The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-11-29
Marion Moran Has Electronic
Brain; Takes Cuesswork Out
OF Present-Day Navigation
Sllrirnping Vessel
Shown On Radar
Equipment. Fatiionleier
Also On Boat
by AL PALMER

or needed to get from here to
way over there was firm grip
on the pegs Of ships wheel and
long hard look al the stars.
Today man must be near
electronieal engineer, according
TO Captain Ira George, who
brought in the tug, The Marion
Moran towing a pair of pontoons
to the Gulf Oil Co. docks here.
Even the pegs are gone, 2
Capt. George nurrnured in
rather melancholy way. why
even baby could steer this ship"
The introduction of radar has.
Of course. taken q considerable
amount of guesswork out of navi-
cation and the Marion Moran
is radar equipped with a ven
geance
Looking through the peepholes
into the radar screen is like watch
ing two green dots racing around
the inner and outer circle of q
saucer. II takes about three min
utes to warm up.
Soon. the circle takes on the
appearance of Kew West sky
with puffy clouds lowering a.
round the outer and inner circles.
Those white clouds" inter
rupted George. ARE objects. See
that shrimper over portside?
Watch il move on the radarn
IT moved
The Marion Moran also has
souped up location finder. some
thing new in electronics. called
The Loran."
This latest example of the cleo
tronic peoples genius is contained
in box about two feet square,
The controls are located at one
end of the box and include a
three-inch square window in
which two green threads pirouet
about in q most energetic manner
To get your location---or to find
out where you're at, as the skip
per described it--yon twirl dials
until two threads line I'D. After
this is accomplished a reading can
be taken by comparing notes with
various charts.
1T cuts down time and is &C
curate TO the nth" degree,
Gait George explained
Here's another little item that
makes life on the ocean waves
lot safer for us than for our sea-
faring fathers" He nodded at an
other Flash Gord0nisF -looking
contraption which bore the label
"Fathometer"
Turning it on added another
'peep-peep" noise to the already
cracking atmosphere of the wheel
house. It sounded-and looked
like a wierd science-fiction film
''This 'Fathoneter" registers
the depth of water a ship is go
ing through.
SHOULD be great innovation
TO Kew West shrimping captains
several Of whom have more than
a nodding acquaintance with vara-
ous and s1ndry sand bars in this
grea
The eFathometerH consists Of
a circle of light. approximately
an inch wide and foot in diam
eter. A pair of red lights sashay
around the circle with the depth
Of water under the ship registered
between the lights.
Built in Texas back In i943
the Marion Moran was turned
aver TO the British Navy under
nd-Lease during the war. She
is I45-footer with 25-foot
beam. Recently her sister ship
The Joseph n Moran II. towed
the caribe Queen---the Key West
to Havana ferry of the future
from Mobile to Jacksonville.
George brought his Marion
Moran into Key West for refuel-
ing while enroute to Baltimore.
He is towing pair of monstrous
pontoons which were used to buoy
up Great Lake freighters in ord
er that they could navigate