IQO 



RECREATION 



as a station. Since then the work has ex- 

 panded greatly; stations have been estab- 

 lished at Washington, Beaufort, N. C, Port- 

 land, Me., and at many other places along 

 the Atlantic bays and sounds, and at inland 

 points. In 1880 the Fish Hawk was built 

 especially for the work, and two years later 

 the Albatross, the latter a fine vessel of one 

 thousand tons, which later was sent to the 

 Pacific, and has done remarkabl work in the 

 western ocean, where it has dredged in four 

 thousand and taken soundings in five thou- 

 sand five hundred fathoms. The Fish Hawk 

 is of some five hundred tons displacement, 

 and at first glance there is nothing to distin- 

 guish her especially from the many other 

 vessels constantly passing along that great 

 highway of commerce, Vineyard Sound, but 

 once aboard the practiced eye will note the 

 heavy boom attached to the foremast, with 

 pulleys at the ends, and the donkey-engine 

 just in front of the wheelhouse. When 

 dredging, the boom is swune - out on the star- 

 board side, and a three-eighths inch steel ca- 

 ble runs through the pulleys, and so over the 

 side and out of sight to the main deck below. 

 For the rest, there is little to le seen differ- 

 ing from an ordinary steamer, for the dredg- 

 ing gear is stowed away below decks. Al- 

 though this boat is in the service of the Bu- 

 reau of Fisheries, she is manned from ihe 

 navy, and her four or five officers and the 

 forty-five men who compose her crew are 

 under orders from the Secretary of the Navy 

 and not from the Secretary of the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce and Labor. 



After having rambled over the Bureau's 

 laboratories and hatcheries, looking at the 

 curious collections in aquariums and alcohol 

 jars, it may be interesting to go out with 

 the ship for a day's dredging and see how 

 these strange creatures are taken. 



Summer ; blue sky above, dotted with white 

 clouds; blue water beneath, with white- 

 capped waves ; and a cool fresh breeze from 

 the southeast. About a mile and a half to 

 the north are the islands of the Elizabeth 

 group, with their musical Indian names, Nau- 

 shon, Pasque, Nashawena, Penikese, green 

 with the grass of pasture or the foliage of 

 woodland. To the south, five miles away, 

 is the island of Martha's Vineyard, with an 

 irregular coast-line, which shows yellow- 

 white above the line of the sea, terminating 

 at the west end in a bold, brilliantly colored 

 cliff, Gay Head. The Fish Hawk is now 

 steaming down Vineyard Sound in that di- 

 rection, going out to her morning's work. 



On the bridge, high above the upper or 

 spar deck, are six men, three in uniform and 

 three in civilian dress. Of the former, one is 

 the captain, another the first officer and the 

 third wears upon the sleeve of his sailor's 

 blouse the keys of the yeoman or ship's 

 clerk. Raised on a couple of low trestles, on 

 a hatch in the middle of the bridge, is a 

 large drawing board bearing a chart of Vine- 



yard Sound, and bending over it, busy with 

 dividers and triangles, is the draughtsman. 

 The other two civilians are the observers and 

 are college boys, attached to the ship for va- 

 cation only. The sextants which they use 

 are in readiness on the hatch. 



The captain, who has been standing at the 

 starboard end of the bridge, turns, and, walk- 

 ing to the side of the draughtsman, looks at 

 the chart, placing his finger at a point where 

 a small pencil circle is drawn. ''We must be 

 getting nearly there," he remarks ; then he 

 turns to the two young fellows and says, 

 "Stand by to angle." At the word they 

 spring up, each taking a sextant; they look 

 at the near-by shore for a moment, and one 

 says in a low tone, "Naushon Southwest, to 

 Pasque, to Nashawena." These are the 

 names of "triangulation points" on the shore, 

 whose positions are accurately known, over 

 each of which a tall white tripod has been 

 erected, showing at this distance as a dot 

 against the trees or sky. The two raise the 

 instruments to their eyes. A moment's pause. 

 "Are you ready?" "Ready!" "Stand by — 

 mark!" and the two sextants are lowered 

 simultaneously. Together the observers step 

 over to the draughtsman, and the recorder 

 prepares to write. The observer who an- 

 nounced the objects and gave the signal to 

 mark looks at the vernier of his instrument 

 and reads, "Naushon Southwest to Pasque, 

 57 degrees and 23 minutes." The draughts- 

 man bends over a three-arm protractor, and 

 as he sets the right arm on the graduated 

 circle to the reading just given, he repeats, to 

 make sure, "Naushon Southwest to Pasque, 

 57 degrees and 23 minutes." "Check," says 

 the observer, and then steps back, his im- 

 mediate part done, while the recorder notes 

 down the data. "Left," says the draughts- 

 man, and the other observer, stepping up, 

 says, "Pasque to Nashawena, 40 — 38." This, 

 too, is checked and recorded and both angles 

 set on the scale. The draughtsman then be- 

 gins to slide the protractor about over the 

 chart in an apparently aimless manner, but 

 on looking closer we may see at various 

 points on the sheet tiny red triangles each 

 with a dot in the centre and marked with 

 some name. Among others we may read, 

 "Naushon Southwest," "Pasque," and "Nash- 

 awena," on three islands v rv nearly in line, 

 and it is now evident that the draughtsman 

 is trying to make each arm of the protractor 

 coincide with one of these points, because for 

 every pair of angles there is one and only 

 one position from which they could be taken. 

 Now this is found; each arm lies just 

 through the center of a red triangle, and the 

 draughtsman, pressing a pencil through a 

 hole in the instrument which marks the com- 

 mon vortex of the angles, twirls it, and then, 

 pushing the protractor asid , draws a circle 

 about the point just made, which represents 

 on the chart the exact location of the ship 

 when the observers "marked." "Plotted," he 



