TO PEARL HARBOR - (Cont'd) 



1930s, these institutions, primarily Woods Hole, Scripps and the University of Washington, were 

 able to expand their oceanographic efforts through the utilization of Navy vessels assigned to 

 survey duty. These included the Oglala (originally the S. S. Massachusetts of the Fall River Line) 

 which conducted the Aleutian Islands Survey Expedition (1934- 1936), the minesweeper Gawier 

 on summer-month survey expeditions to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, the Nokomis, the 

 Hannibal, and the former World War I submarine tender Biishnell. 



The installation of sonic echo sounders onboard Navy vessels resulted in a staggering 

 collection of dynamic soundings. One ship, the Ramapo, acquired over 37,000 soundings during 

 51 crossings of the North Pacific in a nine year period (1929 - 1938). The Ramapo also acquired a 

 degree of renown when in February 1933, while preceding from Manila to San Diego, she recorded 

 a giant wave the height of which was 1 12 feet. 



In 1932 the Navy's Gravity-at-Sea Expedition, in cooperation with the Princeton University 

 sponsored International Scientific Expedition to the West Indies, assigned the submarine S-48 and 

 the submarme rescue ship Chewink the task of conducting gravity measurements. The members of 

 the Gravity-at-Sea Expedition included Dr. F. A. Vening Meinesz, of the Netherlands Geodetic 

 Commission, who brought with him from Holland his Multipendulum instrument for installation 

 onboard the S-48, Dr. H. H. Hess from Princeton University, Lieutenant Commander A. H. 

 Gosnell, U. S. Naval Reserve, historian, and Mr. Townsend Brown, Naval Research Laboratory. 

 Gravity-at-Sea measurements were taken in conjunction with measurements taken ashore by 

 members of Coast and Geodetic Survey, the entire expedition being directed by Professor Richard 

 M. Field of Princeton's Department of Geology. 



The Navy's survey efforts during the 1930s were, as before, being concentrated primarily 

 along trade routes. By the end of the decade only two ships were conducting surveys on what 

 could be considered a full-time basis; the slow (7 knot), coal burning Hannibal and the former 

 submarine tender Bushnell. 



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