NAUTICAL CHARTS CONTRIBUTE to ECONOMIC GROWTH and NATIONAL DEFENSE, 1807-1945 HISTORICAL REFERENCES TO COAST SURVEY CHARTING Dawn Forsythe 4/20/17 1 Contents Nautical charts contribute to U.S. economic growth ......................................................................................................... 4 “He wished that the whole coast could be surveyed” ....................................................................................................... 5 An Act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States ............................................................................... 7 Setting the foundation with scientific precision .................................................................................................................... 9 Focusing on commercial needs ............................................................................................................................................... 14 “Making known the before unknown and hidden dangers” ............................................................................................ 15 Finding Gedney Channel into New York Harbor ......................................................................................................... 15 “There is no chart extant of the Delaware, deserving the name” ............................................................................ 15 Finding a usable channel for Navy access ........................................................................................................................ 16 Tackling the difficult Nantucket Shoals, “the grave of thousands” ........................................................................... 16 Charting the Florida Reef, a “menace to shipping” ....................................................................................................... 18 Establishing the “unfinished study of ice formation along the Atlantic Coast ........................................................ 20 Mapping the Mississippi flood ............................................................................................................................................. 22 Speeding mail delivery? ............................................................................................................................................................. 23 “The limits of our coast have been greatly extended” ..................................................................................................... 24 “For aid in great national projects” in the Gulf of Mexico ......................................................................................... 24 “The very unexpected change” on the West Coast .................................................................................................... 25 Civil War ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 28 Preparing for the coming storm ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Serving in all theaters and with all major commanders ............................................................................................... 29 Destabilizing the South ........................................................................................................................................................ 30 Responding to Congress and local officials ......................................................................................................................... 32 “A very violent motive” for the Boston Harbor chart” .............................................................................................. 32 Charting Maine “in a deliberate bid for his support” ................................................................................................... 33 Yale’s New Haven map ........................................................................................................................................................ 35 Approaches to Baltimore Harbor ..................................................................................................................................... 35 Mapping Alaska ........................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Reconnoitering “Seward’s Folly” ....................................................................................................................................... 35 Opening navigation to gold fields ...................................................................................................................................... 36 2 Protecting Alaska’s fur seals ............................................................................................................................................... 37 Charting dangers “from reports of vessels which have been wrecked on them” ................................................ 39 A nation rich in resources ....................................................................................................................................................... 41 Transporting forest products ............................................................................................................................................. 41 Mapping and monitoring oyster beds ............................................................................................................................... 42 Charting shoals for the fishing industry ........................................................................................................................... 42 Territorial expansion ................................................................................................................................................................ 43 Hawaii ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Puerto Rico ............................................................................................................................................................................. 46 Philippine Islands .................................................................................................................................................................... 46 Aeronautical charts for the new transportation age ......................................................................................................... 46 Charting the “magenta line” for recreational boating ....................................................................................................... 47 Employing thousands helps Great Depression recovery, improves ICW charts .................................................. 49 World Wars ................................................................................................................................................................................ 51 World War I .......................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Special confidential surveys ............................................................................................................................................ 51 Chart production more than doubles ......................................................................................................................... 53 A tribute .............................................................................................................................................................................. 53 World War II ......................................................................................................................................................................... 55 Preparing for war .............................................................................................................................................................. 56 Panama: “the most strategic spot in the world today” ........................................................................................... 56 Withdrawing Pearl Harbor chart .................................................................................................................................. 59 Mapping caves in the Philippine Islands ....................................................................................................................... 61 Atlantic Coast .................................................................................................................................................................... 64 Alaska’s Aleutian Islands .................................................................................................................................................. 65 “Commensurate with an expanding and developing America” ...................................................................................... 66 APPENDIX 1 Legislative history of “An Act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States” ............ 67 APPENDIX 2 Coast Survey in the federal bureaucracy.................................................................................................. 73 Leaders