H. B. BIGELOW ISSUE VOL. XIV, NO. 2, JULY 1968 ON THE COVER- HENRY BRYANT BIGELOW 1879 1967 Leader in the Study of the Sea. Worthy Exemplar of the Agassiz tradition. Biologist: Distinguished Teacher. Judicious Advisor. Humanist. Sportsman. Author of "Oceanography, its Scope, Problems and Eco- nomic Importance", which led to the establishment of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1930 and laid the foundation of modern oceanography. Director 1930-1940. President 1940-1950. Chairman of the Board of Trustees 1950-1960. Founder Chairman 1960-1967. Jan H;thn, Editor Published quarterly and distributed to the Associates, to Marine libraries and universities around the world, to other educational institutions, to major city public libraries and to other organizations and publications. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 59-34518 Noel B. McLean Chairman, Board oi Trustees Paul M. Fye President and Director Columbus O'D. Iselin H. 8. Bigelow Oceanographer Bostwick H. Ketchum Associofe Director Arthur E. Maxwell Associate Director Vol. XIV, No. 2 July 1968 ( ] f"^ C /\ INwj | J C^ THE WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION ™ Woods Hole, Massachusetts Q OCEANOGRAPHY has been aptly defined as the study of the world below the surface of the sea; it should include the contact zone between sea and atmos- phere. According to present-day acceptance it has to do with all the characteristics of the bottom and margins of the sea, of the sea water, and of the inhabitants of the latter. Thus widely combining geophysics, geochemistry, and biology, it is inclusive, as is, of course, characteristic of any 'young' science: and modern oceanog- raphy is in its youth. But in this case it is not so much immaturity that is responsible for the fact that these several sub-sciences are still grouped together, but rather the realization that the physics, chemistry, and biology of the sea water are not only important per se, but that in most of the basic problems of the sea all three of these subdivisions have a part. And with every advance in our knowledge of the sea making this interdependence more and more apparent, it is not likely that we shall soon see any general abandonment of this concept of oceanography as a mother science, the branches of which, though necessarily attacked by different disciplines, are intertwined too closely to be torn apart. Every oceanic biologist should, there- fore, be grounded in the principles of geophysics and geochemistry; every chemical or physical oceanographer in some of the oceanic aspects of biology." HENRY BRYANT BIGELOW HIS definition of oceanography was written so well, with such vision that I would challenge anyone to find or submit a better one, even to-day. In April 1927, the President of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor A. A. Michelson, appointed a committee with Frank R. Lillie as the Chairman, to consider the share of the United States of America in a world-wide program of oceanographic research and report to the Academy. Subsequently, Dr. Bigelow was invited to make investigations and prepare a report. The report led the Academy to recommend the establishment of a well-equipped oceanographic institution on the east coast. The result was that our Institution was established almost full blown in the course of a year, with Dr. Bigelow as director.* I urge anyone who has not done SO to read the book "Oceanography, its Scope, Problems and Economic Importance", Houghton Mifflin, 1931 which contains parts of the original report. Many of Dr .Bigelow's recommendations are as valid in 1968 as they were in 1929. Paul M. Fye Director Most books tell what their authors know or think they know. Henry B. Bigelow's "Oceanography" (Houghton, Mifflin) is devoted to telling what Mr. Bigelow does not know, to what, in fact, no one knows. Lewis Gannett (Book Review, N. Y. Times, 1931) *For a full account of the developments see Chapter IX in: "The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory" by Frank R. Lillie. The Univ. of Chicago Press. 1944. , HENRY BRYANT BIGELOW 3 October 1879 — 11 December 1967 An Appreciation . . . H, .ENRY BRYANT BIGELOW died on December llth, 1967, aged 88 years. The world seemed suddenly to have be- come appreciably poorer. When 1 first met Henry Bigelow he had recently lost a son in a mountaineering accident, and the impression that I gained was of a stricken saint. Saintliness was a quality that he would have disclaimed. He was a many-sided, warm and human person, loving the open air and the occupations that go with it. I have not previously heard of a saint who so much enjoyed partridge shooting. Nevertheless, my first impression was to be borne out by my later experience of him. From his boy- hood and for the whole of his life Henry loved the outdoors and every facet of natural life. At the age of 26 he married Elizabeth Perkins Shattuck, who shared this love and accompanied him on many journeys. It was indeed tragic that they should lose not only a son in the out- doors, but shortly afterwards their elder daughter in an accident with a horse. They always treated their many friends with great generosity. In the early years of the Second World War we lived in Lowestoft, which was rather too near the enemy and rather often lightly bom- barded. It was characteristic of the Bigelows to offer to take our children and, as it were, adopt them for the duration of the war. This seemed to us a very sensible action to take, so much so that it was; I think, three days before we decided to decline it. After the war we did not decline but joyfully accepted an equally generous offer to take one of our children, who had suffered a serious ill- ness, and treat her as a Bigelow daughter for a year. These kindnesses were only examples, though large ones, of the way that the Bigelows treated their friends who visited them. There was in their behaviour as hosts not only the utmost consideration but also a determination to take trouble to make the visits exceed- ingly interesting for their guests. They remain as vivid memories. There must have been a score or more sayings of Henry Bigelow that should be down on paper. Two have stayed with me over the decades. One was the re- minder of Mark Twain's definition of ignorance; "not so much not knowing things, as knowing things that ain't so." The other was a dirge of woe about the mistake of ever becoming a Director. "I can't think why anybody tries for it." I was often to think of that later when I learned from my own experience that the staff bring to the Director only the prob- lems to which there is no good solution. They solve all the easy and pleasant ones themselves; and there is almost no limit to the kind of problem that crops up among a staff of any reasonable size. Looking over the list of Henry Bigelow's associates from Europe, I feel that one of his great qualities was that he had a definite effect on everybody who worked near him or dealt with him in any way. I remember myself the impact he made on the International Council for the Explora- tion of the Sea when he came to see us in Europe in March 1931 as representative of the North American Committee on Fishery Investigation. Throughout the proceedings the conference was richer whenever he was present. I am sure that it was the same when European