Capt. Floyd M. Soule, USCGR (Ret.) 

 (1901-1968) 



Capt. Floyd M. Soule, USCGR (Ret.), the oceanographer and chief 

 scientist for the International Ice Patrol from 1933 through 1963, died 

 at Woods Hole, Mass., on February 15, 1968. He was born July 19, 1901, 

 in Ripon Wis. and received a B.S. in electrical engineering from George 

 Washington University in 1927. He then entered Government service as 

 a junior physicist with the National Bureau of Standards. In 1918 he 

 became an observer for the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington. He joined Carnegie's oceanographic 

 expedition in 1928 and made many of the early observations of the up- 

 welling along the edge of the North Equatorial Current in the Pacific. 

 In 1931 he joined an expedition of the submarine NAUTILUS exploring 

 the waters beneath the Arctic icepack. 



In 1933 Floyd Soule was named senior physical oceanographer of the 

 U S Coast Guard and as such assumed direct responsibility of all ocean- 

 ography in support of the International Ice Patrol. During the next 8 

 years he participated in a number of expeditions to Davis Strait and the 

 Labrador Sea on board the cutters MARION and GENERAL GREENE 

 and the area east of the Grand Banks was surveyed on an operationa 

 basis that yielded dynamic topographic charts within hours of the final 

 observation. He assisted in the development of the shipboard sahnity 

 bridge, the beginning of modern oceanographic technology. 



With the advent of World War II, Floyd Soule accepted a commission 

 as lieutenant commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve and served as 

 operations officer under Adm. Edward H. Smith on the Greenland Patrol. 

 His knowledge of arctic and subarctic conditions and his "rare ability to 

 translate academic knowledge into action" earned for Commander Soule 

 the Bronze Star from the U.S. Navy. . 



After the war, he resumed his position as senior civilian physical 

 oceanographer of the Coast Guard, but remained in the U.S. Coast Guard 

 Reserve and was promoted to captain in 1956. The post-war years saw 

 Captain Soule participating in Ice Patrol cruises on board the Coast Guard 

 Cutter EVERGREEN and as a research associate of the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution. 



He retired in 1963 after completing a series of comprehensive ocean 

 current charts of the iceberg areas of the North Atlantic Ocean on which 

 iceberg drift predictions and warnings to shipping are based. He also saw 

 the expansion of the U.S. Coast Guard into other areas of oceanography^On 

 his retirement the U.S. Treasury Department presented him its highest 

 honor, the Albert Gallatin Award. 



Captain Soule was a pioneer in the field of oceanography. He was an 

 astute and meticulous scientist. His life work was given to the International 

 Ice Patrol. He made significant scientific achievements but had the even 

 greater satisfaction of seeing his work used for the benefit of man. 



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