EASTERN SEA FRONTIER	WAR DIARY	MARCH 1942
	CHAPTER IV
	THE SHIPPING ROUTES
	At the outbreak of the war, shipping routes that had been laid out by Commander Eastern Sea Frontier in the OPerations Plan of the Frontier were immediately put into effect. These routes lay on either side of a reference line that passed through lightships and other aids to navigation along the coast. Until January 30, the lanes thus established provided the pattern for north and southbound coastwise shipping. For eight days in January from the 22nd to the 30th, the routes were modified to carry vessels sixty miles offshore around the critical area off Diamond Shoal and Wimble Shoals. When this modification failed to produce the desired results, the whole system of sea lanes was changed on January 31 to bring the shipping in "as close to the shore as safe navigation" permitted. All vessels were instructed to sail at night along these routes without navigation lights.
	Experience during the month of February indicated that ships moving along these tracks were assured of increased protection against the submarines, but the narrow distance separating the north and south bound traffic when coupled with the requirement for darkened ships, increased the chances of collision. Although not many collisions actually took place, teh fear of accident was so great that ship masters frequently refused to follow the routes assigned to them. On one day in the Sixth Naval District, over half of hte thirty ships in District waters were found
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	to be off their prescribed courses. It was, therefore, believed necessary to change the sea lanes once more.
	On February 25, Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier informed the Chief of Naval Operations of the existing situation and expressed the opinion that if north and southbound routes were separated by a strip at least two miles wide, the danger of colision would be reduced and the willingness of the merchant captains to follow the routes greatly increased. Proposed changes in the sea lanes were enclosed; these preserved the factor of safety inherent in the existing lanes which followed the shoreline as closely as safe navigation permitted but diminished the danger of collision by prescribing a two miles "neutral area" between the north and southbound lanes. (This letter together with the boundaries of the lanes is to be found in Appendix I.A.) If these changes met with the approval of the Chief of Naval Operations, Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier was prepared to put them into effect immediately. Such approval was given on March 6.
	A week later, on the 12th, Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier informed Cominch of further steps that had been taken to increase the security of our coastwise shipping. Experience had revealed that merchant vessels sailing close to the coast during daylight between Hatteras and New York were reasonably free from attack. Two reasons for this were given. In the first place, the shallow in the area curtailed the effectiveness of the submarine operations. But more particularly, daylight offered a better opportunity than the night time for efficient air and surface coverage. In view of this, directives had already been sent to all activities within the Frontier to route ships along this part of the coast only
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	during daylight. By night the vessels would lie over in the protected anchorages of the Chesapeake and Delaware. The principle of the broken voyage was thus introduced.
	In this same letter, Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier put forward another suggestion for the reduction of sinkings in this area. Several vessels had been sunk outside the prescribed sea lanes some hundred miles off our coast. These ships were on their way north from South America or the West Indies, and thus outside the waters used by ordinary coastwise shipping. They were also, for this reason, vessels of which Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier had no knowledge until their sinkings were reported. It was recommended in this letter of March 12 that such vessels lay their northern course in such fashion that they would enter our coastwise lanes at some point between Cape Canaveral and Hatteras, so timing their arrival at that point that they could proceed from Hatteras to New York by daylight. This would insure these independents of greater protection and enable Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier to have some foreknowledge of their sailing routes.
	On March 17, the Chief of Naval Operations accepted this recommendation in a dispatch to all merchant ships in the Atlantic.
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