UNITED STATES
ASW Techniques
Christian Science Monitor, July 21.—“Dogged” is the word for the technique which the United States Navy uses to seek out submarines and either sink or otherwise immobilize them.
Slow-speed aviation including helicopters and blimps, sees and hears for the Navy in this “hunter-killer” operation, as the Navy terms it. The Navy disclosed some of this offensive sea operation recently in an all-day submarine hunt which it conducted for the Aviation Writers Association outside New York Harbor.
“Glamorous,” moreover, is not the word for operations aboard the carrier S. S. Palau, part of Task Force 81 engaged in these specialized operations. Unlike the great flat-tops launching their squadrons of jet fighters against distant targets, the Palau has a role similar to that of an octopus. Like the sea creature, the Palau launches her tentacles of slower-speed, hunter-and-killer aircraft, blimps and helicopters, each equipped with its own tentacles of radar and sonar.
Once these tentacles of radio and sound pick up the undersea prey, the job of the Palau and her hovering aircraft is primarily to sink the enemy submarine or to immobilize it by keeping it submerged and thus reduce the submarine’s effectiveness against shipping. And the Palau and her aircraft are equipped to hang on for days and weeks, if necessary.
Such a group usually is composed of an aircraft carrier, two types of carrier-based aircraft, from four to six destroyers, and helicopters and blimps. Our exercise featured the USS Palau, a CVE-122 type carrier with 500-foot flight deck; two destroyers, the USS Darby and USS Basilone, a helicopter, a blimp, and our “prey” was the USS Grampus, the Navy’s most modern schnorkel-type submarine.
The carrier’s planes take off in pairs from the deck employing catapults. One plane is the searcher and employs radar to pick up echoes from the submarine or its schnorkel device. The other plane carries rockets, machine guns, depth charges, and sonobuoys to aid in the destruction of the submarine.
The whole force operates in likely submarine areas, the opposite technique of merchant vessels which would avoid such an area. The aircraft maintain a continuous day and night search. When the quarry is located, the planes endeavor to deliver a knockout blow to the sumarine.
If unsuccessful, the destroyers are summoned to the scene and deliver an attack with underwater weapons.
Until the arrival of the destroyers, the aircraft keep track of the submarine by visual contact, if possible, usually employing either helicopters or blimps to hover over the site. If the submarine is submerged, a ring of sonobuoys is dropped. These devices pick up and transmit the underwater sounds of the undersea craft to the hovering planes. If the submarine moves under the surface to escape detection the sonobuoys can be dropped into the sea in a continuous line to track the undersea craft.
Eventually this hovering assignment will be taken on more completely by helicopters which offer more flexibility than fixed-wing aircraft. Helicopters will be able to work singly or in pairs, will not be subject to as many weather delays, and their slow speed will enable them to track submarines more accurately, or even hover and wait if that is required.
A helicopter’s ability to get closer to the water makes it more effective when coupled with sonar devices which pick up undersea sounds. When control is shifted from air to surface attack, the helicopter is a more flexible medium since it can mark the area in the water where the surface attack is to be launched.
Though undersea noises are varied difficult sometimes to separate, the Navy estimates that its escort type ships with modern sonar and weapons, adequately manned by experienced personnel, have a good probability of maintaining contact with and defeating the medium-speed submarine, once sonar contact has been established.
Layers of water, it was pointed out, refract the sound waves much as light is refracted when entering water. Submarine officers are very much aware of this phenomenon and have a large readily visible temperature gauge in assisting them to hide under such layers.
A modern enemy submarine also may be expected to launch “target-seeking” torpedoes. Escort vessels would be quite vulnerable to such weapons while conducting a submarine search. It is for this reason that the task force under combat conditions would have as many as six destroyers in its protection screen.
Anti-submarine warfare carriers, like the Palau, carry a large amount of fuel so that they can remain at sea and keep their searching aircraft aloft by refueling techniques.
The Navy blimp, in fact, made several refueling “passes” at the carrier’s decks, dropping its hand lines, in simulation of a refueling at sea.
Baltimore Delivery
New York Times, June 23.—A shipment of 10,000 tons of West African iron ore, the first ever to reach the United States, arrived at the Port of Baltimore today from Liberia aboard the S. S. Simeon G. Reed, operating under charter to Farrell Lines, Inc.
At the dock were the Liberian Ambassador, C. D. King; the president of the Liberia Mining Company, Ltd., L. K. Christie; the vice president of the Republic Steel Corporation, T. F. Patton, and representatives of the Department of State, the Import-Export Bank, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Port of Baltimore.
The ore is from the Bomi Hills deposit, forty-three miles inland from Monrovia, capital and chief seaport of Liberia. The first railroad in Liberia was rushed to completion to connect the mine with Monrovia.
The ore is to be loaded immediately for consignment to Republic Steel’s plants in Cleveland, Warren, Youngstown, Canton and Massilon. Republic owns a substantial part of the mining company’s stock.
Virginia Museum
New York Times, July 5.—Newport News, Va., one of the nation’s chief shipbuilding centers also is the home of one of the nation’s outstanding marine museums. Known as the Mariners’ Museum, the institution is situated in an 800-acre park, bordering the James River, six miles north of the city.
The museum and park were established by Archer M. Huntington in 1930, in memory of his father, Collis P. Huntington, founder of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, according to The Common-wealth Magazine, a publication of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
There are 800 ship models in the museum, ranging from a primitive dugout to that of the liner America. A striking exhibit is the large eagle figurehead that once adorned the U.S.S. Lancaster, a steam frigate built in 1858. The works of many marine artists are included in the display of painting and lithographs. The library contains 50,000 photographs and 33,000 books and pamphlets.
China and glassware used on ships, including many valuable and rare items, are displayed. Relics of famous ships can be seen inside and outside the buildings, and there is also a variety of old armaments, including a German torpedo-carrying submarine and a Japanese two-man submarine.
Post Graduate School Move
New York Times, Aug. 20.—Annapolis, Md.—The 43-year-old naval postgraduate school will be moved to Monterey, Calif., some time after Nov. 21.
Although the move has been projected for some eight years, this was the first definite date announced by the school superintendent, Rear Admiral Ernest Hermann.
The Naval Academy will use the vacated buildings.
In July of 1948 the aerology department of the school moved to Monterey. There are now forty naval officers enrolled there.
The postgraduate school here opened late last month with 202 new officers enrolling and 173 returning for second and third year courses.
