
series of vaulted storage areas arranged in blocks apparently stretched along the
ancient shore from the so-called podium of the temple of Roma and Augustus
to the theater. One vault has been cleared within the Crusader fortress, and
several just to the south of it (Hopfe and Lease 1975, Bull 1978) but no remains
of a quay have been as yet identified in front of the southern groul" This com-
plex of warehouses probably served the quay of Sebastos, but it is not impos-
sible that a second basin was added to the south at some time during the Empire
(Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XV, 337 ; Jewish War, I, 413).
The piscina cut into a projecting tongue of kurkar and reinforced with cut
blocks of the same material, is the most prominent sea-level feature of this area
(Flinder 1976). The depth in the present channels suggest that the structure is
more or less in its original position with respect to sea level, but there is a plat-
form of rectangular blocks on sandy bottom ca. 15 m to the north of the
northern channel at a depth of ca. 1.50 m. A small rectangular area of quarry
marks in the bedrock can be seen at present sea level where the southern edge
of the piscina promontory meets the beach. The bluffs in the immediate vicini-
ty of the tomb are composed of the debris from the Italian excavations in the
theater. The seaward defensive wall which extended along the curving shore
south of the piscina was built out around the piscina promontory to defend this
strategic position. It is probably part of the Byzantine city wall which meets the
coast at a large corner tower 250 m south of the piscina. Where the connecting
wall has fallen into the sea, stubs of floors and walls can be seen eroding out of
the cliff. There are several drains issuing from the foundation of the wall near
the tower, approximately 1.0 m above sea level.
A pair of long, low kurkar reefs project approximately 200 m seaward from
the beach 200 m south of the Byzantine tower. These are connected at their
bases, but diverge as they extend seaward-the northernmost points northwest,
the southern southwest. A shallow rectangular basin (ca. 3 x 6 m) has been cut
into the lip of the northern projection, and into the base of the southern.
HIGH FIELD E
AQUIDU CT
LOW AQUEDUCT
~&J~@~ffij~~
rMl~ffijlfO rMl&
.'\
M lDITEUANIAN SEA \
AMPH I THEA1..RE
\
\
-'-.::::.-.::_-,1. \
PI
CRUSADER& PROPOSED II NE Of
CASTLE BYZANTINE
,I FIELD A FORTIFICATIONS
,L
?
--.j" BYZA"'TINE ESP l ANAOE
FIELD B
FIELD C
FIELD H
HI PPODROME
1
THEATRE
.. -
,s..Ja.
o.~o tOO 200 300 400 500
,
Figure 4 . Sketch Map-Excavation of the joint expedition and significant struc-

tures on the ancient site.
9 Sea Level in Antiquity
Several published and unpublished reports have dealt with the question of pos-
sible changes in sea level at Caesarea since antiquity. There is some discrepancy
in the estimates, and some uncertainty concerning the mechanism which may
have submerged the seaward portions of Herod's harbor works, but-as Flem-
ming et al. notes (1978)-along the present shoreline the sea level is very close
to that of the early Empire.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express special thanks to Mr. Avner Raban and Professor Elisha
Linder of the Center for Maritime Studies and the University of Haifa for their
advice, cooperation and permission to publish the results of this field research.
Professor Linder was also instrumental in arranging an air supply through Kib-
butz Maagan Michael, without which our work would have been impossible.
We would also like to acknowledge the support of Professor Robert J. Bull
(Drew University, Madison, N.J.), director of the Joint Expedition to Caesarea
Maritima, for including our survey as part of the 1978 campaign and the help of
Mr. Robert Koehler (then of the Foundation for Biblical Research and Preser-
vation of Primitive Christianity, Charlestown, N.H.), administrative director of
the Joint Expedition, for his careful attention to practical matters both in the
United States and Israel. The survey was funded largely by the Joint Expedition
with subsidiary contributions for equipment and travel from the University of
Colorado Foundation, Inc., the Council on Research and Creative Work, the
University of Colorado; the University of Victoria Faculty Research Fund and
Mr. Harry Wadsworth, Denver, Colorado, an underwater photographer and
diving instructor, who assisted us on the site. We are extremely grateful to all
these supporters .
. We must also express our thanks to the Caesarea Development Corporation,
Mr. Aaron Wegman, curator of the Caesarea Museum at Kibbutz Sdot Yam and
Mr. Daniel Gazith of Kibbutz Sdot Yam for a multitude of services.
References
Alexandersson, T. 1972. Mediterranean beachrock cementation: marine precipi-

