OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 73 



Mr. Miller. Do you think that we should continue this study and 

 try to resolve all of the questions and differences that come up and 

 see if we can bring something out of it? 



Mr. Morse. Expressing my personal views, I think it is very 

 desirable. 



Mr. Miller. You think that there is a need in this field, that there 

 is a great void in the knowledge that we have, is that correct? Do 

 you feel that way ? 



Mr. ]\IoRSE. Yes, I do. 



Mr. Miller. Do you know of any work that has been done by 

 other nations in this field? Wliat has England done in connection 

 with its merchant marine ? 



Mr. Morse. I personally have no knowledge. 



Mr. Russo may have some. 



Mr. Russo. There has been an activity which is in progress now in 

 all tlie maritime countries to develop facilities, experimental facili- 

 ties like the Davis Taylor Model Basin and make them suitable for 

 the study of ships in waves. To this extent it is my knowledge that 

 countries like England, Holland, France, and this country, have been 

 veiy active in developing these facilities. They are predicated on an 

 experimental way of dealing with the problem. These facilities basi- 

 cally consist of trying to duplicate, scaled down, the ocean conditions 

 which exist in the field, to run models and determine the behavior of 

 ships under those given sea conditions. 



One of the first points where we come to be in need of some assist- 

 ance from other branches of science is to define the sea in the open so 

 that we can duplicate it in the experimental facilities so that we can 

 study our ships and determine the behavior of the ship in that sea. 



Tliat seems to be a very simple proposition but it implies the ability 

 to define the sea. The sea can be defined quantitatively by the oceanog- 

 raphers who have been attempting and are still attempting to ac- 

 complish the fact. 



In the Maritime Administration we do not have direct concern in 

 deterimning the sea but we are vitally concerned in the results and 

 that is the reason we would like to support this, Mr. Chairman. 



From the merchant marine viewpoint, our interest in seakeeping 

 or oceanography is simple. We would like to know enough to be 

 able to design better ships to run more efficiently, the merchant ships. 



Sea transportation has moved to faster and faster ships and it seems 

 futile to design faster ships if we do not laiow how to make them run 

 fast in seaways. 



Our interest, as I say again, is geared and based on this basic point. 



Mr. Miller. How long have these studies by people interested 

 in ship construction and operation with respect to the seaway motion 

 or action been going on ? 



Mr. Russo. Mr. Chairman, I was studying the mathematics of sea- 

 ways 30 years ago when I was in school. This is a very old problem. 

 The question now is that it has been more or less in the field of specu- 

 lation and we would like to make it tangible. We would like by 

 concerted effort to render the problem soluble so that we can learn 

 something. 



I already mentioned that our primary interest is to identify full 

 scale conditions so that we can duplicate them in the experimental 



