CARNEGIE YACHT. The Carnegie is one of those little known developments which prove, first, how far from perfection the science of to-day is, and, on the other hand, how far it has advanced even within a quarter of a century. The peculiarity of this yacht is that it is non-magnetic; in other words, the only magnetic steel on board her is the compass.
The compass does not, as common thought conceives, point directly to the pole. It is deflected by the variations in the magnetic in fluence of the earth, by the presence of large masses of iron on board ship and by the neigh: borhood of certain mountains and islands of volcanic origin. Along the inner passage from Seattle to Alaska the attraction from shore affects a ship's compasses a mile away. Navi gation to-day involves theopossession of correct information as to these variations of magnetic attraction. - This information the Carnegie is engaged in securing.
The yacht is neither owned nor controlled by the man for whom she is named. She was built from the funds of the Carnegie Institu tion Washington, founded by Andrew Car negie, and was launched on 12 June 1909. In six weeks, with the appliances on board, a single cruise enabled her officers to discover syste matic errors of importance in the best charts now available. For 10 years the existence of these errors had been more or less suspected, and thousands of observations had been taken by skilful and experienced navigators without definite results. The information gained by the Carnegie is accepted as correct by the leading hydrographic offices of the world.
The best that the commanders of iron ves sels have been able to do, hitherto, has been to entrust the examination of their compasses to a professional adjuster, who, when his work is completed, furnished what is called a devia tion card showing the corrections or errors of the compass on the various headings of the ship. The investigations of the Carnegie will enable the steamer captain to check up these adjustments with full knowledge of the correct or undisturbed variation, or direction of the compass, in all waters he is likely to traverse.
Hitherto the captain's only means for this "checking up" was by personal astronomical observations when the state of the weather per mitted. From the aid of the Carnegie, he will soon be able to know exactly how the compass would point were it mounted on a non-magnetic vessel. Comparing this with his compass as adjusted, he has the satisfaction and security of being able to make his calculations on a mathematical certainty.
The ingenuity of the Carnegie's construc tion merits the attention of even the casual reader. Her dimensions are: Length over all, 1551/2 feet; length on load water-line, 1281/2 feet; beam, molded, 33 feet; mean draft, 12 feet 7 inches; displacement, 568 tons; regis tered tonnage, 246. The materials used were mainly white oak, yellow pine, Oregon pine, and teak. The fastenings are locust treenails, copper and Tobin bronze bolts and composi tion spikes. The anchors — four in number are of manganese bronze with a total weight of 5,500 pounds.
There are no anchor chains; instead, three 11-inch hemp cables are used. She is of brig antine rig, with 12,900 square feet of plain sail; riggings, special Russian hemp; metal work on spars, rigging and blocks, of bronze and gun metal. The auxiliary power consists of one 150 indicated horse-power producer gas engine, built practically of non-magnetic metals, such as bronze, copper and non-magnetic manganese steel. There are two non-magnetic 20-foot whale-boats and one 16-foot gig. The cooking ranges and refrigerating plant are of bronze or copper. The cutlery is Mexican silver. The Carnegie is the first seagoing vessel equipped with a producer gas engine. In calm weather a day's run can be made with auxiliarypower alone, of 144 nautical miles, at a cost of $7 for coal consumed. The scientific staff consists of 7 men, and the crew of 14.