Search

Due to the vast ocean area and limited human and material resources, hydrographic survey must be carried out in a selective and well-planned way. Therefore, scientific planning of hydrographic surveys to ensure the effectiveness of navigational charts has become an urgent issue to be addressed by the hydrographic office of each coastal state. In this study, a reasonable calculation model of hydrographic survey cycle is established, which can be used to make the plan of navigational chart updating. The paper takes 493 navigational charts of Chinese coastal ports and fairways as the research object, analyses the fundamental factors affecting the hydrographic survey cycle and gives them weights, proposes to use the BP neural network to construct the relationship between the cycle and the impact factors, and finally establishes a calculation model of the hydrographic survey cycle. It has been verified that the calculation cycle of the model is effective, and it can provide reference for hydrographic survey planning and chart updating, as well as suggestions for navigation safety.

This paper outlines the establishment of the Liverpool Tidal Institute in 1919. There is a particular focus on early patrons and supporters in the context of both previous tidal research on the accuracy of predictions and debates about the involvement of state actors in science at the end of the First World War. It discusses how, and to what extent, various actors – Liverpool University, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the UK Hydrographic Office, and the shipping industry – became involved with the institute and what their roles were in its creation. It shows that industrial support was crucial in the establishment of this academic institute which later became a key contractor to the Navy.

The Hydrographic Office of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, headquartered in Pola since 1869, was in charge of conducting maritime surveys and producing all sea charts until 1918. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Austro- Hungarian Navy was still using the revised charts that were based on the hydrographic survey conducted by Tobias von Oesterreicher in 1866– 1870. In order to meet the new requirements necessitated by the introduction of dreadnought battleships and submarines, at the dawn of WWI Austro-Hungary started a new hydrographic survey of the Adriatic, conducted under the command of Arthur Catinelli Edler von Obradich-Bevilacqua. The survey, which was launched in 1907 had the task of providing modern and reliable maritime charts accompanied by dense soundings, more data on the composition of the seafloor, as well as some adjustments in the process of construction of the charts. Charts that were based on this survey had a crucial role in all WWI naval operations in the Adriatic Sea.

An estimate of the effort needed to survey some arbitrary area is a critical part of the planning efforts of any hydrographic office. We develop a simple, analytic model to estimate full coverage of an arbitrary seafloor area based on a fixed angular swath system such as a multibeam echosounder. This model incorporates one tuneable parameter to account for the overall efficiency of survey execution. We had expected this parameter to be strongly tied to seafloor complexity and thus regionally consistent; it was not. In fact, we could discern no strong relationship between this parameter and any variable investigated, including region, roughness, variability, depth, or survey size. We use this tuned model, including an estimate of uncertainty, to develop a model for survey effort, and apply the model to all of the U.S. waters. Accounting for areas already surveyed to modern standards, we calculate that we have surveyed 44% of the U.S. waters to modern standards by area, but only 18% by level of effort. To survey the remaining area to modern standards would take 12 million linear nautical miles of survey, or approximately 177 years of a single platform running continuously at typical survey speeds.

The object was to produce a map of the sea floor topography by recording the depth along a grid of long parallel east-west lines about 5 miles apart, using a continuously operating echo sounder. One consequence of the Vine-Matthews hypothesis is that it offered the possibility of assigning ages to individual stripes, and hence to the underlying sea floor. The method depends on matching the pattern of successive magnetic stripes to the timescale of reversals of the earth's magnetic field. By contrast with the flux-gate instrument, which measures relative values of the magnetic field and needs to be calibrated, the proton magnetometer is an absolute instrument, whose output gives the true value of the magnetic field. Scripps immediately sought permission from the US Navy Hydrographic Office, the sponsors of the survey, to tow its magnetometer behind the Pioneer.

