OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 207 



STATEMENT OF JOHN LYMAN, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF OCEANOG- 

 RAPHY, U.S. NAVY HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE 



Mr. Ltman^ My name is John Lyman, Director of the Division of 

 Oceanography in the Hydrographic Office. 



Captain Miinson gave yon a brief description of some of the types 

 of publications that we produce. 



We have actual samples of them here which I would like to show. 



The first thing you need to do is to get oceanographic data. This 

 book [exhibiting H.O. Pub. 607] is an instruction manual of oceano- 

 graphic observations. It is a complete cookbook on how to obtain 

 all types of oceanogTaphic information, currents, water samples, bot- 

 tom samples, and wave observations. 



Then for ships that are not completely fitted for oceanographic 

 collections of all kinds but may have a simple instrument like the 

 bathythermograph on board, we have pamphlets describing how to 

 take ba thy thermographic observations, for example [exhibiting H.O. 

 Pub. 606c]. 



The next step in the problem is to process the data. Here is a 

 publication. Processing Oceanographic Data [exhibiting H.O. Pub. 

 614]. This is one of those that is internationally accepted as a stand- 

 ard treatise on the subject. It has been translated into Spanish and 

 it has been circulated by the International Association of Physical 

 Oceanography. 



Then once you have the information the next step is to put it into 

 useful form. 



Here is an atlas of the polar regions [exhibiting H.O. Pub. 705], 

 two sections, Arctic and Antarctic, which display all the known 

 oceanographic conditions for the areas. This makes use of such re- 

 cent findings as Operation Deep Freeze in which our oceanographers 

 have participated, and even some of the early IGY results from the 

 Arctic are incoi-j^orated in this volume. 



Then we have published a book that is a catalog of all the oceano- 

 graphic data available in our punch-card files. Copies of these data 

 can be obtained by anybody on a reimbursable basis and this book 

 tells the areas in which the information was collected and how much 

 is available. 



Then for the forecasting problem, we have reports on forecasting 

 Arctic ice, the growth and formation of sea ice. 



We have a treatise on forecasting waves [exhibiting H.O. Pub. 

 604]. It is a good sized book. It turns out that forecasting ocean 

 waves is a fairly fonnidable problem and it takes a fat little book 

 and a lot of training to do efficiently. 



This is the book that forms the basis for our prediction system for 

 ocean waves that in turn is the foundation for the ship routing. 



Here is another example of information from a specific cruise, the 

 report of the oceanographic observations on one of the Deep Freeze 

 operations, and then, to show that we do not neglect biology com- 

 pletely, here is a report on the growth of barnacles and other fouling 

 organisms on steel plates in Xorfolk harbor over a period of a year. 



This is a problem of great interest to the Navy from the standpoint 

 of what happens to a mine, but it also has considerable implications 

 from the fisheries point of view because it gives an idea of fertility of 

 the water at different seasons of the year. 



