74 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Sawk,* the vessel referred to in a previous report, liaving been com- 

 pleted and ready for sea. 



Her original jjurpose was that of a floating hatching establishment ; 

 but she was not completed until some time in July, or after the spring 

 hatching work was over. Her first service, therefore, was iii the inquiry 

 division of the Commission. She is a vessel of 484 tons, and provided 

 with all the necessary conveniences for investigation, such as a power- 

 ful hoisting engine and the necessary dredging and trawling apparatus. 

 She i^roved admirably adapted to the requirements of the occasion. 



Her personnel was furnished by the Kavy Department, under the law 

 of Congress that directed that she be placed on the same footing as the 

 vessels of the Coast Survey, which gave her the officers and a crew, with 

 their subsistence, leaving to the Commission the running expenses, such 

 as the cost of coal, oil, water, etc. Lieut. Z. L. Tanner, who had been 

 in charge of the steamer Speedicell, at Provincetown, in 1879, was placed 

 in command by the Navy Department, with Mr. J. S. Smith as mate, 

 Wm. B. Boggs as engineer, Geo. H. Reed as paymaster, and F. C. Van 

 Yliet as surgeon, and a crew of 27 men. 



- A large building, formerly used for the manufacture of shot, was 

 rented from Mr. John H. Griswold; an adjacent wharf, with a number of 

 buildings upon it, was also obtained for the service of the Commission. 



As in previous years, the superintendence of the work connected with 

 the marine invertebrates was in charge of Professor Yerrill, of Yale Col- 

 lege, assisted by J. H. Emerton as artist, Mr. Sanderson Smith of jSTew 

 York, and Mr. B. F. Koons and E. A. Andrews. Mr. Eichard Eathbuu 

 was an assistant of the Commission in the general work, and Mr. H. L. 

 Osborn and Frederic Gardiner had charge of the fishes during the ab- 

 sence in Alaska of Dr. T. H. Bean. 



The census branch of the fisheries also had its quarters in the town. 



My own oflQce, those of the laboratory and of the census, and the res- 

 idence of Maj. T. B. Ferguson, assistant commissioner, were connected 

 by telephone, for the more convenient transaction of business. 



I arrived in Newport with my party on the 9th of July, and was 

 joined by Professor Yerrill a few days later. The steamer, however, did 

 not reach Newport until the 2d of August, and, owing to various causes, 

 did not get fairly at her work until about the 7th. The city wharf was 

 hired from the city of Newport, where she lay when in port. The work 

 was carried on with great zeal during the summer, and yeiy imi^ortant 

 discoveries, both scientific and practical, were made, especially in the 

 course of three visits to the Gulf Stream in September and October. 

 On these occasions, the vessel by starting in the evening at 6 o'clock, 

 and running out to a distance of about a hundred miles reached the Gulf 

 Stream, and explored it for a period of 12 to 14 hours, and returned to 

 port on the succeeding night. The amount of life found along the west- 



*Thi8 vessel was designed by Mr. C. W. Copeland, of the Light-House Board, and built under the 

 direction of the Light-House Board, and the immediate supervision of Mr. Copeland and Lieut. Z. L. 

 Tanner, U. S. N. 



