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Militant Oceanographers: Behind Britain’s “Technocratic” Moment, 1958–64

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Ocean Science and the British Cold War State

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Abstract

In 1960 Britain appointed its first minister for science. This was the catalyst for the total reorganisation of the interaction between science and the ‘state’, leading to the establishment of scientific research councils, the abolition of government scientific laboratories, and setting up centralised universities as research centres for national research. A series of government reports placed the position of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and its independence under threat. As historians have argued, this was Britain’s brief flirtation with technocratic governance for science, and it caused great turbulence for George Deacon’s leadership of British oceanography. This, I argue here and demonstrate in the next chapter, had two major consequences; firstly it formally shut down the ‘on-tap’ requirement for ocean science, and secondly it forced the NIO under the continued leadership of Deacon to diversify and increase the outlets for ocean science research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘The sea is whose oyster?’, The Statist (29 October 1965).

  2. 2.

    ‘The Sea is Whose Oyster?’, The Statist (29 October 1965). The article claimed ‘half a million pounds a year is all Britain spends on oceanography; Canada spends £25m., the United States £100m. and the Russians probable even more’.

  3. 3.

    ‘The Sea is Whose Oyster?’, The Statist (29 October 1965).

  4. 4.

    Frederick Brundrett, “The Neglected Sea,” (The Twenty-Ninth Haldane Memorial Lecture, delivered at Birkbeck College, London, 7 March 1963). Churchill College Archives Centre, Sir Frederick Brundrett papers, Churchill/BRUN 2/1.

  5. 5.

    David Edgerton, “C.P. Snow as Anti-historian of British Science: Revisiting the Technocratic Moment, 1959–1964,” History of Science (2005): 187.

  6. 6.

    On C.P. Snow see Guy Ortolano, The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

  7. 7.

    Samuel H. Beer, Britain Against Itself: The Political Contradictions of Collectivism (New York: Norton, 1982).

  8. 8.

    Edgerton, “C.P. Snow as Anti-historian of British Science,” 187.

  9. 9.

    On Britain’s space programme, see Stuart Butler, “National prestige and in(ter)dependence: British space research policy, 1959–73” (Ph.D diss., University of Manchester, 2017).

  10. 10.

    Jim Tomlinson, “Conservative Modernisation, 1960–64: Too little, too late?,” Contemporary British History, 11:3 (1997): 18–38; Jon Agar, Brian Balmer, “British Scientists and the Cold War: The Defence Research Policy Committee and Information Networks, 1947–1963,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 28:2 (1998): 246; Jon Agar, “The New Price and Place of University Research: Jodrell Bank, NIRNS and the Context of post-war British Academic Science,” Contemporary British History, 11:1 (1997): 23–24.

  11. 11.

    Quoted in ‘Notes and Comments’, New Scientist (13 August 1959): 173.

  12. 12.

    New Scientist, (13 August 1959). New Scientist began in 1956 as a weekly journal of science news.

  13. 13.

    ‘Notes and Comments’, New Scientist (13 August 1959).

  14. 14.

    See Chap. 3 of this book.

  15. 15.

    Letter Brundrett to Deacon, 12 August 1959, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton).

  16. 16.

    Letter Brundrett to Deacon, 15 October 1959, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton).

  17. 17.

    Letter Deacon to Brundrett, 13 August 1959, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton); Letter from Deacon to Swallow, 10 March 1960, GERD Papers, D4/4, NOC Library (Southampton).

  18. 18.

    Draft article by Frederick Brundrett attached to letter sent to George Deacon, 15 October 1959, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton).

  19. 19.

    Helen M. Rozwadowski, “Arthur C. Clarke and the Limitations of the Ocean as a Frontier,” Environmental History (2012): 588.

  20. 20.

    Arthur C. Clarke, The Challenge of the Sea (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960); Arthur C. Clarke, A Fall of Moondust (London: Gollancz, 1961).

  21. 21.

    Gary Kroll, America’s Ocean Wilderness: A Cultural History of Twentieth-Century Exploration, (Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2008): 171–8.

  22. 22.

    Bradford Matsen, Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King (London: Vintage Books, 2010).

  23. 23.

    Rozwadowski, “Arthur C. Clarke,” 589.

  24. 24.

    Kroll, America’s Ocean Wilderness, 174–5.

  25. 25.

    For parallels between US and European science in the Cold War see John Krige, American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).

  26. 26.

    Arthur C. Clarke, The Deep Range (London: Frederick Muller, 1957).

  27. 27.

