EXPLORING THE FLOOR 37 



met with in Mediterranean waters incidentally offered 

 by their absence of curvature or obliquity in the inter- 

 spaced layers a criterion for the correct working of the 

 core-sampler which would have been absent in un- 

 stratified, homogeneous sediments. 



The results from this cruise were so promising that 

 they encouraged us to the much bigger venture of apply- 

 ing the same technique to great ocean depths by a cir- 

 cumnavigating cruise under the Swedish flag.^ To find 

 a ship large enough and equipped with a powerful winch 

 and the long steel cables required for handling the very 

 heavy coring tubes at great depths was a difficult prob- 

 lem. It was overcome, thanks to the generosity of men 

 of wealth and vision in Sweden, especially in Goteborg, 

 by the loan from the great Brostrom shipping combine 

 of their new training ship, the 1 , 450-ton motor schooner 

 "Albatross," and by the wholehearted cooperation of 

 various leading firms in Swedish industry which manu- 

 factured our gear at a merely nominal price and with 

 the highest priority. Thanks to large donations given the 

 Royal Society of Goteborg, which was sponsoring the 

 undertaking, the cruise was financed without support 

 from the Swedish government. Invaluable help in the 

 form of advice, information, and instruments was given 

 by foreign institutions like the British Admiralty, the 

 Hydrographic Office of Washington, and the Woods 

 Hole Oceanographic Institution. 



By July 4, 1947, everything was ready. With a scien- 

 tific staf? of ten, including Kullenberg, who handled the 



