"We generally think maritime use of the waterfront is good.
Jerry Armer, chairman of Community Board 6, said it was important that the site continue its maritime use.
The Cormorant model is designed for military and commercial maritime uses.
Many community development advocates also say they fear officials are insufficiently committed to promoting maritime uses for the piers.
"There's a mile or more of waterfront property that, depending on the whims of elected officials, might be taken out of maritime use," Mr. Hughes said.
The others are Emergency Position Indicating Response Beacons, or E.P.I.R.B.'s, for maritime use, and Personal Locator Beacons, or P.L.B.'s, which can used only by government or military personnel or in Alaska.
Mr. Catucci is more worried about the fact that the Port Authority has refused to extend his lease beyond 2004, while the city engages in a study about maritime uses on the Brooklyn waterfront.
In spite of the rapid and widespread developments then taking place in radio and its applications to maritime use, Marconi's intuition and urge to experiment were by no means exhausted.
Brent Warr, who became Gulfport's mayor just months before the storm, called the port expansion "an incredible opportunity for the city," and said he had been assured that the new facilities would be devoted to maritime use, not to gambling and cruise ships.
The Bloomberg administration had long wanted to oust American Stevedoring and redevelop the Brooklyn waterfront with distributors, restaurants, luxury housing, marinas and other maritime uses, saying that most of the cargo should have been unloaded in the Port Authority's bigger port, in New Jersey.