tation of Mg-calcite. The Mediterranean Sea. Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross,
Stroudsberg, Penna., 203-223.
Bull, R. J. 1978. The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima in Acta Iranica, Textes et
Memoires, Vol. 4: Etudes Mithriaques. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 75-89.
Bull, R. J. In preparation. Caesarea Maritima: field report 1978. Bulletin of the
American Schools of Oriental Research.
Flemming, N. and Raban, A. 1976. Unpublished Report of the Israel Electric
Corporation on the Tectonic Stability of the Israel Coastline.
Flemming, N., Raban, A. and Goetschel, C. 1978. Tectonic and Eustatic Changes
on the Mediterranean Coast of Israel in the Last 9000 years. In: Beneath the
Waters of Time. Texas Antiquities Committee, Austin, 129-165.
Flinder, A. 1976. A piscina at Caesarea-a preliminary survey. Israel Exploration
Jour., 26, 77-80.
Fritsch, C. T. 1961. The Link Expedition to Caesarea. Yearbook American
Philosophical Society, 1961, 541-542.
Fritsch, C. and Ben-Dor, I. 1961. The Link Expedition to Israel. Biblical Archae-
ologist, 24, SO-56.
Frova, A. 1965. Scavi di Caesarea Maritima. Istituto Lombardo, Milan, 40-42,
47-48.
Holum, K., Wiemken, R. and Hohlfelder, R. L. In preparation. Caesarea Mari-
tima: Field Report 1979. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental
Research.
Hopfe, L. and Lease, G. 1975. The Caesarea Mithraeum: a Preliminary Announce-
ment. Biblical Archaeologist, 38, 2-10.
Josephus. Jewish War, I, 408-414; Jewish Antiquities, XV, 331-341; edited by
H. St. J. Thackeray and R. Marcus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Mass., 1927, 1963.
Lehmann-Hartleben, K. 1923. Antiken Hafenanlagen des Mittelmeeres. Klio,
Beiheft 14, 179-181.
Levine, L. I. 1975a. Caesarea under Roman rule. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 242-268.
Levine, L. I. 1975b. Roman Caesarea. Jerusalem, Qedet, II. 55 pp.
Lewis, J. D. 1973. Cosa: an Early Roman Harbour. Marine Archaeology. Butter-
worths, London, 233-258.
Linder, E. and Leenhardt, O. 1964. Recherces d'Archeologie Sous-marine sur
la Cote Mediterraneenne d'Israel. Revue archeologique, 1, 47-51.
Linder, E. and Raban, A. 1975. Underwater Archaeology. Cassell, London, p. 95.
Neev, D., Bakler, N., Moshkovitz, S., Kaufman, A., Magaritz, M. and Gofna, R.
1973. Recent Faulting along the Mediterranean Coast of Israel. Nature,
London, 245, 254-256.
Neev, D., Shachnai, E., Hall, J., Bakler, N. and Ben-Avraham, Z. 1978. The
Young (post-lower Pliocene) Geological History of the Caesarea structure. Isr.
J. Earth-Sci., 27, 43-64.
Oestreicher, B. 1962. A Contemporary Picture of Caesarea's Ancient Harbor.
Israel Numismatic Bulletin, 2, 44-47.
Olami, Y. and Peleg, Y. 1977. The Water Supply System of Caesarea Maritima.
Israel Exploration Jour., 27,127-137.
Oleson, J. P. 1977. Underwater Survey and Excavation in the Port of Pyrgi (San-
ta Severa), 1974. Jour. of Field Archaeology, 4,297-308.
Raban, A. and Linder, E. 1978. Caesarea, the Herodian Harbour. International
Jour. of Nautical Archaeology, 7,238-243.
Ringel, J. 1975. Cesaree de Palestine. Editions Ophrys, Paris, 31-39.
Safriel, U. N. 1974. Vermetid gastropods and intertidal reefs in Israel and Ber-
muda. Science, 186, 1113-1115.
Shaw, J. W. 1978. The Harborage Kenchreai Eastern Port of Corinth, Vol. 1.
E. J. Brill, Leiden, pp. 13-38.
Gondwanaland in Ancient Indian Literature
K. Krishnamurthy
1 Introduction
Man is the most widely distributed species of mammal on this geologically ever-
changing planet Earth. It is the only watery planet, so far as we know, and it is
still in the process of change. If there is one single point on which geophysicists
can agree, it is that the Earth has a dynamic surface. This view of the dynamics
of the Earth's surface is based on the concept of plate tectonics. Continents
drift, as originally suggested by Wegener (25), ocean basins shrink or grow, new
areas rise due to the uplift of land, mountain ridges grow, faults are active, and
the seabed is constantly renewed. The drama of plate tectonics has been going
on in all likelihood for as much as 4,000 billion years.
India has a large heritage of myths and legends, and many of them are con-
cerned with the creation of the world, changes in the Earth's surface, and the
evolution of man.
2 Remarks about Indian Sources
The sources dealing with the creation of earth, evolution of life, legends on
World's oceans are diverse. Perhaps they were written in a vast spectrum of time
before recorded history. It is difficult to assign dates or to place them in an order-
ly chronological sequence. The sources are mostly Puranic like the 18 Puranas
(12) particularly Vishnu Purana, Matsya Purana, Halasya Purana and accounts
found in works of epics Ramayana, Mahabharata and mythological legends and
literary masterpieces like Bhagavatham, Rigveda Samhita, Taittreya Samhita,
Gondwanaland in Ancient Indian Literature 781
Shakuntalam, etc. India's two most ancient languages, Sanskrit and Tamil,
contain, because of their antiquity, such information. It is said that the coun-
try's ancient wisdom is preserved in Sanskrit. Unfortunately, the Tamil literature
lost many a literary masterpiece owing to successive deluges, as mentioned in its
literature (see Tamil citations). The lost masterpieces such as Valayapathi,
Kundalakesi, a few poems only preserved of Pari Padal, etc., are frequently
mentioned in subsequent literature.
The Indian historical literature of ancient times is infmitesimally small. One
can fmd a running current of a lack of historical sense. Perhaps the early Indians
were more concerned with metaphysical inquiries, philosophical questions,
spiritual pursuits and faithfully preserving them as reality for posterity. The mun-
dane matter of history was relegated perhaps as an lllusion of Maya. Probably
the earliest historical work of India dates about the 11 th century A.D. (Rajata-
rangani from Kashmir)! (See: Jawaharlal Nehru: "Discovery of India"). Much
of the information we get of India's history is from foreign travellers' accounts
such as those of Megasthenes, Hieun Tsang, Fa Hien, Iba Batuta, and Marco Polo.
The contemporary social conditions and appeal for good conduct for citizens
are found in the excellent Rock Edicts of Emperor Ashoka (B.C. 273-232), the
excellent religious literature of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Zorastrians, the
latter day temple epigraphs of South Indian kings particularly Pallaas and
Cholas, ancient Christian works, Muslim literature, etc. The contemporary liter-
ature of the period was usually rich and written in native languages. It is particu-
larly informative.
In Indian mythological accounts or the epic Ramayana one often finds the
expression a thousand, like a "thousand year reign." It is to be taken as a poetic
way of honoring a king and thousand can be regarded as an honorary suffIx
(see: Rajagopalachari, C: Chakravarti Tirumagan (Ramayana in Tamil». If the
poet says king Sagara ruled for 30,000 years-here-the "Sahasra" (for thousand),
it would mean 30 years.
Most places where there are many temples, particularly South India, have
local chronicles woven around these temples called Sthala Purana. These detail
the origin of the temple therein, its consecration by the gods, the call to the
devout to obtain blessings, etc. It is interesting that each Sthala Purana has a
certain originality: a Sthala Purana is not a revised version of any other nor a du-
plicate of one. In a sense it gives a place, a feeling, and sense of remote antiquity.
3 The Primeval Elements
The Puranas (12), 18 ancient legends, describe the creation of the world. They
tell us that God gave Akasa (ethereal space), which gave rise to Air, which in
turn brought forth Fire, from which came Water and then Land. From Land
plants and animals arose. These primeval elements were endowed with different
innate properties. For example, Akasa had sound; Air had the sense of touch and
sound; Fire had sound, touch and form; Water had sound, touch, form and taste;
782 K. Krishnamurthy
Land had sound, touch, form and smell. Each of these elements later acquired,
by contact with the other elements, characteristics derived as a product of this
association. All other substances upon the Earth are said to be the result of a
mixture, in varying degrees, of these elements.
The Puranas also tell how fire gave rise to water. As vapor condensed, water
resulted. In other words, precipitation resulted from evaporation. Clouds were
then produced from a mixture of air, water vapor and fire (heat), and as the
clouds cooled, they burst and produced rain. Thus, the Earth's hydrological cycle
has remained unchanged throughout the millenia. Over a period of time rain
water accumulated in basins and the seas were born.
4 Formation of the Continents
Another legend said that the Earth first consisted of seven continents and seven
seas; they were placed in concentric circles, the land and water forming alternat-
ing rings. These were called Sapta Dweepa (40) (Seven Islands or Land masses)
and Sapta Samudra (Seven Seas). In the course of evolution of the Earth's shape,
it is said, this order was changed due to tectonic movements and the rings got
mixed up.
India was also said to be an island long before the Himalayas arose on the
north. Perhaps this is why India is referred to as "Jambu Dweep" (42) (Jambu
supercontinent) in Sanskrit and as "Navalam Deevu" (an island of Jambu) in
Tamil.
5 The Lost Continent
At the present "Land's End" of India, Cape Cormorin (Kanyakumari), there was
said to be a river called the Kumari. Further south, in the region occupied by the
present Indian Ocean there were a series of mountains and also a river called the
Pahtruliyar River. The earliest literary reference to this land mass is found in
Iraiyanar Ahaporul Urai. This work contained perhaps 60 sutras, but we now
have only a version edited by Nakkirar (1st century A.D.). The earliest extant
Tamil work (2nd century B.C.), a unique Grammatical Treatise by Tolkappiar
(Tolkappiam) also refers to this land mass. And other works Silapadikaram (by
Elango Adigal) (3) and Kalithogae (3rd century A.D.) (7) refer to this ancient
continent. Due to cataclysmic deluges, earth movements, etc., this continent,
the Lemurian part of Gondwanaland, linking India, Madagascar and Africa, was
ultimately lost to the sea.
6 The Formation of the Himalayas
The rise of the Himalayas was also noted by the ancient geographers. Post-
Himalyan references to that part of the country describe its location thus:
On Jambu Dweepa upon Bharata Varsha, the continent of Bharat lies to the
South of the mighty Meru mountains (the Himalayas). By this account one
may hazard a guess that the Himalayas were formed after the ftrst splitting up
of Gondwanaland.
These are matters for speculation only, as more light is needed on the dates
and details mentioned in the various texts. The chronology of the events nar-
rated in the Puranic works is largely circumstantial and must be compared to
similar events narrated in other scriptures such as the Ramayana and the Bhaga-
vatham to get an approximate timetable or sequence of events.
7 The Ganges and the Bay of Bengal
In Indian mythology, Ganga (41) was a holy river, which at the request of the
gods lived in heaven until she was brought down to earth as the River Ganges,
as the following describes. This history of Ganga and the Bay of Bengal is given
in the ancient epic Ramayana, written by the sage Valmiki. King Sagara per-
formed "Aswamedha Yaga" (the horse sacrifice) to God as a sign of his univer-
sal dominion. The Yaga Horse was stolen by Indira, who hid it in Pathala (the
underground), in the woods near the Ashram (religious retreat) of the sage
Kapila. The Saga Putras (the 60,000 sons of the king) looked everywhere for
the Yaga Horse and fmally dug a hole in the earth in order to look for it in the
underworld (symbolically, this might refer to voyages to the opposite side of
the globe, the North American continent). The searchers reached Kapila's
Ashram, where Indira had kept the stolen horse without Kapila's knowledge.
The Saga Putras blamed Kapila for stealing the horse and accused him. They
were then burnt to ashes by the sage's anger. The ashes remained in Pathala al-
though King Sagara tried to get them back throughout his 30,000 year reign.
King Bhagirath, Sagara's great great grandson, performed many penances
and finally persuaded Lord Shiva to bring Ganga to earth. The holy river thought
with pride that none could withstand her swift downward flow but was arrested
in her fury as Lord Shiva of Kailash (Himalayas) captured her in his locks and
released her to the earth, in the Himalayas, in the form of seven separate
streams. Bhagirath's dream was thus fulfilled: his ancestors attained salvation
through purification of their ashes by Ganga.
Even now Kapil Muni is worshipped in the Kakadwip area of the southern
extremity of West Bengal in the Sunderbans region. An annual festival, at
Gangasagar, takes place. The story may be said to refer to the "Swatch of No
Ground" at the mouth of the Ganges in the Bay of Bengal and the deep can-
yons of the Bay. The tectonic rise of the Gangetic Plain and the Himalyan for-
mations, and the sinking of the eastward projections of India took place during
this period, thus contributing to the origin of the Bay of Bengal basin. It is a
matter of speculation where history merges with poetic imagination. In the
ancient Tamil literary work, Pura Nanooru, this origin of the Bay of Bengal is
closely paralleled by citing it as the "dug out sea of the Bay."
8 The Deluge in Indian Legends.
The story of the Deluge told in the Old Testament and in Babylonian tales is
also mentioned in the Puranas. According to Puranic tradition, there was a great
deluge during the Macha Avatar (Fish Incarnation of Lord Vishnu). King Manu
put a male and a female of each species of creature in a boat and sailed for time
immemorial until he reached the Himalayas, where he took shelter. This story
may be said to refer to the drift of India from its position south of the equator
to north of the equator, the disappearance of the Tethys Sea, which lay north of
the Vindhya Mountains, and the collision of the Indian plate with the Asian
mainland, which then resulted in the rise of the Himalayas from the oceans.
The Himalyan orogeny coincided with the disappearance of a large part of
the Tethys Sea, the buildup of the Alps in Central Europe and the shrinkage
of the Mediterranean Sea. The separation of Australia from ancient Gondwana-
land took place about this time.
9 The Evolution of Man
Another group of myths is concerned with evolution. The ten Avatars, or incar-
nations, of Lord Vishnu (the protecting God) are popularly called Dasavatara.
Starting from the earliest Avatar, the Fish Avatar (Matsya Avatar), and moving
on through the reptiles, the Tortois Avatar (Kurma Avatar), and so on, each
Avatar represents a step higher on the evolutionary ladder.
The two Avatars concerned with saving mankind from the Deluge were the
Fish Avatar and the Boar Avatar (Yaraha Avatar). These incarnations of God
were made no doubt to save humanity from catastrophe, yet they also have a
symbolic meaning.
Five Avatars represent evolution after the mammalian stage had been reached.
The first was a creature half-lion and half-man (Narasimha Avatar); next came
the dwarf man (Yamana Avatar), representing the "form of man"; then the man
with "incipient savage instincts" (parasurama Avatar); and the "cultured man
with noble traits" (Rama Avatar); and finally the "modern" cunning man
(Krishna Avatar).
Recent research on man's evolution, based on East African fossils, has put
back his age to at least 4 million years. The stories of the Avatars refer to two
great deluges, which may be symbolic of the ice ages occurring during the
Palaeozoic Era and the Quaternary Era.
The Puranas mention four Yugas, or Epochs, the Sat Yuga, the Treta Yuga,
the Dwapara Yuga and the Kali Yuga (the present). These Yugas are said to
refer to the four glacial ages and together account for about 4.2 million years.
The Ramayana, the epic of the Rama Avatar, is supposed to have taken place
at the end of the Treta Yuga, about 1.5 million years ago.
10 Maritime Geography
The ancient men who inhabited the Indian part of the Gondwanaland had a
good knowledge of geography. From time immemorial India maintained contact
with Africa. For example, the source of the Nile was discovered in Kusadvipa
(Nubia), East Africa was referred to as Chandrastha, and the Nile was called
Krsna River (Spek 1863). Madagascar and South Africa were included in Salma-
liv Dweepa; the Tanzanian area, as Sanka (Shank meaning conch) Dwipa, etc.
The languages of Africa, e.g., Senegal, the shape of the East Coast of Africa, the
rock formations-all bear affmities with India. Sir Winston Churchill (1905)
(28), in another context, refers to the role of Indians in Africa thus: "They
penetrated in all sorts of places, which no white man would or in which no
white man could earn a living, they opened up the first slender means of com-
munication."
11 Distribution of Cultural Heritage
Following the gradual opening of the Atlantic Ocean and the poleward move-
ment of the Antarctic, the early imprints of a common cultural heritage are
to be found in countries as far apart as Egypt, Babylonia, Vr, South America,
southeast Asia, Borneo, Australia and New Zealand. A study of related disci-
plines always proves useful in solving certain puzzles. In this case unexpected
support comes from such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, the study
of prehistory, and linguistics. Gods like Varuna, Mithra, Vishnu were common
as far north as Scandinavia, as far west as South America, as far east as Australia
and New Zealand. The ancient Maoris are said to have kinship with the Indian
part of Gondwanaland and the South Indian kingdoms. Similarly, the Palayas
of Mongolia had settlements here. African bushmen and Australian aborigines
show kinship, and the Australian aborigines in addition depict Lord Shiva in
their worship.
No doubt some of the close parallels could have been due to frequent contact,
to emigration, or to the impact of alien elements, when a transfer of culture
could have taken place. But it could also be said that in the distant past these
widely different groups had a common social history, a common religious back-
ground and a common cultural heritage based on having been part of a single
continent, Gondwanaland.
In many areas of the ancient Gondwanaland Palaeolithic Man did not live
only in forests. He had learned about agriculture and become somewhat civilized.
It is to be hoped that archaeological excavations will uncover many more secrets
and contribute more scientific data which will explain these relationships.
It is clear that the maritime activity and migrations of early man resulted in
evidence that is visible today. The Glossopteris flora, fish Dipnoi fauna, flight-
less birds, marsupials, etc., are only found in now widely separated parts of
Gondwanaland. Similarly, at least some cultural imprints may be taken to
represent the result of the native inheritance of the inhabitants, while a few may
be due to conquest and thus imported. We are still limited in our kno,,:,ledge of
early man's cultural activities and history and will have to await further studies
in these areas.
12 Poetic Accounts
Probably eons ago literature academies called Sangams were established (5, 6,
24). A total of three Sangams, one succeeding the other, were set up. The first,
at Madurai (not the present day Madurai of Tamil Nadu, but on the "lost conti-
nent"), was lost in the deluge. The second was set up at Kapadapuram and was
also lost to the sea. The third was located in North Madurai, the present day city
of Tamil Nadu, and was active for about 2,000 years.
The existence of Kapadapuram is referred to in the Ramayana of Valmiki
(20). As Rama's envoy, Hanuman gets a briefing from his master and king,
Sugriva, before he embarks on his mission in search of Sita, Rama's consort.
King Sugriva tells Hanuman that as he proceeds south he will come to the king-
dom of the Pandyas and to Kapadapuram, their capital. The account also details
the pearls and gems found in the woody regions and at the mouth of the Tamra-
parani River. Hanuman is said to have taken flight from the Mahendara Moun-
tains to Sri Lanka (9).
As the geography of the world has undergone profound changes due to plate
tectonics, it is not possible to pinpoint the exact locations of places referred to
in events that took place millions of years ago. However, the ancient southern
land mass supposed to belong to the Tamil kingdom was made up of SO countries.
The Tamil kingdom was said to have covered 7,000 square miles and to consist
of sea, land, hills and hillocks, forests, plains and arid regions. A literary culture
was supposed to have flourished for a period of at least 5,000 years. The kings,
Pandyas, ruled for 60 generations. Their choice of fish as the emblem of state
emphasizes their marine connections.
There is evidence from ancient Tamil literature of a prehistoric continent,
prot-ably Gondwanaland (5, 6, 24). The antiquity of the Sanskrit and Tamil
languages is sanctified by poetic references that these languages were the gifts
of Lord Shiva. It is interesting to note that the Gond language had a common
ancestor with Tamil. The Gond region, which has given its name to Gondwana-
land, was an ancient kingdom lying to the south of the Narmada River (6).
It may be argued that the accounts are not credible and are largely a result
of the poets' fertile imagination. Nevertheless, it is clear that some societies of
palaeolithic man did not lead primitive lives but were knowledgeable about
both agriculture and maritime trade.
Notes and References
(It may be noted that in a work of this nature, it is difficult to arrange exactly
the references-as they touch many centuries.)
1. Langdon. 1915. Sumerian epic of paradise, the flood and fall of man. Phila-
delphia.
2. Bruce Foote, R. The Foote collection of Indian prehistoric and protohisto-
ric antiquities.
3. Bango Adiga1 (2nd century A.D.). Silapadikaram, Canto 11, lines 19-20.
Nachinarkiniyar (ed.).
4. Dikshitar, V. R. R. The Matsya Purana: a study.
5. Dikshitar, V. R. R. 1947. The origin and spread of the Tamils. Madras
Adyar Library, p. 110.
6. Dikshitar, V. R. R. 1951. Prehistoric south India. Univ. Madras, Madras,
p.264.
7. "Kalithogai." 3rd century A.D. Poem 104. Nallanthuranar (ed.) (in Tamil)
Nacchinar kiniyar (e d.).
8. Bhagavata Purana.
9. Manickavasagar. Tiruvasagam (in Tamil).
10. Hornell, J. Memoirs of Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 7, pp. 152-190,
216-227.
11. (a) Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1898, p. 379.
(b) Ibid., 1924, p. 205.
12. 18 Puranas: A collection.
13. Thurston, E. Castes and tribes of Southern India, Vol. 1.
14. Thurston, E. Ethnographic notes in southern India, pp. 555-556.
15. The following is taken from Dikshitar (1947): "Boomerang" occurs in
Mahabharata (Sanskrit Rsti (Journal Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal ...
1898 ... p. 379-vide also the same journal for 1924, p. 205). "Huxley"
presumed that Australians were identical with the ancient inhabitants of
the Deccan, dwelt upon the existence of Boomerangs in the two countries
and upon some remnants of caste in Australia.
As referred to by Thurston, "the valarl or bent stick (? boomerang) was in
use in areas of Pudukotah (Tamil Nadu) and was also used in the Poligar
wars of 19th century." Thurston further argues that "from the multiplicity
of evidence recorded (Egyptian, Africa, Arizona, New Mexico, Etruscan
vases) the boomerang must evidently be regarded as a weapon ... did not
... originate with Australian aborigines. It was perhaps brought there by the
earliest immigrants."
16. It is interesting to observe that the Mesopotamian story of the deluge re-
tains two Tamil words min (fish) and nir (water). Langdon, 1915).
17. Majumdar, R. C. Svarnadvipa, Vol. II (Part 2).
18. Rig Veda Samhita (Sanskrit) speaks of a state of non-existence and origin
of vegetation.
19. Taittiriya Samhita (Sanskrit), says earth was originally a mass of fire, re-
placed later by water. It was Indra who made the earth terra firma and
also the mountains.
20. Valmiki's. Ramayana-Kishkinda Canto.
21. Wadia, D. N. Geology of India 1919 and 1939.
22. Thurston, E. Geography of Madras Presidency.
23. ChamanLal. 1940. Hindu America. New Book Co., Bombay, p. 247.
24. Appadorai Pillai. 1946. Kumari Kandam (in Tamil) Madras Saiva Siddhanta.
25. Wagener. Drift of continents.

