The 'Historie van de Oceanografie Club' (its title in Dutch), or HOC, was initiated in the Netherlands.
In 2005 Johan van Bennekom en Leo Otto† took the initiative to investigate a need for a 'Contactgroep Geschiedenis van de Oceanografie' (Contact Group History of Oceanography). A dozen positive replies were received from persones as well as institutions. A small Core Group (Johan van Bennekom, Gerhard Cadée, Bas de Groot, Kees Kramer, Remi Laane† en Leo Otto†) worked out the initiative, detailing the aims, boundary conditions and practical arrangements.
At the first meeting of the Contact Group a new name was decided: 'Historie van de Oceanografie Club' (History of the Oceanography Club), or HOC in short.
HOC aims to:
¤ share common interests in the history of oceanography, originally Dutch oceanography, but today international;
¤ stimulate exchange and dissemination of related information;
¤ assist in accessing sources of information;
¤ stimulate (research) projects;
¤ organise meetings.
We providing services to all interested in the History of Oceanography. So far, most 'members' originate from The Netherlands, but an increasing number come from other counties, notably since we adopted English in our communications. Many have/had a professional career in one of the oceanography related disciplines, but expertise/interests are very diverse. More and more members are professional historians.
HOC has close links to the International Commission for History of Oceanography (ICHO) and other institutions.
HOC publishes about once per year a newsletter called 'ad HOC', which is disseminated in pdf format and sent by e-mail.
The latest 2022 issue is Issue 19. For this and previous issues go here.
Originally, HOC catered for Dutch speaking members. We realised that others, interested in the History of Oceanography, could be interested in our activites. Hence, since 2015 the newletter is issued in the English language. On this site, articles from before this period are often in Dutch.
Of course, contributions to the newsletter 'ad HOC' are welcomed (in the English language).
Are you interested in the history of oceanography and want to receive ad HOC? Join HOC: send an e-mail (see contact) and you will be on the list.
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