workers came to work in association with him. One had the feeling that he was a man of such excellence and such exceeding pleas- antness that not for a moment would one relax in the effort to do one's very best in order to support him as far as possible. That was my personal feeling and it is clear and to me at least, very remarkable, that he must have had the same effect on the eleven or so people whose names are in front of me: Hjort, Helland-Hansen, Schmidt, Knudsen, Maurice, Stanley Gardiner, D'Arcy Thompson, Vedel Taning, F. S. Russell and le Danois. A. G. Huntsman of Canada and Bigelow were, as I saw during the Passamaquoddy Investigations, close colleagues and joint venturers in many an enterprise. Out of the friendship with Hjort came their joint fishing for prawns in U.S. deep water similar to that of the Norwegian fjords and so — I have always supposed — the development of this fishery in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere. I remember D'Arcy Thompson, who at that time was by no means recognized as he deserved to be, holding forth on the subject of professors who took all the limelight for themselves, and those others whose chief monument was a series of very distinguished students. On the latter score Bigelow ranks high. We have not only Herrington, Nesbit, Schroeder, Sette and Walford, all of whom are recognized as being of the first rank in fishery and marine research, but also Smith, Ricketts, Hoyle and Graves of the International Ice Patrol, whose work is known all over the world, and one who' became his colleague — George L. Clarke. Two students were to succeed him in the directorship at Woods Hole: Columbus OTJ. Iselin and Edward H. Smith. That is not to say that Bigelow put teaching before research. He did not seek the limelight but his record is one of absolutely steady and painstaking research from contact with the field. Always he put the importance of field observations high. There is a story that once he was so angry with a student who drew the insides of an animal from his imagination that his outburst disqualified him from being allowed near any student for quite some years. As a young man, between the ages of 23 and 28, Bigelow published papers on various biological subjects, but already at the age of 25 he was working on coelen- terates including medusae from the Mai- dive Islands, where he had been on an expedition with Alexander Agassiz. This was the beginning of what I am inclined to call the coelenterate period of Bigelow's biological work, and it continued as his main interest for 16 years. It really ran on for much longer than that with isolated papers, as his bibliography shows. There was a paper on medusae as late as 1940. Sir Frederick Russell writes to me— "Throughout his career Bigelow had a lasting interest in the systematics and biology of the pelagic cnidarians on which group he was an acknowledged master. His report in 1909 on the medusae of the eastern tropical Pacific collected by the Albatross is a classic and set the standard for his many succeeding papers. It is sufficient surely to say that his name stands among the few who have laid the foundations of our knowledge of this group. Bigelow studied also the siphon- ophores, the group in which in his latter years he collaborated with Mary Sears. His report in 1911 on the Albatross siph- onophores was of the same standard as that on the medusae. It is said by Totton in his 1965 Synopsis of the Siphonophora that the 1911 report is 'the most useful systematic report on the Siphonophora that has ever been written.' Bigelow thus undoubtedly ranks as a great systematic zoologist." The life of the young man up to the age of 33 was based on the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard where Bigelow had graduated in 1901. The Museum life was broken by expeditions with Agassiz, the one to the Maldive Islands already mentioned and others to the east and tropical Pacific and the West Indies. Following a meeting with Sir John Murray in the Museum, there began in 1912 what must be considered as the second and major work of Bigelow's life, the cruises in the Gulf of Maine. The schooner Grampus was made available for a joint expedition by the Museum and the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and was conducted by Henry Bigelow for 1 2 years. Although he suffered from sea- sickness he spent the greater part of every year in making observations in the Gulf of Maine with very primitive re- sources and mainly as a "one-man band." This is where the patient determination of the good field observer was called upon to a degree that cannot fail to arouse our admiration. The three book-size mono- graphs that resulted were respectively on the fishes, the plankton and the hydrog- raphy of the Gulf. And each is a classic because the completeness derives from close observation at sea. On the fishes he had the help of W. W. Welsh until his untimely death, thereafter he had to com- plete it himself. It has always seemed to me that these monographs, since I first encountered them in 1930 on joining the Passamaquoddy Commission, gave a better and more coherent account than that work done by so many more hands in an area of comparable size, namely the North Sea. I found in the highly uncertain and difficult area of the Bay of Fundy that there was at least this firm and reliable basis on the parent sea, namely the Gulf of Maine. That had not been so in 1912. Until Bigelow started, there was virtually no knowledge of the biology of the off-shore waters, and for one man to have made such a clear and complete job of a rela- tively large area, which has a wide mouth open to the ocean, was a monumental job of which any man could be proud even if he had done nothing else in his whole life. I think that we can fairly call this phase of the work by the name 'oceanography,' and just as Henry Bigelow sailed as as- sistant to one of the original founders of oceanography, we might call him one of the founders of the new oceanography, that is oceanography with an ecological aim, so that instead of the mere descrip- tion of what there was in the sea, there should be an explanation of the inter- connections based on full knowledge and the applications of other branches of science. He developed this idea from 1927 on- wards as secretary of the Committee on Oceanography of the National Academy of Sciences. His report to the Academy on the United States contribution to the study of the oceans resulted in the found- ing of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, of which he was the first Director. Later he was President and then Chairman of the Board of Trustees and his association with the Institution lasted for 30 years. On the staffing of the new institution I quote the account in the preface to "Bigelow Volume" of this journal in 1955 — "The task of assembling a staff for the new oceanographic institution at Woods Hole was not an easy one for there was little raw material with which to work. There were a few young men with some experience at sea and by combing the museums of the country doubtless he could have assembled a respectable group of experts on special groups of marine organisms. The primary objective how- ever was to give impetus to oceanographic studies in the universities and there was the developing viewpoint to be fostered. He