Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/772

 756 COAST SURVEY attempt to organize a national coast survey was made in 1807. In that year President Jefferson in his message to congress recom- mended the establishment of a national coast survey, " for the purpose of making complete charts of our coast, with the adjacent shoals and soundings." It is believed that to Prof. Patterson of Philadelphia is due the honor of having first suggested to the president the idea of a geodetic survey of the coast. At that time the only charts of our extended and dan- gerous seacoast were those of the " Atlantic Neptune " of Col. Des Barres, Romaine, and Gauldel, and compilations from those works by English and American publishers. Con- gress passed an act authorizing such a survey, and appropriated $50,000. Mr. Gallatin ad- dressed circulars to the principal scientific men of our country, requesting their opinions with regard to the best methods of conducting the proposed work. The plan proposed by Mr. F. R. Hassler was adopted. The plan was, essen- tially, to establish the positions of certain prominent points of the coast by astronomical observations, and to connect these points by trigonometrical lines, so as to form a basis upon which the nautical survey could be made. Mr. Ilassler, a native of Switzerland, had been engaged in the trigonometrical survey of that country, and was eminently fitted by his scien- tific attainments for the execution of the task to which he was now called. On account of the threatening nature of our relations with Great Britain, nothing was done toward the actual prosecution of the survey till 1811, when Mr. Hassler was sent to Europe for the purpose of procuring the necessary instru- ments and standards of measure for commen- cing the work ; and the war which followed caused him to be detained abroad as an alien enemy till 1815. On his return he was for- mally appointed superintendent of the coast survey, and commenced his labors in the field in 1817, in the vicinity of New York. His first work was the measurement of a base line in the rear of the Palisades, on the Hudson, as a foundation for the triangulation of New York harbor and the adjacent coast. Before he could publish the results of his first year's labor, however, the coast survey was effective- ly discontinued ; and another interval of ten years elapsed, during which some additions were made to a knowledge of our Atlantic coast through detached surveys of a few of the more important harbors, made by the navy and the topographical engineers of the army, and those of the Messrs. Blunt. In 1828 Sam- uel L. Southard, secretary of the navy, urged upon congress the importance of reestablishing the coast survey upon its original plan ; and in 1832 Mr. Hassler was restored to his position, and enabled to resume the work. A quarter of a century had now elapsed since Mr. Hassler first urged his scheme of a thorough trigono- metrical survey. He continued to superin- tend its operations until his death in 1843, when the survey had been extended from New York eastward to Point Judith, and southward to Cape Henlopen. He was succeeded by Prof. A. D. Bache. On assuming charge of the coast survey, Prof. Bache saw the neces- sity of extending the plan so as to embrace all the objects of which we have spoken. He urged upon congress the importance of carry- ing on all the principal operations at different points of the coast at the same time ; the dif- ferent sections to be conducted on the same general principles, and to be ultimately con- nected, so as to form a complete and continu- ous work. He saw that the great character- istic feature of the Atlantic, the Gulf stream, must be investigated ; the laws of the tides developed, so that navigators might be fur- nished with correct information regarding their ebb and flow in the harbors and rivers ; the infinite maze of currents produced by the tides, the Gulf stream, and the winds, com- bined, threaded out, and mapped ; the mag- netic force of the earth studied, and its laws along our coast determined ; the changes of the weather at different seasons of the year, and the laws of storms, investigated. All these conceptions were far beyond any that had been entertained ; and Prof. Bache at once organized those systematic observations which extended through the whole period of his administration, and are continued at the present day. The most important re- sults to navigation and to science have been and are being developed by these observations. Under this plan of reorganization, as it may be called, the survey continued to advance with great success until the breaking out of the late civil war. By the secession of the southern states their immense seaboard became hostile coast, and the peaceful operations of the coast survey of necessity ceased. Several vessels employed in the work were captured, and some of the officers narrowly escaped. De- barred from the direct prosecution of the sur- vey of the southern coast, Prof. Bache sought to turn at once to practical account the knowl- edge of the harbors and their adjacent coasts along the southern seaboard which his officers had acquired during the progress of their labors. Topographical engineers being much needed in the army, he supplied skilled topog- raphers from his own corps. Pilots being necessary for the squadrons which operated on -the enemy's coast, he furnished officers of the survey whose local knowledge enabled them safely to pilot the largest vessels of war into harbors from which buoys, lights, and all other aids to navigation had been purposely removed, and whose hydrographic knowledge enabled them in a short time to replace the old marks by others better adapted to the pur- poses of navigation. During the war there was not an army in the field without one or more coast survey officers attached to the staff of the general commanding, as topographers, and rendering most efficient service; and no