Professional Notes

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Salvage

By Commander H. W. Biesemeier,

U. S. Navy[1]

The naval commander at sea is oftentimes faced with varied situations. These may differ from the routine to the highly unusual, but regardless of their character, it behooves him to act properly in each instance. One situation of uncommon occurrence, but which nevertheless is potentially ever pres­ent at sea is that of salvage. A quick review of the subject appears, therefore, to be in order.

The historical principles governing mari­time salvage originated in the rewarding of perilous services, voluntarily rendered, for the saving of life and property at sea, and further as an inducement for seamen to perform such services. Only those under no legal obligation to act are entitled to an award. This is a general statement of the law. However, under United States statutes, a merchant vessel is required to render assist­ance to any person who is found at sea in danger of being lost provided her master can do so without damage to his ship, crew, or passengers. This is a seeming contradic­tion to the principle that salvage must be a voluntary act. Our courts, however, have decided that the statute is limited to the assistance of persons in danger, and not to vessels in distress. Public vessels are ex­eluded from the above statute, but a similar obligation is imposed by article 0629 of Navy Regulations which requires “the senior officer present to afford all assistance in his power to distressed ships and aircraft of the United States and of foreign states at peace with the United States.”

The duty is clear. Let us now consider some thoughts that may arise in connection with salvage.

The first thought may well be that of competition. Specifically, what is the status of the commercial salvor on the scene? The point is well settled. Public policy and econ­omy require the naval vessel not to take any action to the prejudice of the commercial vessel as long as the latter is present and is capable of rendering assistance. This type of case arises very frequently in our Coast Guard. Normally, the public vessel, in the absence of the commercial ship, takes the initial steps to safeguard life and property, but subsequently permits itself to be relieved by the commercial salvor.

The second thought may concern liability, i.e., is the naval commander liable if he damages the other ship? This is not only a legal problem, but also a moral one. No sounder principle can be followed than that enunciated many years ago by an eminent jurist . . . “to all that have to trust them­selves to the sea it is of the utmost impor­tance that the promptings of humanity in this respect should not be checked or inter­fered with by prudential considerations as to injurious circumstances that may result to a ship or cargo from the rendering of the needed aid.” The salvor is, of course, re­quired to exercise care for it has been held that “the job of rescue may be put under scrutiny and it may cost the salvor a posi­tive liability if the job is negligently done.” The above is academic to the naval com­mander. If he follows the “promptings of humanity,” and exercises the required care he can rest easy when he refers the case to the office of the JAG. This office handles each case on its own merits.

In those cases where the claimant is motivated by greed, a counterclaim by the government for a salvage charge plus a bonus award normally settles the matter. To assist the Navy in disposing of any Admiralty case an accurate record of the incident should always be kept. Oil used, equipment expended, time lost from as­signed task, pay of the officers and crew during time in question, damage to own ship (if any), condition of other ship before and after, danger and difficulties encoun­tered, and other items of a similar nature are all pertinent. It bears emphasizing that the operational commander and the office of the JAG should be kept informed of all particulars.

Salvage services are, if successful, highly repaid as the award is based in part on the value of the venture salved as well as the peril involved. The venture may well include the worth of an expensive ship and cargo. Normally the United States assesses its salvage charges on a per diem basis, although it also reserves the right to sue for a salvage bonus. Traditionally naval personnel do not claim salvage awards. However, this is purely an administrative decision, and the United States has, at times, pressed such claims. The case of the Odenwald is in point.

The Odenwald, a German ship masquerad­ing as the Wilmotto of Philadelphia, was met by the cruiser Omaha and the destroyer Sumer in the South Atlantic shortly before the United States entered World War II. The naval ships were on neutrality patrol and observed the Odenwald crew abandoning ship as the contact was closed. Omaha sent over a boarding party which determined that an attempt had been made to scuttle the ship. Close inspection revealed many “ticking packages” and cans of benzine throughout the ship. Proper salvage meas­ures were taken and the ship sailed to San Juan. In the ensuing legal proceedings the court held for the United States government, and also that the naval personnel were entitled to compensation. As a result each member of the boarding party received $3,000, and other members of the Omaha and Sumer crews two months pay and allowances. This is admittedly an unusual case in which the ruling of the court was based on the high personal risk run by the men involved.[2]

The subject of salvage is not only profes­sionally interesting; it also has high enter­tainment value. It is hoped that this brief note will awaken the curiosity of the reader and will encourage him to delve deeper into a fascinating subject.

1956: A Busy Year for Atlantic Fleet

Navy Times, January 19, 1957.—The At­lantic Fleet’s role as a “helping hand” and the traditional code of seafaring men to aid those in distress was vigorously highlighted and emphasized during 1956.

From Mid-East evacuation through earth­quakes, water shortages, and hurricanes, to rescue and salvage of distressed vessels, the Fleet carried out this role. In most instances, operations were conducted quietly and with­out fanfare. In unusual cases, side publicity was given emphasizing the role of “help­ing hand.”

During the Suez crisis Atlantic Fleet ships and personnel serving with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean carried out the evacua­tion of 2,175 civilians from Israel and Egypt, including 24 members of the United Nations Truce Commission. Operations were suc­cessfully conducted under extremely hazard­ous conditions requiring many “on the spot” decisions. While the transport Burdo and the destroyer Harlan R. Dickson evac­uated 166 persons from the Israeli port of Haifa, the majority of the personnel were evacuated by three ships of the 6th Fleet’s amphibious detachment, the attack trans­port Chilton, the attack cargo ship Thuban and the landing ship dock Fort Snelling.

