THE 1800s 



As American merchant ships continued to ply their trade in growing numbers, they found 

 their way across the ocean with no exact calculations of their courses. 



One of Salem, Massachusetts' most distinguished men of intellect, however, was soon to 

 publish what has been referred to as "The Seamen's Bible." Nathaniel Bowditch, who served as 

 clerk and captain of Salem ships, had found over 8,000 errors in the British maritime tables. In 

 1802, he published THE NEW AMERICAN PRACTICAL NAVIGATOR, which made it possible 

 for ships, through the use of his book, to sail in as nearly a straight line as weather would permit 

 by the first workable system of navigation. This book was to become one of the best sellers of all 

 time and after some 70 editions, it is still the standard work in its field. It is found on the bridge of 

 practicaOy every seagoing merchant and naval ship. This volume is now published under the 

 authority of the U. S. Navy. It is therefore fitting that Nathaniel Bowditch, the "Father of Modern 

 Navigation" be the introduction to this phase of our chronology. 



The first documented survey by any agency of the federal government was conducted by the 

 U. S. Navy in 1811. Commodore John Rodgers used the 204 foot frigate Constitution. "Old 

 Ironsides" (one of the first six frigates built for the Navy, at a cost of approximately $300,000) to 

 conduct a survey of the New London Harbor, and a chart was produced that same year. 



If this first survey was conducted in the same spirit that permeated the Constitution during 

 the American Revolution, the data collected for the resulting chart were indeed the efforts of a 

 "happy" crew. This spirit is best described in a story related by Harold Peterson, chief curator of 

 the National Park Service, in his lecture "Our Alcoholic Ancestors." 



"On August 23, 1779, the VSS Constitution set sail from Boston 

 loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 

 11,500 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: To 

 destroy and harass English shipping. 



On October 6, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 

 gallons of rum. Three weeks later the Constitution reached the Azores, where 

 she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. 



On November 18, the ship set sail for England, where her crew captured 

 and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum. 



But the Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way 

 unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here her landing party captured 

 a whiskey distillery, transferred 40,000 gallons aboard and headed for home. 



On February 20, 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no 

 cannon, no shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no whiskey. Just 48,600 gallons 

 of water." 



At this point it should be noted that hydrographic surveying in the United States actually 

 came into being when Congress in 1807 authorized the President (Jefferson) ". . . to cause a survey 

 to be taken of coasts of the United States in which shall be designated the islands and shoals and 

 places of anchorage . . ." Upon the approval of the American Philosophical Society, Jefferson 

 appointed Ferdmand Hassler, a Swiss geologist and scientist of outstanding reputation, first 

 Superintendent of the Survey of the Coast (under the Treasury Department) which in 1836 

 became the Coast Survey then, in 1878, the Coast and Geodetic Survey under the Commerce 

 Department and now, in 1970, is the National Ocean Survey under Commerce. 



Born in Switzerland in 1770, Hassler migrated to the United States with his family in 1805. 

 He was proud and intolerant and constantly drawing official censure upon himself by his 

 irascibility. The early history of the Survey of the Coast was, to say the least, fraught with 

 difficulties. In its first 4 years of existence, nothing was accomplished because dissension at home 

 interfered with the release of appropriated funds and unsettled political conditions in Europe 



