The Washington herald., 1910-02-21
WEATHER man HIT
Sea Captain RapS Hard in
Protest Against Moore.
REGISTERS KICK TO TAWNEY
one-time Cabin Boy and Later Com
maRder Of Ocean Sailing Freight
er, Declares Weather Bureau PeO-
pie Don't Know FOrepeak from
MizEenhatch-Not Send Pilot Charts.

In just a day or two Willis Moore will
know his fate.
Mr. Moore, who is Chief Of the Weather
Bureau. and the vital spark of the Ma
tional Geographic Society. has been maxi
ing a gallant fight to induce the House
Appropriations Committee 10 turn down
the photographic Office OF the Navy De-
partment and authorize the Weather Bu-
reau to get out the governments monthly
pilot charts. The committee. which has
been bOmbarded with letters from weather
representations all over the country ia
voring the proposition. and with petitions
from marine insurance companies in New
York and elsewhere against 1t. has been
in something OF a quandary. but has
promised to announce It's decision this
week
1t is believed, although no member Of
the committee will admit the fact. that
the HydrogTapfie once will continue TO
get out the charts, but that. in order
10 soothe the feelings OF MIR Moore and
his subordinates. the charts will bear an
inscription TO the effect that the meteor
illogical information they contain is sup
piled by the Weather Bureau.
Calls on Tawney.
Capt. Silas McGonnigle who made his
first voyage around the Horn as a cabin
boy at the age of fourteen, and who later
worked his way up TO the command Of
deep sea sailing freighters. called on
Chairman Tawney. OF the Appropriations
Committee. at the shoreham yesterday to
protest against the Weather Bureau get
ting out the pilot charts. Capt. McGon-
nigls is now retired and lives in Norfolk,
but he made the trip up the Potomac
some days ago for the particular purpose
Of registering a vigorous kick.
Don't you do what that man Moore
wants, Mr.. Tawney," said the captain.
Let sailor men get out the charts for
the use of sailor men. Those Weather
Bureau people are a lot OF lubbers.
They're farmers. They don't know a
forepeak from a mlzzenhatch. They
couldn't lay a l6-foot yawl alongside of
a featherbed in a dead calm. I'm an
unprecedented man, Mr.. Tawney, and /
call no names. but I'd eat my own papers
before I'd try to navigate on a dead
reckoning worked out by any lime
washed, clumsy-finned. egg-eyed cross
between a windmill and a potato masher
like some Of those weather men.
when / came TO Washington the other
day went 20 see this man Moore. MIR.
Moore. I says, I wouldn't sail coal
barge down the Delaware Canal on any
chart turned out by the Weather Bureau,
but I'd like TO get a little information.
Where I says. do you get your advance
information about the weather.
Miles up I'm Air.
He said they got most of It at place
called Mount Weather. where there is a
balloon fun Of barometers and Their
mometers that they keep up about four
miles in the air and pull down every now
and then to look at. The records that we
get in this way, says Moore TO me, are
exceedingly valuable to mariners. An In
telligent man like you should understand
that. captain
Valuable be d says l. What the
~ do you think I'm navigating. an
airship? And beinF an unprecedented man
and not wishing to get into an argument.
I came away.
Look here, Mr.. Tawney. don't you lis
ten to any talk from the Weather Blu
reau. You let real sailor men get out
those charts"