U. S. Navy in Amazon
New York Times, August 19.—“Exploring” the Amazon from the comfort of a steamer’s deck has become a popular tourist pastime in recent years, but the commercial awakening of the world’s mightiest river can be traced to a venturesome United States naval expedition.
Lieut. William Lewis Herndon and Midshipman Lardner Gibbon, leaders of the expedition, entered the Amazon’s green jungles in 1851 and emerged two years later with exhaustive scientific data on the immense river basin. Their lengthy physiographic survey report, still consulted by scientists, has become a classic of its kind, the National Geographic Society says.
Numerous writings based upon the report were instrumental in opening the Amazon to merchant ships of all nations. The two expedition leaders, nevertheless, have remained little known historical figures, although the Naval Academy at Annapolis has a statue of Lieutenant Herndon. A portrait of him recently was placed on display in his home town of Fredericksburg, Va.
The vast reaches of the Amazon have attracted explorers for more than four centuries. Starting amid the lofty crags of the eastern Andean cordillera, the river flows for 3,900 miles to the Atlantic. It drains an area almost as large as the United States, including territories of six South American nations—Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.
Although the Nile is longer, the Amazon has the greatest water flow of any other river. It has 1,100 known tributaries, not counting thousands of brooks. Seven of these tributaries are more than 1,000 miles in length. In flood season the turgid waters of the Amazon darken the Atlantic for a distance of 200 miles from the river’s mouth.
Deep-water ships can ply the Amazon for 1,700 miles. This excellent “highway” has prompted both Brazil and the United Nations to plan further economic developments. In the adjacent primeval jungle, however, are 250 Indian tribes, including some that are savagely hostile to encroachment of the white man.
New Drug for Malaria
New York Times, August 19.—Washington—The Army Medical Service announced today the development of a synthetic drug, known as primaquine, which it said might be a “rapid cure” for malaria, one of the world’s worst killers.
The drug will be administered immediately to United States troops leaving Korea, a malaria-ridden country, in the hopes that the drug will kill malaria parasites that many men unknowingly are harboring.
The army said it would be necessary to continue observations of the drug for several months “before the completeness of the cure can be determined.”
Maj. Gen. George E. Armstrong, Army Surgeon General, said that in tests on prisoners in Statesville Penitentiary, Joliet, Ill., and on Army patients a “high percentage” of malaria cures had been achieved with no relapses.
Development and quantity production of the drug is understood to be of importance to the Army because of the Korean malaria problem. With thousands of troops being rotated home, many to be discharged, the possibility is seen that many will develop active malaria because they no longer will keep up dosages of a suppressive for the disease known as chloroquine. All troops in Korea have been taking a chloroquine pill weekly. The suppressive agent is the successor to the wartime malaria preventive agent, atabrine.
Although curative dosages for some types of tropical malaria exist, primaquine is said to be the first curative agent for the type of malaria most common in temperate zones. This type is of a recurrent or relapsing nature, producing fevers every third day.
The Public Health Service recently expressed its concern over the possible outbreak of malaria at widely scattered points because of the returning Korean veterans. Potentially, Army medical sources said today, thousands of men who might develop active malaria could spread the disease among the population. Malaria, while not eradicated in the United States, has in recent years been said to be generally under control.
The distinguishing characteristic of primaquine is said to be its ability to kill malaria parasites. The suppressive dosages, such as chloroquine, while keeping the disease from fully developing, and enabling a soldier to go about his duties, are said not to go to the root of the disease.
Suppressants, generally speaking, temporarily rid the blood-stream of the destructive parasites but often drive them into the liver and other organs, where they hibernate.
The use of the drug, other than experimental, will start tomorrow. Several hundred soldiers embarking from Japan will receive primaquine pills during their homeward voyage.
Conceivably some of these men have quiescent tertian malaria, which has been kept “down” by chloroquine. Members of the Army Medical Service’s research and development board emphasized today that primaquine would not replace, but would augment, the use of the suppressants.
Malaria has two phases: The first the clinical, when the parasites are active in the bloodstream, the second the tissue phase when the parasites have been driven into body organs. Primaquine, a spokesman for the Army Medical Service explained, will be effective in combating the parasites in the liver and elsewhere.
The Army said primaquine was a synthetic derivative of the same family of drugs as chloroquine.
GREAT BRITAIN
Ocean Deep
Chicago Tribune, July 23.—London.—A record depth of 35,640 feet [6¾ miles] has been made in the Pacific ocean by the Challenger, a British naval survey ship, the admiralty said. The soundings were made between the Philippines and the Caroline islands. The ocean’s previous greatest depth —35,410 feet—was recorded in 1945 by the United States naval transport, Cape Johnson, 700 miles east of the new record.
Thames Landing
Christian Science Monitor, June 21.—A jet-propelled flying boat has landed on the River Thames for the first time in history.
The aircraft, only jet flying-boat fighter in existence, touched down on the river at 100 miles an hour and was towed to London’s Festival of Britain exhibition site where it will be one of the main attractions of a “Gas Turbine Week.”
Arctic Navigation Training
London Times, July 18.—Five aircraft from the R.A.F. Flying College at Manby, Lincolnshire, will do a series of navigation training flights to the Arctic between July 21 and 27. One of them, the Aries, a specially modified long-range version of the Lincoln bomber, will fly over the geographic North Pole.
All the aircraft will use Keflavik, near Reykjavik, in Iceland, as an advanced base. A ground party from Manby will be flown there in a Hastings transport to service the aircraft and help coordinate the Arctic flight arrangements.
The Aries will take off from Manby at 10 a.m. next Sunday, reaching Keflavik at 3:30 p.m. after a flight of 1,086 statute miles. It will leave at 2 a.m. on July 24, fly over the pole, and land at the United States Air Force base at Eilson Field, Alaska, 17 hours later—a distance of 3,553 miles.
It will make a 20-hour non-stop flight of 4,128 miles from Eilson Field to Manby, leaving at 8 a.m. local time on July 26, and is due to reach Manby at 3 p.m. the next day. The Aries will be commanded by Wing Commander R. T. Frogley, senior instructor at the R.A.F. Flying College.
Four other Lincoln aircraft will cover a circular course of 2,478 miles from Keflavik to Shannon Island, off the east coast of Greenland, then across Greenland to God-haven, on Disko Island, off the Greenland west coast, and back to Keflavik.
Greenland Survey
London Times, July 14.—A scientific expedition consisting of three naval officers and a Royal Marine officer will leave England next week in an R.A.F. Coastal Command flying boat to explore a remote and mountainous part of Greenland.
