SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS 



660 



who would take one or two puffs and in 

 turn pass it on to his wife and family, 

 until it was really finished. 



We took the Governor's letters and 

 posted them at Buenos Aires, but not one 

 of the various letters left at Easter Island 

 by our party, to be mailed on the next 

 vessel to call, has ever reached its destina- 

 tion. Perhaps they were lost before the 

 arrival of the next steamer, which came 

 about six months later, or the valuable 

 Rapanui stamps may have proved too 

 great an attraction if the letters passed 

 through the mail. 



From Easter Island the Carnegie pro- 

 ceeded around Cape Horn once more and 

 reached Buenos Aires March 2, 191 7. As 

 we had sailed from the United States be- 

 fore the presidential election the previous 

 November, we did not know that Presi- 

 dent Wilson had been reelected until we 

 arrived in Argentina. 



Owing to the entry of the United States 

 into the war, it was deemed best to de- 

 tain the vessel there until December, when 

 she began her return trip to Washington, 

 going back around Cape. Horn, through 

 the Pacific Ocean and Panama Canal, 

 reaching Washington in June, 19 18. 



Owing to special duties during the war 

 assigned to the Department of Terrestrial 

 Magnetism, plans for future ocean work 

 were not made until after the close of 

 1918, and the Carnegie remained at Wash- 

 ington, out of commission, until prepara- 

 tions for Cruise VI were begun, in 1919. 



NUMEROUS BIRDS BOARD THE VESSEL 

 AT SEA 



In October the vessel sailed for Dakar, 

 Senegal, French West Africa. Storms 

 and rain squalls, regular Gulf Stream 

 weather, attended us all the way across 

 the North Atlantic to the Azores. 



During this trip a British steamship 

 came out of her course to have a look at 

 us, saluted us with three blasts of the 

 whistle and by dipping her flag, courtesies 

 to which we replied -in kind. 



We had better weather after leaving 

 the Azores, and during the calms we 

 amused ourselves by dipping up some of 

 the sargasso seaweed from the surface 

 of the water. We would find many small, 

 highly colored crabs, about the size of 

 one's little finger nail, and tiny shrimp 

 hiding in the weed. 



Frequently small birds would fall on 

 deck exhausted, having been blown hun- 

 dreds of miles to sea ahead of some storm. 

 After resting and being given water and 

 food, they would usually fly away again. 



A large owl tried his best to land on the 

 deck one stormy day, but was very timid 

 and hesitant because of the people. He 

 would first fly along on the port side and 

 then he would try the other side, fre- 

 quently becoming drenched by the waves, 

 which also were trying to come on board. 

 At last he flew too far forward, into the 

 down draft to the lee of the foresail, and 

 was blown into the water in front of a 

 huge wave, and disappeared. 



Whales were often seen and at times 

 would sport and play about the bow of 

 the vessel, apparently wishing to be neigh- 

 borly, handling their huge bulk with quick 

 and graceful ease. We overtook one just 

 as he was blowing, and his surprise at 

 our presence and nearness was so great 

 that with a mighty splash he sounded. 

 If he kept up his speed and direction he 

 never stopped until he struck bottom. 



a "harmattan" oee the coast oe 



AERICA 



When more than 120 miles from the 

 African coast, we met a harmattan, or 

 sandstorm. The hot easterly winds blow- 

 ing across the Sahara Desert carry fine 

 particles of red sand far out to sea, filling 

 the air and covering the sails and rigging 

 of the ship with a coat of fine red dust. 

 Moisture collects about each particle, 

 forming a dense fog ; the sun cannot be 

 seen until it reaches an altitude of 15 

 degrees or more, and the horizon is not 

 more than half a mile distant. 



Under these conditions the navigator 

 must measure the altitude of the sun 

 from a position as near the surface of 

 the sea as possible, correcting for the 

 nearness of the horizon. 



For four days we were sailing through 

 this harmattan, yet we picked up sound- 

 ings off Cape Verde precisely as ex- 

 pected. 



After we had remained "hove to" for 24 

 hours on account of the fog, the weather 

 cleared for a few hours in the morning, 

 long enough to permit us to make port. 



Owing to the presence of bubonic 

 plague in Dakar, 12 deaths occurring daily 

 among the native population, it was con- 



