Weather ships essential beacons for the transatlantic air traffic

Dutch

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.