In this paper, we present the results of an original research study that was based on the analysis of British charts of the Adriatic produced during and immediately after military operations undertaken by British forces and their allies against Napoleon in the Adriatic. We analyse the creation and production of British charts of the Adriatic from the first charting campaign of the Hydrographic Office of 1800–1801 to charts produced in the period of British rule over the island of Lissa of 1811–1815 to the first systematic hydrographic surveying of the Adriatic of 1817–1819 under the leadership of Henry William Smyth that resulted in the first hydrographic atlas and pilot book of the Adriatic. At the same time, the paper evaluates the British contribution to the creation of some of the first reliable nautical charts of the Adriatic and to the development of the nautical cartography of the Adriatic in general.

The mechanism by which an oil film is able to still stormy seas has remained mysterious. Accounts by shipmasters of the effective use of oil collected by the US Hydrographic Office in the 1880s contain little quantitative information. In only one episode was the time of response to a sudden application of oil recorded. In this case, storm breakers were annulled by use of fish oil to enable a small open boat to rescue the crew of a sinking vessel. The cessation of breaking seas occurred only after the oil had spread over a large area to windward of the ships. It appears that wave growth stopped in this oiled region. The reaction of regulatory bodies and public responses to the rescue illustrate features of the political and social contexts in which shipping and trading activity was conducted in the late nineteenth century.

This article examines the Nautical Magazine and its relationship with the Hydrographic Office of the British Admiralty in the early nineteenth century. It suggests how the magazine functioned as an organ for the dissemination and collection of useful knowledge in its endeavour to improve the Royal and Merchant navies. The periodical also presented the work of an emergent maritime science community in the Hydrographic Office, and served as a forum for the encouragement of engagement with naval science. Using archival material from the Hydrographic Office, which refers to, or was reproduced in the magazine, the article explores some of the ambiguities of a journalistic venture supported by the state in a period in which the organization and role of key public institutions were being redefined.

The Hydrographic Office is commonly known for its navigational charts. However, there is plenty of evidence to show how although chart production and supply was its main objective, there were also many other areas of activity in which it was involved. The head of this department was the Hydrographer to the Admiralty Board, a man well versed in hydrographic surveying and navigation, but also many other aspects of the wider field of nautical science. Individuals approached the Hydrographer for advice on a range of nautical matters. He, in return, acted as a consultant, providing free advice on areas of his expertise; advice that was given to civilians and military personnel. The office of Hydrographer to the Admiralty Board soon became recognised as the Admiralty's and Royal Navy's expert in all matters relating to navigation, charting and nautical science.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the long-term management of marine historic environment archives, focusing on the comparison of English Heritage’s National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) with the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) as case studies.Within marine (and terrestrial) contexts, archaeological archives are unique records of survey, excavation, and associated research of the historic environment. They are a resource which allows understanding of the human past to be developed, reviewed, and reinterpreted as new data is gathered. As such, they are significant for research, development-led studies, education, outreach, and public enjoyment. At a time when there is a significant focus on data from the marine environment, both within the UK and more widely across Europe, this paper puts forward some initial recommendations to enable further interoperability between these two key national datasets.Analysis of these datasets highlighted some interesting points, including th...

This paper briefly outlines the production of electronic nautical charts (ENC) as a digital nautical chart, produced by the Croatian National Hydrographic Office (HO) to International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) specifications S-57 Edition 3.1. The production of ENCs is based on the theory of multiscale data management (usage bands). Multiple representations of ENC data are controlled by scale minimum (SCAMIN) attributes. A solution to the problem of multiscale data management as a part of ENC data production for archipelagic sea areas, using the East Adriatic Coast as an example is presented. This solution is based on a long-standing experience in the production of paper charts and recent ENC production for the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, which is believed to be the second largest archipelagic area in the Mediterranean. Finally, a new usage band scale range, compilation scale for all navigational purposes and method of using SCAMIN attributes for archipelagic seas are proposed.

