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OCEAN STATION 



VESSELS 



By John W. Chanslor 



Maritime Safety Division 



U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office 



To the mariner and aviator alike, the manned ocean station is 

 virtually an information bureau, ready at all times to report the 

 latest weather information, furnish navigational data, relay messages, 

 and furnish search and rescue service in case of emergency. 



An ocean station is an arbitrarily selected section of ocean 210 

 miles square, strategically located hundreds of miles from the nearest 

 land. Ocean station vessels are, strictly speaking, "on station" when 

 they are within this square. 



The actual establishment of ocean station vessels had its begin- 

 ning with World War II. With the cessation of weather reports 

 from merchant ships, weather data became of paramount importance 

 in the safety of transocean flights. For this reason ocean station 

 vessels were first established in the Atlantic in 1940 and later in the 

 Pacific in 1943. Additional stations were added as needed, with the 

 numbers of ocean station vessels fluctuating greatly during the war 

 and postwar years. There are at present 9 ocean station vessels in 

 the Atlantic and 3 in the Pacific, Figure 2. 



The radiosonde, containing a radiometeograph which transmits 

 data on upper atmospheric pressures, humidities, tempera- 

 tures, and wind velocities. 



Ocean station vessels, frequently referred to as "weather ships", 

 have been under the cognizance of the International Civil Aviation 

 Organization {I.C.A.O.) since 1947. United States participation in 

 this international weather program falls within the jurisdiction of 

 the U. S. Coast Guard. The following article is intended to describe 

 some of the various functions of these vessels. 



METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE 



Despite progress in ship design, weather at sea is still the 

 greatest single cause of marine casualties and delays. Head winds 

 increase the length of a sea voyage and are of vital concern to an 



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