Entering
the service of the Coast and Geodetic Survey immediately after
graduation, Commander Borden received his first assignment
as Junior Officer on the Schooner MATCHLESS then engaged in
surveying in the York River.
From
October 1913 to June 1916, he served on the ROMBLON and FATHOMER
on the north coast of Palawan Island in the Philippines, and
as chief of a triangulation party on Luzon Island.
Returning
to the States he served as chief of a current and tidal survey
in Long Island Sound and first-order triangulation in Alaska.
During World War I, Commander Borden was commissioned as First
Lieutenant in the Coast Artillery and served in France with
Battery B, 48th Artillery.
On returning
to the Survey after the war, he served on the RANGER and was
Executive Officer on the ISIS when she was wrecked and lost
off the Florida coast. Commander Borden has held assignments
on many of the Survey's ships and from February 1920 to March
1928, he commanded in turn the ELSIE, HYDROGRAPHER, BACHE,
FATHOMER and PATHFINDER, while engaging in various phases
of the Bureau's work.
Receiving
his first office assignment in October 1928, he assumed the
duties of Chief of the Section of Field Work which he held
until March 1936.
Again
returning to field work as commanding officer of the HYDROGRAPHER
and later on the OCEANOGRAPHER, Commander Borden, in his off-shore
work off Long Island, executed some of the first hydrographic
surveys of the Bureau. It was through his efforts that the
off-shore method of buoy control by taut-wire sun- azimuth
reached its present state of perfection. Prior to the development
of the taut-wire sun-azimuth method, Commander Borden developed
a method of control by floating signals which were located
by double log runs and bearings on the buoys. This was a distinct
improvement over former methods and advanced considerably
the accuracy of off-shore surveys.
After
his assignment on the OCEANOGRAPHER, Commander Borden again
came to the Washington Office, this time as Chief of the Division
of Charts, the position he now holds.
Commander
Borden is responsible for the Field Engineers Bulletin and
it was due to his untiring efforts that the Bulletin acquired
its high status as a technical publication. Much of the work
on the first Bulletin he did at night after a full day at
the office.
The Commander
is an exceptional athlete and is better than average in most
all forms of sport.
A very
good golfer, he won the Coast Survey gold cup in 1932 against
such opposition as Kines, etc. One of his peculiar antics
on the golf course is his habit of trailing his putt like
a hound on a trail.
Commander
Frank Spaulding Borden.