The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-19
GREAT AID
TO SAILORS
Bottles Cast Adrift In
Mid-0cean.
USED TO MAKE CHARTS
photographic Office Records--One
Bottle Which Drifted $500
Miles.

| nCCAS1oNALLY there may be Seen
on the ocean a solitary bottle bob.
bling up serenity between the
waves far away in mid-ocean. Some
times the bottle is recovered, and NAV
De found to contain message to be de-
ihVefeo TO some particular address, or
else 1t may hold a piece of paper in
scribed with the date and location of its
consignment to the waters, thus indicat-
ing perhaps that it was "at sea-, for
many months, if not years, and had drift
I ed thousands of miles.
Now. although it is true that the vow.
aging bottles picked up at sea are. in
some eases, merely the victims of the
caprice OF .leisurely tourists, vet these
l t messengers have in past years
oeen used, and are at the present mo-
Ement being employed, for the purpose of
establishing IN the most simple yet most
effective manner absolutely reliable in
formation In regard to oceanic cireula-
tien indeed, it is fascinating to trace
Just now the ingenuity of man has been
able, by means of most prosaic article
Oh daily use, to explore, in the interests
or mariners, the more hidden paths In
the great desert of water
HALF century ago Commander Bech-
er OF the British navy conceived thu
idea of making the Nautical Magazine,
lof his day the vehicle for a systema tic
record of Interesting bottle voyages. He
appreciated the fact that every such rec
ORD was subject to possible calamities.
for 1t is certain that if a bottle be not
well corked and sealed, water will enter.
ana both bottle and paper viii go to the
bottom; that, if it should chance to
strike against a rock its fate will be
equally disastrous; and that. if it floats
TO some shore, it may escape human OBJ
serVa ton Tor year or more, or maybe
forever But he argued that some good
might result by collecting papers which
had or might come to hand, and SO he
carried out his plan in an ingenious man
ner. He confined his attention to por-
ton of the Atlantic Ocean, and laid down
chart on Mercators Projection, ex-
tending from six degrees South latitude
to sixty-three degrees north latitude, and
from the coasts of Europe and Africa on
the east to those of North and South
America on the west 1t stands to rea-
son, of course, that this old chart did not
afford the same detailed and reliable in
formation as to the varying effects of
currents and winds which will be found
to be conveyed by the present scientif-
cally and deliberately prepared bottle
Office; but, nevertheless, Commander
Becher's Investigations indicated genert
ally that some of the floating bottles
displayed a tendency from east to west;
others a leaning from west to east; and
each was a member of a group pref
ty constant in its travelling characters
tics. Altogether, the uniformity in the
direction of the courses of the bottles
between, the points of departure and arr
rival was found to be very remarkable,S
making all due allowance, of course, for
some of the bottle voyages which were
thought to be too capricious to render
much scientific service, but which, in
reality were not caprieious at all, and
depended on physical causes not suffi-
GENTLY well understood at that time One
hundred and nineteen bottles hieeeheir
voyages recorded in this way. Four of
them We're found to have drifted 2e2O,
Z, &C., 1900 and $500 miles; while among
the more interesting occurrences noted
we find that. of two bottles cast out
rom the Blonde, in 1926, within five days
of each other, one was espied fourteen
and the other sixteen years afterwards
at the same spot on the French coast.
Coming to more recent times, il af-
fords US considerable satisfaction to re-
cord that, in this particular method of
Investigating oceanic circulation, the
Office at Washington, D. !
Of preparing special and reliable charts |
and indicating thereon with scientific ex- /
actitude the most recent accesSions to |
our knowledge of oceanic currents and |
winds obtained through floating bottles. |
Through the kindness and courtesy of |
the photographer, United States Navy |
Department, l have had placed at my |
disposal copies of the latest publications |
bearing upon this Subject-namely,
charts under date June, 1895. January,
S96, August, 1895, and July, 1897: and 1t
8 with these that l purpose now to
ieaI.
1 shall probably render my remarks
more Ineligible if L omit ali reference
% latitude and longitude, and just say
hat each chart to hand embraces, TO
he north, portion of Greenland; to the
vest, a large section of North America,
I'll Central America, and a part of South
America; and to the east, a considerable
lection Of Europe and northern and
western Africa, the waters of the North
Atlantic circulating. of course, more or
ess between these boundaries. The
harts represent the drift In the North
Atlantic Ocean as indicated by those bot
le-papers returned to the United States
photographic Office between 1867, a
tar marking the spot where the bottle
vas cast overheard, and a circle the
Joint at which it was recovered, the
inc Joining these being drawn, in the
majority of cases, as nearly straight as
bodies of land will permit,
md, in the remainder. conforming to
ONE extent with the well-established re-
ults of current observations.
The first remarkable fact we gather
rom a study of the 293 bottle voyages
'efore us is that where several bottles
ave been set afloat in one and the same
esion they have, with few exceptions, ;
rifted along one and the same path. !
again, we learn that, starting from a j
,oint to the southwark of the Grand
3anks of Newfoundland, the outer edge !
4 the vast circulating system of waters
MOUNTS towards the northeast as far as
he ffty-first parallel of latitude, there :
easterly: that northwest of the :
azores a portion of the current again ,
axes a northeasterly direction, which !
helps to land. some Of the bot r
les upon the coasts OF Norway and !
that the main body of the drift, :
rossing the meridian OF twenty degrees ;
etween forty and fifty degrees north
attitude, turns to the southwark and
araliels the shores of Europe and Afri-
a until the latitude of the Canaries is y
cached, experiencing on its way south i
slight deviation towards the Straits of I :