chose the bolder course of educating a new generation drawn from the univer- sities: physical chemists, meteorologists, physiologists, bacteriologists, whoever could be persuaded that scope for their skills could be found in studies at sea." That quotation, I think, substantiates my view that Henry Bigelow was a founder of modern oceanography. From this group of men of diverse skills and knowledge that he formed at Woods Hole has grown one of the world's most famed oceano- graphic institutes and one that continues to lead in many branches of marine science. Already in 1927, Henry Bigelow had begun a collaboration with William C. Schroeder, which was the beginning of the third phase in his biological work, that of writing systematic treatises on the fish of the North Atlantic, including the Gulf of Maine. This was the work that continued until his death. It was clear even in 1930 when I was in contact with that side of the North Atlantic, that the systematics of the fish was by no means complete in spite of the excellent work that had been done by Bigelow's predecessors. Year by year, and sometime more than once a year, the gap was filled in, brick by brick as it were, including his monumental work as Part 1 of the Fishes of the Western North Atlantic in 1948, Part 2 in 1953 and in collabora- tion with others, Parts 3 and 4 in 1963 and 1964. As lately as 1965, there ap- peared A further account of batoid fishes from the Western Atlantic and Notes on a small collection of rajiids from the sub- Antarctic region. A paper in 1956 had announced even a new family of Batoid fish. I will hazard the opinion that a great many biologists have gone to their graves without adding as much in their lifetime to knowledge as Henry Bigelow did in this, his third department of professional work. Bigelow's progress from the position of a comparatively obscure assistant in the Museum of Comparative Zoology to full professorship at Harvard in 1931 could not be called very rapid academic promo- tion, but nevertheless, he felt strongly his obligation to his students and maintained his teaching for many years, not only in oceanography, but also in invertebrate zoology. He maintained his professorship until the age of 70, and I have heard of him attending at the Museum until very much later, indeed he was still studying the fishes there to within a very short while of his death. His last paper is "in press" at the present writing. Bigelow's work was generally recog- nized. He was granted an honorary degree by Yale University and then by Harvard and by the University of Oslo. He received the Johannes Schmidt Medal, the Agassiz Medal, the Elliot Medal, the Bowie Medal, the Monaco Medal and was the first recip- ient of the Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal for Oceanography, established in his hon- our in 1966 by the trustees of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He was affiliated with the Norske Videnskaps Akademi, the Royal Geographical Society of London, the Zoological Society of London and the Marine Biological As- sociation of the United Kingdom. In spite of all these notable achieve- ments, I feel sure that Henry Bigelow himself would be more pleased than any- thing else that we had noted his remark- ably long record. It would please him I am sure to think that his published papers should extend over 68 years, from 1901- 1968. We know that he was quite proud that he had been on the staff at Harvard for longer than any other person had been, in the whole of the long and distinguished history of that university. Technically Henry Bigelow can be described as having bridged the period from the original oceanography to modern oceanography and the present day. Truly, however, his character seems timeless. He would have delighted the people of the Elizabethan period, or those of early New England or, I steadfastly believe, those of the times that lie ahead. He is survived by his widow Elizabeth, a son Frederick Shattuck Bigelow and daughter Mary, Mrs. Lamar Soutter. MICHAEL GRAHAM Rivington Bo/fon England Reprinted by permission of the Pergamon Press from: Deep Seo Research, Vol. 15, No. 2, April 1968 THE HARVARD CRIMSON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1930. Professor Bigelow Heads Oceanographic Institute Begun by $2,500,000 Rockefeller Foundation Gift Harvard Staff Will Assist in New Enterprise at Woods Hole Undergraduates Will be Able to Participate in Informal Study J™"' ^^^^^hk^^^'V M ^P*tt M • *T [•• '« Dr. Bigelow at a departure of the 'Atlantis'. At left is Columbus O'D. Iselin. At right the late Captain Henry Mandley, Jr., second mate on the vessel and one of the last of the American whalemen. Jhe lady is unidentified. T 0 attempt to write adequately about Henry Bryant Bigelow is extremely diffi- cult, especially for one who had the privilege of being one of his students. I discovered Dr. Bigelow when I was 21. Thus, I have known him and have sought out his advice during all of my mature life. His advice was always good. I was a junior at Harvard before I was smart enough to discover that Harvard had Dr. Bigelow. I had a terrible time finding him, but I finally located him on the top floor of the Museum of Coopera- tive Zoology in a much cluttered room, bending over a very dead fish with William Schroeder. In ten minutes my entire career was changed. I was supposed to be a banker. 1 told him about my growing interest in marine science and hardly looking up from his little fish he told me that I was reading in the wrong library. For anything having to do with oceanography, the library at the Museum was much the better one. I still have the notes which I made while reading in those days and they include Dr. Bigelow's recommendations for what he considered the more important aspects of marine science on which one should focus attention. Dr. Bigelow and several of his student friends, each of whom became a full pro- fessor at Harvard, had made a summer's cruise along the coast of Labrador. Twenty years later, I essentially retraced their steps. He and his associates had certainly skimmed off the scientific cream. We found in 1928 poor pickings, although we had much fun. The next winter, when I returned to the Museum, Dr. Bigelow was in the midst of two mammoth projects: he had just about finished his classical studies of all aspects of the Gulf of Maine and at the same time he was serving as the secretary for a National Academy of Sciences Com- mittee on Oceanography. I was able to help him some on his writings about the Gulf of Maine, but in his thinking about the future of oceanography he was so much ahead of me that I gave up. The book that he wrote remains to this day the bible of marine science. He outlined all the problems that have kept his many students busy during the subsequent 40 odd years. It will require many more years to complete the job that he so clearly outlined. As I came to know Dr. Bigelow as a man, rather than just as a scientist, I began to realize how much of an outdoor man he really was. He was a dead shot all his days, he could sail a racing sloop about as well as his friend and neighbor, Charles Francis Adams; he could paddle a canoe or row a boat a great deal better; he enjoyed mountain climbing and he seriously took up skiing at the age of 60. His one physical weakness was that in the