In February 2015, the Hydrographic Society Benelux (HSB) sent an extended questionnaire to 77 of the most important hydrographic companies in the Benelux (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemburg). The organization of this questioning was in cooperation with the Department of Geography of Ghent University (Belgium). The purpose was to inquire the demand for hydrographic surveyors during the next 5 years in the Benelux. The Benelux is hosting the four biggest dredging companies in the world, so the demand for hydrographic surveyors is usually fairly high and a good parameter for the general demand in the West of Europe. On the one hand, the aim of the questionnaire was to research the demand for the preferred level of hydrographic surveyor, allowing a concise estimation of the demand for IHO category-A and category-B certified hydrographic surveyors. On the other hand, the required balance between hydrographic surveyors with a Bachelor versus Master degree was questioned. As a similar questionnaire and analysis has been performed in 2009, trends over the past 6 years can be discerned and analyzed. The results are important, not only for the private companies, but also for the higher education institutes. In the Benelux, but also outside the Benelux, one can find hydrographic institutes delivering cat. A and cat. B. IHO certified hydrographic surveyors, combined or not with a Bachelor and/or Master diploma. It is generally assumed that there is a shortage of hydrographic surveyors and/or of hydrographical educated employees in the Benelux. Currently, part of the active hydrographic surveyors in the Benelux are engineers, geologists and other non-specifically hydrographic trained people, who received additional bathymetric trining within private companies. But does this hypothesis withstands a scientific analysis? This will be critically analyzed in this paper.

Joseph Foss Dessiou (1769–1853) is known as a compiler of charts and sailing directions during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and also for work for the Hydrographic Office in the latter part of his life, particularly on the computation of tides. It has not been widely appreciated that his father, Joseph Dessiou (1743–1822), was also a hydrographer. In addition his son, Joseph Foss Dessiou, junior (1792–1818), who drowned while surveying, became a third member of the family to enter the profession. This article is concerned with the work of the two older Dessious who both undertook surveys during their seagoing careers as masters and in later life turned to chart compilation for commercial publishers. The similarity in their names, and the overlap in their active lives, have resulted in some confusion between them. However an examination of all their work shows that their publishers appreciated the need to distinguish them and used the ascriptions Joseph Dessiou or J. Dessiou, and Joseph Foss Dessiou, or J. F. Dessiou correctly. When their work is attributed on this basis a logical pattern emerges of their interests and contacts during their working lives in private chart publishing. Their careers mirror the changes in chart production that took place between one generation and the next. The father started his career with a survey and chart of his home waters for local interests, a common eighteenth-century pattern, while the son ended his with employment in the Hydrographic Office and the inclusion of some of the charts he had drawn for commercial publication in the official Admiralty catalogue. During the transition from private to public chart production in the first two decades of the nineteenth century both father and son worked as chart compilers for rival private chart publishers. The Hydrographic Office at this time was still in its infancy. The Dessious’ charts and sailing directions are listed in the Appendix to this article, with full details and locations of examples of each.

The marine sediments of Australia's continental shelves have been sparsely sampled by geological expeditions. However, there exist many qualitative descriptions of the seabed, made from visual and tactile examination of wet surficial samples, on Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Office bathymetry charts. The reliability and geological meaning of the visual descriptions do not seem to have been investigated, making their suitability as bottom classifiers unknown. Classification schemes were devised for the descriptions, which are in a symbol form suitable for computer manipulations. The schemes were applied to nearly 5000 descriptions for the Great Barrier Reef lagoon area from Cape Flattery to Whitsunday Islands, where several sediment types are interleaved. The visual descriptions formed a consistent and reliable dataset at regional and smaller scales. Coherent surficial sediment distribution patterns were derived that closely match trends of grainsize distributions in some test areas, but which indicat...