26. Du Toit, A. L. 1937. Our wandering continents. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.
27. Ramdas, R. V. 1965. India's cultural and trade relations with Africa since
ancient times, pp. 157-163. In: Studies in Indo-Asian Art and Culture, Vol.
2, Acharya Raghu Viva Commemoration Volume, New Delhi.
28. Churchill, W. 1905. My African journey, p. 53.
29. Speke, J. H. 1884. What led to the discovery of the source of the Nile,
London, p. 160.
30. Speke, J. H. 1863. Journal of the discovery of the source of the Nile,
1863, p. 13.
31. Livingston, D. 1874. The last journals of David Livingstone, London, II,
p.45.
32. Pusalkar, A. D. 1965. The Puranas, Indian Inheritance, Vol. 1, p. 89.
33. Ali Musafir, S. The geography of the Puranas.
34. Panikkar, K. M. 1962. India and the Indian ocean.
35. Del Mar Alexander. 1908. Indian marks upon early Egypt. Indian Review
January 1908, pp. 4-8.
36. Jacobs, J. A., Russell, R. D. Tuzo Willson, J. 1974. Physics and Geology.
McGraw-Hill- Kogakusha Ltd., Tokyo, p. 622.
37. Ahmad, F. 1961. Palaeogeography of the Gondwana period in Gondwana-
land, with special reference to India and Australia and its bearing on the
theory of continental drift. Mem. Deol. Surv. India, 90, 142.
38. Hallam, A. (ed.). 1977. Planet Earth. Elsevier-Phaidon, Amsterdam.
39. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences-Vols. V-Continental Drift and Vol. VII-
Gondwanaland.
40. Dweepa, Dvipa, Deevu, Duipa mean the same as Dweep (Island). The root
is Sanskrit. In Bengali it becomes Dwip or Dweep as in Sanskrit, Deevu in
Tamil. The variations are only minor.
41. It may be noted that the river Ganga married King Shantanu of Chandra
Dynasty. (Reference: Vyasa's Mahabharata).
42. The name "Jambu" may either mean that it was in the shape probably of
fruit (purple in color of small cigar-shape) of the Jambu (Jambufalam, as it
is called in Sanskrit) tree. The botanical name of the tree is Schizium jam-
bulanum: or, it could be that the land was predominant with the Jamb
(Family: Myrtaceae which includes also guava and clove) vegetation. It
means in the Tamil expression "Navalam Deevu," the Jambu (called as Naga
or Naval) fruit or tree, besides the other meaning of land surrounded on all
four directions with water, which literally means an island. Since "Deevu"
(same as "Dweep" of Sanskrit) connotes an island, the latter sense of
"four directions" looks redundant. One may take in Tamil that it also
means Jambu fruit or tree.
It is interesting to compare with the etymology of the name "the Sunder-
bans" given to the mangrove forests-clad region of India's West Bengal
and Bangladesh, which are formed at the mouths of the Ganges-Brahmapu-
tra (Padma) rivers on the Bay of Bengal coastline. The Sunderbans, how-
ever, may be taken to mean "beautiful forests" literally speaking, factually
refer to the once predominant Sundari (Heriteria fomes) trees of these
mangrove forests.
43. Kondratov. A. The riddle of three oceans (English translation from Rus-
sian Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978).
Addendum to Notes and References
Tamil Citations
1. Tolkappiam (? 2nd century B.C.) Tamil. Tiruvasagam (in Kirti Tiru Agaval)
of Manickavasagar (Ref. 9).
2. Silapadikaram. Madurai Canto. Kadukan kadai (Tamil). First edited by
Dr. U. V. Swaminatha Ayar. Subsequent Ed. Pandit Na. Nu. Venkataswami
Nattar. Madras, Saiva Siddhanta, p. 2S 2, lines 19-20.
3. Pura Nananooru (An anthology of 400 poems). Adiyarkunaller (ed.).
4. Kalithogai-Poem 104 (3rd century A.D.).
S. Ramayana of Kambar-Agasthiar Patalam.
Index
Abich, G.V. 330,331 Alamogordo (N.M.) 422, 423

abysses 517,554,607 Albatross (Swedish) 18, 270
abyssal plains 432 Albatross (U.S. Bur. Fish.) 49,50.61,
acids and bases 338, 407, 410 63, 89, 90, 91, 182, 364, 565, 638
acoustics 18, 68, 72, 202, 218 Aleem, A.A. 511,519, 581-595
acoustic sounding 152, 169, 697, Alenyi 577 - 581
698 Alexander Agassiz 90, 129
Adriatic Sea 180, 695 Alexandria (Egypt) 291, 295, 581
advection 430,432,639 algae 144,356,357,361,445,510,525,
Adventure 346, 683 545,672
Aegean 310, 376 Aloha 394, 396
Africa 189, 258, 268, 388, 399, 513, Aluminaut 231, 233
577,583-585,592,597,600, Alvin 19, 29, 72, 231-234, 236, 238,
602-604, 618, 667, 670, 714, 724, 396
725,727 Amazon 464,468
Agassiz, Alexander (1835-1910) 49, Amelia 606-611
57-59,61,62,83-93,94,99, 109, America(s) 101, 102, 127, 512, 577,
110,113, 163, 164,166, 182, 606, 704, 705, 718, 722, 724, 725,
360-372,443,445, 565,569, 676 727
Agassiz, George 88,92, 113 American Association for the
Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe Advancement of Science 42,43,48,
(1807-1873) 1,57,59,83,94,95, 106, 135
98,99,110, 180, 181, 183, 184,525, American Association of Petroleum
565,569 Geologists 616, 662
Airy, G.B. (7th A.R.) 242,244,250 American Geophysical Union 169, 170
Index 791
American Miscellaneous Society Aries 7, 8, 16, 28, 200, 201

(AMSOC) 316, 320, 323, 324 Arons, Arnold B. 3, 16,24
American Museum of Natural Artyom Island (formerly Pir-Allahi
History 44, 141,535 Island) 326, 327, 332, 333
Ammann, O.H. (1879-1965) 567,568, ascidians 184, 668
569 Asia 387-389,577,661,662,672
Amphioxus 180, 184, 669 astrolabe 588-592, 599, 601
amphipods 469,489 astro-navigation 588 - 591
Amsterdam 33, 34, 37, 161 astronomy 241,554,555,558,590
Amundsen, Roald 390, 674 Atlantic coast (USA) 62-64, 476, 722
anchorages (ancient) 753 -754 Atlantic gyre 726, 727
anchovies (Engraulis ringens) 643-647 Atlantic Ocean 18, 28, 50, 101-103,
Anderson School of Natural History 94, 105,108,111,138,151,157,162,
181, 565 174, 190,246,257,268,282,291,
Andrusov, N.F. 306-314,315 296, 313, 338, 361, 388,455,463,
annelids 489, 525, 668 493, 500, 587, 588, 592, 596, 601,
Annisquam 94, 95 602, 604, 691, 693, 699, 700, 701,
Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory 94-100 706,712, 714, 722, 724-726, 732
Antarctic 389,416,444,455, 493, 672, Atlantic Pilot 722 -731
674, 675, 679, 699 Atlantis 2,7,13-15, 19,20,25,26,29,
Antarctica 5, 190, 390, 514 49-56, 68, 70
Antarctic Ocean 25,262,344,351,514, Atlantis 11 7, 19, 73
670 atmospheric pressure 633,635,638,640
Antarctic Water 345, 349 atolls 357, 442-445
anticlines 331, 332 atomic
Antofagasta (Chile) 631,634,635 bombs 70,422,445
Anton Dohrn 149-145 testing 27, 70
Antwerp 33,36,37,667,672,674 Audouin, V. 180, 185
Apsheron Peninsula 326,331,332 Auftrieb 509, 512
Apstein, C. 467,472, 517 Ault, James P. (Capt.) 132
aquaculture 28, 569, 573, 574 Australia 131, 134, 153,386,440,444,
aquaria 179, 180,539-552 446,448-461,618,672
Arabia 556, 558, 581-595 Azoic zone 108, 607
Arabian Gulf 296,297 Azores 157,268,464,599,600-602,
Arabian Sea 387, 581 607,711,714,715,724
Aransas Bay 479, 482, 483
Aransas Pass 476, 485 Babbage, Charles 374,384
archaeology 565, 566, 762, 763, Bache, Alexander Dallas 57, 108, 113
765-779 Bachmann, H. (1886 - 1940) 567 - 569
Arctic 25, 114, 115, 126,257,416,493, bacteria (marine) 19, 28, 309, 358
507, 657, 672, 675 Baffin Bay 114, 116, 122, 724, 726
Arctic Ocean 108, 389, 390, 674 Baffin Island 122, 123
Arctowski, H. 674, 679, 681 Bahamas 141, 142,724,727
Arcturus 395, 629, 636 Bailey, J.W. 57,370, 513
Arethusa 96, 97 Baird, Spencer F. 1,89,98, 181, 184,
Argentina 150, 351, 699 540
Aristotle 326, 438, 669 Baku 327 - 333
Arkhangelsky, A.D. 308,311-314, Balard, Antoine-Jerome 340,341
315, 333 Balboa (Panama) 631, 637
792 Index
Balboa, Vasco 269, 389 Bennuda Biological Station 27, 68, 91,
Baltic Sea 180,340,416,417,425,463, 134
467,488,491,492,494,495,499, Bernard, Claude 354, 359
513, 516, 726 Bernoulli, Daniel (1700-1771) 563,569
Banks, Sir Joseph 104,112, 440,442, Bert, Paul 354, 358
452, 510, 683, 684 Bibi-Eibet anticline 332, 333
Banyuls-sur-Mer 566, 669 Bibliotheque National 703. 705, 706,
Barataria Bay (and Pass) 478, 479, 480 715
baroclinicity 280 Bidston Hill 240, 246, 249, 250
barrier reefs 442, 443 Bigelow, Henry B. 1,2,12,13,14,23,
Barros G., Guillenno 344-352 24, 25,28,49, 50-55, 61-63,66,
Barton, Otis 393, 396 68,81, 84,91,92, 133, 134, 177,
Bartsch, Paul 141, 142 471,497,500,502-507,508
Bascom, Willard 316-324 Bikini Atoll 21,70,423,446
Basset, F.B. (Capt.) 173, 174 biocoenoses 356-358,491,492
"Batfish" 209,210,219,220,221, Biological Board of Canada 26,61,63
222 biological oceanography 373,488-495,
bathymetric charts 161, 169, 610 503, 541
bathymetry 116, 149, 209, 350, 606 biomass 218, 355, 491, 492
bathysphere 393 - 396 BIONESS 216,217
bathythennograph 16, 17, 20, 26, 27, birds 415,417,442,636,637,643,684
349, 350 fish-eating 414-416
Baudin, Nicolas 448-456, 460,461 Bismarck Archipelago 189,469,470
bays 475,478,483 bitacula (binnacle) 601
Bay of Bengal 581, 587, 783 Bitter Lakes 290, 293, 301, 302
Bay of Biscay 246, 262, 364 Bjerknes, V. 26, 160,702
Beagle 182,270, 346, 513, 514, 679 Blackett, P.M.S. (Sir) 229, 615, 620
Beaglehold, J.e. 269,277, 519, 688 Black Sea 29,306-315,326,329,583
Beebe, William 51,393-396,629, Blagden, Sir Charles 103, 104, 112, 200
634-638,642 Blake 91,182,306,361-364,366,565
Beechey, F.w. 107,113, 270 Blake trawl 91, 607
Bekovich-Cherkassky, Prince A. 328, Blue Cross 293-295
329 Blumer, Max 562, 569
Belgian Antarctic Expedition 670, 671, boat bottom paint 415, 418
673, 675, 679 Boehnecke, G. 692,696
Belgica 670-672, 674, 675, 679 Bogucki, Mieczystaw (1884-1965) 490
Belgium 667-681 Bombay 291, 296, 554, 556
Belknap, G.E. 270,277 Bonney, T.G. 443,444
Bellingshausen, F. 389, 455,461 boring 444,445
Bencker, Henri 153-155 Boston (MA.) 21,52,89, 118,705
benthos 361,362,373,384,463,466, Boston Society of Natural History 94-98
467,490,491,510 Botany Bay 440, 460
Bergen 566, 669 bottom sediments, see: sediments
Bergman, Torben Olaj 337,341, 390, Bougainville, Hyacinthe de 449, 450,
391 452, 460-461
Bering Sea 281, 488 Bougainville, Louis de 460
Bering, Vitus 389 Boulenger, Georges Albert
Bennuda 8,26-28,51,52,68, 102, (1858-1937) 670
396,464, 711 Boussingault, J.B. 528, 529
Index 793
Bowerbank, James Scott Canadian Hydrographic Service 151,

