Oceanographic Ships Fore and Aft

This 1971 book is a collection of photos and drawings of American vessels that had been engaged in hydrographic surveys and oceanographic research for the Navy as well as by other agencies and universities. And there were many of them: sailing ships, former yachts, ex-sub chasers, a few tugboats and some repurposed cargo ships, like USNS Michelson.

The author, Stewart B. Nelson, who worked at the Naval Oceanographic Office, begins with some history, explaining the importance of accurate charts for ocean commerce. A map of the North Atlantic, published in 1769 by Benjamin Franklin for use by mail packet captains, shows the extent of the gulf stream. The author devotes a page to Nathaniel Bowditch, whose 1802 book The New American Practical Navigator was written after finding over 8,000 errors in British navigational tables! One of the best sellers of all time in 70+ editions, it is found on the bridge of nearly every American ship today.

The irascible Swiss engineer Ferdinand Hassler's painstakingly accurate early coastal surveys are described followed by short histories of his contemporaries including Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who led a round the world voyage of discovery in the early 1840s.

American artist J. A. M. Whistler, painter of Whistler's Mother, once worked as a draftsman for the Coast Survey after flunking out of West Point. The author reports that "He was an indifferent draftsman of charts and was not bound by office hours. He did take an interest in copperplate etching and mastered the art of engraving. The charts he did execute were generally embellished with landscapes and fanciful figures". In 1854, three months into his new job, Whistler was fired for "prankishness", left the country and never returned.

A few years ago, while at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, I went looking for Whistler's portrait of Mom, where she is supposed to be in residence. She was absent, however. I had wanted to see a disgruntled American expatriate's contribution to impressionism.

After Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury became officer-in-charge of the Navy's Depot of Charts and Instruments in 1842 he began deep ocean surveys in the North Atlantic. Detailed oceanographic information was needed to facilitate routing the first commercial transatlantic telegraph cable. Maury found the best way for it to cross the ocean and approach its terminus on Newfoundland. He was author of The Physical Geography of the Sea, generally regarded as the first textbook on oceanography. When the civil war broke out Maury sided with the confederacy. This appeared to put some of his scientific work in doubt with Washington but not with the nautically knowledgeable.

Ferdinand Hassler's theodilite, with 24 inch telescope. Cumbersome, delicate and hard to transport,
his survey apparatus rated better protection better than he allowed for himself.

This cast of cartographic characters included a Lt. W. F. Lynch, who in 1848 organized a survey party whose goal was to measure the level of the Dead Sea. He was more than successful. Besides finding the Dead Sea to be 1,300 feet below sea level, Lynch found the capabilities of camels to be pack animals far superior to those of horses. This information led to another expedition a few years later that was authorized $30,000 "for the purchase of camels and the importation of dromedaries". Thus, the Navy transported their new animal cargo to Camp Verde in the Texas hill country, where the Army operated "camel caravans" until the civil war, when the animals were cut loose to fend for themselves. Later, W. F. Lynch, promoted to captain, explored the interior of the African continent for possible colonization before also resigning to join the Confederate States' navy.

The author's oceanographic history parallels America's expansion and the "manifest destiny" of those times. Expeditions to the polar regions, across the Pacific, Commodore Perry's visit to Japan and, however oddly, American explorations in Africa and the Middle East, had more than scientific purposes. While the oceanographers learned about and surveyed the seas, they were facilitating commerce and extending American military influence.

Photos and drawings in Oceanographic Ships Fore and Aft are in black and white. Included is one of USNS Michelson, but this appears to be the same image in lower resolution as in another article on this site. Michelson's two sister ships are pictured below in photos that look like they were just out of the shipyard following conversion to survey ships in 1958.

USNS Bowditch (TAGS-21)
The former "Victory Ship" S.S. South Bend Victory, a VC2-S-AP3 built for the Maritime Administration in 1945 by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon. Acquired by the Navy in 1957, it was converted at Charleston Navy Shipyard to a deep ocean bathymetric survey ship. Renamed and reclassified, it was placed in service as USNS Bowditch in 1958. Length = 455 feet, displacement = 13,000 tons.

USNS Dutton (TAGS-22)   
The former "Victory Ship" S.S. Tuskegee Victory, a VC2-S-AP3 built for the Maritime Administration in 1944 by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon. Acquired by the Navy in 1957, it was converted at Philadelphia Navy Shipyard to a deep ocean bathymetric survey ship. Renamed and reclassified, it was placed in service as USNS Dutton in 1958. Length = 455 feet, displacement = 13,000 tons.

Published by the Navy Oceanographic Office, Oceanographic Ships Fore and Aft has 268 pages. In the public domain, it can be found online at Archive.org in .pdf format. It's also available as ePub and Kindle documents.

Another book of interest is Measuring America: How the United States Was Shaped by the Greatest Land Sale in History, by Andro Linklater, published in 2002. Here one learns how the geodesist polymath Ferdinand Hassler and equally forgotten geographer Thomas Hutchins began the surveys that set standards for the great Westward expansion of the young United States. A good read.