332 OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 



and various matters such as that. The minutes and the report of 

 that meeting can be entered in the record. The report includes a 

 resolution in which the seven directors said: "In view of the con- 

 dition of the Atlantis^ first priority should be given to the construc- 

 tion of a larger vessel about 1,000 tons." 



So that as early as September then of 1956, we were really head- 

 ing for a replacement for the Atlantis^ although in order to keep our 

 own plans flexible enough, it was not so stated and was not so planned. 

 In other words, it was a possibility that by the time we requested and 

 got funds the Atlantis might not still be the first priority problem, 

 but we were pretty sure that it would be. 



Mr. Bauer. You were also cognizant, were you not, that the Navy 

 was contemplating supplying an AGOR to Woods Hole? 



Dr. Benson. The meetings that I speak of here were before the 

 AGOR. was really on the drawing boards. We were in close contact 

 with the ONR people and we knew we were both requesting ocean- 

 ographic vessels; we had decided that this many vessels were defi- 

 nitely needed in the country, and that there would be really no conflict 

 or duplication when and if we received authority to construct these 

 vessels. We felt we would have no trouble in fi_nding proper places 

 for them. This is why we did not specify where each one was going. 

 It was more or less an informal and off-the-record agreement between 

 ourselves and ONR that, whichever agency was able to get a vessel. 

 Woods Hole had a strong case for receiving it. 



We did not make the final decision until later. 



Mr. Bauer. After the conception of supplying vessels in 1956, then, 

 if I understand your testimony correctly, there was a parallelism of 

 who could supply the first vessel to replace the Atlantis; is that cor- 

 rect, between the Office of Naval Research and the National Science 

 Foundation ? 



Dr. Benson. I cannot speak directly for ONR. Maybe Dr. Rob- 

 ertson can. As I recollect it, probably imperfectly, there was some 

 question of how soon they w^ere going to be able to get their ocean- 

 ographic vessel approved, and we sought for and received author- 

 ization, I think, in time so that it was decided then that we would 

 probably take Woods Hole. 



Mr. Bauer. When did ONR receive the advice that the National 

 Science Foundation was going to supply a ship to replace the Atlantis 

 and that AGOR that was contemplated to go to Woods Hole would 

 not go to Woods Hole ? Do you have any recollection of that ? 



Dr. Benson. I believe it was some time in 1958. 



Mr. Bauer. That is the time that Dr. Robertson came with the Na- 

 tional Science Foundation from the Office of Naval Research ? 



Dr. Robertson. I came to the National Science Foundation from 

 the Office of Naval Research in early July 1958. 



Mr. Bauer. Were you. Dr. Robertson, involved with the question 

 of the parallelism of supplying the ship that was needed by Woods 

 Hole? 



Dr. Robertson. We had been 



Mr. Bauer. I mean when you were with the Office of Naval Re- 

 search ? 



Dr. Robertson. Yes. We had been in constant discussion with the 

 National Science Foundation concerning the problem of obtaining 