The object is a preliminary survey for a more ambitious expedition planned for next year, when geological, glaciological, meteorological, and biological work would be carried out.
The expedition, which is privately sponsored and has the approval of the learned societies, including the Royal Society, the Polar Institute, and the Royal Geographical Society, will spend a month to six weeks in Greenland.
Led by Commander (L) C. J. W. Simpson, R.N., the party will include Captain M. E. B. Banks, R.M., Lieutenant F. R. Brooke, R.N., and Lieutenant Angus Erskine, R.N. The captain of the Sunderland flying boat is Wing Commander G. G. N. Barrett.
About nine-tenths of Greenland consists of a sheet of ice 1,600 miles long and 600 miles wide and rises in the centre to a height of about 10,000 ft. While surveys of the mountainous coastal ranges surrounding the ice cap have been nearly completed, little is known of the interior. But it is known that in Queen Louise Land in 77 deg. north latitude there is a range of rocky mountains 100 miles long, 40 miles wide, and rising to about ft. They are nunataks—the explorers’ name for a mountain which rises beyond an ice field. To reach them entails crossing a 20-mile-wide glacier.
This year’s party intends to alight on a long lake near the coast and to make its way by a rubber boat to the glacier. With the aid of a Greenland trapper and dog sledges it would cross the glacier and survey a second lake about three miles long that lies along the eastern edge of Queen Louise Land.
British Jet Progress
New York Times, August 2.—London.—Air Secretary Arthur Henderson asserted that today Britain had the fastest jet fighter in the world, superior to the United States Sabre F-86 and the Russian MIG-15. He said that the new plane, the Hawker P-1067 was designed to deal with any bomber likely to be in service for some time.
Mr. Henderson, speaking in the House of Commons, added that Britain’s new four-jet bomber, the Vickers Valiant, which, he said, was now flying, would also make Britain lead the world in heavy jet bombers.
Performance details of the new fighters have not been released. All that is known is that it has swept-back wings and is powered by an Avon jet engine. It will be a long time before this fighter goes into production for the Royal Air Force.
U.S.S.R.
Volga Canal
Christian Science Monitor, June 18.—Hardly a week passes during which Soviet newspapers and magazines do not carry two or three stories on the progress of the Volga-Don Canal, the main topic of domestic propaganda.
This 60-mile waterway that cuts through the soft, rolling hills separating the two rivers and at its highest point is about 275 feet above the level of the Volga and 150 feet above that of the Don, is compared to the Panama and Suez Canals. While this comparison may not stand an objective examination, the Volga-Don Canal undoubtedly is the one among the giant projects of the new Five-Year Plan which is likely to strike the average Russian’s imagination most vividly.
The project is supposed to hit four birds with one stone: (1) to open up the landlocked Caspian Sea; (2) to irrigate millions of acres of fertile Russian land; (3) to regulate the erratic Don, and (4) to feed mighty power plants. With the exception of the 660- mile-long Great Turkmen Canal which one day may connect the Caspian with the Aral Sea and with the borders of Afghanistan, no other project combines as many attractive features.
The Turkmen Canal is not to be ready until 1955 or 1956. It serves non-Russian territories deep in Asia, and its power plants will be relatively small. No wonder that the Volga-Don Canal which is to be opened to traffic next spring is so much advertised.
Its propagandistic value for the home front was illustrated several months ago by a little publicized report Politbureau-member Nikita Khrushchov made at a plenary session of the party’s executive committees for the City and Province of Moscow. Speaking of the low caliber of the men elected as kolkhoze presidents, Mr. Khruschchov referred to a recent conversation with a kolkhoze president in the Uvarovsk district.
“What do you read? I asked him,” said Mr. Khrushchov. “I brush up on history,” was the answer.
“Do you read newspapers?”
“When I have a little money I read them twice a week.”
“What articles do you read, what articles do you like, and which interest you most?”
“Most of the time I do not look at the articles. I just glance at the international events and that is all.”
Mr. Khrushchov and the propaganda section of the party know that this conversation ran true to character. They also know that even as alert a person as the average Muscovite would have given about the same answers, indicating that the question of peace and war is the average Russian’s overriding concern.
Such an attitude is regarded as dangerous to Bolshevism, and the party, naturally, spares no effort to divert “Ivan’s” attention from the international scene to the great myths of socialist construction and development at home. Hence the publicity accorded to the Don-Volga project which, like most Soviety myths, has a solid substratum of fact.
The ship canal, the power works with the huge Tsimliansky reservoir, and the irrigation canals actually are being built, but the entire project is the first large-scale experiment in the use of a new type of mechanized labor army composed of skilled convicts and peasants who, as in peonage days, do earthwork to pay their taxes.
In contrast to the former police-led primitive labor gangs, the new construction battalions are headed by some of Russia’s best construction engineers and their equipment consists of the finest excavators, bulldozers, and dredges Russia can produce. So powerful are these machines that American engineers have expressed doubt whether so much heavy equipment ever was concentrated at one time on a single project.
The Kremlin insists the canal is to be ready next spring. On April 28, Pravda devoted four front-page columns to a letter “the builders of the Volga-Don-Stroi” addressed to “Comrade Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich” setting up a meticulous timetable for every phase of the remaining work. Before the end of the year, said this characteristic document, more than 3,500,000,000 cubic feet of ground are to be moved at a rate of 5,500,000 cubic feet a day in the ship canal and 7,000,000 cubic feet a day in the Tsimliansky Reservoir, “the Don Sea” as the government now calls it; more than 75,000,000 cubic feet of cement are to be poured, and so forth.
The reports of the engineers are a little more realistic. On April 25 the director of the ship-canal project stated that the frames of nine of the canal’s 13 sluices were ready to be filled with concrete. For the remaining four sluices, including the two biggest ones, the ground work was only just being started. The director also pointed out that “unusual high water” had done “serious damage in March,” that in April about 3,500,000 cubic feet a day were being moved and not 5,500,000 as the program required.
The purpose of this report probably was to sound a warning which, in the usual Soviet style, was immediately followed by a passionate pledge to fulfill and exceed the plan, despite all obstacles. New machines and new trucks are to be sent to the site of the project. One bulldozer has been reported as moving more than 300,000 cubic feet a day. The largest type excavator, specially made for Volga-Don-Stroi by the Ural Machine Building combine, lifts 500 cubic feet in one movement and does the work of 8,000 sand hogs. But there also are defects. On May 26, one report mentioned ominously that the iron bottoms of some of the large cement mixers were giving way.
