From the time man first ventured upon the sea he has appreciated the need of the knowledge which would enable him to complete his voyages in safety. Urge of sea venture and travel has always been strong in our people.
At the present time travelers go forth in ships to find rest and recuperation, with a feeling of security. It may be of interest to understand what has been done to produce this feeling.
Congress maintains the Hydrographic Office in the Navy Department, primarily to promote general maritime security. Founded in 1830, its activities have been benefiting the world for nearly a century, during which time great progress has been made, and many illustrious names have been associated with its advancement.
The Hydrographic Office is a manufacturing plant which includes a remarkable and irreplaceable library, a research organization, a producing organization of maritime information and security, a photolithographic and copper engraving plant, an editing department, a large distributing department, and an administrative department having all the correspondence and records received since the institution of the office.
It is the United States repository of nautical information of the world and is the scientific agency to which the citizens and the government look for authentic maritime information. Its activities are constantly expanding in volume and value.
The Hydrographic Office has always been administered in Washington, D.C. As it primarily deals with mariners, Congress has from time to time instituted the branch hydrographic offices now located at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Savannah, New Orleans, Galveston, San Juan, P.R., San Pedro, San Francisco, Portland, Ore., Seattle, Sault Ste. Marie, Duluth, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Each is a center for its local area, as well as a distributing point for all information issued from the main office, and maintains for reference purposes a complete library of Hydrographic Office publications and charts corrected to date. The naval officer in charge and trained assistants are frequently consulted on matters concerning the sea.
The Navy maintains three ships, the U.S.S. Hannibal, U.S.S. Nokomis, and the U.S.S. Niagara, together with a three-plane aviation unit, V. J. Squadron 3-S, for special survey duty with the Hydrographic Office.
Sources of Information
The sources of hydrographic information are world wide. The office archives contain information from all portions of the globe. Even now preparations are underway to obtain scientific data of the Antarctic regions and the approaches to the South Pole.
Hydrographic Office data are divided into two general classes: first those considered of a more or less permanent nature; and second, those of temporary value only. In the first class are its charts, nautical tables, and books; in the second class are its daily and weekly publications, and radio broadcasts. The three survey vessels are now employed along the coasts of Cuba, Gulf of Panama, and occasional Central American harbors. These ships produce surveys of a high degree of accuracy and each surveys an area of approximately 2,000 square miles a year.
[Image: ORGANIZATION CHART OF THE HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE, NAVY DEPARTMENT. APPROVED 26 JUNE, 1927. W. S. Crosley, Captain, U. S. Navy, Hydographer]
By direction of the President, the coastal waters of the United States and its possessions are surveyed by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey of the Department of Commerce. Before the Spanish-American War, naval officers were detailed to that organization, during which period both coasts of the United States and parts of Alaska were charted. Because of the expansion of its activities during and after the Spanish- American War, the Navy withdrew its personnel from duty with the Coast Survey which, since that time, has built up a commissioned corps of its own. To prevent duplication of effort the Hydrographic Office is now primarily interested in surveying foreign waters.
Foreign nations, particularly the English, Dutch, German, French, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese, have well-organized survey expeditions attached to their naval establishments. A mutual exchange furnishes much information of value that could be obtained in no other way.
Information of all seaports of the world, commercial sea lanes, and strategical areas, is obtained from thousands of trained observers with whom the Hydrographic Office is in contact. Among these may be noted the American diplomatic, consular, military, and commercial services, enthusiastic yachtsmen, and officers of the commercial fleets of all nations.
The Hydrographic Office greatly appreciates the efforts of the talented seamen in our own services who take occasion to further the interests of the office. Their reports are of exceptional merit, due to the background of the officer concerned. Investigation and report upon phenomena pertaining to the oceans are frequently made by scientific organizations. At the present time the Carnegie Institution of Washington is financing a three-year cruise of the non-magnetic ship Carnegie over all oceans. The Hydrographic Office will be particularly interested in the results of the Carnegie’s observations of magnetic variation, sonic depths, water temperatures, and upper air currents. The French maintain the S.S. Jaques Cartier at sea for meteorological observations and reports. The Dutch have recently made gravimetric measurements by delicate instruments installed within a submarine which circumnavigated the globe. Cable ships of various nationalities are constantly furnishing accurate soundings of ocean depths.
The United States is one of the twenty- two members of the International Hydro- graphic Bureau, Monaco, Europe. The bureau is endeavoring to standardize symbols and methods used by its members. It is also a central clearing house of nautical information, obtained from individual states, and furnished to all. It issues nineteen special publications on technical subjects. Its reports, publications, and exchanges are of great value.
