View source for Office of Coast Survey

{{Short description|Chartmaker of the United States of America}}
The '''Office of Coast Survey''' is the official [[Nautical chart|chartmaker]] of the [[United States]]. It is an element of the [[National Ocean Service]] in the [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]], which is part of the [[United States Department of Commerce]].

==Mission==

Responsible for updating [[nautical chart]]s, [[Hydrographic survey|surveying]] the [[Sea bed|seafloor]], responding to maritime emergencies, and searching for underwater obstructions that pose a danger to [[navigation]], the Office of Coast Survey provides the United States with navigation products and information for improving commerce and security and for protecting coastal environments.<ref name=nauticalcharts>[http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/NOAAChartViewer.html Nautical charts]</ref> Among other products and services the office produces U.S. [[nautical chart]]s.<ref name=nauticalcharts/> and the ''[[United States Coast Pilot]]''.<ref>[http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/cpdownload.htm United States Coast Pilot]</ref>

The Office of Coast Survey is responsible for preparing and maintaining over a thousand nautical charts covering the [[exclusive economic zone]] off the coast of the [[United States]] and its [[Territories of the United States|territories]], extending {{convert|200|nmi|0}} offshore and covering a total area of {{convert|3,400,000|sqnmi}}.<ref name=whatiscoastsurvey>[https://slideplayer.com/slide/8295415/ slideplayer.com "What is the Coast Survey" Accessed November 2, 2022]</ref> It also develops [[Hydrodynamics|hydrodynamic]] models for coastal management.<ref name=whatiscoastsurvey/>

==Organization==

The Office of Coast Survey employs about 250 [[United States Government]] employees and about 50 contractor personnel.<ref name=whatiscoastsurvey/> It is organized into four components:<ref name=whatiscoastsurvey/>
* The '''Marine Chart Division''', responsible for processing nautical data, producing [[Raster graphics|raster]], paper, and electronic charts, and making critical corrections to charts.
* The '''Hydrographic Survey Division''', which conducts [[hydrographic survey]]s, acquires data, and maintains [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] and [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] [[Hydrography|hydrographic]] branches
* The '''Navigation Services Division''', which produces the ''[[United States Coast Pilot]]'' and handles customer affairs and responses to [[navigation]] issues.
* The '''Coast Survey Development Laboratory''', which develops hydrographic systems and technology and [[Cartography|cartographic]] and [[Geographic data and information|geospatial]] technology operates a marine modeling and analysis branch.

== History ==
[[File:U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey emblem.jpg|thumbnail|The seal of the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]], the ancestor agency of the Office of Coast Survey.]]
{{See|United States Coast and Geodetic Survey}}
=== Beginnings ===
[[United States Government]] chartmaking began in 1807, when [[President of the United States|President]] [[Thomas Jefferson]] signed a document entitled "An act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States,"<ref>[http://www.history.noaa.gov/legacy/act1.html “An act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States.”]</ref> which created the U.S. Government's first scientific agency, the Survey of the Coast.<ref name="NOAA">[http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/coastandgeodeticsurvey/index.html NOAA, ''Coast and Geodetic Survey Heritage''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219185106/http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/coastandgeodeticsurvey/index.html |date=December 19, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="timeline18071899">[http://www.history.noaa.gov/legacy/time1800.html noaa.gov NOAA History: NOAA Legacy Timeline 1807–1899]</ref><ref name=archivescatalog>[https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10469069National Archives Catalog: Department of Commerce. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 1913-7/13/1965 Organization Authority Record Accessed 29 October 2022]</ref> While the bill's specific objective was to produce [[nautical charts]], it reflected larger issues of concern to the United States, namely national boundaries, commerce, and defense.

The early years were difficult. [[Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler]], who was eventually to become the agency's first superintendent, went to [[England]] to collect scientific instruments but was unable to return until after the [[War of 1812]] (1812–1815). After his return, he worked on a survey of [[New York Harbor]] in 1817, but the [[United States Congress]] stepped in to suspend the work because of tensions between civilian and military control of the agency. After several years of inactivity under the control of the [[United States Army]], the Survey of the Coast was reestablished in 1832, and President [[Andrew Jackson]] appointed Hassler as superintendent. It was renamed the United States Coast Survey in 1836.<ref name="NOAA"/><ref name="timeline18071899"/><ref name=archivescatalog/>

The U.S. Coast Survey was a civilian agency but, from the beginning, members of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army were detailed to service with the Survey, and ships of the U.S. Navy and United States Revenue-Marine (renamed the [[United States Revenue Cutter Service]] in 1894) were also detailed to its use. In general, Army officers worked on [[topography|topographic]] surveys on the land and maps based on the surveys, while Navy officers worked on [[hydrography|hydrographic]] surveys in coastal waters.<ref>John Cloud, [http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar/docs/The_U_S_Coast_Survey_in_the_Civil_War_report.pdf The U.S. Coast Survey in the Civil War], June 2011</ref>