Whether the project actually will be completed next spring depends upon factors which even the State Planning Committee in Moscow cannot fully guarantee.
Good weather is one of them. Continued efficiency of this new type of highly mechanized forced labor is another one. The most important factor, however, is the maintenance of peace.
OTHER COUNTRIES
Canada
Christian Science Monitor, July 25.— Some 350 miles north of the little St. Lawrence River township of Seven Islands, on the Quebec-Labrador border, geologists and engineers have discovered a vast region rich in high-grade hematite ore, a region which may rival or even surpass the famed Mesabi Range of Minnesota.
Interest in this region was first aroused in 1895 when Dr. A. P. Low of the Geological Survey of Canada reported his findings on his return from a canoe trip through this territory. During his trip he found rock formations similar to the Animiki type of the Lake Superior region. He estimated the ore-bearing terrain, lying northwest of the basins of the Hamilton and Koksoak Rivers, to cover an area roughly 350 miles long by 40 or more miles in width. Throughout this vast area he noted that iron-ore formations were prevalent.
In 1929 aerial reconnaissance by Dr. J. E. Gill disclosed an area of high-grade ore at Lake Ruth, Labrador, and in 1936 the Labrador Mining and Exploration Company acquired an earlier concession, while in 1948 it was granted 19,000 square miles in the upper part of the Hamilton River basin by the Newfoundland Government.
Rich deposits have also been located at Burnt Creek and Sawyer Lake.
According to Canadian Government figures, a 1948 survey reported that 41,000,000 tons of potential high-grade ore had been proved on the holdings of the Labrador Mining and Exploration Company, and some 98,000,000 tons on the property of the Hollinger North Shore Mining Company.
These figures convey some idea of the vastness of the strike which ultimately may run well beyond these estimates. Furthermore, the engineers are convinced that much of the ore may be extracted by the easy and quick open-pit method.
The opening up of an airstrip at Knob Lake, Quebec, in 1947 greatly facilitated access to this extremely difficult region. Ever since the airstrip became operational, equipment of all kinds has been flown in, including giant steam shovels and bulldozers. Ten or more tons of food is delivered by air every week for the construction crews.
Railroad builders, however, are encountering engineering problems of the first magnitude. Added to the natural difficulties of the terrain, including heavily wooded areas and rock formations, is another major obstacle—mud, which in places threatens to engulf even the giant steam shovels and bulldozers.
During the summer months the construction crews also have to contend with swarms of voracious insects and in winter with the bitter cold of near-Arctic temperatures, which sometimes fall to 50 below zero. Once the railroad is completed the job of moving the vast amount of mining equipment can be speeded up and shipments of ore started to their ultimate destination.
The ore freighters will have to cover roughly the same mileage to United States East Coast ports as they do in their passage from Duluth, Minn., to Buffalo. Without the loss of time in locking through the canal on the Great Lakes route, speedier transit is anticipated. From any one of a number of East Coast ports the ore will be transported by rail freight to the steel-producing centers.
Ready access to this vast new source of raw materials has speeded the demand for the establishment of a steel mill in New England, perhaps in the New London, Conn., area. Preliminary surveys by qualified experts estimate the potential demand for steel from such a plant at more than tons a year. There is also a large market for steel in the New York and New Jersey areas and from a location such as New London, much of the tonnage could be shipped by lighter to the delivery points.
Finland
Rivista Marillima, May 1951.—The value of the last ships to be consigned to the U.S.S.R. as war indemnities was fixed at 29 million dollars by the agreement relative to the period January 1, 1951 to December 19, 1952.
The units in question are 171 vessels, including seven 800 H.P. tugs, three tugs of 600 H.P., four harbor tugs of 500 H.P., four fluvial tugs of 400 H.P., nine ferries of 2,000 tons, four steamships of 3,200 tons, two fishing boats of 800 H.P., seventy-six small coastal units of 1,000 tons, thirty-five 100-ton sail and motor schooners, eighteen tugs of 150 H.P. Ninety-one units will be delivered in 1951, and eighty in 1952.
The Finnish merchant marine on January 1 had a total of 568,000 tons, or 33,000 more than at the beginning of the previous year. The present tonnage is 100,000 tons less than the pre-war figure. Today’s fleet includes 376 steam vessels (458,000 tons, 80.6%) and 7 sailing vessels (60,000, 1.1%). Six vessels, four of them motor ships, totalling less than 3,600 tons, are being built for the Finnish merchant marine on the national yards. The latter are working almost exclusively on ships to be consigned to the Soviet Union.
Holland
La Revue Maritime, July 1951.—Great celebrations are being planned for the opening of the Amsterdam-Rijorkanaal next spring.
The old canal, the Merivedekanaal, built in 1892, was no longer adequate for the increasingly important traffic with the Rhineland. It had become evident that if the port of Amsterdam desired to maintain its preponderant position in this traffic, a better communication route was indispensable.
This is why, even before the war, the Dutch authorities had planned to widen the Merivedekanaal between Amsterdam and Utrecht, and then, from the latter city, put through a new canal across northern Brabant from the Waal up above Tiel.
This project, begun in 1933 but interrupted by the war, will be completed next March.
The new route will enable large Rhenish units to cross from Amsterdam to the German frontier in twenty hours without crossing more than one lock. At present the same trip takes forty hours and entails passage through four locks.
Lamps placed at 300-meter intervals along both banks will ensure adequate illumination for navigation by night.,
It will be recalled that Amsterdam, which has possessed fluvial communication with the Rhine since 1600, is considered the oldest port of the Rhineland.
Japan
New York Times, August 17.—Regular berth service between Japan and the United States was reopened yesterday for the first time in a decade with the arrival of the cargo ship Wakashima Maru from Yokohama. The vessel received a typical harbor welcome as she proceeded to her North River pier at Jane Street.
The freighter is operated by the Kodusai Kaisha Line, which with three other Japanese-flag concerns has received permission from American occupation authorities to reinstitute service to New York and other Atlantic ports.
The Wakashima Maru left Yokohama on July 6. Here she will discharge silks, chinaware and toys and will sail next Friday on her return trip. The line will maintain monthly round-trip service between Japan and Atlantic coast ports.
Capt. J. Kato, welcoming visitors, expressed his “heart-felt appreciation” for the post-war aid given Japan by the United States.
The next Japanese berth freighter to come here will be the 10,000-ton Heian Maru, which is due Monday morning. Also on her maiden run, she is operated by Nippon Yusen Kaisha.