(1797-1877) 531,533 154
Boyle, Robert 336, 337, 338,341, 448 Canary Current 600, 602, 604
Bowie, William 1,64, 175,657 Canary Islands 364, 588, 599, 697
Braarud, Trygve 505, 519 Cape Canaveral 720, 724
Brande, William T. (1788-1866) 528, Cape Cod 2, 366, 708
530,536 Cape Florida 721, 724
Brandhorst, Wilhelm 350 Cape Hatteras 15,708
Brandt, Karl 464,465,467,471,472, Cape Horn 345,459,667
516, 517,519, 542 Cape Lookout 363, 366
bridges 567, 568 Cape Naturaliste 450, 451
Bridge of Allan 110 Cape of Good Hope 460,512
British Admiralty 295,440,443, 683, Cape Town (Capetown) 686,698,699
685,724 Cape Tribulation (GBR) 441, 445
British Association Dredging Cape Verde Islands 599, 727
Committee 373-385, 525 capillarity 297-299
British Association for the Advancement of Capricorn Expedition 229, 230
Science 105, 106, 150, 183, 242, caravel (carob-vela) 600, 601
373-375,377-380, 382, 383,443, carbon compounds, etc. 26, 214, 309,
445, 526, 528 361, 529
British Museum 376, 384, 440, 670 carbon dating 446, 447
Bronze Age 397,553,752-754 Caribbean Sea 20,26, 53, 68, 70, 174,
Buchanan, James Y. 106, 110, 517 176,258,361,362,535
Buddhist (600 B.C.-325 B.C.) 551, Carlos ill (Spain) 449
554-555 Carnegie 63, 132, 135, 154, 168, 270,
budget (WHO!) 68,69,71-74 648
Buenos Aires 698, 699 Carnegie Institution of Washington 59,
Bullard, Sir Edward C. 230, 614, 615 63, 127, 131, 132, 135, 138-147,
Buniat-Zade, Z.A. 325-335 168, 170,445
Bureau of Fisheries (USA) 50,51,54, Carolinas 363, 366, 477
64,89,177,477,542 Carpenter, W.B. 108, 109, 182, 183,
Bureau of Fisheries Laboratory, Woods 186, 360,361,370, 380,384,443,
Hole 50,61 516,517,520
Bureau of Ships (USN) 21, 230 Carpine-Lancre, Jacqueline 157-167
Burstyn, H.L. 55, 92, 109, 112, 186, Carson, Rachel 414,417
385 cartography 347, 608
Cartwright, D.E. 203,240-251
cable laying 108, 609 Cary, L.R. 139, 144
Caesarea Maritima 762-763,765-779 Casella 260-262
Cairns (Queensland) 445,446 Caspian Sea 183, 184,310,312,
Calanus finmarchicus 211, 216 325-335,583
calcium compounds 307, 311, 338, 340 Caucasus 313, 331
calendars 552, 554, 557 Cavendish, Lord Charles 253,269
California 40, 130, 131, 135 celestial bodies 557, 558
Campbell, W.W. (Univ. Calif.) 131, cephalopods 94, 96, 572, 575, 740
133, 135 Ceratium 205,512, 513
Camus 450,452 Ceuta (Morocco) 597,599,603,604
Canada 40,48, 61, 150, 501, 502, 541, chaetognaths 363, 365
649,719 Chain 4,7, 19,71
794 Index
Challenger 179, 182, 183, 185, 189, Clear Lake 414,415,417

262,270,292,306,340,346,361, Cleve, Per Theodor 497, 500, 505, 518,
362, 364, 384, 390, 607, 670, 672, 519.520
678, 679, 701 climate 202, 499
Challenger Expedition 10 1, 109, 183, closing nets 364, 366, 367
270,340,379,383,443,462,463, coelenterates 384,439,489, 737-738
516-518, 565, 566, 675-677 Coles, James S. 3, 8, 20
Challenger Report 110, 565, 679 Colin, Patrick L. 138-147
Chamisso, Adelbert 183 Colladon, J. Daniel (1802-1893) 565,
Charleston (S.c.) 366,714,719,721, 569
724, 725, 731 Colladon, L.T. Frederic
charts 599, 603 (1792-1862) 565, 569
chart datum 149, 150 Collected Reprints (WHOI) 69, 70, 78,
Cheleken Island 331, 332 505
chemical oceanography 336, 337, 340 Colombia 635, 649
chemosynthesis 355, 356 Columbus, Christopher
Cherokee 102,719,724-728,730,731 (1451-1506) 268, 388, 391, 588,
Chesapeake Bay 52, 366, 475, 476, 478 604
Chicago (IL.) 57,58,61,64,65 Commission Intemationale pour
Chile 344-352,446,646,649 I 'Exploration Scientifique de la
Chilean Antarctic Territory 346, 347, Mer 165
350,351 Commission zur Wissenschaftlichen
Chilean coast 345, 346, 639 Untersuchungen der Deutschen
Chilean Hydrographic Institute Meere 541
(IHA) 345-352 Commissioner and General Inspector of
Chilean Navy 345, 347 Fisheries in Canada 541
Chilean Sea 344-352 Committee on Arrangements
Chimmo, W. (CDR) 295,303 (AAAS) 43,45,46
China 150, 174, 269, 399, 422, 522, Committee oin Oceanography (Nat. Acad.
572-581,583,587,592,597 Sci.) 1, 2, 50, 64, 133-135, 506
chlorinated hydrocarbons 400,406, Committee on Pacific Investigations
414-419 (NRC) 128, 129
chlorophyll 209,210,214,219,517,650 Commonwealth of
concentration 206, 208, 210 Massachusetts 21-22, 103
Christiania (Oslo) 161, 498, 499 compass roses 558, 598,599
chromosomal mutations 421 Conklin, E.G. 1,64,99, 139
chronometers 730 Consejo de Investigaciones
Chun, Carl 360-372, 567 Hidrobiol6gicas (C.I.H.B.) 642,
Church, Phil E. 26, 286 647
Cieglewicz, W. 490,493,495 constellations 557
circulation 28,75, 195, 197, 199-200, continents 87, 782
201,693,721,725,726,728, 732 continental crust-oceanic crust
city planning (planners) 33, 34 contact 75
Civil War (U.S.A.) 57,60, 87, 89, 107, continental drift 614, 617-619,
108 625-627, 654, 661, 662, 664
Clark, W. Van Alan (Mr. and Mrs.) 9, continental shelf 11, 30, 169, 316, 345,
30,31 362, 366, 607, 648
Clarke, George L. 20, 26, 52, 505 continental slope 15, 648
clay 307,311,314 convection currents 656, 661-665
Index 795
Convention for the Prevention of Manne Dalyell, John Graham (1775-1851) 524,
Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and 525,530, 536
Other Matters 408 Damas, Desire (1877-1959) 669
Cook, James (Capt.) 182,269,270,389, Damkaer, David M. 166,462-473
440-442,446-448,453, 510, 564, Dana, J.D. 109,270,442
682-689, 730 Dardanelles 310,312
Copano Bay 479, 482-484 Darwin, Charles 109, 179, 180,
Copenhagen 55, 161, 498, 499 182-184, 270, 346, 442-445
copepods 205, 219, 363-365, 498,513,514,620,671,675,679
462-473 Darwin, Sir George H. 151,202,203,
corals 140, 143,511,609,737-738 242,243,245,246,250
coral atolls 109, 139 Darwinian revolution 620
coral islands 185, 566 Daubeny, Charles (1795-1864) 526,
coral reefs 109, 127, 139, 142, 536
438-447,573,586 David, Edgeworth 443 -445
Coral Reef Research Committee (Royal Davis Strait 114, 116, 120, 124
Soc.) 443,444 Davy, Sir Humphrey 340, 528
corallines 439, 525 DDT residues 415, 417
core-layer method 701 Deacon, G.E.R. 25-31,203,247,461
cores 19, 52, 516, 517 Deacon, M.B. 92, 101-113,186,203,
cotidal maps 244, 245 250, 520, 680, 688, 716
countercurrents 633,634,639,714 De Brahm, William Gerard 102,112,
Cousteau, Jacques 44 714,716,718-733
crabs 475, 476, 484 De Brahm, Ferdinand 731
Crane, Charles R. 59, 99 decapods 363,609,743-745
Crease, James 28,202 Deep-Sea Drilling Program 18, 29
crocodiles 579 - 581 deep-sea floor investigation 231 - 234
Crocodile 292, 293 deep-tow system 231-234
Crown, Elleanor 572-581 Defant, Albert 244,250, 287, 696, 700,
crustaceans 363, 384,482, 575, 668, 701,702
743-745 de Gama, Vasco 389, 592-594, 603,
crustacean metamorphosis 180, 184 604
ctenophores 146, 363, 547 de Gerlache, Adrian (1866-1934) 669,
Cuba 141,388,723,724,727 673-675, 680
cultural heritage 785-786 de Lacaze-Duthiers 180, 181, 669
Curie, Pierre 420,434 de Marsigli, L.F. 57, 65
currents 57,87, 116, 134,200-202, Demel, K. 490, 491, 493-495
234,448,460,467,499,555,565, Denham, H.M. (Capt.) 105, 112
580, 583, 602-603, 610, 630, 636, Denmark 124, 150, 158, 498, 673
648, 669, 672, 732 density 199,209,293,295,297-299,
current meters 28, 54, 201, 235, 247, 307,638
695,699 departmentalization (WHOI) 72, 73-80
current variability 199 de Quatrefages, A. 180,186, 669
CUSS I 317,318,321-323 DeSaussure, N.T. 454,527,528,
Cuvier 450,668 536
Des Moulins, C. 524, 530,536
Dahl, Karl Friedrich Theodor 462-473 Deutsche Seewarte 629
Dahl, Maria Johanna Grosset 462-473 De Vorsey, Louis 102,112, 703,716,
Daly, R.A. 139, 142,665 718-733
796 Index
Dexter, Ralph W. 94-100 Dutch School 656-666

diamond bit 322, 323 dynamic positioning 318, 322, 324
Dias, Bartolomeu 592, 603 dynamic topography 202, 694, 695
diatoms 361,512-518,672 dysentery 451, 456
Dietrich, G. 244,250, 282, 287
dinoflagellates 205,358,445,511-513, Earth 242, 243, 386-392
545 Earth's core 663, 664
Direcci6n Hidrografia y Navegaci6n de la Earth's crust 627, 659-663
Marina (Peru) (DHNM) 642 East Africa 581, 587
discoloration (discolored water) 510, East China Sea 281, 283
513, 514 Easter Island 344, 347 - 350
Discovery 19, 190, 192, 270, 648 Eastern North Atlantic 58, 362
Disko Bay 120, 121 Eastern Tropical Pacific 213, 366-368,
Dittmar, William, 340, 342 629, 630, 639
diurnal migration 52, 216, 217, 492 East Indies 439, 658, 660, 661, 672
diving 565, 567, 569 EASTROPAC (Eastern Tropical
Division of Geology and Geography Pacific) 350, 649
(NRC) 127, 129 ebonite 261
docks 35,36,566,758-760,762 echinoderms 146, 375, 384, 489, 609,
Dohrn, Anton 179-181,184-186 738-739
doldrums 602, 639 echo sounding 151,152, 154,233,697
dolphins 579, 580 ecology 510, 514, 515, 519, 542,
Doodson, Arthur T. 240, 243, 245, 544-547
247-250 ecosystems 75,355,357,400,408,409,
Doppler Sonar (multichannel) 234 - 237 469,492, 546
downbuckling hypothesis 660-662, 664 Ecuador 351,364,513,634,635,639,
dragons 573, 576, 578 640
Drake Passage 344,345,348-351,699 Edinburgh 58, 109, 136,443,525,676,
dredging 52, 607, 669 678
Driggers, V. Wendell 114-126 Egypt 438, 518, 588
drilling (deep-ocean) 316-324,615, Ehrenberg, e.G. (1795-1876) 511,513,
616,625 514,520, 669
drill pipe 317-320,323 Einarsson, H. 646,651
drugs 743-749 Ekman, Vagn Walfrid 201,518,695,
Dry Tortugas (Fla.) 138, 722, 726 697-699
Dublin 439, 565 Ekman, W.F. 499
Dubois, Raphael 354,359 Ellis, Daniel (1772-1841) 526, 527,
du Bois-Reymond, E. 465,472 536
Duc d'Orleans 669, 672, 674, 675 Ellis, John 439, 440, 442
Dujardin, Felix (1801-1860) 524,536 El Nino 351,629-641,642,644,
Dumas, Jean Baptiste Andre 646-650
(1800-1884) 528-530,536 Elster, G. 420,434
dumping 416,418,419,426,429-432 embryology 183-185
Duperrey, Louis Isidore 458, 459,461 Emden 154,631
Du Petit-Thouars 259, 270 Emery, K.O. 67-82
Dupree, A.H. 112 Emery, William J. 690-702
Durham 379, 381 Endeavour 182,440,441,510
D'Urville, Dumont 259, 270, 459 Endurance 347, 675
Index 797
England (see also: Great Britain) 32, 33, First U. S. Interagency Conference on
48,87,106,115,242,249,378,498, Oceanography (1924) 168-178
577, 667, 685, 686, 688, 704, 708, First International Oceanographic Congress
724,726 (1959) 22,42-48, 165
English Channel 105, 242, 246, 378, Firth of Clyde 375, 381, 382
464,669 Firth of Forth 376, 378, 525
Eniwetok 218, 423, 424, 426, 445, 446 fishes 53,143,357,358,415,417,423,
Enshunada 283, 284 427,428,442,476,480-481,483,
environment 498-508, 540-550 484,488,489,492,497-499,502,
equator 47,516,633,638-640,725, 530,540,541,543-546,548,
726 562-567,569,572,581,608,637,
equatorial countercurrent 632, 638 643,647,648,684,704
equatorial front 630-632, 639 fisheries 1,61-63,85,90,471,474,
Eratosthenes 326, 581 489,493,497,500,504,506,
Erebus 361,514 540-546,606,609,630,642,647,
Escher, B.G. 662,665 649,674
Esmeralda 349, 351 fisheries research 61, 110, 199, 204,
estuaries 408, 474-487 206,463,477-484,543,610
estuarine-marine dependency 474-487 Fisheries Research Board of Canada 543,
euphausiids 217, 218, 363, 365, 366 548
euphotic zone 213, 216, 362 fish farming 47,358,494
Euphrates 292, 293 fish larvae 207, 463
Europe 109,268,387-389,399,415, fish meal 645,647
418,432,499,500,507,576-578, fish systematics 144, 145
581,596,597,600,606,607,706, Fitzroy (ADM) 259, 270
722, 725, 727 Fleurieu, C.P.C. 269,270,277, 391,
evaporation (chemistry) 337-339 450,452
evolution (human) 784 Flinders, Matthew 449,451,452,460,
Ewing, Maurice 16,20,26,29,316, 461
319,615,617,665 Flip 233-236
E. W. Scripps 130-132, 168 flippers 562, 563
excavation (prelude to) 765-768 Flores, L.A. 642-655
expeditions, deep-sea 188-194 Florida 105,127,439,477,719,720,
exploration 33,591-593,765-779 722-724,726,727,732
Florida Keys 721,722,726
Falkland Islands 458, 460 fluorometer 208, 209, 220, 222
Falmouth (England) 704-706 fluxgate 229, 238
fathometer 126, 697 Folger, Timothy 102,703-717
fauna (intermediate) 360-372 Fontaine, Maurice 353-359
Federal Government 23, 58, 84 food chain 206,207,414-417,424,
Fedoseyev,I.A. 386-392 544,545
Ferrel, William 57,242,250 foraminifera 18,131,132,360-362
ferromanganese nodules 307, 311 Forbes, Edward (1815-1854) 182,
Fielde, Adele M. 96, 98 373-378,384,385, 525,531,542,
Fiji 141, 143 607,609
filtration efficiency 211, 212, 515 Forchhammer, Georg 340,342
financial support (oceanography) 7 - 9, ForeI, F.A. 160, 566, 570
21,43-44,71-75,83-93 Formosa, see: Taiwan
798 Index
Forster, George 683-689 geophysics 241, 242, 503

