Scri Pps Institution of Oceanography

SCRI PPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY FIRST FIFTY YEARS BY HELEN RAITT AND BEATRICE MOULTON The Ward Ritchie Press Copyright 1967 by Helen Raitt and Beatrice Moulton Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-22490 Printed in the USA by Anderson, Ritchie & Simon Designed by Ward Ritchie TO ROGER R. REVELLE WHO SAID IN A CHARTER DAY ADDRESS MARCH 22, 1950 "But a university is not great because it has many hundreds of buildings, thousands of employees, tens of thousands of students or millions of dollars of annual income. A university is not great because it has elegant classrooms, laboratories full of equipment, a well stocked library, a business-like administration or a winning foot ball team. Like all human institutions, a university is the product of the work and devotion of individual men and women, and it can be great only in so far as it can obtain the fullest measure of creative accomplishment from the men and women who give it life and meaning." PREFACE THE SAN DIEGO SUBURB of La Jolla lies some thirteen miles north of its parent city, at a point where the coastline dips abruptly inward and arcs gently to the north along a level stretch of beach. The beauty of its physical setting and the region'S mild climate have made the community a favorite of vacationers and those retiring from more rigorous climes and responsibilities, so that La Jolla has long been regarded as one of the "resort towns" of the California coast. There is speculation now that this sleepy, leisurely atmosphere is bound to change, for in 1964, one of the newest branches of the University of California was established here. If V.CS.D. (for San Diego) grows as scheduled, it will have some twenty-seven thousand students by the year 1995. Already students, faculty, and sup porting personnel have begun to arrive. In the fall of 1966 some 1470 undergraduate students were enrolled in the first of the university'S twelve colleges, Revelle, and the number was expected to almost double with the opening of the second college, John Muir, in 1967. It is for these newcomers, especially, that the authors have collected and written down this somewhat informal history of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Scripps Institution has been a La Jolla landmark practically since the turn of the century, and in scientific circles, at least, has brought as much renown as have the town's celebrated Cove and picturesque Riviera-like cliffs. The institution formed the nucleus of faculty, administration and facilities around which the new university began to develop; without Scripps and the ability and foresight of its leadership it is doubtful that V.CS.D. would have come to La Jolla at all. In these days when full-grown institutions spring up within a few years, when a legislative appropriation can create a giant university almost overnight, the struggles of a small research institution to establish a foothold and gather together enough people and equip ment to explore the vast Pacific Ocean may seem insignificant, even amusing. But it is struggles such as these which have paved the way for the achievements of today, the men formed by the demands of a less-favored era in science who provide much of the leadership for [vii] today's great advances. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a handful of other research facilities had the answers, or knew where to find them, when great scientific questions were posed by the Second World War and subsequent events. Many scientists feel that a large part of the government's current willingness to sponsor fundamental research and the generosity of its subsidies can be traced to the lessons learned in wartime from men like those who were working at the Scripps Institution. We have attempted, then, to put down what we consider to be an important story before the few written records that remain are displaced and memories are further obscured by the changes occurring so rapidly today. It is a story of which we feel the newcomers-the students and faculty of U.GS.D., as well as the hundreds of scientists who will make use of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's fine research facilities-can be justly proud. We had originally intended to deal only with the institution's early years, with its development until 1925 or so; the reader will note that this early period is given a relatively detailed coverage. One of the authors began to delve into these beginnings in 1961 in order to prepare some radio talks on the institution's history, and was alarmed to find that already the cartons of random letters and reports, of unlabelled photographs and building specifications, were giving way before the deluge of new acquisitions in the battle for library shelf space. "Old-timers" joined with