Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

E. W. Eickelberg, Hydrographic and Geodetic Engineer
Commanding, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Ship GUIDE
(From the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey
FIELD ENGINEERS BULLETIN
No. 13, December 1939, pp. 73-78.)

Since the past season marks the beginning of a concerted program to expedite the charting of the Bering Sea area, a résumé of the experiences encountered should prove of value for future planning.

This first year in this region has revealed the enormous extent of this project. Because of the short working season, the small number of working days during the season and the comparatively shallow water requiring closely spaced sounding lines as far as sixty miles offshore, the survey of the Bristol Bay area from Cape Sarichef to Cape Peirce looms as an undertaking which will require many years for completion.

Not only in this area but in the large unsurveyed area to the northward of Cape Peirce there is considerable steamship traffic by large vessels. From the shipowners operating in this territory increasing complaints may be expected about the inadequacy of present surveys. Many geographical features along the north shore of Bristol Bay are reported to be as much as ten miles out of position, and some of the charted bays are reported not even existent. In many respects this area is of far more importance than that of the Aleutian Islands, since there is no commercial traffic to the west of Dutch Harbor. What little service is required by the cattlemen and trappers is furnished by a small trading schooner, whose captain navigates by local knowledge as far as Attu Island at the western extremity of the Aleutian Islands.

- Top of Page -