open ocean he was often seasick. On his daily trips to Cambridge, he continued to grind out important science. Many of the references are of book length. He leaves behind a daughter and a son, and an especially lovely wife. His privi- leged students, such as I, stand in amazement at how much the man accom- plished. While one can resort to claiming that he worked dilligently at it for at least 68 years, I doubt that anyone has ever accomplished more for the general welfare of marine science than Henry Bryant Bigelow. You will find more complete accounts of his remarkable achievements, but I choose to be brief because I doubt that any of his other students ever had the chance that I had to know the whole man. C. O'D. /se/in H. B. Bigelow Oceanographer Dr. Bigelow and Mr. W. C. Schroeder, life- long collaborators, on "Bigelow Day". August 19, 1960. M .Y first meeting with Dr. Henry B. Bigelow was in the spring of 1923 in Washington, D. C. at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. His visit concerned a cod tagging project to which 1 had been assigned. I invited him to lunch and he, being a New Englander, I selected a restaurant noted for its seafoods. However, seafood was not his dish. Also, he insisted on paying for his meal inasmuch as the Govern- ment was paying him four dollars a day for hotel and meals. So that was that. Little did I know how fortunate I was to have joined up with Dr. Bigelow, for my close association with him lasted without interruption until his death in December 1967. Never was there a cross word between us. Any job he tackled was sure to be a success and one has only to read his "Memories of a Long and Active Life", published in 1964, to realize how truly active he was. Pessimism certainly was not a part of his life whereas humor was. Languages, French, German, Spanish, etc. he could handle well and I was amused one day when he was paid a visit by a French colleague with whom he carried out an animated conversation in the native tongue. 1 say 1 was amused because it was the only time in our life long association that I was to hear Dr. Bigelow speak French. W. C. Schroeder 8 For many years Dr. Bigelow was President of the Tihonet Club, a fishing club at Wareham, Mass., and for the last two years, until his death, he was Honorary Club President. I HAVE fished with Henry a good many times over quite a good many years. Our fishing acquaintance started by Henry showing me all the little known spots where trout are apt to hide, especially in hot weather. He knew a half dozen or so of such spots which I think at that time nobody else had found. Probably on account of that, in all the years I have fished Tihonet I have so far never failed to catch at least one trout per day. Three times Henry and I arranged a fishing party at Tihonet with James B. Conant and James Phinney Baxter. We would split our guests between us for fishing, and assemble at meals, where the conversation was most stimulating. Baxter's limitless memory would start Conant off, and Henry and I put in an occasional remark, either to keep the two going, or to shift them to another subject. I remember that on one of these occasions Henry had complained that Harvard had retired him too early. Both Conant and I maintained that, if it were not for his distinction, he would have been retired earlier. At the time of his retirement 1 had commissioned Henry to use his vast knowledge about fish and their habitat, plus his increased leisure, to find out why our best fishing pond, the Frogfoot Reservoir, became so murky in the summer months of each year that fly fishing was totally unproductive. As far as I could see, Henry did nothing about it, but the Reservoir did clear just before this particular trip with Conant and Baxter. Henry and Conant had a lengthy discussion about why it had cleared, and decided that the copper in the natural gas pipeline which had recently been laid under the Reservoir had done the trick. I am not sure that they were right, because the Reservoir has reverted to its murkiness. As recently as two years ago, Henry and I went on our last Tihonet fishing expedition together. In spite of his age, he insisted on helping me lift the canoe on and off the car, and on carrying one end of it from the road to the water. He com- plained about his casting, saying his wrists had lost their spring; but he handled a line of proper length, and when we fished a narrow, winding stream running through a cranberry bog, with a strong wind, Henry caught his fly on the cranberry bushes less than I did. While Henry's conversation was always interesting, I do not remember any "bon mots" as good as the one Parker Perry has contributed. It was Henry's obvious enjoyment of the fishing, the decisions of where to go and what fly to use, the anec- dotes of his early fishing experiences, and above all his friendly companionship, that made our trips together so memorable for me. Charles A. Coolidge 17 OUR of us were chatting after supper, and I asked Dr. Bigelow a question. "Dr. Bigelow, you are one of the world's most prominent authorities on ichthyology, and I believe you have perhaps fished for trout and salmon in more rivers and streams throughout the world than any other living American. As you know, I too love the sport and I have tested many of the more popular theories for successful fishing. Would you pass on to me your own formula for success?" Dr. Bigelow replied: "Well, Parker, I have known you since you were a little boy and yes, 1 will share with you my secret of successful fishing." I waited with bated breath, for this pearl of wisdom from such a great authority. And then, Dr. Bigelow with his quizzi- cal smile said: "Be there when the fish are biting!" Parker D. Perry H.B.8. on board the 'Atlantis' with J. Greenwood. J_ HE summer months I spent at Woods Hole, between 1931 and 1941, were always a sheer delight to me, scientifically speaking, largely due to the genius of Henry Bigelow, who never missed an opportunity to come to my laboratory on the second floor of the main building. He usually brought with him a visiting scien- tist or just dropped in for a few minutes chat. His humor and genial manner were highly stimulating and gave me a much broader outlook of the problems dealing with the sea. Dr. Bigelow's first question to me when I met him in the spring of 1931, at the home of Professor Conklin in Princeton,* after I had been informed of the plans for the Woods Hole Institution, was: "Do you think that we should also consider marine bacteria"? The twinkle in his eye and my appreciation of his profound knowledge of marine processes, as shown in his classical book on "oceanography" *See my paper on "Marine bacteria" in the 1955 volume of Deep Sea Research dedicated to Dr. Bigelow. that led to the establishment of the Insti- tute, convinced me that he was testing me for my own knowledge of the prob- lems involved. Without hesitation, my answer was in the affirmative. When, at the end of the month's stay in 1931 at Woods Hole, I presented to him a plan for organizing a marine bacteriology program, he asked me again: "Would you like to do it"? There was again only one answer, namely, a positive one. Henry Bigelow's humor was well ex- pressed in his talks at the weekly meet- ings of the staff. He addressed the first meeting in 1931, on the subject: "The