MORE VESSELS
ARE DEMANDED
ALASKA WORK
Director of Coast and Geo
* detic Survey Makes Re
port; Recommendations
WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 16.—
E. Lester Jones, director of the Coast
and Geodetic Surrvey, in his annual
report released recently asks for more
ships for charting and recording wa
^ ttr boundaries in the United States.
He stated that good results were ob
tained this year by the use of three
mine sweepers.
Additional Vessels.
In my last report mention was
made of the need for additional ves
sels. This has become more acute,
since no additional vessels were
provided, and the old vessels, which
were intended to replace, are becom
ing less serviceable each year. In
general, the survey fleet is modern
and efficient, but there are still a
few of the old craft—most of them
quite small—which have outlived
their efficient usefulness and are
even in some cases unsafe for fur
ther operation. Two small vessels
on the Atlantic coast—one of 472
tons displacement and the other of
146 tons — are inefficient, weak, and
costly of maintenance. These two
f could be profitably replaced by one
modern vessel of from 500 to 600
tons displacement. Three vessels of
about 50 tons displacemnt are ur
gently needed for work in Alaska,
as tenders to the larger survey ves
sels. At present the survey has
two such vessels, but both are old
and weak, and it is with the great
‘est difficulty that they are maintain
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SEE
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Office in Arcade Building
Phone Adams 121 Seward, Alaska
Ray & David
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
Seward and Anchorage
SEWARD OFFICE:
Harriman Bank Building
ed in operation this summer. Neith
er is safe nor efficient.
Original hydrographic and topo
graphic surveys were made along the
Alaska Peninsula, at Ikatan, Morzho
voi, Cold, Wide, Portage and Chig
nik Bays, and in the offshore areas
in the vicinity of these bays and in
Kachemak Bay in Western Alaska.
These surveys were made by the per
sonnel of two surveying vessels.
In Southeastern Alaska original hy
drographic and topographic surveys
were carried northward along the
outside coast from the work of last
year to a point well north of Cape
Ommaney, and the survey of El Cap
itan Pass was completed.
Wire Drag Survey
The wire drag survey of the main
steamship route through Southeastern
Alaska, on which the survey has
been working continuously since the
World war, was completed in the fall
of 1923 with the survey of Ice Strait
and Cross Sound. A special survey,
requested by the War department to
safeguard laying the new Alaska ca
ble, was made of Kasaan Bay and
Twelve-Mile-Arm.
The geodetic work accomplished
during the past year consisted of
the determination of geographic po
sitions by triangulation and traverse,
precise elevations by precise leveling,
astronimic longitudes and latitudes,
and values of gravity. This work
was done in many of the States and
In Alaska.
T riangulation.
The Coast and Godetic Survey and
the Geodetic Survey of Canada are
also cooperating in the extension of
an arc of precise triangulation which
will extend from Puget Sound into Al
aska. In carrying; out this work a par
ty of the survey operated during the
first part of the fiscal year in South
eastern Alaska in determining the
astronimic longitude and eximuth at
seven precise triaugulation stations
for use in the adjustment of the tri
angulation. A second party operat
ed during the latter part of the fiscal
year in measuring precise base lines
for the control of the lengths of the
triangulation and in making horizon
tal angle observation to connect the
triangulation of Southastern Alaska
with that of the Geodetic Survey of
Canada to the southward of Dixon
Entrance.
The line of precise levels begun in
the calendar year of 1922 at Anchor
age, Alaska, at the head of Cook In
let, which was planned to run thru
Fairbanks, and thence to Valdez, was
continued and completed during the
fiscal year 1923. A line of precise
levels between Seward and Anchor
age was also completed. The level
ing connects with tide gauges at An
chorage and Valdez.
Westward Observations
A precise triangulation party con
tinued in 1923 the observations on the
arc started during the fiscal year of
1922 which extends from the head of
Cook Inlet toward Fairbanks. The
work wras taken up again last spring
and was in progress at the end of the
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fiscal year. This triangulation is part
of a general scheme which eventual
ly will be extended over the Alas
kan area, following routes of travel
for the coordination of the charts
of the survey and for the control of
all public surveying and mapping of
the interior. The work is most ur
gently requested by the General Land
Office, which is laying out public
lands for settlement. That office
wishes to avoid in Alaska the great
confusion which necessarily resulted
in the United States from having to
use many prime meridians and base
lines in laying out the public lands.
Geodetic Survey Needs.
The mapping of the country is a
project which in the interests of the
industrial and commercial expansion
of the United Sttes should be carried
on with greater rapidity than has
been the case in the past. Even a
casual consideration will convince
anyone that all important economic
and individual industrial activities
are dependent upon a knowledge of
place and elevation.
The United States is behind the
other progressive countries of the
world in its economic control sur
veys; there are strong economic rea
sons why our system should be pros
ecuted with corresponding diligence.
The money spent for such surveys
should rightly be considered as an
investment which will now and here
after bear large interest to the pub
lic.
Magnetic Survey of Alaska
During the past fiscal year the mag
netic declination was determined at
a large number of triangulation sta
tions in Southwestern and Western
Alaska. This work makes it possi
ble to place correct magnetic infor
mation on the new charts of the re
gions which are being surveyed.
The area of Alaska is so great,
that an immense amount of work
will have to be done before the mag
netic survey can be considered com
plete. At present magnetic stations
are found only along the main lines
of travel, and there are vast areas
where no observations have been
made. Observations are needed
along the w’est coast including the
Aleutian Islands, and in the Interior.
It is planned to start work in the
Aleutian Islands during the next fis
cal year, provided that transportation
arrangements can be made. The of
ficer doing this work will also make
latitude and longitude and other ob
servations that are badly needed in
this region.
The magnetic observatory at Sitka
furnishes a continuous record of the
magnetic declination, dip and inten
sity. Disturbances known as mag
netic storms occur with great fre
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quency in Alaska. These storms are
frequently accompanied by auroral
displays and are apparently related
to unusual difficulties in cable trans
mission and in the operation of radio
stations. The records of the Sitka
observatory furnish the data for a
study of these relations. A study is
also being made of the relation of
auroras to such transmission diffi
culties at the magnetic observatory
EauE
at Sitka.
Wire Drag Charts
For some years the survey has been
making wire-drag surveys of those
areas of the United States and its
possessions where are found abrupt
inequalities of depth. The dangers
discovered during the course of this
work have been charted promptly,
and to that extent we have afforded
(Continued on Page Eight)
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