At 550, 8 1/2-by-11 pages, it’s hardly bedtime reading, but Keith Benson thinks Oceanographic History: the Pacific and Beyond is more interesting than the average “Proceedings” that comes out of a conference.
Of course, as the co-editor of the volume, published by the UW Press, Benson is a little biased. But then, an academic tome that includes an article about sea serpents can’t be all bad.
Benson, a historian of science, has had a long research interest in the marine sciences. That’s why he’s been attending the International Congress on the History of Oceanography since the 1980s. But the 1993 congress, on which the book is based, was special, he says.
For one thing, it was the first congress after the fall of the Soviet Union, so there were a number of countries there that had never participated before. And, a special effort had been made to encourage the participation of non-oceanographers.
“The history of oceanography has been written almost exclusively by practicing (or formerly practicing) oceanographers,” Benson and co-editor Philip Rehbock write in the book’s introduction. Meanwhile, historians of science have traditionally concentrated on “the hard sciences,” Benson says. “Physics, the scientific revolution, Newton, that sort of thing.”
With more non-oceanographers participating, the papers presented were more diverse. “It allowed us to bring in information about how a variety of groups have viewed the ocean,” Benson says.
Which brings us back to that article on sea serpents. Written by Sherrie Lyons, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Daemen College, the article talks about past voyagers’ reports of seeing huge beasts in the ocean. Some of these beasts, Lyons says, were probably real animals — such as giant squid or octopus — but some were more likely the product of an overactive imagination. She calls the serpent “a fascinating case study about marginality and legitimacy in science.”
Another unusual article has to do with an indigenous Micronesian culture’s knowledge of marine animals. “It was written by a man who is married to a native of the Eastern Caroline Islands,” Benson says. “He’s lived there for a number of years and has been accepted into this culture, so he’s been able to find out first-hand what they know.”
All of the articles in the book were presented at the conference, but all have been rewritten to some degree. Benson says that although two-thirds of the authors are scientists, he and his co-editor were determined that the material would be written in a nonscientific style to make it easier to read for those outside the field.
That’s one of the reasons the book was nearly 10 years in the making. Another is that Benson and Rehbock wanted the book to look like a seamless whole, rather than a collection of papers thrown together.
“We thought that with electronic communication we could do that, but we underestimated the problems,” he says. “When we began, back in ’93 and ’94, there were still major problems with compatibility of format. Many times, disks would arrive with their contents scrambled, and I was ready to throw the whole thing out.”
But they persevered to produce a book that contains 60 plus articles from all over the world. In addition to those already mentioned, there is a history of submersibles, the story of early research on salinity and an account of how Germany — a landlocked country — became enthusiastic about the study of the oceans.
Benson, the only UW author has an article about the history of marine stations on the Pacific coast, including the UW’s Friday Harbor. “It’s a general overview of the history of the stations and their role in understanding marine processes as well as their educational mission with k-12 teachers and undergraduates,” he says.
Oceanographic History: the Pacific and Beyond will be available from UW Press this summer.