=== Civil War ===
[[Alexander Dallas Bache]], great-grandson of [[Benjamin Franklin]], was the second U.S. Coast Survey superintendent. Bache was a physicist, scientist, and surveyor who established the first magnetic observatory and served as the first president of the [[National Academy of Sciences]]. Under Bache, the Coast Survey quickly applied its resources to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] cause during the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865). In addition to setting up additional [[Lithography|lithographic]] presses to produce the thousands of charts required by U.S. Navy ships and other vessels, Bache made a critical decision to send Coast Survey parties to work with U.S. Navy [[Blockade|blockading]] [[Squadron (naval)|squadrons]] and [[Union Army]] formations in the field, producing hundreds of maps and charts.<ref>[http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar/index.html Maps and charts]</ref> Bache detailed these activities in his annual reports to the U.S. Congress.<ref>[http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/cgs/data_rescue_cgs_annual_reports.html Annual reports to Congress]</ref> Maps were of paramount importance in wartime:

{{quote|text=It is certain that accurate maps must form the basis of well-conducted military operations, and that the best time to procure them is not when an attack is impending, or when the army waits, but when there is no hindrance to, or pressure upon, the surveyors. That no coast can be effectively attacked, defended, or blockaded without accurate maps and charts, has been fully proved by the events of the last two years, if, indeed, such a proposition required practical proof.|sign=Alexander Dallas Bache|source=1862 report<ref>[http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar/docs/Coast_Survey_Report_1862.pdf Annual report, Nov. 7, 1862]</ref>}}

Bache was also one of four members of the government's [[Blockade Strategy Board]], planning strategy to essentially strangle the [[Confederate States of America]] economically and militarily. On April 16, 1861, President [[Abraham Lincoln]] issued a proclamation declaring the [[Union blockade]] of ports from [[South Carolina]] to [[Texas]]. Bache's ''Notes on the Coast''<ref>[http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/hcp_notesoncoast.html Notes on the Coast]</ref> provided valuable information for Union naval forces.

In 1861, Coast Survey cartographer Edwin Hergesheimer created a map showing the density of the [[Slavery in the United States|slave]] population<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_showing_the_distribution_of_the_Slave_Population_of_the_Southern_States_of_the_United_States,_compiled_from_the_census_of_1860._Series_No._3033._-_Cgs05194.jpg Hergesheimer's 1861 map showing the density of the slave population using the 1860 census data]</ref> in the [[Southern United States]].<ref>[http://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/historicals/preview/image/CWSLAVE Distribution of the slave population of the Southern States of the United States – 1860]</ref><ref>[[Susan Schulten]],[http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/visualizing-slavery/ "Visualizing Slavery"], ''The New York Times Opinionator'', Dec. 9, 2010</ref>

=== After the Civil War ===
After the conclusion of the American Civil War, the Coast Survey attracted some of the best and brightest scientists and [[naturalist]]s. It commissioned the naturalist [[Louis Agassiz]] to conduct the first scientific study of the [[Florida Reef|Florida reef system]]. [[James McNeill Whistler]], who went on to paint the iconic ''[[Whistler's Mother]]'', was a Coast Survey [[engraving|engraver]]. The naturalist [[John Muir]] was a guide and artist on a survey of the [[39th parallel north|39th parallel]] across the [[Great Basin]] of [[Nevada]] and [[Utah]].

The agency was renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878.<ref name="NOAA"/><ref name="timeline18071899"/><ref name=archivescatalog/> Its men and women (women professionals were hired as early as 1845) led scientific and engineering activities through the decades. They supported the U.S. war effort during the [[Spanish American War]] (1898) and [[World War I]] (1917–1918). In 1926, they started production of [[aeronautical chart]]s.<ref name="NOAA"/><ref name="timeline18071899"/> During the height of the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] in the 1930s, the Coast and Geodetic Survey organized surveying parties and field offices that employed over 10,000 people, including many out-of-work engineers.<ref>[http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/coastandgeodeticsurvey/index.html Coast and Geodetic Survey Heritage] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219185106/http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/coastandgeodeticsurvey/index.html |date=2015-12-19 }}</ref>

In  [[World War II]], the Coast and Geodetic Survey sent over 1,000 civilian members and more than half of its [[NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps|commissioned officers]] to serve as [[Hydrography|hydrographers]], [[artillery]] surveyors, [[cartography|cartographers]], U.S. Army engineers, intelligence officers, and [[Geophysics|geophysicists]] in all theaters of the war. Coast and Geodetic Survey civilians on the home front produced over 100 million maps and charts for the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] Forces. Eleven members of the Survey were killed during the war.

=== Recent history ===
On October 3, 1970, the Coast and Geodetic Survey was dissolved as it merged with other U.S. government agencies to form the new [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]], which was established at the same time.<ref name="NOAA"/><ref name="timeline18071899"/><ref name=archivescatalog/><ref>[http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/ReorganizationPlan4.html Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1970] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051421/http://www.lib.noaa.gov/noaainfo/heritage/ReorganizationPlan4.html |date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> As the Coast and Geodetic Survey's successor agency within NOAA, the National Ocean Survey (officially established on October 9, 1970, and renamed the [[National Ocean Service]] in 1983) took over its missions, assets, personnel, and facilities.<ref name=archivescatalog/> Within the National Ocean Survey, the new Office of Coast Survey received the chartmaking responsibilities formerly assigned to the Coast and Geodetic Survey.<ref name=archivescatalog/>

==See also==
* [[Australian Hydrographic Service]]

==References==
{{reflist | 2}}

==External links==
{{NSRW Poster|Coast-Survey}}
* Official site of the [http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov Office of Coast Survey]
* [https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/about/docs/history-of-coast-survey/leaders-of-coast-survey.pdf Leaders of Coast Survey 1816 to present]

{{authority control}}

[[Category:National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]]
[[Category:National hydrographic offices]]