While the evacuation was hazardous and dramatic, typical U. S. humor helped ease the tension. The Chilton had provided re­freshments on deck including a large cake with a sign reading: “We knew you were coming, so we baked a cake.”

Burly boatswain’s mates calmly gave a baby its bottle while the mother cared for her other children. The crew’s recreation room was converted into a nursery where seventeen infants ranging in ages from three weeks to nine months nestled in cribs made from cardboard cartons and egg crates.

* [3] *

Bermuda “Water Lift”—During the sum­mer months of June-August, Bermuda ex­perienced a drastic decrease in the water re­serve due to an unusually dry season. The fleet oilers Truckee and Neosho, after clean-

ing their tanks, transported approximately 6,000,000 gallons of fresh water to the Naval Station, the Air Force base, and to the civilian populace of Bermuda.

* * *

Earthquakes in Greece—In July, the destroyers Lewis Hancock and Hawkins went to the aid of earthquake victims at Santorini Island off Greece. They landed food and medical supplies and medical officers helped the injured. About 80 per cent of the buildings on the island were demolished or badly damaged.

Icelandic Fishing Crisis—For the second year in a row, Atlantic Fleet patrol aircraft of VP-7 based in Iceland went “whale­hunting” with depth charges. The Icelandic herring industry, the major source of Ameri­can dollar revenue, was plagued by killer- whales, which destroy nets and commercially valuable herring catches. At the request of the Icelandic government, VP-7 patrolled off-shore Arctic waters. Whales not killed by the explosives were frightened and diverted from the area. The threat of a very short season of herring fishing and consequent heavy loss of income was ended.

* * *

Hurricane    Tracking—Seven         tropical

storms qualifying as hurricanes were pene­trated in 37 flights by pilots and crews of Airborne Early Warning Squadron VW-4, based at NAS, Jacksonville, Fla. This service is a coordinated Navy, Air Force and U. S. Weather Bureau effort.

Several firsts were made this year when the new Navy WV-3 Lockheed Super Constella­tion conducted the first overland tracking of hurricanes and the first rockets or “hurricane balls” were fired through the storms in a new effort to gather information on aerologi- cal data.

* * *

Rescue and Salvage—A number of in­stances occurred wherein Atlantic Fleet ships rescued merchant and private vessels in dis­tress.

In September the destroyer Strong went to the aid of the Australian ketch Elenita, adrift fifty miles off Corsica, with a honey­moon couple aboard. She was successfully towed to Adjaccio, Corsica, for repairs.

On March 7 the destroyer Vesole steamed out of Rhodes to the aid of a merchant tanker out of Norway after an engineroom explosion had badly burned a crewman. Despite heavy weather, a highline transfer was accomplished to the destroyer were the squadron doctor treated him and later trans­ferred him to the carrier Ticonderoga.

On March 23 the coastal minesweeper Sisken engaged in a successful sea rescue of the private schooner Oreda which was in a sinking condition. She was towed to Miami and safety, thereby saving the ship and the lives of two people aboard.

In December while under the operational control of Commander Service Force, Atlan­tic Fleet, the auxiliary ocean tug Accokeeil rescued the 68-foot yacht Virginian in dis­tress off the British West Indies. She was taking on water rapidly, and her engines were dead. The Accokeeil set up emergency pumps on the Virginian and towed her to safe anchorage.

* * *

For three days in February the salvage ship Escape, assisted by the civilian tug Dunlap, refloated the SS Nancy Dykes which had run aground at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Early in October a dramatic sea rescue took place when the dock landing ship Fort Mandan saved the Canadian motor vessel Lady Cecil from possible destruction off Newfoundland. She was foundering in the seas and threatened to ground on the rugged shore only a mile away. The Fort Mandan, under extremely hazardous conditions, and with great difficulty, finally secured a tow line to the Lady Cecil. Although the tow line snapped three times, the motor vessel was safely towed to a safe harbor early in the morning of October 11 after more than two days of constant effort.

From March through September, under­water demolition divers from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit 2, a unit of Mine Force, Atlantic Fleet, were called upon to lend assistance to civilian communities in searching for bodies of persons believe to have drowned on eight separate occasions. The localities were in lakes and rivers throughout Georgia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina; sometimes in cold, dark lakes with water temperatures as low as 35°.

On March 26, the coastal minesweeper Rhea sighted a red flare off Charleston, S. C. Upon investigation, she found the private schooner Charmain in distress and was able to tow her safely until relieved by a Coast Guard cutter.

* * *

Charity and Donations—During the past year, ships and men of the Atlantic Fleet maintained the spirit of good will and brothership so traditionally a part of the Navy.

For example, as recent as last month, officers and men of the attack aircraft carrier Coral Sea presented a check for $7,500 to the Hungarian Relief Drive as the

ship pulled into Cannes, France. The money had been previously set aside to buy a Christmas gift for each man aboard the Coral Sea. A petition to the commanding officer stretching the length of the flight deck and signed by every man aboard requested the money be given instead to the Hungarian people.

Other examples are numerous, such as the handicapped children entertained by destroyers at Newark and Washington, D. C.; the submarine Ires hosting 230 or­phans and indigent children in Mediterra­nean ports; the submarine Becuna carrying donated clothing to the needy children of Europe; the destroyer C. S. Perry off-loading a statue of Commo. John Barry at Wexford, Ireland, as a gift from the U. S. to Ireland; the tank landing ships Whitfield and Wind­ham donating 12Q pints of blood to the Norfolk Red Cross; and the instance on March 18 when an emergency call was put out by the Norfolk hospital for blood donors to save the life of little Linda Mills of Norfolk who was hemorrhaging very severely after an emergency appendectomy. More than 200 officers and men responded from the units of the Amphibious Base at Little Creek, Va.

