70 REPORT OF ALASKA INVESTIGATIONS. 



VESSELS. 



A fundamental necessity in the protection of the fisheries of coastal waters is a fleet of vessels of a type 

 fitted for the requirements of the region concerned and numerically proportionate to the extent of the waters 

 to be covered. Alaska has the enormous coast line of approximately 26,000 miles and produces fisheries 

 products each year valued at nearly $20,000,000, yet in the all-important matter of patrol vessels for 

 Alaska the Bureau of Fisheries has only the pitifully inadequate service of a single small steamer. This 

 vessel, the Osprey, is only 72 feet long and of 40 tons measurement, and it is unseaworthy, topheavy, and 

 quite unsuited to the needs of the service. 



In reference to the unseaworthiness of the Osprey, I feel well qualified to pass judgment, for in my 

 investigations and research this season I lived aboard her for 60 days and found conditions far from 

 satisfactory. Her freeboard amidships is just 12 inches. From the deck to the top of the pilot house the 

 distance is over 14 feet, and with the greater part of her machinery above the water line the vessel is so 

 topheavy that a good breeze renders it dangerous to leave the dock. In an unusual blow last fall, the 

 Osprey without warning turned completely on her side, lying flat on the water long enough for the engine 

 room to be flooded. The officers and crew were penned up in this treacherous boat, and only by an act 

 of Providence did a counter flurry right her in the next few seconds. 



This is the vessel that is offered to our men to patrol 26,000 miles of coast line in boisterous seas 

 to protect the great fishing industry of Alaska. The decks, pilot house, and many of the beams are rotten, 

 and the boat must be handled with unusual care. The boiler is also defective, having been installed 19 

 years ago, when the boat was built. 



However, I talked with men of experience who are familiar with vessels and their construction, and 

 all admit that her hull is strong and sound and agree that this boat if properly refitted and provided with 

 more efficient machinery would prove suitable for certain requirements of the Alaska patrol service. At 

 the present time the Osprey is expensive to operate. With coal at $8.50 a ton, she costs $17 for every hun- 

 dred miles covered and can maintain a speed of only 8 knots. By way of comparison, let me cite the 

 following case: The Osprey, after she had been purchased in 1912, left Elaine, Wash., and on the trip to 

 Ketchikan, a distance of 600 miles, burned about $90 worth of coal. The Warrior, a vessel similar to the 

 Osprey as to size, but equipped with a Diesel type of engine, made the trip from Seattle to Ketchikan, a 

 distance of 690 miles, in less time and at a total cost of only $10.50 for fuel, or about one-tenth of that required 

 for the Osprey. This is a strong argument for taking out the Osprey' 's steam plant and installing a suitable 

 type of gas engine, the estimated cost of which is $12,000. This will make the boat safe and of some value 

 to the Government, and at the same time will effect a saving on fuel of about $15 per hundred miles, the 

 latter figure being based on the average cost of coal in southeast Alaska. 



The Osprey has been used only part of the time during the last two years in southeastern Alaska, 

 due primarily to two reasons first, lack of appropriations; and second, because she is unseaworthy and 

 many days unable to leave her dock. 



NEW VESSELS REQUIRED. 



It is absolutely necessary to have more boats and funds to carry out the instructions of Congress 

 in regard to the enforcement of the fishery laws of Alaska. Without more vessels and men it is almost 

 as useless to make laws to protect this great fishing industry, worth nearly $20,000,000 per annum, as 

 it would be to lay 200 miles of railroad track in Alaska and then not furnish the money to buy a single 

 car or locomotive for the benefit of the people for whom the railroad was built. 



In order to conduct properly the patrol work in southeastern Alaska there should be the following: 

 In the first district, a large vessel of about 100 tons and four fast patrol boats, the former to cost in the 

 neighborhood of $30,000 and the latter about $9,000 each; in the second district, two patrol boats costing 

 $10,000 each; in the third district, one vessel costing $20,000 and one patrol boat costing $10,000; in the 

 fourth district, a vessel costing $20,000; and in the fifth district, one patrol boat costing $20,000. The 

 present method of chartering patrol boats is expensive and impracticable, and fails to accomplish the 

 purpose sought. They almost invariably lack speed, which is one of the essentials in detecting violations 

 of the fishery laws. The quarters on chartered boats are unsuitable, and our men are poorly housed and 

 do not have the accommodations or consideration they deserve in performing such arduous and impor- 

 tant work. 



