Science: Tugboat Radar

Magic-eyed radar, which guides the Queen Elizabeth through North Atlantic fogs, can guide a tugboat, too. Last week the New Haven and the Pennsylvania Railroads demonstrated how tugboat radar might eliminate fog delays in New York’s crowded harbor.

Sandwiched between two barges carrying 40 loaded freight cars, the New Haven’s tug Transfer 21 set out from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn for Greenville on the Jersey shore. Her pilothouse windows were hung with heavy grey curtains, more opaque than any fog. This low visibility did not bother the captain. By glancing at the radar’s 12-in. “scope,” he could follow all harbor doings for a mile around. A squarish blob meant a ferryboat; a small oval, a tug. Moored ships showed their anchor chains. Snaking her heavy barges through all these obstacles, the Transfer 21 made Jersey without trouble, though only the radar’s electronic eye had seen the water.

The tugboat radar, specially designed by the Sperry Gyroscope Co. for close-range work, shows objects 80 yards away, large objects even closer. It can “see” for 30 miles, but tugboats are seldom concerned with such distances. It costs about $12,000, may save much more on the barges that shuttle freight cars between New Jersey and the docks of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The New Haven and the Pennsylvania figure that radars on their 51 tugs may save $50-100,000 every foggy day.