Sea Coal

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 7th Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

Oct 1953

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Eisteddfod 1954
2. 2Sea Coal
3. 3Sack Race

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: An echo-sounding survey of the seabed for a new under-sea mine
NCB Commentary - There are plenty of fish in the sea, but there’s a lot of coal underneath the sea bed. Much of this is already being won, but before new mines can be sunk, engineers want to know all they can about the pattern of the seabed.
That’s where this team of men comes in. They’re carrying out an echo-sounding survey of the seabed somewhere off the English coast. Their first job, in the grey morning light, is to synchronise their watches. Then it’s all aboard, and off to take up their position out at sea.
This is Percy, the tide guage man. He has the loneliest job of all. During the day he’ll be tied up in his boat watching this tide guage, and noting the movement of the tide, as it creeps in or out, every five minutes.
Meanwhile, surveyor Eric Margarett and his two assistants prepare to make a series of runs along imaginary lines out at sea. They know where they are by taking bearings on three fixed points ashore. Number one is the church spire here. Number two is the little white church in the middle of the woods. Number three is this house with the chimney.
Now here’s the heart of their equipment -- the echo sounder. Fixed to the side of the boat, it shoots out sound waves to the seabed, and measures the time it takes for them to bounce back. That gives you the depth, and recorded on this machine up comes a continuous picture of the hills and dales of the bottom of the sea. Up on deck, they finish calibrating the echo sounder, and the boat gets under way, sailing along a straight course. Surveyor and assistants start taking bearings on their fixed landmarks, and so work out their position at short intervals. Steady, he shouts - ‘Fix!' and down goes the foot button on deck. As the button is pressed, so a mark is made on the continuous picture of the seabed coming out of the recorded. All day long this goes on, while the boat cruises up and down, covering the sea in a pattern of imaginery lines.
Meanwhile, Percy the tideguage man, is making his five-minute notes of the water’s rise and fall - and he’s got plenty of time to catch up on his own correpondence.
A break for a bite of food on the survey craft is the only interruption in the day’s work. Then it’s back to the up and down cruise again, until by the end of the day, when the skipper puts her about for home, the chart looks like this. Each of these entries give the sea depth at the exact position marked. From these entries, and using Percy’s information on the tide’s changed, the surveying team will work on into the night ashore preparing a complete picture of the bottom of the sea.
For Percy, and the boat’s crew, the day’s work is over. Up and down the coastline, seamen like these, and the hardworking surveyors, by their seemingly aimless cruising up and down, up and down, are helping mining engineers to make plans for winning the coal that stretches out under the sea, and to be sure before they start that it can be safely got.

Researcher Comments

According to bfi records, this story was filmed on the 7th to the 10th July 1953. Commentary recorded 4 September 1953.

Keywords

Ships and boats; Science and technology; Mining

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for Synopsis
Film User   Vol.8 No.89 March 1954, p138.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Camera

John Reid

Director

Leslie Shepard

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Camera

Peter Nash