The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1915-03-19

f@3 The vessels bow in air. So
@- sudden was her check that
were thrown fiat on her decks In fifteen minutes
she had gone down. taking 81 humans and cargo
worth $3OO,OO0 with her. She had struck right in
the customary steamship course an uncharted
pinnacle of rock
"heh word OF the fate of the State OF Cali
lornla reached Washington II added energy to
movement which Secretary Redheld of the dc.
partment or commerce and labor had been agitat-
ing Tor some time. This movement was to prevail
upon congress to increase the appropriation for
the work OF the department of geodetic and coast
survey the department that has charge of blazing
the ocean trails
AT the present time there are three vessels EN-.
ployed In coast survey work in Alaska One was
confederate gunboat during the war She had
onecyllnder engine She is capable of eight
knots In still weather six knots against a breeze
and nothing at all in a blow
Inc other two were not Confederate gunboats
Dut In other respects they are fully as antiouated
as the hrst Secretary Redheld has termed them
unseaworthy, dangerous, inefficient old tubs And
10 these craft alone is allotted the Job of guard
Ing the safety of 43339 passengers who Travelled
Alaskan waters last year. in addition to $50 900 900
worth of cargo and ships
And the government records show that the State
OF california is but one of many wrecks that occur
on uncharted rocks along the Alaskan coast
yearly. The peculiar formation OF the region il
responsible for spires of rock that rise ont
or the sea floor to within few feet of the surface
In localities where all around them the water is
navigable Soundngs of the ordinary sort seldom
reveal these instruments Of death in the way OF
ships. TO locate them properly the coast survey
mas designed an apparatus known as a wire
drag This is a wire sunk below the surface
save at both ends where ii is buoyed with floats
The coast survey ships drag this device along
ana cover great sweeps of sea at time, the rock
spurs being detected when the wire catches on
IhnN t,nr, aitI
by dynamite.
ALASKA" the man in the East is apt TO say
why, who ever goes up on the Alaska coast ex
cept gold hunters and explorers? What's 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 $4,000 persons traversed it in
ships last year. Have those $4,000 citizens not a
right to protection? asks the photographic office
President Wilson realizes what ineficiency in
charting the Alaskan coast means. For on that
subject he wrote:
There is another matter of which must make
special mention, If am to discharge my con.
science, lest it should escape your attention It
may seem very small Ting. 1t affects only
single item of appropriation. But many human
lives and many great enterprises hang upon Il
ut is the matter of making adequate provision
for the survey and charting of our oceans 1t 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 IL 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 charting We
have used old vessels that were not big enough
or strong enough and which we're so nearly unsea-
worthy that our inspectors would not have allowed
private owners TO send them to This is
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 pers
OF this great extent of coast the sailors who
ply 1t. Charles T. Moritz, mate of the steamship
Spokane. writes:
"Since I am going to make the business OF
plotting vessels through the waters of south
eastern Alaska my life's work ] take more than
| an ordinary interest in locating hidden dangers
The men who have gone before me have
| 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 a shipload OF passen-
| gers TO discover some hidden danger? Others
have done So and until know Just where all
the dangers located more will do the same
| "That such dangers exist. and that there is a
very easy means Of locating them. hope to show
by the Notice to Mariners. issued by the United