Suez—Key to East-West Communications

By Admiral P. Barjot[4]

Translated from La Revue Maritime, December 1956.—-“The canal will always be open and unencumbered, in time of war as well as in peace time, to all vessels of war or commerce, without distinction of national flag.” Convention of 29 October, 1888.

The world events of the summer of 1956 were marked by the sudden attack unleashed by Colonel Nasser on 26 July, 1956.

The move of the Egyptian dictator not only threatened the principle of the liberty of navigation in the canal, established by the Convention of 1888, but also foreboded a collapse of a very prosperous economic equilibrium based on the exploitation of the Middle East’s petroleum. The latter con­stitutes the world’s greatest known reserves of hydrocarbons. In the ten years after the war, their use took on extraordinary pro­portions in an atmosphere of confident cooperation between West and East, par­ticularly the Arab countries. This edifice was suddenly overthrown, for Nasser became the sole master of transit via the canal. If he were tolerated as such, no one could depend on the operation of this extraor­dinary East-West complex. The inter­diction of transit to Israeli vessels was proof of this.

The warning of Nasser’s legal counselor, Dr. El Hefnaoui, proposing that the Egyp­tian administration double the tariff on passages to increase Egyptian revenues, confirms this.

On the eve of the 26 July coup, petroleum production was increasing at the rate of 15% per year. In 1955 it had reached an all-time high of 162 million tons, 132 of which were exported, 30 refined in the area. The last figure was to be raised by fifty million in 1956 and by sixty million in 1957 by virtue of the effort put out by the West to bring the Arab nations into the refining end of the industry.

In 1956, the refineries of Ras Tanura and Bahrein (twenty million tons per annum) were maintaining their output; the Abadan refinery, which had resumed at the end of 1954 the production interrupted in 1951, was to reach 25 million tons in 1957; Aden, re­cently built (1954), had just gotten under­way with a capacity of four to five million tons.

An eight million-ton-capacity refinery was to be installed in the sultanate of Kuwait and Abmadi for 1957.

Out of a production of some two hundred million tons in 1957, the Middle East was to refine nearly sixty millions.

The crude petroleum (135 million tons) exported in 1955 traveled as follows:

towards the Indian Ocean (twenty million tons)

via Suez (sixty-five million tons, of which fifty-eight for Europe)

via pipelines of the Levant (forty million tons, to wit: (seventeen via Saida, twenty-three via Banias).

Out of these forty million tons, thirty- seven were for Europe. In all, Europe re­ceived ninety million tons of crude oil, of which twenty-three million were for France (92% of our supply).

Cooperation between the West and the East promised tremendous prosperity.

The petroleum companies of the Middle East had been able to pay 880 million dollars per year to the Arab countries as royalty and to reinvest 200 million dollars in their enterprises.

Such was the prosperous Orient-Occident industrial setup that was developing when Nasser decided on his coup of 26 July, 1956.

Suez played a most important role in the transport of crude oil:

70% of the crude oil for refinement in Great Britain;

46% of the crude oil for refinement in France;

46% for Italy.

Can we get along without Suez?

In the general communications setup the Suez route is particularly advantageous for the countries of the Red Sea, the Indies, and the Persian Gulf.

The Cape route to Europe may be used for Indonesia, Australia, Madagascar, and South Africa.

From Australia, for instance, the differ­ence in time is slight (46 days instead of 43). The Cape route saves about 1,000 pounds for an 8,500-ton vessel traveling at 11 knots, if one considers the canal tolls of 2,650 pounds. Similarly for Mozambique and Madagascar.

The number of ships passing through Suez doubled in the first forty years (2,026 in 1880 to 4,009 in 1920), but it tripled during the past 25 years (5,761 in 1930 to 14,500 in 1955).

The width and depth of the canal do not permit transit of vessels of over 35 to 38 thousand tons maximum. Over a distance of 6,000 nautical miles, the price per ton, which is 1,500 francs for a 19,000-ton tanker, drops to 925 francs per ton for an 85,000-ton tanker, or nearly 60% gain per ton. These giant tankers cannot pass through Suez. The route via the Cape from the Persian Gulf lengthens the trip by 70%, but the net price is the same if not better because of the canal tolls. The giant tankers therefore constitute a threat to Nasser.

The pipelines are far from being the panacea. The net price is about 550 francs per ton for 1,000 kilometers, or appreciably more expensive than sea transport. For oil from Iraq, for example, between Kirkouk and Marseilles one reckons up to 1,875 francs per ton via the pipelines.

The pipelines are thus less advantageous than tankers. Moreover, they do not elimi­nate tankers, which must carry the oil from the ends of the pipelines (Saida, Banias) and the ports of refineries.

Consider that a pipeline with its pumping stations and capacities necessary for regular operation amounts to 2.5 million francs per inch of diameter per kilometer. A 36- inch pipeline costs 90 million francs per kilometer and 180 billion francs for 2,000 kilometers. The cost of an equivalent tanker fleet would cost only 65 billion francs.

Moreover, for the same distance, it would take five times more steel than for the con­struction of a tanker.

To the price of constructing pipelines must be added toll fees which can hamper their use. Recently Lebanon, for example, set up a toll of 6 million francs per year for 32 kilometers of her territory involved in a pipeline ending in Tripoli. Evidently Iraq Petroleum abandoned the project as being too costly. Thus the pipelines involve not only the initial cost of construction but also political agreements and blackmail on the part of the countries traversed. The pipeline has the one advantage of speed.