Forster, Johann Reinhold 442, 682-689 Georges Bank 51,52,363,366,545,
fossils 563, 565, 569 546, 704, 708, 711
fossil reefs 140, 566 George Stream 727 -729
fouling 69, 586 Georgia 102,477,718,719
France 32-34,48,102, 110, 150,242, geostrophic currents 694, 699
323,452,705,706,719,725,732 geosyncline 660, 661, 663
Franklin, Benjamin 15, 102-104,112, Germany 48, 110, 158, 189, 190,649,
268,703-717,722,724 685
Frautschy, J.D. 229, 230, 237, 238 German Naval Observatory 691,695,
French Academy of Sciences 242, 609, 696
675 Ghana 48, 583, 584, 592
French Navy 152, 154 Giard, Alfred 163, 164,166, 671
Freycinet, Henri de 449 Gibraltar, see: Strait of Gibraltar
Freycinet, Louis de 449, 455-459, Gilpin, John 711,716
461 Global-Atmosphere Research Program
frontal zone 636-638 (GARP) 73, 193
Fucus 357, 489 Global Marine, Inc. 319,321,322
Fuglister, F.C. (Fritz) 15, 17,27,282, Glomar Challenger 18, 72, 324
287, 716 Glover, R.S. 212,223
Funafuti 443 -445 Gmelin, S.G. 327,329
Fye, P.M. 1-9,20,21,30,73,82 Godhavn (Disko Bay) 120-122
Godthaab (Greenland) 120, 122
Galapagos Islands 19, 364, 629, 632, Gold, Kenneth 393, 396
636,638 Goldsborough, G.R. 243, 249,251
Galapagos Rift 29, 396 Goldschmidt, V.M. 421,434
Galeme, Andre 395, 396 Gondwanaland 617, 780-789
Gardiner, J. Stanley 443-445 Goodsir, John (1814-1867) 373, 375,
gas deposits 325-335 376,385, 525
gas seeps 326, 331 gorgonians 143
Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis 338, 340, Gosse, Philip Henry (1810-1888) 88,
342 530, 531, 533, 536
Gazelle 189,190,270,362,363 Grace, S.F. 245,251
Gdansk 491, 492, 495 Graham, Michael 23, 500,549
Gdynia 490, 492 Gran, H.H. 471,500,505,508, 509,
Geital, H. 420,434 519,520
General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans Grand Bahama Island 393, 395
(GEBCO) 154, 350 Grand Banks of Newfoundland 15, 268,
General Education Board (Rockefeller 704, 708, 712, 722, 727
financed) 1,11,50,59,60,63-65, gravity 233,554,658,661,662
133 anomalies 657, 659, 660, 662-665
Geochemical Sections Study -at-sea 657, 658
(GEOSECS) 28,29,73 waVes 243
geochemistry 314, 503 grazing 207
Geographe 449-452, 454 Great Barrier Reef 441,445,446
Geological Society of America 615, Great Bitter Lake 300- 303
616 Great Britain 101-113,158,189,190,
Geophysical Institute, Bergen 25, 26 192,244,246,361,376,380,397,
geophysical theory 656-666 399,440,444,452,524,528,542
Index 799
Greenland 28, 114, 120-122, 126,464, Harappan Period (3000 B. C. - 1500

516,675 B.C.) 551-553
Greenland Current 28 harbors 754-759,765-779
Greenwich 725, 730 harbor engineering (in
Griggs, David 664,665 antiquity) 750-779
gross national product 398 -400 Harcourt, William Vernon 374, 375
Guadalupe Island 320, 323, 439 Hardy, A.C. 204-206,212,223, 505,
guano 513, 636, 643-646 549
guano birds 643-647 harmonic analysis 196, 198, 242
Guano Company (Compafiia harmonic constants 150, 151,249
Administradora del Guano) 642, Harris, Rollin A. 244,251
643,646 Harvard University 30, 53, 68, 88, 115,
Guglielminetti, E. (1862-1943) 567, 496,498,565,725,732
570 Harvey, E.N. 139, 141, 144
Guill, James H. 596-605 Harvey, William 353,359
Gulf coast (U.S.A.) 62,475,476 Havana 53, 722, 723
Gulf-Kara-Bagaz-Gol (Gulf of the Black Hawaiian Islands 131,139,269,456,
Maw) 329, 330 564
Gulf of California 366, 511 heavy metals (toxic) 400-402,406,409,
Gulf of Guayaquil 635,638, 640 410
Gulf of Maine 12,26,49,52,54,61,62, Heberlein, Hermann 562-571
71,500,505 Hebrides 378,379,381,712
Gulf of Mexico 53, 70, 174, 176, 246, Hedley, Charles 443 -445
361,477-480,482,483,485,511, Heincke, F. 467,497,542
658, 721, 723, 724, 726 Heirtzler, James R. 18, 227, 238
Gulf of Panama 364, 366, 631, 632, 638 Helgoland 180, 509, 512, 669
Gulf of St. Lawrence 118, 724, 726 Helland-Hansen, Bj13rn 136, 201, 268,
Gulf Oil Company 228-230,238 500,508, 669, 670
Gulf Stream 15, 17,26,27,52,54, Hendershott, Myrl C. 195-203
102-105,108,111,217,268,280, Henderson, L.J. 498, 503,508
282, 283, 286, 366, 368, 380, 464, Hensen, Victor 364,371,463-465,
500,703-717,720-724,726,727, 469,471,472,497,509,515-517,
732 520, 542
Gulf Stream eddies 17, 714 Hentschel, E. 689,696
Gulf Stream meanders 17, 283, 714 Herdman, W.A. 92, 385, 472
Gunter, Gordon 474-487 Herman, Alex 204-225
Gupta-Harsha Period (320 A.D.-650 Herodotus 326, 555
A.D.) 558 herring 417,497,547,711
Guyout, A.H. (1808-1884) 565, 570 Hersey, J. Brackett 20, 27, 29
Herschel, Sir John 107, 108, 390
Haeckel,Ernst 180,184,465-467,471, Hess, Harry H. 316,320,615,617,656,
472, 509-512, 518-520, 566, 676 664,665
Haedrich, Richard L. 67-82 Heuss, Theodor 179,186
Hales, Stephen 102, Ill, 439 Hibberd, Shirley 522, 531, 535,537
Hallam, A. 622-628 Hildebrand, Samuel F. 145,147
Halley (2nd A.R.) 242, 243, 440 Himalayas 782-783
Hamburg 37, 161,246 Hjort, Johan 497,500,508, 542,549,
Hanford (Wash.) 421,428 669,680
Hansen, W. 197,246 H.M.S. Malabar 291-296, 299, 302
800 Index
H.M.S. Nassau 291,292,294,295,299, Ibn Magid 590, 591, 593, 594

300 icebergs 115, 120-122, 124
H.M.S. Newport 291,292 ichneumon 579, 580
H.M.S. Shearwater 291,292,294, ichthyofauna 609
295,299,300 ichthyology 85, 572 - 581, 670
Hohlfelder, Robert L. 765-779 ichthyoplankton 204, 491, 494
Holland, see: Netherlands India 106,291,329,512,551-561,
Holmes, Arthur 662-664,666 583,584,587,597,604,618,
Homer 326, 386 780-789
Hong Kong 398, 399, 572 Indian legends 784
Hooker, Joseph Dalton 513, 514,520 Indian Ocean 25,42,246,291,296,
Horton, Edward 317,320,321 387,388,438,443,446,455,493,
hot springs 18, 231 559,581,583,584,586,591,592
Hough, S.S. 243,251 indicator species 500, 505
Houvenaghel, Guy T. 667-681 Indo-Aryan Period (3000-600
Hudson River 567, 568 B.C.) 552-554
Hudson Strait(s) 124, 724 Indonesia 135, 597, 667
Humboldt 643, 647 Industrial Revolution 185, 397
Humboldt, A. von 267,269-271,273, Institut fiir Meereskunde, Berlin 691,
277, 330, 338, 390,392, 514,652, 695,696
683 Institut National, France 452,453,
Humboldt Current 270, 345, 350, 636, 456
637 Institut Oceanographique,
Huntsman, A.G. 26, 61 Paris 157-159, 162, 163,354,
Huxley, T.H. 182,183,371, 517,541, 672
671 Instituto de Investigaci6n de los Recursos
Hyatt, Alpheus 94-100 Marinos (lREMAR) 642, 645-648
Hyndman, G.c. 378,385 Instituto del Mar del Peru
hydrodynamics 3, 241 (IMARPE) 642,644-650
hydrogen sulfide 307, 309-311, 313 instrumentation 26, 29, 153, 226-239,
Hydrographic Department (UK) 292, 555, 591
295, 302 instrumentation (plankton) 204 - 225
Hydrographer of the Navy, UK 108, 148, instruments (phys. oceanogr.) 26, 102,
291, 292, 298 117,130, 195-203,234
Hydrographer (U.S. Navy) 14,151,153, Intergovernmental Oceanographic
170, 173, 230 Commission (IOC) 192,498, 649
hydrographical data 499, 500 internal waves 201, 209, 210, 234, 282,
hydrographical tables 299 701
Hydrographic Review (IHB) 149-151, International Advisory Committee on
154, 155 Marine Sciences (IACOMS) 42,43,
hydrographic surveys 559, 609 45,47
Hydrographic Year Books (Chile) 346, International Atomic Energy
347 Agency 408, 427, 429, 431-433,
hydrography 53,54,85, 149,498-500, 434-435
502, 504, 542 International Commission on Radiological
hydroids 439, 442, 668 Protection (ICRP) 427,429,430,
hydrometers 291, 293, 295-299 435
hydrothermal discharge 29, 232 International Conference on Maritime
hygrometers 564 Meteorology (Brussels) 105, 106
Index 801
International Convention for the prevention Jain (600B.C.-325 B.C.) 551, 554
of the Pollution of the Sea by Oil and Jamaica 54, 141
OtherHazardousSubstances 403,408 Jamieson, R. 261,264
International Councilforthe Exploration of Japan 48,141,150,280,281,284,399,
the Sea 26, 55, 58, 110, 489, 491, 400, 423, 424, 587, 597, 618, 649
493,497, 500-501, 504-506,508, Jeffrys, H. 242-244,251, 659,661,666
541,542,669 Jeffrys, John Gwyn (1809-1885) 360,
International Council of Scientific Unions 361,371, 374,377-382,384,385
(ICSU) 42, 348 Jenyns, L. 375,385
International Decade of Ocean Exploration Jernelov, Arne 414-419
(!DOE) 73,199,201,236,649,702 Jerusalem 554,562
International Education Board 60, 63, 66 Jesuit Science 572-581
International Geophysical Year 42, 346, jet stream 282, 283
348,349 John I Df Portugal 596, 597, 600
International Hydrographic Johnson, Martin W. 136, 505
Bureau 148-156, 350 Johnston, George (1797-1855) 525,
International Low Water 149, 150 530,537
International North Atlantic Ice Patrol 2, Jones, Ian S.F. 448-461
3,25,26,114-117,133 Jones, J.E. 448-461
International Oceanographic Congress Joubin, L. 163, 165
(proposed) 157 - 167 Juan Fernandez 344, 347, 348, 350
International Tsunami Warning Jumna 292, 293
System 351 Jussieu 450, 452
International Southern Ocean Studies
(ISOS) 351 Kamchatka 281, 513
International Underwater Contractors, Karstens, K. 391,392
Inc. 393, 395, 396 Kathiawar Peninsula 552, 553
International Union of Geodesy and Kattegat 518, 519
Geophysics (UGGI) 43, 136, 151, Kelvin (Lord), see: Thomson, Sir William
348 Kelvin's tide predictor 150
intertropical convergence zone 630, 640 Kelvin wave 639
invertebrates 734-749 Ketchum, Bostwick H. 3,41, 397-413
Investigator 270,449,451,452,559 Key West (Fla.) 138, 143, 144
Ireland 378,379,381,712 Khotinsky, M.S. 390,392
Irish Sea 215, 246, 425 Kiel 462-464,467,469
Iron Age 754-756 King Carlos of Portugal 606-613
Isaacs, John D. 226,238 King George III 724-726
Iselin, Columbis O'D. 2,12, 13, 15, 19, Kingsley, J. S. 95, 100
20-22,25,26,28-31,51-55,144, Kitano, Kiyomitsu 280-289
504,562,570,716 Klaproth, Martin 337,342
Isle of Man 376, 377, 425 Klenova,M.V. 333,335
isostatic anomalies 658, 660, 661 Knipovich, N.!. 332,497
isostatic eqUilibrium 657, 658 Knorr 7,73
isostatic reduction 658, 662 Knudsen, M. 199,299,304,341,342,
isostasy 559, 657, 658, 660 499
isothenns 268, 271, 349 Kofoid, C.A. 93,371,471,515,541
Israel 751-752 Kommission zur Wissenschaftlichen
Italy 181, 363 Untersuchungen der Deutschen
lvigtut (Greenland) 124, 125 Meere 463, 467
802 Index
Konvitz, JosefW. 32-41 Lillie, Frank R. 1, 11-13,23,57-61,

