each is plotted. The force of wind is indicated in a general way by the
number of feathers on the arrows, according to the scale given in the
following table:
PLOTTED ON | FORCE, BY SCALES IN PRACTICAL USE.
CHART. | 0-12 | 0-10 | 0-8 | 0-7 | 0-6
-------------+-------+-------+------+------+------
O Calm. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
Feathers 1 | 1- 2 | 1- 2 | 1 | 1-2 | 1
" 2 | 3- 4 | 3- 4 | 2 | 3-4 | 2
" 3 | 5- 7 | 5- 6 | 3-4 | 5 | 3
" 4 | 8-10 | 7- 8 | 5-6 | 6 | 4-5
" 5 | 11-12 | 9-10 | 7-8 | 7 | 6
-------------+-------+-------+------+------+------
PLOTTED ON | POUNDS PER | MILES PER | KILOMETERS | METERS PER
CHART. | SQUARE FOOT. | HOUR. | PER HOUR. | SECOND.
-----------+--------------+-------------+-------------+-----------
O Calm. | 0. | 0. | 0. | 0.
Feath. 1 | 0. - .40 | 0. - 9. | 0. - 14.4 | 0. - 4.
" 2 | 0.41- 2.53 | 9.1-22.5 | 14.5- 36.2 | 4.1-10.1
" 3 | 2.54- 8.20 | 22.6-40.5 | 36.3- 65.2 | 10.2-18.1
" 4 | 8.21-22.90 | 40.6-67.5 | 65.3-108.7 | 18.2-30.1
" 5 | 22.91 and | 67.6 and | 108.8 and | 30.2 and
| over. | over. | over. | over.
-----------+--------------+-------------+-------------+-----------
It will be noticed that the Beaufort scale (0-12), in general use at
sea, has been converted into the international scale (0-10) for the
sake of clearness in plotting data on the chart. The absence of arrows
over large areas indicates absence of simultaneous data; at sea,
however, this has been partly compensated for in the construction of
the chart by information obtained from journals and special storm
reports of vessels in the vicinity.]
[Illustration: TRACK CHART.
Positions of the trough of low barometer and tracks of vessels, March
11-14, 1888.
Positions at 7 A.M. (Greenwich noon) are indicated on the chart by a
point; at noon, ship's time, by a small circle.
Black.--The line of dashes indicates the position of the trough of low
barometer, or the line of sudden change from easterly to westerly
winds, with brief intervals of calm, shifts of wind in heavy squalls of
rain or snow, colder, and, finally, clearing weather.
Red.--Positions and names of land stations and names and tracks of
vessels plotted in red are those whose barometer curves are shown in
the accompanying Barometer Diagram.
Blue.--The tracks of certain other vessels from which storm reports
have been received are plotted in blue. In addition to these, however,
storm reports have been received from the following vessels, omitted
from the chart in order to avoid confusion:
_Transatlantic steamships, westward bound:_ Glendevon, Lydian Monarch,
St. Ronans, Werra.
_Coasting steamships, bound south:_ El Monte, Morgan City, New Orleans.
_Bound north:_ Newport.
_Sailing vessels off the coast from Montauk point to cape Cañaveral:_
Spartan, Charles H. Marshall, Caprice, Coryphene, Phebe, Isaac Orbeton,
John H. Krantz, Arcot, Iroquois, Welaka, Serene, Warren B. Potter,
Normandy, Lottie Stewart, Melissa Trask, Wilhelm Birkedal, Johanna,
James S. Stone, Anita.]
[Illustration: BAROMETER DIAGRAM.
Illustrating the fluctuations of the barometer from noon, March 11, to
noon, March 14 (75th meridian time).
Barometer Curves.--As it is only practicable to illustrate graphically
the barometer records of a few vessels and land stations, the following
have been selected as being of special interest; the small circles mark
the points of observation:
SIGNAL STATIONS. VESSELS.
Norfolk. British steamship Andes.
Hatteras. American schooner Kensett.
Atlantic City. British steamship Lord Clive.
New York. American schooner Lida Fowler.
Block Island. American schooner George Walker.
Nantucket. British steamship Serapis.
Yarmouth, N. S. British ship Glenburn.
Barometer Normal.--The barometer normal for the 5°-square from latitude
35° to 40° N., longitude 65° to 70° W., assumed for the present purpose
as the normal for the entire area, is 29.98, and is indicated by the
blue line on the diagram.
The positions of the above-mentioned signal-stations and the tracks of
these seven vessels are all indicated in red on the accompanying Track
Chart. This diagram should therefore be studied in connection with the
chart, in order to form a clear idea of the general eastward movement
of the trough of low barometer, and the accompanying rapid deepening of
the depression upon reaching the coast.]
