The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-06
Seeking the Reed Rocks.
M ANY interesting discoveries are
IVA ing made, much data of scienti

deepest mysteries of old ocean investi-
gated, in the laying out of a new track
for ships across the Pacific.
This work is being carried on under the
direction of the photographic Office of
the Navy, of which Captain c. c. Todd
is in charge.
Strange as it seems to the landlubber,
the shortest route from San Francisco
to China, Japan and the Philippines is
not via Honolulu and following what
would be straight line on our maps.
The shortest route is by way of Alaska
,skirting the islands of Behrng Sea and
the Siberian coast, and thence down
through the Japanese archipelago to Ma
gasaki, Hongkong and Manila.
| This is what is called the great circle
route. That il is shorter is accounted for
by the fact that the earth is spherical,
and that it is not more than one-third
as far around in latitude go degrees north
/ as it is at the equator, figuring the dis
lance east and west Qonsitude).
Our growing trade with the Orient, the
great number of our transports and mer-
chant vessels crossing the Pacific, has
made i necessary for the Government
to undertake the laying out of regular
! steamship lanes similar to those fol-
lowed by the great liners in crossing the
Atlantic.
The northern route is not so we'll
known and the dangers to navigation
there We're so many and SO little under
stood that the photographic Office under
took to locate them carefully and pre-
pare new charts for the route
j A number of vessels have been employ
ed in this survey work, among them the
Solace, Albatross and Wheeling. Many
of the dangers reported have been shown
not to exist, and now the Wheeling has
gone out to solve the greatest of the
mysteries of this great ocean. What is
apparently a part of the sea where the
ocean floor ordinarily from one to
five miles below the surface, is occasion
ally through volcanic disturbance, forced
up until it becomes dry land.
A sharp lookout is being kept for the
great Pacific sea serpent and before this
delving into oceanic mysteries is COM
pieted, the men of the Wheeling hope to
tow into port good specimen of the spe-
cies, with the Stars and Stripes flying
from the highest peak of its corrugated
, back.
The gunboat Wheeling has sailed from
the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo,
Cal, to clear up, if possible, one of the
mysteries of the Pacific. She goes il
search of the famous Reed Rocks
These Islands have deceived navigation
for years, like the pea in the three
shell game" sometimes they are there
and sometimes they are not. Sometimes
, another.
Whether they really exist at all is a
4 question. If they. do they are a serious
menace to our growing commerce on the
> Pacific, being directly in the path of our
: transports and merchant ships from Sar
: Francisco to China, Japan and the Phil
J, ippines.
. If they do not exist except in the dis
. ordered imagina ton of the navigators
who assert that they have seen them
the Government would like to know it.
: and so would all the honest mariners
who ply the great Pacific ocean.
The Government charts show the
: Reed Rocks to be located about 60t
4 miles west of the California coast, theil
position being 81 degrees, % minutes
north latitude, and 1877 degrees % minutes
west longitude
Scores of merchant captains tell OF
having seen these rocks, some having
: spent days in cruising about them. Five
: apparently careful and reliable sh1pmas-
), tiers report having examined them III
their ships boats Their description OF
the rocks all agree.
Yet no government vessel mas ever
been able to find them. Surveying YES
sells have spent weeks in securing tha'
part of the ocean in search OF them, pu'
hot a trace of the famous rocks couio
be found.
!, ment has been trying to solve TINS mys
y terry.
Il Repeated castings show deep water, the
shalloWest part of the ocean tnereapou.s
. being 2,700 fathoms.
: The only plausible explanation advanc
u ed is that an area of volcanic disturb
ance exists-that a submarine volcano
$ occasionally rears it's crest above the
t, surface of the ocean. cools off, leaving
Jagged rocks projecting above the water
! then recedes again to the ocean oed.
! IF this be the true explanation, TN
o Wheeling's only chance or hndlhg th
IS rocks is to reach tn dreeetaoinshrdiu'
:, rocks is TO reach there during OF Jus Jus
q after one of the periods of volcanic ais
> turbance. e,.,,,a,
y 1909 But a month earlier a Government
/ vessel failed to find them
~ The return of the Wheeling viii
4: awaited with much interest. Commando
q A. r. Couden has received orders
:. spare no pains to make ms searcn
re thorough one and its results conciusiV'
A. In other words he has been ordered
Id CAV this ghost of the Pacific once fc
IN all If he reports that there are y
he .Reed Rocks they will no longer
ne marked on the Government charts.
a' The Government survey vessel ADD
: tross. which recently did work in iaylI
~ ont a steamship lane by the nor n
al or Great Circle route across the Pacin
a. looked for these rocks. Commander
F. Moser reported that no such roci
GO existed and was very positive in ms DE
i'll laration.
80 - can't. Todd. chief of the Hydrograph
va Office Of the Navy, says:
~. my only explanation of this myste'
-. is that the rocks are taken from the su
ba face of the sea and then brought
~ view again by frequent volcanoes
~ "a Another mystery of the sea Is the T
n cent disappearance of another mena
"a "a m navigation on the same trans-Pacil
~ o,,te This is the famous Behr roc
~ about the existence of which there ri
IN never been the slightest doubt expires
of ed until now.
% % It has figured on the charts ever sin
DC IT'S discovery by the master OF the Au
~ sja~ bark Rehring. after which Vessei