Stanford
Seaside

Te Vega Cruise #3

Dates Wntr/Spr Feb-Jun 1964
Chief Scientist Dixy Lee Ray
Senior Scientists John S. Garth (decapopds), Harold E. Hackett (algae), Louis S. Kornicker (geological oceanography, ostracods), Robert Robertson (molluscs), Loren P. Woods (fishes); Fred C. Ziesenhenne (echinoderms)
Junior Scientists Gary L. Beardsley, Joseph C. Clark, Hansruedi Guttinger,
Karl Mauzey, Mary E. Rice, Richard R. Straty, Robert A. Wallace, R. Stimson Wilcox
Teaching Assistants
Technicians
Captain E. Burton Olsen, Jack Thomsen
Ports of call Colombo, Ceylon; Male, Maldives; Cochin, India; RAF Base, Gan, Maldives; Port Louis, Mauritius; Madagascar

Narrative (pdf)

Installment 10  (Cruise 3)

Installment 11 (Cruise 4)

Installment 12 (Cruise 4)

Ports of call, from scrapbook notes:  
Colombo, Ceylon; Malé, Maldives; Cochin, India; Chagos Archipelago; Port Louis, Mauritius; Port Victoria, Mahe Island, Seychelles; Tamative, Madagascar

List of ship stations and list of shore stations

Te Vega Cruise #3 Binder (pdf)

Cruise itinerary, cruise map, general narrative (rough draft), general narrative, expanded itinerary, Algae Work on the Research Vessel Te Vega, Cruise A by LH Colinvaux, station reports = biological data (handwritten and typed).

Publications

Aregood, C.C. and H.E. Hackett (1971) A new Dictyurus (Rhodophyceae-Dasyaceae) from the Maldive Islands, Indian Ocean. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 87:91-96. SOE CRUISE 3

Banner, Albert H. and Banner, Dora M. (1979) Some Small Collections of Alpheid Shrimp from the Indian Ocean, Including Two New Species of the Genus Synalpheus. Pacific Science (1979), 33 (1). 25 – 35. SOE CRUISE 3

Bruce,  A. J. 1965. On the occurrence of Fennera chacei Holthuis (Crustacea, Decapoda Natantia, Pontoniinae) in the Indian Ocean. J. mar. biol. Ass. India, 7 (1) : 80-82. SOE CRUISE 3

Bruce, A. J. (1970) Observations on The Indo-West-Pacific Species of The Genus  Palaemonella Dana, 1852 (Decapoda, Pontoniinae). Crustaceana. 19 (3) 273-28. SOE CRUISE 3

Bruce, A. J. (1974) A Report on a Small Collection of Pontoniine Shrimps from The Northern Indian Ocean. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. India, 1974. 16 (2) : 437-454  SOE CRUISE 3

Clark, J.C. (1964) Te Vega expedition to the Maldive Islands, Indian Ocean, 1964 Annual Report American Malacological Union, 31: 49-50 SOE CRUISE 3

Garth J. S. (1971) Borradaile's Maldivian collections revisited. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India. Vol. 11 [1969]. Pp. 182–190. SOE CRUISE 3 

Hackett, H. E. (1969) Marine algae in the atoll environment: Maldive Islands. Duke Univ. Unpub. dissertation. SOE CRUISE 3

Hackett, H. E. (1969) Marine algae in the atoll environment: Maldive Islands. Proc. Int. Seaweed Symp. 6: 187-191. SOE CRUISE 3

Hackett, H. E. (1977)  Marine Algae Known From The Maldive Islands. Atoll Research Bulletin. 210. 1-29. The Smithsonian Institution Washington, D. C., U.S.A. May 1977 SOE CRUISE 3

Hollenberg, George J. (1968)  An Account of the Species of the Red Alga Herposiphonia Occurring In the Central and Western Tropical Pacific Ocean. Pacific Science, 22 (4) 536-559. SOE CRUISE 3

Kornicker, Louis S. (1967) Euphilomedes Arostrata, A New Myodocopid Ostracod From Maldive Islands, Indian Ocean. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 120 (356) 1-21. SOE CRUISE 3

Rice, Mary E. (1969) Possible Boring Structures of Sipunculids. Am. Zoologist, 9:803-812  SOE CRUISE 3

Robertson, Robert. (1966). Coelenterate-associated prosobranch gastropods (abstract).American Malacological Union Ann. Repts., "1965" Bull. 32: 6-8. SOE CRUISE 3

Wallace, Robert A. (1966) Nesting and defensive behavior of the Black-naped Tern in the Maldive Islands The Auk: Ornithological Advances, Volume 83, Issue 1, 1 January 1966, Pages 138 SOE CRUISE 3
 
 

 

PDF of cruise details

orange dots to right are cruise #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS 

