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Oil Shortage Poses Many Problems For Merchant Ships
(Guy Halverson in The Christian Science Monitor, 26 December 1973)
The U. S. Merchant Marine fleet— which has been undergoing the beginnings of a renaissance during the past several years—is facing uncertain seas in the wake of the Arab oil embargo. At issue:
► Should the U. S. fleet—as many Congressmen and some shipowners now are demanding—be required to carry up to 30% of all oil imports? At present, most oil imports are carried on non-American flag carriers, which, as one Congressional aide argues, makes the United States "double dependent” on other nations in the present energy crisis. The U. S. fleet soon will have 26 new "supertankers” m the massive 250,000-ton-plus class.
^ Offshore deepwater ports; proposed by President Nixon in his energy- kgislation message in April 1973, the Potts could handle the giant new super- tankers capable of transporting enough oil to fuel a city for up to a week. Several b'Us authorizing such terminals are hoittg considered by Congress, notwith- standing protests from environmentalists who fear oil spills. Under the Phns, oil would have to move from the Atwater ports to the shore in special P'pelines on the seabed.
The United Kingdom, Japan, and Astern Europe all have spent large SUnas in developing deepwater ports. Steady in world service are more than tankers whose displacements exceed *°0,000 tons.
, U. S. terminals can handle these S'ant vessels—and ships of more than
80,000 tons deadweight can enter only a few West Coast ports.
► Nuclear-powered ships; should the U. S. give the go-ahead for a major building program of prototype nuclear- powered giant cargo carriers?
► Finally, there is a question about the very makeup of the U. S. merchant marine fleet itself, as worldwide shipping patterns change.
Despite some apprehension that large intercontinental tankers may not be as necessary as the U. S. looks more and more toward its own coastal waters for oil shipments, a number of shipping concerns insist that tanker construction must continue. "This energy crunch must not be allowed to stop the push for a modernized merchant fleet,” argued an official of the American Institute of Merchant Shipping.
Prior to the Arabian oil embargo, one federal study estimated that five to six million barrels of oil would be imported into U. S. ports annually by 1985. Now, whatever happens with the Arabian oil imports, shippers must consider imports from South America and Alaska, as North Slope oil begins to flow south to the continental United States in several years.
The U. S. merchant fleet as of November comprises some 569 privately owned vessels and 433 government ships. Of the latter, only 25 are in active service, with the remainder inactive, in the government’s reserve fleet.
The merchant fleet has undergone a massive rebuilding and modernization program during the past three years. But the fleet—which tumbled from the top stop as the world’s dominant shipping fleet at the end of World War II to No.
10 today—faces formidable competition from other shipbuilding nations abroad.
The Soviet Union, moreover, began a massive shipbuilding program during the past decade.
In the Merchant Marine Act of 1970, Congress at the administration’s request authorized a 10-year building program for 300 new vessels. By terms of the historic legislation (the first real change in shipping legislation since a New Deal statute in the mid-1950s), Congress is required to authorize construction subsidies on an annual basis, with subsidies pegged to reach a permanent level of 35% by 1976. The current rate is 39%.
Shipowners can get financing for up to 20 years, while deferring taxes under such special considerations as building of new ships. Today, some 86 large vessels are under construction in U. S. yards, with a contract value of over $3 billion—the largest backlog of shipbuilding in any peacetime year.
For U. S. shipbuilders, the immediate question is the offshore terminals. According to federal maritime officials, there are some 60 or so foreign ports capable of handling the new giant supertankers of 250,000-plus tonnage. Both Texas and Louisiana are considering plans for such facilities, though conservationist groups remain vehemently opposed. Criticism is most pronounced on the East Coast, and at least one state—Delaware—has passed legislation barring such terminals.
Congress has several bills before it that would authorize deepwater ports. The House also is holding hearings on whether or not to require U. S. flag carriers to carry at least 30% of all oil imports. A similar proposal—requiring
Versatile Landing Craft—This artist’s conception and cutaway of the Navy’s new amphibious landing craft, called the JEFF (A), is the first significant improvement in surface transport from ship to shore since before World War II. Supported by a cushion of air, it is designed to transport heavy Marine Corps vehicles and equipment over both water and land from cargo ships stationed well offshore. The craft is equipped for rapid off-loading and loading with provision for three lanes of traffic at the stern, where the off-loading occurs, and two lanes at the bow for loading. The craft is 96.2 feet long overall; has a 48-foot beam; a height of 23 feet, one inch; nominal payload of 120,000 pounds; displacement of 333,000 pounds; and an obstacle clearance of five feet. The propulsion is provided by four shrouded air propellers, pylon-mounted and rotatable steering, for a speed of 50 knots in three-foot waves for four hours. Delivery of the first JEFF (A) is planned for late 1976.