Kossina, K. 391,392 63-65,66, 67,91,99,100, 133,
Kotzebue, Otto von 183,269,270,390, 186, 506
455,565 lime carbonate 307, 503
krill 493, 544 limnology 566, 567, 670
Krishnamurthy, K. 780-789 Linnaeus 439, 440, 684
KrUmmel, Otto 277,304,464,465,472 Little Bitter Lake 300, 302, 303
Krusenstern, A.1. von (ADM) 183, 257, Littlehales, George W. 169, 175,178
264, 270,390,455 Liverpool 37, 106,380
Kiihn, Alfred 179,186 Liverpool Tidal Institute 151,240-251
Kuenen, P.H. 660,666 Lloyd, W. Alford (1815-1880) 432,537
Kuhn, T.S. 82,615,618,622-625,628 Loffoden (Lofoten) Isles 380, 384
Kuroshio 28,280-289 Loggerhead Key (Tortugas) 139-141,
Kuroshio Extension 281, 283, 286 145
Kuroshio meander 283 - 285 log-ship 728, 730
Lohmann, Hans 466,467,471,515
Labrador 96, 118, 120 London 102, 106, 158, 179, 242, 526,
Labrador Current 28, 268, 286 533,684,685,703-705,720-722,
Lacepede 450, 452 724,726
Lc Coquille 346 London Dumping Convention 409,410,
La Jolla (CA.) 23,62, 130,316,321, 429
322 Longhurst-Hardy plankton recorder 212,
Lakatos, Imre 624, 626,628 213
Lake Menzaleh 295, 301 Long Island (N.Y.) 52,366,711
Lamb, Horace 243, 245,251 Longley, W.H. 139-144, 146, 147
Lamont Geological Observatory 21, 23, Lord Dartmouth 724, 725
44,229 Lothal (India) 552, 553
land culture 36, 37, 40 Louisiana 475, 477
land masses 42, 386-392 Low Isles (Queensland) 445-447
Lang, Arnold (1855-1914) 566, 570 Lu Tz 'u-yiin 580, 58l
Lang, Karl Nikolaus 563, 570 Lucas, C.E. 498-508
Laplace, Pierre Simon de 196, 197, 242, luminescence 354, 510-513, 608
243,245,251,448,450 Lyell, Charles 665,666
Laudan, Rachel 656-666
Lavoisier, Antoine 337, 342 MacAndrew, Robert 376,378,379
Law of the Sea 5,40,175,191,411 Madeira 599, 604
Lazarev, M.P. 390,455 madrepores 439, 442, 525
League of Nations 148, 168 magnesium 338, 340
Leeuwenhoek, Anton van 439,512 magnetic anomalies ~28, 233, 615, 616,
Leibnitz, G.G. 253,265 627
Lemke, J.L. 614-621 magnetic azimuths 725
Lenz, E.H. 269, 270,277, 330,342 magnetometers 227-231,235,237,238
Lenz, Walter 682-689 magnetism 29, 63, 105, 106, 233, 355,
Le Rouge 703,705,708,709,711,715 557,567,615,664
Liebig, Justus von 517,528,529,537, Makaroff, S.O. 271,273,277
669 Malabar Coast (India) 512, 587
light 211,356,516,517 Malaspina 270,449
Lightning 182,261,306,360,381,384 Malay Peninsula (Malaya) 558, 587, 597
Lill, Gordon G. 43,46 mammals 415,417,572,575,637
Index 803
Manhattan Project 20,421 McConnell, Anita 252-265

MaIikowski, Wtadystaw McEwen, G.F. 90, 129, 130, 135
(1910-1978) 490,491,493,495 meanders 283, 714
mantle 316,627,663,664 medical uses 734-749
Marcet, Alexander 338-340,342, 343 Mediterranean Sea 27, 34, 290-293,
Marchand 269, 270 295,296,301,302,310,312,313,
Marco Polo 327, 559 354, 362, 364, 386-388, 410, 454,
Margalef, Ramon 207, 224 489, 512, 566-568, 583, 586, 588,
Marine Biological Association, UK 383, 591,600,603,670,726,750-764
541 Mediterranean Water 310,313,314
Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods medusae 146, 363, 365, 547
Hole) 1,2, ll, 19,59-64,68, Mekhtiyev, Sh. F. 325-335
94-100, 181 Merian, Matthaus 563, 571
marine biology 1,64,85,374,375,379, meridians 557, 576
383,542 Mermaid 1I 393-396
marine chemistry 29, 128, 336-343, Merriam, John C. 63, 64,66
545 Merriman, Daniel 26,385,497,501,
marine flora 489-491 680
marine meteorology 3, 158 Merz, Alfred 691,693-700,702
Marine Physical Laboratory (SIO) 229, Mesodinium rubrum 512, 513
230,232 mesoscale circulation, 195, 201, 202
Marine Policy and Ocean Management mesoscale spatial distribution of
Program (WHO!) 5, 6, 73 plankton 204-225
marine sediments, see: sediments Messina 179, 180, 184, 566
Marion 114-126, 154 Meteor 19, 154, 190, 192,469,
Marion Expedition (1928) 114-126 690-702
maritime affairs 35, 37, 40 meteorology 105, 106, 350,499,
maritime world 36-38 725
Markanday, Sucharit 551 - 561 Mexico 270, 320, 368
Marmer, H.A. 151,251 Miami River 139, 142
Marseilles 37, 152 Michael Sars 199, 500, 509, 669
Marshall Islands 423, 446 microfossils 18, 513
Marsigli, Luigi 438, 454 microorganisms (marine) 307, 311
Mason, R.G. 227,229-231,233,238, Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment
239 (MODE) 28,73,201,202
Massachusetts Institute of Technology mid-ocean ridges 19,42,47,664
(MIT) 4,21,26,30,73,94, 114 Miller-Casella Thermometer 260- 262
Mauritius 450,451,453,456 Miller, W.A. 261,265
Maury, Matthew Fontaine 101 , Mills, Eric L. 360-372, 374,385
105-107,112,113, 158,171,199, Milne-Edwards, H. 180,181,183-185,
269, 271,277, 297,304, 343, 668 354,359
Maury Research Expedition 173, 174, minerals 75, 529
176 mineral waters 336-339
Mauryan-Kushan Period (322 B.C.-320 Miquel, P. 517,518,521
A.D.) 551, 555-558 Mirny 389, 455
Maxwell, Arthur E. 18,24, 230, 233 Moberg, Erik G. 129, 132
Mayor, Alfred G. 138-145, 147, 445 Mobius, Karl 463, 469
Mayor, Mrs. Alfred G. (Harriet Mocha 296, 346
Hyatt) 95, 99, 145 MOCNESS 216,217
804 Index
MODE, see Mid-Ocean Dynamics Nantucket 102, 105, 125,363,366,704,

Experiment 722
Mohole Project 47,316,317,321,324 Naples 37,179-187,566
Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho) 316, Nares, G.S. (Capt.) 291,292,295,301,
324 303,304
Molengraaff, G.A.F. 662,666 NASA 236, 237
mollusks 19,358,375,377,382,384, National 364,462-473, 542, 516
442,479,525,531,643,668,671, National Academy of Sciences 1, 3, 11,
672,676,739-743 14,22,23,43,46,58,60,64,65,68,
Monaco 148,154,158,161,163-165 111,132,134-136,139,170,176,
monsoons 553, 559, 587 316,317,321,322,324,422,436
moon 241-243,249,554,555,557, National Research Council (NRC) 12,
583, 591 58-60, 127, 170, 174,322
moorings (deep-sea) 200-202 National Science Foundation (NSF) 21,
Morcos, Selim A. 290-305 47,71-73,234,236,237,317,319,
Morgan, Thomas Hunt 65, 96, 98 321,702
Mount and Page 703,705,706-708, National Zoo (Wash., D.C.) 123, 125
715 Natterer, K. 341,343
mountain building 656,657,660,661, Naturaliste 449-452
664,665 Nautical Almanac 85, 86
Mrozek-Dahl, Tenge 462-473 nautical expressions 584-586
mud volcanoes 327, 331, 333 Nautilus 25, 155
Mulicki, Zygmunt (1908-1965) 490, navigation 148, 554, 555, 558,
491 581-595, 674
Miiller, Irmgard 179, 180, 184,186 Negretti and Zambra 259-262,265,
Miiller, Johannes 180, 183-185, 354, 297, 298, 363, 607
465,509,512,521,669 Nelson, Stewart B. 168-178
Munk, Walter H. 20,24,203, 316,323 Neoeuxinian 312,313
Murphy, R.C. 629,634-637,641,653 Netherlands 32, 158, 190,656-666,
Murray Islands 141, 142 670, 673
Murray, John (Sir) 58, 65, 88, 90, 91, Neva 257, 270
109-111,113,267,269,273,275, New England 21,53,96,597,704,715
278, 338-340,343, 361,362,365, Newfoundland 96, 125, 500, 518, 708,
371, 443,444,497,498,500,516, 711, 722, 726
549, 675-678, 680 New London (Conn.) 118, 123, 125
Musee Oceanographique, Monaco 149, New South Wales 440,444
157-160,162,164,165 Newton, Sir Isaac 241, 448
Musee Royal d'Histoire Naturelle, Newton's Principia 196, 241
Brussels 669-671, 678 New York 45,46,48,52,58,60,61,
Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard 165,318,704,705
Coil.) (M.C.Z.) 49,61,62,86,88, New York Zoological Society 393,
92, 94, 110 396
Muslim Period (1200 A.D.-1757 New Zealand 391,440
A.D.) 551,558 Nice (France) 36, 181, 184,566
Nile River 583, 662
Nadezhda 257, 270 Nitecki, M.H. 614-621,628
nanoplankton 466,471,515 nitrogen, nitrate, etc. 356, 650
Nansen, Fridtjof 58, 199,390,497,657, Noctiluca 511, 513, 672
674,675 Norman, A.M. 380, 384, 385
Index 805
North America 102, 103, 122, 126,268, Ostend (Belgium) 180,181,184,668,

