no 



[From the New York Times, Aug. 5, 1967] 



Patents of the Week — Underwater Mining Ship Is Devised 



(By Stacy V. Jones) 



Washington, Aug. 4. — Shipbuilders have designed a vessel to harvest potato- 

 shaped lumps from the ocean floor. The lumps are regarded as a rich potential 

 source of manganese. 



The underwater mining ship was patented this week for the Newport News 

 Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Va., builders of many 

 major naval vessels as well as the superliner United States. 



Manganese is an essential element in steelmaking, and only about one per cent 

 of its needs is produced in this country. The lumps, or nodules, have been re- 

 ported at hundreds of locations, chiefly in the Pacific, but also in the Atlantic. 



Patent 3,333,562 refers to the possibility of commercial mining at depths from 

 400 to 12,000 feet or more. 



The company has conducted ocean-mining studies over several years. Beyond 

 indicating that the mining ship described in the patent had not been built, a 

 spokesman declined to discuss plans for the project. 



The procedure indicated in the patent begins with raking the ocean floor, and 

 metering the collected ore and water into an intake pipe. 



Pumped up into the ship, the nodules are to be moved by screw conveyors 

 into hoppers for storage. 



Besides the mining ship, the plan includes a cargo vessel to be towed about 

 600 feet astern, with a floating conduit through which the nodules can be trans- 

 ferred to it. 



The mining equipment is to be lowered through a rectangular central well in 

 the main ship, and to be moved with the aid of a dolly, an elevator and an over- 

 head crane. 



The expected speed between port and mining site is 14 knots. During mining 

 operations, the ship is to be maneuverable on a steady course at less than five 

 knots, with a bow thruster to supplement the rudder and counter the effects of 

 wind and sea. Personnel can be transferred by helicopter. 



The inventors are John E. Flipse, director of research and forward planning, 

 and four other engineers : Joseph D. Deal Jr., Nicholas E. Oresko, John L. Stevens 

 Jr. and Robert M. Donaldson. 



In a 1963 operation reported by the Bureau of Mines, a ton of nodules was 

 gathered off Baja California, Mexico, at depths up to 12,500 feet. They were from 

 one to four inches in diameter, from flat to spherical in shape, and besides man- 

 ganese contained iron, copper, nickel and cobalt. The cost of refining the metal 

 is yet to be determined. 



[From the New York Times, Sept. 23, 1967] 

 Battle for the Sea Bed 



Battle has now been joined this month both at the United Nations and in Con- 

 gress over the last part of the earth's surface still free of national appropriation : 

 the sea bed beyond the continental shelf. The only entirely new item on the Gen- 

 eral Asembly agenda is Malta's proposal for the internationalization of this vast 

 area, while in Congress bills have been introduced to establish American opposi- 

 tion to any move to give the U.N. ownership of the potential riches on and beneath 

 the ocean floor. 



Those who have so hurriedly raised this issue in Congress were apparently 

 hoping to persuade the Johnson Administration not to support Malta's proposal 

 or any variant of it. Ambassador Goldberg's friendly reaction to that suggestion, 

 however, frustrated the opponents' initial goal ; but the fighting on this issue has 

 only begun. 



Ambassador Goldberg put the whole issue in proper perspective by comparing 

 the ocean floor with outer space. Both regions of the universe were until recently 

 totally inaccessible to purposeful human activity, but rapid technological ad- 

 vance is changing that situation radically in both cases. 



Since neither the United States nor any other nation owns either the planets 

 or the ocean floor, there can be no question of any "give away" if the decision is 



