74 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



tanks. This activity, to my knowledge, has been going- on for I wouki 

 say the last 5 or 6 years and maybe longer. 



Mr. Miller. If we can solve some of those problems it would have 

 a very practical effect upon the operation of ships, would it not? 

 In other words, it would have a dollar and cents effect ? 



Mr. Russo. Definitely so. If we have to slow down a Liberty ship 

 which is designed for IQi^ knots to 5 knots or 6 or 7 and we still have 

 to slow down a 20-knot ship to 5 or 6 knots in the same sea, it is bet- 

 ter that we learn how to design ships to navigate in seaways. 



The result can be visualized immediately. The ships turn aromid 

 faster. They render better service. 



Mr. JVIiLLER. We have been using the sea as the high road to com- 

 merce, and for the interchange of ideas since before the memory 

 of man recorded these things. The airplane is a comparatively new 

 means of transportation. 



Would you say that in the short years that we have had the air- 

 plane that the intensive study that has been made of weather con- 

 ditions and which is still gomg on in this field alone to assist this 

 mode of transportation has overtaken comparative knowledge in the 

 design and operation of ships ? 



Mr- Russo. I am afraid the question is too broad because you are 

 comparing two modes of transportation which render two different 

 services. 



Mr. Miller. The thing I want to bring out is that, the airplane 

 being new, we have not hesitated to spend a lot of money to establish 

 weather stations to determine where we get into the air stream to 

 save gasoline and get an airplane there much faster. 



We correspondingly have really just begun to apply that same sort 

 of thinking to the sea, have we not? We have just taken the sea for 

 granted. It has been our old friend. 



Mr. Russo. That is correct. I am not an expert on airplanes so 

 that I camiot testify on that, but by hearsay only I understand that 

 the airplane industry has been very effective in improving the meth- 

 od of weather forecast so that they can route the airplanes around 

 the w^eather rather than plunging through the w-eather. They have 

 much more speed and can perhaps be more versatile in relation to the 

 weather. 



That is one of the things we are trying to do by means of correct 

 forecasting. 



I may say this is not an idle speculation. There have been at- 

 tempts to establish this mode of routing ships by Military Sea Trans- 

 portation and even ourselves. 



Mr. Miller. After all, you cannot hope to predict results on the 

 experience of a few years, but do you feel that the limited experience 

 you may have had so far because of the few years you have been at 

 it indicates that in terms of dollars and cents it is going to pay 

 off? 



Mr. Russo. I am expressing my views only now. My feeling is 

 that it is due to two factors. First, up to 10 or 15 years ago, we 

 were moving slower ships. It did not matter much whether we 

 had to slow down or not. 



The second one is that to solve the problem it requires the con- 

 certed effort of allied sciences. 



