178 



INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



and including information of timely significance 

 not requiring more extensive treatment ; Statistical 

 Bulletins (multigraphed), consisting of statistical 

 and trade information regarding the commercial 

 fisheries and the marketing and distribution of 

 fishery products. In 1932, $27,000 was available 

 for publications; during the current year $14,000 

 was available. 



Hydrographic Office, United States Navy ('37) 



History or origin: On December 6, 1830, following a 

 recommendation by Lieutenant L. M. Gold.s- 

 borough. United States Navy, to the Board of 

 Navy Commissioners, a "Depot of charts and 

 instruments" was established at the seat of 

 Government. This depot took charge of such 

 nautical charts and instruments as had been 

 collected at the various navy yards and assumed 

 the care and issue of charts and instruments 

 furnished United States vessels. The object of 

 the depot was to do away with the difficulties 

 and dangers to which our national vessels had 

 been previously exposed from want of an orderly 

 and sufficient supply of information on all parts 

 of the world to which their services might be 

 directed. 



The difficulties that were experienced in main- 

 taining an adequate supply of charts, all of which 

 were purchased from civilian firms, early led to a 

 recommendation from the Board of Navy Com- 

 missioners to the Secretary of the Navy that 

 means for providing charts should be installed 

 at the depot. The introduction of a lithographic 

 press in May, 1835, constituted the initial attempt 

 at chart production. 



In 1842 the Board of Navy Commissioners that 

 had governed the Navy for twenty-seven years 

 was dissolved and the present bureau system was 

 established in its place. The depot of charts and 

 instruments was placed under the Bureau of 

 Ordnance and Hydrography. The institution was 

 officially known from 1830 to 1844 as the "Depot 

 of Charts and Instruments," but during the next 

 ten years the names "Naval Observatory," 

 "National Observatory," "Hydrographic Office," 

 • and others were used indiscriminately. By order 

 of the Secretary of the Navy, in December 1854, 

 it was thenceforth called the United States Naval 

 Observatory and Hydrographical Office. As such 

 it was known until the statutory establishment of 

 the Hydrographic Office as a separate institution 

 in 1866. During the years 1842-1861 in which 



Lieutenant M. F. Maury, United States Navy, was 

 in charge of the instruments, his talents and in- 

 clinations being essentially those of a meteorologist 

 and oceanographer, he became recognized as taking 

 account of scientific matters in general relating 

 to the ocean. His investigations and writings 

 on the winds which blew over the surface of the 

 water and their agencies in minimizing the dura- 

 tion of the passage of ships; the configuration of 

 the ocean bed from the sea level down to the 

 greatest depth; the temperature, circulation, and 

 physical and chemical properties of sea water; 

 the currents; the tides; the waves; the com- 

 position and distribution of marine deposits; the 

 nature and distribution of marine organisms; the 

 relation of man to the ocean in the development 

 of fisheries; commerce, civilization; navigation; 

 hydrography; and marine meteorology were all 

 subjects within the purview of this naval scientist. 

 In 1866 Congress passed an act to establish a 

 Hydrographic Office, thereby severing the con- 

 nection between that office and the Naval Ob- 

 servatory. This act reads in part as follows: 



"There shall be a Hydrographic Office attached to 

 the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy Department, 

 for the improvement of the means for navigating safely 

 the vessels of the Navy and of the mercantile marine, 

 by providing, under the authority of the Secretary of 

 the Navy, accurate and cheap nautical charts, sailing 

 directions, navigators, and manuals of instructions 

 for the use of all vessels of the United States, and for 

 the benefit and use of navigators generally. (U. S. 

 Code, Titles, sec. 457.) 



The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to cause to 

 be prepared, at the Hydrographic Office attached to the 

 Bureau of Navigation in the Navy Department, maps, 

 charts, and nautical books relating to and required in 

 navigation, and to publish and furnish them to naviga- 

 tors at the cost of printing and paper, and to purchase 

 the plates and copyrights of such existing maps, charts, 

 navigators, sailing directions, and instructions, as he 

 may consider necessary, and when he may deem it 

 expedient to do so, and under such regulations and 

 instructions as he may prescribe. (U. S. Code, Title 

 5, sec. 458.)" 



In 1866 the Hydrographic Office was moved 

 to what is known as the "Octagon House," at 

 Eighteenth Street and New York Avenue. Com- 

 mander Thomas S. Fillebrown, United States 

 Navy, was detached from the Naval Observatory 

 and appointed Hydrographer. In the summer of 

 1879 the Hydrographic Office was removed from 

 the Octagon House to the same building in which 

 the Navy Department was located, and it has 



