On 10 February 1955, a conference was held at the Hydro-graphic Office 

 at which all interested government agencies had representation. The pur- 

 pose of this conference was to investigate the feasibility of establishing 

 a cooperative observational program whereby each participating agency 

 would furnish funds, instrumentation, or personnel according to its needs. 



By April 1955 the Hydrographic Office had undertaken the function of 

 coordinating the oceanographlc requirements of all government agencies 

 involving the use of Texas Towers as observational platforms. It was 

 believed that only through a carefully coordinated program would it be 

 possible to obtain maximum benefit from these towers for research in the 

 fields of oceanography and undersea warfare. The first tower of this 

 system is to serve as a pilot installation for testing and evaluating the 

 performance of various oceanographlc Instruments. 



III. OBSERVATORY 



The tower is located at 41 £L'l6.3"N, 67°45'36.2"W in a water depth 

 of about 56 feet, and the bottom deck of the tower is about 61 feet above 

 the sea surface. The tower is shaped like an equilateral triangle with 

 sides 185 feet long. The west side of the tower is oriented north-south 

 and the opposite angle points east. It is supported by 3 caissons 10 feet 

 in diameter situated at the apex of each angle. Figure 1 shows an aerial 

 view of the tower e 



The superstructure and radomes house the radar and operational 

 facilities. The hull consists of three decks. The main deck serves as 

 a helicopter pad. The middle deck is composed primarily of living quarters, 

 recreation, and messing facilities. The bottom deck consists mainly of 

 the power plant, boilers, fuel and water tanks, and storage space. The 

 oceanographlc observatory is situated on the bottom deck midway between 

 the north and south caissons. This compartment is 16x20 feet and approx- 

 imately half of this space is devoted to instrument lowering facilities 

 while the other half is used for recording and maintenance facilities. 

 A plan view of the compartment is shown in figure 2. Recorders are shown 

 in figure 3. 



Instruments are lowered through deck holes 2 feet in diameter, each 

 of which have a 1-inch steel hawser passing through their center. These 

 guide cables are attached to springs on an overhead beam and to an 18~ton 

 block on the bottom. All instruments and signal wires are attached to the 

 guide cables by special instrument mounts or cable clips and are raised 

 and lowered with five thirty-seconds inch wire rope halyards. The guide 

 cables prevent lateral movements of the instruments due to wind, waves, 

 or currents. 