Italy
La Revue Maritime, July 1951. On March 6, Mr. Pacciardi, Minister of Defense, during a debate on rearmament budgets, published the following data on the Italian Navy: 2 battleships; 3 cruisers; 33 escort units of various types; 626 coastal units; 16 minesweepers.
This enumeration affords little new information on the Italian fleet. The fact that the Minister mentions only three cruisers (Montecuccoli, Abruzzi, and Garibaldi) of the four authorized by the treaty seems to indicate that the Cadorna, which was in need of overhaul, has been practically decommissioned. As for the value of this naval force, the Minister gave the following statement: “Units now in service are of old construction, mostly slow, with outdated armament, but our program provides for an appreciable improvement in the fleet, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Modern weapons will be installed aboard our ships to augment their effectiveness for both anti-aerial and anti-submarine warfare.” Speaking of American aid, Mr. Pacciardi pointed out that the fleet was to receive five escort units, three of which had been delivered. The destroyers Aldebaran, Altair, and Andromeda (ex-U.S. Thornhill, Gandy, and Wesson) had reached Messina, and the 1,700-ton destroyers Woodworth and Nicholson (4/127 AA guns, 35 knots) were officially ceded by the United States on May 25 and were rechristened Artigliere and Aviere, respectively.
Spain
La Revue Maritime, June 1951.—The Spanish merchant marine today has 1,371,100 tons of shipping compared to 890,000 tons in 1939, or an increase of about 30% over pre-war figures. However, this situation, quantitatively good, leaves much to be desired in the quality of the vessels concerned. More than 60% of the units in service, or 700,000 tons, are over twenty-five years old, compared to the 33% in this category in 1939.
This situation is a topic of some concern to the State, which is trying to put through a program of 139,000 tons of new vessels, of which 110,000 tons will be motor ships. The recent inauguration of marine subsidies in the form of premiums to construction is calculated to permit the realization of this program in one year and to absorb the facilities of Spanish yards for the period in question.
Sweden
Navitecnia, March 1951.—A light metal “flying boat” which can travel up to 35 knots and carry 80 passengers was recently demonstrated by its builders, Bo Almquist and Björn Elgström, in Stockholm. When this vessel attains a certain speed it rises above the surface of the water, leaving no wake. It is hoped that its peculiar construction will make it particularly useful in ports, straits, and canals. Fuel consumption in such a vessel is very low, since resistance has been reduced to a minimum. The present unit was constructed at the yards of Lidingö, Stockholm, and has been patented in various countries.
AVIATION
Multiple Refuelling
The Aeroplane, July 6.—According to reports, tests are now going on in this country with probe-and-drogue refuelling, in which three aircraft are refuelled simultaneously from a single tanker. The tanker, a Lancaster or Lincoln, trails probes from each wing-tip as well as from the rear fuselage. This is an extension of the system demonstrated at the S.B.A.C. Display last year, in which a Meteor 4 was refuelled from a Lincoln.
In this respect, many of our readers in London and Southern England will, no doubt, have drawn their own conclusions from the fly-past of Fighter Command squadrons in honour of the King’s birthday early last month. At least three Meteor 8s in one of the squadrons were fitted with a flight-refuelling probe in the nose. Another interesting—and somewhat significant—formation was also seen over London recently; it comprised a Lancaster tanker closely followed by three Vampires in very tight vie formation.
Radar-Eyed Jets
New York Herald Tribune, August 12.—Hawthorne, Calif.—New 600-mile-an-hour jet interceptor planes with night-penetrating radar “eyes” and heavy armament have been added to the nation’s growing coastal defenses, it was disclosed today.
The new jets, the F-89 Scorpions, are rolling off the Northrop assembly line here regularly in undisclosed numbers, according to Northrop officials. The first Scorpions delivered already are in operation at Hamilton Field near San Francisco.
A radar “eye” in the plastic nose of the sleek fighter is designed to expose raiders attempting to reach the coast at night or through protective fog or clouds. Once the target is “seen” by the radar operator, riding behind the pilot, the Scorpion can “home” on the hidden enemy and deliver its sting. The pilot, without ever actually seeing the enemy cuts loose with his six 20-mm cannon or sixteen five-inch rockets.
Inter-Continental Bomber Cost
Christian Science Monitor, August 2.—Washington.—The Air Force’s first four B-52 inter-continental bombers will cost American taxpayers $21,354,211 each—35 times the cost of the first H-17’s some 11 years ago.
This insight into the high cost of military preparedness was disclosed by Air Force officials in recent budget hearings before the House military appropriations subcommittee. The testimony was made public August 1.
The B-52’s intricate bomb sights alone will cost more than $250,000 each—about 100 times the price of the famed World War II Norden bomb sight.
The first B-52 is expected to be ready for test flight later this year. It will have eight jet engines and will climb to more than 50,000 feet.
Air Force officials said the cost of the first four giant bombers includes the expense of special tooling. The “unit fly-away cost” would drop from $21,354,000 to $3,800,000 if as many as 100 were produced at a time, they added.
Variable Sweepback Wing
Technical Data Digest, August 1951.—The first aircraft to feature wings whose degree of sweepback can be varied in flight will begin flight tests soon at Edwards Air Force Base at Muroc, Calif. It is the Bell X-5, a jet-propelled ship produced after three years of research by the Air Force, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and Bell Aircraft Corp. engineers.
The concept of variable wing sweepback to reduce compressibility at sonic speeds has been considered by aeronautical engineers for 10 years. As a flying laboratory of the NACA, the X-5 gives opportunity to investigate aerodynamic effects of changing the degree of sweepback during flight. The X-5 is expected to have all the advantages of conventional planes in take-off, climb, maneuvering, and endurance, plus very high speeds.
Viewed in profile, the X-5 has a “flying guppy” configuration which results from mounting its Allison J-35-A-17 turbojet engine under the cockpit rather than behind the pilot. Its power plant extends through the second and third quarter of the ship’s length, the tail pipe protruding beneath the fuselage and not from the rear of the plane.
The X-5 is 33 ft. 4 in. long and 12 ft. from ground to fin tip. Wing span is 32 ft. 9 in. and weight is approximately 10,000 lb. A slender, spearlike boom, extending an additional eight feet from the nose, houses yawmeasuring devices and a pitot tube used in registering indicated airspeed.
A major development was the achievement by Bell engineers of a mechanism for changing wing sweepback in flight, while simultaneously compensating for the resulting shift of the center of gravity. Each wing has a specially designed fairing to insure that its leading edge presents a smooth airfoil regardless of sweep-back angle. The leading edges of the wings are fitted with slats which comprise an integral part of their upper surface when not extended. When extended they increase aerodynamic lift, appreciably reducing stalling speed.
