Some of the experiences of the U.S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey
in the First Charting of these Islands, Which is Now Nearing
Completion
by
Lieutenant Commander Richard R. Lukens,
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
In: Merchant Marine Bulletin, April 1931, pp. 10,
11, and 32.
One fine morning in May, 1898, the people of the United States
woke up to learn
that
Admiral George Dewey had sunk the Spanish fleet at Manila and
was in full control of Manila Bay. There was a great scurrying
around for maps and atlases, for most people did not have even
a vague idea as to the location, size, or character of the Philippine
Islands. It is said that the departments at Washington were
in almost the same predicament, for there was simply little
or no information available concerning those islands.
A lot of transports were hastily acquired and an army was
started for Manila, for although the Spanish fleet was defeated
the city of Manila had not surrendered and troops were necessary
to take and hold it. On August 13, 1898, a combined assault
was made on Manila, and it was surrendered to the American
forces after only a show of resistance.
Things dragged along for several months until February,
when open warfare broke out between the Filipino forces
under Aguinaldo and the American troops holding the city.
This was the start of an insurrection which the United States
was three years or more in quelling. Down in the Sulu Islands,
the home of the Mohammedans, the fighting lasted several
years longer. It became necessary to establish hundreds
of Army posts throughout the islands and to operate naval
vessels in cooperation with the military forces. It was
found that, because of inaccurate charts, navigation could
be carried on only with great hazard. The cruiser Charleston
was lost by striking an uncharted rock on the north coast
of Luzon, and gunboats and transports were often piling
up.
This state of affairs was interfering so much with military
operations that an urgent appeal was made to have the island
surveyed and charted. After negotiations with the War Department
and Philippine Commission, and obtaining the necessary legislation,
the Coast and Geodetic Survey established an office in Manila
in December of 1900. Actual field work was started the following
month.
WORKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES
At this time constant fighting and guerilla warfare were
going on, and surveys could, therefore, be made only in
the vicinity of the garrisoned places. The work started
in a quiet way, with shore parties using bull carts for
transportation and hydrographic parties using native bancas
or dugouts for sounding boats. At first a few steam launches
were chartered, but as soon as could be arranged regularly
equipped surveying vessels were placed in commission.
Advantage was taken of the system of military telegraph
and cable lines to establish a large number of astronomical
stations well scattered throughout the islands. The precise
latitude and longitude of these stations were determined,
and they were later used for starting surveys in the various
localities. These stations were eventually connected by
a triangulation net. The officers engaged on this astronomic
work had to do their observing at night, and the lighted
observing tents often drew the fire of the insurgents, making
it necessary to douse the lights in a hurry. Fortunately,
the insurgents were notoriously bad shots. Often the survey
parties were accompanied by armed guards supplied by the
local garrison.
As the islands gradually became pacified, more and more
surveys were undertaken to meet the demands of the military
and the local commerce, which was beginning to spring up
with the return of peace and orderly government.
By 1907 there were five vessels in commission engaged in
hydrographic and topographic surveys, and a large force
of computers and draftsmen in the Manila office engaged
in compiling charts from the new surveys. By this time some
90 charts had been published and at the present time this
number has grown to 153. They are listed in catalogues,
which may be obtained from the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
In the beginning all charts were printed at the Washington
office, but in 1920 a printing plant was installed at Manila,
where all charts of those islands are now printed.
The Philippine Government has shared in the expense of the
surveys from the very beginning, the proportion being roughly
two-fifths of the entire cost. It has recognized the necessity
of good charts, and has never faltered in the appropriation
of its share of the expense.
The American shipmaster, who has to take his vessel to Iloilo
or Cebu for a load of sugar, or to some Mindanao port to
load lumber, will find modern charts available, and he need
have no fear of the uncharted shoals and misplaced islands,
which were the bugbear of the transports and gunboats of
1900.
TYPHOONS
As the archipelago lies in the track of the Far East cyclones,
or “typhoons,” as they are called, the survey
vessels have always had to be on the alert during the typhoon
season, lasting from June to November of each year, with
the greatest number occurring in September. Due to the good
judgment of the commanding officers, the Survey has not
lost a single vessel in its 30 years of work in the islands.
A few vessels have sustained damage by being blown ashore
in protected places.
