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Capricorn Expedition Photographs

Owning Institution: UC San Diego, Special Collections and Archives

About this Collection

The Capricorn Expedition (1952-1953) was conducted as part of a series of oceanic expeditions sponsored by the Department of the Navy and the University of California. Two Scripps Institution of Oceanography ships, R/V Horizon and R/V Spencer F. Baird, were used. The Capricorn Expedition was the first Scripps expedition to include the use of scuba divers to explore the Pacific. Operation Ivy preceded the expedition.

This collection includes images taken during the Capricorn Expedition. Subjects include: R/V Spencer F. Baird and R/V Horizon; Pacific Islands and atolls (including the Marshall Islands, Alexa Bank, Palmerston Island, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, and the Hawaiian Islands); scientists and crew members; oceanographic equipment (including core barrel, temperature probe, ball breaker, and A-frame); diving and underwater images; seascapes; and Pacific Islanders. Photographs were taken by professional photographers employed by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, including SIO Photographic Laboratory personnel John MacFall. View this collection on the contributor's website.
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363 items found in this collection

of 16
Aerial photo of the Island of Bau, off the south-eastern coast of …
A-Frame on R/V Horizon
A-Frame on R/V Spencer F. Baird
Alan C. Jones and Bernard Darsey, R/V Horizon
Alan C. Jones and Edwin Lee Hamilton on deck of R/V Horizon
Alan Churchill Jones at the fathometer, a sonar depth finder, aboard R/V …
Alan Churchill Jones with instrument aboard R/V Horizon
Arthur E. Maxwell examines temperate probe aboard R/V Spencer F. Baird
Arthur E. Maxwell works on heat probe records during the Capricorn Expedition
Arthur Maxwell and group on ship fantail
Ball breaker and sampler
Beach during wave, Bikini Atoll area
Ben Masters, chief of Palmerston Island, visits with Roger Revelle aboard R/V …
Bikini Atoll
Boobies in flight above R/V Horizon
Booby bird perched on R/V Horizon
Booby bird perched on R/V Horizon, off Necker Island (Mokumanamana)
Booby perched on the head of Edward Sheldon Barr
Boscawen Island, Tonga, as seen from R/V Spencer F. Baird
Boscawen Island, Tonga, as seen from R/V Spencer F. Baird
Cable on beach during wave, Bikini Atoll area
Cable on beach during wave, Bikini Atoll area
Cable on beach during wave, Bikini Atoll area
Cable on beach during wave, Bikini Atoll area
of 16