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9717_14 | The Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) ordered twenty protected cruisers between the 1880s and 1910s. The first five ships, and the , were built as "battleship destroyers", armed with a pair of large caliber guns. Subsequent cruisers were more traditional designs, and were instead intended for reconnaissance and colonial duties. Some of the ships, like and the , were designed specifically for service in Italy's colonial empire, while others, like and the , were designed as high speed fleet scouts. |
9717_15 | Most of these ships saw action during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, where several of them supported Italian troops fighting in Libya, and another group operated in the Red Sea. There, the cruiser and two destroyers sank or destroyed seven Ottoman gunboats in the Battle of Kunfuda Bay in January 1912. Most of the earlier cruisers were obsolescent by the outbreak of World War I, and so had either been sold for scrap or reduced to subsidiary roles. The most modern vessels, including Quarto and the Nino Bixio class, saw limited action in the Adriatic Sea after Italy entered the war in 1915. The surviving vessels continued on in service through the 1920s, with some—Quarto, , and , remaining on active duty into the late 1930s.
The Netherlands |
9717_16 | The Royal Netherlands Navy built several protected cruisers between 1880 and 1900. The first protected cruiser was launched in 1890 and called . It was a small cruiser with a heavy main gun; four years later a larger and more heavily armed protected cruiser was commissioned, which was called . In addition to these two cruisers, the Dutch also built six protected cruisers of the . The Holland-class cruisers were commissioned between 1898 and 1901, and featured, besides other armaments, two 15 cm SK L/40 single naval guns.
The Dutch protected cruisers have played a role in several international events. For example, during the Boxer Rebellion two protected cruisers ( and Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden) were sent to Shanghai to protect European citizens and defend Dutch interests.
Russia
The Imperial Russian Navy operated a series of protected cruisers classes (, Armored deck cruiser). The last ships built to this design where the in 1901.
Spain |
9717_17 | The Spanish Navy operated a series of protected cruisers classes starting with . The last ship built to this design was in 1899.
Surviving examples
A few protected cruisers have survived as museum ships:
– St Petersburg, Russia
– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
replica is on display in Dandong, China
Bow section and bridge of – La Spezia, Italy
Bow section of HMS Vindictive is on display at Ostend, Belgium
The hulk of USS Charleston serves as a breakwater in Kelsey Bay, on the north coast of Vancouver Island.
See also
Commerce raiding
Battlecruiser
Armored cruiser
Unprotected cruiser
Footnotes
References
Beeler, John, Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design 1870–1881. Caxton, London, 2003.
Further reading
External links
Ship types
Cruisers |
9718_0 | Masculin Féminin (, , "Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events") is a 1966 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. An international co-production between France and Sweden, the film stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlène Jobert, Catherine-Isabelle Duport, and Michel Debord.
Léaud plays Paul, a romantic young idealist who chases budding pop star Madeleine (played by Goya, a real-life yé-yé girl). Despite markedly different musical tastes and political leanings, the two soon become romantically involved and begin a ménage à quatre with Madeleine's two roommates, Catherine (Duport) and Elisabeth (Jobert). The camera probes the young actors in a series of vérité-style interviews about love, lovemaking, and politics. At times the main story is interrupted by various sequences and sub-plots, including a scene paraphrased from LeRoi Jones' play Dutchman. |
9718_1 | Masculin Féminin is considered by some critics to be representative of 1960s France and Paris. The film contains references to various pop culture icons and political figures of the time, such as Charles de Gaulle, André Malraux, James Bond, and Bob Dylan. Arguably the most famous quotation from the film is "This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola", which is actually an intertitle between chapters.
