R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER WEEKLY REPORT FOR THE PERIOD 07-13 OCT 1996

A. MANAGEMENT

     Significant Activities:

     The ship arrived at the ice edge October 8.  There the first test
station was conducted. Two CTDs, one Trace Metal CTD and a In-situ
(Thorium pumps) cast were successfully completed. Also, upon arrival at
the ice edge, the Seismic Gun Winch, the Moss Landing van, Thorium van,
convertible van and Kevlar Winch were repositioned and secured. The
convertible mooring van and seismic winch were welded to the deck as
requested by the Captain. The mooring floats in the convertible van were
unloaded, inspected for damage (no damage found) and were reloaded. On
October 11 there was a third (successful) CTD cast, the Kevlar was
respooled with a 250lb weight on it, after which four thirty liter bottle
for the Moss Landing trace metal group were washed and tested from the
aft Kevlar winch.

     In addition to supporting all of the above activities, the Marine
Techs accomplished the following: The stainless steel shieve on the
Waterfall Winch was bead blasted to remove all rust. The Hydrolab Ice
maker was repaired and is currently up and running. After the CTD was
terminated we put the Chinese Fingers on the CTD cable. The Kevlar cable
on the Waterfall Winch was Terminated.

     Many other minor jobs were looked after during the week, but the
majority of the Marine Tech's, Electronics Tech and science parties time
has been spent dealing with getting the helo-deck closed-loop incubation
system up and running, and keeping it running. Despite some setbacks,
they were successful.

     For the Electronic Tech, the first part of the week consisted mostly
of repairing damage caused by the storm. A computer system and a winch
readout box were serviced from the Moss Landing Van. Most of the damaged
components were returned to service. Power was restored to all vans and
water damage to the ML vans' wall outlets was repaired. The Power cable
to the ML winch was respliced and a replacement start switch was
installed, a box for mounting the switch was constructed by the MTs.

     The incubator heater system had several problems. On Friday the
engine room reported a ground fault error, it was traced to the heater.
The problem was remedied and the heater began to function properly
without causing a ground fault. The temperature probe, however, was not
working. Both contacts of the temp probe were found to be grounded, the
output was not changing. A manual system for adjusting the heater was
installed using a voltage calibrator. Additionally, a new procedure for
resetting the Ashtech was written; the trace metal rosette was terminated
and cast; a cable was run from the wetlab to the helo deck for a GPS
Antenna; a patch cable to improve the monitor reception on the CCTV
system was fabricated and installed. Logging of underway seawater
instruments came to a halt after the clutch in the small monopump failed.
Air filters were cleaned in the drylab and some printing tests were
conducted on the Bathy. Science mast sensors were checked and cleaned.
The Ashtech performed well, so plans to replace the remanining antennas
have been put on hold.

     The EMT provided patient care in instances both requiring and not
requiring MAS support involving illness, no injuries.

     The Labratory Supervisors provided support to the following science
projects during the second week of the JGOFS Process 1 Cruise (NBP96-4A):

 S-209/210/211/256/258, S-218, S-219, S-223/255, S-236, S-238/239,
S-240/241/224, S-244, S-250, S-251, and S-253. Direct support was
provided in setting up instruments and equipment, completing a Test
Station cast with the new Trace Metal-clean CTD Rosette, checking the
operation of the Helo Deck incubator system and other equipment on deck,
and rearranging the Helo Hangar to facilitate access to grantee materials
and packaging materials/drums for hazardous wastes. A second fluorometer
with matching filter sets was set up in order to perform a
cross-calibration and intercomparison of the performance of two
fluorometers.  Both instruments were found to perform equally well,
verifying their E/R/R at the vendor.

     Considerable effort by the lab supervisors resulted in a complete
updated review of JGOFS Process 2 SIP Section 7 (Materials and Supplies
to Purchase). Efforts continued towards updating the lab
equipment/instruments master spreadsheet file, updating inventories, as
well as assembling an NBP Lab Supervisor manual to direct lab support and
waste handling efforts.

     Also accomplished were several small projects, including
installation of a room darkening curtain for a epifluorescence microscope
in the aft portion of the Computer Lab and installation of a UPS for the
autosalinometers in the Auto Sal Room.  Fabrication of an ultraviolet
transparent (UV-T) plexiglass incubator for S-239 was begun late in the
week and expected to be completed early next week.

     The Lab Supervisors worked with the Electronics Technician and
Senior Marine Technician to maintain the TSG while the vessel transited
pack ice enroute to the study area. For the majority of the week seawater
to the TSG was shut-down because of clogging of the TSG plumbing with sea
ice and snow. Flow of seawater to the TSG will be restarted after arrival
in a suitable lead/polynya area.

     The IS accomplished the following: Performed routine backups on
Novell, Macintosh, and Unix servers; Processed Email via 56K and SLIP
connections.  Traced several email problems for a small group of users;
Assisted science team with PC, Macintosh and email questions. Set up
several new Xircom/laptop connections for science party. Downloaded and
printed ice imagery; Performed RT-DAS operations: setup for O2 sensor,
which included identification of 6 marginal/defective short-haul modems
out of the ship's stock of 8. Replacements for short-haul modems and
appropriate cabling will be requested under separate cover; Ran
geophysical processing (pmag, pgrav, pbath, xmerge, and JGOFS formatting
routines) for NBP9604A data; Generated plots of JGOFS/RT-DAS data; Wrote
a QBASIC program to re-format Beckman LS-3801 capture data to fit science
party's Excel spreadsheets; Generated scripts to plot various MET, OXY
channel data fields vs. time.

     Planned Activity:

     The NBP will continue its transit to Stations Sei (74S, 171E) and
Orca (76.5S, 178W) in the Ross Sea in support of the JGOFS Process I
Cruise (NBP96-4A) ending at the ice edge off McMurdo Station about 7
November.

B. PERSONNEL

     The ship deployed with 7 ASA and 32 science personnel embarked,
including Dr. Walker O. Smith, Jr., as Chief Scientist.

C. RESEARCH VESSEL OPERATIONS

     Ship Schedule: 7-13 October 1996: Underway in support of NBP96-4A.

     Charter Issues: Continued excellent support from Edison Chouest
Offshore.

     Email/INMARSAT traffic information is currently not available.

     Regards, James Orzech, Marine Project Coordinator