Seward daily gateway., 1929-12-05
NEN COASTAL SURVEY CHA R IS
 FOR TERRITORY
ANNUAL REPORT or CAPTAIN R. s. PATTON OUTLINES ACTT-
 VITIES HIN ALASKA

Tn his annual report tO the Secre-
 tary of Commerce for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, just is- sued, Captain R S Patton, direc-
 tor, calls attention to the fact that
 the United States Coast and Geo.
 detic Survey was organized 113
 years ago for the purpose of survey ing the coasts and harbors of the
 United States, including adjacent shoals. From a small beginning the
 scope of it's operations has grown
 with our country until it now oper-
 ates turnout the vast extent of the
 United States and it's off-lying ter- ritOries.
 The report lists six new nautical
 charts for Alaskan waters published during the fiscal year, namely, Lit
 uya Bay on the south coast of the following charts ot southeast Alas
 ka: Southern Entrance to Sumner Strait; Salisbury Sound and Peril
 Strait to Emnlons Island; Tebenkof Bay, Chatham Strait; and Cape {. Edward to Lislanski Strait, west
 coast of Chichagof Island. New edi- tions of charts, in conformity with the latest survey data, were also is- sued during the year for Wrangell INarrows; Dixon Entrance to Cape
 st. Elias Southern part of Dall Is-
 land; and the Arctic Coast of Alas ka. Additional new charts are in progress.
 Surveys in southeastern Alaska, in general, are keeping pace with the need 0f charts. While conditions in western Alaska are not 50 satiS- factory as to provide for surveys and new charts exceed the ability to provide them, it is believed that the situation is not critical and can be corrected within few years by "a reasonable addition to the facili- ties that now exist or have been au- thorized.
 Operations in southwestern Alas kan waters were greatly facilitated by the use, for the first time in Ala ska, of the radio-accoustic method of position finding. AS an example of the efficiency of this method is cited the fact that one ship, working off Prince William Sound, was able to make hyrdogra M phic surveys of considerable area during one We3k of htick weather that would have entirely prevented N work with methods previously avail I able. By means of the apparatus for radio-accoustic position finding, the distances of which are known accurately, are measured by .record- ing the time required for sound to travel thru water from tile ship to the stations on shore aid return automatically by radio.
 Tn connection with it's Coast Pilot ' work the bureau staff has compiled a new publication containing tables of distances between United States ports. There are readily available in this popular volume the dis tances between more than 30,O00 ports and points on inland water ways in the United States and it's including number of distances to foreign ports.
 Photographic surveys were made during the fiscal year 1929 in Alas kan waters as follows:
 Tn southwest Alaska the party on the survey ship Surveyor completed a large off-shore area southwest of Montague Island. This work ex- \ tended off-shore to Portlock Bank. Surveys were also made by this party in the approaches to Resur- rection Bay and in Harris and Two Arm Bays A survey made in Sitka- lidak Strait, Kodiak Island, hy a sub-party of the Surveyor disclosed [ a passage which shortens the steamer track of vessels approach ing Port Hebron from the westward by approximately 40 miles. At the end of the fiscal year the party on this vessel had taken Up work on the north and west coast of Kodiak Island and was engaged on surveys in ShelikOf Strait and in Uganik, Uyak, zachar and Alitak Bays. While working at this project the party dragged the area where