A comprehensive study of increasing value is made of ocean currents by means of drifting bottles containing Hydrographic Office papers with instructions in eight languages to insure their return from any part of the world.
The results of these bottle papers have been interesting and show drifts of from five miles to 15,000, covering periods of time from two days to six years. It is interesting to note that one bottle, thrown overboard southeastward of the Cape of Good Hope, was recovered on the west coast of Chili, having drifted about 8,800 miles, about one-third the distance around the world. Another drifted from southeastward of Cape Horn to the west coast of North Island, New Zealand—about 10,250 miles.
Hydrographic Office Production P lant
From the organization chart, here pictured, it will be noted that the Hydrographic Office is divided into five main divisions, which are further subdivided into twenty- nine sections, all of which are essential for the reception, sifting, production, and distribution of authentic hydrographic data.
Eleven commissioned line officers and one hundred and sixty-four civil service employees comprise the personnel. The pay roll of the civil service personnel amounts to approximately $385,000 per year. This force includes mathematicians, scientists, engineers, mechanics, clerks, and laborers. The mathematicians solve, check, and calculate the formulae and figures required in chart construction, in determining magnetic variations, in preparing nautical tables, and physical problems of the sea. The scientists investigate and prepare for publication facts and formulae of oceanography, depths, circulation of water, configuration of ocean bottoms and boundaries, temperatures, and also the circulation, pressures, temperatures, and physical characteristics of winds at the surface and upper air levels. The engineers are skilled cartographers and draftsmen. The mechanics handle the physical problems of chart production and include such skilled ratings as copper engravers, lithographers, photographers, and pressmen.
A synopsis of the work involved in the production of nautical charts is here presented:
Data from which charts are constructed.
U. S. naval surveys.
Foreign surveys as presented in foreign charts.
Surveys by commercial interests.
Construction and compilation sections:
Investigation of data.
Preparation of specifications for the chart. Computations of projections and scales. Determination of detail of hydrography to be shown on the chart.
Translation and arrangement of nomenclature.
Drafting section:
All drafting work incident to the construction of the chart.
Selection of soundings to be used and delineation of fathom curves.
Drawing of hillwork.
Engraving section:
Laying down and engraving projection, border, and scales on copper plate.
Photographic section:
Making of photo negatives of the chart for use on pantograver.
Pantograver section:
Engraving on the copper plate, by means of the pantograver, outlines of the chart, soundings, lettering, and such other features as can be mechanically engraved.
Engraving section:
Machine engraving of titles and notes.
Hand engraving of all features not engraved by pantograver, such as sand beaches, reef, bluff, and mangrove symbols, and fathom curves. Proofs from engraved plates are revised by construction or compilation sections at various stages of the work.
Lithographic section:
An impression of the chart, known as a mounted original, is printed from a copper plate by a process which produces a clean, sharp copy free from distortion.
Drafting section:
Features subject to frequent change, such as light sections, tracks, and variation curves, are drawn upon a mounted original.
Photographic section:
Negatives made of mounted original.
Negatives painted out and recut.
Negatives photo-printed to zinc plate.
Negatives blue-printed on zinc plates for color plates.
Lithographic transfer section:
Receives zinc plate, with chart photo-printed on it. from the photographic section.
Transfers compass roses, publication note and seal.
Lithographic drafting section:
Draws borders on zinc plate and touches up work along joints between negatives.
Draws color plates for tinting land and water areas and coloring lights.
Lithographic transfer section:
Etches and prepares zinc plates for printing.
Lithographic pressroom:
Prints the charts on offset and flat-bed presses.
Reconstruction section:
Charges all information received in office to charts affected. Prepares correction sheets for charts down for print.
Lithographic section:
Receives correction sheets from reconstruction section and corrects zinc plates accordingly before printing.
In addition to nautical charts, the Division of Chart Construction produces: aviation charts, anchorage charts, range finder testing charts, radio compass charts, strategic plotting charts, cable, time-zone, and meteorological charts, pilot charts, ice supplements, illustrations for H. O. publications, and other miscellaneous work.
The Division of Maritime Security prepares the following publications:
Fifty-eight volumes of Sailing Directions (Pilots).
Six volumes of Light Lists of all oceans and seas and of foreign coasts, islands, and harbors.
Radio Aids to Navigation, an annual publication, includes details of radio compass stations, radio beacons, weather bulletins, storm and navigational warnings, time signals, etc.
The Naval Air Pilot.
Pilot Charts of all oceans.