In fine, the pipeline is not sufficient to replace the tanker. 100,000-ton tankers with atomic propulsion are already under con­sideration; with a speed of 25 knots they would lessen the burden of pipelines with their tolls, threats at nationalization, etc.

The Suez is a route that will be difficult to replace for the world economy. The equi­librium set up around the canal in the years prior to Nasser’s coup should be restored in a climate of mutual confidence between East and West for the prosperity of that part of the world and of Europe.

Suez is the touchstone of the cooperation with countries of the Middle East.

This is the profound meaning of the great work undertaken by Ferdinand de Lesseps. On his monumental statue at the entry to Port Said appears his motto:

“Aperire terram gentibus” (“Open the earth to all nations.”[5])

Jet Aircraft Log 3.5 Million Hours

Republic Aviation Corporation Release, February 8, 1957.—Republic Aviation’s F-84 jet Thundercraft, flying under the flags of thirteen different nations, have made the equivalent of eighteen flights to the sun in logging more than 3,500,000 hours of flight time to date, company statistical experts say.

Records compiled by Republic’s field serv­ice department show that of these hours, three million have been flown by Thunder- jets—the famed workhorse of the Korean war; more than 500,000 have been piled up in the newer, swept-wing F-84F Thunder- streak and nearly 100,000 hours have been registered by its sister ship, the RF-84F Thunderflash photo-reconnaissance plane. This averages 460 hours for each of the 7,600 F-84s which have been produced.

The figures are based on reports from Re­public’s field service men all over the world who work closely with the U. S. Air Force and the air forces of the thirteen North At-

lantic Treaty Organization nations to keep these ships in the air.

In setting the hours record, these F-84s consumed an estimated one billion, 100 mil­lion gallons of fuel—enough to run the aver­age automobile around the world four times a day for 450 years.

Thundercraft are now stationed in the U. S., England, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Yugoslavia, For­mosa, and Japan.

“Boundary Layer” Use Opens New Flight Vistas

By Ansel E. Talbert

New York Herald Tribune, January 27, 1957.—America’s top aeronautical scientists now believe the United States to be on the threshold of an era of “magic carpet” air­planes as the result of tremendously impor­tant new breakthroughs in “boundary layer control.”

These breakthroughs are certain to hasten the advent of nuclear-powered aircraft, whose initial great weight and cumbersome­ness have been considered drawbacks coun­ter-balancing the proposed advanced form of power. The scientific field in which the break­throughs have occurred is concerned with aerodynamically controlling and utilizing the thin “boundary layer” of air adhering to an airplane’s wings, engine nacelles and other exterior surfaces, so as to reduce “friction drag” in flight. This gives promise of increas­ing a plane’s lifting characteristics and range fantastically.

Although practical applications of “bound­ary layer control” still are in a preliminary stage, the United States Air Force and Navy already are pushing ahead with millions of dollars worth of orders for the world’s first production airplanes having devices to con­trol the “boundary layer” as standard equip­ment.

The Navy has just placed its largest jet training plane order in history—amounting to more than $70,000,000—for production of new carrier-or-shore duty Lockheed T2V-1 Sea Stars. The training plane’s “boundary layer control system” blows compressed air over certain key exterior surfaces to improve both lift and controllability during landings and take-offs.

Navy pilots, particularly those lacking long experience, will be able to ease the 600- mile-an-hour Sea Star onto a pitching carrier deck at speeds lower than any other existing jet.

“Float-In” Landings

Present scientific indications are that “boundary layer control” will really come into its own on big, long-range airplanes such as bombers and flying tankers, assault trans­ports and cargo carriers. Many top aero­nautical engineers envision huge airplanes which can take off under heavy loads with little or no forward runs, make long-range flights at high altitudes and supersonic speeds, and then “float in” for landings under complete control on small airports.

Lieutenant General Donald Putt, the Air Force’s top expert on plane development, has told Congress that successful application of “boundary layer control” to the B-52 jet bomber—three of which just flew more than 24,000 miles around the world non-stop through aerial refueling—would give the plane “much improved range performance.”

The Air Force has ordered production of the remarkable new Stroukoff YC-134 trans­port equipped with a special “boundary layer control” system developed by its designer, Michael Stroukoff. A prototype is now un­dergoing secret tests at Stroukoff Aircraft Coip., in Trenton, N. J., to determine ex­actly how small a space the aircraft—which will operate from snow, ice, unprepared ter­rain and from water—would need in a com­bat situation.

Reduction in Costs

The first aircraft manufacturing company in the nation permitted to disclose that it had received an Air Force contract to do “bound­ary layer control” research was Northrop Aircraft of Hawthorne, Calif. This outfit right now is building the first interconti­nental missile of the “cruise” or pilotless bomber type to reach production—the Snark. In a report to the Institute of Aeronauti­cal Sciences’ twenty-fifth annual meeting and honors convocation Edgar Schmued, Northrop’s vice-president in charge of engi­neering, disclosed:

“The indications are that boundary layer control will be beneficial for long-range cruis­ing at supersonic speeds as well as subsonic speeds. If the fullest expectations are realized with boundary layer control, the effect should be a large reduction in the very expensive costs of the weapons systems that are facing this nation in the near future.”

Many other American aircraft companies and several college and university labora­tories, including those of Mississippi State College, the University of Wichita, and Cor­nell University, are now known to be doing basic “boundary layer control” research. It is through this that various new types of nar­row slits and suction slots for a future air­plane’s outer skin have been designed.