seas that I vomited in." Thus he set the tone for others to follow. I believe that it was my turn the following week. I remember bringing with me, for illustrat- ing my talk, a few Petri plates and Erlenmeyer flasks. He did not fail to ask pertinent questions and make comments. These were most illuminating and highly stimulating. The following morning he came down to what he liked to refer to jokingly as my "harem"* to talk further about the role of bacteria in marine processes. One day, I believe it was in 1932, he brought with him the eminent Norwegian algologist and oceanographer, Professor H. Gran, who spent that summer at the Institution. When Gran saw the auto- clave in my laboratory, he turned to Bigelow and exclaimed: "That is exactly the equipment that I will need for my work." When I asked Gran the purpose of the autoclave in algal studies, he re- plied: "To prepare soil extract. I cannot grow my algae in sea water without it." Both Bigelow and I were amazed by this statement. I suggested that perhaps the soil extract provided the necessary iron in proper combinations for algal growth and photosynthesis. Gran replied: "No, I do not believe it since we have tested various organic compounds of iron without any success." I proceeded then to prepare a synthetic ferrolignoprotein complex. Gran tested it, and to both Bigelow's and my delight, it worked just as well as the soil extract. *He coined this term because of the fact that most of my assistants then and in subsequent summers were women. 10 r "The ship was rocking in her usual manner." Who can ever forget my first trip on the 'Atlantis' in 1932. In addition to myself and my first assistant, there were on the ship, Bigelow, Rakestraw, Gran, and I believe also Redfield, and one or two other scientists. Rakestraw shared the cabin with me. The ship was rocking in her usual manner. After I laid down on my bunk, I could not get up for more than 24 hours. Rakestraw apparently felt as bad as I did, but he managed to get up every few hours, rush to the toilet, then for an hour or so to the laboratory, and then to the bunk again. I felt so miserable that any courage that I may have had when I went on the ship left me. I well remember Bigelow, opening the door of the cabin, taking one good look at me, and announcing that: "All food would be wasted on him." Finally, the sun was up, and I felt somewhat better, I went outside and sat down on the deck of the ship, with Bigelow and Gran, listening to their stories about seasickness. They spoke of various seas, ranging from Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast, to the west coast of South Africa. I listened but was completely unable to go into the lab or even return to the cabin. The Captain (McMurray) brought me a glass of rum toddy, which tasted rather good. Finally, Bigelow turned to me and said: "You better stay on shore and have your assistant go to sea and collect the water and bottom samples that you require for your work." Unfortunately, my assistant (Reuszer) was also sick at that time and I did not see him until four days later, when we were returning to port. It was only when Charlie Renn became my second assistant the following year, that I could follow Bigelow's advice. One more story. Although this does not involve Bigelow himself, it is too good a story not to be told here. It was my last summer (1942) in Woods Hole. We were in the midst of World War II, and the Institution was completely oc- cupied with naval projects. A room was rented for me at the Marine Biological Laboratory where I spent exactly one month. My only collaborators were Dr. Cornelia Carey and one graduate as- 11 sistant. Since I was at that time busily engaged in the search for antibiotics, f I made an attempt to determine whether marine bacteria also include antibiotic- producing organisms. We enriched, daily, flasks containing fresh water with living cultures of Escherichia coli.* The latter were rapidly disappearing when added to the water. There appeared to be develop- ing in the water something (I still do not know whether it was a living organism or a chemical agent) that killed the bac- teria. Since our time at Woods Hole was soon coming to an end, I decided to take the flasks with the enriched water to New Brunswick and try to do the isolation work in my laboratory at Rutgers. When it was time for us to leave, Dr. Carey and I discovered to our complete disgust that our assistant, in an effort to leave a clean laboratory, washed up all the valuable flasks with the enriched water. There went our whole summer's work literally down the sink. I was glad that Dr. Bigelow was not there, to look upon my dis- couraged face. That was the end of my active scien- tific connection with the Oceanographic Institution, and well it might be, since it was also the end of the directorship of Dr. Bigelow. Without his constant guid- ance and encouragement, any further work in the field of oceanography on my part would have lacked the luster and perspective that only the master could inspire, and the master was Henry B. Bigelow. Selman A. Waksman Professor Emeritus Rutgers — The State University *This was a method that I often used at that time in an attempt to isolate antibiotic-producing organisms from the soil. TDr. Waksman modestly omits that he re- ceived the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1952. We believe that he and Professor August Krogh of Copenhagen were the only two Nobel Prize winners who have been connected with our Institution. (Ed.) The Anderson Sampler, used to obtain sediments for bacteriological studies. "Finally, the sun was up, and I felt somewhat better. I went outside and sat on the deck". Dr. Waksman ahead of the pilot house of the 'Atlantis'. 12 "Watcli out Archie . . . You're sitting on your cigar N. O one would have called Dr. Bigelow an organization man. Yet, he did produce an organization, and a peculiarly effective one, out of some of the world's most unorganizable people. He did it by being more of an individual than any of them, and they became docile and momentarily cooperative. The most useful administrative principle in Dr. Bigelow's system was his "open door policy." Early in the Institution's first meetings, Dr. Bigelow announced that he liked to see what was going on, and he liked to feel welcome to drop in. He said that he deplored the cellular pattern of the new biological labs at Harvard where every professor was protected by an inno- cent girl or an old battle axe in the front office. It frightened off the students who should have the benefit of a full paid professor now and then. He did not want that in his Institution, he said. He made this seem selfish, but what he really had in mind was that those of us who were groping around for ideas in oceanography could visit and learn from one another. He knew that most worth- while people were shy, but that their curiosity could overcome shyness, and this could lead to learning something new just by dropping in to investigate a smell or a buzzing noise. Dr. Bigelow used to drop in to visit in Dr. Selman Waksman's old microbio- logical laboratory on the second floor of the old building. The smells always chal- lenged him. He said that we smelled like a menhaden plant. Then he would ask a few questions, say one or two words, and you had something to chew on for