XI. LOOKING SEAWARD
During Vaughan's Search for a “biological oceanographer” he had been told by Dr. Henry Bigelow, later the first director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, “There ain't no such animal in the U.S.A. You must either import him or bring him up.”[1] This was indeed one of Vaughan's major problems; a number of the scientists at the Scripps Institution were engaged in research projects which did not require direct observations and collecting at sea, and making the institution one devoted to oceanography did not automatically transform its staff into oceanographers. Vaughan could hire young men competent in their particular branches of science and try to direct their attention seaward, but there was no pool of trained oceanographers from which he could draw. Nor could Europeans be lured from secure positions in their own countries by the small salaries Vaughan could afford to offer. As a result, Vaughan did what he could to “bring them up”; the Scripps Institution was the first in the country to offer a degree in oceanography.
The first student to receive a PhD in oceanography, in April, 1930, was Ancel B. Keys, who had worked mainly with F. B. Sumner and had concentrated on physiology. Others soon followed.[2] There were still many research assistants who spent time at the Scripps Institution to fulfill requirements in other departments of the university, but the La Jolla institution had at last become a department in its own right. Those working toward a degree in oceanography, although each specialized in one particular area of research, were required to know something about all aspects of oceanic investigation. Even Martin W. Johnson, who came to the staff from the University of Washington and Woods Hole in 1935 as a fully-qualified instructor in marine zoology, took McEwen's course in dynamical oceanography
In some of the young students Vaughan placed much of his hope for the future of the Scripps Institution and for oceanography in the United States. He was particularly gratified, in 1931, to obtain the appointment of Richard H. Fleming as a research assistant, for Fleming was the first young scientist to come to the institution with previous experience in oceanographic work at sea. After graduating with top honors in chemistry, Fleming had completed two years of graduate work, largely in biology, and had had a summer's boat work in connection with the Marine Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia. He was immediately able to assist E. G. Moberg on the collecting trips of the Scripps, and made possible a significant increase in the institution's boat work.
Another promising young candidate for the PhD degree, who first came to the institution from the University at Berkeley as a research assistant in August, 1931, was Roger R. Revelle. Working mainly with Vaughan on the study of marine bottom deposits, Revelle soon showed a willingness and competence for work at sea. In 1933 he spent ten days on the U. S. Coast and Geodetic survey steamer Pioneer, and in 1934 an even longer period aboard the U. S. S. Bushnell, making hydrographic observations between the Aleutian Islands and Honolulu. Richard Fleming also collected data and water samples for the institution on the same basis, spending three months aboard the naval vessel Hannibal in the Gulf of Panama and off the coast of Costa Rica in 1933.
Prospects for the expansion of the institution's program of oceanic exploration thus began to brighten in the last few years of Vaughan's administration. The main task now was to find the “younger man who would take the lead.” Vaughan, who had put aside much of his own research to give full attention to the institution, was anxious to return to Washington and his former studies, but decided in 1932 to remain at La Jolla until mid-1936. He made this decision partly because a grant from the National Academy of Sciences enabled him to take a substantial break from the routine of dealing with the institution's problems.
Late in 1931 Vaughan was asked by the Committee on Oceanography of the NAS to prepare a report on the international aspects of oceanography. In proposing the matter to President Sproul, Chairman
Vaughan left the institution in late August, 1932, and was off the university payroll for a period of fourteen months. He had made careful arrangements regarding staff appointments, general financing and over-all program, but left the details of direction in the hands of E. G. Moberg. A large part of the responsibility, in fact if not in name, fell to Tillie Genter, who had been secretary and librarian of the Scripps Institution during Vaughan's entire administration and for a number of years during Ritter's time. Staff members remember her as a perennial “Girl Friday” who always knew where everything was, carefully budgeted the meagre funds, and virtually ran the institution in her quiet and efficient way. She and Ruth Ragan, who joined the staff shortly after Vaughan became director, were for many years the mainstays of the director's office and of the library, which by 1934 numbered over 14,000 volumes and about 30,000 reprints.
Such reliable assistance in administration again proved valuable when, less than a year after his return to full-time management of the institution's affairs, Vaughan fell ill with tuberculosis. For six months he was bedridden or confined to his home, but continued by proxy to supervise the scientific work and dictated numerous letters from his bed. By now the effort to find a suitable successor had become a full-scale operation.