THE SURVEY OF THE COAST.
BY HERBERT G. OGDEN.
At the inception of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the early years of
the century, so little was known of the dangers attending navigation
along our extensive seaboard, that those who engaged in commercial
enterprises were constrained to rely upon local knowledge and the
reports of the hardy navigators who might carry their ventures to
success. The charts available were by no means a sure reliance, and it
has since been shown, contained many serious errors. The great
headlands and outlying shoals that present the greatest obstacles to
the safety of coastwise navigation, had not been carefully surveyed,
and their relative positions to one another were only approximately
determined.
The capacities of the harbors had not been ascertained, many were
unknown; and even at the great port of New York, the Gedney or Main
channel, was not developed until after the permanent establishment of
the Survey in 1832, and the thorough exploration of the entrance was
undertaken. A list of the sunken dangers and new channels that have
been discovered during the progress of the work would fill pages. It is
true such developments were to be expected in making a precise survey
of the comparatively uncharted coast; but they, nevertheless, clearly
point to the necessity of the work. We may also assume that the men who
were controlling the destinies of the republic, realized that a
knowledge of the coast was essential if they would succeed in building
up a commerce, without which it was believed the prosperity of the
people could not be assured. The deep draught vessels of the present
day could not have traded along our shores on any margin of safety with
the little that was known, and it is largely due to the perfect
charting of the coast, that commercial enterprise has found it
practicable to build the larger vessels of modern type to meet the
increasing demands of trade.
The survey proposed was also required in providing for the public
defence; as it is a self-evident proposition, that if we would protect
a harbor from a hostile fleet, we must know not only the channels by
which the fleet might enter, but their relations to each other and the
points of vantage that should be utilized in obstructing them; and in
modern warfare to know these things only approximately will not
suffice, for precision is practiced now in the art of war, as well as
in the arts of peace.
The lack of charts of our extensive Coast line, or indeed, of any
practical information that could be utilized in a systematic defence
against foreign aggression, was only one of the many perplexities that
surrounded our forefathers in building the nation. By their valor they
had wrested a jewel from the British Crown, and had inaugurated a
system of government by the people, which on their sacred honors they
had sworn to defend. But not a generation had passed away when they saw
new dangers, and were forced to contemplate again taking up arms in
defence of their rights. The land was theirs, even far towards the
setting sun, pioneers had explored it, and they knew whence might come
a hostile foe. But of the waters from far away to the eastward, that
flowed on until they washed every shore and filled the great Bays, even
to the heart of the Republic, they knew little, save that over that
almost immeasurable expanse might come the fleet of destroyers to
penetrate they knew not where, and inflict incalculable damage months
ere the dreary tales might be told. It must be remembered there were no
telegraphs, no railroads, no steamboats, in those days, and time taken
by the forelock was time gained. The speed of man could not be
overtaken as we see it to-day in the wondrous inventions of the last
generations. Each community was dependent upon itself, alone, in time
of danger, to ward off the blow or yield to a more powerful foe;
assistance could hardly be obtained in months and perhaps not then. It
was not possible for any man to study or to learn the points of danger,
and prepare a system of defence.
President Jefferson in his far-seeing statesmanship, threatened with
war, realized the danger. A survey of the coast he believed essential
to the national defence, and to the prosperity of the nation in time of
peace. Had his wise counsels prevailed and the survey been prosecuted
with vigor, instead of being almost immediately suspended for a quarter
of a century, there can be no question but that it would have saved the
people millions of dollars in expenditures and put other untold
millions into their coffers, through the impetus it would have given to
commerce years before commerce actually had a name in many that are now
thriving seaport towns.
But it is not to be supposed the commercial importance of a knowledge
of the coast and harbors was underrated because the Survey was not
prosecuted. The people were poor, the task would be expensive and
laborious. The appliances for the work were not in the possession of
the Government, and above all, war came sooner than was anticipated and
the energies of the people were taxed to the utmost in combat with
their powerful foe; and when peace came again, there was the inevitable
commercial depression that follows a resort to arms. The men of the day
fully realized how illy they were prepared to invite commerce to our
shores, or incite our own people to more extensive trade. There was
nothing to adequately represent those magnificent harbors that have
since become famous the world over; nor of that long line of coast with
its treacherous shoals, whereby those seeking new ventures might judge
of the dangers to be encountered. The absolute ignorance that existed
was aptly described in the Albany Argus in 1832, when the propriety of
reviving the act of 1807 was under discussion, as follows:
"It had been discovered by an American statesman that parent countries
always keep the commercial knowledge of their colonies as a
leading-string in their own hands, and that as practical navigators,
American seamen knew less of their own shores than the country and its
allies from whose subjection we had recently delivered ourselves by
force of arms. In large vessels, three nations, the Dutch, the French,
and the English, approached our harbors with less risk than those
bearing our own flag; at the same time that in small and more
manageable vessels, we had long been known as a match for the
strongest. The president, Jefferson, saw the defect and the manner in
which it must be remedied. We were at that time on the brink of war,
about whose justice some of our politicians differed in opinion and it
was, of course, more necessary to pray for a fortunate result than to
preach the causes which had occasioned the quarrel. To have procured
for the nation (even had it been practicable so to do) the old charts
from the Dutch, French, and English governments, would have only been
to put our knowledge on a par with theirs, while to execute more recent
and accurate surveys, was advancing the new country above the old. With
the clear and bold perception, which always distinguishes men of genius
when they are entrusted in times of danger with the destinies of a
nation, the president recommended a survey of the whole coast with all
the aid of the more recent discoveries of science."
