were a multitude of problems to be solved right away. The most 

 urgent ones were the general cleaning of the grounds, temporary 

 patching of the destroyed portions of the roofs, and the boarding 

 of broken windows. 



Some of the alterations made by the Navy were very use- 

 ful to the Station. For a long time the U. S. Coast Guard main- 

 tained a structure along the northern part of the Fishery grounds 

 which was used as a messhall for the sailors on the Coast Guard 

 ships, when the latter were in port. The Navy transformed this 

 structure into a small hospital and dispensary and along side of 

 it constructed an adjoining wooden barrack as quarters for WAVES. 

 The barrack was not occupied, however, when the Navy returned the 

 property to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The hospital building 

 and WAVES quarters were rebuilt as apartments, which in the fol- 

 lowing years were occupied by the Superintendent, the Director, 

 and the Administrative Officer of the Station To alleviate the 

 acute shortage of housing facilities at Woods Hole, the residence 

 building was turned over to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu- 

 tion as a dormitory for its wartime employees. 



Operation of the hatchery, which was interrupted at the 

 beginning of World War II, was now permanently discontinued. 

 The personnel were retired or transferred, and the responsibility 

 for maintaining the buildings and grounds was turned over to the 

 Branch of Fishery Biology (formerly Division of Scientific Inquiry). 

 The disaster at Woods Hole again raised the acute question of 

 whether or not the Bureau should close the Station and dispose of 

 the land. With the exception of the Shellfisheries Section, no 

 other section of the Bureau at this time was interested in Woods 

 Hole or considered that the Station was needed for their work. 

 The great potential usefulness of the Station in connection with 

 the rapidly increasing scope of scientific research in fishery bio- 

 logy and oceanography was again emphasized by Galtsoff in several 

 memoranda submitted to the Director of the Service. Fortunately 

 the Station had a good friend in Albert M. Day (fig. 38), who from 

 1945 to 1952 was Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, U. S. 

 Department of the Interior. The Fish and Wildlife Service was an 

 agency formed by combining the Bureau of Fisheries and the Biolo- 

 gical Survey. Thanks to his wisdom and foresight the Station was 

 saved from approaching doom. Careful survey of the buildings 

 indicated that in spite of old age and inroads of several severe 

 storms and two hurricanes, the old structures were still sound and 

 could be reconditioned and re- equipped at the estimated cost of 

 about $17 5, 000 to $200, 000. The Director considered, however, 

 that it was unwise to ask for such a large sum of money to be put 

 in the old and inflammable buildings, and thought that eventually 

 they should be replaced by modern structures. Small amounts 

 of money were made available for the reconstruction of the sea- 

 wall, new roofs, repairs to a portion of the Fishery dock, etc. 



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