NATURE OF THE STREAM 143 



two places at once, and by the time it has steamed to another 

 part of the Stream a considerable change may have taken 

 place in the whole system. A complete and synoptic picture 

 of the entire Gulf Stream, seen as it were from a God's-eye 

 view, has long been needed. For this reason during 1950 a 

 concerted effort was finally made to obtain simultaneous 

 observations over a wide area. The Woods Hole Oceano- 

 graphic Institution, together with the Hydrographic Office, 

 worked out a co-operative plan which became known as 

 ''Operation Cabot.'' Under the direction of Dr. Richard Flem- 

 ing, the Atlantis and the Caryn from the Oceanographic 

 Institution, the U.S.S. San Pablo and Rehe, both of the Hy- 

 drographic Office, the Canadian naval research vessel H.M.C. 

 New Liskeard, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Alba- 

 twss Illy together with a U. S. Coast Guard Ice Patrol cutter 

 and several planes, joined in an unprecedented hunt to track 

 down the true courses of the Gulf Stream. 



With the most modern navigating equipment, including 

 loran, to pinpoint exact positions, and with planes to watch 

 from the air, it was possible for the first time in the history 

 of oceanography to study a large area at one time instead of 

 piecing together fragments of information gathered days or 

 even months and years apart. New scientific instruments 

 added greatly to the success of the venture. Among them was 

 the bathythermograph, developed by A. F. Spilhaus during 

 World War II to spot temperature changes in the sea that 

 divert sound waves and interfere with submarine sound detec- 

 tion. Whereas Benjamin Franklin was able to take only one 

 temperature reading at a time, at the surface, the bathyther- 

 mograph, though it looks like a small and rather simple bomb, 

 is capable of continuously recording temperatures and the 

 depths at which they occur, down to several hundred feet 

 below the surface with the ship at full speed. The enormous 

 increase in speed of observation when this is used instead of 