50%—was defeated in the Senate in 1972. The "percentage” issue is expected to come to a head by next summer.
Finally, the Federal Maritime Administration is drawing up plans for prototype nuclear ships.
Newly-formed Company Wants To Buy Both The Boston Naval Shipyard And Annex
(The Boston Marine Guide,
14 December 1973)
122
U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1974
Director of Commerce and Manpower for Boston Mayor Kevin White, Gerald W. Bush, announced that plans are moving forward at "phenomenal speed” on a newly-formed local company that hopes to move into the Boston Naval Shipyard and the South Boston Naval Annex. The firm wants to begin building ships and possibly barges for proposed New England offshore oil drilling operations.
The local company is putting together $50 million in "front end financing” as part of its plan to convert the government-owned shipyard facilities at both Charlestown and South Boston into a major privately-financed ship construction and repair center. If the plan goes through, an estimated 1,000 workers would be employed immediately, and a total of 1,500 shortly thereafter if the company can get the go- ahead from the Defense Department.
Bush disclosed that a tentative agreement had been reached on the financial aspects, however, he said, "we need to iron out property acquisitions from the Navy and to reach agreement on truck and rail access to the shipyard property at Charlestown.”
He explained that the new locally- financed shipbuilding firm wants two thirds of the shipyard for its ship building program, including the yard’s foundry, machine shops, lathes, and other buildings where marine equipment has been used.
Of course, the main entrance to the shipyard will be taken over, once the yard goes into a caretaker status on 1 May 1974, by the Department of Interior under a separate plan to utilize more than 20 acres of land in the area surrounding the USS Constitution for a National Park.
The new company also wants the
entire South Boston Naval Annex for a launching area for ships. This acquisition, however, is meeting up with other proposals such as from the Coast Guard which has advanced a plan to move from its present 4.4 acre North End site to a roomier 25 acre operation in the South Boston Naval Annex.
Massport is also looking over a 6.7 acre site at the Naval Annex, part of
the same property the Coast Guard wants, in order to relocate Boston’s commercial fishing fleet and plants.
Bush also disclosed that two other companies, one believed to be backed by Japanese financial interests, have also expressed interest in the facilities being vacated by the Navy in Boston under its plan to reduce the size of its shor£ facilities.
Code Of Conduct Under Study By The Department Of Defense
(.Long Island News day, 12 December 1973)
A high-level Pentagon committee soon will begin a major study that could result in giving U. S. Servicemen clearer guidance on how to act as prisoners of war in any future conflict.
The review foreshadows the first revamping of the military Code of Conduct since it was first drawn in 1955, two years after the Korean war when some U. S. POWs allegedly cooperated with their North Korean captors and were labelled turncoats.
The new review, urged by senior U. S. prisoners of war since they were freed from North Vietnam last winter and spring, calls for better guidelines on how far American Servicemen may go in giving enemy captors more than their name, rank, and service number, and also their date of birth.
Many of the returned POWs acknowledged making propaganda statements, but they said they did so only after being beaten and tortured.
The code’s value has been debated among U. S. military men and civilian officials since the last of 566 U. S. war prisoners were freed by the North Vietnamese in March 1973.
Kaman’s SH-2F: LAMPS, Logistics and Life Saving
Some military men and civilian officials believe the present code worked.
Some men survived because of it,” one official said.
Search and rescue. Medical evacuation. Vertical replenishment. Courier. Mail carrier. Personnel transfer—a "Holy Helo’’ airlifting the chaplain to Sunday services on small ships and shuttling unit commanders to tactical briefings on the Flag.
Kaman's SH-2F performs all of these services for the fleet and many more. In its spare time. Its primary roles are antisubmarine warfare and antiship missile defense. And, pound for pound, it’s the most potent ASW and surveillance aircraft in the business. Flying from destroyer decks, it has provided naval gunfire support, electronic and visual reconnaissance and served as target for radar calibration and fleet training. New missions have been suggested, such as amphibious assault support and missile launching and control.
