HEADQUARTERS
Santa Cruz Flotsam
Big Sur Bureau
01 June 2025
To. Media TBA
Fm. Hayes, Marine Correspondent
Subj. Arcturus Expedition 1925--Underwater Painting--Miss Isabel Cooper
Encl. (1) submitted herewith.
1. Isabel Cooper played a pivotal role as the scientific artist on the 1925 Arcturus oceanographic expedition.
a. Tasked with creating detailed illustrations of marine life and expedition activities, she produced over one hundred artworks during the voyage, which were essential for documenting the research and for later publications such as William Beebe’s The Arcturus Adventure.
b. Cooper’s work included painting live animals and fish, often under challenging conditions—sometimes even painting underwater while using a diving bell. Her illustrations helped bring the expedition’s discoveries to a broader public and were featured in scientific papers, books, and art exhibitions.
c. Her participation as a professional woman on the expedition was notable at a time when female scientists and artists on research vessels were rare, and her presence contributed to the expedition’s public profile and scientific legacy. Cooper’s official role was listed as “Scientific Artist,” and her work was integral to the visual and scientific documentation of the expedition.
PART II. PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
1. The following is an account written by Miss Cooper for The Daily NonPareil (Davenport, Iowa) published on 23 October 1925, page 5.
MADE A STUDY OF DEEP SEA FISH
Woman Painter Goes Undersea to View Her Subjects
LIFE UNDER THE WATER
Miss Isabel Cooper, Who Accompanied Expedition to Sargasso Sea, Tells of What She Saw in Ocean's Depth
When, on Feb. 10, the ship Arcturus, fully equipped as a floating laboratory for the study of sea life, left New York for the Sargasso Sea, one of the members of the William Beebe scientific expedition aboard her was Miss Isabel Cooper, artist, commissioned to paint the pictures of the queer fish they might find. During the entire trip, Miss Cooper was kept busy transfering to paper the brilliant colors and strange shapes of the expedition's many finds. Occasionally she went down in a diving helmet to see for herself the weird world which was the natural setting of her subjects. The following article was written by Miss Cooper. It is reprinted from the New York World.
"A Lesson in Manners."
Life aboard the Arcturus resolved around fish.
Meal times were not as important as the hours set for the nets to come in. The grinding of the winches that dragged the giant dredges and the sound of block and tackle became as familiar to our ears all the roar of cities. The only real worry or excitement, for days at a time, was as to whether the nets made the descent and ascent safely and came up loaded with specimens, or would get caught on submarine volcanoes or mountain peaks and ripped apart, or chewed up by unspeakable monsters of the deeps.
Great efforts were made to have the laboratories cleared for action as each new haul came up, as there were sure to be unknown and valuable creatures each time. Just as new hunting grounds in tropical jungles are fascinating for the possibilities they hold of rare animals, hitherto unimagined observations, so was each new section of the depths, that slowly sifted through our trawls or dredge nets, of most absorbing interest.
We arose early, in order to get the endless cables of our apparatus started out.
The Event of the Day.
And then all through the day, no matter what our preoccupation might be, we always knew when the loads of mysteries were due.
Great interest on the part of the entire ship's company was displayed when they did finally appear, galley force and coal passers even hanging over the rail to watch the dredge or other trawls as they were dragged up over the side of the ship, dripping with water and octopus tentacles and torn starfish, or shiny with the carcases of jelly fish, and, usually, the small end filled with the most extraordinary fish chowder imaginable.
Anything in it from a skates' egg to strange ferry boats of the deep, fish with lights fore and aft, and along each side in absurd rows, width would appear to a shrimp's eye like the lights of the bulky monsters that plow nightly back and forth across our bays and rivers.
Sometimes enormous crabs would appear, or sea cucumbers, or large fishlike creatures -with silver lights, or deep sea sponges.
An Extraordinary Experience.
This voyage of the Arcturus was a most extraordinary experience. It was interesting. indeed, to leave civilization behind and sail, for month after month, far beyond accustomed ship lanes in quest of fish of all kinds: fish of the surface and of the depths, and those lesser and greater creatures who are respectively their enemies and their prey.
We were able to descend a few feet in a diving helmet and watch fish and crabs and coral reef inhabitants as they swam about in shallow sunlit waters.
It is surprisingly simple and easy to go down twenty or thirty feet, at least with the type of helmet which we used on the Arcturus expedition. It is a large metal affair, heavily weighted and supplied with enough air to keep the water inside just below your chin by means of the hose attached to a pump at the surface. This device is mechanilly fool-proof and very easy to wear and to manage.
In spite of this, however, I felt a most absurd and unreasonable kind of fear at the idea of sinking below the surface of the water, with no other protection against drowning than this fantastic arrangement.
I went down first in a small pool of still water, several feet back from the surf, along the allure of Darwin bay. There were great towering crags of lava all around, red and black, and scattered with cactus. The gannets and frigate-birds kept flying overhead in great curiosity, trying to see what was going on.
I took along a palette and brushes and an oiled panel, hoping I would be able to make a rough sketch at least of the general appearance of the rocks below water, if not of the fish as they glided about my face. But I soon found that this was not practicable at all. It is hard enough to manage yourself under water without trying to do anything really intelligent with your hands. It is almost impossible to move with quickness and precision against the pressure of the water. And my painting gear proved very refractory indeed.
As far as I can see there would be no need to sketch below the surface. The sights down there are so very remarkable and beautiful that you would probably never forget them anyway, and you would certainly remember them long enough to work from memory at a reasonable desk at home instead of far down in a strange element and under the most terrific difficulties.
It is surprisingly bright and illuminated, in broad daylight, at the depths to which we descended. And the submarine scenes are as beautiful as anything in the world. Brilliantly colored rocks, with bright starfish and sea-flowers or beautifully formed coral, interspersed with sea-fans and waving sea-weeds-all making a background for angelflsh-and moonfish and a million outlandish creatures of tropical waters.
PART III. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
1. Image. The headline in The Daily Pareil of the article featuring Miss Cooper's report.
2. Synthetic Intelligence Inquiries. Perplexity AI.
3. Lead Image. Charles Samuels, Girl Artist Penetrates Jungle and Goes Under Sea, Brooklyn Eagle, 18 October 1925, page 8-9.
The Kansas City Star Magazine,
27 September 1925,
page 3
4. Report prepared by Alpha Hotel, SC Flotsam (c) 2025.
GAUDY FISH That Swim In GALAPAGOS WATERS
By Saul Poliak
Buffalo Courier
29 November 1925, page 35.
end of report, unclassified.
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