the rest of the summer. Dr. Bigelow liked to watch things hap- pen. Now and then he would stop by to glance at the races in the Hole. He knew exactly when a boat would go aground or get caught in an eddy. 1 do not think that he especially liked small boat racing; it was too slow and ritualistic. He called it turtle racing. Dr. Bigelow's eyes were always out ahead of his conversation. That gave him an edge. He liked people to use their eyes as well as their heads, and he was especially disappointed that few used the big cast concrete aquarium tables that were installed in all laboratories. He would roam around the building and men- tion this. He had hoped that everyone would have an aquarium to stimulate his ocean thinking. It let him down that they boxed those tables in with plywood, made storage space of them, and committed other inanities. His own sharp lookout convinced him that everybody around the Institution was accident prone, and he was concerned about poles leaning on tables, flasks and bottles too close to the edge, and unat- tended flames. Once this helped me out of a difficult spot. In my first few years at the Oceano- graphic I worked on the parasite of eel grass disease and Dr. Bigelow was so pleased with the project that he used to bring notables in the laboratory so that he could tell them about its progress. Word came that Dr. A. G. Huntsman of the Canadian Fisheries Board was going to be brought up to see what we were doing. 1 was scared to death. My Canadian friends had told me about Dr. Huntsman- -A. G. stood for Almighty God. Dr. Huntsman was supposed to converse with migrating herring in classical Greek. Although I could make small talk on composts and fertilizers, Greek of any kind was impossible, and I was headed for humiliation. (Later, when I got to know Dr. Huntsman better, I found him most humane. But it is good for the young to have a severe model, now and then.) Dr. Bigelow arrived with Dr. Huntsman and introductions were finished in two seconds. Then there was a long awkward pause, Dr. Huntsman lit a cigar, walked about a bit, came back to my corner, backed away, and began to sit down on a window table, passing up the chair that I moved to him. Suddenly, Dr .Bigelow said, "Watch out Archie, you're sitting on your cigar." 13 Dr. Waksman seated on the rail chats with Professor H. Gran. Dr. Charles E. Renn at Woods Hole in 1934. Dr. Huntsman was an inch off the table when the idea connected, and he went up two feet without touching the floor. It was superb levitation and physically impos- sible. Dr. Bigelow broke up in stitches, Dr. Huntsman turned a lovely pink, and I was relieved. I do not believe that Dr. Bigelow created the situation, but I am certain that he saw it as a way of breaking the ice and getting me unfrozen. I liked Dr. Huntsman from that moment on. This sort of physical alertness touched everything that Dr. Bigelow managed. His eyes told you before the words came. During the Friday night seminars, in which we all groped our way to basic ideas about oceanography — and especially the Gulf of Maine — Dr. Bigelow extracted, edited, summarized, and clarified with the most economical mixture of finished and unfinished short sentences, encouraging nods, leaps to the chart, and groans that could be produced for the benefit of the young. He would tell about what he had seen and you saw it. You knew that he was looking — and that he cared a lot. He didn't tell you that. But this sense made you do more, and I will bet that more lazy biologists and dilatory intellectuals achieved twice their expected quota and at least half their stated aims because of it. Dr. Bigelow could assess character and potential quicker and more reliably than any computer or promotion board that I ever saw. In the early spring meet- ings of the fellows were held at the Museum of Comparative Zoology to re- view applications for fellowships at Woods Hole. Letters and recommendations were in order and Dr. Bigelow would review and comment from the top of the stack down. A word or sentence would catch his fancy and a minute analysis would follow — later, when we met the successful candidate in the fleshpots of the Cape, we found the analysis profoundly correct. Among other strong beliefs, Dr. Bigelow believed that incipient oceanographers should go out on the 'Atlantis' before they made elaborate plans. One of my first trips was in the company of Dr. Bigelow, Dr. Waksman and Dr. Gran. Dr. Waksman 14 had used his thumb on a small scale map of the Gulf of Maine to indicate areas where we were to pull up bacteriological samples, and after that he took to his bunk and stayed there. Everybody was seasick, it was gray, miserable and pure diesel exhaust — the 'Atlantis' at her worst in the worst water in the world, the Gulf of Maine. And I can remember Dr. Bigelow, pale green, making rounds to Dr. Waksman with whorn he was much concerned. "I never heard of anyone dying of seasick- ness," he said, "but then 1 never saw anyone this sick." I have an old photograph of Dr. Bige- low, Dr. Waksman, and Dr. Gran, sitting in the sun and talking by the locker aft of the deck laboratory on the first bright calm day following the bout. I have never dared show it. When Dr. Bigelow broke into the laboratory on an impulse visit, he would sometimes find his way into his theme with an exploration of the wonderful ways of people. Once he introduced his request that we change a cruise schedule with a tale about the odd things that went on in the then new Coonamessett Ranch where he was staying temporarily. "I don't understand it," he said, "they give you two face cloths every day, but no plug for the tub. You know, I think that the maid hoards bathtub plugs and leaves an extra face cloth to clear her conscience. Anyway, I plug the bathtub with a face cloth." This put us so far off base that we were happy to accede to his request that we fit in with the new arrangement that he had thought up. Charles E. Renn Professor, Dept. of Environmental Engineering Science. The Johns Hopkins University "The 'Atlantis' at her worst in the worst water of the world". The unknown photographer of this fine illustration must have been standing on the top of the upper laboratory to show the vessel rolling under storm trysail. 15 Dr. Bigelow on fhe wheel of the 'Grampus' in 1912. Charles Francis Adams on the wheel of the 'Yankee'. CORRESPONDENCE WITH C.F.A. D. *R. BIGELOW carried on a lively correspondence with his friend Charles Francis Adams, then Secretary of the Navy, which provides an insight in their personalities as well as Dr. Bigelow's foresight. Interesting also was the fact that although they addressed each other as "Dear Henry" and "Dear Charlie", or "Charles", they signed their letters generally as: "C.F.A." and "H.B.B." and sometimes with their full names. Dear Charles: July 2, 1930 I don't know if you have heard the news of the establishment of the new institution for Oceanography at Woods Hole. At any rate it's happened, as an outcome of the general survey that the Committee on Oceanography of the National Academy carried out; perhaps you'll remember that you and I talked a little about this. The Rockefeller Foundation has given two and one half millions and it's my fate to be the first director (of course, this doesn't mean any loosening of my ties here). The enclosed announcement (if you read any of it) gives an idea what it's all about. We are to have a laboratory at Woods Hole on which work has already been started, and you will be glad to hear that we are to build a fine oceanographic ship. She is 149 ft. long on top, gross tonnage 350-360, 300 Hp Diesel engine, rigged as a ketch with a pretty fair sail plan. She is intended to be able to go anywhere at any time and for cruises of any length, carrying half a dozen scientists; fitted for every kind of deep sea work. We have just let the contract to Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen who bid $147,000, as against the $258,000, by the lowest American bidder. We hope she'll be in commission next June. George Owen and Frank Minot drew the plans and they are working out the details of the machinery, which are quite complex and, of course, the most important thing about her. If you would be interested to see the plans, I'll bring them down the next time I come to Washington. 