This article has This been published in or collective redistirbution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The approval portionthe ofwith any permitted articleonly photocopy by is of machine, reposting, this means or collective or other redistirbution NURC: CELEbrATING 50 YEArs OF IntErnATIONAL PArtnErsHIps IN OcEAN RESEArcH AND OpERATIOns Oceanography , Volume 21, Number 2, a quarterly journal of The 21, Number 2, a quarterly , Volume BY THOMAS D. ALLAN Memories from the Sixties O ceanography Society. Copyright 2008 by The 2008 by Copyright Society. ceanography THE BEGINNING had participated in several geophysical the Arabian Gulf, and the captain had Many of the disparate band of scientists research cruises to the eastern Atlantic. offered to tow my magnetometer on the and engineers who gathered in La Spezia When I embarked on the research vessel way. In the new theories emerging at to set up the new NATO SACLANT Discovery II during the summers of that time, the Red Sea was possibly an Anti-Submarine Warfare Centre 1957 and 1958, we tried out a number of embryonic ocean. Here was a chance to (SACLANTCEN) had been recruited new techniques and devices that would seek a few clues. from their own national defense eventually reveal symmetrical patterns Back in Cambridge in time for the establishments. At that time, I was the to support the concept of a spreading birth of my first daughter, I took a O ceanography Society. Society. ceanography O only Brit to join straight from university seafloor and the theory of plate tectonics. phone call from Henry Charnock, one or Th e [email protected] Send Society. ceanography to: correspondence all where I had just completed my disserta- At Cambridge, I was put in charge of of my shipmates on Discovery, asking if tion on marine geophysics. This was my the so-called “proton magnetometer,” a I might be interested in applying for a A first real job. beautifully simple device built around post with a new anti-submarine warfare reproduction, systemmatic Republication, article for use and research. this copy in teaching to granted ll rights reserved. is Permission I had stretched my time as a student a bottle of water wrapped in a coil of center that had recently been opened at to the limit—nine years at three universi- copper wire that, towed behind the a place called La Spezia on the Italian ties—and for the previous three years ship, could detect very small changes Riviera. The UK Ministry of Defense in Earth’s magnetic field had just come up with a job offer, but I (Figure 1). Another new put that on hold while I flew out to be instrument that emerged interviewed by the Centre’s director, about that time was a heav- Gene Booth, and his deputy, Mel Arsove. ily damped spring balance I recall that the “interview” was more of O placed in the center of the a relaxed conversation over a Campari P Society, ceanography ship to detect small changes soda in the bar of the Hotel Jolly, but I in Earth’s gravity field. can’t recall why it was held there and not I had gathered enough at the Centre. O data for a dissertation and Shortly afterwards, my wife Helen Box 1931, Rockville, M was starting to put it all and I were winging our way out to Milan together when my supervisor with our 10-week-old firstborn, thence asked if I fancied a cruise to on to Pisa after a seven-hour delay, to the Red Sea. HMS Dalrymple report for duty on May 2, 1960 (May 1 is D 20849-1931, US of the UK Hydrographic a holiday in Italy). Figure 1. Recovering a proton magnetometer, November 1959. Service was heading for SACLANTCEN was to become a fully A . 18 Oceanography Vol.21, No.2 Figure 2 (left). R/V Aragonese. Figure 3 (below). Author Tom Allan fledged NATO center a few years later, and the captain of the Aragonese but at that time a private, nonprofit, officially open the bar, 1962. Italian company called SIRIMAR ran it (initially overseen by the Raytheon Company and subsequently by Penn- sylvania State University). SIRIMAR employed two senior US administrators: a question that bothered Nat Maggio (in charge of finance) and me much at the time as Bob Nelson (in charge of personnel). my wife and I plus new The military side was the responsibility baby, recent tenants of a of a bevy of US naval captains. Another one-room flat in England, prominent American of that era was moved into a picturesque George Wood, who drove a Bentley villa in Maralunga and was such an Anglophile that on overlooking the Gulf of his birthday the Brits presented him La Spezia. My amateur effort to capture will of our support staff, which consisted with a bowler hat. that view on canvas still hangs in my of the Port Captain Mario Mastrosanti, office to remind us of