A committee to advise the president of the university on the
During the next four years Harald U. Sverdrup's name recurred again and again. Everyone seemed to agree, however, that there was little chance that this famous scientist and arctic explorer, who was, in Vaughan's estimation, “the most outstanding physical oceanographer now living of early middle age,”[6] would leave his research work in Norway for a permanent position elsewhere. There was no doubt concerning his qualifications. He had been chief scientist on the seven year Arctic expedition of the Maud and that of the submarine Nautilus, and had prepared the reports on dynamical oceanography for the Carnegie expedition in the Pacific and for expeditions in the Antarctic. He had served in at least an advisory capacity in the preparation of similar reports on the other great oceans. Besides being “a world leader in the study of problems of oceanic circulation,”[8] Sverdrup was broadly trained in geophysics and chemistry and reputed to be “sympathetic” with other kinds of oceanographic research. “If we could get a leader such as Sverdrup associated with some of the younger men such as Revelle and Fleming,” Vaughan stated at one point, “within a very short time I think the Institution would shoot forward more rapidly than has been possible during the formative period.”[9]
With prospects of obtaining Sverdrup doubtful, however, Vaughan, Louderback and the committee continued to gather information about other possible candidates. Hopes brightened when, in October, 1935, Professor Bjorn Helland-Hansen, Director of the Geophysical Institute at Bergen, Norway and one of the world's foremost oceanographers, spent several days at the Scripps Institution. He had been invited by Vaughan to go over the current program and to make
I don't know whether Professor McEwen or Professor Moberg would wish to take the directorship. As far as I can see, they ought to continue their present research work which they pursue with great ability and success. Amongst the young Oceanographers, I have especially noted Mr. Roger Revelle whom I regard as a coming man, but he is probably too young for such a position now. I know of nobody in America who safely may be pointed out at present…[10]
Helland-Hansen's most definite suggestion came in a letter to university vice-president Monroe E. Deutsch:
I am sorry I cannot at present give you definite advice except to try to get hold of Dr. Sverdrup for a few years. Sverdrup is working with me at Bergen and I see him every day. When I arrive in Bergen on December sixth, I can easily speak with him, without any obligation, of course. You shall then hear from me as soon after as possible …[11]
A few days after his return to Bergen, Helland-Hansen cabled Vaughan “Sverdrup willing consider position according proposal,”[12] and Vaughan relayed the message to Berkeley. Although Louderback and the Committee were “very greatly pleased” by this news they made no immediate move to obtain Sverdrup's services, explaining that President Sproul was “very anxious that all possibilities be thoroughly canvassed.”[13] The last few months of Vaughan's directorship were filled with a flurry of correspondence concerning a large number of candidates, but through it all, Sverdrup remained the favorite. In April, 1936, he was finally, officially asked to become the new director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Fortunately the delay had not affected his earlier interest, and Sverdrup agreed to take the directorship for an initial period of three years. There was a certain amount of reservation, however, in the letter of acceptance he sent to Vaughan:
I must confess that I have hesitated in assuming the responsibility which the directorship of a great institution like Scripps must involve.
― 121 ―My hesitation is, I believe, rooted in my deep respect for scientific research. I have, until now, mostly attacked problems which have presented themselves to me during my somewhat varied career within geophysics, but there is a vast difference between this, I will call it personal responsibility within science, and the responsibility towards others, towards the University, the Institution and the men of science at the Institution, which the director must assume. It does not worry me that I am not an expert within many of the branches of oceanography which are represented at the Scripps Institution, since it is impossible to find anyone who would have such qualifications, but I do not want to disappoint those who think me able to carry your plans further …[14]
Sverdrup arrived in La Jolla in late August and spent a week going over the details of the institution's program with Vaughan. On September 1, 1936, he assumed full responsibility for the direction of that program, and it soon became evident that there would be some changes. He spent a number of hours during his first week as director visiting the local members of the Advisory Board Vaughan had set up in 1928. His main purpose in making these visits was to discover how J. C. Harper, Julius Wangenheim, Fred Baker and others who had taken an active interest in the affairs of the institution would react to the proposal of obtaining a “special vessel” for extended operations at sea. Sverdrup lost no time in “taking the lead” toward an increase in the institution's boatwork.
