The Bureau of Fisheries 



l( >5 



a cost of $190,800, including outfit and 

 special equipment. She was launched 

 August 19, 1S82, and went into com- 

 mission November 1 1 following, with 

 Lieutenant (now Commander, U. S. N., 

 retired) Z. L. Tanner as commanding 

 officer. Captain Tanner had superin- 

 tended the construction of the vessel and 

 was its able and efficient commander for 

 nearly 12 years. To Captain Tanner 

 more than to any other one man is due 

 the credit for the great scientific and 

 economic results of the investigations 

 made by the Albatross. 



The Albatross was built expressly for 

 use iu investigating questions connected 



'9*a Ur-j! Slfllfl n 





j .. 





Picture of the Highest Mountain in the 



World Set in the Greatest 



Ocean Depth 



If Mt Everest (29,002 feet) were set down in 

 the Xero Deep (31,614 feet) there would still be 

 nearly one-half mile of water above its summit. 



with the high seas, such as ocean tem- 

 peratures, densities, depths, currents, 

 character of bottom and distribution of 

 life; the movements of pelagic and anad- 

 romous fishes as well as others which 

 go in schools ; the location, extent, and 

 character of off-shore fishing banks ; for 

 all these matters have bearing upon the 

 commercial fisheries. 



The vessel is admirably adapted to the 

 purposes for which she was designed. 

 There are comfortable rooms for the 



naturalists and other members of the 

 civilian staff, and 2 laboratories well 

 equipped with reagents, preservatives, 

 and appropriate scientific literature, 

 where the collections may be cared for 

 and scientific studies carried on. The 

 vessel is electric -lighted throughout, 

 has distilling and cold storage plants, 

 photographic dark-room, search-light, 

 and special search-lights for submarine 

 use, which the Albatross was the first to 

 use. The Albatross was the first vessel 

 ever built expressly for scientific work 

 along biologic lines on the high seas, 

 and is certainly the best equipped ves- 

 sel in the world for that purpose. She 

 is officered and manned from the United 

 States Navy, but has a civilian staff 

 consisting of a chief naturalist, an as- 

 sistant naturalist, a fishery expert, pho- 

 tographer, and, on special cruises, ex- 

 perts in hydrography, thalassography, 

 and other lines. 



The Albatross has been principally 

 engaged in developing the resources 

 naturally existing along our coasts, and 

 the fishing grounds which are unknown 

 or little known to our fishermen. In 

 doing this the bottom over very wide 

 areas must be examined with great 

 detail. Lines of soundings must be run 

 at close intervals to determine the depth; 

 samples of the bottom must be secured, 

 and temperature and density observa- 

 tions made; and the dredge, beam-tawl, 

 and tangle used to determine the char- 

 acter and abundance of the fishes and 

 other life forms. 



It is impracticable to enumerate in 

 this connection the various investiga 

 tions upon which the Albatross has been 

 engaged. During the five years (1882 to 

 1887) when she w 7 as on the Atlantic 

 coast she conducted important inquiries 

 along the entire length of the coast from 

 Maine to Florida, in the Caribbean Sea, 

 Gulf of Mexico, off Newfoundland and 

 Nova Scotia, and in the Bahamas. 



In November, 1887, she left Hampton 

 Roads for the Pacific, where she has eve 4 , 



