Fire in the Sea: Bioluminescence and Henry Compton's Art of the Deep (Volume 25) (Gulf Coast Books, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)

186 Pages·2014·38.893 MB·English

by  David A. McKee, Henry Compton

Fire in the Sea
NUMBER TWENTY-FIVE
Gulf Coast Books
Sponsored by
Texas A&M University–
Corpus Christi
John W. Tunnell Jr., General Editor
A list of titles in this series is available at the end of the book.
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Texas A&M University Press • College Station
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FIRE

IN THE
SEA
Bioluminescence & Henry Compton’s Art of the Deep
David A. McKee
with Larry J. Hyde, Michael Barrett, Jennifer Hardell, & Mark Anderson
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Copyright © 2014 by David A. McKee
All rights reserved
First edition
Manufactured in China by
Everbest Printing Co. through
Four Colour Printing Group
This paper meets the requirements
of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Binding materials have been
chosen for durability.
Library of Congress CataLoging-in-PubLiCation Data
McKee, David A., 1947–, author.
Fire in the sea : bioluminescence and Henry Compton’s
art of the deep / David A. McKee, with Larry J. Hyde,
Michael Barrett, Jennifer Hardell, and Mark Anderson.
— First edition.
pages cm. — (Gulf Coast books ; number twenty-five)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62349-031-7 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-62349-106-2 (e-book)
1. Compton, Henry, 1928–2005. 2. Marine biologists—
Texas—Biography. 3. Marine artists—Texas—Biography.
4. Bioluminescence. 5. Deep-sea fishes—Classification.
6. Deep-sea fishes—Pictorial works. 7. Biology in art.
8. Painting—Conservation and restoration. I. Hyde, Larry J.,
author. II. Barrett, Michael (Biologist), author. III. Hardell,
Jennifer, author. IV. Anderson, Mark (Mark Wayne), author.
V. Compton, Henry, 1928–2005. Fire in the sea. VI. Ander-
son, Mark (Mark Wayne). Art of Hank Compton. VII. Title.
VIII. Series: Gulf Coast books ; no. 25.
QH91.3.C665M35 2014
572’.4358092—dc23
[B]
2013034943
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Life in the Deep Sea 3
Bioluminescence 9
Hank Compton 12
The Art of Hank Compton, by Mark Anderson 14
Fire in the Sea 18
Appendix: Digitizing the Artwork, by Larry J. Hyde 163
Bibliography 167
Index 169
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Preface
Because Henry (Hank) Compton would likely have preferred that into the images but equally into the man who collected, photo-
anything done with his art and his prose have as broad a readership graphed, painted, and wrote about them. One of the most fre-
as possible, the authors of this book are attempting to do just that. quently asked questions about Compton is, “What else can you tell
We feel strongly that the art and text in this book will be of great me about him?” Unfortunately, not a whole lot. I have attempted to
interest to academics (career and student biologists) and nonsci- add to the paradox and mystery of Compton by adding a little more
entists alike. Anyone who has a fascination for the dark, cold, deep text. I feel that much of Hank’s allure is that so little is known about
sea will certainly find Compton’s images both intriguing and fas- him. I think that is what he had in mind from the beginning!
cinating. The art lover will marvel at the splendid work performed Another common question asked is, “When did he do all of
on canvas by this exceptionally talented, self-trained artist. Anyone the painting?” The short answer is, “We’re not completely sure.”
specializing in fishes will be amazed at the great care Compton From dates on the text he wrote about the images, we can see that
took in representing the fishes and invertebrates so faithfully and his writing extended into the early 1990s, and common sense tells
accurately. The historian will be interested that these investigations us that he completed the images before he wrote about them. We
in the Gulf were some of the first work centered on deep-water know that the majority of his time collecting in the Gulf of Mex-
sampling. ico was in the early to late 1960s. Our best guess is that he started
Rockport, Texas, where Compton worked and lived, is located painting in the early 1970s and continued on into the 1990s. There
very close to the Gulf of Mexico and is the location of Texas Parks are, however, no dates or time references to support this.
and Wildlife’s Coastal Fisheries regional headquarters for the Writing the early chapters in this book was quite a challenge in
lower Texas coast. This has long been a fishing village known for that it is intended to be read by both scientists and nonscientists.
its great sport fishing and is home to both bay and Gulf of Mexico Compiling the chapters “Life in the Deep Sea” and “Biolumines-
