OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 273 



Woods Hole was chosen as the site of the newly established institu- 

 tion. Its objectives : The study of the oceans as a whole, their physics, 

 chemistry, geology, meteorology, and biology, in particular ecology.) 

 Practical and intellectual considerations covered this choice : Nearness 

 to Boston and Cambridge with their universities and libraries; the 

 existence of the Marine Biological Laboratory with its excellent li- 

 brary and which has long been a headquarters of marine biologists ; 

 and the existence of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries laboratory. 

 Furthermore, Woods Hole is close to the open sea, which, in our region, 

 provides a sudden transition of cold coastal waters to tropical oceanic 

 conditions in the nearby Gulf Stream. 



Now what has been accomplished during the last 26 years and what 

 have been the causes of our growth ? We started as a summer labora- 

 tory with one full-time ship but only a few full-time scientific staff 

 members. We have come to acquire five more or less adequate sea- 

 going vessels and a year-round payroll of about 350 people, augmented 

 in summer by more than 100 students and visiting investigators. 



Until the Second World War the growth was gradual. Although 

 our original building was always full in summer, there were seldom 

 more than three to six investigators carrying on research in winter. 

 The Atlantis^ our fine new research vessel, cruised widely, and for the 

 most part carried out three-dimensional surveys of the currents, biol- 

 ogy and chemistry of the water. Occasionally cruises were made 

 whose primary objectives were the study of marine sediments, and a 

 beginning was made in the development of geophysical techniques 

 for exploring the underlying structure of the North Atlantic basin. 

 The microbiology of the sea was developed to some extent and a few 

 cruises were devoted to the collection of the larger deep-sea forms. 



By the end of 10 years we had made considerable progress in under- 

 standing the currents of the western North Atantic. In short, after 

 the Atlantis had cruised for 10 years, we felt generally at home in 

 most of the North Atlantic, both physically and chemically, and to a 

 lesser extent geologically and biologically. 



When the war clouds gathered, it was the many measurements of 

 temperature and salinity and their study that chiefly paid off. As 

 early as 1937 the Atlantis had made observations on sound transmis- 

 sion off Cuba. This opened our eyes to the fact that physical ocea- 

 nography plays a significant role in subsurface warfare. With the 

 early emphasis of the Office of Scientific Research and Development 

 on problems of undersea warfare, for the first time oceanographers 

 found themselves consulted on matters of national defense by the 

 scientific community of the Nation as a whole. Woods Hole was 

 visited by many scientists and engineers who previously had thought 

 that this was strictly a biological center. We taught a considerable 

 number of naval officers the sorts of oceanography that play a part 

 in both prosubmarine and antisubmarine warfare. We acquired ma- 

 chine shops and electronic shops. Gradually our full-time scientific 

 staff came to include a hundred or so people, most of whom had 

 previously had little or no connection with the sea. By the end of the 

 war our annual operating expenses had increased from roughly $150,- 

 000 per year, the approximate income from endowment, to about $1 

 minion per year. The Federal Government had suddenly become a 

 major source of support for our oceanographic laboratories. 



