139 
Alpha Helix at Sea. . .approaching Ontong Java November 14, 1972 
We have had as catastrophic a loss as could be imagined in our speci- 
mens. The Revco was opened this morning by Richard to try to fit into it 
a bottle of insulin, and he found its entire contents totally thawed. In 
it we have had all of our virus isolation specimens (stools and throat 
washings) for the entire expedition and ail the blood clots from specimen 
No. 1 through specimen No. 1897. Thus, everything in the New Hebrides 
and all of Anuta and half of Tikopia are lost for red cell enzymes and all 
virus isolation work is lost. These were the most important matters of our 
expedition and those which most justified the use of the Alpha Helix , and 
the loss is total. What we got off yesterday with John Sheridan had never 
been in a Revco and was defective in that its storage had been only at -10°C 
since collection. What we have relied upon in the Revco is what we have 
lost. 
We have been checking the temperature of the Revco several times a day, 
and it has remained fixed at -38°C as it was today. On opening the box it 
was fully thawed, and on rapidly emptying its contents into the walk-in 
freezer at -10°C I found no sign of coldness even down to the bottom of the 
Revco, although the specimens were cool....i.e. cooler than ithe hot outside 
temperature. There has been some breakage of tubes on thawing^ Cor freezing) 
and there is no evidence of putrefaction, which might (?) mean that the 
temperature has not been above 0°C for long. We are not sure when the box 
was last opened and found to be frozen. The last clots put into it and 
frozen were from Tikopia. I will check, once all has frozen down again, 
to see the numbers (and dates) of the last virus isolation specimens. They 
may have been those from Vanikoro. I have no idea how long the Revco would 
successfully isolate the six cubic feet of solid -38°C ice the packed spec- 
imens represented, and thus how long it would keep them at temperature under 
4°C, once the refrigeration failed. Perhaps for a few days. Thus, the thaw 
may have gone on for less than a week. Whatever it is, I fear the loss is 
total. I shall go ahead with heroics we have planned on to transport the 
clots out in dry ice and to Bob Kirk. I shall warn him of the catastrophe, 
and beg him to search for hemoglobin J Tongariki and for red cell enzymes in 
a small portion of the New Hebridean clots, and to thus determine just how 
bad or good the specimens now are; I have little reason to hope for much 
success. 
The fiasco resulted from our not checking the box by opening it to 
inspect it thoroughly, and trusting the temperature gauge, which is obvious- 
ly simply stuck at -38°C where the box has always registered, even though 
we have turned it down to below -70°C for our work. Thus, it may well have 
been down where we wanted it, and the temperature gauge may have been out 
all of the time I My only justification for not opening the box any longer 
to check was the fear that this itself might impair the Revco* s functioning. 
It is now obvious to me that the heroics of Walter and Ray in constructing 
a covering box to shield the Revco from the sun at Santa Cruz, (Nov. ) 
during which operation they had to move it around a bit, was very inad- 
visable. I had real qualms and misgivings about this at the time, and ob- 
jected to the moving, but I settled for the real advantage of screening it 
further from the direct hot sun on ship deck. At that time it was function- 
ing well, and it could easily have failed during the operation without our 
knowing of it. 