Meanwhile the Scripps was used for short trips off the Southern California coast, visiting a total of twenty-two stations in the next two months. Sverdrup asked each of the staff members to make a statement regarding the value of both extended use of the Scripps and, hypothetically, a larger and more fully-equipped ship, to his particular research. An immediate problem brought to his attention in this inquiry was that, as there was no special crew for the Scripps, those who would benefit from more frequent collecting had to enlist their scientific colleagues as crew members, often taking the latter away from more pressing work. Thus there had been an understandable hesitancy on the part of the biologists, for example, to make heavier demands on the time of those working in fields where there was less need for regular collection and observation. Hiring a part-time crew had proven difficult in the San Diego area, with the result that the non-scientific crew of the Scripps consisted only of the captain, Murdock G. Ross, and Henry Ball, whose services as cook
On November 13, 1936, a tragic and mysterious explosion occurred on the Scripps as she lay at her moorings in the yacht basin, and Ross and Ball were critically burned. Ball died of his injuries a week later, and Ross never fully recovered. The Scripps burned and sank within minutes after the explosion, and as both victims were too badly injured to explain at the time, the cause of the accident remained a mystery until the boat was salvaged. The original gasoline engine had been replaced by a Diesel engine a few months before, and it was found that it had been the only gasoline equipment remaining aboard, a small stove in the galley, which had produced the blast. One theory was that Ball had looked for a leak in the connection between the stove and its supply tank with a lighted match. In any event, the Scripps was so badly damaged as to make her useless for further research work, though the wrecked hull was eventually patched up enough to see some service as a garbage scow in the San Diego harbor.[16] Some of the scientific equipment was reclaimed, but nevertheless, three months after he came to the institution, Sverdrup found himself without any vessel whatsoever for conducting research at sea.
If the loss of the Scripps had not occurred under such tragic circumstances it could almost have been considered an advantage, for the ship had been inadequate for the kind of investigations Sverdrup was contemplating. Obviously an institution of oceanography required some sort of research vessel, and no longer could anyone suggest that the staff “manage as best they could” with the Scripps. Sverdrup immediately began looking at available ships, taking careful notes on their potential for scientific work, and he and other staff members took short trial runs on some of them. It was even suggested that the U. S. Navy might finance the building of a completely new research ship in exchange for the privileges of using her and having access to the findings of the Scripps staff.
Early in 1937 Sverdrup arranged meetings between himself, President Sproul and Robert P. Scripps. The inheritor of the large part of his father's fortune, Bob Scripps also seemed to have inherited E. W.'s love for the sea and ships, and was himself an ardent yachts-
The Serena, which was rechristened the E. W. Scripps, was formally presented to the institution on December 17, 1937. Her 100-foot masts had each been shortened by 28 feet, some of her staterooms had been converted into storage and laboratory space, the Diesel engine and fuel tanks had been enlarged to provide a cruising radius of 2100 miles. Two large winches, each carrying almost four miles of cable, had been installed on deck, and a number of other changes had been made. Including the cost of remodelling, the E. W. Scripps represented an expenditure of approximately $50,000, and was in Sverdrup's words, “ideally suited for the purposes of the institution.” She was large enough to make cruises of any desired extent, but not so large that the costs of her maintenance and operation were prohibitively expensive.
Nevertheless, the regular use of a large research vessel would make necessary a considerable addition to the institution's income, and finding such additional funds would not be easy. The statewide university was still feeling the effects of the Depression, and regardless of a rapidly increasing enrollment, was struggling in 1937 and 1938 to keep within a budget that was more than a million dollars less than that of the last normal biennium ending in 1931. Robert Scripps, taking a renewed interest in the institution's affairs, agreed to contribute $15,700 toward the “professional budget and general maintenance” of the institution, and up to half of the cost of operating the E. W. Scripps for the year 1938–39, provided the state would match these sums. This bright financial picture darkened considerably when Scripps suddenly died of an internal hemorrhage
The time when such pleas for additional funds might have fallen on deaf ears among the university administration was long past. The Scripps Institution had shown itself to be a worthy member of the University of California family, and it is evident from official correspondence and actions that the needs of the institution received full consideration. Robert B. Sproul, who was president of the university for a 28-year period beginning in 1930, often visited the institution on his trips to the southern campuses, and met frequently with the director of the Scripps Institution and its chief private supporters. During these last years of the Depression, however, it had become more and more difficult to squeeze out extra funds, and every effort was made to tap outside sources of income. The Federal Bureau of Fisheries and the Geological Society of America both helped finance cruises of the E. W. Scripps in the late thirties.