Plot
Paul, a young idealist who recently fulfilled his military service, is looking for a job. In a café, he meets Madeleine Zimmer, a young singer who wishes to make a record. They witness a woman having an argument with her partner, which culminates in the woman drawing a gun and shooting him. Paul goes to meet with his friend Robert Packard, a journalist who has Paul sign a petition to free a group of artists and writers in Rio de Janeiro accused of voicing their opposition to state policy. |
9718_2 | Paul begins working for a magazine. In a bathroom, Paul confronts Madeleine, saying that she promised him that they would go out that night. She asks him if "going out" means "going to bed", and he falls silent. She tells him that her promise was a lie. As the French presidential election of December 1965 approaches, Paul turns 21 years old and becomes romantically involved with Madeleine. Madeleine introduces him to her roommate Elisabeth Choquet. Also present is Catherine-Isabelle, whom Robert likes. Paul helps Robert put up posters around Paris and paint the phrase "Peace in Vietnam" along the side of a U.S. Army car. On a train, Paul and Robert witness a white woman and two black men antagonizing each other, which results in the woman firing a gun. |
9718_3 | Madeleine is to have her first single released by RCA. On the day of its release, Paul brings her to the café and attempts to propose to her. Madeleine, anxious to see the release of her record, says they will discuss the matter later. Paul records a message for Madeleine in a coin-operated record booth. He is then approached by a man with a knife, who stabs himself. In a laundromat, Paul recounts to Robert his experience of feeling that he was being followed. Robert, reading a newspaper, tells Paul about Bob Dylan, whom Robert says is a "Vietnik" (a portmanteau of "Vietnam" and "beatnik"). |
9718_4 | Paul starts living with Madeleine, Elisabeth and Catherine. He leaves his job at the magazine to become a pollster for IFOP. He interviews a young woman named Elsa, asking her about subjects such as politics and love. At the café, Paul tells Elisabeth that Madeleine is pregnant, but Elisabeth is skeptical. Madeleine arrives and sees the woman who shot her partner, now a prostitute. They also see a theatre director giving instructions to an actress. Paul, Madeleine, Elisabeth and Catherine go to a cinema to watch a film. During the screening, Madeleine tells Paul that she loves him. He leaves the theatre temporarily to spray-paint a slogan critical of Charles de Gaulle on a wall outside. Later, Robert has a conversation with Catherine, during which he asserts that she is in love with Paul. |
9718_5 | One day, a man borrows a box of matches from Paul, and uses them to self-immolate, leaving behind a note that says "Peace in Vietnam". Paul and Catherine visit Madeleine in a recording studio, where she is recording a new song. She acts distant towards Paul, and after encountering a reporter, asks Paul to fetch a car for her. Paul calls the war ministry and, impersonating a military general, demands a car. One arrives, and he, Madeleine and Catherine depart the premises in it. |
9718_6 | From January to March 1966, Paul continues conducting opinion polls about politics, love, and other topics. He determines that his lack of objectivity, even when unconscious, resulted in a lack of sincerity in the answers from those he polled. At a police station, Catherine recounts to an officer that Paul purchased a high-rise apartment. Madeleine wanted to move Elisabeth in with them, which Paul opposed. Paul reportedly fell from a window, which Catherine asserts must have been an accident rather than a suicide. Madeleine, still pregnant, tells the officer that she is not sure what she will do next. |
9718_7 | Cast
Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul, a romantic young idealist
Chantal Goya as Madeleine Zimmer, a young singer
Marlène Jobert as Elisabeth Choquet, Madeleine's roommate
Michel Debord as Robert Packard, a journalist
Catherine-Isabelle Duport as Catherine-Isabelle, Madeleine's other roommate
Yves Afonso as the man who dies by suicide by stabbing (uncredited)
Elsa Leroy as "Mademoiselle 19 ans", a young French woman whom Paul interviews for an IFOP poll (uncredited)
Brigitte Bardot and Antoine Bourseiller make uncredited cameo appearances as an actress and a director in the café. Françoise Hardy also makes an uncredited appearance as the wife of an American officer. |
9718_8 | Production
In 1965, Anatole Dauman, the head of Argos Films, wanted to re-edit and re-release Alexandre Astruc's 1952 44-minute film The Crimson Curtain. He decided that he also wanted another medium-length film to accompany Astruc's film and offered the project to Godard, suggesting that Godard adapt Guy de Maupassant's short story The Signal. Godard had been interested in filming The Signal for several years and agreed to the project. Eventually Dauman suggested that Godard also adapt Maupassant's short story Paul's Mistress and secured the rights to both short stories. When filming began, Godard discarded both Maupassant short stories and Maupassant's publishers later agreed that the film was in no way an adaptation of the author's work. The only parts of either short stories that appear in the film is the fact that the main characters name is Paul and the "film within the film" that the main characters go to see at a movie theater was initially inspired by The Signal. |
9718_9 | Godard did not have a shooting script; instead he relied on a spiral notebook filled with ideas, sketches, and dialogue he had handwritten the previous evening. Godard was interested in working with singer Chantal Goya because she was neither a film nor stage actress when she was introduced to him by Daniel Filipacchi on November 7, 1965. Shooting began on November 22, 1965. Godard used natural lighting and a minimal crew throughout the production.
