Engineering 

 in the Ocean 



INTRODUCTION 



Modern technology is creating a dilemma for engineering by 

 imposing on it precise demands for information on, and understanding 

 of, complicated physical characteristics without relaxing the practical 

 constraints of economics, schedule, and purpose. This dilemma poses 

 especially difficult choices in the oceans where a harsh environment 

 offers severe technical and economic limitations to gaining this techno- 

 logical information. 



The civilian effort in ocean engineering both public and private 

 appears to be undersupported in view of the rapid expansion of 

 activities in the ocean and little or no reserve of technology to provide 

 the technical alternatives to meet the requirements which thus develop. 

 Use of the oceans is expanding faster than is the knowledge being 

 provided to support it. While the difference in rates of growth may be 

 temporary, it exists now, and creates a gap. That is why the lack of 

 a conscious effort to do something about it on a national scale is 

 troublesome. 



Recognition of this gap is not new, of course, as many previous 

 studies have testified, but almost all these reports suffered from a 

 skeptical reception because the ocean engineering needs were defined 

 so broadly they promised to be costly without promising any obvious 

 results. The panel determined to avoid the general and look for the 

 specific. 



It is our purpose in this brief memorandum report to state the 

 task as we saw it, describe our approach, recount what we found, and 

 recommend a course of action we propose be followed. 



THE TASK FROM THE SECRETARY 



The task suggested by the Secretary of Commerce * was to survey 

 the national civilian needs in ocean engineering, define the specific 

 applications which should be undertaken, suggest the relative roles 

 of industry and government, and recommend how go^'ernment effort 

 might be applied if other than is now the case. 



* See Attachment A. Letter to Chairman, NACOA. from the Secretary of Commerce, 

 21 Aug '73. 



