[1] As captain of the Carnegie, he discovered submarine mountain ranges off the western coast of South America and provided empirical confirmation of the Chandler wobble.
[2] He died with all his collaborators with the exception of a few sailors who went ashore, in circumstances that remained unexplained when the ship exploded on November 29, 1929 at the port of Apia in the Samoa Islands.
In November 1906 at the conclusion of the cruise of the Galilee, he was assigned to make magnetic observations in northern Mexico until March 1907.
In 1908 he made geomagnetic observations in the Canadian interior during a three-month canoe trip,[1] covering 1,600 miles.
J. P. Ault nearly resigned to return home to be with his wife, but his colleagues persuaded him to complete Cruise VI.
[12] His papers stored at the Carnegie Institution include an extensive correspondence between him and his wife.