commercial finfish and shrimp fisheries. Thus, it was natural that cence” was extremely challenging due to the need to use correct
this new era of deep-sea collecting, occurring during the early to scientific terminology and also make it readable and understand-
late 1960s and lasting until the late 1970s, be centered there. Feder- able to anyone who might pick up the book. Although many dif-
al grants were secured to equip the R/V Western Gulf research vessel ferent invertebrate species occupy the deep ocean along with many
berthed in Rockport for deep-water collections. Sampling in deep species of fishes, the deep-sea assemblages of fishes are the pri-
water was relatively new and known to be dangerous. To pull nets mary focus in these two chapters, and only rarely will invertebrates
at great depths required large cables and winches under a lot of be included. With a few exceptions (7), all of the species in the 57
strain and tension. As a result, the vessel was outfitted with gigan- images are of fishes (even though 3 or more different species are
tic logging winches used in the timber industry, which handled the often present in an image). We remain true to Compton and what
job quite well. he left behind and are treating his material as we think he would
The focus of the book, without a doubt, revolves around have wanted it used.
Compton’s artwork. The text he wrote provides insight not only
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Acknowledgments
Foremost we are indebted to the late Helen Compton (Hank’s sis- Madre book published in 2008. She is an excellent editor and always
ter-in-law) for having the foresight to salvage the materials used in pleasant, encouraging, and helpful. Gail Sutton (assistant director)
this book after his death and for allowing the use of them. Her en- and Allison Knight (project coordinator) with the Harte Research
couragement and enthusiasm for this project to honor her brother- Institute offered the assistance of Leanne Franco, their A&M–CC
in-law made us work even more diligently to get it completed and summer work study assistant, to undertake the huge job of scan-
let the outside world know about Hank Compton. Helen passed ning all the Compton text, which was on yellowed, typewritten
away June 22, 2010, in Corpus Christi, Texas. pages (104,000 words). All of you were real lifesavers!
We also owe a lot to David King (Compton’s college classmate Elani Morgan joined us late in the developmental stages of as-
and coworker) and Gabrielle Hildebrand (wife of the late Henry sembling the manuscript and produced figures 1 and 2 to help
Hildebrand) for their help in providing photographs of and stories describe the different vertical realms of the deep sea. Her mother,
about Hank. Maureen Maddux Bond provided great stories and Mac Morgan, a retired high school English teacher, went through
photographs as well. She has many fond memories of Hank when the introductory chapters, suggesting substantial changes, mov-
he worked for her father (Jack) at Oso Pier over a 30-year period. ing and substituting material, and even rewriting various sections.
She and her family probably knew him better than anyone else and These sections were much improved after her sharp eye and red
thought of him as family. Thanks also to Terry Cody, who worked pen were employed.
with Hank for a short time at the Rockport Marine Laboratory. Finally, I want to thank my coauthors, Larry Hyde, Jen Hardell,
Mark Anderson was chair of the Art Department at Texas A&M and Mike Barrett, for a job well done. I cannot say enough good
University–Corpus Christi (A&M–CC) at the time the images were about them as people and professionals. Larry took the very dif-
acquired (he is now chair of the Baylor University Art Depart- ficult and time-consuming challenge of digitizing the images that
ment), and I asked him to give his professional perspective on the existed and then making publication-quality images from those
Compton artwork. Excited as we all were upon seeing the illustra- that existed only as 35 mm slides. What a whiz! Jen and Mike had
tions for the first time, Mark agreed to write a chapter on his im- previously worked for me as teaching assistants when they were
pression of Compton’s work, including the techniques and media graduate students at A&M–CC. Jen worked miracles with selecting
used. Compton’s prose for use in the book and assisted in developing
I had the distinct pleasure of working closely with Shannon some of the preliminary chapters. Mike took on the big task of up-
Davies (Louise Lindsey Merrick Editor for the Natural Environ- dating the taxonomy of the deep-sea animals and finding appropri-
ment, Texas A&M University Press) on my Fishes of the Texas Laguna ate text for all levels of readers.
—David A. McKee

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