The proposed survey was strongly advocated by President Jefferson, and
the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin, and in February, 1807,
Congress passed the first act providing for the work. Thirteen separate
plans, or schemes, were submitted for consideration; among the number
was one by Professor F. R. Hassler, which was finally adopted, and
Professor Hassler was appointed the first superintendent. It is not
necessary to dwell, in detail, upon the varying fortunes of the survey
during the three-quarters of a century that have passed since the
original act authorizing it. The first thirty years of experiment,
before it was finally established as a bureau of the Treasury
Department, show only too clearly the ignorance and prejudice against
which the supporters--we may say founders--of the survey had to
contend. But they had only the experience of all men who attempt the
inauguration of new things of which it cannot be shown that they will
return a cash profit at the end of six months. To the opponents of the
measure cash could not be seen at all, and the profit, whatever it
should be, was only an intangible kind of benefit to be realized in the
future by additional security to their property and commerce; but, in
reality, as has since been appreciated, the direct saving of many
millions of dollars annually.
The war of 1812 interrupted Professor Hassler's labors and it was not
until 1817 that he actually commenced work; but he was stopped the next
year by a limitation of the law requiring the work to be performed by
the Military Departments. In 1832 Congress passed a special act
reviving the law of 1807 and Professor Hassler was again appointed
Superintendent. A further interruption occurred in 1834 by the transfer
of the bureau to the Navy Department, but this was of short duration,
as it was re-transferred to the Treasury Department in 1836, where it
has since remained. Professor Hassler continued as Superintendent until
his death in November, 1843. He was succeeded by Professor A. D. Bache,
who was fortunate in assuming the charge under much more favorable
auspices than had prevailed under his predecessor.
By the appropriation bill passed in March, 1843, the President was
directed to appoint a Commission to reorganize the Bureau and prescribe
methods for its future conduct. The plan recommended by the Commission
was substantially that which had been followed by Professor Hassler. It
was approved by the President a few months before Professor Bache
assumed the superintendency and has since been the law for the
execution of the work. To have a law specifying in detail the methods
that should be employed in prosecuting the surveys, that had been drawn
by a special commission of experts and approved by the administration,
relieved the Superintendent of much of the responsibility that had been
borne by Professor Hassler, although it did not put an end to the
carpings of the critics, or their advocacy of the less expensive
"nautical surveys."
The reorganization provided for the employment of civilians and
officers of the Army and Navy to serve directly under instructions from
the Superintendent; thus securing for the service the opportunity to
procure the best talent from either civil or military life. The civil
element, it was assumed, would form a body of experts for the
prosecution of those branches of the work not properly falling in the
direct line of the military, and experience has demonstrated that while
the results anticipated have been fully realized, the organization has
not only proved effective but conducive to the advancement of the
survey in many ways. The Civil War was a serious interruption, but
alone, proved the wisdom of the civil organization of the Bureau. On
the outbreak of hostilities the military element was necessarily
withdrawn for duty with the Army and Navy; and it was not until ten
years after the close of the war that officers of the Navy were again
available, while officers of the Army, through the exigencies of the
Military service, have not returned at all.
The organization was preserved through these fifteen years by the
permanent civil nucleus, and the work suffered no deterioration, but
steadily advanced, notwithstanding that the larger number of the
civilians were constantly employed during the four years of the war
with the Armies and Navy, in different capacities on the staffs of
commanding officers; and that the urgent necessities of the government
devolved additional labor, and temporarily, a new class of work upon
the office force in compiling, draughting and publishing maps of the
interior for the use of the Armies in the field. And when finally, our
Armies were disbanded and our fleets reduced to a peace basis, and
officers of the Navy resumed the execution of the Hydrographic work, it
was but to step into the duties of their predecessors; they had, too,
the additional advantage of the fifteen years' experience of the purely
civil administration of the Survey, during which time the trained
surveyors of the land had become equally expert as surveyors of the
water, and had added not a little to the improvement of Hydrographic
methods. The History of the Survey shows a steady advance in methods of
work from its foundation to the present day. But so equally has the
march of improvement been due to the zeal and untiring efforts of the
civilians and officers of the Army and Navy alike, that any distinction
would be invidious.
