requisitions, approved by the Navy Board, all ships fitting 



ont with their necessary nautical apparatus : the latter to instruments to 



i t • i • • o ,1 , ...be repaired, 



repair, clean, adjust, assist in rating, &c, to the end that cleaned, &c, at 

 all the instruments may be kept in proper order, and at all ie epo 

 times ready for use. He should be required also to examine 

 and test thoroughly all chronometers previous to their being 

 purchased. 



"The only instrument, in addition to those already be- 

 longing to the Navy, necessary to such a depot, would be 

 one of reflection and great radius, with tripod, vertical and 

 oblique plane screws. Its cost would be, perhaps, $200. 



"With what has already been said of the neglect and 

 prejudicial consequences attending the present mode of re- 

 garding our nautical instruments, if it be considered that 

 many thousands of dollars have been expended in their col- 

 lection, assuredly it cannot be questioned that economy as 

 well as the efficiency of the service would be promoted by 

 a proper modification extending to our navigating depart- 

 ment." (Officers' Letters to Secretary of the Navy, vol. ix, 

 p. 53, Files of the Navy Department.) 



As an instance of the want of care and attention given to want ° f care 



. . ° m rating chro- 



the proper keeping and rating of chronometers, and of the nometers. 

 serious consequences liable to attend such a system, Lieu- 

 tenant Goldsborough further says: 



u In 1821 the Franklin, 74, sailed from New York for the 

 Pacific Ocean with one of these instruments (chronometers) 

 on board as the principal guide in determining her longi- 

 tude. Twenty-five or thirty days thereafter one of the 

 Cape Verde Islands was suddenly and unexpectedly de- 

 scried, the chronometer not placing us within sixty miles 

 of our actual position. The first impression was that the 

 instrument was radically defective, and, by its differing so far 

 from the truth, no further confidence could be placed in its 

 correctness. Thus were we deprived of the mainstay of our 

 navigation. Upon our arrival in Rio Janeiro, Commodore 

 Stewart thought proper to have ascertained by observations 

 whether its correct rate had been given us on leaving New 

 York. So far from such proving the case, instead of three Glaring error 

 seconds and a fraction (the daily rate given us on our de-iSte h dSao(5?S»d 

 parture), it was found to be eleven seconds and a fraction. after sailin s- 

 Had the precautionary measure of making one of the 

 Cape Yerde Islands not been taken, this glaring error of 

 eight seconds a day would have caused, in our passage of 



