Magnetic variation. As the compass is a universal navigational instrument, information as to the magnetic variation is needed for the charts. The angle between the direction of the magnetic needle and the true north is measured at various points on both land and sea, and at some stations these observations are repeated after a number of years. From these results magnetic maps are made, from which both the variation and its annual change may be taken.
Reports of dangers. Aside from the more systematic surveys as outlined above, much information has been placed on the charts from other sources. On the earlier charts and on those of more remote regions at the present day much of the work has been sketched rather than surveyed. Even in the better surveyed portions reports come in as to dangers or other matters not shown, and if of importance and the report appears to be reliable these are sometimes at once put on the chart pending further investigation, or in other cases an examination is first made.
Shoals, rocks, and even islands have in numerous instances been shown on the charts which no one has been able to find again, and many of them after repeated searches have been removed. The same island or danger has sometimes been charted in two or more different positions as reported at various times. The treatment of such cases is one of the serious and interesting problems of the chart maker. It is generally less harmful to show a danger which does not exist than to omit one which does exist. On the other hand a non-existing danger shown on a chart may be the cause of actual expense and loss of time in compelling a vessel needlessly to go out of its course.
It is surprising to note with what lack of care and of sufficient evidence reports of dangers at sea have sometimes been made, and how incomplete are many of the reports even when the existence of the danger is beyond question. It is unfortunately true that some of these reports are the result of effort to escape blame for accident by throwing the fault on the chart. Many such reports also result from various illusory appearances. A large tree covered with weeds, an overturned iceberg strewn with earth and stones, a floating ice-pan covered with earth, the swollen carcass of a dead whale, a whale with clinging barnacles and seaweed, reflections from the clouds, marine animalculæ, vegetable growth, scum, floating volcanic matter, and partially submerged wrecks covered with barnacles, have been mistaken for islands, shoals, or reefs. A school of jumping fish has given the appearance of breakers or caused a sound like surf, and tide rips have been mistaken for breakers. Raper very properly calls attention to the obligation upon every seaman of carefully investigating doubtful cases and making reliable reports. "Of the dangers to which navigation is exposed none is more formidable than a reef or a shoal in the open sea; not only from the almost certain fate of the ship and her crew that have the misfortune to strike upon it, but also from the anxiety with which the navigation of all vessels, within even a long distance, must be conducted, on account of the uncertainty to which their own reckonings are ever open. No commander of a vessel, therefore, who might meet unexpectedly with any such danger, could be excused, except by urgent circumstances, from taking the necessary steps both for ascertaining its true position, and for giving a description as complete as a prudent regard to his own safety allowed."
As to the older doubtful dangers now shown on the oceanic charts, it is estimated that the positions may be considered as uncertain by 10 miles in latitude and 30 miles in longitude, and areas of this extent must be searched to determine definitely the question of their existence.
The following are interesting or typical cases of reported dangers:
The master of an Italian bark in September, 1874, reported sighting a large rock in latitude 40° N. and longitude 62° 18´ W. Fortunately for the charts there were two independent reports from other vessels in the same month of sighting a partially submerged wreck in this vicinity.
The Spanish steamer Carmen was wrecked in 1891 by running on a rock off the southwest coast of Leyte; the rock was reported to lie one mile off shore, a dangerous position for vessels using Canigao Channel. A survey made in 1903 showed 58 feet of water in this location, and that Carmen Rock on which the vessel struck was really within one-fourth mile of the beach. The rock had, however, for twelve years been shown on the charts in a position which made it an obstruction to navigation.
The ship Minerva in 1834 was reported to have struck a rock near the middle of the broad entrance to Balayan Bay; the fact that this occurred at 2 A.M. indicated a very doubtful position, but it was stated that an American ship had previously been wrecked on the same rock. It consequently appeared as a danger on the charts for seventy-one years, when a survey showed no depth of less than 190 fathoms in this vicinity, and it was removed from the charts.
A British steamer was wrecked in San Bernardino Strait in 1905; the master reported that he was in a position where the chart showed 51 fathoms, and that he was 112 miles distant from Calantas Rock, and on these grounds the finding of the official inquiry was that "no blame can be attached to the master, officers, or any of the crew for the casualty." Very shortly after the disaster, the surveying steamer Pathfinder definitely located the wreck and made a survey of the vicinity. The previous chart of Calantas Reef was found to be fairly correct, and the stranding was determined to have occurred well within this reef in a position where the chart showed soundings of 334 to 434 fathoms, and 12 mile from Calantas Rock, which rises 5 feet above high water.