Eastwind (WAGB 279) - Naval Cruise Book

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., V . . ,. . J vu it i, A . -...mu-..4...-r-.... . an Dr. Tressler and his team of five Coast- Guardsmen and a Navy Chief Quartermaster literally worked around the clock gathering data on salt content, amount of oxygen, marine life, and ocean temperatures at different underwater levels. They also recorded ocean depths, of which very little was known in the Indian Ocean. The most up-to-date charts of the area indicated soundings as much as 700 miles apart in some cases. One day, as the Eastwind approached a pre- determined station, her fathometer jumped rapidly from 15,000 feet to a mere 2,850 feet. Like an explorer who has set foot on virgin territory, Dr. Tressler still quivers with excite- ment at the recollection. Imagine, he says, art underwater moun- tain ofver 12,000 feet high that no one had probably efver dreamed existed before. Since a deepwater survey was required on the spot, the ship had to move a few miles further down her trackline, where the sounding soon returned to 15,000 feet. Standing on specially constructed platform bottleman stands by to unhook Nansen bot- tle iust reeled from the deep. When Eastwind arrived on station, her engines were cut and she wallowed like a lazy whale in the trough of the sea. During daylight stations, the searing tropical sun heated the cork insulated icebreaker to dizzying heights. A small platform about three feet square was locked into position over the side and a member of the oceano- 3 graphic team got set to make a cast. Wire was unreeled over the side from a huge electri- cally powered drum and atintervals steel Nansen bottles, open at both ends and with thermometers attached, were hooked on. When a total of 12 bottles had been secured to the wire like beads on a string, they were lowered to pre- determined depths with the bottom one nearly two miles below the surface. A weight was then sent down the wire, setting off a chain reaction which closed each bottle, sealing inside a sample of the water at that depth. Then the bottles were reeled to the surface, unhooked, their temperatures recorded and contents analyzed. An average cast took about three hours. Then the ship would get underway for the next station, sometimes 120 miles away, sometimes 60. lcontinuedj Bottleman attaches steel water sample collector to wire. 2 X A

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w .K f- Q 1 ':,Q Operation Monsoon on April 10, 1961, midway between Africa and Australia, the Coast Guard Icebreaker Eastwind knifed northward to Ceylon, stopping every few hours to gather scientific data about the world's last ocean frontier. The first ship to take part in the Interna- tional Indian Ocean Survey,the Coast Guard Cutter Eastwind won the distinction almost by chance. In early January, Captain Naab received word that his icebreaker would return to her homeport of Boston through the Suez Canal, and thus become the first icebreaker in history ever to go around the world. Breaking out the charts of the intended route home, the Captain remembered that the Ocean survey was due to start in 1962 and continue through the end of 1964. He radioed the Hydrographic Office in Washington, and they enthusiastically accepted his offer to assist. Carefully watching depth indicator, winch operator lowers sample bottles to correct depth. Within a month, equipment was being assembled for the project, and veteran oceanographer Dr. Willis L. Tressler, of College Park, Maryland, who had been carrying on scientific work at McMurdo Sound was assigned to the ship. Oceanographic winch wire, bathyothermograph gear, steel nansen bottles, thermometers, and titration equipment were air-shipped to New Zealand, Australia, and Antarctica. Addi- tional equipment was stripped from sister icebreakers and transferred to the Eastwind at SGH.. On March 21, her Deepfreeze Operations completed, the Eastwind sailed into Sydney Harbor where she completed loading everything aboard. Three days later she was headed west toward the Indian Ocean and had a schedule of 27 ocean stations looming ahead of her. It would be almost a month before her crew would get ashore at Colombo, Ceylon, next port of call. What we were trying to do. recalls blue-eyed, white-haired Willis Tressler,r. was find out about a place that had hardly ever been explored, and, while it might not, at first glance, seem that there can be mach exploring done beneath an ocean from a surface ship, there are, nevertheless many interesting things that we can accomplish.

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While enroute northward along longitude 78 east, part of the oceanographic team ran tests on the samples while others, under the d1rect1on of Navy Chlef Raymond J Davis of Thomas ville North Carolina, took hourly BT s short for bathyothermograph readlngs A torpedo shaped lnstrument about three feet long was unreeled from a small wire wlnch and allowed to seek great depths be hind the ship When brought up, a needle had made a continuous recording on a smoked glass slide of water temperatures at all depths This was an excellent method of determin- ing the thermocline says Chief Davis. The thermocline, he explains, is a layer of rapiollylclecreasing temperature usually about 150 feet below the surface. The primary importance of recording ex- actly where the thermocline begins in various areas, is the fact that submarines can cruise undetected below this temperature blanket. Perhaps the most interesting time aboard the Eastwind occurred when the icebreaker reached a station destination during the even- ing hours. A huge floodlight illuminated the water's emerald surface in a large circular pat- tern. Crew members gathered around to watch Officers and men takerefreshmg dip rn Indian Ocean Cigar smokmg bosun smate hammers old paint from hull of ship