Oral history interview with Allen Jorgensen, 1997.

Biographical Note

Ship captain.

Scope and Contents

Childhood: born Calgary, Canada; family’s return to Jutland, Denmark, 1920-1930; Troy, New York: Danish community 1930-1932; high school: Jersey City, New Jersey, 1933-1937; undergraduate education: Uppsala College, East Orange, New Jersey; travels through American West, 1937-1939: work as movie extra, riding freight trains; WW II: Merchant Marines service: troop training-ship Vema, 1941; coxswain training-ship Empire State, 1941; Murmansk, Russia; seaman to chief mate, 1941-1945; marriage 1945; Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory [LDEO] experiences: chief mate LDEO research vessel Conrad, 1967-1969; promotion to Conrad captain, 1969; sailing Southern Hemisphere; ship operations’ costs; Antarctic expeditions; relations between ship crew and LDEO scientists; democratic captaining style versus 19th century captaining style on LDEO’s research vessels; impressions of chief scientists, comparisons between LDEO and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute [Woods Hole] and University of Washington research vessels; Woods Hole ship captain, 1979-1981; Latin American ports; Conrad retirement; losing radio contact in Pacific; Titantic search; Conrad’s layout.

Subjects

• Columbia University.
• Doel, Ronald, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Interviews.
• Jorgensen, Allen--Interviews.
• Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Research vessels.
• Vema (Ship)
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1997