OCEANOGRAPHY 153 



Dr. Waterman. Yes; that is one of the chief points about this con- 

 tract we made to get the vessel buih. We have corresponded witli 

 them on that subject and they are happy to do it. 



Mr. DiNGELL. One Last question about this. You did not give this 

 vessel to the pri^•ate institutions on the basis of the statute passed out 

 of Interstate and Foreign Commerce last year, giving you authority 

 to give title 



Dr. Waterman. We have always had the authority. 



Mr. HoEF. ]May I perhaps enlarge my remarks on that ? 



Mr, DixGELL. Yes. 



Mr. HoFF. We have always had the authority to make grants for 

 support of basic research. The language was changed a little, but 

 that is basically it. The grant being made for the construction of the 

 ship would be a facility for conducting research, as any other facility 

 wliich we have given. Last year we did clarify our language a little 

 by including in the section on powers, I believe we added the words 

 "grant of any personal or real proj^erty," })ut this was merely a clari- 

 fication of what we thought was the meaning of the section all along. 



It also, in my mind, relates more to giving property over which we 

 had title at the time rather than a gift for the construction or acqui- 

 sition of something. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Thank you very much. 



Mr. HoFF. One further thing. Last year, of course, there was the 

 other bill giving grant authority to agencies which had contractual 

 authority to support basic research. This legislation was sponsored 

 by the Foundation, did not atfect us. This was merely to try to get 

 other agencies sup]>orting basic research under contractual authority 

 only the same authority in many areas to give grants that we liad. 



Dr. Waterman. One other point is this. lender this same legisla- 

 tion other agencies were permitted to give equipment in case of grants 

 for basic research to the institutions to which the grant was made. 

 Both these were things sponsored by the Xational Science Foundation. 



Mr. DiNGELL. I just wanted to he. sure you had not ]>een given the 

 ship under the section which provides for grants for small pieces of 

 equipment to private agencies. It would be a rather large piece of 

 small ec|uipment. jSIr. Drewiw ? 



Mr. Drewry. Dr. Waterman, I believe you said that you could not 

 say whether the title to the ship would be given to the grantee because 

 it had not been built. Is not the grantee the one who will make the 

 contracting arrangements ? 



Dr. Waterman. I was wrong in that. Dr. RolDertson corrected 

 me. It is a provision in our grant that they may take title except 

 under the restrictions mentioned. 



Mr. Drewry. In fact, from the very time they get the money and 

 they proceed to use the money and make the contract with the naval 

 architect and shipyard, and so on 



Dr. Waterman. Yes. 



Mr. Drewry. In other words, the title begins to attach just as soon 

 as they start working on the ship. 



Dr. Waterman. I believe that would be right. 



Mr. HoFF. Yes. 



]SIr. Drewry, Thank you. 



