THE 1800 s -(Cont'd) 



prevented purchase of required instruments and equipment from abroad. During this period 

 Hassler first occupied himself as acting professor of mathematics in the newly created United 

 States Military Academy at West Point (1807 - 1810) and then for one year as professor of natural 

 philosophy and mathematics at Union College in Schenectady, New York. In 1811 Congress 

 finally appropriated funds in the amount of $25,000 for the Survey and Hassler almost 

 immediately sailed for Europe where in London and Paris he obtained his equipment and 

 instruments, many of which he designed himself, including his famous 24-inch theodolite. The War 

 of 1812, however, prolonged his stay and Hassler did not return to the United States until 1815. 

 In 1818, Congress, charging that Hassler's work was lagging, placed the Survey under the Navy and 

 excluded Hassler and other civilian personnel from further work. The Survey of the Coast was thus 

 abolished and would not reappear again until 1832. During this period of suspension Hassler had a 

 brief appointment to survey the northeast boundary between the United States and Canada as 

 specified by the Treaty of Ghent. He made an unsuccessful attempt at farming and then to meet 

 financial obligations took a position as gager in the New York Customs House. In 1830, because of 

 his training and background he was appointed, at the age of 60, Superintendent of the new Office 

 of Weights and Measures later to become the National Bureau of Standards. 



The growing need for reliable navigational information was sufficient to warrant the 

 establishment in 1830 of the Navy's Depot of Charts and Instruments (under the Bureau of 

 Ordnance) wliich later evolved into both the Hydrographic Office (now the U. S. Naval 

 Oceanographic Office) and the Naval Observatory. The first Officer-in-Charge of the Depot was 

 Lieutenant Louis Goldsborough, who suggested its creation to the Board of Navy Commissioners. 



The Navy however had been doing little survey work and in 1832 Congress, acting upon the 

 recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy, reestablished the Survey of the Coast placing the 

 work again under the Treasury Department. A small appropriation was made, and Ferdinand 

 Hassler was reappointed to its Superintendency. Two years later, because the Treasury Department 

 was overloaded with work, the Survey was again transferred to the Navy, but this time with 

 Hassler still in charge and civilian employees retained. Hassler strongly objected to this change and 

 after threatening to resign the Survey was again restored in 1836 to the Treasury Department with 

 its title now changed to the Coast Survey. 



The first hydrographic surveys began by Hassler's Survey were in late 1834 and 1835 using 

 the schooner Jersey under the command of Lieutenant T. R. Gedney and the schooner 

 Experiment under Lieutenant George Blake. Their work was concentrated along the south shore of 

 Long Island in New York Harbor, and in Great South Bay. One of the important results of this 

 work was the finding of a previously unknown channel leading to New York Harbor from the 

 southeast with more than 25 feet of water at high tide. Gedney Channel is now one of the main 

 entrances to New York Harbor. The first chart by the Coast Survey, which was from a stone 

 engraving of Newark Harbor, wasn't produced however until 1839. 



In 1837, a Navy survey was conducted by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of Georges Shoal and 

 Bank, a great fishing ground eastward of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, using the 88-foot hug Porpoise 

 and the schooners Maria and Badassah. Four engraved charts resulted from this survey and were 

 published by the Depot of Charts and Instruments the same year. 



The need for accurate hydrographic surveys was again gaining the attention of Congress. In 

 1838, Wilkes was placed in command of the first scientific expedition sent out by the United 

 States, the U. S. Exploring Expedition. This expedition, authorized by Congress in 1836 with an 

 appropriation of $300,000, simply directed the President to "send out a surveying and exploring 

 expedition to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas." A bill authorizing this expedition had actually 

 been introduced in 1826 for the purpose of surveying and charting those parts of the world most 

 frequented by our whaling vessels in the Pacific and our sealing vessels in the Antarctic regions. 



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