The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-02-15
Drifting Bottles ut Sea.

Ial ASSISTANCE ID hHOTueu Uy NUMEROUS
t shippers annually in the work of cur
emit investigation OF the North Atlantic
ocean. For years every mariner has
,pown that the ocean is as full OF cur
ents as any Western river, but the di-
ection they take and their general
orce have been problematical until the
imple method was adopted of deter
mining them by tossing bottles over
BOARD and trusting that they would be
picked up and the fact reported
20 the office here. These bottles may
be of any kind, and as many may
be thrown into the sea as any cap
lain wishes if he will see that record
is made of the location, date, and
month on a piece of paper securely
corked and sealed up 30 that salt water
cannot reach it
Six years ago the department began
it first experiments with drifting bot
ties to determine the direction and
strength of currents, and 30 successful
has the plan proved that it will now be
carried out more extensively. When |
first tried it was the departments in
tention to furnish peculiar variety OF |
bottle to vessels crossing the ocean,
with instructions when and where they !
were to be cast adrift, but this plan
vas abandoned on account OF the ex-
pense involved and lack of funds
available. The bottle was to have been
large affair, white, and constructed
so that it would float perpendicularly,
showing on its side number in black.
1t was believed such bottle would at
tract and cause shippers to pick it up,
va ra hn q
drift as shown from the time it was
last reported, and note the facts for
the photographic Office.
Now there are hundreds of bottles
annually thrown overheard from all
kinds of vessels, both American and
foreign, each having inside printed no.
tees in six languages asking the yes
sci picking it up to report to the de-
partment here the date and where
abouts in the ocean. Reports during
the last fiscal year, which have been
received and indexed, indicate that
valuable results are being obtained
and that the experts are learning much
in this primitive way about the cur
rents of the ocean.
The distance covered by some of the
bottles found and the average drift a
day are remarkable, and rank two bot
ties at least, almost with the record of
the famous derelict Fannie E. WolstOn,
which, during her career as an aban
doned ship covering a period of over
three years, cruised S,995 knots. The
bottle having the longest drift was re-
covered on March 20. 1898, having
sailed 400 knots since November 16,
1896, when it was thrown overheard
| During all this time the average num-
Der of knots covered a day was 8 s
Another bottle thrown overheard in
| September, 1894, and recovered May,
1897, had sailed 1880 knots, at an aver
age of As knots day.
The greatest record of all, however,
is that of bottle thrown over from the
steamer Sutherland, which drifted
1000 knots between March IL, 1897,
and September following, a period of
1S1 days, the average drift day being
% knots. Following close upon this
is the record of bottle tossed in the
sea from the bark Tinto Hilf. 1t drift.
and December ID following, Another
bottle in fifty-two days drifted 1000
miles, or an average OF 231 knots a
day, while one thrown overheard from
the ship Gulf of Lyons drifted 1000
miles in seventy-eight days, or an aver
age of 24.4 knots day. The greatest
drift a day is that recorded of the bottle
thrown from the steamship Prince Fred
erik Hendrix on May last and recov-
cred on May ID, having drifted in six
days 100 miles at an average of 31.7
knots day.
Out in the Pacific, where the exper-
iments are being conducted also, the
bottles are not reported 80 often owing
to the light commerce compared with
that of the Atlantic and the euoim nous
number of miles between shores. One
bottle picked up out there covered
a 900 miles, however, in less than one
year and another the same distance in
459 days, the averages being II and
81 knots day. Eleven hundred miles
were covered in forty.two DAYS by one
bottle at an average rate OF 26 2 knots
day.
Certain of the bottles recovered ple-
sent interesting particulars. One that
was cast overheard off Nantucket
Shoal was recovered near Campbt ltcn,
on the coast of Kintyr,, Areyl $ vi ire,
oSOuhhu, ailoi iupoo VI olG uhyS.
The great circles distance between
these places is 2,2S7 nautical miles, Civ
ing an average daily velocity of l
miles. There is close comparison
between the trip of this bottle and that
of the one cast overheard off Cape Cod
and recovered on the coast of Cornwall
the distance trsversed being the same
as in the previous case, and the inter-
val 600 days, the average daily velocity
being A miles day.
Another interesting group of bottles
consists of three, all thrown overheard
from the steamer Dago, Captain Scrog-
gle, on the same day and hour, in lati-
tude 500 north, longitude 410 west, and
all recovered after a drift of 1900
miles, within short distance of each
other, and during the same week. The
fact that these bottles were recovered
at approximately the same time would
indicate that they were picked up
shortly after landing, in which case the
mean of the three would furnish a good