by Dean C. Allard
Figure 11. - Compound twin-screw engines
of the Albatross.
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The Albatross’s primary mission during her first
regular cruise in April 1883 was to study the movements of Atlantic
mackerel, Scomber scombrus; Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia
tyrannus; bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix; American
shad, Alosa sapidissima; and other pelagic species during
their spring migration northward of Cape Hatteras. At this time,
the mackerel fishery had special importance(5)
because of its great economic value and due to the fact that the
mackerel was the major species caught by Americans in British
North American waters under the controversial fishing treaty of
1871. But the mackerel was notorious, as Sabine (1853:184) commented,
for being a “capricious and sportive fish, and continually
changing its haunts and habits.” Hence, any assistance that
the Albatross could offer in locating schools of mackerel, particularly
in U.S. or international waters, would be of value to American
fishermen. The ship resumed her study of pelagic species in the
fall of 1883 by attempting to track their southward migration
from New England to the point where they disappeared for the winter
in the deep waters off Cape Hatteras (Tanner, 1885:119–120,
154–165).
Another applied program of the ship was its effort to rediscover
the tilefish, Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps. In 1879,
this previously unknown species was discovered by a Gloucester
fishing captain in relatively warm New England waters 60–150
fathoms deep along the inside edge of the Gulf Stream Slope. Baird(6)
once expressed private reservations about the taste of the tilefish,
but, nevertheless, he and his Fish Commission colleagues touted
it as a valuable food species comparable in quality to the Atlantic
cod, Gadus morhua. Baird also asserted that the appearance
of the tilefish demonstrated the value of exploratory fishing.
Figure 12a. - Lower laboratory, looking
from aft forward.
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However, during the spring of 1882 there was a massive die-off
of this species, apparently due to the intrusion of cold water
into its grounds as the Gulf Stream slightly shifted its course.
It was not until the early 1890’s that the tilefish reappeared
(Bumpus, 1899). Fortuitously, the tilefish grounds were in the
Gulf Stream Slope region that was of so much basic scientific
interest to Baird and his associates. After 1882 Baird could state
that, in addition to his scientific agenda, the Fish Commission’s
investigations of that area were an attempt to relocate a valuable
commercial species or at least to understand the reasons for the
tilefish’s disappearance (Bumpus, 1899:321–333; Herdman,
1923:178–181).
During the summer of 1883, the Albatross moved her base
to Woods Hole. The ship’s deployments from that port revealed
the fascination that the Gulf Stream Slope and the adjacent oceanic
abyss held for the Fish Commission’s scientists. In July,
during the Albatross’s first cruise of the summer,
the investigators on board included Edwin Linton, a young specialist
in marine parasites. Linton gave a dramatic description of a night
scene on the stern of the Albatross as the first trawl,
which had been in the water for 6 hours, was hauled in from a
depth of 1,400 fathoms under the illumination of the ship’s
electric lights.
None of the scientists present had seen deep-sea fauna, and they
strained their eyes to detect the moment when the Albatross’s
trawl broke the ocean’s surface.
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