EXPLORINGTHE FLOOR 45 



to do with fishery investigations, which, according to 

 my experience of the last 40 years, are incompatible 

 with basic oceanographic research. At present such a 

 ship would probably cost in building and equipping 2 

 to 2% million dollars. However, it would be a unique 

 tool of research, well worth the outlay. 



Evaluation of the results of operating such a ship 

 eight to nine months annually would require the co- 

 operation of many well-equipped laboratories and 

 specialists, of which there is certainly no lack in the 

 United States. (It would, I believe, exceed the resources 

 of any single existing oceanographic institution.) The 

 project would furnish unique opportunities for training 

 young students in physical and chemical oceanography 

 and in biology. They might compose a large part of the 

 crew, as they did on the ''Albatross," where 50 -c of 

 the crew consisted of young apprentices for the merchant 

 fleet. This way of manning the ship would materially 

 reduce running costs. 



Such a ship would certainly exceed the resources 

 of the small Scandinavian nations, which are therefore 

 trying to set up an Inter-Scandinavian organization, 

 planning the chartering, and eventually the building, of 

 a deep-sea research ship run conjointly by Denmark, 

 Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Such a ship, whose 

 working field should mainly be the great depths of the 

 Atlantic Ocean, would afford material for scientific 

 studies to a number of Scandinavian institutes and 

 would materially increase our knowledge of that ocean 