Crack in World Is Found at Sea

By Ira Henry Freeman

New York Times, February 2, 1957.— Geologists have traced a crack in the floor of the oceans that is twenty miles wide, two miles deep, and runs around the world in a continuous line that is 45,000 miles long.

The line of the trench was located by teams of Columbia University scientists in five years of work in various parts of the world. Their success was announced by Prof- fessor Maurice Ewing, Director of the La- mont Geological Observatory, a unit of Columbia at Palisades, N. Y.

Dr. Ewing and Dr. Bruce Heezen, Re­search Associate, explained that the main line of the rift extended southward along the Atlantic from about the Greenwich Meridian in the Far North, bisecting Iceland, and run­ning approximately midway between North and South America on the west and Europe and Africa on the east.

Splits into Two Branches

The great trench rounds the southern tip of Africa, then forks into two branches. The northern branch runs into the Arabian Sea and loops sharply south again through the Belgian Congo, Northern Rhodesia, and other areas of the African continent. The southern branch continues eastward through the Indian Ocean, passes south of New Zea­land and crosses the Southern Pacific until forking into two branches near Easter Island.

The northern branch runs up the Gulf of California, while the southern branch curves down to the Straits of Magellan. There is “good evidence” of a connection in the Arctic Ocean, Dr. Ewing said, although this link has not been confirmed.

The rift was caused, the scientists the­orized, by the pulling apart of the earth crust. Miss Marie Tharp, cartographer at the Lamont Observatory, had noticed that the locus of a great number of earthquakes in the North and South Atlantic in the last forty years coincided exactly with the great trench there.

Then the Columbia associates discovered that earthquake zones elsewhere followed the rift. On each side of the deep crack rise moun­tains from 6,000 to 12,000 feet tall, but the tallest peak is 3,600 feet below the surface of the sea. Everywhere the formation is remark­ably similar—two belts of high, jagged moun­tains, each belt about seventy-five miles wide, separated by the trench about twenty to twenty-five miles wide and from two to four miles deep.

Rift Continues to Widen

“We became convinced that the undersea

New York Times

NORTH

AMERICA

,SOUTH AMERICA*

AFRICA

JJndiart \ Ocean

AUSTRALIA

HEAVY LINE DENOTES 45,000-MILE TRENCH IN EARTH’S CRUST

mountains and rift formed a world-wide sys­tem,” Dr. Ewing said. “The earthquakes, which are shallow and still going on along the entire length of the rift, show that it is still being pulled apart.”

Dr. Heezen expressed the opinion that the tracing of the rift “tended to weaken” the “theory of continental drift.” This theory holds that North America, South America, Europe, and Africa were one immense land mass eons ago but cracked roughly in the middle and pulled apart, forming the At­lantic Ocean basin.

“But notice that the rift rounds the Cape of Good Hope and runs up along the East Coast of Africa, too,” Dr. Heezen com­mented. “If the Atlantic rift were caused by Africa moving eastward, how was the Ara­bian rift caused?”

The answer awaits further research. Co­lumbia’s three-masted schooner, the Vema, is exploring the rift in the South Atlantic now. Dr. Ewing is flying to join her scientific crew in Buenos Aires.

“We believe,” Dr. Ewing concluded, “the significance of these findings is that they may help determine the origin of the major sur­face features of the earth and changes that have taken place in its geological history.”

French Submarine Fleet

Translated from Bulletin d’lnformalion de la Marine Franqaise, January 3, 1957.—The French submarine fleet now numbers thir­teen units, five of which are of French con­struction, three of British, and five German. To these relatively old submarines should be added the following units projected or under construction

6 Nanai type (1,200 tons): Nanai, Marsouin (undergoing trials), Dauphin, Requin, Morse, Espadon.

4 Arethuse type: (400 tons) Argonaute, Arethuse Amazone, Ariane.

9 Daphne type (700 tons): Daphne, Diane, Doris, Euridice, Flore, Galatee, and three sub­marines assigned to the 1957 naval budget.

All submarines under construction are of the diesel-electric type, but their charac­teristics (submerged speed and diving limits, cruising radius) make them excellent combat vessels while awaiting the construction of the atomic-propulsion submarine now under study by the Navy with the Commissariat on Atomic Energy.

In 1961 the number of conventional type submarines in service will be seventeen, of which thirteen will be new.

Improvements in diesel-electric sub­marines since 1945 have not been spectacu­lar but they do increase their operational performances a great deal. They can go farther and faster submerged; attacked by escorts, they can dive more rapidly. Im­provements in detection apparatus make possible the conduct of attack by accous- tical means alone, thus avoiding radar or visual detection from the surface. The submarine can play an offensive role against escorts.

The modern submarine can also operate offensively against other submarines. Lying in wait at points where the enemy sub­marines must pass on their way to the hunting grounds, they can sink him before he goes into action. This type of warfare has brought out the new type of hunter submarine. France is building four of these Arethuse type units.

Escorts have in turn been much improved in both means of submarine detection and ASW weapons, not to mention embarked helicopters equipped with ASDIC. It is difficult to say which holds the edge at the moment, submarine or escort, but it is quite likely that the scales may be tipped by the one having superior training, morale, and daring.

Water Purification Plant

Department of Defense Release, January 24, 1957.—A “packaged water plant” capable of satisfying emergency water requirements of 50,000 people has been developed by sani­tary engineers at the Army Corps of Engi­neers’ Research and Development Labora­tories, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, the Depart­ment of the Army announced.

The plant, which can purify water up to rates of 12,000 gallons per hour, can be op­erated by one man. Now undergoing troop tests by Fort Belvoir’s Engineer Test Team of the 79th Engineer Construction Group, it is producing drinking water from the pol­luted Potomac River.