The views expressed in this paper are personal to the author, and not intended to represent official policy of the UK Hydrographic Office.With the ever increasing use of electronic charts in the small craft sector, this paper is designed to give some background to developments at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. Included is a short review of the state of the market, with the author's view of possible future progression. The various formats of data are discussed, with a summary of the legislative background within the commercial market. This discussion is relevant, as it will ultimately shape the future market for small craft users

As seafarers require a comprehensive record that provides information on coastlines, the seabed and sea conditions, cartography dates back to antiquity. During the early modern period, states and merchant companies employed cartographers to collect and report important nautical information. The Dutch East India Company (VOC), for example, created valuable nautical charts and provided detailed sailing instructions on the South African coast. Open exchange of such information is a twentieth-century phenomenon dating back to the creation of the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) in 1921. The SA Navy was created in 1922. One of its first ships was the survey ship HMSAS Protea, which was laid up in 1933. During the two decades following the Second World War, hydrographic survey work was done by three converted former Royal Navy vessels (SAS Protea, SAS Natal and SAS Haerlem). South Africa became a member of the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) in 1951 and the SA Navy established its own Hydrographic Office in April 1955. The SA Navy’s Hydrographic vessels were always outdated or redundant ships, but in 1972 the SA Navy commissioned its first purpose-built hydrographic survey ship (the current SAS Protea).Keywords: Protea, hydrography, charting, SA Navy, survey ship

In 1956 copies of the “Morskoi Atlas,” Volumes I and II, were purchased by the U.S. Hydrographic Office from a New York bookstore. Volume II of the atlas is of particular interest because it contains a comprehensive treatment of the marine environment of the earth.DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1959.tb00043.x

The first multiple ship survey of the Gulf Stream Area between Cape Hatteras and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland took place during the period from the 6th to the 23rd of June 1950. The survey was given the code name “Operation Cabot” by the U. S. Navy Hydrogra hic Office which acted as headquarters &ring the planning and operational phases of the survey. The civilian scientist in charge of the technical phases of the program was Dr RICHARD H. FLEMING, Director, Division of Oceanography, U. S. Navy Hydrographic Office.DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1951.tb00771.x

The need for a Coastal Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) as part of a national or regional framework has been recognized widely. However, as reported for example by Longhorn (2003), few nations have progressed significantly towards this goal. This chapter re-examines the implementation of CSDI and what it means to data custodians and end users. It provides a practical example of how the UK is creating a topographical baseline of data that includes inter-operable data from the Ordnance Survey (land) and the UK Hydrographic Office (sea) as part of achieving its own data infrastructure.

ECORS is managed by the French Hydrographic Office (SHOM) and aims at improving the description of the nearshore environments for naval amphibious operations, including a demonstration of short-term prediction on the morphodynamics of sandy coasts. The understanding of hydrodynamic and morphodynamic processes that will be generated by the project will certainly find many other applications, including coastal management. Over the years 2006 to 2011, the ECORS program include three main tasks: theoretical research, experiments and numerical modeling. The project include both field and laboratory experiments. Such a wide scope was made possible by the additional contributions from many research institutes and local authorities. The first step is to improve the quality of nearshore and offshore models over timescales ranging from one day to some months. Based on these research and campaigns, a coastal forecasting simulator will be created..

The Oregon State University (OSU) Tidal Inversion Software (OTIS) is being automated, tested and used to generate tidal solutions in the East-Asian Seas (EAS) region. This effort was undertaken to improve the tidal solutions within a relocatable version of the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM). Tests were conducted within the EAS and with a smaller domain within the EAS, the Yellow Sea, to look at the effects on OTIS of a number of inputs including: (1) increasing grid resolution, (2) using more accurate bathymetry, (3) assimilating International Hydrographic Office (IHO) tide station data (as well as tidal data derived from the TOPEX altimeter data), (4) increasing the number of representers used for data assimilation, and (5) increasing the number of tidal constituents being solved for. The tidal solutions generated with OTIS were validated against IHO tide station data in the different areas.

(1991). The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. The Cartographic Journal: Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 6-9.

