Chapter 10
Sextant to Satellite
The Education of a Land-Based
Oceanographer
S. GEORGE PHILANDER
The second half of the twentieth century was a most remarkable period in the field
of physical oceanography. Into the 1980s oceanographers were still relying on stars
and sextants to gather information as vitally important as the position of a ship at sea.
Asking for “a tall ship and a star to steer her by” was not merely a romantic wish,
but a practical necessity. Today it is possible to pinpoint the location of a ship by
means of the Global Positioning System (GPS) which depends on several satellites
in space. Such a remarkable change presumably had a profound effect on the way
oceanographers see themselves, and the way they relate to the oceans. Sextants are
the instruments of explorers—individualists who brave the elements and venture into
uncharted territory in search of new worlds. Did the launching of the Sputnik, the
first artificial satellite, in 1957, cause oceanography to lose its romance? Are there
any worlds still to be conquered?
No, oceanography has not lost its romance, and, yes, there still are exciting
discoveries to be made. I did not anticipate these answers when, during the 1990s, I
tried to fathom why I was becoming more and more discontented with developments
in my field, physical oceanography. Was my disquietude simply part of growing old, as
S. George Philander, Professor, Princeton University.
153
Sextant to Satellite
The Education of a Land-Based
Oceanographer
S. GEORGE PHILANDER
The second half of the twentieth century was a most remarkable period in the field
of physical oceanography. Into the 1980s oceanographers were still relying on stars
and sextants to gather information as vitally important as the position of a ship at sea.
Asking for “a tall ship and a star to steer her by” was not merely a romantic wish,
but a practical necessity. Today it is possible to pinpoint the location of a ship by
means of the Global Positioning System (GPS) which depends on several satellites
in space. Such a remarkable change presumably had a profound effect on the way
oceanographers see themselves, and the way they relate to the oceans. Sextants are
the instruments of explorers—individualists who brave the elements and venture into
uncharted territory in search of new worlds. Did the launching of the Sputnik, the
first artificial satellite, in 1957, cause oceanography to lose its romance? Are there
any worlds still to be conquered?
No, oceanography has not lost its romance, and, yes, there still are exciting
discoveries to be made. I did not anticipate these answers when, during the 1990s, I
tried to fathom why I was becoming more and more discontented with developments
in my field, physical oceanography. Was my disquietude simply part of growing old, as
S. George Philander, Professor, Princeton University.
153