Susan Stein, curator for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, was invited to speak at the commissioning ceremony of the NOAA Ship THOMAS JEFFERSON on July 8, 2003 in Norfolk, Virginia. The following are her remarks on Thomas Jefferson's interest in science and what it means to name the ship for Thomas Jefferson.

Vice Admiral Lautenbacher, thank you for the wonderful invitation to join you for such a consequential event. I am very honored, and I bring you greetings from Monticello, Jefferson's mountaintop home. I praise you for the superb choice of the name for your ship as you carry out many of Jefferson's interests Jefferson kept a consistent weather diary for more than fifty years. In fact, he actually purchased a thermometer at John Sparhawk's Philadelphia shop on July 4, 1776! While Jefferson spent his life far from the ocean, his writings were peppered with nautical references—he often referred to the "ship of state" and "the voyage of life."

What I hope to make clear to you today is what it means to name this ship for Thomas Jefferson, even beyond the important Coastal Survey Act of 1807, which prompted the systematic study of our coastal waters and prefigured the work done today by NOAA.

Thomas Jefferson was a member of that extraordinary creative generation of American founders, who dared to imagine and to reshape the world. John Adams wrote later that Jefferson had "a happy talent of composition" and "peculiar felicity of expression." Jefferson's literary capability made him the best choice to express the ideals and values of this generation in the draft of the Declaration of Independence. This lanky, tall, shy Virginian also possessed an astonishing intellect and an insatiable appetite for knowledge on a wide variety of subjects. We revere Jefferson as author of the Declaration of Independence yet Jefferson considered it the collective expression of the American mind rather than his own individual achievement. Still, they are Jefferson's words recited around the globe.

In 1826, Jefferson was asked to attend the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the birthday of our country in Washington. He was too ill to make the journey, and he sent his regrets. In this last letter Jefferson wrote, "All eyes are opened or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the lights of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God." Take note of Jefferson's phrase "the lights of science," which he so closely linked to freedom. "The main objects of all science are the freedom and happiness of man," Jefferson wrote. It was reason and the study of the natural world that powered Jefferson's ideal universe, for he absolutely believed that the condition of mankind could be improved by the practical application of science. His interests literally ranged from astronomy to zoology, and he exchanged information, ideas, and botanical specimens with scientists and friends around the world. Amazingly to us, Jefferson served, while he was vice president and president, as president of America's greatest institution of scientific learning, the American Philosophical Society.

To us, Jefferson is perhaps as praiseworthy for his scientific interests as he is for his political achievements. He wrote "Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight." It was Jefferson who shared news of the invention of the striking match, observed eclipses, collected mastodon bones, designed a spherical sun dial, studied whaling and fishing, and surveyed his plantation. Jefferson initiated and directed the Lewis and Clark expedition, instructing the explorers to adopt a scientific approach to their journey. He recognized how important it was to understand the whole of the universe around us—from stars and planets, mountains, people, and animals to oceans and marine life.

I wish you well in your important endeavor, believing as Jefferson did, that science is vital to freedom. Share, as Jefferson did, "the lights of science." I close with Jefferson's words. "Heaven bless you, and guard you under all circumstances; give you smooth waters, gentle breezes, and clear skies."