Since the earliest sailing exploits, the safety of navigation has been conditioned by the availability and reliability of adequate shipboard navigation aids. Surely, the success of such exploits also depended on officers’ competence for using these aids in an adequate manner. Through the centuries, there were no significant changes in the technical performance of basic navigation aids or in their usage, and therefore there was no need for additional education of navigation officers. However, a rapid technological development in many areas of human activities has brought about significant changes in the last several decades. Maritime transport of goods is an important part of the total transport of goods in the world, the result of which is a rapid development and the use of state-of-the-art technologies in the design and building of ships of different sizes and for different purposes. Such dynamics of the use of new technologies in the maritime transport has not followed the dynamics of the development of modern navigation systems. For that reason, even today a great number of ships are fitted with navigation equipment whose safety level is lower than that of the modern navigation systems used in other kinds of transport. Having recognized such situation in the last few years, competent international organisations, first of all the International Maritime Organisation and the International Hydrographic Organisation, have made special efforts to introduce state-of-the-art navigation equipment in the maritime transport. Adopting of technical standards for different navigation systems and rules for their implementation in national maritime regulations oblige ships to use more sophisticated navigation systems. One of the most important immediate navigation aids are certainly nautical charts and handbooks, which are used in the planning of navigation and during navigation. The traditional paper chart, with slight modifications, was the principal and reliable navigation aid for centuries. The use of new digital information technologies has allowed the development of reliable systems for a different display and an advanced use of the contents of nautical charts and publications. In December last year the International Maritime Organisation (Maritime Safety Committee) laid down the requirement for High Speed Craft to be fitted with Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) on a mandatory basis, with an implementation date of 1 July 2008 for the newly built craft and 1 July 2010 for the existing craft. Consideration of a mandatory ECDIS for other classes of ships has also been submitted for a regular procedure, but the implementation date will depend on the availability of electronic navigational charts (ENC). In the procedure of adopting ECDIS as mandatory navigational equipment, its contribution was recognized not only towards enhancing safety of navigation but also in a larger sense, in the concept of e-navigation. The contribution to the safety of navigation is determined by high-quality ENCs with global coverage and availability. Standardized ECDIS equipment has been available to its end users for some time now. However, navigational areas worldwide are still inadequately covered by high-quality official ENCs. This fact imposes great responsibility and commitment upon national hydrographic offices to produce reliable ENCs for their areas of responsibility by the implementation date for a mandatory ECDIS. Considering high technological and organizational requirements, such commitment shall pose a great challenge for many hydrographic offices. This paper examines the existing regulations and provides guidelines for hydrographic offices on meeting the requirements for official ENCs resulting from the use ECDIS on ships. In a broader sense, it emphasizes the importance of ENCs within ECDIS as a central component of the concept of e-navigation.

In 1989 the Oceanographer of the Navy approved the construction of a new class of multimission oceanographic survey ship for the Naval Oceanographic Office, the T-AGS 60 class. The initial focus of the survey mission was primarily blue water oceanography. In the intervening years mission focus has shifted towards the littoral. This paper presents the original class mission capability and discusses the mission evolution to the littoral and the incorporation of a hydrographic survey capability that meets International Hydrographic Organization requirements.

Under a contract with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), SAIC's Integrated Hydrographic Survey System (IHSS) was used to conduct hydrographic surveys in Long Island Sound, New York, in May, June, July, October and November 1995. The IHSS produced hydrographic data to rigorous International Hydrographic Office (IHO) and NOAA contract standards for both least depth and feature analyses. The authors present an overview of the survey area, survey requirements, and methods (including equipment, survey procedures, and processing). All of these factors interrelate to influence the results of the survey discussed. The results of the survey stand alone as a highly accurate and thorough hydrographic product.