Designed for field erection, the plant con­sists of three main all-aluminum sections, an “Erdlator” and two gravity type sand filters. The Erdlator (a name coined from the words Engineer Research and Development Lab­oratory), a cone shaped up-flow coagulation basin 14 feet in diameter, removes mud, bac­teria and other suspended matter from the water and makes effective disinfection and filtration possible.

Polluted water entering the Erdlator is aerated, then thoroughly stirred in the cone­shaped mixing vat with chemicals which in­clude a coagulant (ferric chloride); the co­agulant aid (pulverized limestone), and a dis­infectant (calcium hypochloride). The water containing the chemicals then passes through a strainer where suspended particles are re­moved.

Water is discharged from the Erdlator into two open type gravity sand filters which are operated in parallel. The filtered water is then collected in a bolted aluminum water storage tank for subsequent pumping into a pipe distribution system.

Polluted water can be pumped into the unit, chemically and physically treated, and discharged as potable water in approximately 20 minutes.

It is expected that the plant will be suita­ble for emergency use at field hospitals, prisoner of war camps, air bases and at vari­ous other installations.

The Army's Lacrosse Missile

Marlin Release, January 29, 1957.—The Army and Martin announced a new produc­tion contract for the surface-to-surface field artillery guided missile, Lacrosse.

Lacrosse is an all weather missile capable of destroying enemy strong points in the field to supplement air or artillery attack. Essen­tial components of the Lacrosse system are

the missile, a launcher mounted on a stand­ard Army truck, and a guidance system.

Lacrosse is propelled in flight by a solid fuel rocket motor. User units, employing the missile in the field, will be able to answer calls for fire in the same time required for conventional artillery, and with a rapidity comparable to that of a 105-mm. howitzer.

Lacrosse was designed and developed, un­der Army Ordnance contract, by the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, Incorporated of Buffalo, New York. The new Martin produc­tion contract announced today supplements an existing research contract under which Martin and Cornell brought the Lacrosse system to final development and commenced production engineering. Since the Cornell Laboratory does no production work, Mar­tin’s participation in the project made possi­ble the speedy evolution of Lacrosse from a Laboratory device to a producible weapons system at a considerable savings in cost and engineering efforts, the Army said.

Test firings of Lacrosse at the Army’s White Sands Proving Ground in New Mex­ico, the Army says, have been successful. The missile is described as being highly accurate.

Roll-On-Off Ships Hailed by Army

New York Herald Tribune, February 9, 1957.—The Army is doing everything possi­ble to encourage the development of “roll­on-roll-off” merchant ships because 24 per cent of all military cargo can move on its own wheels, according to Brigadier General Paul F. Yount, Chief of Army Transporta­tion.

The Army is also developing means of speeding up the handling of cargo in war zones by using off-shore loading platforms, General Yount told members of the New York chapter of the National Defense Trans­portation Association.

General Yount pointed out that of the cargo other than the wheeled or tracked va­riety of cargo, 42 per cent can be moved on pallets or in containers and the remaining 34 per cent must be handled by conventional means.

Vehicles shipped on “roll-on-roll-off” ships should be loaded with cargo whenever feasi­ble, thereby keeping the vehicles in the sup­ply line as long as possible and eliminating time lost in handling, General Yount ex­plained.

He then cited the advantages that should follow from this method of shipping as: sim­plified documentation, economy in time and money in loading and discharging, fewer weather delays, a shortened supply cycle and better utilization of terminal facilities.

Turning to a discussion of port facilities themselves, General Yount noted that “in addition to speeding up operations at con­ventional ports, which may not be available for our use in the event of mass-destruction conflict, the Army must be prepared to op­erate at alternate locations.”

Preparations for this alternative center around the “New Offshore Discharge Exer­cise” (NODEX), he explained. Twenty- eight such training exercises have been con­ducted.

“Equipment like the De Long Pier, a small, movable man-made island, and the Aerial Tramway have been tested and have performed well during the exercises con­ducted on the coast of France,” he added.[6]

Keel-Laying Held for Huge Carrier

New York Times, December 28, 1956.— The keel of the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, fifth in the Navy’s series of supercarriers, was put down at the Camden, N. J., yard of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation.

The vessel is scheduled for delivery in 1959.

There was little ceremony as a shipyard crane swung the first twenty-one-ton section of the keel in place. Ritual was scant to avoid interruption in the work on the yard’s new graving dock, which is the largest pri­vately owned facility of its kind in this country.

The Kitty Hawk, for all her size, will take shape rapidly, it was explained. More than 5,000 tons of steel has already been fabricated into sub-assemblies. More than 52,000 tons of structural steel and 1,000 tons of aluminum will be used in the building of the 1,047-foot long aircraft carrier. She will be driven by five four-bladed propellers, each taller than a two-story building. Her developed horsepower, although undisclosed officially, will be sufficient to supply elec­tricity to a community of 1,500,000 people, it was reported.

Antarctic Group Wins Landing Race

By Lt. Col. Herbert B. Nichols

Christian Science Monitor, February 2, 1957.—The Weddell Sea Group of the United States Antarctic Expedition has at last found a hospitable ice inlet at which it can land and begin operations on this forbid­ding Antarctic coastline at the head of the Weddell Sea.

This landing has not been made a moment too soon, for time has grown extremely short for unloading and building Ellsworth Station before the Antarctic winter closes in.

Until recently the progress of the expedi­tion had been discouraging. High-explosive five-inch shells fired at point-blank range scarcely dented the steel-hard ice that had been holding up our ships.

