The first USC&GSS Pathfinder, also noted in some NOAA histories as "old Pathfinder, was a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ship in service from 1899 to 1941, when she was beached in sinking condition on January 30, 1942, after 40 years service in the Philippines.
Construction and characteristics The Secretary of Commerce's Annual Report ending fiscal year 1900 contains the report of Frank Walley Perkins, Assistant, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Commanding, Pathfinder with the following a summary of his comments on construction and ship's characteristics.
The ship was built at the Crescent Shipyard, Elizabethport, New Jersey launched December 7, 1898. She was a three deck steel ship of extra strength built for work in the Aleutian Archipelago where strong currents, distances from supply bases required a vessel of considerable power and coal capacity. She had 15 water tight compartments with dimensions of 196' 3" over all, 33' 6" beam, 19' 8" "depth of hold" and equipped for sea draws 13'. She is brigantine-rigged with some 4,500 square feet of canvas and a single, 10' diameter 13' pitch, screw. Her vertical triple expansion steam engines with twenty-eight inch stroke developed 846 horsepower or 1,173 horsepower under forced draft with a speed of 10.5 to 13 knots. Her range was estimated at about 5,000 miles with a bunker capacity of 240 tons of coal. She was entirely steel with three decks. This report begins using the name "U. S. S. Pathfinder," possibly causing some later confusion as the ship was always Coast and Geodetic Survey and never commissioned in the Navy.
According to an account by one of the ship's commanding officers, she was "built by Lewis Nixon . . . using the plans of the VanderbiltNourmahal (1884) was built for John Jacob Astor, not Vanderbilt. Yacht, the Nourmahal because the appropriation was too small to cover the ship the Survey desired.
Initial voyage Washington-Honolulu
Frank Walley Perkins took command June 1, 1898The NOAA web page titled Pathfinder with photo has Captain John F. Pratt in command. More complete references at NOAA's site, in particular the Fiscal Year 1900 Annual Report, show Captain Frank W. Perkins taking the ship around South America to Hawaii and Captain Pratt assuming command later for work in the Philippines. and on the 7th sailed to Hampton Roads with a 65-man Navy enlisted crew with Coast Survey officers. The ship was not equipped for the transit with deep-sea sounding equipment for survey work but there was hope for observations that could be made without the deep sounding gear.
On March 17, 1899, a board appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury consisting of two Survey officers, two Revenue-Marine Service officers and a United States local inspector of boilers made trial runs on the new ship which demonstrated compliance with requirements. The minimum specified speed of twelve knots was bettered, and she could make more than thirteen knots under forced draft.
Pathfinder left Newport News on the morning of June 16, 1899 bound for to San Francisco and onward to Honolulu by way of the Straits of Magellan. The first stop was St. Lucia in the Lesser Antilles by way of the Anegada Passage. Near Guadeloupe successful experiments were made with the Kelvin sounding machineKelvin sounding machine which was used afterwards in depths between 20 and 100 fathoms. The ship reached St. Lucia on 23 June, coaled and sailed on 25 June bound for Brazil. With yellow fever raging in Bahia the destination was changed to Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, arriving there on 6 July. After making some magnetic observations, despite constant rain, the Pathfinder sailed for Rio de Janeiro on 11 July arriving on 16 July. There the ship entertained U.S. officials with a circuit of the bay enjoying the scenery before departing on 22 July for Montevideo, Uruguay. Departure was on 4 August, the day after a celebration in the city with ships dressed with bunting by day and electric lights by night with the note that this was "an agreeable picture of our last sight of civilization" before the Straits of Magellan.
On 9 July the ship began its transit of the straits with anchorages at night. "Typical straits weather" was described as wind fresh from eastward bringing "fog, rain and snow with clearer intervals" and the ship noted anchorages often had boards nailed to trees naming the vessels that had used the anchorages. Making some observations on the way the ship exited the straits into the Pacific after spending the night of 15 August at an anchorage at Isla Wager known as Port Ballenas. In summation the report notes of the passage "it is most famous for its dangers and discomforts; yet, for grandeur and picturesqueness its scenery has probably few rivals."
On 20 August Pathfinder arrived at Valparaíso, Chile, a city still showing effects of a storm that had damaged the waterfront and mud filled streets, stopping only long enough for mail before departing for Callao, Peru where bunkers had to be replenished as coal was nearly exhausted. Departing 30 August the ship headed for California. Due to a case of suspected appendicitis the ship diverted to San Diego which was reached on 14 September where the patient, cadet James J. Sylvester, was put ashore but did not survive an operation. On 17 September the Pathfinder arrived at San Francisco.
