Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-09-23
FORCE OF OCEAN CURRENTS.
Interesting Experiments by the Ma
val HydroUraphic Office.

val taiurO1fu pIit ouutt'
Washington, Aug. 3l.-The naval
photographic Office has prepared an
interesting account of the operations
of the so-called bottle fleet" during
the last year. There is no way of as
certaining the exact number of bot
ties cast adrift during that period, but
it is thought to be a thousand or more,
thus showing that only n comparative
~ small percentage of those released
are recovered. \ great majority of
those that were picked up and sent
back to Washington were found On
the coasts bordering the Atlantic. This
undoubtedly was the result of the bot
ties being thrown overheard in the
Atlantic by captains leaving ports III
this country.
The map prepared by the hydro
graphic Office shows that with one or
two exceptions all bottles east adrift
i'm the Atlantic between Florida and
Halifax, within a few hundred miles
Of the coast, took n northwesterly
course, winding up Oh the English or
French coast.
The most remarkable drift of these
bottles in recent years occurred last
fall. A messenger, known officially on
the chart Of the department as No. 26,
was thrown overheard from the Ham
burg-American liner First Bismarck
on May /, 1898, about $50 miles south
west of Cape Race and recovered, ac-
cording to the letter of transmittal
from the United States consul at Ham
burg on August /, 1898, in the vicinity
Of Gluckstadt, on the Elbe. The dis
lance Travelled is 2,400 miles, and as the
bottle was at sea ninety-two days this
gives it a daily average Of twenty-siX
miles. This is far in excess of any
similar drift hitherto reported to the
photographic Office, the nearest APP
proach to it being a daily average of
twenty-onc miles, which was attained
by a bottle thrown overheard on De-
cember 25, 1895, about 200 miles from
the point at which No. 26 was dropped
into the sea, and recovered on March
%, 1896, on one of the Shetland ISL
ands. One of the bottles recovered
last year had been ahoat since October
Is, 1893, while another. also recovered
last year, had been drifting since Au-
gust, 1894, having covered 1900 mile
at All dNNldEN " III hlllN ~ '''N
In the early history Of the investiga-
ton of ocean currents by this system
a bottle was known to remain af1oat
for ten years. This is the most re-
markable achievement OF this kind on
record.
Occasionally bottles are fished out
of mid-ocean, the discoveries some
times thinking that they may contain
messages from persons in distress. An
examination of the various drifts of
bottles last year shows that near the
equator the velocity of the ocean cur
rents is much greater than in higher
ATTITUDES.
Instances are on record of a bottle
having moved thousands of miles in
opposition to the direction Of the pre-
vailing wind. No cases, however, have
been reported to the photographic Of
flee of bottles proceeding in OPPOSE
ton to the direction of the current,
so it would seem that the theory that
the force of the currents is stronger
than that of the wind is the right one.
1t is no unusual thing for Il bottle
TO make a complete circuit of an ocean.
One dropped overheard in the vicinity
of Cape Verde Islands could do th,-
by crossing the Atlantic. entering the
Gulf of Mexico by the Strait of luca-
tan, emerging again through the
Strait of Florida, thence drifting
northward and eastward of the gulf
stream to the neighborhood of the
Azores and then back again to its
starting point in the Cape Verde ISL
ands. The length Of time occupied in
a drifting voyage of this character
could hardly be less than two years,
covering in the round trip about l2,'
oo0 miles.