English: Marie Tharp, Al Ballard, and Marty Weiss conversing Collection of images taken aboard the maiden voyage of the USNS Kane, a 285 ft. oceanographic research and hydrographic survey ship as it traveled the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from June to October, 1968. The cruise mission was to gather evidence of the history of the Atlantic Ocean floor and the theory of continental drift using a variety of tools including the DEC PDP-8 computer, hydrophone arrays, underwater cameras, and coring tubes. The scientific team on this voyage was led by Bruce Heezen, of the Lamont Geological Observatory. Included in the images are the scientists and crew aboard, including Bruce Heezen, Marie Tharp, Bill Woodward, Marty Weiss, Al Ballard, Rich Schneider, Bill Phillips, George Minor, Jay Egloff, Pete Lorentzen, John Freitag, Vic Crescenzo, and Don Blomquist. Commemorative coin was removed from collection and added to the American Institute of Physics collection of stamps, coins, and currency, 1901-2008.