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How did the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution study the Gulf Stream in the 1930s?

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Map of the North Atlantic Ocean showing major ocean currents, with warm currents like the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift highlighted in pink and cold currents in blue. Arrows indicate current directions and relative speeds, connecting the eastern coasts of North America, the western coasts of Europe and Africa, and the Arctic region. — Gulf Stream Major warm and cold currents of the North Atlantic Ocean.

In the early 1930s, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution inaugurated concentrated modern efforts to study the Gulf Stream using the ketch Atlantis.1

Prior to these efforts, scientific understanding of the current was limited by its complex nature; it is not a simple ribbon of water but a complicated network that shifts course, disappears and reappears, and develops eddies along its margins. While the existence of these eddies had been noted as early as 1793, they were not systematically studied until the early 1930s by oceanographer Phil E. Church.12

Today, the study of such ocean currents has evolved significantly, utilizing orbiting space satellites equipped with sensors to trace surface patterns by detecting temperature and color variations. Researchers also employ Lagrangian methods—tracking individual parcels of water via floats or buoys—and Eulerian methods, which measure flow velocity past a fixed point using current meters.13