The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-03-20

States coast and geodetic survey, that I will ap-
pend.
IF some of the persons who have it in their
power to vote funds for this work saw this notice,
perhaps it would move them to keep the good
work going. Could you bring this to their notice?"
r. D.. McGillinay, pilot of the steamship City of
Seattle, writes:
Il would like to add that l was pilot of the
steamship Cottage City when the party of con-
gressmen and their families, headed by Speaker
Cannon, made an excursion to Alaska. Fortu.
nately we had a successful trip. Little did they
think of the dangerous waters they we're travel
ing. If we had hit one of these pinnacles then
they would have looked out a little better for our
protection and the ship owners interests, as well
as the lives of the citizens of the country.
81 must say that l have sailed all over the world,
and Alaska has the poorest surveyed waters that
/ have ever navigated."
And now what of the men who have been labor
ing for years against tremendous odds to do the
charting of these coasts with hopeless equipment
in Secretary Redield's "unseaworthy old tubs"
To push into those northern seas with their fogs
and gales for long cruises in stanch vessels would
be risky enough; but to go into them in single
cylinder, leaky, antiquated little junk heaps Of
steamers for a work that is far more perilous than
the layman conceives requires real grit. And it is
this sort of grit which stands out prominently in
the makeup of the men of the coast survey, who
have for so long been graphing with the fog and
ice and gales of Alaskan regions.
The endlessness of the coast surveyors work
may be gathered when it is considered that never
does a shore line or a channel remain precisely
the same. New sand bars are made; old ones
obliterated. Volcanic activity casts up new pin
nacles of rock under the sea and lowers old ones.
Between 1885 and 1908 Rockaway beach grew to
the westward at the rate of eight inches a day.
In 70 years Coney islands western end has showed
itself westward fully 1000 feet.
1T is a risky game" said an officer who had
corvod n m ono nf tho thraa old 70 cbinOad c1trvov
ships on the Alaskan coast. Three times during
eight months of service on her we were carried
70 miles out of our course by only moderate gales,
and this despite the fact that we did our best with
full steam to hold the craft up to the wind. But
she wouldn't hold; she was too old. She should
have carried 10 pounds of steam, but we could
not hold more than so. The engine was one Of
the old type single cylinders in use in Civil war
times, and in anything more than a full sail breeze
our limit of speed to windward was two knots.
With favorable winds and no sea we could some
times churn along seven knots.
"Once we lay to a mile off shore for four days
in a gale, expecting every minute to be washed
in on a lee shore and ground to pulp, but lacking
the power to claw off to clear water. .
Most of the time we had our men at the pumps.
For the old thing leaked badly, and we were
always having to put back to have her calked.
In any sea we were all awash, for we had no free
board, and did have open gangways, and the sea
just sliced across us as though we were a sunken
log.
And it was mighty uncomfortable. We had an
open wardroom-everyone slept, ate and lived in a
single room, and we had no bathroom on that
old ark. So you can imagine that we had a tough
time of it on an e%ight-month cruise. It's just
as tough for the fellows there now-they have
the same boat, and her accommodations aren't any
better. But we did the best we could. 1t was diff
cult getting correct soundings and frst-class work
out of a rig such as that, but We did pretty we'll.
When we missed a rock it wasn't our fault. We
never knew ii, anyway, until some steamer with
a few hundred passengers aboard went into it
and sank. Then, If we were around, we'd help
rescue those, in the water, If We could, and the
government would put up a light or a buoy on
the rock that the sunken ship had located.
Its just the same up there now. AS Secre-
tary Redfeld said, rocks were being located regu-
larly by vessels striking them and going down."
The work of probing ocean trails is interesting.
In ascertaining the depth of the water and locat-
ing all the underwater distractions to navigation,
a careful record of the fluctuations Of the tide
while the soundings are being made must be kept.
1t would not suffice to measure the depth of the
water IL its height above mean low sea level
we're unknown for the moment of measurement
To determine this a registering tide gauge Is
used-a sort of float attached to a mechanism in
which a pen traces the rise and fall of the water
on a roll of paper which a clock causes to revolve
under the pen.
Two methods of sounding are used, the one en-
ploying the lead line and the other the wire sweep.
In leadline s~oundings the process is about as
follows: A party goes out In a rowboat or launch.
among its members being two observers with sex
tants and a map showing the shore line and the
objects whose positions have been determined
by triangulation; a recorder with a clock and
record book; a leadsman and a steersman. The
officer in charge directs the recorder to make a
note Of the position of the boat, which is deter
mined by the observers, and the leadsman casts
his line and calls out the depth in feet or fathoms
as he draws 1t up. The recorder makes a note OF
this and also of the course along which the boat