GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT AND STATION RECORDS OF 

 VELERO III IN ATLANTIC WATERS IN 1939 



(Plates 1-28) 



John S. Garth 

 Allan Hancock Foundation 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



For nearly a decade, while the Velero III cruised up and down the 

 Pacific coast of Central and South America, it had been in the mind of 

 Captain Hancock to make a voyage of exploration into Atlantic waters. 

 For, with the exception of the day necessarily consumed in the transit of 

 the Panama Canal, the east coast of South America is as accessible from 

 Balboa as the west coast. Up until 1939, however, the tendency to return 

 to familiar scenes of endeavor had served as a deterrent to any departure 

 from Pacific exploration, no matter how readily accomplished. 



The occasion for the new venture presented itself in April of 1939, 

 when it was decided to forego another visit to the coasts of Ecuador and 

 Peru in favor of the Atlantic coast of Colombia and Venezuela. Thus, the 

 geographical objective became the Pitch Lake of Trinidad in place of the 

 brea pits of Santa Elena. 



The scientists, of course, had other objectives. The opportunity of 

 obtaining east coast material to compare with the already large west coast 

 collections was eagerly seized upon by those of the staff whose entire 

 collecting experience had been restricted to Pacific waters. Others with 

 previous collecting experience at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and at the 

 Tortugas laboratories in Florida regarded most highly the opportunity 

 to visit a portion of the Atlantic coast along which little marine biological 

 work had been done. This was particularly true of the bight leading to 

 the Gulf of Darien, a region seldom seen by travelers on the commercial 

 vessels that shuttle between Cristobal and Cartagena by the most direct 

 route possible. 



Since the history of the Expeditions and the description of the Velero 

 III have been thoroughly covered by Eraser (Vol. 1, No. 1), they need 

 not be repeated. As to personnel, the scientific party that began the Pacific 

 portion of the cruise was augmented by Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt of the 

 U.S. National Museum, who joined the ship at Balboa, and by Dr. Harry 

 M. Wegeforth, San Diego Zoological Society president and ship's sur- 



^^. ^' /. 



[1] 



