The spelling was different, but Endeavor was the name of the explorer James Cook’s first vessel with which he went exploring the Pacific. I’ve always liked the name, it conveys a positive, aspirational attitude if you will. I wanted to keep the name for the new vessel, to let the word Endeavor become a trademark of the Graduate School of Oceanography. It reflects a frame of mind, to be curious, to explore.
But let me go back to the beginning. In my job interview with John Knauss I told him in no uncertain terms that he shouldn’t expect me to be a ship user. I was at Yale where my work pivoted around the SOFAR float. This was a joint activity in the MODE and polyMODE days with Doug Webb and me in charge of the SOFAR float program. Doug deploying the floats and me doing the tracking. Doug went to sea, and I went to Bermuda, Bahamas, Grand Turk, and Puerto Rico to install and train personnel to operate the acoustic receivers designed to detect and record the arrival times of the signals transmitted by the floats. Challenges notwithstanding, MODE and polyMODE were immensely successful programs but I never had a role in the sea-going operations. In fact, our MODE colleague Bill Richardson, bless him, thought me a lazy armchair oceanographer! Hence my words to John.
Now here is the irony, but I may be the one who has clocked the most science days on the Endeavor! Together with Bruce Taft and Jim McWilliams I took the Endeavor on its first cruise
away from Narragansett in spring 1977 – a long and detailed hydrographic survey along 70°W ending up in Miami. I stayed onboard for a Miami-to-Miami cruise for a follow-on study of the Meddy we had discovered the previous fall. Later, first in a short cruise in fall 1979, and after that starting in September 1980 bimonthly cruises across the Gulf Stream to map out the velocity structure of the current using our newly developed Pegasus instrument. Originally developed by Don Dorson for a study of the Somali Current in spring 1979, it worked beautifully in the Gulf Stream. Even today, more than 40 years later, the Pegasus data remain useful. After that followed two major cruises to study ‘The Anatomy of Gulf Stream Meanders’. Later, some more Gulf Stream work with Dave Hebert. Also, cruises to deploy RAFOS sound sources in various studies in the North Atlantic and later in the Norwegian Sea. Some of these activities are mentioned in various earlier blog posts.
I miss my days on the Endeavor. She was so well thought-out as a research vessel. And the crew and marine technicians helped ensure that the science was successful. Of course, the captain always has the last word. So even if I wanted to continue deploying the Pegasus, say, he had to consider what weather and sea conditions might look like 2-3 hours later when we had to maneuver to pick it up. That was part of the adventure, I guess you could say! Well-equipped laboratories and wet labs to handle bottles coming off the CTD. The teamwork between the ship technicians in charge of the shipboard equipment and visiting the scientific parties was always first-class.
But what a difference between then and now. In those early years communications was by short-wave radio which we scheduled twice a day if I remember right. Later, we used a NASA-launched applications satellite (ATS) for voice communications. All contacts were handled via a shore operator. I forget the details, but it was a big improvement.
Today we take GPS for granted; when we started that wasn’t even on the horizon. But we did have what was called SATNAV. Every few hours, while the SATNAV satellite was within view, an elaborate shipboard system received the transmissions and a few minutes later would print out where we were at a certain time. It was accurate, but we had to navigate by dead-reckoning in between. Fortunately, for all our Gulf Stream work we could use Loran-C. It didn’t have the accuracy we take for granted with GPS, but it was stable.
Always two scientists or crew per cabin and none of these had portholes. So, in our time off we tended to hang out in the library where there was plenty to pick from. In the early years, we might, once a week, screen a 16 mm movie. At which beer was served. The food was always first-class ¬– enjoying a tasty meal was always a high point of the day. Roast beef once a week!
With one embarrassing exception, I never got sick on the Endeavor. She behaved so well even in high seas. If conditions got bad, the skipper would point the bow into the swell and the Endeavor would pitch up and down with a firm but smooth ride. I’ve been on other vessels where the ship would rattle and shudder as it rode out a storm, but not the Endeavor, she was tight. I hope GSO will put up some kind of plaque celebrating the ship and the people who made it such a success! In the meantime, go to https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7927ba17a60e454083cc4d7fd36e77fd where people are adding their stories about working with the Endeavor. I hope someday these will be assembled into a book celebrating her life.