Two dive brakes are located in the sides of the fuselage forward of the cockpit. They are metal “doors” which can be opened hydraulically until they are at nearly right angles to the fuselage. Protruding, they provide rapid deceleration.
The axial-flow turbojet engine develops a 4900-lb thrust. Its air inlet duct extends straight from the nose to the front of the engine. This design holds air-duct loss to a minimum, scooping greater quantities of air at altitudes where decreased oxygen lowers jet-engine performance. The cockpit of the X-5 is a few feet behind the nose. Its sliding Plexiglas canopy, with only a slight blister, conforms almost perfectly with the smooth contour of the fuselage. Visibility is excellent.
The cockpit is pressurized and air-conditioned to maintain safe and comfortable conditions for the pilot at high altitudes. Both the cockpit canopy and the seat are jettisonable for emergency escape. Ejection is accomplished by exploding a cartridge, hurling the pilot 50 ft. above the ship and clear of the tail fin for parachute descent.
Blimps to Loiter or Back
Technical Data Digest, August 1951.—The “Zep-Prop,” a new type propeller developed by the Curtiss-Wright Corp. at Caldwell, N. J., will play an important role in the U. S. Navy’s program to increase the effectiveness of lighter-than-air ships as submarine hunters and destroyers.
Equipped with a special “transmission,” which enables Navy blimps to back up in flight and to hover in a stationary position, the “Zep-Prop” adds ease and precision of control to lighter-than-air craft for antisubmarine defense. Two of these propellers have been installed by the Navy in the ZPN—the world’s largest blimp—now being readied by the Goodyear Aircraft Corp. at Akron for flight tests.
Submarine stalking and killing, for which the ZPN was specially designed, involves the patrol of thousands of square miles in all kinds of weather. To comb areas in which subs may be reported or are suspected to lurk, precise control of the blimp at low speeds on predetermined courses must be maintained regardless of wind conditions.
Through the quick-responding, electrically operated transmission, or power unit, built into its hub, the “Zep-Prop” provides a versatility of control never before achieved in a lighter-than-air ship. “Shifting” levers permit the pilot to change the angle of the propeller blades from that required for most efficient forward speed to “neutral” for hovering without shutting off the engines, or into reverse pitch for slowing down, maneuvering, stopping, and backing-up in the air. While extended backward flights are not practical, the ability to reverse propellers makes it possible to adjust the position of the ship over a particular spot and is a pronounced aid in making fast turns where a quick change of direction is required to keep contact with a target or to execute evasive tactics in the event of attack.
As used with the Goodyear ZPN, the “Zep-Prop” consists of three blades swung in a powerful 18-ft arc. The blades are of the distinctive Curtiss-Wright hollow steel construction and are considerably lighter than if made of duraluminum.
The two “Zep-Props” of the ZPN are mounted in outriggers to which power is transmitted through a series of gears and shafts from two 800-hp, seven-cylinder, Wright-Cyclone, air-cooled engines housed in the control car. Usually both engines are in simultaneous use, but either can drive both propellers when desirable as during low-speed operations or to conserve fuel on long patrols. The ZPN is the fifth and largest of a series of nonrigid airships which have been built by Goodyear for the Navy. More than 130 blimps of a previous model, designated the ZPK, were used extensively for antisubmarine operations during World War II.
The gas envelope of the ZPN has a capacity of 875,000 cu ft of helium, 150,000 more than its immediate predecessor, which holds the world’s sustained flight record of more than a week without refueling. It approaches the size the rigid dirigibles built during and following World War I. The control car of the new ZPN, which houses a crew of 14, is 83 feet in length. It is divided into two decks. Operational stations are located on the lower deck. The upper deck houses crew quarters.
SCIENCE
Harbor Control Test
Marine Progress, August 1951.—A major contribution to the navigation of ships under all weather conditions was unveiled July 25 when the most advanced harbor radar antenna—was demonstrated for State, city and port officials and newspapermen.
The revolutionary installation at Deer Island in Boston Harbor—developed and constructed by Raytheon Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Mass., for the Port of Le Havre, France, at a cost of $250,000, is to be given its final tests in the Port of Boston before being shipped to France in August.
The pilot boat Roseway was “conned” through the inner harbor by radar experts located at a battery of four 16-inch radar viewing scopes installed atop a former gun casemate at Deer Island, in a practical demonstration of the use of radar in avoiding collisions and groundings under any weather conditions.
Captain George H. Lauriat, Jr., of the Boston Pilots’ Association, which permitted the use of the Roseway for the test, was at her wheel as the ship left Commonwealth Pier No. 5, South Boston, sailed into the outer harbor and then was “conned” to the Deer Island pier.
Here the party, which included chairman John R. Kewer and director John M. Bresnahan, of the Port of Boston Authority, Charles F. Adams, president of Raytheon, and Admiral L. Hewlett Thebaud, commandant of the First Naval District, who permitted use of Navy land on Deer Island for the tests, inspected the four viewing consoles and the 40-foot radar antenna, the largest commercial antenna ever constructed, which was placed on an eminence overlooking the entrance to Boston Harbor.
Raytheon officials explained that the Harbor Radar system affords complete coverage of navigable waters both within the channels and approaches of the harbor. The information received is collected and presented on the radar scopes in the Master Information Center, where it is evaluated and transmitted by radio, microwave link and telephone to the masters of vessels and to shipping and port officials.
Harbor Radar, according to Raytheon engineers, is the only system by which a complete picture of all areas of a harbor can be secured, since few ports are so arranged that even in clear weather the whole of the shipping area is visible at one time.
The pictures presented on the battery of giant scopes were so sharp that small craft operating in the harbor area and even every buoy and channel marker could be seen.
It was pointed out that with Harbor Radar the positions of buoys and other navigational aids can be kept under constant scrutiny by port officials, and if they have moved from their chartered positions, shipping can be notified.
Night Vision
Technical Data Digest, August 1951.—When they go into the classroom they turn out the lights. If they wish to see an object better, they look away from it. If they look directly at an object, it disappears from view.
These are some of the contradictions incident to one of the strangest procedures, as well as one of the most technical, practiced in any schoolroom in the country. It is in the night vision classroom at the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph AFB, where future Flight Surgeons learn how to train flying personnel in the art of night vision, that this seemingly contradictory procedure is followed.
To see in the dark is by no means just a matter of innate ability. Much depends on practice and, more important, the technique used.
