THE CARNEGIE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 290, 6 December 1929, Page 15

THE CARNEGIE

AN INTERESTING SHIP IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC WORK Captain J. P. Ault, commander of the Carnegie—the man who was to sail across 160.000 miles of ocean—first saw the sea when 24 years old. Born in Kansas in 1881, he graduated at one of the Universities of the State and in 1905 made his first voyage on the survey ship Bache and shortly afterwards sailed on the Gallilee, a brigantine which the Carnegie Institute had chartered and which was the forerunner of the Carnegie. In her he sailed 73,000 miles, observing variations of the earth’s magnetism. As the amount of iron in the hull of the Galilee introduced an element of uncertainty into the observations made aboard her the Carnegie Institute decided to build a non-metallic ship. The Carnegie was built in 1909. Non-Magnetic Ship

No iron steel of other magnetic minerals wvre used in her construction Her timbers were fastened by bronze spikes and bolts; her rigging, not steel but hemp, the cooking stoves were brass and copper, brick-lined and the anchors were bronze. Each anchor weighed 19001bs and hung from Manila rope hawsers eleven inches in circumference instead of chains and all metal fittings, davits and tackle were either of bronze or copper. The crew were not allowed to carry knives about with them.

The Carnegie’s work consisted ot studying the magnetism and electricity of the earth, oceanography, sunspots, and solar activity and ocean weather conditions. The composition and temperature of water at various depths was also being inquired into, some being secured from four miles down. On the present cruise for the first time, marine biology formed an important portion of the work of the ship. Specimens of the tiny organisms obtained by the deep sea soundings were being studied and a pump was continually forcing water through a sieve which collected a host of interesting specimens. Important Work Some idea of the importance ot the work upon which the Carnegie had been engaged may be judged from the fact that if one were to sail the same esmpass course as Halley, the famous British astronomer, made from Cape Verde Islands to Rio de Janeiro in 1699, one would miss Rio by more than 1000 miles. Even if the Carnegie were made from the Cape of Good Hope to Colombo, in 1911, she would miss Cey. lon and reach the mainland of India 175 miles westward. That is one of the reasons why the vessel was retracing her own routes.

The ship has reached within 600 miles of the true North Pole and was the only boat to have circumnavigate I the South Polar regions—a feat which occupied from December, 1915 to April 1916. The ship was to have arrived at

Lyttelton on January 10 next to refit and stores from various parts of the world are already on their way to New Zealand. After doing various work here she was to have left for Cape Town on April 29, 1930.