her to label pictures and sort through memories, and a fascinating story of early scientific enter prise began to emerge from the random collection of memorabilia. It seemed to us this was a story which warranted preservation, and so we set out to sift through the assortment of yellowing documents and impress some order on them. Part-way through we were asked to extend our modest efforts and bring the story of Scripps up to the present, so that it might be put forward as U.GS.D.'s "centennial monograph" in connection with the Univer sity of California's hundredth anniversary in 1967-68. So we plunged on into S.I.O.'s accomplishments under directors Vaughan and Sver drup, into the complexities of science in the Second World War, into the aftermath of reorganization and the great surge in government interest and support. And then it simply became too big for us. So few were involved in the original Scripps Institution undertak ing that we felt we might attempt to sketch the role of each. In later [viii] years this became an impossibility. With the advent of the war and the great expansion of oceanographic research which followed it, the history would have to expand to a many-volume work to give each his due. And it would have to be written by someone else. Neither of the authors is a scientist nor purports even to fully comprehend the great changes that have taken place in the last twenty years in oceanog raphy, or the role the Scripps Institution has played in them (although one of the authors has been related to the Scripps faculty by marriage throughout this period). It is with deference that we write even of earlier, more "simple" expeditions and discoveries. Ideally, scientists should write of scientific history and properly place it in perspective for the reader. But it is the rare scientist who will take time to write more than journal articles or research papers. The lure of the laboratory and the undiscovered is always stronger than the lure of past history and dusty archives, so that it falls to wives and observers like us to dust off the scrapbooks and attempt to write some of it down. We hope the reader will look kindly on our efforts and realize that we have attempted to write a book about science for non-scientists, a book about the problems of university administration for those who would rather ignore them, a book about personalities for those who would rather have hard facts. It is, of course, an impossible task, and we can only hope there will be something of interest in this conglomerate story for almost every body. BEATRICE MOULTON HELEN RAITT La Jolla, December, 1966 [ix] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE AUTHORS could never have written this book without the assist ance of countless people, who sorted through their memories and their scrapbooks to help us. We are also grateful to those who read the manuscript along the way, helping to locate errors in fact and expression. The most we can do is to attempt to list the names of those who have contributed many hours of work and provided much encouragement, with our heartfelt thanks. We are indebted to the following who allowed us time for inter views during the last five years: Robert Arthur, Edna Watson Bailey, Joshua Bailey and the late Mrs. Joshua Bailey, the late Miss Molly Baker, Laura Crandall, Carl Eckart, Mrs. Guy Fleming, Richard Fleming, Denis and Miriam Fox, Edward Hindle, Carl and Laura Hubbs, Chauncey I. Jerabek, Martin Johnson, Myrtle Johnson, Eugene and Katherine La Fond, the late Obie Maler, Mr. and Mrs. George McEwen, Walter Munk, Ruth Ragan, Russell Raitt, Roger and Ellen Revelle, Marston and Peter Sargent, Francis Shepard, the late William T. Skilling, Mrs. Francis Sumner and Claude ZoBel!. We also wish to thank Anne Nutt Baker, Milton Bramlette, Isabel Crosby, Priscilla Duffield, Carolyn Vaughan Fortune, Jeffery Frautschy, Chancellor and Mrs. John Galbraith, James Gilmore, Cy Greaves, Marian Gunning, Mrs. W. W. Hawkins, Florence Hender son, Alice Heyneman, Sam Hinton, Sandra Huszar, Laurence Klauber, Elizabeth Kunkel, Anita Laton, Lon Manar, Effie Michener, Director and Mrs. William Nierenberg, Joseph Reid, Sam Scripps, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Silveira de Braganza, Mrs. Harry Smithton, Fred Spiess and Gudrun Sverdrup. Our appreciation goes to those who assisted us with the illustra tions: David Crouch, Robert Fisher, Nelson Fuller, Carl Johnson, Eugene La Fond, Neil Marshall, Diana Midlam, James Rupert and Howard Shirley. We owe a debt to all the librarians who humored our eccentricities, especially to Melvin Voigt, George V dovin, Joseph Gantner and to the La Jolla Historical Society, Serra Museum and San Diego Public Library. [xi] CONTENTS Introduction XV11 1. Camping and Collecting 3 II.

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