The Filchner ice shelf had been explored for its full 350-mile extent, and no break was found in its formidable 100- to 200-foot per­pendicular front. The shell bombardment was an unsuccessful attempt to break off enough of the ice to make a ramp on which unloading could begin.

But now these difficulties have been over­come. Pier facilities for the cargo carrier USS Wyandot are being carved out of hard Ant­arctic snow and ice at an indentation in the ice shelf.        ■

This indentation is located at latitude 77 degrees 44 minutes south and longitude 41 degrees 20 minutes west. The site for Ells­worth Station, to be occupied by the winter­ing-over party under Captain Finn Ronne, is about two miles west of here and about 35 miles west of Argentina’s General Belgrano Station.

Informed of these plans by Group Com­mander Captain Edwin McDonald, Task Force Commander Rear Admiral Dufek re­plied, “Your station site approved. Roll and good luck to you.”

The sides of the snow pier were shaved perpendicular by the icebreaker Staten Is­land in a task occupying most of one day. Wyandot demolition crews then worked most of the night with shovel gangs digging deep pits inshore, where logs will be sunk to anchor cargo vessels in place.

Varicolored flags have been placed ashore to mark areas for parking various types of equipment prior to their movement shore­ward to the station site. Some of the Wyandot hatch covers have been removed already and offloading is expected to start momentarily.

Ship’s officers and crew, dressed in green windbreakers, Seabee construction battalion members in orange, and a detachment from Air Development Squadron Six in red, will work around the clock during offloading, construction of Ellsworth Station, and prep­aration of flight and helicopter facilities. There is still sunlight here 24 hours daily.

Captains McDonald and Ronne, with Lieutenant Commander Henry Stemphens, construction officer, have visited the station site several times by helicopter, and Lieuten­ant Ray Clark, assistant construction officer, has led two different parties of five men there on foot. Aided by construction driver John Guinn, he had laid out a trail and marked several crevasses on which work must be done before heavy tractors and sleds can be­gin drawing equipment shoreward.

Actually, Ellsworth Station will be con­structed on the shelf ice many miles out from land. Beneath the Wyandot the sea is 440 fathoms deep, or about 2,640 feet to the ocean bottom.

An oceanographic station will be estab­lished here by William Littlewood of Navy Hydrographic Office, aboard the icebreaker Staten Island. He has already sent an iron clamshell to the bottom at several points in the Weddell Sea for samples of the ocean floor and preserved in alcohol all kinds of small marine life captured in nets. Many of these seem to be new to natural science.

Meanwhile, nine geophysicists who will winter over here have been extra busy check­ing instruments and equipment they will in­stall for use during coming months.

The wind has swung around to south these past few days and cold weather has resulted. The low was 4 degrees Fahrenheit and the high was 14. Antarctica’s warmest month is just about over and much colder weather with considerable snow can be expected.

New P. & O. Liner Keeps Lifeboats Low, Recessed

By William J. Humphreys

New York Herald Tribune, January 27, 1957.—The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. has gone in for the unortho­dox in ordering a new 45,000-ton liner—as yet unnamed—primarily for its Great Bri­tain to Australia service, but also intended to proceed beyond Sydney to Auckland, Van­couver and San Francisco.

A model of the largest British liner to be designed since the Queen Elizabeth was put on display here this week. Its profile shows one streamlined cone-shaped dummy funnel well forward and a pair of razor-edged stacks right over the stern.

Between these two elements of superstruc­ture is a clean sweep of deck that looks all the cleaner because there isn’t a lifeboat in sight on what would be the boat deck of a conventional liner.

Lifeboats on the new P. & 0. ship are three decks down and flush with the ship’s sides.

Reason tor Departure

This departure from tradition offers two advantages:       Lower stowage of lifeboat

weight will make the vessel steadier and will increase the effectiveness of the Denny- Brown stabilizer with which it will be equip­ped; in addition, there is the economy and safety factor of having a shorter drop for the lifeboats.

Expected to cost $35,000,000 when put into service in 1960, the liner will have other unusual features like an engine-room aft, in the manner of tankers, virtually the whole of its superstructure constructed of 800 tons of aluminum to save weight and increase speed, and a turbo-electric power plant.

It is unorthodox for liners of the P. & O. boat’s tonnage and dimensions—814 feet in length and 104 in width—to use turbo-elec­tric power. The plant will develop about 85,000 horsepower and give through two screws a 27-|-knot speed.

The present United Kingdom-Australia speed is 22 knots and assuming reopening of the Suez Canal, which the new P. & O. liner is to negotiate with a 31|-foot draft, the ship will provide a three-week turnaround service with Sydney instead of current four-week.

98 Days Round Trip

But the new vessel is to continue on to New Zealand, Vancouver and San Francisco ■—a voyage which will require ninety-eight days round trip. Her range without refueling will be 10,000 miles. There will be accommo­dations for 600 first class and 1,650 tourist class passengers plus 960 crewmen.

The liner’s specifications reflect the P. & O.’s best estimate on what the migration traffic to Australia will be during the next twenty years and also what competing air lines will offer in fares during the same pe­riod. The future cost of fuel oil has also been written into the estimates.

Steam Catapult in French Carriers

Translated from Bulletin ^Information de la Marine Nationale, January 3, 1957.— The steam catapult has been adopted by the French Navy for its carriers Clemenceau and Foch, under construction at Brest and Saint-Nazaire.

The steam catapult is considered superior to the hydraulic type and makes possible the launching of larger and heavier planes, speeding up the take-off operations. This catapult was invented by an officer of the Royal Navy, Commander Mitchell, and the prototype was built by Brown Brothers, Ltd., for initial trials aboard II.M.S. Perseus five years ago. It was later perfected by the Americans.