Commencing with December, 1927, a monthly Pilot Chart of the Upper Air of the North Atlantic has been presented. One of the North Pacific Ocean is in preparation. This chart is a valuable aid to aviators on oceanic flights. The Upper Air Pilot Chart contains data at the surface and at levels of 2,500, 5,000, and 10,000 feet above the sea level. It was the first chart of its kind published and is the pioneer in its field. Other nations are adopting the idea.
The following are issued periodically.
Notice to Mariners. Gives weekly changes in aids to navigation (lights, buoyages, harbor construction), dangers to navigation (rocks, shoals, banks, bars), important new soundings, and, in general, all information affecting mariners’ charts, manuals, and Sailing Directions.
Extracts from Notice to Mariners. Contains all information published in Notice to Mariners affecting the navigational aids and dangers on the Great Lakes.
Hydrographic Bulletin, issued weekly, gives more detailed facts than the pilot charts regarding ice, wrecks, and derelicts; also items on port facilities, use of oil to calm the sea, and miscellany of use and interest to mariners.
Ice Supplement to the Hydrographic Bulletin. A chartlet presenting graphically all late reports of ice. Issued weekly with the Hydrographic Bulletin when conditions make it necessary.
Daily Memorandum. Contains reports affecting safe navigation, such as advance notices of the more important information concerning dangers and aids to navigation that will appear in the Notice to Mariners, the location of icebergs, derelicts, obstructions, and other news of sufficient importance to publish daily. The most urgent of these items are broadcast by radio.
Mine Warnings. Contains notices of mine fields, supplemented as necessary by charts defining mine areas.
Supplements to Sailing Directions (Pilots). Published annually and includes all important information from reliable sources received in the Hydrographic Office since the publication of the latest edition of the Sailing Directions.
Notice to Aviators. A monthly publication, giving information to aviators which is of assistance to them in the navigation of the air; also information concerning air harbors, air routes, the establishment and maintenance of aids to the navigation of the air, scientific articles on the development of aerial navigation and other information of value and interest to aviators.
Reprints of Hydrographic Information.
Pamphlets designed to keep in handy form articles and information scattered through the pilot charts and bulletins.
In this division the time of one line officer is wholly devoted to an analysis and research of ocean routes, the results of which are being published in recent editions of the Sailing Directions. The time of another line officer is taken up wholly with the investigation of the relation of static to storms. The time of another line officer is wholly occupied with the field of aviation charts and aerial navigation. This officer is a qualified aviator so that the aviation charts and information now being produced meet the practical requirements of aviators in a simple, yet comprehensive, way.
The Division of Nautical Research is responsible for manuals and tables, among which the following are published:
American Practical Navigator. (Bowditch )
Useful Tables from the American Practical Navigator (being Part II of Bowditch).
Arctic Azimuth Tables for parallels of latitude between 70? and 80?. The values of the azimuth are given at intervals of ten minutes for six hours out of the twenty-four —that is, in the case of the sun, from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The tables are applicable in both the northern and southern hemispheres, but only for bodies whose declination is of the same name as the latitude and within ecliptic limits.
Azimuth Tables, giving the true bearings of the sun at intervals of ten minutes between sunrise and sunset, for parallels of latitude between 71?N. and 71?S. These can also be applied to the moon, planets, and stars as long as their declinations do not exceed 23?N. or S.
The Azimuth of Celestial Bodies whose declinations range from 24? to 70?, for parallels of latitude extending to 70° from the equator.
Star Identification Tables, giving simultaneous values of declination and hour angle for values of latitude, altitude, and azimuth ranging from 0? to 80? in latitude and altitude and 0? to 180? in azimuth.
Altitude, Azimuth, and Line of Position.
Noon Interval Tables.
The Sumner Line of Position, furnished ready to lay down upon the chart by means of Tables of Simultaneous Hour Angle and Azimuth of celestial bodies of declination 27?N. to 27? S., latitude 60? N. to 60? S.
The Sumner Line of Position, furnished ready to lay down upon the chart by means of Tables of Simultaneous Hour Angle and Azimuth of the navigational stars between 27? and 73? of declination from the celestial equator, for latitudes ranging from 60? N. to 60? S.
Development of Great Circle Sailing.
Tables of Distances. (About 8,000 shortest navigable distances between ports.)
Research by this division is along highly technical and mathematical lines. Its work has kept the fleet supplied with nautical tables and manuals that are up to date and in many cases are in advance of the times. There is now being prepared for the printer a table of small size and few pages. It is the equal of any now in existence in solving navigational problems accurately and promptly. It has a larger range of use than any similar table. It will be valuable to aviators in planning and conducting ocean flights. It will also be useful to navigators of surface vessels as with it and a nautical almanac any problem may be solved quickly.
