10 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION, 
that practically every English marine expedition since the time of Cook had been 
identified. The Admiralty has always taken a broad and liberal interest in all matters 
relating to oceanographical exploration, and we venture to suggest that its officers in 
this field have given it glory as imperishable as that of its militant branch. Its alliance 
with civilians in some of its work is no new matter—and long may it continue! 
We would like in this place to express our indebtedness to those gentlemen who 
assisted us by procuring the grant of a vessel, by aiding us in drawing up our scheme, 
by allowing us to give their names as references in our petition to the Royal Society, 
and by practical advice in many ways, viz.: Colonel Alcock, the late Dr. W. T. Blanford, 
Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, Capt. Creak, the late Sir Michael Foster, Dr. Gadow, Prof. Herd- 
man, Prof. Hickson, the late Prof. Howes, Prof. Judd, Prof. Ray Lankester, Sir John 
Murray, Prof. A. Newton, and Mr. Adam Sedgwick. To the expert knowledge of 
the late Rear-Admiral Sir W. L. Wharton, formerly Chief Hydrographer, and to 
Capt. Tizard, we owe a thorough overhauling of our plans and a full consideration of 
the methods by which they could best be fitted in with the ordinary work of a vessel. 
For help in the early stages of preparation, as well as throughout the whole Expedition, 
we owe much to the keen personal interest and goodwill of Capt. (now Rear-Admiral) 
Mostyn Field, the present Chief Hydrographer, under whose immediate orders the 
Expedition was carried out. We would also express our deep appreciation of the 
generous leave of absence from official positions granted to one of us (Gardiner) by 
the University of Cambridge and by Gonville and Caius College. 
The Admiralty very generously undertook all expenditure connected with the em- 
ployment of a vessel, and allowed us to use such gear as is ordinarily carried. Oceano- 
graphical research, however, at the present day requires the employment of much costly 
special equipment, and the expenses entailed in getting together and preserving 
representative collections, and subsequently in sorting and sending them out to 
specialists, are by no means light. To meet these, we were in the first place granted 
£150 by the British Association towards the more geographical parts of the work. 
The Managers of the Fund in Cambridge founded in memory of the late Francis 
Maitland Balfour, as the Student of which the previous researches of one of us 
(Gardiner) in the Maldive and Laccadive groups had been undertaken, generously 
wave £350 for the further prosecution of the same work. Finally, the Trustees of the 
Percy Sladen Memorial Fund, the history of which is given in the first pages of this 
volume, undertook financial responsibility for such further expenditure as might be 
necessary and which we could not ourselves meet. Under these circumstances they 
might—and perhaps rightly—have claimed the direction of the work, but in the most 
generous manner they left us an absolutely free hand. ‘To one of their number 
(Prof. Herdman) we owe many acts of kindness and much valuable criticism and 
advice. 
The vessel placed at our disposal was the most recent addition to the surveying-fleet 
of the Admiralty. Built in 1880, and christened the ‘ Wanderer,’ she was bought into 
the Service in 1904, specially refitted at Southampton for surveying, and renamed the 
‘Sealark.’ Originally a square-rigged vessel, she was to some degree remasted and 
