XI 



FOREWORD 



The papers collected in this volume have been prepared by the students, disciples 

 and friends of Henry Bryant Bigelow, as a testimonial not only of our personal 

 affection but to honor him for his many contributions to the advancement of oceano- 

 graphy. 



A half century ago when Alexander Agassiz set sail for the Maldive Islands 

 with Henry Bigelow as his assistant, oceanography in America was an interest 

 promoted from time to time through individual initiative and, when in hne with 

 their primary duties, by appropriate governmental agencies. Today, as his latest 

 monograph on fishes comes off the press, oceanography is a fully recognized division 

 of science, complete with standard textbook and special journals. Its work is instru- 

 mented by half a dozen full-scale laboratories and research vessels operated by 

 university departments or independently, and distributed equably along our coast. 

 More important, it is a science in which a new viewpoint has developed and new 

 vistas have opened. Of course, this has been the work of many men, but in the United 

 States Henry Bigelovv' more than any other has provided the wise leadership which 

 has insured success. 



In the preface to his book, " Wind Waves at Sea, Breakers and Surf" (written 

 with W. T. Edmondson as a contribution to the World War II effort), it is stated: 

 " We wish it expressly understood that we have made no contributions to the theory 

 of waves. But we would not have dared to undertake the task, if we had not observed 

 the behavior of waves at sea, from large craft and from small, in various parts of the 

 world, under various conditions of wind and weather; or if we had not had an 

 opportunity to watch the development of breakers — and cope with the smaller sizes — 

 off beaches of various shapes, off rocky coastlines, and over submerged ledges ". 

 This insistence on personal experience as a necessary prerequisite of scientific judg- 

 ment (or any other judgment for that matter) is characteristic. 



By good fortune Henry Bigelow was born into a segment of New England 

 society in which the tradition of plain living and high thinking was graced by the 

 fruits of Yankee enterprise. Young men were expected to receive the best of educa- 

 tion, any natural taste for outdoor life was encouraged and intellectual ambitions 

 were not frowned upon. Summers at Cohasset, on Massachusetts Bay, gave him an 

 instinctive knowledge of seamanship and the things of the sea. Hunting in autumn 

 took him to all parts of the coast and the uplands as well. In winter the mountains 

 were explored on snowshoes, and in later life on ski; the mountains are, in fact, the 

 true love of this oceanographcr. And in the spring there are trout in the New England 

 brooks. 



Thus he became the best-informed naturalist that one could hope to go afield 

 with. His outdoor life is a routine, fixed by the seasons, and followed with the same 

 insistence on knowing all that is to be known of the matter, which marks his more 

 professional effort. Students of the " Physical Oceanography of the Gulf of Maine " 

 note that the only period not covered by observations at sea coincide with the 