    ‘Marine Science – Why Not more of it!’ draft article by F. Brundrett, undated, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton).

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Letter from Brundrett to Deacon, 21 October 1959, GERD Papers, D4/4, NOC Library (Southampton).

  30. 30.

    Deacon’s introduction was entitled, “The increasing significance of marine science,” New Scientist (13 August 1959): 178–9; see also “Notes and Comments,” New Scientist, (13 August 1959): 173.

  31. 31.

    For more on the Royal Society in the Cold War, see Jennifer R. Goodare, “Representing Science in a Divided World: The Royal Society and Cold War Britain,” (Ph.D diss., University of Manchester, 2013).

  32. 32.

    Royal Society Minutes of Council (21 May 1959): 238–9; Royal Society Minutes of Council (18 June 1959): 254.

  33. 33.

    See Chap. 3.

  34. 34.

    Letter from D.C. Martin to Deacon, 14 January 1960, GERD Papers, G1/1, NOC Library (Southampton).

  35. 35.

    Goodare, “Representing Science in a Divided World,” 120.

  36. 36.

    Jacob D. Hamblin, Oceanographers and the Cold War: Disciples of Marine Science (Seattle: University of Washington, 2005): 101–104.

  37. 37.

    Jeff Hughes, “Doing Diaries: David Martin, the Royal Society and scientific London, 1947–1950,” Notes Rec. R. Soc., 66:3 (2012): 273–294.

  38. 38.

    Goodare, “Representing Science in a Divided World,” 120.

  39. 39.

    Letter from D.C. Martin to Deacon, 14 January 1960, GERD Papers, G1/1, NOC Library (Southampton): ‘The Physical Secretary and I would very much like to have a talk with you before the meeting of the British National Committee for Oceanic Research…perhaps you could come then and take lunch with us before going on to the meeting of the National Committee.’

  40. 40.

    Letter from D.C. Martin to Deacon, 23 January 1960, GERD Papers, G1/1, NOC Library (Southampton).

  41. 41.

    Goodare, “Representing Science in a Divided World,” 120–123, 144–156.

  42. 42.

    Harold Macmillan, “Tercentenary Banquet, Grosvenor House, Tuesday 26th July 1960: The Toast of the Royal Society Proposed by the Rt. Hon. Harold Macmillan, M.P.,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, (1961): 31–37.

  43. 43.

    Goodare, “Representing Science in a Divided World,” 145.

  44. 44.

    Peter Collins, “A role in Running UK Science?,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society (2010): 122.

  45. 45.

    Minutes of the meeting of the Council of the Royal Society held on 5 May 1960, 3 November 1960, 15 December 1960; 404, 483, 502–3, contained within Royal Society Minutes of Council 1957–61, Vol. 20.

  46. 46.

    Letter from D.C. Martin to G.E.R. Deacon, 6 September 1960, GERD Papers, G1/12, NOC Library (Southampton).

  47. 47.

    BNCOR, ‘Need for expansion in marine science by the United Kingdom’, Report of Conference held on 11 November 1960, CAB 124/2930, TNA (London).

  48. 48.

    Ibid.

  49. 49.

    The Meeting was held on 11 November 1960.

  50. 50.

    Letter from Deacon to Willis, 19 July 1961, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton).

  51. 51.

    Letter from Deacon to Willis, 17 July 1961, GERD Papers, D1/7, NOC Library (Southampton).

  52. 52.

    Robert Self, British Foreign & Defence Policy since 1945: Challenges & Dilemmas in a changing world (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010): 162.

  53. 53.

    Sir Gerald Templer (Chief of the General Staff) was said to have informed Sandys, ‘Duncan, you’re so bloody crooked, that if you swallowed a nail, you’d shit a corkscrew!; Dennis Healey, The Time of My Life (London: Michael Joseph, 1989): 257.

  54. 54.

    Ritchie Ovendale, “Macmillan and the Wind of Change in Africa, 1957–1960,” The Historical Journal 38:3 (1995): 455–477.

  55. 55.

    Defence White Paper, 1960 (8 February, 1960) Cmnd. 952., CAB 129/100/14, TNA (London).

  56. 56.

    Orr-Ewing had been in post less than a year (previously holding the office of the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty between 1957 and 1959).

  57. 57.

    Note attached to Report on the NIO by J.S.L. for the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, 17 August 1960, ADM 1/27490, TNA (London).

  58. 58.

    Report on the NIO, for the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, 17 August 1960, ADM 1/27490, TNA (London).