happy, sunny days. the ship’s workshop staff under the THE GrOups direction of Vito Failla and consisting of Canadian George Lindsay led the ARAGONESE highly skilled technicians such as Enrico Operations Research Group; a well- The Centre chartered an old freighter, Muzi and Celsino Montanari to name respected German pioneer, always which had to be converted into a fully just two who were particularly helpful. referred to by more junior scientists as fledged research vessel (Figure 2). Dr. Fischer, led the Sound Propagation Possibly, Gene Booth had concluded that THE CruISES Group; the UK’s Bill Kelly led the giving a few oceanographers their heads During the first half of 1961, with Henry Target Classification Group; and the to pursue their own, unclassified research Charnock as chief scientist, I undertook bearded Dane Lars Brock-Nannestad, might be one way to ensure that the a number of short cruises aimed mainly led the Electro-Magnetic Group. conversion of Aragonese could be accom- at bedding down our new equipment. Oceanography’s strength doubled plished in short order. And, it proved to Henry ventured as far as Gibraltar on when I joined Henry Charnock, its be so. Within a few months, the hold had one cruise and I still have his cruise head. Roberto Frassetto, an Italian been turned into a spacious laboratory reports from that period. His unique, war hero turned scientist, recruited equipped with a precision depth recorder, pithy style was clearly an attempt to from Columbia University’s Hudson gyrocompass, course recorder, long-range bring everything up to speed as quickly Laboratories in New York, soon joined radar, intercom, an air-conditioning unit, as possible, but there is more than a us in the Oceanography Group. Within and two 60-kw generators to provide an hint that the Port Captain’s office should a year, Andre Kermabon, a French independent power supply. On the upper model itself on UK procedures. Here are engineer recruited from Schlumberger, deck, hydrographic winches and bathy- just a few examples: joined us to design and use a thermographs were installed. Contrary to new bottom corer. US Navy regulations, we even managed • The winch works fairly well but is not To this day, the question may still be to create a “rest and recreation” area, well enough fixed to the deck causing asked as to why a new antisubmarine otherwise known as a bar (Figure 3). excess vibration. warfare (ASW) research center, free to Of course, with the exception of recruit defense experts from 15 NATO Roberto, our level of Italian was pretty Thomas D. Allan ([email protected]) is nations, should choose to include in its basic and we depended enormously on Retired, SACLANT ASW Research Centre, staff a few oceanographers. It was not the high level of competence and good La Spezia, Italy. Oceanography June 2008 19 • Mark sample bottles with white paint Suez). These cruises, of course, were a National Institute of Oceanography, on caps. follow-up to the earlier investigations and the US Coast Guard. Rendezvous • On four occasions the Captain carried out on Discovery. were made at sea with WHOI’s Atlantis expressed his concern about the stock of We made many port calls. To check on and Chain, and with Jacques Cousteau’s fuel oil, recommending that we should any cumulative drift in our ship-borne Calypso. Scientists from France, drift, or steam on one boiler. Please let gravity meter, it was necessary to com- Germany, Italy, Turkey, the United States, me have a statement of the fuel oil on pare its reading in port with a calibrated and the United Kingdom sailed with us board at La Spezia on 24 May and the station of an international terrestrial on several of the cruises. So, although amount used per day. grid of control points. It was recom- the program may seem to have had little • On June 1 it was reported that the mended practice to make these checks direct link with the main ASW thrust water supply was critical. It was said as frequently as feasible, thus providing of the Centre, this collaboration helped that 100 tons of saline water had been us with a splendid excuse for a short to create joint programs with well- taken on by mistake at Gibraltar. It was run ashore. Over this two-year period, established centers of research during decided to take fresh water at Almeria Aragonese called at Gibralter, Almería, the Centre’s formative years. Several joint and the operation took two whole days. Barcelona, Monaco, Villefranche, publications bearing the Centre’s name • Please arrange that official messages Cagliari, Civitavecchia, Naples, Valetta, appeared in a variety of well-respected are addressed to the Captain or Chief Siracusa, Palermo, Piraeus, Rhodes, scientific journals.