While at San Francisco the ship was hauled out for bottom cleaning, final equipping and some changes based on observations made during the transit. The work as made difficult by the "great emergency calls on the part of the army transport service"The date corresponds to the first fall of the Philippine–American War which began 4 February 1899 and the last stages of the Filipino nationalists led by Emilio Aguinaldo attempting conventional warfare before shifting to guerilla-style warfare for several years. The Army Transport Service was established to meet demands and deficiencies recognized in the Spanish–American War and was very active in the Philippines throughout its history until WW II and its absorption into the Transportation Corps. causing delay in getting bids for the work. The vessel was ready for sea again on 17 November 1899 sailing on 22 November for Honolulu steaming into a gale for a week. Shortly after noon on 2 December 1899 Pathfinder moored in Honolulu.
Service history
Hawaii
Pathfinder engaged in surveys in the Hawaiian Islands until the end of March 1900 when she departed for Alaska by way of Seattle.
Alaska
At the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1900, the ship was engaged in surveys in the Bering Sea. On October 5, 1900 Pathfinder departed Dutch Harbor for San Francisco, arriving October 14 and departing for Alaska April 18, 1901 by way of Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia where a "submarine sentry"Explanation and value of the device is explained in the report. "The 'submarine sentry' proved to be very valuable. The device is set to give warning when any required depth is reached, and when the vessel passes over a spot with that depth of water on it, the sentry bell rings and a 'kite' is tripped and comes to the surface, thus giving warning in time to steer away from danger. The 'sentry' is reliable for any depth up to 25 fathoms with one 'kite' and 40 fathoms with the other, and it is also provided with a tube for sounding in the same manner as with the Kelvin machine." was acquired. The ship arrived at Dutch Harbor on May 16 commencing work on June 30. July 1, 1901 found the ship surveying the Fox Island Passes in the vicinity of Dutch Harbor until October 7 when she was ordered to the Philippines by way of Yokohama and Nagasaki, Japan arriving at Manila on November 18, 1901.
The Philippines The ship was ordered to the Philippines to conduct hydrographic surveys supporting operations following the Spanish–American War. The Pathfinder would remain in and around the Philippines until her end on January 30, 1942, in the catastrophic events surrounding the fall of Corregidor.
On April 12, 1902 Pathfinder sailed to Amoy, China, for general overhaul and installation of an ice plant sent from New York, returning to Manila on May 26, 1902. The Pathfinder's coal and refrigeration capacity enabled her to remain on the survey grounds returning to Manila only once a year for maintenance. Installation of "wireless telegraph" communications in October 1913 facilitated operations. Over her forty years in the Philippines the ship was the largest of what became a Coast & Geodetic Survey fleet and the only one of four or fiveReport of the Suprentendent Of The Coast And Geodetic Survey for FY 1910 lists five vessels actively surveying: Pathfinder, Romblon, Marinduque, Fathomer and Research, the last acquired by the Insular Government in 1901 and the first C&GS vessel to operate in the Philippines. such vessels owned by the United States Government rather than the Philippine Insular Government.
Initially that mission in the Philippines involved an intergovernmental dispute with the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office over charting authority of territorial waters. Despite frequent interchange of personnel and ships the division of responsibility was that of the Coast and Geodetic Survey charting U.S. territorial waters and lands with the Hydrographic Office responsible for areas outside U.S. territory. Acquisition of territories such as the Philippines extended the Coast and Geodetic Survey responsibility into previously Hydrographic Office areas of responsibility.
In later years the Pathfinder was largely crewed by Filipinos with USC&GS officers. In the late thirties the crew was described as "a crew of 80 men and nine officers. Except for myself, the commanding officer and the engineer, they were all Filipino" with eight cadets preparing to take over operations with independence. At the time war was declared and Pathfinder under her new name Research was lost the Coast and Geodetic Survey had five commissioned officers, two civilians and an additional force surveying and charting in Philippine waters of "some 200 in number and all but two being Filipinos" employed by the Insular Government.
Surveys
After return from overhaul in Amoy, China to Manila on May 26, 1902, the ship sailed on June 6, 1902, for surveys of the San Bernardino Strait and its approaches along the coasts of Samar and Luzon.
Of particular importance was establishing the geodesy supporting a Philippine datum for both land mapping and nautical charting. It was not until 1906 that the Luzon Datum was extended to outlying islands to tie local systems based on nineteen separate astronomical stations with eventual establishment of the datum in 1911 with Pathfinder continuing development of the geodetic network into the late 1930s. The ship's officers introduced triangulation by intersection of the ship, previously developed by the Hydrographic Survey of Canada, to the service in overcoming the difficult terrain of the islands.
Survey summaries are available in annual reports of the Coast And Geodetic Survey to the Secretary Of Commerce that indicate the nature of surveying in waters previously not charted using the science of the time. Establishing the geodetic basis for survey navigation was of particular difficulty and linking such networks between islands was a major operation. The following, based on the fiscal year 1920 Pathfinder reports, gives an idea of work about mid way in the ship's Philippine survey history.
Fiscal Year 1920 survey summary