There were beneficial as well as harmful effects of the Depression years, however, particularly in the real boost given to the Scripps Institution by workers provided by the national Works Progress Administration and the State Emergency Relief Administration. The W. P. A. undertook several projects involving manual labor at the institution in the last years of Vaughan's administration. These included road making and repairs, painting and repairs to the pier, the painting of twenty of the institution's cottages and the taking of erosion prevention measures on a large part of the institution's land. These were short term projects which required supervision on the part of the institution staff and a considerable amount of paper work, but made it possible with outside financing to meet some of the most pressing needs in the care of the buildings and grounds.
Even greater help was given by skilled and semi-skilled workers assigned to the institution by the W. P. A. and S. E. R. A. From 1934 for a period of several years the services of a large number of trained personnel, sometimes as many as twenty-five, were provided by public funds. Among these workers were translators, stenographers and typists, laboratory assistants, computers, draftsmen, photographers and librarians. With this extra help it was possible in almost every department to catch up on some of the backlog of routine analyses and calculations which had in almost every case piled up because of a lack of manpower. Under the direction of librarian Ruth Ragan the library was recatalogued, and translations of important scientific works were added to its shelves by, among others, an otherwise unemployed German baron. Some of the scientific assistants had had years of training and experience in work related to the institution's research program, and were able to carry out complicated tasks in the various laboratories. Thus despite the meagre income of the Depression, the institution benefited greatly from an expanded work force, and much was accomplished which might have had to have been postponed for many years.
With the impetus given it by the gift of a more adequate research vessel and a sizable increase in staff, the research program of the Scripps Institution made rapid progress in the late thirties. There was, however, at least in Sverdrup's view, much to be desired in the institution's program of instruction. It was difficult to find qualified graduate students to undertake the course in oceanography because of deficiencies in their college training, and Sverdrup felt that to remedy this situation it was necessary to interest students in oceanography at the undergraduate level. An awareness of the scope of the science of oceanography, and of the background in a number of disciplines which its study required, would hopefully result in a greater number of applicants adequately prepared to enter the field on the graduate level. Thus in 1937 Sverdrup and several other staff members instituted the first undergraduate course in oceanography at the Scripps Institution as part of the summer session of the University of California at Los Angeles. Attendance was small and the course was discontinued after one year, although beginning in 1939 courses in oceanography, taught by members of the institution staff, were offered in alternate semesters on the U. C. L. A. campus.
Meanwhile from eight to twelve graduate students, some of them
Their efforts to set up a general course in oceanography and to define its curriculum led Sverdrup, chemical oceanographer Richard Fleming and marine biologist Martin W. Johnson, prompted by a suggestion from the representative of a New York publishing firm, to write a general textbook on oceanography. They began work on this book late in 1938, and Sverdrup stated in his annual report of 1940 that he hoped the book would appear by the end of that year or early in 1941.
None of the authors had foreseen the magnitude of the task they had assigned themselves. Originally planned to be about 420 pages in length, the textbook had grown to almost 1100 pages by the time it was published as The Oceans, Their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology, late in 1942.[18]
Sverdrup, who wrote fluently and prolifically in three languages, evidently had large measures of self-discipline and energy, impressing his associates with his ability to do vast amounts of work in relatively short periods of time. His co-author Richard Fleming recalls that Sverdrup began his chapters of The Oceans while waiting for the E. W. Scripps, which he was to join on a cruise, in the Mexican seaport of Guaymas. An unexpected delay, which to others might have been time wasted, was to Sverdrup a chance to work on one of his many projects.
Sverdrup arranged to join many of the cruises of the E. W. Scripps for short periods of time, at least, for he considered these expeditions
Since my first contact with the Scripps Institution it has been my hope to establish a closer cooperation between the different specialists on the staff and gradually to develop a research program for the Institution as such. The possibility for development of an Institution program presented itself when the late Mr. R. P. Scripps in December, 1937, donated the research vessel E. W. Scripps to the University. With an adequate research vessel the work at sea could be planned according to problems as we see them, whereas work at sea based only on cooperation with other organizations could never become satisfactory because other wishes than ours would enter when planning cruises … During the past biennium definite progress has been made in the concerted attack on well-defined oceanographic problems and it is hoped that further developments will follow similar lines.
Less than two years after this was written the Scripps Institution and the nation were involved in the Second World War, and long range plans gave way to immediate needs. The war brought great changes to the institution, and Sverdrup's visions of a rather modest, well-defined and unified institutional program were never to become reality. To understand the changes that occurred in the Scripps Institution during the war, however, it is necessary to understand what the institution had become under Sverdrup's leadership. The importance of the early cruises of the E. W. Scripps, and of some of the findings which resulted from them, was to become more and more evident as the theories were applied to practice.