TO PEARL HARBOR - (Cont'd) 



The conference recommends that this oceanographic undertaking be 

 known as the Maury United States Naval Oceanographic Research, in honor of 

 Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, United States Navy, whose pioneer work 

 in practically all branches of oceanography entitles him to this distinction. It is 

 further recommended that the major ship that is assigned to this work be named 

 the USS Tanner, in honor of Commander Zera L. Tanner United States Navy, 

 whose long-continued oceanographic work has contributed much to the advance 

 of this science." 



Although the importance of initiating a national cooperative program was recognized, no 

 positive steps were taken. 



Recognizing this lack of scientific leadership, the National Research Council of the National 

 Academy of Sciences established its first Committee on Oceanography (NASCO) in 1927, to 

 consider the role of the United States in a worldwide program of oceanographic research. The 

 results of the NASCO recommendations led to a series of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation 

 which were used to establish the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Oceanographic 

 Laboratory at the University of Washington .and additional facilities at the Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography. 



For the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation provided $2.5 

 million for endowment, a ship and buildings. The Carnegie Corporation supplied the funds to 

 purchase the land. In 1930 the Trustees of this newly founded institution "appreciated that one of 

 the most important things it could do would be to operate a seagoing ship of moderate size with 

 convenient living quarters, and equipped to carry on investigations at all depths of the various lines 

 of sea science." By the end of 1930, the 142-foot steel ketch. Atlantis, was launched in 

 Copenhagen. Much of the oceanographic equipment was purchased abroad. A fathometer and a 

 radio for sending messages were installed when the Atlantis arrived in the United States in the Fall 

 of 1931. The Atlantis thus became the third U. S. ship built especially for oceanography, but the 

 first specifically designed for multi-discipline research. For a period of about 20 years after her 

 delivery, the Atlantis was really the only United States representative in basic deep sea research. 

 Prior to her sale to Argentina in 1964, the venerable Atlantis had logged more than a million miles 

 at sea and made more than 5,000 oceanographic stations. 



As Woods Hole was a single-ship institution in the 1930s with its Atlantis, so also were the 

 University of Washington with the 75-foot vessel Catalyst and Scripps with the 104-foot schooner 

 E. W. Scripps. The Bureau of Fisheries (formerly the Fish Commission) was also reduced to a 

 single-ship activity. The Albatross had been sold in 1921 and the Fish Hawk was disposed of in 

 1926. As a replacement for the Fish Hawk the Navy transferred the 150-foot, two-masted, 

 steel-hulled ocean tug Patuxent which was renamed the Albatross H. 



Another recommendation of the NASCO in 1927 was that oceanographic research be 

 undertaken by a Navy vessel specially fitted for the work. This recommendation enabled the 

 Hydrographic Office to acquire in 1931 its first suite of oceanographic equipment which was used 

 only incidentially onboard the hydrographic survey ship Hannibal. 



In 1929 the Secretary of the Navy convened a special board under the chairmanship of Rear 

 Admiral Frank H. Schofield to review the Navy's role in future oceanographic programs. The 

 recommendations of the Schofield Board for the expansion of Navy oceanographic programs 

 resulted in the establishment of a Section of Oceanography in the Hydrographic Office (1933) and 

 increased cooperation with private and academic oceanographic institutions. Througliout the 



87 



