Judsonia weekly advance., 1915-03-17

SU ~aD 1913, the steamer State of Cafor S..-sur mia steaming through Gam \ @M \ bier bay. She in the regular M steamer course. The chart showed A NM clear water on all sides of her. Sud- &S-A denly there a terrific shock E@ The vessels bow rose in air So &~-- sudden her check that weie thrown Hat on her decks. In fifteen minutes she had gone down. taking 31 humans and cargo worth S300000 with her. She had struck right in ene customary steamship course an uncharted pinnacle of rock
 when word of the fate of the State of Cali iorna reached Washington it added energy to movement which Secretary Redield of the de- partment of commerce and labor had been agitat- Ing Tor some time. This movement was to preyail upon congress to increase the appropriation for 'ne "ofk or the department of geodetic and coast survey, the department that has charge of blazing the ocean trails
 AL the present time there are three vessels em- pioyeu Ill coast survey work in Alaska One was a eohlederate gunboat during the war. She had onecylnder engine. She is capable of eight Aho's Ill stlll weather six knots against breeze ana nothing at all in blow
 me other two were not Confederate gunboats out Ill o.ner respects they fully as antiquated as the hrst Secretary Redfeld has termed them unseaWorthy, dangerous inefficient old tubs And .o these craft alone is allotted the job of guard ing the safety of 43339 passengers who travelled Alaskan waters last year. in addition to $50 900 worth of cargo and ships
 Ana the government records show that the State oi oalHornla IS but one of many wrecks that occur on uncharted rocks along the Alaskan coast yearly. The peculiar formation of the region is responsible for spires of rock that rise out or the sea floor to within few feet of the surface Ill ioealltles where all around them the water is naVlgaDle Soundings of the ordinary sort seldom reveal these inGruments of death in the way of snlps.s TO locaQ them properly the coast survey has designed ar apparatus known as wire drag This is wire sunk below the surface save at both ends, where it is buoyed with floats The coast survey ships drag this device along and cover great sweeps of sea at time, the rock spurs being detected when the wire catches on them. They are then either buoyed or destroyed by dynamite.
 Alaska" the man in the East is apt to say, why, who eyer goes up on the Alaska coast ex cept gold hunters and explorers? Whats the use of spending money up there?"
 There is but one answer to this. The Alaskan coast is equal in extent to the distance between Charleston the Atlantic coast and San Diego on the Pacific coast And then, as mentioned be- fore, more than 43,000 persons traversed it in ships last year. Have those 43 900 citizens not a right to protection? asks the hydrographic office
 President Wilson realizes what inehiciency in charting the Alaskan coast means. For on that subject he wrote:
 There is another matter of which I must make special mention, if to discharge my con- science, lest it should escape your attention. It may seem a very small thing. It affects only single item of appropriation. But many human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it
 Tt is the matter of making adequate provision for the survey and charting of oceans. It is immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coast line of Alaska a coast line greater than that of the United States them selves, though it is also very important, indeed with regard to the older coasts of the continent We cannot use our great Alaskan domain, ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many hidden dangers are not thoroughly surveyed and charted.
 The work is incomplete at almost every point. Ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposed to be well-known main channels. We have not provided adequate vessels or ade. quate machinery for the survey and chartng. We have used old vessels that were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearly unsea- worthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners to send them to sea. This is a matter which, as have said, seems small but is in reality very great It's importance has only to be looked into to be appreciated"
 Perhaps those best qualified to know the perils of this great extent of coast are the sailors who ply It. Charles T. Moritz mate of the steamship Spokane, writes:
 Since am going to make the business of piloting vessels through the waters of south eastern Alaska my life's work take more than an ordinary interest in locating hidden dangers
 The men WnO nave gone ueloro me nave pointed out all the dangers on the surface and many that are beneath; the cost of locating some { Of the latter has been many human lives and many good ships
 Must lose the lives of shipload of passen- gers to discover some hidden danger? Others have done SO. and until we know just where all the dangers are located more will do the same.
 .srhat such dangers exist, and that there is very easy means of locating them. hope to show Avs the Notice to Mariners issued by the United