16 BURMEISTER & WAIN "Columbus Iselin is to be the first captain ' Columbus Iselin is to be the first captain and we think it will be a great advantage to have a scientific captain as was done on the "Carnegie" and this brings me around to the immediate matter of this letter. Columbus plans to join the Naval Reserve, and when we were talking it over the other day, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea for the director to do so likewise, i.e. for the director always to be in the Naval Reserve — so as to strengthen the liaison between the Navy and the Institution. With its endowment and the prestige it has behind it, the institution is bound to occupy a decidedly important position in the scientific world, unless I turn out to be a fizzle as a director, and many occasions are bound to arise when cooperation with the Hydrographic Office will be helpful to both. I am thinking of such things as soundings, exploration of currents, etc. to which we will devote much attention with the best and most modern methods. We also plan some work on the meteorological side. If the Navy and the new Institution should decide that it would be wise to have some connection more definite than simple friendship, I suppose the present director (being me) would be appropriate enough for the Naval Reserve on the basis of sea experience, etc. However, when my successor comes along, he may 17 not be a seaman, but is sure to be a leading oceanographer. Therefore, it might be better, from the beginning, to establish a precedent of associating him with the Navy on the basis of eminence in a profession (namely oceanography) in which the Navy is concerned. 1 wish you would think all this over and let me know how it strikes you. I could come down to Washington to talk it over with you if you think it worth while, or perhaps can see you sometime when you are in Boston. There is no hurry about it for the institution won't be in active operation until next spring. Elizabeth and three of the children departed for Norway, via England, last Wednesday. I expect to follow with Betty on the twentieth of this month, to meet them in Switzerland for three weeks climbing, to be home about September twentieth. Somehow I must have a paper sent over now and then to tell me how you are getting on with the 'Yankee1. We were all delighted to hear that you are to sail her. Yours, tamscript Woods Hole for Orders: Atlantis Seeks a Cargo of Scientists Dear Charlie: . . . Congratulations on the way you're pushing the "Yankee"* through the water. We're all much excited. July 3, 1930 My dear Henry: . . . It's nice of you to take an interest in YANKEE, but I am afraid that she is too big and is not the horse to bet on. *Four yachts had been built for the 1930 'Enterprise' was selected over 'Weetamoe', America's Cup, challenged by Sir Thomas 'Whirlwind' and 'Yankee', the latter skippered Lipton with 'Shamrock V. After hard trials by Charles Francis Adams. (Ed.) April 30, 1931 Dear Charlie: Here is the thing that I have on my mind: We are planning to start at Woods Hole next summer some observations on wind velocities in relation to the actual stress exerted on the surface of the water. To do this, we need a ship theodolite. But we find that, not only are these instruments very expensive, but that we cannot possibly have one built in time to use this summer. So I have had Gardner Emmons, who is to work on this problem, write to the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics to see if we could perhaps borrow one. I gather from Lt. Lockharfs reply that one can be spared, but that it would be rather contrary to rule to loan it to any person or institution not connected with the Navy. He suggests that I could sign for it as a member of the Naval Reserve, if the loan were approved. 18 As long as there is an instrument that can be spared, it seems to me entirely appropriate for the Navy to loan it to the Woods Hole Institution, for all the data that we get as to pilot balloons will be of interest to the Bureau of Aeronautics. So won't you approve the loan so it can be made? Of course I'll sign for it and we would be responsible for replacement if anything happened to it. As I said, it is an expensive little gadget costing about $1,000: — technical name — ship theodolite. Yours, My dear Henry: May 2, 1931 That theodolite has been shipped to you or shipped to the Naval Reserve for you. If it does not appear in due season let me know. I don't know just what you are about, but yachtsmen would be interested if your observations included the retardation of air movement by the surface of the water. In other words, we would like to know, how much less rapidly the wind moves; say 10 feet up, than it does; say 50 feet up. Obviously, this is a pretty vague subject, as retardation must vary with the strength of the wind and the roughness of the sea. I know you are not observing for the benefit of yachtsmen, but it is possible you might produce a by-product of some value without extra effort. Affectionately, Dear Charlie: May 4, 1931 It's good news that the theodolite is starting to travel our way. Many thanks. You brought up an interesting problem with regard to the retardation of air movement by the surface of the water at small distances above the land. I confess I hadn't thought of this, but I can see how observations taken, say 10 and 50 feet up, might bear very directly on the matter of interaction between sea surface and air. Next time I see Rossby I'll consult him as to how observations to this end can be taken. I don't know how one controls the height at which balloons float or whether one can put .up kites and register the pull on their strings, but will look into it. If we get something out of it that will be of help to yachtsmen, so much the better. Anyhow I am not sure that it isn't rather a duty to tackle any job that seems to have a direct practical bearing — there are few enough of them that do. Affectionately, I- "Anyhow / am not sure that it isn't rather a duty to tackle a job that seems to have a practical bearing — there are few enough of them that do." The 'scrounged' theodolite on board ' the 'Atlantis' in October 1931. C.O'D. Iselin in the background. H.8.8. as director. Sept. 26, 1932 Dear Henry: In reply to your letter of 8 September in which you suggest that an officer from the U.S.S. HANNIBAL make a trip