In one of the most severe typhoons which ever visited the
Islands, the “Cantabria Typhoon,” of September,
1905, the Survey ship, Pathfinder, was caught at anchor
in a small, partially protected bay on the east coast of
Samar. The center of the storm passed directly over the
vessel, and the barometer registered 27.16, the lowest ever
recorded in the Philippine Islands. During the first half
of the storm the wind was offshore and the vessel managed
to hang on by going full speed (equivalent to 11 knots)
ahead to relieve the strain on the anchor chains. Just after
the center passed, the wind whipped around from the opposite
direction and, as the vessel swung to it, both anchor chains
snapped and, in a few minutes, the Pathfinder was up high
and dry amongst the cocoanut trees. She was afterwards floated
by using bamboo rafts and taken to Manila with a jury rudder.
Since the introduction of radio, the problem of coping with
the typhoon has been greatly simplified. The Manila Observatory
has done wonderful work in studying these storms, and now
the shipmaster is kept informed of the location and direction
of the typhoon and can readily determine whether his vessel
is in danger. During the hectic summer of 1898, Father Algue,
the head of the observatory, jeopardized his Spanish citizenship
by staying on the job despite the war then going on, and
kept shipping warned of the approach of typhoons. After
the war the observatory was made a bureau of the Philippine
Government and Father Algue appointed its first director.
The Jesuit fathers have remained in charge of the observatory
to this day.
STABILITY
OF CORAL REEFS
Many questions are received at the Coast and Geodetic Survey
office regarding stories of reported changes in depths due
to earthquakes, growth of coral, upheaval of the bottom,
etc. As a matter of fact, the Coast and Geodetic Survey
finds very few changes, except where large rivers discharge
into the sea, or where currents cause the shifting of sand
banks.
A notable exception, however, is found in the Sulu Sea,
near the island of Cuyo. A coral reef here had been surveyed
by modern methods and found to be about 2 miles long and
about one-half mile wide, with depths of 8 to 10 fathoms
along the ridge. Some two years later, while working in
the vicinity, another survey ship ran a line of soundings
over the reef and was amazed to find a depth of 30 fathoms
over the middle of it. A careful resurvey developed that
while both ends of the reef were unchanged in position and
depth, the central portion had “caved in” and
left a 30-fathom channel across the reef. Both these surveys
were by standard methods, using the same control, so there
can be no doubt but that there was an actual subsidence
of the bottom. As this reef is near the epicenter of a violent
earthquake which occurred in the interim between the two
surveys, it is possible that the change was due to it.
THE
SULU SEA
This great inland sea in the Philippine Archipelago was
much dreaded by mariners, for the old Spanish charts showed
it to be blocked with many reefs and sand inlets. Several
ships had been wrecked when running at night and navigation
was only attempted during the day, when the reefs could
usually be seen.
As the survey of the Sulu Sea progressed, reef after reef
was found to be non-existent, and much of the area that
had been looked upon with suspicion proved to be clear water
with depths of 1,000 to 2,000 fathoms. The deepest place
found in this island sea was 3,049 fathoms, near the island
of Mindanao. Due to the fact that all the inlets to this
sea are comparatively shoal, the cold water of the ocean
bottom has no circulation in it, and the bottom temperatures
of the Sulu Sea run around 55o F., whereas at an equal depth
in the ocean the bottom temperature would be 37° to
39° F.
It seems apparent that in some cases the same reef had been
reported several times but in different positions. Jesse
Beasly Reef, for instance, was found in about the place
assigned to it by the master of the ship of the same name
who reported it. The old charts showed a reef 10 miles to
the northeast and another one 10 miles to the southwest.
Neither of the latter two reefs were found and they were
expunged from the chart.
One of the large well known reefs was North Tubbathaha,
shown as a long, narrow ridge exposed in a few places. When
the survey reached this point, the officers were surprised
to find this reef to be of the atoll type, with an inclosed
lagoon 5 1/2 miles long and 2 miles wide. The encircling
reefs rose abruptly from depths of 600 fathoms. There was
no opening into the lagoon which ranged from 7 to 18 fathoms
in depth. A launch from the survey ship crossed the reef
at high water and sounded it out, but with the coming of
evening there was not enough water for them to get out,
and they spent the night in the lagoon, subsisting on a
fish caught by trolling. The bank here is so steep that
the survey ship could not anchor and was compelled to run
offshore and drift at night. When the survey of Sulu Sea
was finished and new charts issued, it was not found at
all dangerous looking. Big passenger and freight vessels
now navigate it night and day without danger.
THE
SAMALES
When the survey of the south end of Palawan Island was started,
considerable trouble was experienced with the Samales, a
tribe of wild people inhabiting the islands north of Borneo.