FMC Seeks Additional Data On All DoD Cargo Shipments
(Journal of Commerce, 8 November 1973) The Federal Maritime Commission (fMC), in trying to force higher cost covering bids from carriers vying for Odense cargoes, now wants the carriers* t0 submit to it figures on the extent t0 which their vessels are loaded on r°utes used by the Military Sealift Command (MSC).
Multi-purpose, multi-capable, the SH-2F is an all-weather, day-night, overwater and over-the-horizon extension of the fleet’s power. That’s why it has been called “the most versatile new weapons system added to the destroyer force in the past ten years”.
Kaman Aerospace Corporation—a Kaman Company—Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002, (203) 243-8311.
In obtaining so-called "uniform ca- Pacity utilization factors,” the FMC said lt will permit more ready assessment of 'be rates bid—which must cover full
Kmm
J V. Day, "Military Cargo and the Civilian Carrier: The Problem of Procurement,” Proceedings,
t*'ls issue, pp. 109-112.
costs plus interest and a return on investment.
Operators will be given the choice of having their rates judged for cost adequacy either on the basis of their own ship utilization or on the average for the particular route involved, whichever is greater.
The capacity utilization is sought for all of calendar 1973 and should be submitted—under an order by FMC—by 1 February 1974, so the rates when bid for the new MSC period, which begins 1 July 1974, can be examined promptly under this new system.
The FMC, which objects to the competitive bidding system, has been trying for several years to examine these rates on suspicion they are harmful to the carriers, by depressing down military rates, and forcing commercial rates upward to make up lost revenue.
However, one set of rates no sooner comes under FMC investigation than a new six-month rate period comes along making the effort all but futile. The FMC did put through its rule, however, that the rates bid must cover full costs.
Two Oceanographic Research Vessels To Be Built For NSF
(National Science Foundation News Release, NSF-73-216, 17 December 1973)
SEA OF GLORY
The Continental Navy Fights for Independence 1775—1783
by NATHAN MILLER
“A broad-visioned, comprehensive, balanced and heavily researched history. A worthwhile addition to our knowledge of Sea Power in the American Revolution.”
—Rear Admiral Ernest M. Eller (ret.), Past Director, Naval History, U.S. Navy Dept.
The firm of Peterson Builders, Inc., of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, has been awarded a subcontract by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to construct two medium-size oceanographic research ships at a total price of $6,186,448, the National Science Foundation announced.
The ships, funded by the National Science Foundation, are needed to replace others in the Nation’s academic fleet that are now between 29 and 50 years old, and whose operational costs have become excessive.
The vessels are 177 feet in length and 33 feet in width, a size considered to be favorable, since they are large enough to undertake major oceanographic research tasks, yet operate at lower cost than larger ships.
The two ships will each carry a crew of 13 and a scientific complement of 12 investigators. They will include 1,350 square feet of laboratory space each, and will have a range of 8,000 miles. Displacing 962 tons each, both vessels will have variable pitch propellers and bow thrusters for greater control and maneuverability in performing their oceanographic research tasks.
Title to both ships will be retained by the government. One of the vessels will be operated and maintained under an agreement between the National Science Foundation and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Assignment of the other ship has not yet been determined. Current plans call for delivery of one ship in July 1975 and for the second in October 1975.
Netherlands Navy To Build Four Mulitpurpose Frigates
(Royal Netherlands Embassy News Release, 13 December 1973)
The Netherlands Secretary of Defense has announced the decision to build a first series of four Standard frigates of Netherlands design.
This series will be built by the shipyard De Schelde at Flushing, Nether
lands. The keel laying will take place during the second quarter of 1974, while sea trials for the first ship are scheduled for the beginning of 1978. The other ships will follow, with a time schedule of from six to nine months between ships.
The characteristics are:
■Displacement: approximately 3,600 tons full load
Overall length: 121 meters Complement: 185 officers and men Propulsion: gas turbine, twin screws Maximum speed: 30 knots Armament: NATO Seasparrow, antiship missile system, a 76-mm. gun, short range air defense system, and Mk-46 antisubmarine torpedoes.
The ships will also have one helicopter.
Bulbous Bow Design Is Now Standard For Many Ships
(Charles W. Theisen in The Detroit News, 5 December 1973)
A ship design developed in large part at the University of Michigan—600 miles from salt water—has become the standard for literally thousands of the world’s ships.
