siderations, to name but four—
which will keep the problem of the
North Atlantic region's deep-draft
port, and its attendant controversy,
alive and with us for many years
to come."
William O. Gray, manager, Re-
search and Development, Tanker
Department, Esso International
Company, spoke on "Large Tank-
er Maneuvering." He said that
many statements in the press re-
cently on tanker maneuverability
"border on the ridiculous, mention-
ing excessive stopping and turning
distances, problems of dynamic in-
stability, and other phenomena al-
leged to make Very Large Crude
Carriers (VLCC's) nearly unman-
ageable."
He went on, "ship collisions gen-
erally show a much higher correla-
tion with dense traffic areas than
any other single factor—such as
ship size or type. In this regard,
it is worth emphasizing that al-
though larger tankers obviously
require more maneuvering space
than smaller tankers, there are
more important benefits from the
use of larger tankers." These bene-
fits, Mr. Gray said, include the fact
that a small number of vessels for
given volume reduces traffic densi-
ty, and very large tankers by virtue of
their size are increasingly being re-
moved from the more congested areas.
A report on "Hull 'Survey of
VLOC's " was given by F.N. Boy-
Ian, deputy chief ship surveyor, and
F.H. Atkinson, principal ship sur-
veyor, Lloyd's Register of Ship-
ping. These authors described the
survey procedures currently being
used and closed with a forecast for
the future. They said: "Thinking
of the future, perhaps most efforts
should be directed towards extend-
ing the periods between routine
drydockings, and with this in mind,
and as already shown in the paper,
considerable attention is presently
being paid by the Society to the
quickly developing technology of
in-water surveys. This method of
survey is still relatively new and
untried but may well become most
important to classification. Anoth-
er advance which may occupy sur-
veyors in the future could well be
the survey Of repairs done at sea.
This will depend primarily on the
nature of the defect but in many
ways would be a rational extension
of the service whereby ships are
surveyed at sea.
"As more experience is gained in
this work, and as VLCC's become
larger and older, it is confidently
expected that this service will be
extended beyond the present age
limit of five years and could well
be extended to and beyond the sec-
ond special survey. It should be
particularly attractive to owners
that surveys prior to docking or
drilling may be held at sea enabl-
ing the necessary preparations to
be made before the vessel is taken
out of service."
Mr. Luck served as presiding of-
ficer at the fourth and final session
of the conference.
The first paper presented at this
session was prepared by P.H.
Monaghan, research advisor, Esso
Production Research Company; J.
H. Seelinger, program manager,
Maritime Administration, and R.A.
Brown, senior research associate in
the Analytical and Information Di-
vision of Esso Research and Engi-
neering Company. This paper, en-
titled "The Persistent Hydrocar-
bon Content of the Sea Along Cer-
tain Tanker Routes—