Method of Distribution
With money appropriated by Congress in the annual Navy appropriation bill, ships of the U. S. Navy are furnished free with all Hydrographic Office products direct. The merchant marine and navigators generally are furnished with these products at the cost of printing and paper through Hydro- graphic Office agents at the various seaports or from the main office direct.
Under the system now in vogue, estimates for future expenditures are submitted, carefully examined by the Bureau of the Budget and acted upon by the appropriation committee prior to submission to Congress. Estimates are being prepared now for appropriations which will become available July 1, 1930; the money which is now available for expenditure is the outcome of estimates prepared two years ago. Consequently, new and sudden demands made upon the Hydrographic Office funds can only be honored by the elimination of some item for which estimates were originally prepared. It is difficult to meet new situations where a sudden demand involves a large expenditure of money, such, for example, as that necessitated by a recent demand for Army Strip Maps which now cost the Hydrographic Office twenty-five cents each. The number requested is becoming so great that the current appropriation is inadequate to fulfill the demand.
Data are placed in the hands of the mariner by mail, by radio, through agents at the principal maritime seaports of the United States, by lectures, and by interviews.
Within the Hydrographic Office is a large Division of Distribution which maintains an adequate supply of all charts and publications corrected to date. There are fourteen employees engaged solely in the work of keeping the stock supply corrected in accordance with the latest Notice to Mariners. The value of the stock on hand available for distribution is approximately $350,000, and includes 475,000 chart copies and 85,000 publications.
Service, to be effective, must be prompt. Realizing this, deliveries are carefully planned in advance and the work of the whole Hydrographic Office is coordinated to this end. The schedules of daily, weekly, and monthly dispatching have been so consistent in the past, and so well maintained at present, that the various channels of distribution throughout the country anticipate the arrival of hydrographic information. Cases are frequent where interested parties proceed to Washington to obtain certain publications as soon as they come off the press.
The Division of Maritime Security broadcasts, twice daily, information concerning dangers to ships approaching our coasts, such as floating derelicts, floating buoys, changes in characteristics of lights and light vessels, positions of floating ice, floating wreckage, and other aids or obstructions to navigation which, if unknown, might result in loss of life and property.
The Navy maintains twenty commissioned line officers and twenty-four civil service employees at the branch hydrographic offices. In addition to having a complete library of correct charts, publications, and reference books of value to mariners, personal acquaintance is made with the officials and officers of the steamship lines and vessels making port. Facts of interest and reports of the voyage are obtained from the ship officers, and they in turn are given the latest general information and any special information desired. On the Great Lakes during the open season, cargoes of immense value and quantity are transported by water. Five of the branch hydrographic offices are located on these lakes. Their activities are coordinated and a complete Great Lakes’ service of weekly Notice to Mariners and Daily Memorandum is furnished. During the season when the lakes are closed with ice, the branch hydrographic offices are used to instruct merchant officers in navigation.
The officers taking the postgraduate line course of instruction at Annapolis are given an annual series of six lectures on the Hydrographic Office. This beneficial contact should increase interest and knowledge of hydrographic matters among officers afloat.
It is difficult to describe all of the activities of the Hydrographic Office by which its service of maritime security is maintained, due to the many different technical fields involved. To mention some of last year’s output: 600,000 copies of various charts were issued; about 1,000,000 corrections were placed upon charts by hand to show various changes in navigational aids or new discoveries of dangers; 1,600,000 copies of notices of interest to mariners affecting security were issued from the main office, 414,000 being issued to shipping on the Great Lakes by the branch offices situated there; 455,000 copies of the notices were issued by the other branch offices. Hydrographic ice information to guard shipping from disaster such as befell the Titanic in 1914 is another function of security.
An admiral recently stated that during a voyage along the west coast of Africa years ago when it was poorly charted, the coast was lined with wrecks, and the ship he was on was threatened with danger. The value of accurate charts to security is most important. To visualize the value of such information to the mariner, consider the service stopped. At the end of one year about 2,500,000 copies of essential security information would be lacking, 1,000,000 changes on charts would be missing and the charts would become misleading. The mariner would live in a world of surprises. The Sailing Directions would tell a false story of coasts and harbors and approaches thereto. Seagoing would be a dangerous venture indeed; confidence would cease and uncertainty in navigation prevail.
The Hydrographic Office covers a broad field of usefulness to our Navy, our merchant marine, and mariners in general. Its growth has been normal and steady, its friends loyal, its support adequate, and its motto, “Service for Maritime Security.”