Russell and MacMillan – Waves and Tides

Preface

Characteristics of waves by Robert Christopher Hamlyn Russell and Cdr. Donald Henry Macmillan, Illustrated with over 100 line drawings and 17 photographs and a Foreword by Herbert Chatley

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Greenwood Press; New ed of 1953 ed edition (1 Jan. 1952)

Prior to Waves and Tides, other than H. Thorade (1931) book which was written for those of us who are competent in mathematics and interested in the sea there was no definitive works on waves and tides, which shows that there has been something revolutionary in the subject.

Waves and tides are the main concern of the mariner, the harbour authority, the fisherman and the holiday-maker today, as they have ever been.  They determine the design of ships, the siting of docks and harbours and tactics, and even strategy, in war.   Waves are a controlling factor in our maritime structures, whether floating or fixed, and it is often overlooked that the master of a sailing-ship in the twentieth century—as in the  remote past—has, in  his Narrow Seas navigation and pilotage, to consider tides at least as carefully as waves.   Strangely enough, it does not appear to have previously occurred to anyone that these important subjects should be treated together, in one book.  There have been several books about waves, though most of them were written before waves were a subject for serious scientific research as they are now, and there is the Admiralty Manual of Tides which is hardly intended or the ordinary user or victim.  There are books on meteorology, but few deal with the  connection between weather forecasting and ocean phenomena, a comparatively new sphere of investigation that  is already promising results of real practical value.  It is hoped that this book will help to make good an admitted deficiency in a way understandable to all who are  seriously interested whether for business or pleasure.

Technical terms have constituted a very real difficulty throughout the book, especially as it is written in two parts, each devoted to its own subject.  To overcome the difficulty, such terms, both specialised words and words used in specialized senses, have been incorporated in  the  Index-Glossary at the end of the book wherever necessary so that this constitutes, not only an index but a key to terminology.