The design is the bulbous bow which features a protrusion below the waterline.
The bulb has proved inefficient on Great Lakes vessels, but it has been seen in the Great Lakes on ocean vessels sailing to Lakes ports through the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The bulb is visible only when the vessel is "light.” When a ship is loaded, her weight pushes the bulb portion underwater.
Richard B. Couch, University of Michigan, professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, explained the function of the bulb and reviewed its history.
As a ship’s bow moves through the water, Couch said, it pushes waves ahead and to the side of the vessel. The bulb produces a second wave system which is "out of phase” with the original system and the two wave systems cancel each other, he said.
McKAY
Couch said the addition of the bulb on the bow of a ship has been shown
Notebook 125
to reduce by 13% the amount of power needed to move the vessel.
Originally, the bow bulb was designed for and installed on the trimmer, faster ocean ships. Tests showed that the bulb would not produce a wavecanceling effect on slower, wider vessels.
Extensive experiments with models showed that the bow bulbs were efficient on trim ships because they canceled the bow wave system. Bow bulbs did not cancel the bow wave on wider, slower ships. But the bulbs did something else on wider, slower ships, they reduced what ship designers call "separation drag.”
When a large, wide vessel moves through water, Couch explained, it creates eddies which move under the hull. These eddies under a vessel cause a drag on the ship’s forward movement.
The bulb on slower ships was found to change the direction of flow under a vessel to reduce the eddies and the drag.
Since those tests—conducted in 1963—literally hundreds of ocean vessels have had bow bulbs fitted to their original hulls, and now virtually every ocean-going ship is built with a bulb.
( The bulbs have not, however, proved j adaptable to Great Lakes vessels.
Couch said there is a single point at which a bulb is most efficient—a single speed at a specific condition for each vessel. They are, therefore, most practi- cal on ships which can sail at unchang- ■ng speeds and conditions for long periods of time.
The conditions are met by ships making long ocean runs. In tankers, for instance, the bulb is most efficient when I die ship is in ballast.
Lakes vessels, which operate in channels and rivers, do not have the stable sailing conditions which would enable diem to take advantage of the bow bulb, Couch said.
The foundations for the first pier at Grigoryevsky have already been laid according to the Soviet Embassy in London.
Similarly in the Pacific, the first wharf at the new Port of Vostochny has been commissioned. When completed, its harbor is expected to handle up to 30 million tons of coal, lumber products, and containers a year.
Grigoryevsky has been mainly designed to handle chemicals, and in connection with expansion of economic cooperation with the United States. Soviet foreign trade organizations have signed a long-term contract with occidental Petroleum for reciprocal deliveries of chemicals.
The harbor, which will be 14 meters deep at the piers, will be able to handle vessels up to 200,000 deadweight tons. All cargo handling operations will be mechanized and automated, according to the Soviet source.
It is expected to be commissioned in the middle of the next five-year plan period (1976 to 1980).
Study Center Of Marine Policy Opened At Delaware University
(University of Delaware News Release, 7 December 1973)
A Center for the Study of Marine Policy, the first of its kind in the United States, has been established within the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies.
The center will focus upon public policy issues affecting the oceans, the seabed, and the coastal zone.
Students in the College of Marine Studies’ marine affairs program also will benefit from the center’s research by participating as assistants in both theoretical and practical investigations of marine policy. The expansion of the marine affairs research program, moreover, will serve to enhance the curriculum leading to the masters and doctoral degrees in the college.
Soviet Union’s Largest Port Presently Under Construction
[Journal of Commerce, 3 January 1974) Russia’s largest port in the south of 'he Soviet Union is now being constructed about 30 kilometers from Odessa in the Black Sea.
Membership provides permanent life insurance, protection, with cash and loan values-not affected by increase in age or release from active duty.
• Membership provides assistance, without cost, .to beneficiaries in obtaining all federal benefits to which they may be legally entitled.
Our membership exceeds 58,000 members—and our assets are in excess of $160 million..
ALL ACTIVE DUTY OFFICERS OF THE NAVY, MARINE CORPS, COAST GUARD AND NOAA ARE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP.
Write For Further Information and Brochure
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Navy Dept., Washington, D. C. 20370 • Phone: (202) OX 4-1638
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Other activities of the center will include publishing of research reports and conducting maritime conferences for public officials and businessmen.
