An experiment in 199 m of water on the Orgeon shelf produced continuous current speed profiles down to the sediment-water interface. These profiles show that the velocity stucture above the viscous sublayer is consistent with that expected when form drag influences the boundary layer flow. They show two logarithmic-profile regions, each yielding a different stress estimate. The stress calculated from the upper one reflects the influence of form drag and is more than 4 times the bed stress determined from the shear in the viscous sublayer. When form drag is significant, the application of logarithmic profile or Reynolds stress techniques to measurements more than a few tens of centimeters from the bed may yield bed stress estimates inappropriate for use in near-bed sediment transport or entrainment calculations. Large roughness-length or drag-coefficient values do not prove that a viscous sublayer dose not exist.