354 * The Atlantic 



severe limitation of cargo marked WNA, that is, Winter in the 

 North Atlantic. Plimsoll commenced his campaign in 1876 but the 

 mark did not come into effective use until 1890. In 1885 the deaths 

 of British seamen ran to 3,500. In 1891, after the Plimsoll mark came 

 into use, the deaths had dropped to 1,600. Other factors as well as 

 Plimsoll's reform may have accounted for this saving of life, but 

 even making allowances for other factors the figures are stih very 

 striking. 



Nowadays, ocean travel is at least safe, pleasant, comfortable and 

 convenient in nearly every class and size of ship. For those that care 

 for it and that can afford to pay the price there is in addition luxu- 

 rious travel offered on the superliners. So many people use and en- 

 joy steamer services that they are always inclined to ask, what of the 

 future of ocean travel? Will the airplane make the ocean liner obso- 

 lete and unnecessary? Will bigger ships be built or will the big ships 

 become obsolete and will we build smaller and faster vessels? What 

 will ocean travel in the future be like? 



These all sound like simple questions. They are indeed simple to 

 ask but require, in each case, involved and complicated answers. The 

 most elementary truth is that the design of ships, the building of 

 ships and the operation of ships are combinations of art and of sci- 

 ence. They are activities that over countless centuries have been 

 growing and developing. They are, today, marked by a high set of 

 technological accomplishment, inventive ability and also flexibility. 



Ships are tools and we can devise ships and tools suitable and effec- 

 tive for a thousand different purposes. The excellence of a ship de- 

 pends in part upon its technical character but mostly on its adapta- 

 bility for the particular kind of service it has to perform. The gen- 

 eral question, therefore, could be answered by a counterproposition. 

 If V you will tell me what kind of a social, political and economic life 

 the Atlantic nations will be leading twenty-five years from now it 

 will be possible to make some kind of a reasonable forecast of the 

 types of vessel they will be or should be using. If Soviet power and 

 communist ideology effectively invade the Atlantic area we may 

 confidently expect some combination of technological deterioration 

 and social and economic disaster. If these powers, as now appears 

 likely, threaten the Atlantic area without achieving success, we may 

 expect sharpening enhancement and diversity in the matter of devel- 

 opment and use of naval and maritime equipment on the part of the 

 Atlantic nations. 