Several British carriers, including the Ark Royal, are equipped with steam cata­pults, and it is planned to extend their use to all carriers of the fleet.

Several American carriers, notably the Forrestal, now have steam catapults. The Australian HMAS Melbourne, the Canadian Bonnaventure (Majestic class) will be simi­larly equipped.

The Netherlands Navy is including this device in the modernization of the Karel Doorman now underway at Rotterdam.

Total Nuclear Blasts Equal 50,000,000 Tons of T.N.T.

Baltimore Sun, February 8, 1957.—Scien­tists have reported that all the A-bombs and H-bombs exploded to date equal the energy of 50,000,000 tons of T.N.T.

This is the equivalent of 2,500 Hiroshima- type bombs.

The disclosure came in a Columbia Uni­versity report on research—suggested by Dr. Willard Libby, of the Atomic Energy Com­mission—which declared that bombs having a total energy equivalent of 35,000,000,000 tons would need to be detonated before the “average” world-wide concentration of radi­oactive strontium in human bone reached the danger level.

Strontium Danger Cited

This tonnage would include the bombs al­ready detonated.

Radioactive strontium—considered to be potentially the most dangerous of all radio­active materials in nuclear-bomb “fallout”— could cause bone cancer if it accumulated in sufficient amounts in human bone. It can get into the body as a result of eating contami­nated vegetables and milk products.

Three scientists of the Lamont Geological Observatory at Columbia told about it in a report to the technical journal Science, de­scribing a survey of strontium content of hu­man bone made at seventeen stations in vari­ous parts of the world.

Five of the survey points were in Europe, six in North America, four in South America, one in Africa, and one on the island of For­mosa off the Asian coast.

Figures Given by Scientists

The scientists said that as of Autumn, 1955, on the basis of these studies, the world­wide average strontium content in man was “about 0.12 micro-microcurie per gram of calcium”—or about one-ten thousandth the maximum permissible concentration. (Stron­tium strengths are figured in comparison with calcium, which it resembles chemically.)

But they added that “a few values as high as ten times the average have been ob­tained.”

Their charts did not clearly bring out the location of individual cases having as high as ten times the average, but individual cases well above the average were listed in such places as Houston, Texas; New York, Puerto Rico, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Ven­ezuela, Vancouver and Formosa. All these areas had values at, or below average, how­ever.

The scientists indicated that dietary fac­tors might help to account for individual var­iations from the average; also differences in calcium content of soils.

But they also said individual variation constitutes a “most important problem” and that “large uncertainties” still exist as to the maximum concentration of strontium which individuals might receive at long distances from atomic test sites.

Expected Increase Noted

Researchers J. Laurence Kulp, Walter R. Eckelmann and Arthur R. Schulert said in their report:

By 1970, the world-wide average for stron­tium concentration in humans will have in­creased to about 1.3 (compared with the 1955 figure of 0.12) from bombs detonated to date.

“This will have been the result of 50 mega­tons (50,000,000 tons) of fission,” they said.

“On this basis, 35,000 megatons (35,000,000,000 tons) of fission would be re­quired to bring the average concentration in the world’s population up to the maximum permissible concentration.”

M.I.T. Hopes for Pint-Size Computers

New York Herald Tribune, February 7, 1957.—Use of incredibly tiny cryotrons in place of tubes and transistors in new Massa­chusetts Institute of Technology computer research was announced by that institution Tuesday as a major contribution to a “revo­lution” in electronics. A hundred cryotrons can fit into a thimble.

The word “revolution” was used by re­search engineer Dudley A. Buck, twenty- nine. He says experiments in a three-year re­search in which he worked with M.I.T.’s Lincoln Laboratory point to “a large-scale digital computer that can be made to occupy one cubic foot.” Today’s digital computers fill whole rooms.

Cryotrons are little coils of hair-thin wire wrapped around pieces of straight wire. The metal in the straight wire, when held under low refrigeration, allows an electric current to flow through it without any resistance. But the little coil produces a magnetic field that can control that flow—shutting the current off or turning it on. Great families of these little control switches, hooked up together, provide just the switching circuits needed in many computers.

The electrical phenomenon of supercon­ductivity in some metals under refrigeration was discovered nearly fifty years ago, but is still not fully understood. M.I.T. says this is the first useful application ever made of superconductivity. Liquefied helium holds the cryotrons at a temperature about 420 de­grees below zero.

Pillow Tires for Matador Launcher

Aviation Week, January 28, 1957.—Pillow tires have been adopted for use on Goodyear Aircraft Corp.’s Translauncher, a semi-trailer type vehicle used to launch the Martin Mata­dor TM-61B missile, and the Teracruzer, de­veloped by Four Wheel Drive Auto Co., to

transport unassembled Matador segments and to tow Translauncher. Teracruzer, which uses eight of the tire bags made by Good­year, is the first vehicle in which drive power has been applied directly to the axles of all tire bags on such a vehicle. The tires are 3j ft. long, 3| ft. in diameter and inflated with only 3 to 15 lb. air per sq. in., and are mounted in pairs on four-wheel bogies. Each bogie can be tilted pneumatically 10 deg. up or down for load distribution adjustment in rough terrain. Teracruzer is 30 ft. long, 9 ft. wide, weighs 15,000 lb. and can carry 16,000 lb. Translauncher uses four tire bags, is 34 ft. long, shorter than 42 ft., J33-powered missile, 9 ft. wide and weighs 15,000 lb.