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oD Vales BOR ATS ers Sint TC NA ee SE % Fe 206 THE MARINE REVIEW \ Surface of dea Bottom of SCQ April, 1919 GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION TO SHOW HOW THE BOTTOM PROFILE OF THE OCEAN BED IN ALASKAN WATERS IS FREQUENTLY FORMED The lead line is of little use in charting regions where the ocean bottom is of this character for there is little chance that a lead thrown at regular intervals from a moving vessel will strike the summits of these pinnacle rocks. Even if the lead should striké such a pointed rock it would be likely to glance off and ter of the Jerrerson, Capt. J. G. Nord, who has been sailing Alaskan waters for 24 years and whose record is one of the best of any master of a vessel navigating the territorial waters, has had only one slight accident. But this record is to his own credit entirely. To prove it, old time residents of Alaska, who make the trip two or three times a year and who time their going by the sailing of the JEFFERSON, will tell you of the time two years ago when he lay behind Sentinel island for over 36 hours, while a storm blew and cablegrams flew from Skagway to company headquar- ters and back again. * Many are the wild tales Captain Nord told us on this trip of the days ‘when he navigated Alaskan waters record the greater depth at the base of the rock practically without a chart and of the many wrecks of those days on the reefs and pinnacle rocks and of the custom of naming each of these sub- merged rocks for the vessel that found it by stranding on it. Due to lack of funds, the United States coast and geodetic survey has continually fol- lowed comnierce in Alaska, instead of preceding it. From 1867 to 1917 there were approximately 425 vessels wrecked in Alaskan waters, with a loss of about 500 lives. Three of these vessels belong to the national government. Over half of this number was lost in the 20 years from 1898 to 1917, showing that the survey work has not kept up with the increase in traf- fic, for of the 224 vessels listed as totally lost within this time 156 were stranded, 33 foundered, 13 burned, three were crushed by ice, while. the causes of 19 of them are unknown. Most of the losses caused by strand- ing have been classed by officers of the coast and geodetic survey as un- avoidable, owing to lack of complete surveys. About one-third of the ves- sels included in this list of total losses of the last 20 years have gone down in the waters of southeastern Alaska; while over half of these have been lost in the Inside passage. ~Of these the majority again have been classed as unavoidable, this in spite of the fact that the hydrographic survey of the main channel is nearly complete. UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY STEAMER SURVEYOR— THIS CRAFT IS A MODERN SURVEYING VESSEL DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR WORK ON THE PACIFIC COAST