269, 399,415, 615, 706, 711, 719, 673
722,723 ostracods 364, 365
North American Fisheries overfishing 499, 547
Investigations 26, 502, 505 Oyashio 280-289
North Atlantic Ocean 26,32,54,61,63,
64,68,71,102,108,115,155,267, Pacific Coast (USA) 12, 62, 63
268, 273, 276, 280, 360, 364, 432, Pacific Ocean 28,71, 132, 134, 135,
464,505,516,518,542,544,603, 143,169, 174, 190, 199,257,313,
669,670,694,700,715,721,722, 344-352, 357, 363, 364, 369, 389,
724, 726, 728, 732 390,425,428,443,444,449,455,
North Equatorial Current 281, 638 458,460,470,493,507,638,639,
North Gree1and 120, 121 640, 642, 691
North Pacific Ocean 129, 155,267 -279, Pacific Science Congresses 128, 134,
281,423,424,455 135
North Pole 390, 455 Packard, Martin 230, 231
North Sea 161,180,205,246,378,415, paintings (marine) 34, 38
419,425,463,491,502,541,545, paleogeographical history 309, 751
669, 670, 67'2, 726 Pallas, P.S. 329,331
Northwest Passage 40, 257 Panama 130, 174,629, 633, 635, 636,
Norway 158, 182,425,498, 673 638
Norwegian Sea 199, 699 Paris 184, 668, 703, 705
Nova Scotia 26,708, 711 Parr, A.E. 26,53,54
Novaya Zemlya 183, 184 Parry, W.E. 257,265
nuclear fuel cycle 424-426 Parsons, T.R. 224, 540-550
nutrients 202,361,466,471,503,517, pearl industry 61, 569
542,544 Pearson, John e. 476, 487
Pelseneer, P. 671,672,676
Ocean 386-392 Penck, A. 390, 392
ocean dumping 408-410,429-432 Penikese Station (Laboratory) 68,94,98,
oceanography (American) 57 -66 99, 181
octopus 354, 579 Peron, Fran~ois 450, 451, 453 -456,
oecumena 386- 388 458,461 •
Office of Naval Research (USN) 21,47, Persia 328, 584
71,73,231,233,236,237,319, Persian Gulf 329,438,553,581,582,
715 674
oil 332,402,403,408,409 Peru 220,270,351,513,629,630,
deposits 325 - 335 633-635, 638, 639, 642-655
spillage 403, 405 Peru Current 629-630, 636, 638, 639,
rocks 326, 332, 333 648
seeps 326, 330, 403 pesticides 406,408,410
transport 405, 408 Peter I 326, 328-330
Oleson, John P. 765, 779 Petersen, e.G.L 471,497,498
oozes 306,307,310-313,323 petroleum hydrocarbons 400,402-406
Operation Crossroads 21, 423, 446 PeUersson, Otto 160-162, 497
Oppenheimer, Jane M. 179-187 Peyssonel, Jean Andre 438,439
"Origin of Species" 179, 183, 184 pharmacology 734-749
Orkney 373,375, 378 Philadelphia 174, 703, 708, 720,
Oscar II (Sweden) 497, 498 732
806 Index
Philippines 174,424 DDT and metabolites 414, 415

phosphorescence 451,609,635,672 industrial 397-413
photosynthesis 355,492,512,516-518, Polly 728-722,726
527,530,545 POLYMODE 28,201,202
Physalia (Tortugas) 139-142 Pondicherry 460, 556
physical oceanography 62,64,551-561 Ponto-Caspian Basin 309, 310
physiological oceanography 353 - 359 Popper, Sir Karl 622-624, 626,628
phytoplankton 204,205,355,356,361, Porcupine 109,182,183,261,262,306,
414, 500, 509-521, 545, 646, 360, 361, 381, 384, 607
572 Porphyra umbilicalis 427, 438
biomass 206, 209, 219, 516, 518 ports 34, 36, 759-763
patchiness 208, 515, 516 portcity 33-37,756
research 206 - 210 port facilities 35, 39
Piccard, Auguste (1884-1962) 567, Portier, Paul 354,359
568,571 Port Jackson 448,449,451,452,455,
Pinkel, R. 234, 237, 238 458-461
Pioneer Survey 230,231,235-237 Port Said 292, 296, 299-301
Pisco (Peru) 638, 648 Porto Santo 600, 602
Piura (Peru) 633, 635, 636 Portsmouth (England) 104, 291,
Planet 190, 270 296-
plankton 53, 204-206, 312, 362-365, Portugal 380, 596-605, 606-613
415,416,424,445,465,494, Poupard Chart 708, 710, 711
498-500,502,509,511,542,546, Pourtales, Louis Franc;ois de 57, 109,
547, 567, 576,669, 672 183,360
Plankton Expedition 364,462-473, Pownall, Thomas (1722-1805) 103,
509, 510, 516, 518, 542 112
plankton nets 211-:-212, 220, 267, Pratje, o. 689, 696
607 precipitation (chemical) 337 - 339
plankton recorders 205, 206, 212-214, predator-prey systems 207, 547
505 Prestwich, Joseph 199, 258, 259,265,
plastics 407, 409 269,278
plate tectonics 19, 227, 614 - 621 , Priestley, Joseph 527, 528, 683
622-628, 656, 664, 665, 780 primary production 355, 356
Plato 387, 392 Prince Albert I of Monaco 90, 110, 149,
Platt, Trevor 204-225 154,157-167,354,355,360,365,
Pliny the Elder 326,511,555,573,577, 370, 607, 609, 611
579 Prince, E.E. 540,541,549
Poland 488 -495 Prince Henry the Navigator
Polish Academy of Sciences 492,493 (Portugal) 199, 592, 596-599
polar bears 118, 123 Princess Alice 90, 607
Polar Frontal Zone 281, 351 productivity of the ocean 463, 492
polar wandering 661 Proudman, Joseph 240,243,244-247,
pollutants 202,400,406-408,414,415, 251
543 Ptolemy 326,555,557,581
pollution 398,401-404,408-412, Puerto Chicama (Peru) 630,631,638,
414-439,491,492,545,546,643, 640
650 Pullman, H. 614-621
chlorinated hydrocarbon 414-419 Puis, C. 271,278
EDC-tar 414, 415 Punta Arenas (Chile) 348, 349, 699
Index 807
Puranas 780-782 Richardson, Philip L. 102,112,

Pyrocystis 513, 516 703-717
Rigaud, S. 390,392
Quaternary 310,313 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 105, 456
Ritchie, G.S. (RADM) 148-156, 292,
Raban, Avner 750-764,778,779 305
radioactive wastes 75, 409, 426, Ritter, William E. 62,90,127-129,
429-433 136, 234
radioactivity 408,420,424,428,432, River Dee 379, 381
567,662 River Ganga (Ganges) 551, 783
radiocarbon dating 312 River Nile 295, 301, 303
radioisotopes 400, 408 River Mersey 379, 380, 381
radiolarians 363 - 365, 512, 566 Robben Island 698
radionuclides 420-437 Rockefeller Foundation 1, 12,47,59,
Raff, A.D. 227,233,238,239 68, 91, 134
railroads 35, 36 Roman Period 759-763
Rajput Period (650 AD-1200 AD) 551, Roosevelt, Theodore, Jf. 169, 170, 174
558 Roskoff 354, 566
Rakestraw, N.W. 26,29,504 Rose, Wickliffe 1, 11,50,57,59-63,
Rattlesnake 182, 447 65,66, 133
red clays 420, 432 Ross, Sir James Clark 105,361,373,
Redfield, Alfred C. 2, 8, 12, 20, 26, 29, 514
51,66, 504 Ross, John 257, 258, 265, 373
Red Sea 18,19,29,291,292,295-297, Rossby, Carl-Gustaf 16,26,51, 197,
302,438,511,513,581,583,586 288, 504
Red Sea Pilot (Admiralty) 292, 293, 302 Rossby wave 284
red tide (water) 208,511,513,555 Rossiter, J.R. 240, 245, 250,251
Regent's Park 533, 535 Rossmiissler, E.A. (1806-1867) 533,
Regnard, Paul 163, 165,372, 517,521 538
Rehbock, Philip F. 522-539 Rouch, J. 166, 167
Reighard, Jacob 143, 147 Royal Academy of Science, Berlin 464,
remote sensing 202, 643 467,469
renaissance 336, 438 Royal Navy (British) 104,258,259,291,
Renard, A.F. 667-681 298
Rennell,James 104,105,108,111,112, Royal Society (London) 101-103, 183,
199,200,714,716 189,242,253,262,384,438-447,
Resolution 270, 683, 684, 686, 687 452, 512, 683-685, 688
resources of the sea 171,647-648 Rubey, William W. 42,316
Revelle, Roger 10-24,43,45,47,136, Runcorn, S.K. 615,620,661,664,666
229,230,231,316,422 Rurick 270, 455
Ricci, Matteo (1552-1610) 576, 577 Rutherford 257, 264
Rice, A.L. 373-385 Russia 158, 161, 183, 329
Rich, Willis H. 50, 61
Richard, Jules 158-160, 162, 163, 165, Sabine, Edward 105, 107, 108, 258,
365,372 265, 385
Richards, George Henry (Capt.) 291, Sable Island 708, 715
304 Sagres (Portugal) 596, 598, 599, 603,
Richards, J. Cumins (Lt.) 291,292, 605
295-299, 301-304 St. Andrews (N.B.) 61,62
808 Index
St. John's (Newfoundland) 125, 126 sea eagle 415, 416

St. Petersburg 183, 329 Sea Fisheries Institute, Gdynia 490,
Saldanha, Luis 606-613 492-495
salinity 28, 117, 126, 131,134, 199, sea-floor spreading 18,227,231,615,
205,206,209-305,299-301,303, 616, 656, 664, 665
307,309,310,340,356,451,455, sea levels 47, 75, 639
467,474-477,479,630,631,635, seamounts 320, 715
638, 341, 669, 672, 693, 694, 698 Sea of Marmora 307, 310, 311
salps 362, 513 sea power 32-34
salt 337, 339-341 Sears, Mary 20, 22, 25, 30,43,45,48,
Samoa 139, 141-143 502,505,654
Sana Island 377 sea urchins 58, 180,421,489,738-739
San Ambrosio 344, 347 sea urchin embryology 145, 180, 489
sand 306, 586 sea voyages 554, 586
San Diego (CA.) 62, 174,321,322 sea water 338-340
Sandstrom, J.W. 26, 162 seaweeds 489, 525, 531
San Felix 344, 347 Sebastos 765-779
sapropelic matter (oozes) 311,314 Second International Congress on the
Sargasso Sea 15, 217, 469 History of Oceanography 93, 292,
Sargassum weed 26, 53, 361 675
Sars, Georg 182, 183, 373 Secretary of the Navy 173, 174
Sars, Michael 182, 183, 373, 384 sedimentation 312, 314
satellites 17, 202, 227 sediments 53,57, 127, 128, 131, 132,
Scandinavia 33, 110, 578, 618 306,307,309,420,432,616,676,
Schevill, William E. 17, 18,20,24 678, 679
Schlee, Susan 24, 49-56,65, 82, 93, seismology 26, 131,230,567,616,625
178, 186, 203,521, 542 Serapis 292, 293
School of Oceanography 596-605 seston 510
Schott, Gerhard 270,271,273,274, settlements 751 - 7 52
278, 288, 629, 631-634, 637 -640, sextants 731
641,654 Shackleton, Ernest 347, 444, 675
Schultze, Max 669, 676 sharks 357,424,563,572,575,580,
Schumacher, A. 689,696 609, 610, 635
Schiitt, Franz 464,467,473, 509,516, Shetland 373, 375, 378, 380, 383
519,521 Shionomisaki 282, 284
Science Museum (London) 253, 255 ship characteristics 752-753
Scientific and Technical Staff ship simulation platform 598, 599, 601
(WHOI) 69,70,72,75-78 shipping companies 37, 245, 250
Scotland 87,378,379,425,524 Shokal'sky, J. 311,312
Scripps, E.W. 62,90 Shor,E.N. 93,127-137,186
Scripps, Ellen B. 62, 90, 131 shrimp 477, 485
Scripps Institution for Biological Siboga 189, 190, 672
Research 90, 127, 128 Siedlecki, Michel (1876-1940) 489,493
Scripps Institution of Oceanography 11 , Sievers, Hellmuth A. 349,352, 641
16, 19,21,23,49,54,55, 61,68,80, Sigsbee, C.F. 363, 366,372
90,91,128-136,141,168,226, silicate 361, 503, 650
229,230,237,271,320,349,565 Silvera, R.L. 269, 278
scurvy 451, 458 Simpson, Roberto 345, 346
sea anemones 143, 438, 489 Singapore 399, 587
Index 809
siphonophores 362, 363, 365 Station Biologique de Roscoff 669, 670,

