1900 U.S. Fish Commission Map of Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea Dredgings

This is a 1900 C. H. Townsend and U.S. Fish Commission map of Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Sea floor samplings deeper than 100 fathoms. Red numbers identify these dredging locations and can be correlated with detailed data in USS Albatross archives. Stretching from Gulf of St. Lawrence south to northern South America including the Greater and Lesser Antilles and the Bahamas, dredgings marked were collected by the Albatross between 1883 and 1888. A large inset along the right border illustrates the entirety of South America and notes dredgings taken by the Albatross off the coast of Brazil and Chile. A smaller inset focuses on the Gulf of Mexico from New Orleans along the U.S. Gulf Coast to the Florida Keys and south to the Yucatan, with dredgings noted in the Gulf south of Mobile and around the Yucatan Peninsula.

The USS Albatross

This USS Albatross, also known as the USFC Albatross in scientific papers, was the first specifically built marine research vessel. Albatross operated in the Atlantic between December 1882 and November 1887, when she began her voyage to the Pacific Ocean. She arrived at the Straits of Magellan on January 23, 1888, and then continued up the coast of South America, stopping in the Galapagos briefly in April 1888. She operated along the U.S. Pacific coast and as far north as the Bering Sea and as far south as Panama between 1888 and 1898, when she was converted into an auxiliary cruiser for service during the Spanish-American War. After this work was finished, she sailed for Mexico, but did not see combat before peace treaties were signed. She immediately underwent conversion back to being a research vessel. After the retrofit, Albatross left San Francisco on August 23, 1899 and spent the next few months in the Central and South Pacific, before arriving in Yokohama, Japan, on March 4, 1900. Albatross continued her research work until she was transferred to the Navy on May 2, 1917, for service during World War I. She served with the American Patrol Detachment as a gunboat and protected tankers transporting oil and petroleum in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. After World War I, Albatross returned to research work, until she was decommissioned on October 29, 1921. She was sold to Thomas Butler and Company of Boston in June 1924, without her library, equipment, or instruments. Butler converted her into a school ship, then refitted her as a training ship for 'nautical students and cadets'. She left for Europe with 119 students on board on July 12, 1927. However, the students filtered off the ship at a succession of ports and by the time the Albatross reached Hamburg the crew demanded that she be auctioned off to satisfy their salaries. The paper trail goes cold in 1928 and her ultimate fate is unknown.

Publication History and Census

This map was created under the supervision of Charles Haskins Townsend for the U.S. Fish Commission. It was published in the 1900 U.S. Fish Commission report to Congress and printed by the Norris Peters Company. Neither the separate map nor the report in which it was printed are cataloged in OCLC.