92 OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 



torpedoes must be made to operate undistracted by the normal back- 

 ground noise within the sea; pressure mines must be able to sustain 

 fluctuations due to surface waves, tides, etc., ^vithout inadvertent 

 detonation. Virtually all of the activities in this area are regarded 

 for the moment as representing military oceanography, but a sniall 

 amount of fundamental research has been initiated in such organiza- 

 tions as the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, White Oaks, Md. and the 

 Naval Ordnance Test Station in Inyokern, Calif. 



(e) Bureau of Yards and Docks.— The Bureau of Yards and Docks 

 has responsibility for the Navy of the design, construction, and main- 

 tenance of all shore bases and fixed facilities. In the past, this has 

 primarily involved the more conventional piers, docks, and shipyard 

 facilities. But, with the Navy now concentrating attention on the 

 sea itself and the ocean bottom, exi^ansion may be expected in the 

 capabilities of the Bureau of Yards and Docks to provide such items 

 as fixed platforms deep within the ocean or located on the ocean floor, 

 systems for placing and recovering heavy loads in deep ocean water 

 and for the servicing of deep ocean structures or equipment. Both 

 basic and applied research with this deep water emphasis has been 

 recently initiated on a modest scale at the Naval Civil Engineering 

 Laboratory at Port Hueneme, Calif. 



2. U.S. Coast Guard 



The U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for maintaining the Inter- 

 national Ice Patrol and ocean rescue stations. In discharging this 

 responsibility, it must locate, count, and track icebergs, study cur- 

 rents around Labrador and Greenland. The Coast Guard also studies 

 wave motions to analyze the interaction of wind and sea, as, for 

 example, to determine the most desirable heading to land an aii^plane 

 in the unhappy circumstance when it is necessary to ditch at sea. 

 In the application of its statutory duties, the Coast Guard has also 

 considered study of oil pollution of coastal waters. Through its 

 severe limitation of personnel and budgets, the Coast Guard has been 

 precluded from engaging in any extensive program of its own. It 

 does, however, assume senior management responsibility for the Ship 

 Structure Committee (SSC), along with cosponsors of the Navy, 

 Maritime Administration, and American Bureau of Shipping (funds 

 are contributed primarily by Navy). Tliis organization, initially 

 formed in 1943 to investigate the brittle fracture of merchant ships 

 at sea, through contract research conducted under auspices of the 

 National Academy of Sciences — National Science Foundation, is now 

 turning its attention to the much more general problem of the rational 

 rather than empirical design of ships. In turn, this philosophy has 

 suggested need for data on loads imposed by the sea on ship hulls, 

 and the response of the hull structures and materials. As part of 

 tlie first problem, the long-range plans of the SSC now include obser- 

 vations of the sea and the development of techniques for the collection 

 of synoptic data, together with research on wave generation and 

 decay through interaction of wind and waves as a basis for wave 

 forecasting.^^ 



«'"A Long-range Research Program In Ship Structural Design," SSO-124, November 1959, U.S. Coast 

 Quard, 