Changes in Ships’ Status
Compiled by Commander J. B. Finkelstein, U. S. Navy 1-31 December 1973
Ships Stricken: | Date: | |
dd-875 | Henry W. Tucker | 12/3/73 |
DE-1021 | Courtney | 12/14/73 |
DE-1015 | Hammerberg | 12/14/73 |
DE-1022 | Lester | 12/14/73 |
ao-53 | Caliente | 12/15/73 |
SS-351 | Green fish | 12/19/73 |
Ships in Commission |
| |
in Reserve: |
| Date: |
CLG-7 | Springfield | 12/15/73 |
Ships Stricken |
| |
from Naval Reserve Force: | Date: | |
DD-887 | Brinkley Bass | 12/3/73 |
de-1023 | Evans | 12/3/73 |
DE-1025 | Bauer | 12/3/73 |
dd-703 | Wallace L. Lind | 12/4/73 |
DD-727 | DeHaven | 12/5/73 |
DD-779 | Douglas H. Fox | 12/15/73 |
dd-697 | Charles S. Sperry | 12/15/73 |
Ships Loaned to Foreign |
| |
Governments: | Date: | |
DD-869 | Arnold J. Isbell | 12/4/73 |
U. S. Navy Shore Establishment— Facilities Established:
1 Dec 1973 Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels), Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla.
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1 Dec 1973 | Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center, Encino, Calif. (Developmental Status). |
U. S. Navy Shore Establishment— Facilities Disestablished: | |
14 Dec 1973 | Naval Support Activity, Fort Omaha, Omaha, Neb. |
31 Dec 1973 | Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory, Port Hueneme, Calif. |
31 Dec 1973 | Naval Electronics Systems Test and Evaluation Facil |
| ity, St. Inigoes, Md. |
31 Dec 1973 | Service School Command, Bainbridge, Md. |
U. S. Navy Shore Establishment— Facilities Modified: | |
1 Dec 1973 | Change Naval Reserve |
Pass-Down - The - Line
Center, Richmond, Va. to Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center, Richmond, Va.
1 Dec 1973 Change Field Branch, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Philadelphia, to Naval Medical Material Support Command, Philadelphia
31 Dec 1973 Change Naval Air Station, Ellyson Field, Pensacola, Fla. to Naval Education and Training Program Development Center
Addendum:
U. S. Navy Shore Establishment—
Facilities Disestablished:
Naval School Underwater Swimm
28 Nov 1973 Naval School Underwater Swimmers, Key West, Fla.
Notes
Any member knowing of any institution or library that might be interested in obtaining a complete ten to 15-year file of Proceedings, should contact Walter G. Wulff, McGraw-Hill International Book Company, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 or call 212-997-3184.
If you heard that: (1) we are the publisher of Robert Sherrod’s Tarawa, The Story of a Battle, and (2) that Mr. Sherrod’s royalties will go to the Scholarship Fund of the Second Marines, and (3) all our profits will go to help construct the Admiral Chester Nimitz Center, a State of Texas museum dedicated to all who fought in the Pacific, you heard correctly. Now, may I hear from you?
Douglas H. Hubbard, Director
The Admiral Nimitz Foundation 340 East Main Street Fredericsburg, Texas 78624 (512) 997-4379
Objects of historical interest that characterize the U. S. Navy’s presence in
the Pacific Ocean areas are being sought j by the San Diego Council of the Navy League for display in its newly-opened Navy Memorial Museum on board the steam ferryboat Berkeley. The Navy Memorial Museum will occupy 4,000 square feet of main deck area on board the Berkeley. When fully restored, the Berkeley is to house museums that will include the history of shipbuilding, tuna fishing, and maritime, as well as oceanography-marine sciences. Arrangements for the donation of articles may be made by calling 714-454-0554.
Two-time Enlisted Prize Essay winner, Master Chief Sonar Technician James C. Bussert, U. S. Navy, is in need of six old editions of The Bluejackets' Manual—First (1902), Second (1903), Third (1914), Fourth (1916), Eighth (1938), and Ninth (1939)—to complete a story of the handbook’s evolution. Anyone who has a copy of any of these editions, and who would like to sell or loan them, please contact: J. C. Bussert. 14324 Aedan Court, Poway, California 92064.
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