The project “Ferry Box” is targeted on an improvement of marine monitoring technologies. It originated from considerations and discussions within the Technology Plan Working Group (TPWG) of EuroGOOS and is aimed at the development of an operational autonomous measuring system for ferries, which is capable to monitor water quality parameters automatically along the routes of the ships through the coastal waters. In Germany this development is considered as an innovative addition to the already existing and operational monitoring concept (“MARNET” concept) in German coastal waters at fixed positions and stations with buoys or platforms, operated by BSH (“Bundesanstalt fuer Seeschiff fahrt und Hydrographie”, Hamburg), the German Hydrographic Office. The development therefore is funded as an R&D-project by the German Ministry for Research and Technology (BMBF) .

Navtex signals are low-power single-sideband signals at 518kHz transmitted by Coastguard authorities world-wide. They are supervised and controlled by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The UK Hydrographic Office is the responsible organisation in the UK. The transmissions consist of text such as distress messages, weather forecasts, storm warnings, and other data primarily for shipping. The data is modulated as 1's and 0's by frequency shift keying (FSK) by +/- 85 Hz at a rate of 100 baud. The data arrives as a continuous stream of bits which comprise 7-bit words containing 5-bits of relevant data. No synch pulses are sent, so synchronism is achieved by sending groups of unique bit patterns which do not occur in normal data. All data are sent twice, spaced five letters apart, in the system known as forward error correction (FEC). (5 pages)

Temperature-salinity-depth profile data were obtained for the Persian Gulf, Southern Red Sea and parts of the Arabian Sea from the Master Oceanographic Observations Data Set (MOODS), located at the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. These data were used as part of a physical oceanographic study of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf outflows. This report documents the organization of the data set, method of quality control used to eliminate unrealistic data, and provides a summary in graphic form of the hydrographic observations.

The origins of the Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) lie in the twin needs for efficient transfer of data within and between Hydrographic Offices and the more efficient use of hydrographic data by the main end users-ships at sea. However, as with many other developments in technology, it is now apparent that the combination of digital chart data with modern computer and communication applications can improve performance in several maritime areas. For many the logical choice for this digital chart data is that required for ECDIS, with all the benefits of agreed international standards and Hydrographic Office quality that this implies; in fact, for Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), the use of ECDIS as the Geographic Information System (GIS) has already been recommended. One of the benefits which the new technology brings is the ability for better informed supervision of remote activities at a price which companies, organisations and authorities are prepared to contemplate. This subject is explored with special reference to VTMIS (Vessel Traffic Management Information Systems) its practical limitations.

This paper describes the depth surrounding activities in Sweden. These include the development of a helicopter borne lidar called FLASH as well as instrumentation for in situ measurement of the optical water parameters. The FLASH system has been further developed into two operational systems called Hawk Eye with Saab Dynamics as the main contractor and Optech Inc. as the main subcontractor. Data collection and evaluation from Hawk Eye will be discussed. The Swedish Defence Research Establishment (FOA) is member of the Hawk Eye project team together with the National Maritime Administration, the Royal Swedish Navy and the Defence Material Administration. Together with the Swedish Maritime Administration, FOA has been engaged in analysis of lidar data to determine system performance and possible ways to optimize that in relation to lidar parameters and anticipated bottom depth and topography. Examples from that analysis will be presented. The test analysis so far strongly supports the depth sounding lidar technology as being a rapid and accurate sounder fulfilling the requirement by International Hydrographic Office on depth accuracy.

Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme was born on 5 December 1922 at 7 Blessington Road, Lewisham (Kent), London. Tony's maternal grandfather was Herbert William Thomson Roberts, a tidal computer for the Admiralty by profession. The inclusion of Lord Kelvin's baptismal name (William Thomson) among his forenames reflects the professional contact which Tony's great-grandfather had with Lord Kelvin and the high regard in which he held the latter. This great-grandfather of Tony's on the maternal side was Edward Roberts. He was appointed Secretary to the Tidal Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, being made responsible later for the construction of the first Tidal Predicter, which had been designed by Lord Kelvin. He played a large part in the design and construction of the Universal Tide-predicting Machines used by the Indian and Colonial Government and by the Admiralty Hydrographic Office. It was his house which held the Tidal Predicter, the first model of the machine, which made such a strong impression on the young Tony and influenced so greatly the development of his later ideas, as Tony himself recounted in a lecture given at a Workshop on Skyrmions in 1984.

