posted 08/24/00

Lamont's R/V Maurice Ewing Visits New York City
Columbia University, New York City

about the R/V Maurice Ewing --
Lamont's Ewing web site

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory research ship R/V Maurice Ewing was open for tours on Wednesday, August 23, 2000 at New York's Water Club at East 23rd Street.

A reception followed the tours. Lamont's Interim Director, John Mutter spoke about the ship and those who make its research possible. He presented to Marine Superintendent Paul Ljunggren and the ship a portrait of Maurice Ewing.

LDEO Interim Director John Mutter's Speech

Behind me is a ship named the Maurice Ewing. Behind the name of the ship is an individual who is part of the history, and the lore of Lamont. Maurice Ewing created Lamont, a place with a kind of odd name -- Geological Observatory. I believe we are the only institution of our type that carries the word Observatory in our institution's title. And from the very earliest days of Lamont it caused people to wonder. About a year ago at our 50th anniversary celebrations Joe Worzel, who was Ewing's trusted lieutenant related to us that at the time the new institute was formally dedicated in 1951 a reporter asked Ewing "what is a geological Observatory?"; it is an odd turn of phrase, let's be honest. What he said in reply is as true today as it was then -- he said that it was whatever we wanted it to be. What he was saying was that it is really all up to us to set our objectives and meet them. Ewing himself never had much difficulty with that idea and expected everyone else to behave the same way. Of course, it helped if your objectives agreed with his, but so long as you had objectives and a plan to meet them that was what really mattered.

But I think Ewing was answering a little disingenuously and in the abstract (which he was not known for) and there was a more concrete answer that he could have offered as well. Perhaps because so little was known about the planet in any real quantitative sense at the time, perhaps because he was trained as a physicist, he knew that to understand any physical system one first had to describe it. That meant making measurements of as many different characteristic quantities as one possibly could in as many parts of the planet as you could get to even if it didn't always seem to make too much sense at the time. How could one know if it was measuring the magnetic field that mattered, or the gravity field, or the depth of the ocean or the strength of the currents. If you didn't know it -- measure it! That's where you start. What Ewing launched almost single-handedly was the first post-WWII program of systematic global mapping and sampling of the world's oceans and the seafloor beneath. And if that's what you're doing what more apt name for the institute you do it from than an Observatory.

An if that's what your doing you need a ship. So it wasn't very long before Ewing and Worzel acquired a ship -- the VEMA -- which set a record for being the first ship to sail a million miles making scientific observations. Then we acquired another ship, the Conrad, this one from the Navy's program of support for ocean science. And it became the second ship to acquire a million miles of observations. The name Observatory was making more sense all the time. Scientists throughout the world, who have never been to New York or seen Lamont, know these vessels and are familiar with their accomplishments. Both those vessels are now retired and the vessel behind me is the new kid, having been with us for only 10 years and acquired only a half million miles of observations.

Lamont's Maurice Ewing and the R/V Vema

The discoveries made and the insights gained from this pioneering program in observational earth science are now legendary and provide much of the accepted text on how the earth behaves.

The vessel that carries Ewing's name carries a suite of instrumentation that would be quite unfamiliar to him, and he could only marvel at. One thing he certainly would recognize is the people. Because people who go to sea to do research haven't changed much. And I don't mean just the scientists. In my experience in science I have never known a situation that so absolutely demands a spirit of mutual respect and understanding among such a diverse group of individuals. Although the missions may be planned by scientists with high credentials and international reputations, the execution of the mission depends utterly on every member of the ship's party from the lowest man in the engine room to the captain on the bridge and his support back on shore. One serious mistake by anybody and its all over. And we don't make mistakes. That's why our ships have served like no others in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

On behalf of Lamont and Columbia University I want to express my appreciation for the dedicated efforts of those who have sailed in the service of science on this vessel, and her predecessors, by giving the ship a photograph of Maurice Ewing, taken in front of the VEMA on which he sailed many cruises. I'm told Ewing was never happier than when he was at sea and now he can be at sea again.

To Maurice Ewing the man, the Research Vessel that carries his name, and those who serve on her, a toast ---- to the next half million miles.