DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


 The CHAIRMAN. All right. Go ahead.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Those figures do not include any stimulation of
commerce and shipping, adjustment of freight rates and mail sub-
sidies, reduction in hazards to shipping during hurricane season,
increased earning power of ships due to the shorter time required to
make the voyage, and the very real value of the project as a factor
in the national defense.
 Senator VANDENBERG. Are you going to refer in detail to the
hazards?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. No; I shall not mention the hazards again, Sen-
ator, unless you care to discuss it now.
 Senator VANDENBERG. I was wondering whether you had anything
to offer on the basis of hazards.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. I think it is difficult to reduce hazards to a mone-
tary value. We are discussing economic justification at this time.
 Senator VANDENBERG. I constantly hear of this trouble of hazards,
and I took occasion to ask the United States Coast Guard for a re-
port, and their report shows that just one human life was lost in 16
years as the result of hazards in Florida, and that the total shipping
loss in 16 years was something like $4,000,000.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. I should like to amplify that statement by this
 statement, that the official records show that in the past 50 years
 755 lives were lost by wrecks off the coast of Florida.
 Senator VANDENBERG. Then all but one must have been prior to 16
 years ago.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. If the statement received by you is correct. That
 I do not know.
 I have this to say, since you have raised the point regarding the
 effects on that route upon the economy of transportation: In the
 hurricane seasons it is quite customary for skippers, whose ships are
 bound into the Straits, to be notified by their owners that a hurri-
 cane may reach the Straits at or about the time when they enter,
 and they, therefore, slow down their ships if it appears feasible, and
 in that way arrive after the hurricane may have passed. That hap-
 pens very frequently, and the total loss to ships in operating days of
 the entire fleet is very substantial. The effect of the hazards of the
 hurricane in the hurricane season has that indirect, but none the less
 material, effect upon transportation through that route.
 Senator VANDENBERG. I think that might well be true.
 The CHAIRMAN.. Mr. Buckman, let us talk for a moment about
 normal weather, good weather. In your opinion, would the canal be
 used then?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. Senator, let me first disclaim any attempt to qual-
 ify myself as a navigation expert. If you wish my opinion in spite
 of that disclaimer, I shall be delighted to give it to you.
 The CHAIRMAN. Just as a matter of interest, what is your opinion?
 Mr. BUCKMAN. I think it would inevitably be used whether it is
 good weather or bad weather. A dollar is a dollar.
 I will repeat what the managing director of one of the large ship-
 ping companies told me. I asked him what amount of savings would
 be necessary for a skipper of his to save in order to justify the use
 of the canal. His answer was this: "If a skipper of mine came in
 here and failed to save $10 that he might have saved on a voyage, I
 would call him on the carpet."


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