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Paper short abstract:

This paper traces the first forty years of Greek oceanography operations, c.1900-1940. It argues that in the early years of Greek oceanography, it was the ideological incentive of reinventing Greece’s maritime prowess that resulted in the most positive developments in the field.

Paper long abstract:

This paper follows the trail of early oceanographic research by the Greek Hydrography Service, kicking off with preliminary surveys at the port of Piraeus in the 1890s to more technologically advanced oceanographic voyages at the eve of the Second World War. it is guided by Rozwadowski’s (2010) assumption that ‘motive is the critical precursor to technology’ and that motivations and desires tied to cultural notions could be more compelling than technology in forging ahead with oceanographic research. It argues that in the early years of Greek oceanography, it was the ideological incentive of reinventing Greece’s maritime prowess that resulted in the most positive developments in the field, and that deep sea research of Greek waters served as an ideologically loaded vehicle aiming to promote Greek maritime prowess within the Mediterranean basin. This aspiration hinged on ancestral claims of Greece as being the archetypal Mediterranean maritime nation and was further fuelled by the desire to make Greece the scientific hub of deep-sea exploration in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, the shockingly underexploited fisheries resources dotting the Green waters made Greek ocean research imperative for nutritional and commercial purposes. However, as long as inherently rigid structural pitfalls in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge persisted within Greece, Greek oceanographic research was characterized by inconsistency for at least the first 40 years of its existence.