The plan of reorganization of 1843 provided for a detailed survey of
precision. It was to be based on an exact triangulation that would
insure positive results, that the location of a danger or the
development of a new channel, should be beyond doubt; and that the
survey, when completed, should fit together as one continuous line, in
which the distance and direction of any object on the map from any
other object should be true, whether the objects were in hailing
distance of one another, or at the extremes of our boundaries. So well
was the scheme conceived, so perfect has it proved in operation, that
it is substantially the guide for the closing labors of the great work,
notwithstanding the many improvements that experience has wrought in
the details.
Those engaged upon the Survey have been quick to profit by experience,
and the master mind of Professor Bache, the second Superintendent, was
not slow to adopt that which promised increased economy, rapidity or
improvement. He drew from all sources, Science contributed her quota
and the great inventive genius of the American people played an equal
share in producing the final results.
The researches that were necessary to obtain the information required
by law "for completing an accurate chart of every part of the coasts,"
have produced results of great economic and scientific value to the
whole people, aside from their bearing on the interests of commerce and
navigation; and which will contribute to the welfare of mankind long
years after those who labored for them have passed away. A brief
reference to a few of the many instances that might be cited to
illustrate this perpetual influence to benefit our fellow men, may not
be without interest to some of you present.
The application of the method of determining latitude by the
measurement of small zenith distances, introduced by Captain Andrew
Talcott of the Engineer Corps, U. S. A., while serving as an Assistant
on the Survey, developed such radical errors in the star places given
in the catalogues, that it led to an almost immediate call for better
places, and arrangements were made with the observatories of the
country to obtain the necessary observations, the Survey to pay for the
labor involved. Stimulated by the knowledge that better work was
required to meet the new demand, observatories deficient in instruments
procured new ones, and soon furnished more accurate star places.
Continued observation has added still further improvement until to-day
we have catalogues that furnish the highest degree of precision.
Professor Chauvenet defines "Talcott's method" as "one of the most
valuable improvements in practical astronomy of recent years,
surpassing all previous known methods (not excepting that of Bessel by
prime vertical transits) both in simplicity and accuracy." But the
advantages of the method have been found to be of a practical nature
also; as it is productive of large economy in time and labor and has
reduced the cost of the Survey many thousands of dollars.
The introduction of the Electric Telegraph was utilized by the Survey
immediately on the practical accomplishment of the first line built, as
a ready and improved means for determining longitude. Indeed, before
Professor Morse had demonstrated to the world the truthfulness of his
theories and experiments, the bare possibility of their success, and
availability in the instant transmission of time, had been discussed on
the Coast Survey, and the method to be first employed fully considered.
But as in the application of all things under new conditions,
experience is the teacher, and improvements were frequently made, until
finally the invention and perfection of the "chronograph" has brought
the method to a degree of precision that little more can be looked for.
This method of determining longitude, introduced, fostered and
perfected on the Coast Survey, has been more far reaching than
geographical boundaries. All civilized nations have adopted it as the
"American Method," and by the greater accuracy and reliability of the
results the whole world has profited. The saving that has accrued by
the more perfect determination of longitudes and the consequent
increased safety to commerce, may be counted by millions every year;
until one stands aghast in contemplation of the immensity of the sum,
and fears to reckon it, even approximately, much less to prophecy what
it may reach in the future. The system is but a natural sequence of the
development of the telegraph, but emphasizes in a marked degree the
spirit of progress that has ever been the active principle and guide in
the conduct of the work, and advanced its methods to a state of
perfection that has called forth the admiration of the scientific
world.
The determination of the magnetic elements has been a subject of
investigation from the early days of the survey; the knowledge sought
was essential to the navigator, and in recent years, especially, has
proved to be of the greatest practical value on shore. Limited by small
appropriations the research was at first slow. But a trust fund left by
Professor Bache, who always evinced the warmest interest in this
particular investigation, added largely to the rapidity with which
observations could be obtained, until now we have magnetic maps of the
United States of such reasonable precision that they are authoritative,
and are in almost daily demand. The results are more far reaching than
their mere tabulation for the current year, as laws have been
determined by which the declination in a locality can be ascertained
for any year in the past.