These people are, no doubt, descendants of the old Dyad
pirates who used to prey on sailing ships before the day
of the steam gunboats. The Samales travel three men to a
vinta and parties of 3 to 15 boats would often make a raiding
trip along the Palawan coast. On the appearance of these
fleets, the Palawan natives would take to the hills and
the Samales would take their time in looting the little
barrios. If they saw a steamer that looked like a Government
vessel, they would head for the reefs and shoal water, where
the vessel could not follow.
The Samales found that the triangulation signals (some of
them 100 feet high) contained nails and were guyed with
wire, and, as they prized such material, they began to wreck
the signals to get the wire and nails. This continued until
the survey ship Romblon came upon a group of five boats
becalmed off an island and unable to escape. Rifles were
brought up and fire opened at long range. The Samales were
not in much danger, for the ammunition was old and defective
and only an occasional cartridge would explode. It had the
desired effect of frightening them, however, and they paddled
to a near-by island and waded ashore, leaving their vintas
on the reef. In this case the area had just been surveyed
and, to the evident surprise of the Samales, the ship threaded
its way among the coral reefs and anchored off the island.
A launch and whaleboat were lowered and an armed party went
in towards the beach. The leader of the Samales was forced
to come out to the boat (alone and unarmed), where he was
given unmistakable signs as to what would happen if they
continued their depredations. After he was turned loose
the vintas were examined and a number of shots put through
them to make the warning more effective. The Samales plugged
the holes in their vintas and proceeded down the coast,
apparently thinking they had narrowly escaped death. The
survey party was never again troubled.
As a rule, the natives, even the so-called wild men of the
non-Christian tribes, were friendly. As soon as they learned
that the ship was not there to collect taxes or take away
their land, they had no fear, and often served at cargadories
or packers on mountain triangulation.
TRIANGULATION
The basis of all Philippine surveys is the network of triangulation
spread over the islands. Many of these stations are necessarily
located on the peaks of high mountains and some of them
miles back from the beach in a country without roads or
transportation.
An expedition made up to climb a high mountain, observe
angles, mark the stations, and erect the signal consists
of one survey officer and 15 to 20 native cargadories, and
often has to be equipped with provisions for two or three
weeks. In one case a party was nine days in reaching the
summit of Mount Mantalingajan on the island of Palawan.
The peak is about 6,500 feet high and, as no running water
was found above the 3,000-foot level, the men depended on
water found in the pitcher plants, a remarkable plant which
grows up in the Tropics. It carries a small reservoir in
which water is trapped from rain and dew.
After reaching the top, the party had to wait four days
for the weather to clear before observations could be made.
Although in the Tropics, the party suffered constantly from
the cold. While making the observations, the officer’s
fingers became so numb he could hardly record the figures
in his book.
CROCODILES
Much of the shore line of the Philippines consists of the mangrove
swamp and the topographers are often required to work day after
day in water hip deep. Sometimes an alligator or a crocodile
is seen and the topographer simply hopes that he is not of the
man-eating variety. The Survey did suffer one casualty from
crocodiles in a way that was least expected. Lieut. J. A. Bond
was standing on the after deck of a small ship’s launch
as it was entering a small bay in the Sulu Islands. He was leaning
on the canopy, scrutinizing the shore, when suddenly a huge
crocodile hurled itself out of the water and grabbed his leg.
All that saved Bond was the fact that the crocodile had grabbed
the awning stanchion along with Bond’s leg. The weight
of the beast began to capsize the launch, when one of the constabulary
guards accompanying the party stuck his rifle in the crocodile’s
mouth and fired. With this the crocodile relaxed his grip and
slid into the water. While Lieutenant Bond’s leg was badly
fractured and lacerated, modern surgery saved it.
The survey ships are manned entirely by Filipino crews, the
only white men aboard being the Survey officers, who are sent
out from the United States on two-year tours of duty. Experience
has shown that the Filipinos make good sailors and become excellent
recorders and draftsmen. They have keen eyesight and often become
very expert in the use of the sextant in taking horizontal angles
in a sounding boat. Filipino draftsmen have been employed in
the Manila office since its inception and have proven very satisfactory.
COMPLETION OF FIRST SURVEY IN SIGHT
The Philippine Archipelago covers an area 1,020 nautical
miles in length and 660 miles in width near the southern
islands. There are 7,083 islands. The first survey of this
vast territory is now nearing completion, with all the trade
routes accurately and completely charted. New charts and
new editions of old ones issued are announced in the Merchant
Marine Bulletin. Shipping passes at will throughout the
islands and trans-Pacific freighters can now go to out-of-the-way
ports to load lumber and other products, thus saving the
cost of the inter-island transportation and transshipping
at Manila.
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