CATALOGUE OF INSTITUTIONS— DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 



179 



since been quartered along with the rest of the 

 department. By act of Congress in 1898 it was 

 transferred from the Bureau of Navigation to the 

 Bureau of Equipment; and on July 1, 1910, it 

 was transferred back to the Bureau of Navigation. 

 The Hydrographic Office is supplemented by 

 twenty fully equipped Branch Offices located 

 at the most important points on the Atlantic, 

 Pacific, and Gulf seaboards and on the shores of 

 the Great Lakes, and at Honolulu, T. H. The 

 Hydrographic Office is under the immediate 

 direction of the Hydrographer, a naval officer 

 of high rank. The present Hydrographer, Cap- 

 tain Lamar R. Leahy, United States Navy, 

 assumed his duties on May 31, 1935. 



Location: In the Navy Building, ISth Street and 

 Constitution Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. 



Organization to which attached: The United States 

 Navy Department, of which the Hydrographic 

 Office is a major sub-division of the Bureau of 

 Navigation. 



Purposes: To place within reach of mariners, at 

 small expense to them, such useful information 

 as can not be collected profitably by a private 

 individual, but which the Government can 

 readily gather, without additional cost, through 

 agencies already established, to collect, digest, 

 and issue timely information calculated to afford 

 the maximum possible safety and facility of navi- 

 gation to ships on the seas and to aircraft operating 

 over the sea routes. 



Scope of activities: Under statutory obligations to: 



(1) Produce epitomes and manuals for the guid- 

 ance of navigators in conducting their observa- 

 tions and keeping their reckoning on the seven 

 seas; 



(2) supply the United States Navy with charts 

 required by it; 



(3) supply the Merchant Marine, United States 

 and foreign, and the navigators and aviators 

 generally, with Hydrographic Office charts and 

 other publications "at the cost of printing and 

 paper" (there are always on the shelves of the 

 Hydrographic Office some 300,000 charts and 

 100,000 journals and books ready for is.sue); 



(4) maintain the flow of the latest information 

 about surface and aerial navigation with some 

 7,000 mariners and aviators of all nationalities 

 who keep up a constant flow of information 

 respecting the sea and the air of the world in 

 addition to information from the vessels of the 

 Navy, American consuls, scientffic organizations, 



and foreign governments; provide a free exchange 

 of information and publications between the 

 Hydrographic Office and the Hydrographic Offices 

 of the other navies of the world ; 



(5) prepare, issue and keep up-to-date the 

 numerous standard publications that the Hydro- 

 graphic Office issues, such as sailing directions 

 and light lists of foreign waters, flying directions 

 and other aids to navigation, and all other navi- 

 gational publications and charts; 



(6) study oceanic circulation dynamically and 

 otherwise ; 



(7) prepare special and strategic charts required 

 by the Navy for its operation and maintain a 

 .sufficient supply of charts, navigational tables, 

 and manuals necessary to enable the Navy to 

 operate in accordance with approved war plans; 



(8) supervise the operation of the branch offices, 

 whereby the personal contact with merchant 

 mariners is secured and maintained, for the pur- 

 pose of collecting and dis.seminating information; 



(9) conducting actual direction of the United 

 States Naval surveying parties on the high seas, 

 laying out detailed plans for such .surveys, and 

 working up the data secured into finished charts, 

 and; 



(10) maintain interchange of information and 

 publications with scientific institutions, foreign 

 hydrographic offices, and the International Hy- 

 drographic Bureau of Monaco. 



Equipment: Comparable to any large well organized 

 concern which not only manufactures and dis- 

 tributes its own products but in addition does 

 its own scientific research work. 



BCRVETINQ VESSELS DISPLACEMENT OFFICERS CBEW 



Hannibal 4,000 14 240 



NoKOMis 1,265 11 118 



Y. P.-^l 



Y. V.~^ 



Y. P.— 56 210 From NoKOMis 



Staff: Sixteen officers and 176 civilians in the main 

 office at Washington, D. C, with twenty officers 

 and twenty-four civilians in the branch offices. 

 The civilians are mostly nautical, hydrographic, 

 and cartographic engineers; nautical scientists; 

 computers, engravers; photographers and litho- 

 graphers. 



Officers in charge of Divisions, March 1937: 

 Hydrographer, Captain L. R. Leahy, U.S.N. 

 Assistant Hydrographer and Head of Division of 



Administration, Captain H. E. Kays, U.S.N. 