  59. 59.

    Note attached to Report on the NIO by J.S.L. for the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, 17 August 1960, ADM 1/27490, TNA (London).

  60. 60.

    ‘The Sea is Whose Oyster?’ The Statist (29 October 1965).

  61. 61.

    Letter from Deacon to Brundrett, 19 October 1959, GERD Papers, D1/9, NOC Library (Southampton).

  62. 62.

    Letter from W.N. Smith (H.M. Treasury) to A.E. Martin (Admiralty, Civil Establishments Branch), 8th July 1960, T 213/820, TNA (London).

  63. 63.

    Letter from Martin to Smith, 29 August 1960, T 213/820, TNA (London).

  64. 64.

    Letter from Deacon to Lythall (Chief Scientist, Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment), 27 June 1961, GERD Papers, D4/4, NOC Library (Southampton).

  65. 65.

    ‘Inspection of the National Institute of Oceanography – October 1960, A note on the work of the Institute as seen by a member of the Inspection Team’, T 213/820, TNA (London).

  66. 66.

    Anthony Laughton, interviewed by Paul Marshal, British Oral History of Science Interview, C1379/29 Track 5, p.106 of Transcript, http://sounds.bl.uk/relatedcontent/TRANSCRIPTS/021TC1379X0029XX-0000A0.pdf.

  67. 67.

    ‘Report on the Treasury/Admiralty inspection of the National Institute of Oceanography’, October, 1960, T 213/820, TNA (London).

  68. 68.

    Letter from R.G. Williams to R. Devereux, 1 December 1960, T 213/820, TNA (London).

  69. 69.

    Graham D. Burnett, The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012): 387.

  70. 70.

    As seen in Chap. 2, Mackintosh as Director of the Discovery Investigations had overseen the early career of Deacon, before the Admiralty promoted Deacon to Director of the NIO putting Mackintosh in a subordinate position as Assistant Director.

  71. 71.

    Burnett, The Sounding of the Whale, 465–6.

  72. 72.

    Memo by Mackintosh sent to Jourdain, 20 Feburary 1948 received in Cabinet office 1 March 1948, CAB 124/555, TNA (London).

  73. 73.

    Letter from Deacon to Willis, 24 January 1961, GERD Papers, D4/4, NOC Library (Southampton).

  74. 74.

    Self, British Foreign & Defence Policy since 1945, 165.

  75. 75.

    Report on the NIO to the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, 17 August 1960, ADM 1/27490, TNA (London).

  76. 76.

    Letter from Deacon to Sir William Cook, 21 July 1964, GERD Papers, D4/6, NOC Library (Southampton).

  77. 77.

    Letter from Deacon to Sir William Cook, 21 July 1964, GERD Papers, D4/6, NOC Library (Southampton).

  78. 78.

    Tomlinson, “Conservative modernisation,” 28.

  79. 79.

    David Edgerton, “The ‘White Heat’ Revisited: The British Government and Technology in the 1960s,” Twentieth Century British History, 7:1 (1996): 53–82; Richard Coopey, “Industrial Policy in the White Heat of the Scientific Revolution”, in The Wilson Years, ed. Richard Coopey, Steven Fielding, and Nick Tiratsoo (London: Pinter, 1992).

  80. 80.

    M. W. Kirby, “Blackett in the “White Heat” of the Scientific Revolution: Industrial Modernisation under the Labour Governments, 1964–1970,” The Journal of the Operational Research Society 50:10 (1999): 985–993; Richard Findley, “The Conservative Party and Defeat: the Significance of Resale Price Maintenance for the General Election of 1964,” Twentieth Century British History 12:3 (2001): 327–353.

  81. 81.

    Viscount Hailsham, Science and Politics (London: Faber & Faber, 1963): 78.

  82. 82.

    David Edgerton, “The ‘White Heat’ Revisited: The British Government and Technology in the 1960s,” Twentieth Century British History 7:1 (1996): 53–82.

  83. 83.

    Sabine Clarke, “‘A Technocratic Imperial State?’ The Colonial Office and Scientific Research, 1940–1960,” Twentieth Century British History 18:4 (2007): 453–480; Guy Ortolano, The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

  84. 84.

    Hailsham, Science and Politics, 14.

  85. 85.

    Hailsham, Science and Politics, 15.

  86. 86.

    Other research councils had already been established in the UK prior to the post-Trend expansion of the research council system: the DSIR (1916), Medical Research Council (1920) and the Agricultural Research Council (1931).

  87. 87.

