The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-10-12
THE BOTTLES DRIFT TELLS
THEIR MOVEMENTS SHOW COURSE
OF OCEAN CURRENTs.
They Are Thrown Overheard and the
Places Where They Are Thrown
and Found Are RECONCILIATION the
United States Hydrophapic once
Gets Information

and Found Are RecOrded-HOw the
United States Hydrophapdc once
Gets Information.
A greater part of the knowledge which
the United States government possesses re-
garding ocean currents is obtained through
the medium of floating bottles, says the
New York Sun. These bottles. containing
printed slips issued by the United States
photographic Office are thrown overheard
each month by the captains or first officers
Of vessels leaving the fFarlous ports of
this and foreign countries. The slips are
printed with black lines for the insertion
Of the name of the vessel from which the
bottle was thrown, the dAfe and the exact
latitude and longitude. There are other
blank lines to be filed in with the name
bottle was found apd the date. On the
slips are printed the following directions
In six different languages:
''The finder of this will please send it to
any United tSates consul, or forward it
direct to the photographic Office, navy de-
partment, Washington, D. c." When the
slip is returned to the photographic Office
the locality in which it was thrown over
board and the place where it was picked up
are recorded. OF three or four bottles
thrown overheard in the same locality, say
Fire Island, are found on the coast of Ire
land, the photographic officers feel very safe
in assuming that a decided current sets in
that direction.
The government has been experimenting
with the floating bottles for several years.
and as result clear conception of the
drift currents in the North Atlantic ocean
has been obtained and the currents shown
in the regular government pilot charts are
entirely the result of Information obtained
by constant study of the courses taken
by the drifting bottles The mapping OF
drifts in other oceans has been deferred un-
til a sufficient number of slips shall have
accumulated to admit the construction of
fairly accurate charts.
The great trouble which the government
experienced when it first began the bot
tie paper system, as it is called, was the
lack of interest displayed by sea cap
talns in the experiment. The slips were
made up in pads Of SO and sent to the
shippers with the request that they fill out
the blank spaces, seal them up in bot
tie and throw them overheard. At first
the captains did not bother with the slips,
but finally when it became known that
several of the bottles thrown overheard in
midocean had been picked up off the Irish
coast, the captains began to prick up their
ears. And then, too, the government an
nounced that all captains who would agree
to through the bottle papers overheard
WOulu TSC6lV0 d uSW pllUL CudIL CdCu
month from the photographic Office. Skip
pers began to take an interest in the ex
pertinent, and now a number of captains
may be found in every port who would not
think of crossing the ocean without throw
ing from SO to 100 of the bottled slips
overheard.
The government does not furnish bot
ties with the slips and the captains invari-
ably use beer bottles. Numbers of these
bottles are undoubtedly lost each year
through collision with rocks, vessels and
derelicts and the government has decid-
ed to remedy this by providing small
wooden casks bound with iron. The first
batch of miniature casks is now in course
of construction and the photographic off,
GERS say that hey believe that twice as
many slips will be collected when the
casks are used.
In this work the United States HYDRO
graphic Office has enjoyed the voluntary
cooperation of the imperial Russian de-
partment of marine under direction of his
excellency, Vice Admiral Kaznakoff, I. r.
N. The duke of Edinburgh, during two
successive cruises-thea first from Cron-
stadt to the Windward island and return,
lasting from Sept. Z, 1897, to March 1.
1898, and the second from Cronstadt to
the Cape Verde islands, by way of the
Mediterranean sea and return, dating from
Aug. 20, 1898 to May II, 1899-threw over
7O3 bottles, of which 80 have already been
returned. 49, H.
An interesting drift was that of a bot
tie thrown overheard from the Hamburg
American line steamship Furst Bismarck,
on May 1, 1898, about $50 miles southeast
of Cape Race Some months later the
slip was received at Washington from the
American consul at Hamburg, who stated
that the bottle had been found on Aug. l,
1898, at Tuieleu Flieth, IN the vicinity of
Gluckstad, on the Elbe, Regarding the
drift of this bottle, the following state
ment was made on the photographic chart:
"The distance between, the point where
the bottle was thrown overheard and the
point where it was found, following the
direct route through the English channel,
is 24OO biles, giving 261 miles day as
the lowest average velocity with which the
bottle travelled eastward" This daily speed
is far in excess of any drift of which the
photographic has record. The next best
record is that attained by bottle thrown
overheard on Dec. 25, 1895, in latitude 46
degrees 20 minutes north, longitude A de-
grees, 40 minutes west, and recovered
March 20, 1896, in one of the Shetland ISL
ands. The daily drift was PIP miles.
The currents indicated by the drift of
bottles must not be confused with the
actual surface currents of the ocean. Sur
face currents are indicted by slip observa
tions. Surface currents are, OF course, gov
erned by the winds which are constantly
changing and which cause the surface cur
rents to change with them.
Despite these Irregularities however"
says the photographic Office record of the
bottle paper system, there is in all parts
of the ocean movement of the waters in a
fixed direction, this direction being govern
ed by the prevailing direction Of the wind.
In the lower depths of the ocean the move
ment is steady; at or near the surface it
fluctuates." These movements are known
as drift currents. Their effect is to produce
in the waters of the ocean a slow move
ment to leeward which continues until the
currents reach the shore Of some continent.
Such currents are very strong and are not
often detected by the wind. The Gulf
stream is an example of drift stream cur
rent.
AS q rule these bottles follow the drift
currents Through them the government
has learned that in the equatorial and
tropical regions the motion of the waters Is
westerly. This has been proved by the fact
that the bottles cast adrift between Madeira
and the Cape San Rogue find their way to
the Windward islands, the Bahamas or to
the western shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
North of points between New York and
Queenstown the general trend of the waters
is east to northeast Between the eQua-
torial and tropical portions of the Atlantic
lies debatable section. Numbers Of bot
ties are cast adrift here by vessels of all
kinds, but their recovery Is very rare. OF
the bottles thrown In this section of the
ocean, only six have been recovered since
1873. What has become Of them is a
mystery which the photographic office has
long endeavored to solve. Bottles thrown
overheard from 1876 vessels have been found
between July l, 1898, and July l, 1899, some
a