As a matter of practice, the medical student officers check themselves on their night vision ability. The School of Aviation Medicine, however, is not concerned about their individual ability to see in the dark, but it is most insistent that they know thoroughly how to test and train flying personnel in this accomplishment.
In the totally darkened classroom is a mechanical device known as the S.A.M. Night Vision Trainer, as it was developed at the School of Aviation Medicine by Lt. W. E. Gully, night vision instructor, and Dr. Paul A. Cibis of the School’s Department of Ophthalmology. This device consists of a screen 6X6 ft, at each corner of which is a small red light to mark its boundaries. On this screen, held by a magnet, is a miniature airplane of 6-in wingspread. A motor driven countermagnet, which moves on a continuous track, is on the back side of the screen and hidden from view, but provides the means for moving the miniature aircraft in a series of maneuvers over the surface of the screen. The object of the exercise is to teach one how to keep the little airplane within view.
Shading the light on the screen simulates the night sky. The light is controlled, and the exercise starts with dim moonlight conditions under which the average person has no difficulty in following the miniature aircraft about the screen. Then the lighting drops to starlight and becomes progressively darker until no one can see the moving object.
Due to the physiological structure of the eye, and to laws of light, an object in darkness disappears from view when looked at steadily. This is demonstrated by the students looking intently at the aircraft and noting how it fades from view. To keep it within view they look away from it—about seven degrees. This is where the knowledge and practice of night vision come into play.
Still another contradiction in this unique problem of night vision is that a bright light can be the pilot’s most deadly enemy. It momentarily causes him to lose all visual perspective, and when traveling at extreme speed, at low altitude or in formation, this could be disastrous. Consequently the medical officers are taught to train pilots to “keep their eyes in the cockpit” if their plane is caught in a searchlight beam, and to shut one eye. This preserves one eye from extensive “bleaching” while the aircraft is in the white beam.
Supairthermal Engine
Maritime Reporter, August 1951.—The introduction of the Supairthermal engine by the Nordberg Manufacturing Company marks one of the outstanding advances made in increasing the rating and capacity of modern diesel engines.
The Supairthermal engine, the result of six years of research, development and testing, bases its increased efficiency on a well known principal of thermodynamics—the lower the temperature of the air in the cylinder at the time the fuel is injected, the greater the amount of fuel that can be burned, and the higher the horsepower output without increasing peak temperatures or pressures.
This engine’s most notable characteristic is its ability, in any given size, to produce one-third more horsepower than the conventional supercharged engine with no greater heat to the cooling water and without increasing the internal surface temperatures or pressures. The Supairthermal engine, of the four-cycle type and built for operation on diesel fuel, Duafuel and spark-fired gas, is available in a complete range of sizes from 425 to 3200 bhp for stationary and marine applications.
Although diesel engines are the most efficient means of converting fuel to power, more than 60 per cent of the potential power in the fuel is wasted in the form of heat. A part of this heat goes out the exhaust pipe and is no problem. Another large portion must be removed from the engine by means of the cooling water and lubricating oil. Most modern diesel engines, although structurally able to yield a greater horsepower, have reached the point where their safe rating is limited by the inability of the surfaces in contact with the combustion gases to continuously stand higher temperatures without heat failure or destruction of piston ring lubrication. The turbocharging four-cycle diesel engine, introduced in America by Nordberg, marked one of the earlier achievements in overcoming these limitations and resulted in increasing engine ratings 50 per cent.
The next significant advance made by Nordberg in increasing the capacity of a four-cycle supercharged engine was to cool the intake air after the turbocharger. Intercooling, as it is known, is accomplished with a finned tube type of air-to-water heat exchanger built into the engine and through which the cooling water is circulated before going to the regular jacket water cooling system. Where cooling water is available at a temperature which will cool the intake manifold air temperature to 90° F (D.E.M. A. standards provide for rating diesel engines on the basis of 90° F. intake air conditions), intercooling will raise the engine rating about 15 per cent with no greater heat load to the cooling water and with no increase in surface temperature.
The Supairthermal engine, the latest advance, uses the “Miller System of Supercharging” and improves upon the conventional turbocharged engine in four important ways: (1) A greater amount of air cooling within the cylinder is accomplished by blowing a larger volume of cooler air through the cylinder and out the exhaust pipe; (2) The turbocharger delivers air to the cylinder at a higher pressure, thus providing 30 per cent more weight of air and making it possible to burn more fuel; (3) By means of an intercooler on the discharge side of the turbocharger, the temperature of the intake air is cooled before it enters the cylinder; (4) By closing the intake valve before the end of the intake stroke, the air within the cylinder is expanded from 15 lbs. pressure to 6 lbs. pressure, at full load, and the intake air is therefore cooled another 50° F.
MERCHANT MARINE
U. S. Flag Fleet
New York Times, July 23.—The privately owned American-flag ocean-going fleet was increased by 130 vessels of 1,484,000 deadweight tons from Jan. 1 to July 1 this year, bringing the combined fleet total to 1,307 ships of 15,514,000 tons, according to the monthly summary of the National Federation of American Shipping.
The summary, made public yesterday, showed that 847 vessels of 8,680,000 deadweight tons were of the dry-cargo type, while 460 were tankers with a combined tonnage of 6,834,000 tons.
The increase in the fleet was due almost entirely to purchases from the Maritime Administration, which turned over 136 vessels to private owners. Of these, 125 were dry-cargo ships and eleven were tankers. Two passenger vessels and two tankers were added by new construction.
During the period two over-age dry-cargo ships were scrapped, two were marine casualties and five cargo ships and one tanker were sold abroad.
According to the summary, 211 ships were scheduled to remain in bareboat charter operation, 149 of them, as of July 1, under time-charter to the Military Sea Transport Service. The number of ships under general agency agreement increased in the first six months of the year from twenty to 172.
The National Defense Reserve Fleet decreased during the period from 2,048 to 1,710, the summary said. Of these, 1,350 were Liberty ships and eighty-five were Victory types.
Ships Salute States
Christian Science Monitor, August 1.—Washington.—The new Mariner-class cargo ships being built for the government will carry the nicknames of various states.
Vice-Admiral E. L. Cochrane, head of the Maritime Administration, announced the names of the first 41 mariners. Contracts have been let for the building of 35 of the 20-knot, 12,500-ton vessels.
The Keystone Mariner, named in honor of Pennsylvania, will be the first of the new class of ships to be launched. This vessel is scheduled for launching early next year at the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Chester, Pa., and will be in service by mid-1952.
