OCEANUS 9 



ocean airplane. Because of the unprecedented upsurge of 

 human activity brought about by the estabhshment of the 

 Atlantic community, a major share of the world's technologi- 

 cal developments in wind-, steam- and oil-powered ocean 

 transport has grown out of the yards and slips and the en- 

 gineering ofhces of the River's ports. The ships which have 

 made history in sailing the seven seas have been born of 

 a commercial and technological growth which has had its out- 

 posts in Sweden and Texas, Cape Cod and Tyneside, and its 

 center at the center of the Atlantic whirlpool. 



With the growth of Atlantic trade there was also a great 

 upsurge of interest in the arts and sciences which began with 

 the end of the Dark Ages, and, coincidentally, with the early 

 western voyages. During the last four centuries of intellectual 

 progress there developed a vigorous new civilization on the 

 western shores of the Atlantic, so that the center of gravity has 

 shifted from the Mediterranean world to the Atlantic Ocean. 

 The civilized world no longer looks only to the eastern rim of 

 the Ocean River for its universities and its centers of art, sci- 

 ence, and technology. Today these centers surround the River, 

 and the exchange of ideas takes place across its broad surface, 

 instead of exclusively across the mountains of Europe or the 

 waters of the eastern Mediterranean. 



One scientific quest in particular interests us here, since it 

 delves deeply into the very substance of the Atlantic itself, its 

 salty matrix and the creatures which inhabit it. For geographi- 

 cal exploration and conquest of the Atlantic turned out to be 

 only the first phase of discovery in the wide-flowing Ocean 

 River. A new world of discovery began to fire the interest of 

 the scientifically minded, with its horizons extending not 

 merely from shore to shore but also from wave-swept surface 

 to the tranquil mud of the abyssal depth. This special group 

 of the scientific studies which are united in oceanography is 

 today opening up a whole new field of inquiry in all the oceans. 