of about a week's duration in the Gulf of Maine aboard the ATLANTIS, I am glad to inform you that arrangements have been made for Commander C. C. Slayton, the commanding officer of the U.S.S. HANNIBAL to make the trip. I have forwarded your letter to Admiral Gherardi in the Hydrographic Office and he has noted your recommendations for acquainting the personnel of the HANNIBAL with the instruments and methods in use on the ATLANTIS for obtaining deep sea observations. The Navy hopes to be able to continue its oceanographic work in the future and especially on its surveying vessels when such work will not interfere with their regular surveying program. Sincerely yours, My dear Henry: August 3, 1933 To my regret bordering on despair, I find that your annual meeting is right in the middle of the New York Yacht Club cruise. That is my only period of real vacation, and as you know, my most sacred one. I had really looked forward to coming to your annual meeting this year, but I just can't find it in my soul to desert and do so. Perhaps you will show me over the situation some other time. Ever sincerely yours, C.F.A. as Secretary of the Navy. 20 w. HAT Dr. Bigelow has meant to oceanography has been the result of a vision, and you know how difficult it is to communicate visions. He communicated parts of it to various people. The word "exciting" typified the atmosphere that H.B.B. created. The list of his publications does not provide an idea of their importance. A publication is extremely cheap now com- pared to former times; it is easier to get things published. The wealth of material, of pertinent material, and the thorough- ness with which he and his associates made sure that they put in real facts is what counted. Dr. Bigelow created an exciting atmos- phere and had an enormous effect on stimulating people. I saw him occasion- ally and have been much affected by his personality. His conduct of a meeting was inimitable. Somehow he had a queer combination of lively humor and dead seriousness. I knew him for some 50 years and learned that he saw a job that no one was doing. You have to go out on the ocean and ask: why? One of his first pieces of work — I am relying on memory — was on Bermuda and find out, as I put it, how land is made out of water. He found evidence that the Bermuda Rock was made out of hard skeletons. Probably that was a demonstra- tion of the importance of life in making things. When I first met Henry he had been in contact with Johann Hjort and had told Hjort about the redfish being taken at Eastport, Maine. Hjort opined that "that fish does -not behave that way at air. Henry said: "It does". The arresting fact is that he brought this to Hjort's attention. Bigelow had that spirit of discovery and when he went after something you knew it was not just a passing whim. He went after it with vigor and did a thorough job. No one else so fully deserves recognition for what he has done for oceanography. A. G. Huntsman Professor Emeritus Univ. of Toronto Dr. Hunfsman with Dr. Bigelow at the presentation of the "Bigelow Volume". January 24, 1956. II etait considere comme "le Pere de L'Oceanographie americaine". . . . Comble d'honneurs et d'annees, il disparait, laissants dans la tristesse toute le Communaute des Oceano- graphes. H. L (Cahiers Oceanographique, 20(3) 21 R, .EPEATEDLY, I urged him to em- ploy a secretary to help him with his publications. His reply was: "No scientist should ever have a secretary. If he has one, he would answer his mail and if he answers his mail, he has no time for scientific work." H.B.B. used to say at election time that he was going to vote against them all. When asked why he preferred the crooked politician to the reform candidate he replied that the crooked politician would not kill the goose that laid the golden egg. George C. Shattuck, M.D. Dean Bumpus o/b /he 'Atlantis' with a Bumpus-Clarke stramin net, the "Chariot", equipped with wheels to keep the net opening away from the ocean bottom. J OHN ARMSTRONG and I shared a lab one winter in George Clarke's suite at the Biological Laboratories at Harvard. John was studying for his Ph.D. He had passed his written exams but with some reservation. He knew a lot about marine animals but had a minimum to offer about terrestrial ones. Bigelow's comment was "Better study up on the land animals. You don't want your knowledge to rise and fall with the tide." When Armstrong turned in his thesis, Bigelow was busy so he laid it on the corner of the desk. A week later Dr. Bigelow called him over to his office and told him to rewrite the thesis. Armstrong was not certain whether Bigelow had read it or not, as the paper was exactly where Armstrong had left it on the desk. When Armstrong commenced to remonstrate Bigelow said "Rewrite it, every paper needs to be rewritten!" So poor uncertain John rewrote it, much to his own benefit. Dean F. Bumpus Senior Scientist on our staff. 22 T HERE are two items concerning Dr. Bigelow that I would like to mention, just in case others have not already done so.* In the early years of the Institution, when most of us were University staff members who inhabited the institution only in the summer time, he encouraged each of us to feel that our work was of interest to every one else in the buliding. Following his example, every one kept the door or lab open as an invitation to others to come in, and indeed the Director was a frequent and welcome visitor. His New England manner of getting directly to the crux of a matter was always delightful and at the same time inspiring. Each year in the early spring the research staff of the Institution would come together for a meeting at Harvard. The purpose of this was to prepare a budget for the expenses of the Institution for the coming season, earmarking or sanction- ing definite amounts to individuals with projects or apparatus being prepared. The procedure was always referred to by Dr. Bigelow as "slicing the melon" — a delightful word picture which has become almost a password between Dr. George Clarke and myself for evoking pleasant memories of those days. Edmond E. Watson Acting Head, Dept. of Physics. This aspect of the Institution was mentioned Queen's University, Ontario. by many of the contributors. Obviously it made a deep and lasting impression. (Ed.) Dr. Watson with the Watson current meter. A. C. Woodcock at right. Dr. Bigelow's course in Oceanic Biology was really "marine biology" and inspired me to go on and establish ecology as a subject at Harvard, and to expand the course into two courses, one on the princi- ples of ecology* and the other in bio- logical oceanography. Thus, H. B. B. was an ecologist without knowing it! One day members of the staff were discussing what to do about the behaviour of another staff member, when H. B. Bigelow showed his tolerance of the foibles of others by urging us to give the offender another chance and saying "Well, we're all basically 's, you know." George L Clarke Professor of Biology Harvard University *Which led to the publication of my book: "Elements of Ecology", John Wiley & Sons, 1954. Dr. Clarke at Woods Hole in 1933. 23 I SPENT most of the winter of 1931 at sea on the trawler 'Kingfisher' under Captain Sylvester Dunn out of Groton, Connecticut. This followed some previous months in the company's loft learning how to make and repair nets (14