Rachel Carson - The Sea Around Us

In the modern Sailing Directions and Coast Pilots now issued by every maritime nation of the world we find the most complete information that is available to guide the navigator over the ocean. Yet in these writings of the sea there is a pleasing blend of modernity and antiquity, with unmistakable touches by which we may trace their lineage back to the sailing directions of the sagas or the peripli of the ancient Mediterranean seamen.

It is surprising, but pleasant, that sailing directions of one and the same vintage should contain instructions for obtaining position by the use of loran, and should also counsel the navigator to be guided, like the Norsemen a millennium ago, by the flight of birds and the behavior of whales in making land in foggy weather. In the Norway Pilot we read as follows:

[Of Jan Mayen Island] The presence of sea fowl in large numbers will give an indication of the approach to land and the noise of their rookeries may be useful in locating the shore.

[Of Bear Island] The sea around the islands teems with guillemots. These flocks and the direction of their flight on approaching, together with the use of the lead, are of great value in making the island when it is foggy.

And the ultra-modern United States Pilot for Antarctica says:

Navigators should observe the bird life, for deductions may often be drawn from the presence of certain species. Shags are… a sure sign of the close proximity of land… The snow petrel is invariably associated with ice and is of great interest to mariners as an augury of ice conditions in their course… Blowing whales usually travel in the direction of open water.

Sometimes the Pilots for remote areas of the sea can report only what the whalers or sealers or some old-time fisherman has said about the navigability of a channel or the set of the tidal currents; or they must include a chart prepared half a century ago by the last vessel to take soundings in the area. Often they must caution the navigator not to proceed without seeking information of those having ‘local knowledge.’ In phrases like these we get the feel of the unknown and the mysterious that never quite separates itself from the sea: ‘It is said that there was once an island there… such information as could be secured from reports of men with local knowledge… their position has been disputed… a bank reported by an old-time sealer.’

So here and there, in a few out-of-the-way places, the darkness of antiquity still lingers over the surface of the waters. But it is rapidly being dispelled and most of the length and breadth of the ocean is known; it is only in thinking of its third dimension that we can still apply the concept of the Sea of Darkness. It took centuries to chart the surface of the sea; our progress in delineating the unseen world beneath it seems by comparison phenomenally rapid. But even with all our modern instruments for probing and sampling the deep ocean, no one now can say that we shall ever resolve the last, the ultimate mysteries of the sea.

In its broader meaning, that other concept of the ancients remains. For the sea lies all about us. The commerce of all lands must cross it. The very winds that move over the lands have been cradled on its broad expanse and seek ever to return to it. The continents themselves dissolve and pass to the sea, in grain after grain of eroded land. So the rains that rose from it return again in rivers. In its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life and receives in the end, after, it may be, many transmutations, the dead husks of that same life. For all at last return to the sea— to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.

Bigelow, Henry B. and Edmonson, W. T. Wind Waves at Sea, Breakers and Surf, U.S. Navy, Hydrographic Office Pub. no. 602, Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947. 177 pp. Extremely readable; full of interesting and practical information about waves at sea and along coasts.

Johnson, Douglas W. Shore Processes and Shoreline Development. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1919. 584 pp. Primarily for geologists and engineers concerned with shoreline changes, yet the chapter, The Work of Waves, is unmatched for sheer interest. Out of print.

Marmer, H. A. The Tide. New York, D. Appleton and Co., 1926. 282 pp. In this book the late outstanding American authority on tidal phenomena explains the complex behavior of the tides. Out of print.

Maury, Matthew Fontaine. Physical Geography of the Sea . New York, Harper and Brothers, 1855. 287 pp. Marks the foundation of the science of oceanography, as the first book to consider the sea as a dynamic whole. Out of print.

Murray, Sir John, and Hjort, Johan . The Depths of the Ocean. London, Macmillan, 1912. 822 pp . Based chiefly on the work of the Norwegian research vessel Michael Sars in the North Atlantic, this work was for many years the bible of oceanography. It is now out of print and copies are rare.

Ommaney, F. D. The Ocean. London, Oxford University Press, 1949. 238 pp. A thoughtful and pleasantly written account of the ocean and its life, for the general reader.

Russell, F. S. and Yonge, C. M . The Seas. London, Frederick Warne and Co., 1928. 379 pp. Written chiefly from the biological point of view, this is one of the best general treatments of the subject.

Sverdrup, H. U., Fleming, Richard, and Johnson, Martin W . The Oceans. New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1942. 1087 pp. The standard modern textbook of oceanography.

Some of the most rewarding sources of information about the sea are the Sailing Directions of the U.S. Hydrographic Office (for waters outside of the United States) and the Coast Pilots of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (for United States shores). Besides giving detailed accounts of the coastlines and coastal waters of the world, these books are repositories of fascinating information on icebergs and sea ice, storms, and fog at sea. Some approach the character of regional geographies. Those dealing with remote and inaccessible coasts are especially interesting. They may be purchased from the issuing agency. The British Admiralty publishes a similar series, as do the appropriate authorities of most maritime nations.

Hardy, Alister. The Open Sea. Part I, The World of Plankton. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1956. 335 pp. Part II, Fish and Fisheries, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1959. 322 pp. A two-part study of marine biology, describing first the little-known creatures of the true sea world beyond the coastal areas, and then the fishes that depend on them.

Hesse, Richard, Allee, W. C, and Schmidt, Karl P. Ecological Animal Geography. New York, John Wiley and Sons (2nd Ed., 1951). 597 pp. This is an excellent source of information on the intricate relations of living things to their environment, with profuse references to source material. About a fourth of the book is concerned with marine animals.

Murphy, Robert Cushman. Oceanic Birds of South America. New York, Macmillan, 1948. 1245 pp. 2 vols. (originally issued by American Museum of Natural History, 1936). Highly recommended for an understanding of the relation of birds to the sea and of marine organisms to their environment. It describes little-known shores and islands in extremely readable prose, and contains an extensive bibliography. Out of print.

Wallace, Alfred Russell, Island Life . London, Macmillan, 1880. 526 pp. Deals in interesting fashion with the basic biology of island life. Out of print.