Weather ships essential beacons for the transatlantic air traffic

Media item

Weather ships essential beacons for the transatlantic air traffic

Week number 51-29

Newsreels in which Dutch subjects of a certain week are presented.

The weather ship "Cumulus" departs from the port of Rotterdam to the place in the Atlantic Ocean where it will execute it's main task: collecting and providing meteorological data and helping the transatlantic air traffic. Footage of the daily duties aboard the ship. SHOTS: - Dockworkers detach a steel cable from a bollard; the ship slowly slides backwards away from the dock and then sails off; - the position of the two Dutch weather ships is pointed out on a topographic map; - int. ship: ship's officer determines the position of the ship with electronical navigation intruments; a "blip" appears on the screen of a cathode ray tube; navigator marks the position of the ship on a sea chart; several meteorological observation instruments are placed in one of the masts, in another one are different radio antennas; an employee checks a probe that is then launched with a weather balloon; the interference of the transmitter inside the probe is recorded by automatic registration equipment in the meteorological room; a radar antenna rotates; on a radar screen the "beam" rotates as well; two man operate the controls of the radio beacon; in the radio room men are working on several types of equipment, a.o. a telegrapher, seated behind a shortwave receiver, who writes down the incoming morse code on a notepad.