Radar Ahoy!

The harbor of grimy Liverpool, swept by racing tides and shrouded in fog or rain a good part of the year, is a nerve-tester for ship pilots. Last week the test was easier. At seven control stations along the Mersey basin, seven navy-type radars scanned the crowding river traffic. Their electronic eyes could pierce the blackest night, the soupiest fog or rain, spotting every ship, buoy, dock or shoreline. Dock masters could warn a scuttling ferry (in appropriate nautical language) that a long, lean liner was fixing to cut her in two. They could guide a blank-blank collier through the blank-blank sandbars.

A ship itself needed no radar or other special equipment. When the pilot climbed aboard outside the harbor, he carried a small portable radiotelephone. Over it, he hailed the shrouded shore. The nearest radar operator, watching through his "scope," told precisely where the ship was, and what it had better do next.

Ships can now enter Liverpool harbor in any weather, avoiding expensive delays at the Mersey's mouth. Britain's War Transport Ministry will soon set up radars at London and Southampton. Eventually it hopes to extend the system to all of Britain's fog-plagued harbors.

Most U.S. harbors are not as foggy as Britain's, but Navy authorities believe that a system like Liverpool's would be "of definite value" in avoiding delays and collisions in thick weather. Plenty of radars are lying around, left over from the war. The Coast Guard, after a series of experiments in Delaware Bay, hopes soon to put some radar cops to work.

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