Other ships which so far have been given names and the states they will honor: Lone Star Mariner, Texas; Magnolia Mariner, Mississippi; Buckeye Mariner, Ohio; Old Colony Mariner, Massachusetts; Cornhusker Mariner, Nebraska; Garden State Mariner, New Jersey; Diamond State Mariner, Delaware; Free State Mariner, Maryland; Mountain Stale Mariner, West Virginia; Golden Mariner, California; Evergreen Mariner, Washington; Old Dominion Mariner, Virginia; Tar Heel Mariner, North Carolina.
Prototype Cargo Vessel
Maritime Reporter, August 1.—The Schuyler Otis Bland, the prototype dry-cargo vessel built for the Government by the Ingals Shipbuilding Corporation, has entered the ’round-the-world service of the American President Lines. The 10,500-ton ship sailed recently from New York on a voyage which will take her to some 20 ports in about three and one-half months’ time.
The Bland, which has been chartered by APL from the Maritime Administration, is 477½ feet over-all, has a beam of 66 feet and a draft of 28½ feet. Her propulsion machinery is of the geared turbine type and she has a normal shaft horsepower of 12,500. She has been designed for a cruising speed of 18½ knots. On the run from the Ingalls yard at Pascagoula, Miss., to New York, she averaged over 20 knots.
One of the main features of the new ship is her cargo-handling equipment. Her five and ten-ton booms have been rigged to permit each boom to be positioned over any point within the range of the boom by means of power-driven winches. Also installed are electrically-controlled hatch covers which can be opened and closed in a matter of minutes. Equipment such as this gives the Bland a fast, efficient cargo-handling system.
The Bland can carry 553,400 cubic feet of cargo. She is manned by a crew of 52 and she has accommodations for 12 passengers. Passenger quarters include six staterooms, each containing two beds, and a well-appointed passenger lounge.
Rules of Road
New York Times, August 2.—The shipping industry has successfully opposed legislation that would have given to the President power to amend navigation rules by proclamation, it became known yesterday.
As a result of strong protests against the measure, H.R. 3670, filed in May at a hearing before the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, the bill has been rewritten in subcommittee and was sent yesterday to the full committee, with the requested amendments.
Frazer A. Bailey, president of the National Federation of American Shipping, and George W. Morgan, president of the Association of American Ship Owners, led the opposition on the ground that unilateral sea navigation rules established by this country could and probably would conflict with international regulations, causing accidents and legal action.
Under the amended measure international rules for preventing collision at sea, as adopted in London in 1948 at an international conference on safety at sea, will be followed by this country.
The President is authorized by the measure to proclaim the rules, giving an effective date, and after publication in the Federal Register the rules “shall have effect as if enacted by statute and shall be followed by all public and private vessels of the United States.” The earlier bill would have given to the Chief Executive authority, not only to write rules, but to amend the regulations from time to time.
The opposition foresaw cases where an American steamship captain, following his prescribed rules of the road, would be held liable in foreign courts for violation of the international stipulations.
Although the rules were adopted in London in 1948, they were not incorporated in the safety convention that was subsequently ratified by the United States Senate in 1949. Adherence was left to the individual countries by statute or proclamation.
INTERNATIONAL
Greenland Bases
New York Times, July 21.—United States military and civilian workers have started rebuilding some vitally important World War II airfields in Greenland, along the top-of-the-world bomber routes from Russia.
Equipment, supplies and construction workers started moving to Greenland several weeks ago.
It is in the Julianehaab area that the biggest of the World War II airstrips was located, at Narsarssuak, with a 6,500-foot runway. Presumably this was one of the points at which the Defense Department disclosed in a cautious statement recently that “rehabilitation and construction” work was being carried out.
Actual construction work at the Greenland bases apparently is being carried on by private concerns under contracts with the Army Engineers and Air Force.
Transfer to Italy
Aviation Week, July 23.—Italian Air Force has received a total of 200 World War II type U. S. military planes under Mutual Defense Assistance Program thus far. Of the number, 100 were North American F-51 Mustangs, 75 Republic F-47 Thunderbolts, and 25 were trainers, presumably North American T-6s. Latest reports indicate that five F-47s have already been destroyed and one pilot killed in training accidents with these planes in Italy. Later this year Italy is due to receive its first American jets, some Republic F-84 fighters.
Suez Canal Development
Christian Science Monitor, July 24.—Is-mailia, Suez Canal, Headquarters.—Although its concession expires in less than 20 years, and despite Egyptian demands for immediate nationalization, the Suez Canal Company is pursuing its £5,000,000 ($14,000,000) improvement scheme to ensure maximum safety and speed to international shipping through this vital waterway.
The scheme comprises a by-pass 7½ miles long to make simultaneous two-way traffic possible, and over-all deepening of the canal to allow the transit of vessels up to 45,000 tons, which would include battleships.
The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez) is French-controlled, with the British Government holding 44 per cent of the shares.
But by a convention signed in Cairo on March 7, 1949, all differences between Egypt and the company were removed. The Egyptian Government became a “privileged partner” in the company, and the “conventional regime” of the latter was to continue.
The £300,000 annual allowance paid since 1937 was replaced by a 7 per cent share of the profits, with a guaranteed minimum of £350,000. This percentage represented a sum of about £850,000 on the profits last year.
Other concessions were also granted, such as exemption from transit dues of all vessels under 300 tons gross which did not carry passengers. These are mostly Egyptians engaged in trade along the Egyptian coasts.
At the same time, the Suez Canal Company embarked on the construction and improvement projects.
Constant improvements have kept the canal up to date. When Empress Eugenie officially opened the canal on Nov. 17, 1869, her yacht L’Aigle led a flotilla of 68 ships through a waterway of about 200 feet wide and 14 feet navigational depth.
Today, the canal is about 400 feet wide and 52 feet deep. In 1870, some 436,609 tons of shipping passed between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Last year it was over 55,000,000 tons.
The latest improvements are expected to save at least one-fourth of the time of the present 14-hour journey through the 102-mile canal.
The new by-pass, named Farouk Canal, will be inaugurated this summer by King Farouk of Egypt.
A flotilla of giant bucket-type and suction dredgers, floating docks, tugboats, workshops, and other machinery from Germany, Holland, France, and the United States completed the by-pass canal in less than 15 months. This involved the removal of 48,000,000 tons of soil, 85 per cent of it below water. The modern paraphernalia devouring the desert sand would have made the original builder, Ferdinand de Lesseps, gasp.