Participant Perspective - July 19, 2001

Interview with George White
Executive Officer NOAA Ship Ron Brown

Jeff: What are your duties as an executive officer on the Ron Brown?

George: The executive officer is second in charge out here. It's kind of like vice-president. I oversee all the administration of the ship. Anything from pay to benefits, orders, travel, or human resources issues. I work directly with the chiefs of the departments and oversee the officers and junior officers on board about personnel issues, fitness reports and leave. Traditionally the captain and the executive officer stay separate from the daily watch standing duties but in modern times we operate on a minimum manning staffing. So, the captain and I both stand watch. That's fun because it keeps your hands in the daily events. Otherwise you get tied up with paperwork and lose track of the ship's operations.

Jeff: How do you compare the Brown to other ships you've been on?

George: This is my fifth sea assignment. The Brown is an extreme pleasure to be on. It's a very modern, comfortable ship to travel on. It's a very forgiving ship to operate with its maneuverability and power. The technologies aboard are a lot of fun to work with. With the added attraction of computer controls for dynamic positioning it's an easy ship to operate. You could never do the precision station-keeping that we need to have to operate ROPOS. To do that manually on a traditional ship would be a lot of work and you could never get the results you get here.

Jeff: Do you ever get tired of being at sea?

George: Yes, occasionally. I think your emotions change a lot more when you're out here because it's a lot more arduous and you're away from the comforts of
home. It's a challenge. There are certainly times during a voyage where depression will try to set in and you have to fight it off. If you're successful it makes things a lot more fun. You depend on your shipmates to help out. Certainly we have a lot of comforts of home that people years ago didn't have. That's what I always try to realize. A quote from the old days of sailing said that going to sea was like being in jail, only with the added attraction of drowning. So, certainly today, if we look back at our predecessors that were out on the ocean in much worse circumstances, we should be grateful for what we have.

Jeff: Any last thoughts?

George: It's very exciting that, way out here in the middle of nowhere, we can convey back, via the internet, the exciting things we're discovering. Hopefully we're able to provide a window into scientific exploration. I know the chief scientist is grateful to the taxpayer that we can do this work that is so important to the understanding of the oceans, and maybe, in this case, the origins of life on Earth.