10 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



To make a beginning in the exploration of the vast ocean-areas, 

 a brigantine was chartered, the Galilee. She set out from San 

 Francisco Bay in 1905 into the ahiiost uncharted Pacific to make 

 three cruises, one under the command of J. F. Pratt and two under 

 W. J. Peters. In three years she cruised the waters between 

 Alaska and New Zealand and between China and the coasts of 

 the Americas. Conditions for observing were very unfavorable 

 on this ship. The instruments were mounted on an open plat- 

 form on deck, where rain or seas interrupted the work for days 

 at a time. Since she was not free from magnetic materials, it 

 was necessary to "swing ship" for deviation-errors as often as 

 circumstances permitted. These errors occasioned delay in 

 reporting results, and made the computations of final values most 

 laborious. 



It was apparent that a non-magnetic vessel with observatory 

 domes would be able to do the work far more efiSciently. It was 

 in answer to these needs that the Carnegie was built in 1909. The 

 experience with the Galilee had been invaluable; old instruments 

 were adapted to marine use, new ones were invented, and methods 

 were compared with the aim of finding those which gave the 

 greatest accuracy under ever changing conditions at sea. 



The Carnegie made six cruises between 1909 and 1921, I and 



11 under the command of W. J. Peters, III, IV, and VI under 

 J. P. Ault, and V under H. M. W. Edmonds. During these she 

 sailed more than a quarter of a million nautical miles, making 

 some of the longest voyages in history, and traversing all waters 

 between 80° north and 60^ south. She had met ice and fogs around 

 Spitzbergen and the South Orkneys, typhoons off Japan, har- 

 mattans along African coasts, pamperos near Argentina, hurri- 

 canes in the South Seas — and had come through unscathed. She 

 had visited the most unfrequented islands, and was without 

 doubt better known the world over than any ship that sailed the 

 seas. 



Perhaps the most notable achievement in her history was a 

 sub-polar circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean in her fourth 

 cruise in 1915-1916. This perilous voyage was made in a single 

 season — a unique chapter in the annals of sailing. She made 



