The Survey of the Coast. 59 



THE SURVEY OF THE COAST. 



By Herbert G. Ogden. 



At the inception of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the early 

 years of the century, so little was known of the dangers attend- 

 ing navigation along our extensive seaboard, that those who 

 engaged in commercial enterpiises were constrained to rely upon 

 local knowledge and the reports of the hardy navigators who 

 might carry their ventures to success. The charts available were 

 by no means a sure reliance, and it has since been shown, con- 

 tained many sei'ious errors. The great headlands and outlying- 

 shoals that present the greatest obstacles to the safety of coast- 

 wise navigation, had not been carefully surveyed, and their rela- 

 tive positions to one another were only approximately determined. 



The capacities of the harbors had not been ascertained, many 

 were unknown ; and even at the great port of New York, the 

 Oedney or Main channel, was not developed until after the per- 

 manent establishment of the Survey in 1832, and the thorough 

 exploration of the entrance was undertaken. A list of the sunken 

 dangers and new channels that have been discovered during the 

 progress of the work would fill pages. It is true such develop- 

 ments were to be expected in making a precise survey of the 

 comparatively uncharted coast ; but they, nevertheless, clearly 

 point to the necessity of the work. We may also assume that 

 the men who were controlling the destinies of the republic, real- 

 ized that a knowledge of the coast was essential if they would 

 succeed in building up a commerce, without which it was believed 

 the prosperity of the people could not be assured. The deep 

 draught vessels of the present day could not have traded along 

 our shores on any margin of safety with the little that was 

 known, and it is largely due to the perfect charting of the coast, 

 that commercial enterprise has found it practicable to build the 

 larger vessels of modern type to meet the increasing demands of 

 trade. 



The survey proposed was also required in providing for the 

 public defence ; as it is a self-evident proposition, that if we 

 would protect a harbor from a hostile fleet, we must know not 

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