204 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



ISIr. Drewry. Ca))tain jNluiison, in your statement in reo^ard to the 

 question of savings in costs as a result of avoidance of ice dama<^e, 

 that rehited to MSTS ships ': 



Captain Munsox. That is correct, sir. 



Mr. Drkwry. I was goino; to ask you a question to try to show that 

 perhaps those bald figures did not reflect a good average, but I take a 

 look at some charts which Admiral Will presented last 3'ear when we 

 had the hearings on the icebreaker and I would like to read them into 

 the record because it at least eliminates the question I had in my own 

 mind. 



In 1951 there were 144 ships in the Arctic supply and resupply; in 

 1952, 1:54 ; 1953, 116; in 1954, 63; in 1955, 126; in 1956, 122; and in 

 1957, 105, which I think more supports than otherwise the difference 

 between the $17 million and the $1 million. 



The Admiral was making a point that he was changing from the use 

 of Government-owned ships to purely commercial ships. 



Captain Munson. You understand, of course, sir, that the supply 

 of the middle section has now been passed to the Canadians. We are 

 assisting and collaborating with them. 



Mr. Drewry. You went down to 1957. 



Captain Munson. Yes. I intended my contrast, which, of course, 

 was the most startling thing we could find, to apply really to the first 

 year's operation in which we applied ice forecasting techniques which 

 have been subsequently perfected, but one would have to make some 

 sort of an adjustment for the number of sliip years to get a true figure. 



Perhaps it would be more honest now to reduce it to a savings of 

 dollars per ship per year. 



Mr. Drewry. Captain, in mentioning the savings to MSTS, do you 

 know whether the same or similar type of routing has ever been tried 

 with the SS United States, for instance ? 



Captain Munson. To our knowledge, no, sir. The reason is this: 

 The very large, very fast ships are somewhat independent of weather 

 and may be sailed along what you could call the navigationally most 

 direct route. This is true of ships of the class of the United States, 

 the America, to a certain degree the Constitution, and certainly of the 

 Queens and the other larger Cunard liners. 



They tend to follow the organized North Atlantic track lanes Avhich 

 represent a minimum geodetic distance laid out with respect to safety 

 for ice which would be the controlling factor. 



Mr. Drewry. Would there be mattei-s of savinjrs in cost through 

 not having to battle as heavy weather as they would nonnallv? 



Ca])tai]i Munson. In certain periods of the year you would recover 

 some but there would be a neat balance of forces that would have to 

 be examined. 



I believe the economics of the operation of some of the ships indi- 

 cate that it is best to maintain your schedule and t^vke some dama^re 

 rather than incur the exi)ensive delays attendant upon a markedly 

 late !iT-riv;il. 



Mr. Drewry. Or it could be costly to get there ahead of time ? 



Captain Munson. This is true. MSTS finds it to be very true that 

 you coidd cost yourself a lot by too early arrival. 



Mr. Drewry. On the genei-al subject of what we can do, which Mr. 

 Miller brought up, you mentioned that this is a costly situation. You 

 mentioned that within the Navy budget there have to be various 



