When Admiral Steve Ritchie asked if he could retire (at the age of 92) on the 10th anniversary of Hydrointernational (February 2007), we stopped the column ‘As it Was’ as a tribute to him. We were sent many reactions about stopping this well-received column not only because our readers missed the column but they also argued, for example, that our magazine has the task of educating young surveyors about the history of our profession. Now, we think it is time to re-start the historic column, giving it a new name, ‘History’, and so securing the association of ‘As it Was’ to Admiral Ritchie.

NB: Admiral Ritchie is doing well, although his reduced eyesight is troubling him in e-mail correspondence.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the co-ordinator of the new ‘History’ column: Captain Albert E. Theberge, NOAA Corps (ret.). Captain Theberge entered Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1969 (pre-NOAA Corps), his shipboard duty included the NOAA shipsSurveyor,Whiting,PierceandMt Mitchell(the last two on which he was commanding officer) and he did many other interesting things such as field assignments as chief of an astronomic observation party and officer-in-charge of a NOAA high-speed launch conducting hydrographic surveys. He headed the geothermal resource mapping team at the National Geophysical Data Center, liaised for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Marine Physical Laboratory working with the Deep Tow Team and Seabeam Group, headed the NOAA Exclusive Economic Zone Mapping Project and, from 1992 to 1995, was on the staff to the Director NOAA Corps and NOAA Corps Historian.

He retired from the NOAA Corps in 1995. Since then he has been involved with the NOAA Central Library as research librarian, historian, staff assistant and internet product developer (see 8 1–3 if you have an interest in history). Captain Theberge kindly invites potential authors to contact him for submissions to the History column.
?Another change to the Hydrointernationalteam is our new Editorial Board Member, who I also introduce to you with great pleasure: Mr Edward Saade. Mr Saade is President of Fugro Pelagos, Inc. and has 33 years of hydrographic survey, coastal zone management and ocean engineering experience. Since 1998, he has headed the office, which has vast experience in acquiring hydrographic multi-beam data, including back-scatter, hydrographic LIDAR and otherrelated mapping techniques. These studies have been directly applied to fisheries habitat mapping, UNCLOS mapping and hydrographic charting programmes for NOAA in the USA and a variety of hydrographic offices worldwide.

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