In planning for any marine construction, information on ocean waves should be considered essential. Such information must be available to select the best season of operations and to indicate the types of floating equipment that can be operated economically with a minimum of lost time. Furthermore, from such advance information it will be possible to estimate whether or not special observing and forecasting services will be required to provide for safe and efficient day-to-day operations. Readily available sources of ocean wave information are the sea and swell atlases published by the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office. These atlases, providing world-wide coverage on a monthly basis, have been compiled from visual observations of sea and swell recorded aboard merchant and naval vessels. These data therefore provide a means for making rapid evaluations of wave and swell conditions in the area of operations and along routes to and from this area. If the site is on an exposed coast, it is also possible to estimate surf conditions.

This report summarizes the results of investigation the oceanographic expedition aboard the F/S METEOR in South Atlantic Ocean including the Drake Passage, the northern Weddell Sea and the eastern South Atlantic during the austral summer of January through March 1990. The total CO{sub 2} concentration in about 1300 seawater samples and CO{sub 2} partial pressure (pCO{sub 2}) in about 870 seawater samples collected at 77 stations were determined aboard the ship using a coulometer and equilibrator/gas chromatograph system. The temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrient salt data presented in this report were determined by other participants of the expedition including the members of the Oceanographic Data Facility of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Argentine Hydrographic Office and German institutions.

This report summarizes the results of investigation the oceanographic expedition aboard the F/S METEOR in South Atlantic Ocean including the Drake Passage, the northern Weddell Sea and the eastern South Atlantic during the austral summer of January through March 1990. The total CO{sub 2} concentration in about 1300 seawater samples and CO{sub 2} partial pressure (pCO{sub 2}) in about 870 seawater samples collected at 77 stations were determined aboard the ship using a coulometer and equilibrator/gas chromatograph system. The temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrient salt data presented in this report were determined by other participants of the expedition including the members of the Oceanographic Data Facility of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Argentine Hydrographic Office and German institutions.

Hydrographic investigations in the 18th and 19th centuries are briefly described. An extensive investigation of the Baltic Sea was performed in 1877. Regular observations of temperature, salinity, and currents were started on Swedish lightships and coastal stations in 1878. The different hydrographic organizations and scientists are presented. In 1893 the Swedish Hydro- graphic Commission, from 1902 the Hydrographic-Biological Commission, was formed. The complicated relations between the Oceanographic Institution at the University of Goteborg, the Oceanographic Institute, and the Hydrographic-Biological Commission are explained. Some world- famous oceanographers and their works are presented. The Commission was dissolved in 1948 and the Board of Fisheries of Sweden was formed, taking over its responsibilities. The hydrographic investigations were assigned to the Hydrographic Department of the Board of Fisheries. The development of the Hydrographic Department and its transfer to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute are described. The work of the Fisheries Bureau and the Navy Hydrographic Office are briefly explained.

Uncharted or doubtful positions of shoals and reefs have played a large role in the history of maritime navigation and oceanography. Two of these shoals, Winslow Reef and Reef and Sand Bank in the central equatorial Pacific, were the subjects of a fruitless 2-day aerial search in 1937 for Amelia Earhart by planes from the battleship USS Colorado. Sightings before and after 1937 convinced the U.S. Hydrographic Office and later the Defense Mapping Agency to retain these shoals on navigational charts. Yet all of these sightings and positions were based on unreliable celestial and dead-reckoning navigation. Nevertheless, at the time, this aerial search by the Colorado planes was probably the most extensive survey for the poorly determined shoals.