The R/V Horizon was one of the first of the post World War II oceanographic research vessels, and one of the most famous. It is a rare senior oceanographer anywhere in the world who has not at least seen the ship. The same is true of the RussianVityaz and Ob, the French Calypso, and the American Atlantis and Vema. Many of these research vessels were converted for ocean studies: Calypso was a former Royal Navy minesweeper; Vityaz was a German banana boat acquired in war reparation payments; Horizon was originally a small Navy tug.

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SIO Reference 65-8. This report provides background information on a world-wide set of ocean depths and land elevatgions recently compiled in meters and averaged over areas roughly equivalent to one degree squares of latitute and longitude at the equator.