The Museum of the World Ocean was first established in 1990 on the natural channel connecting the city of Kaliningrad with the Baltic Sea. There are impressive buildings, including a well designed Congress Hall facing an extensive wharf at which several vessels are moored, including the famed oceanographic 5,000 tons research vessel Vityaz, settled into her retirement berth after 45 years of active seagoing across the oceans of the world. This ship is a museum in itself, where you may see the many instruments and equipment as they were used, in addition to the Officers and Scientists’ spacious accommodation - upon which envious eyes will be cast by seagoing scientists from the West used to harder lying!

Perfectly Organised Congress
As for the Congress, it must be said that it was perfectly organised. The daily sessions were so arranged that for the luncheon breaks and for the evening receptions buses carried the delegates to and from the various restaurants and finally to their hotels at night.
Throughout the week charming young women students from the Kaliningrad State University, many of whom spoke competent English, were on hand to assist delegates. There were about 150 papers, each speaker being limited to fifteen minutes for his presentation. To cope with this pressure over four very busy days, seventy papers were dealt with in the Congress Hall and forty in the Exhibition Building and the Sperm Whale Pavilion, respectively.
Unfortunately, no list of delegates was yet available by the end of the Congress but it appeared to me that the great majority of the delegates were Russian and originated from the dozen or so National Scientific Institutions involved with the oceans, and several universities. About forty non-Russian delegates seemed to be present, both Germany and Belgium being well represented. There were only six delegates from the United Kingdom and a similar number from Canada and the USA.
Many of us were already aware of the great expeditions such as those of Bellinsgauzen, Kozebu and Krusenstern, the latter being well noted during the Congress. However, the real eye-opener was the great mass of oceanographic and hydrographic exploration, largely in Arctic and Antarctic areas, which proceeded under the auspices of Russian scientists during the twentieth century and about which little information reached the Western World before this Congress. The book of the Congress, which may be expected in due course from the Museum, will, I am sure, raise greater interest in the history of oceanography world-wide.

Resolutions
The closing session of Congress was chaired by Professor Alexey Postnikov of the Vavilov Institute of the History of Science and Technolgy in Moscow. A resolution was passed asking participants to invite scholars and oceano-graphers from every country to take part in the preparation and organisation of the next International Congress, on the History of Oceanography. This, following the example of Kaliningrad, should be held in a suitable location no later than 2008, and could be orientated toward the history of the exploration, discovery and research of the World Ocean, with particular emphasis on scientific understanding of the Southern Ocean.
The Social side of life was well catered for throughout the week of this last Congress, commencing on Monday night with a superb Reception given by V.G. Yegorov, Admiral of the Navy and Governor of Kaliningrad.