    Tom Wilkie, British Science Policy Since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991): 19.

  88. 88.

    Letter from Bullard to Miss Morris (DSIR), 28 September 1960, CAB 124/2930, TNA (London).

  89. 89.

    Letter from Quirk to Bullard, 30 September 1960, CAB 124/2930, TNA (London).

  90. 90.

    Report of Conference, ‘British National Committee for Oceanic Research Need for Expansion in Marine Science by the United Kingdom’, 11 November 1960, CAB 124/2930, TNA (London).

  91. 91.

    DSIR Report of the Oceanography Panel: on the Provision of Vessels and other Oceanographic Facilities, 31 January 1964, CAB 124/3037, TNA (London).

  92. 92.

    Note on the Report of the Oceanography Panel Submitted with Sir Harry Melvile’s Minute, 25 June 1964, CAB124/3037, TNA (London).

  93. 93.

    ‘The Earth Sciences and the Trend Report’, 7 February 1964, ECB Papers, E159, E (Cambridge).

  94. 94.

    Ibid.

  95. 95.

    Trend/1 (64), minutes of meeting held 2 April 1964, ECB Papers, E159, CAC (Cambridge).

  96. 96.

    Note of the Head of G.F.O., 4 December 1963, ADM 1/28555, TNA (London).

  97. 97.

    Ibid.

  98. 98.

    Minutes of Permanent Secretaries Meeting, 9 January 1964, ADM 1/28555, TNA (London).

  99. 99.

    Minutes of Permanent Secretaries Meeting, 9 January 1964, ADM 1/28555, TNA (London).

  100. 100.

    Memo for the Deputy Secretary, 17 December 1963. ADM 1/28555, TNA (London).

  101. 101.

    See Chap. 5.

  102. 102.

    Unsigned Minute, 15 January 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  103. 103.

    Ibid.

  104. 104.

    Letter from Revelle to Bullard, 25 February 1964, ECB Papers, C.18, CAC (Cambridge).

  105. 105.

    Hamblin, Oceanographers and the Cold War, 186.

  106. 106.

    Minute by Miss Senior, 15 January 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London). Lord Todd won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1957, was chair of the ACSP 1952–64 (served on ACSP 1947–64), and was elected PRS 1975–80; see Brown, D. M., and Kornberg, H., ‘Alexander Roberus Todd, O.M., Baron Todd of Trumpington. 2 October 1907–10 January 1997’, Biogr. Mems. Fell. R. Soc., 46 (2000) 515–532.

  107. 107.

    Letter from Deacon to Willis, 24 January 1961, ADM 1/27490, TNA (London); Note by Evans 23 October 1964, CAB 124/2178, TNA (London).

  108. 108.

    Note by Evans 23 October 1964, CAB 124/2178, TNA (London).

  109. 109.

    Note by Evans written on a letter from Jones (Admiralty) to Fraser (Treasury), 16 March 1964, (note written 18 March 1964), CAB 124/2178, TNA (London).

  110. 110.

    Letter from Charnock to Sutton, 25 March 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  111. 111.

    Letter from Sutton to Charnock, 29 March 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  112. 112.

    Letter from Sutton to Deacon, 31 March 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London): ‘I think you need have no fears regarding the activities of NERC vis-à-vis the NIO. I have taken into account all that you said at our meeting.’

  113. 113.

    Letter from Michael Cary (Ministry of Defence) to Sir Frank Turnbull, (DfES), 20 January, 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  114. 114.

    Draft of Statement to be given to the meeting of the NOC on 29 January 1965, memo ‘Organisation for Oceanography’, dated 26 January 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  115. 115.

    Letter from Sir Frank Turnbull (DfES) to Sutton, 19 March 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  116. 116.

    Letter from Jones, (Research and Development Finance Division (Naval), MoD) to Hidges, DfES, 8 June 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  117. 117.

    Letter from Hodges to Jones, 23 July 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  118. 118.

    Minute from MoD for the Minister of State for Education and Science (Lord Bowden), 27th September 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  119. 119.

    Minute from MoD for the Minister of State for Education and Science (Lord Bowden), 27 September 1965, CAB 124/1823, TNA (London).

  120. 120.

    On Polaris see Peter Hennessy and James Jinks, The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945 (London: Penguin Books, 2015).

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    Samuel A. Robinson

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Robinson, S.A. (2018). Militant Oceanographers: Behind Britain’s “Technocratic” Moment, 1958–64. In: Ocean Science and the British Cold War State. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73096-7_6

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