18 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
OPERATIONS OF THE STEAMER ALBATROSS IN THE NORTH 
PACIFIC OCEAN AND BERING SEA. 
Atthe beginning of the year the steamer A ibatross, Commander Z. L. 
Tanner, U.S. N., commanding, was still on duty under direction of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, being at Port Townsend, Wash., where she 
ha 1 recently arrived after coaling at Departure Bay, British Columbia. 
She left the former place on July 1 for Unalaska, but unfortunately 
(owing to continuous sea service for a long period, much of the time 
under trying circumstances as regards sea and weather) her boilers 
were in bad condition, and in several other respects the ship needed 
a thorough overhauling. Ten days were consumed in making the 
passage to Unalaska, where it was found imperative to order a board 
of survey, which found the boilers unsafe for further use. Temporary 
repairs were begun at once, to permit of the ship’s returning to San 
Francisco, but several weeks were required for their completion. 
The unfinished work which the Albatross had been expected to carry 
on was assigned to the revenue steamers Corwin and Rush, to which 
Mr. C. H. Townsend and Mr. A. B. Alexander were transferred to serve 
as naturalists, and also two seal-hunters and the necessary appliances 
for conducting the investigations. Taking advantage of the delay, Prof. 
B. W. Evermann, then acting as chief navuralist of the Albatross, and 
Mr. N. B. Miller, laboratory assistant, were dispatched to the Pribilof 
Islands, where they made a careful inspection of the seal rookeries and 
obtained an interesting series of photographs bearing upon the same. 
On August 3 the Albatross left Unalaska, having in tow a British 
schooner which had been captured while engaged in pelagic sealing in 
Bering Sea, in contravention of the provisions of the modus vivendi 
then in operation. After delivering this prize at Sitka, she proceeded 
to Port Townsend and thence to San Francisco, which was reached on 
September 3. By direction of the Secretary of the Treasury the con- 
trol of the ship reverted to the Fish Commissioner at the close of August 
31, while still upon her passage, having up to that date been in the 
service of the Treasury Department for a period of 54 months, during 
which she visited 26 ports and steamed a distance of 14,848 miles, 
mostly in northern waters. In order to put the ship in suitable condi- 
tion for further service it became necessary to provide new boilers and 
to make many alterations and repairs, which were not fully completed 
until the following April. Beginning on the 25th of that month, a 
successful trial trip was made, lasting three days, in the course of which 
investigations of the sea bottom were carried on off Monterey Bay. 
On May 13 the President directed that the Albatross be placed under 
the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, for assignment to duty in 
connection with the sealing patrol fleet in the North Pacific Ocean and 
Bering Sea, composed otherwise of certain naval and revenue-marine 
vessels. It was arranged, however, that her commanding officer should 
receive his customary instructions relative to fishery and fur-seal inves- 
tigations, which were to be carried out so far as the special duties 
