OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 255 



TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM J. DONAHUE 



Mr. Donahue. I gathered these notes on the questions you asked 

 as I went along. I don't know the answers to all of them, but, as you 

 know, I have been with these people and I am familiar with how the 

 crew was paid under the wage-board setup. Prior to the formation 

 of the union, the wage board was not followed in this installation or 

 in the Boston installation. I might say Under Secretary Chapman 

 said this was a very, very fine agreement written up between the 

 employees and the organization of the Department of the Interior. 

 As a matter of fact, he said, if we can get as good an agreement as 

 that to put in effect, we will have made a great step forward toward 

 solving the problem of the formation of unions dealing with the 

 Department. That was in 1957. 



So we sat down and negotiated the wages of these men on this basis, 

 on the basis of wages paid to fishermen, accepted as competent, and 

 these are statistics derived from the North Atlantic Fishermen's 

 Union as to their pay. 



Chairman ]Mii.ler. It is a very definite formula. 



Mr. Donahue. Yes, it is. 



Chairman Miller. All right, go ahead. 



Mr. DoNAHLTE. Similarly, the vessels, as you pointed out, you devel- 

 oped the point that the Government vessels do not come under the 

 inspection of the Coast Guard. I think the Committee on Merchant 

 Marine and Fisheries should think about getting some real law that 

 would compel the Coast Guard ins2:)ection on Government vessels. 

 I don't speak of naval vessels, but others, such as these in question 

 here. There are loopholes where you find a man got in hot water with 

 a vessel running under Coast Guard recognition as provided for 

 private fisheries. 



The third point I want to bring up, Dr. Graham is here, and I 

 cannot believe these men want to deactivate the Albatross III because 

 of some rumor from some members of the crew. I would like to 

 know how you can operate a laboratory without the means of going 

 out and bringing the stuff into your laboratory. I don't think these 

 gentlemen would accomplish anything by being a party to the deac- 

 tivation of the tools they have work with. 



I know it is impossible sometimes to get at the bottom of these 

 rrnnors. The Department makes their ruling which cannot be over- 

 turned, and people who have no idea of what has been determined 

 cannot do anything about it. So that this ruling came from someone 

 higher up in the Fish and Wildlife Service. These men can't buck 

 city hall. I think, if we can get to the bottom of it and find out how 

 much money it will cost, and knowing that, you gentlemen may get a 

 Senate bill written to show some funds in there specifically for the 

 operation of this vessel and for the other vessel, too. 



You have been told the vessel is unseaworthy. I think we have 

 shown that is not so. I wonder if the telephone company would like 

 to know their personnel is going out and chartering a vessel for the 

 telephone company which is not seaworthy. I wonder if they would 

 like to know during the last 30 days their personnel has been in an 

 operation with the Navy and the telephone company out doing this 

 research work on an unseaworthy vessel. I wonder what kind of Gov- 