SCIENTISTS AFLOAT

SU's Answer To 'Kon Tiki'
By JIM SELNA
 
The alluring water of the South Seas, pirates off the coast of Sumatra, and a long-lost link in the evolutionary process- these were some of the topics discussed by Professor Rolf Bolin, chief scientist for the "To Vega." Stanford ocean going marine laboratory. Dr. Bolin in discussing the travels of the ship showed a series of slides illustrating the work of the project. The "Te Vega" is a 135-foot sailing ship which belongs to a northern lumber concern. The ship is equipped with a complete chemistry lab and extensive electronic and meterologieal equipment. The "Te Vega" left Hopkins Marine Laboratory at Monterey last July 13 with twelve graduate students, three faculty members and a crew of 15 professional seamen. Before the ship had finished its 11,000 miles cruise to Singapore, it had visited Hawaii, Samoa, the Salomons, and other island groups in the South Pacific. The newsmen at the conference expressed a definite admiration for Dr. Bolin's work while they viewed the alluring pictures of
 
the "easy life" in the islands. Dr. Bolin took some of the glint out of the reporter's dreams to accompany him on the next voyage when he showed shots of the "To Vega" in rough seas. The students aboard the ship receive 15 units of graduate credit for their work. They also receive complete tuition as well as a stipend for expenses from the National Science Foundation. Every three months a new group is selected to study aboard the ship. At Singapore the student crew was changed, and the vessel began to survey the Indian Ocean as part of a program organized by the International Council of Scientific Unions with support from UNESCO. The "Tc Vega's" second voyage proved to quite harrowing. Dr. Bolin told of sailing through pirate-infested waters off the coast of Sumatra. The pirates, who are one part of the strained relation between Malaysia and Indonesia, patrol the straits separating the two countries. The "Tc Vega," armed with only a shotgun and a rifle to kill specimens of birds, stayed close to the Malaysian coast and encountered no incidents. On December S, the ship ran into near tragedy when the propeller shaft for the ship's auxiliary engine was ripped off, leaving a hole in the housing. In an informal narrative that Dr. Bolin wrote on the trip he says, "We were approaching known good collecting grounds on Sipora (off the west coast of Sumatra) when there was a thump . . . "We are now deprived of our engine entirely dependent on said in an area of little wind. As I write we have been trying for about 30 hours to make headway toward Padang and have made little or none." After five days of little progress. the ship was rescued by a tug boat and towed into harbor. The ship was repaired, and supplies were taken on. The professor stressed the educational aspects of the cruise. Unlike some expeditions, the Stanford project is not interested in any specialized area. Dr. Bolin said that the ship stops "where it finds something interesting"
 
The second voyage ended January 11 when the ship docked in Clombo, Ceylon. Dr. Bolin flew homo and will not be with the cruise which will explore the waters off the east coast of South Africa. He plans to rejoin the ship in three months. The ship will be under the direction of Professor Dixy Lee Ray of the University of Washington. Of special interest is the search for the latimeria. The small fish, once thought to be extinct, is a side branch of the evolutionary process that produced man. The fish has two specialized fins on its spine which are the beginnings of the evolution of vertabrae. The fish is exceedingly rare and none have ever been kept alive in captivity. Dr. Bolin who was formerly connected with the science exhibit at the Seattle World's Fair, also pointed out that one of the purposes of the ship is to get people to realize the significance of the seas. The sea is still one of man's few untapped natural resources.
 
THE 'TE VEGA' SAILS THE SEAS

The Stanford Daily, Volume 145, Issue 10, 14 February 1964. Page 6 

 

Te Vega Editor, The Daily: I am writing this in order to clear up a few quite confusing and obviously mis-informed statements that Mr. Selna made in his article on Stanford's TE VEGA. Latimcria, the only living species of coelacanth, was first collected in 1938 after a 70 million year absence from the fossil record. Mr. Selna quite rightly said that t ho coelacanthids represent a side branch of the evolutionary history that produced man. But any so-called "lower animal" is also a side branch of this evolution. More specifically and more correctly that group to which Latimi'i'ia belongs is closely related to a group of extinct fish that probably made that first "step" from the sea to land. Probably the most important chararteristic that links coelacanths, rhipidistions (the extinct "link" already mentioned! and all land 1 vertebrates is the presence of a tripartite limb. That is, a limb composed (with the exception of the hand region ) of one proximal and two distal bones. In the front limb of land vertebrates these bones are termed the humerus, radius and ulna. Mr. Selna is entirely mis-in-formed when he speaks of Latinieria as a "small fish. . . . (thai has two specialized fins on its j spine which are the beginnings of the evolution of vertebrae." The first specimen weighed approximately 170 lbs. and was 5 feet long. As I have said. LatLmeria has specialized fins but these have nothing to do with the origin of vertebrae. All fish have [vertebrae and hence are included | in the subphylum Vertebrae with [ amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The origin of vertebrae obviously occurred long before the coelacanthids came along. It is the responsibility of journalism to report the facts accurately. Mr. Selna obviously needs either a good course in journalism or biology. DAVID H. EVANS 

 

The Stanford Daily, Volume 145, Issue 12, 18 February 1964