Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-18

IN effect. IAN safe. The EXplol Ell
look us aboard and put into port
The Explorer is United states
coast and Geodetic Survey ship which
hastily hauled in its leads and wire
drags when an : o flashed from the
l'rincess Charlotte. Canadian Pacific
inner, after the latter had struck a
rock in a foggy, tortuous channel off
southeastern Alaska.
The survey noted that the En-
niorer's comman der had violated one
OF the surveys most rigid rules. and
wired from Washington its common
dation. For some of the passengers
We're women; and no woman is ever
permitted aboard a Coast Survey YES
sci. But it also is an unwritten law
mat no rules or red tape shall ever
deter survey man from acting on
ms best judgment in one of the emer-
Eencies which are the daily routine of
this adventurous service.
Yet the survey is not first aid
agency. and that is not why it has
been called Uncle Sans ma jor safety
first" bureau. Day by day. especially
night by night. the survey bears
upon the lives and well being Of every
man, woman and child of the United
states; and likewise. day i'm and daY
out, il protects more lives, probably,
than any single office.
Consider. The LeViathan and the
Majestic land their thousands in New
York Harbor through the channels the
survey has mapped and the charts
that il has made. The schooner
brings i'm its fish for the city man
and the freighter its fertilizer for the
farmer with the help Of the surveys
charts and tide tables. And by the
same aids vessels steam away with
the rich factory products of New Eng
land, the grain from vast Western
farms, and cotton from the South.
Were ii not for the work the sur
vey is doing the ports of our coasts
would be sealed as effectually as if an
jnvincible blockade of dreadnaughts
lined our shores.
Before a ship can dock. before
railroad can be laid, before piece OF
property can be decided. the mariner
and railroad builder and property
owner literally must be able to locate
- himself.
And this most elemental of all
geographic facts is one of the most
difficult to ascertain. Indeed over vast
world areas, and in parts of the
United States, today, there are in
Vulnerable places which can only
approximate their precise. locations,
dimensions and attitudes.
One part of the surveys work is
concerned with the accurate control
surveying of the 3,73S.371 square
miles of the United States and its
possessions. Another part is con-
cerned with the survey, or hydro
graphy, of the waters along the
100000 miles or more of detailed
shore line.
The latter was the original func-
ton of the survey. And that work.
which is of fundamental importance
TO the country. is least familiar to
the average citizen to whom it is so
vital.
IMAGINE a ship offshore on
stormy night. with dense fog
lying low over angry waters. Tow
ering waves lash the ship with
thunderous crashes as the wind
shrieks through the rigging.
In a tiny pilot house mariner
bends anxiously over a chart, study
ing its tiny arrows, its intricate con-
tour lines. II dot on that chart is
a fraction of an inch out of place. if
line waivers ever so slightly from
its correct course, death and destruc-
ton await his ship and his crew.
The mariner leans far out of his
pilot house. The night is so thick
that the plunging bow of his own
vessel is sheathed by the inky dark
ness ahead Family he hears bell.
He turns to his chart and finds its
location. An order to the helmsman,
who twirls the spokes of the wheel;
the vessel veers and plunges on. Tine
mariner keeps his eye on his chart,
gives other orders, and thus feels
his way among treacherous shoals
and jutting peaks of submerged
rock into a snug, safe harbor.
Romance and adventure are repeated
almost nightly along our coasts, but
even more romance and adventure
attach to the men who first naVi-
gate these waters and chart them.
What is OF the charts they make?
What does the mariner need to know
10 put into port?
Every ship, big or little, must fn6
a safe channel. Also TO head toward
that channel he must use a compass
which. TO be workable, must be read
in conjunction with table Of mag
netic destinations And the more he
knows about tides and currents the
better off he will be both in directing
his course and in docking. The big
Ger the ship the more esse ntial does
Ali this information become.
These three kinds of information
the Coast and Geodetic Survey sup
niles. And for more than century
n has combined the adventure of col
lecfing these facts with such meticu
Ions accuracy in recording them that
II can truthfully say Ill years with
out the loss of a life or dollar
through any fault of ours"
Coastal surveys started when Co.
,,,n,bus and Cabot and Capt. John
smith first cruised in American
Every citizen of a coastal city real
ives the value Of his municipal water
front. Yet Americans are apt to over
1ook the ever-increasing value of their
-riceless ocean fronts, both Atlantic
And Pacific.
TO-DAY. after simplifying and re-
i yising the information collected
,.,r three centuries, the Coast and
Caodettc Survey is undertaking sur
-, If our Atlantic coastal waters out
4ha l00-fa thom curve. In order
.'.ords Il Is chartins all the peaks and
,lays the rocks and ranges, of the
an bottom off our coast out to a
;nt where the depth exceeds 900
feet. -, -, !. III, ..
i.w.ninth State. Economically and
military sense il is as important
III Che Nation as any Commonwealth.
70 = priceless possession that the
s.nnan never knows. 1t sometimes
ia'i onlv 80 miles wide, as off Maine;
is 0NantlIcket Island it swells TO IS
on on. down at Hatteras it shrinks to
n m Tiles and at Miami it becomes only
2I5 miles. o. IF tb;s rich subu..
80 estate" is about that OF Montana:
ri9e hidden bottom yields fish and
l,acean crop that vies in value
crus the wyoming sheep ranches or
VIII cornfields. Through its waters
lowe The earliest ships of the great tri-
pheu trade route between the Bay