Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1915 — PINNACLE ROCKS ARE MENACE TO TRADE BY WATER [ARTICLE]

PINNACLE ROCKS ARE MENACE TO TRADE BY WATER

Federal Department Discards Sounding for Dragging System to Root Up Obstacles. ARE DIFFICULT TO LOCATE A Pinnacle Rock la Like an Undersea Dagger to a Ship—Legal Importance of Having Dangerous Rocks Charted Cannot Be Overestimated.

Washington.—ls an aviator flew over New York some dark night, plumbing for the Woolworth tower with an ordinary sounding line, he’d have just as much chance of locating the building as the hydrographic experts of the department of commerce have in locating pinnacle rocks from ten to thirty feet under the surface of the water by using the same method. Accordingly, the department is no longer “sounding” for pinnacle rocks; it is "dragging” for them. Pinnacle rocks are one of the gravest menaces to navigation that exist in the coastal waters of the United States. New England has the most abundant crop of any locality and the coast of that section is probably the hardest to chart of any American coast. With the new “drag” method in operation, however, charting of pinnacle rocks is becoming an easy matter.

Not only is a pinnacle rock extremely dangerous to navigation, but it is extremely difficult to locate. A pinnacle rock is exactly what its name implies. It is a tall, rocky pinnacle which rises straight from the bottom of the ocean and often the area of its top surface would not be ten square yards. When a vessel strikes one. though, a pinnacle rock is like nothing so much as an undersea dagger. Speed Was the Thing.

Years ago, when the coasts of the United States were first charted, it was necessary to make as much speed as possible and cover the greatest possible territory in the shortest possible time. Under such conditions the plumbing of coastal localities with a

sounding line and the determination of shoals by consideration of the general characteristics of the locality were necessary, but these surveys left many uncharted pinnacles behind, to bring disaster to ships later on.

They tell a story of a pinnacle rock incident that occurred on one of Peary’s trips to Greenland, back in the late nineties. Peary’s ship was holding a straight course for Greenland, but owi»g to the cloudiness of the weather a lookout was posted. The routine of the ship was suddenly disturbed by the cry of the lookout: “Breakers dead ahead!” The helmsman spun his wheel and the ship heeled sharply to port, just in time to escape a sunken rock which was about three feet under water. Had it not been for the lookout Peary might never have reached the pole. The department of commerce has been aware for a long time of the lack of authentic charts of many portions of the American coast, and the danger of pinnacle rocks was the real reason why the old plumbline system was discarded for the wire-drag method, which is very much similar to the oldfashioned seine. A line is run between two motor boats, several hundred yards apart This Hue is supported on the water by floats, but suspended from it are other lines, all attached to a long wire, under water, which is held down by weights. The wire under water corresponds exactly to the lower edge of a seine. <

Motor Boats Active. The motor boats are started farward. keeping an even distance apart The bottom wire is far enough under water

to Intercept anything which would rise high enough from the bottom to be a navigation danger, and as long as the floats on the surface drag along without going under the motor boats chug away on their course. But at the first dip of the floats, anywhere along the surface line, the motor boats stop, for the disappearance of the floats indicates the wire under water has struck a snag. If the snag is found to be a rock, its distance from the surface is ascertained and its location immediately charted. Then the wire is disengaged, the motor boats are started again and the department "snag fishers” are off after another “catch.”

The department, in a bulletin recently issued, admits that the most certain way to locate a pinnacle rock is to let a ship strike one. This effort, however, is admittedly dangerous to the passengers and extremely expensive to the owners of the boat, particularly if the rock is struck at night. In the old days pinnacle rocks were not half the menace they are today.

Boats were not built so large in those days and there were not so many lines of coastwise steamers running. These coast steamers have a regular course up and down the coaßt, and they hold to their course so true that they may pass a pinnacle rock at very close quarters for years without knowing of its existence. Wire-Drag System.

The new wire-drag system is the only system which will definitely and certainly establish the danger or freedom of a certain marine locality for ships. The legal Importance of having all dangerous rocks noted on government charts cannot be overestimated. The chart is very often the means of fixing responsibility for a marine disaster, either in merchant service or in the navy. The captain, accused of negligence in the navigation of his vessel after having struck an obstruction of some kind, may plead that the obstruction was not noted on the shart. The is particularly true when the vessel succeeds in getting oft before the locality can be definitely ascertained and the statements of the captain verified or disproved. As the whole purpose of licensing navigators is to make marine travel safe for passengers and property, it is essential that the plea of uncharted rocks be made as untenable as possible. The cost of wire-drag work, considering the value of the results obtained, is not regarded as excessive. The cost of dragging the New England coast ranges anywhere from $125 to $175 per square mile, while the work of charting the waters of Florida in the vicinity of Key West runs much higher. Here it costs from $450 to S6OO a square mile.