Weathership Economy

Not many transatlantic airline passengers ever see a weathership, but the tough little cutters stationed at wide intervals across the stormy North Atlantic are items of reassurance for those who know about them. Supported by the U.S. and 14 Atlantic countries, the weatherships supply the streams of data that are the raw material of modern weather analysis. Their sounding balloons, sent up at frequent intervals, report on conditions aloft. Their radio beacons are like lighthouses on the empty ocean. Sometimes the ships serve as lifesaving stations.

Last week the U.S., which maintains about half of the weather fleet, announced that it will withdraw all its 14 ships. "The benefits derived by the U.S.," said the Department of Commerce, "are no longer commensurate' with the cost." The U.S. has been paying about $17.5 million a year to support its weatherships. The cost of impaired weather information would be hard to estimate. Airlines hate to admit (for fear of scaring away prospective passengers) that their safety factor has been cut. Government agencies in Washington are keeping mum. But the Weather Bureau has testified that the international system of weather reporting "is the very foundation of weather research. The network provides basic data which are essential to almost every major economic field --aeronautics, agriculture, atomic energy facilities, commerce, engineering, rail and sea transportation and the armed forces."

European governments have made their position plain. Said the British: "It is considered that any drastic curtailment of the present network would have a marked effect on the regularity, safety and economy of the transatlantic air operations."

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