Siudzinski, Kazimierz 672,674
Wincenty 488 -495 Station of BomB 162
Six, James 252, 253 Stazione Zoologica (Naples) 138,
Six's thermometer 252-265 179-187,363,541,567,569,671
slope water 15,217,366 Steele, J.H. 225, 506-508, 550
Smith, Edward H. 2,9,26,90, 114-126 Steers, J.A. 445,446
Smithsonian Institution 85, 176, 382, Sterneck, R.D. 244,251
565 Stetson, H.C. 26, 29, 52
Smyth, W.H. 107 Stockholm 26, 158, 161, 408, 499
SNP-l 642, 647 Stockholm Conference 409, 498, 500
Soimonov, F.I. 328, 329 Stoddart, David 446, 447
S\1S1ander, Daniel (Dr.) 104,112, Stommel, Henry M. 5,8, 15, 16,24, 27,
440-442, 684 43,225, 717
solstices 556, 581 Strabo 326, 386,392, 555
sonar 20,153,169,174,218,227,235, Strait of Belle Isle 118,125
319 Strait of Gibraltar 108, 115, 151, 229,
Soule, Floyd M. 25, 26 387, 724, 726
South America 68, 131,344-352,399, Strakhov, N.M. 308,311-315
442, 513, 585, 639 Subantarctic Water 345, 650
South Atlantic Ocean 71, 154, 190, 603, subduction 627
698 submarines 567, 658
Southeast Pacific Ocean 344, 350, 351 submarine (aluminum) 231, 233, 234
South Equatorial Current 632, 650 submarine canyons 52, 322, 607, 610,
Southern California 127, 320 660
South Carolina 708, 720 submarine illumination 517
Southern Hemisphere 617, 726 submersibles (manned) 227,393,395,
Southern Ocean 244, 351, 361 396, 567, 569
Southern Seas 455, 726 submersible pump 208, 209
South Pole 344, 674 subsidence theory 442
South Seas 440, 683, 684, 687 Suez Bay 290, 299, 302, 303
Soviet Union 22,23,398,399,422,423, Suez Canal 290-305, 569
428,493,618, 649 sulfur bacteria 309
Special Committee on Oceanic Research sun 241,554,557
(SCOR) 42, 43, 45, 47 Sverdrup, Harald U. 25, 134, 136,271,
specific gravity 107, 291, 292, 296-298 278, 504,550,654, 702, 717
spectral analysis 208, 209 Swallow, John C. 8, 16.-28,203
Sperry Gyroscope Company 229, 230 Sweden 158, 189, 498, 499, 649, 673
Spiess, F. (Capt.) 690-692, 696-700, Switzerland 562-571
702 Sydney (Australia) 443, 460, 461
Spiess, F.N. 226-239
Spilhaus, Athelstan F. 16, 26,278 Taggart, Robert 318, 321, 323
Spitzbergen 25, 157, 657, 667,673, 675 Tahiti 440,460, 687
sponges 96, 360-362, 439, 525, 609, Taiwan 281,282
734-736 Talara (Peru) 634, 635
spontaneous generation 573, 669 Talcahuano 348, 349
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) 555, 581 Tanner, Zera L. 171,364,366,367,372
Srivastava, P.S. 551-561 Tareq II 643, 647
standard seawater 499 Tasmania 451, 455
810 Index
Tasman Sea 456, 457, 460 tides (tidal studies) 57,85,150, 151,
Taunton, Somerset, U,K. 291,292,295, 195-198,202,240-251,467,476,
302 553,563,580,587,701
Taylor, F.J.R. 509-521 tide gauge 150,151,196,197,246,249
Taylor, G.I. 244, 245 tide generating force (TGp) 196
Teachers School of SCience of tide predicting machines 196, 240,
Boston 94, 95 247-250
temperatures 117, 126, 199, 205, 206, tide tables 241,249,250
209,234,235,258,291,295,307, Tikhomirov, V.V. 306-315
355,356,448,450,451,453-455, Timor 451, 453, 456
458-460,467,479,630,631-634, Tissot, E. (Eng.) 295, 303,305
637-639, 669, 672, 693, 694,698 Todd, Anthony 704, 708, 715
temperatures (sea-surface) 130, 134, Tokai-mura (Japan) 427, 428
267-279,448,456,457 Tomczak, Matthias, Jr. 188-194
Tennent, D.H. 139, 145 Tortugas Marine Laboratory 138-147,
Ter~anabal (Portugal) 596,599,603, 445
605 toxicity 400, 401, 496
Terror 361,514 toxins 358, 511
Texas 475, 477, 485 trade winds 448,587,630,631,638,
Th6odorides, Jean 734-749 639,721,723,726
thermal contraction hypothesis 661 , transparency 356, 569
664,665 Trichodesmium 510, 511, 515
thermocline 234,650 Trieste 181,231,569
thermometers 25, 117, 199,252-265, Trieste 568
454, 455, 564, 607 trigonometry 590
Third World 188, 191-193 trophic levels 415, 411, 544
Thompson, D'Arcy 497, 505, 507 tropics 454, 507, 725
Thompson, Thomas G. 135, 136,343 Trujillo (Peru) 635, 636
Thomson, Charles Wyville 88, 109, 110, tsunamis 349,351,643
182-184,194, 265, 360, 361,372, tunas 424, 610
373,378-381,384,385,443,565, turbulence 207, 208, 234, 246
675-678 turbulent diffusion 208, 211
Thomson, Sir William (Lord Twenhofel, W.H. 127, 132
Kelvin) 151, 162, 165, 196,242,
245,249,251,261,265, 377,383, Umbgrove, J.H.F. 663,666
609 underwater acoustics 27,230,235,
Thynne, Anne 525, 530, 538 236
tidal underwater explosives 20, 27
action 554 underwater sound 17, 151, 169, 565
analysis 150, 151, 249 United Kingdom 60, 150,374,422,423,
bores 556 429,618
currents 201, 244 United Nations 22,45,47, 191, 193,
datum 149 408, 422, 501
equations 197, 243, 245 UN Convention on the Prevention of
friction 243 Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes
hydrodynamics 245 and Other Matter in the Oceans 408,
observations 348, 349, 559 429
range 552 United Nations' Environment Program
streams 242, 244, 245, 246 (UNEP) 409, 410
Index 811
UNESCO 42,43,45,47,48, 193, 194 Uranie 442,455,456,458,459

493,498 Usiglio, J. 339,343
UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) 493, 642, 646, 469 Vacquier, Victor 229, 230,238, 239
United States of America 22,23,40,47, Valdivia 365, 567
48,50,57,58,60,61,63,87,89,90, Valparaiso (Chile 346, 347, 350, 637
101-113, 116, 127, 150, 181, 189, van Beneden, Edouard
190-192, 351, 398-401, 422, 423, (1846-1910) 180, 186, 669, 670,
428,432,471,501,502,513,565, 673
567, 617 -619, 649, 657 Van Beneden, Pierre Joseph
U .S. Atomic Energy Commission 47, (1809-1894) 668, 669
437 Van Diemen's Land 451,460
U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses 131, 133 Van Heurk, Henri Ferdinand
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 2, 62, (1838-1909) 672
85,86,92, 130,131,133,230,657 VanVleck,BalfourH.(1851-1931) 95,
U.S. Coast Guard 2, 114-116 98
U.S. Coast Survey 57,85,88,108,180, Varenius, Bernhard 280, 390,392
182, 183 Vaughan, T. Wayland 62, 64,65, 66,
U.S. Department of Commerce 141, 85 90,127-137,139,140-141,142,
U.S. Department of the Navy 172, 174 144, 168, 445
U.S. Exploring Expedition Vedic Period (1500 BC-600 BC) 553
(1838-1842) 442, 513 Vening Meinerz, Felix 25,615,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 44,477 657-666
U.S. Fish Commission 12,57,85,86, Venmac 317
97, 181, 182, 184,463,471,540, Venus, transit of 182, 270
541,548 Verbiest, Ferdinand 577, 581
U.S. Geological Survey 73,85, 131, vertical migration 211, 216
132, 139, 176, 177,229 Viet Nam (Vietnam) 48, 587
U.S. National Marine Fisheries 630, Vila do Infante (Prince-Town) 596-605
641 Villefranche (France) 181, 566
U.S. National Museum 85, 131, 132, Vine, Allyn C 16, 20, 233
141 Vineyard Haven (Mass.) 114, 118, 125
U.S. Naval Observatory 85, 86, 668 Virginia 102, 475, 704
U.S. Navy 3,12,21,68,69,71,130, Vitiaz 270, 294
131, 133, 143, 169, 171 Vogt, Carl 181, 184
U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory 230, Volga 327, 328
234 von Arx, William S. 17,24, 269,279
U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office 2, 22, von Baer, Karl Ernst 183, 184,185, 331
85,86,93, 169,170,174,175,230, vortex streets 282
271 Vostoc 389,455
USSR 191, 192
University of California 49,62, 90, 128, Waksman, S.A. 26, 28, 52, 504
135, 136, 349 Walferdin F. 259,261,265
University of Chile 348, 350 Walford, Lionel A. 43, 46
University of Concepcion 350, 356 Wallich, G.C. 361,372, 373,512,513,
University of Washington 51,68,91, 517,521
134, 351 Ward, Nathaniel Bagshaw
upwelling 345,430,466,629,630,631, (1791-1868) 526,527,530,533,
635, 638, 639. 642. 648, 650 538
812 Index
Warington, Robert S. (1807-1867) 530, winds 87,241,555,558,559,581,586,

531,538,539 602-603, 630
Warsaw, Jacqueline C. 393-396 Windscale (Irish Sea) 425-428
Washington (D.e.) 21,44,58,64, 132, Wolfle, Dael 42-48
168, 170,319 Women's Educational Association of
water 386-392 Boston 59, 94-95, 97, 98
color 565 Woodcock, Alfred H. 13, 29
depth 554 Woods Hole (Woods Holl) I, 2, 12, 14,
waterfront 34, 36 19,20,23,25,52,61,63-65,67,
water level, fluctuations 329-332 68,70, n, 85, 98, 141, 181
water level, see also: sea level Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
watering-places 36 (WHOI) 1, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17,
water samples 177, 199, 348, 607, 608 19-31,45-82,91,114, 116, 134,
Wattenberg, H. 692, 696 145, 154,200,227,235,396,437,
waves 69,195,197-199,201,234, 502, 505, 506, 562, 715
241,348,349,555,558 Wooster, Warren S. 629-641,648,654
Webber, John (Johann Waber) World Meteorological Organization
(1751-1793) 564,571 (WMO) 192, 193
Wegener, A. 628, 661-664,666 World Ocean 42, 326, 388
Wenk, Edward 41,231,233 World War I 57,60,115,143,151,190,
Went, Arthur 497,508 248,444,469,471,499,502,673
West Australia 454,456, 459, 460 WoridWarII 16,17,19,21,22,52,54,
West Coast (U.S.A.) 132, 134,228, 68,87,91,114,115,130,153,154,
230 190, 197,201,445,489,501
Western Atlantic Ocean 105, 200, Worthington, L. Valentine 15,24, 282,
723 287,717
western boundary current, 280-289 Wiist, Georg 151, 188-194,270,279,
Western North Atlantic Ocean 58, 129 289, 305, 654, 689, 692, 693, 696,
West Greenland 114, 120 701,702
West Indies 141, 143,439,449,658,
664 Yelcho 347,350
Weymouth, Frank W. 477, 487 Yonge, Maurice 93, 144, 438-447
whales 17,18,507,578,579,643,704,
706 Za1kan, R.L. 234, 239
whaling 501,607,648,674,704 Ziman, J. 624, 626, 628
Whewell, W. 244,251 Zinn, D.J. 83-93
White, David 176, 177 Zoological Museum, Berlin 469,471
Whitman, e.O. 58, 59, 62, 98, 100 zoophytes 438,439,442, 525
Wilbur, Curtis D. 173, 174 zooplankton 205,207,414,415,468,
Wild, J.J. (1828-1900) 565,571 490,491,511,512,513,646
Wilkes, Lt. Charles 85, 270 avoidance of net 211
Wilkins, Sir Hubert 25, 504 counters 209, 218-222
Willebrord Snellius 154, 190, 270, 659, patchiness 206, 207, 212, 217, 222
660 Zschokke, Conrad (1842-1918) 566,
Wilson, J.B. 373-385 571
Wimereux 669,671,673 Zuta, S. 642-655

(Paul M. Fye (Auth.), Mary Sears, Daniel Merrim

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

(Paul M. Fye (Auth.), Mary Sears, Daniel Merrim

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Proceedings of the

Third International Congress on the

With 111 Figures

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

All rights reserved.

© 1980 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-8092-4 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-8090-0

Summer, 1980 MARY SEARS AND DANIEL MERRIMAN

1 The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: A Commentary

2 The Oceanographic and How It Grew

3 The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: An Expanding

4 Changing Concepts of the Sea, 1550-1950: An Urban

5 The 1959 Oceanographic Congress: An Informal History

6 The R/V Atlantis and Her First Oceanographic Institution

7 Reviving American Oceanography: Frank Lillie, Wickliffe

9 Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910) and the Financial Support

10 The Annisquam Sea-side Laboratory of Alpheus Hyatt,

11 Some Aspects of Anglo-American Co-operation in Marine

12 Edward H. Smith and the 1928 Marion Expedition Revisited:

13 The Role ofT. Wayland Vaughan in American Oceanography

14 A Brief History of the Tortugas Marine Laboratory and the

15 Some Aspects of the History of Oceanography as Seen

16 The Plan for an International Oceanographic Congress

17 Oceanographic Prescience: The Deliberations of the First

18 Some Historical Backgrounds for the Establishment of the

20 The Role of Instruments in the Development of Physical

21 Meso-scale Spatial Distribution of Plankton: Co-evolution

22 Some Origins and Perspectives in Deep-ocean

23 The Historical Development of Tidal Science, and the

24 Six's Thermometer: A Century of Use in Oceanography

25 North Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Observations:

26 Some Aspects of the Historical Development on the

27 Seasonal Changes in the Suez Canal Following Its Opening

28 The First Geological-Oceanological Studies of the Black Sea

29 The First Deep Ocean Drilling

31 The Development of Marine Chemistry until 1900

32 Physical Oceanography of the Chilean Sea:

33 From the Physiology of Marine Organisms to Oceanographic

34 Alexander Agassiz, Carl Chun and the Problem of

35 The British Association Dredging Committee:

36 Development of Knowledge of the Correlation

37 A Commemoration on the 50th Anniversary of the

38 Marine Industrial Pollution

39 The History of Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Pollution

40 Artificial Radionuclides in the Oceans

41 The Royal Society and the Study of Coral Reefs

43 The Plankton-Expedition and the Copepod Studies

44 Studies on Estuarine-Marine Dependency

45 History of Polish Biological Oceanographic Research

46 On the Environment and Unity in Marine Research

47 Phytoplankton Ecology before 1900: Supplementary

48 The Victorian Aquarium in Ecological and Social

49 The Development of Biological Studies in the Ocean

50 Physical Oceanography in India: An Historical Sketch

51 Switzerland's Contributions to the Aquatic Sciences

52 Traditional Chinese Ichthyology and Its Encounter

53 On the History of Arab Navigation

54 Vila do Infante (Prince-Town), the First School of

56 Studies of the Acceptance of Plate Tectonics

57 How Secure is Plate Tectonics?

58 Early Observations and Investigations of El Nino:

59 Oceanography Development in Peru

60 Oceanography and Geophysical Theory in the First