EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY 85 



This terminates my written statement, but before trying to answer 

 the questions which the committee may have, I would again like to 

 thank you for permitting me to appear before you today. 



This concludes my written statement, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Morse. Thank you very much., Commander Alexander. I 

 think it would be very helpful if you would submit for the record the 

 proposed operating schedule which you referred to on page 5 of your 

 testimony. 



Commander Alexander. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Morse. Let me ask one question, if I may. Back on page 4, 

 you were talking about the first series of meetings, and you said that 

 among your recommendations was that the future oceanographic 

 program would be restricted to new construction of ships. What 

 did you mean by that? 



Commander Alexander. This was in reference to conversions, 

 Mr. Chairman. Before 1960, I think almost entirely all ships were 

 conversions. The Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Bureau of 

 Ships made a detailed investigation separately, and both arrived at 

 the same conclusion, that conversions, except for special purposes, 

 were not economical. 



Mr. Morse. I see. Thank you. 



Mr. Bauer? 



Mr. Bauer. Commander, following our chairman's question, 

 do you consider that the U.S. naval ship Eltanin is not an efficient 

 oceanographic ship? 



Commander Alexander. No, sir; the Eltanin was a special-purpose 

 ship within the meaning of the panel. 



Mr. Bauer. What do you mean by special purpose? Doesn't it 

 have the capabilities of going to any ocean in the world, and conducting 

 oceanographic research in many and various disciplines? 



Commander Alexander. No, sir; in the case of the Eltanin, we 

 had to have a ship that would be capable of operating freely in the 

 Antarctic ice. 



Mr. Bauer. Aside from that, let's talk about the oceanographic 

 capability. Can it operate without going into the ice in a perfectly 

 satisfactory manner? 



Commander Alexander. The Eltanin? 



Mr. Bauer. Yes. 



Commander Alexander. Yes, sir; it can operate almost anywhere. 



Mr. Bauer. What is the matter with the conversion, then? 



Commander Alexander. The Eltanin — and I would like to modify 

 my last answer a little — the Eltanin would be perfectly capable of 

 doing classical oceanographic work, but there are some types of 

 oceanographic work that would be beyond its capability. 



Mr. Bauer. Will you tell the committee what they are? 



Commander Alexander. Well, there would be certain types of 

 acoustic or seismic work, where we would need an absolutely quiet 

 ship. We would like to have a ship that would be fairly stable, so 

 that we could take gravity observations. 



Mr. Bauer. Do you have any oceanographic ship in our oceano- 

 graphic fleet that is any more stable than the Eltanin? 



Commander Alexander. I am not familiar with the stability of 

 the Eltanin, but icebreakers in general are extremely instable in the 



