274 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



This has continued to be the case in the postwar years, both at "Woods 

 Hole and elsewhere in the United States of America. We now not 

 only have research contracts with the Navy but also with the Atomic 

 Energy Commission, with the Weather Bureau, the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, other Government agencies, and research grants from the 

 National Science Foundation. There is worry that this form of 

 support may not remain sufficiently stable over the years to build up a 

 strong scientific staff, but to date, with few exceptions, the policy in 

 Washington has been remarkably liberal and understanding. Mean- 

 while, our own uncommitted income has grown to about $300,000 per 

 year. At the present time this is about 10 percent of the total cost 

 of our operations, but it is the key to their success. 



So far as the naval applications of oceanography are concerned, we 

 have been principally engaged in charting the ocean in ways that can 

 be helpful to a modern Navy. Formerly, navigation was a two- 

 dimensional problem. With the advent of nuclear-powered sub- 

 marines the Navy is face to face with three-dimensional navigation. 

 In detection of submarines we are concerned Avith the physics and 

 chemistry of the whole water column, and with the character of the 

 bottom well below its upper surface. Underwater acoustics has be- 

 come a vigorous branch of physical oceanography and submarine 

 geology, which is intimately bound up with the changing internal 

 structure of the sea and its boundaries. As the instrumentation of 

 warfare at sea has evolved, more and more nature has become a 

 critical factor in its successful operation. 



From 1942 to 1946 the top tiooi' of the laboratory was turned over 

 to the Underwater Explosives Research Laboratory, a group under 

 the leadership of our present Director. In this regard it should be 

 mentioned also that w^e have continued to provide quarters for the 

 oceanographic division of the International Ice Patrol. 



It is not feasible to list all the projects that were being studied; the 

 importance of our wartime work may be emphasized hj the award 

 of the Legion of Merit to the Director, witli the citation "* * * as 

 having saved many of our ships," and the acknowledgment that our 

 antifouling studies "saved 10 percent of the Navy's fuel bill." 



In the years immediately following World War II the Institution 

 faced a sharp decline in its annual budget. Government contracts 

 continued, but on a reduced scale. Those years were difficult for the 

 Director who had to find the funds to keep the staff and the ships 

 going, but they were exciting days for the scientists. Eelievecl from 

 immediate pressures in the demand for practical applications and 

 aided by new instruments and methods, we were able to learn that the 

 Gulf Stream and other curi'ents wei'e much more complex, swifter, 

 and narrower than was formerly believed. The new knowledge led 

 to a most successful multiple-ship survey in 1950 (known as Operation 

 Cabot). The geophysicists learned to operate two vessels working 

 jointly and ranged ahead in the systematic program of measuring 

 the acoustical reflectivity of the bottom in deep water. 



Other programs also were productive. ISfore than 40 staff members 

 made oceanographic investigations during the first Bikini bomb tests, 

 while in 1946 we started our meteorological observations in the trade- 

 wind areas wliicli became so fruitful in the devel()))ment of a strong 

 meteorological group at Woods Hole. Another investigation which 