Reception
Due to the portrayal of youth and sex, the film was prohibited to persons under 18 in France—"the very audience it was meant for," griped Godard. |
9718_10 | French journalist Georges Sadoul praised the film's ability to speak to young people, while H. Chapier criticized the film but praised Leaud's performance. British critic Tom Milne called it Godard's "most complex film to date." American critic Pauline Kael said that it was "that rare achievement: a work of grace and beauty in a contemporary setting." Andrew Sarris called it "the film of the season." Judith Crist said that it had "flashes of original wit and contemporary perceptions." Bosley Crowther disliked the film and called it "entertainment of only the most loose and spotty sort." Gene Moskowitz called it "naive and knowing, irritating and engaging."
The film was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Awards
At the 16th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the award for Best Feature Film Suitable for Young People. Jean-Pierre Léaud won the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his performance in the film. |
9718_11 | See also
List of French language films
Yé-yé
References
External links
1966 films
1960s romantic drama films
French black-and-white films
Films based on works by Guy de Maupassant
Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard
French films
Films produced by Anatole Dauman
French romantic drama films
1966 drama films
1960s French-language films |
9719_0 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth shooter games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels that were endorsed by Tom Clancy. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon". The player controls Fisher to overcome his adversaries in levels (created using Unreal Engine and emphasising light and darkness as gameplay elements). All the console and PC games in the series were positively received, and the series is commercially successful. The series was once considered to be one of Ubisoft's flagship franchises, selling more than 31 million copies by 2011. However, as of 2021 there has not been a new installment since 2013, though a VR version and a remake have been announced.
Games
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002) |
9719_1 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was developed over a period of two years and developed by Ubi Soft Montreal with original publishing by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox as an exclusive title. Later in 2003, Ubisoft ported the game to Microsoft Windows, Mac, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. Inspired by the Metal Gear series, it uses an Unreal Engine 2 that was modified to allow light-and-dark based gameplay.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004) |
9719_2 | Pandora Tomorrow was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and Ubisoft Milan and introduced multiplayer gameplay to the Splinter Cell series. In single-player mode, the game AI adapts to adjust to the player's skill level. Unlike other games in the series, which generally lean towards information-based threats, the plot of Pandora Tomorrow focuses on biological warfare, in which an Indonesian terrorist group threatens to infect people with smallpox virus. Sam Fisher is also given new abilities like SWAT turns and whistling to attract enemies' attention.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005) |
9719_3 | Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Milan were again responsible for the third game in the series, Chaos Theory. It adds a cooperative multiplayer mode. Originally announced to be released in Fall 2004, its initial releases were made at the end of March 2005. Again the Unreal Engine was heavily modified, this time from version 2.5. The game includes a number of new features, including adding a combat knife to the player's inventory. Maps are also much more open with multiple ways of achieving the end goal.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Essentials (2006)
Essentials extends the Splinter Cell series to the PSP platform. Through a series of flashback missions, the player learns more about Sam Fisher's back story. The game's critical reception was much worse than the other games in the series. While the graphics were considered high-quality for the PSP, the multiplayer was considered almost unplayable.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (2006) |
9719_4 | For the series' fourth installment, two separate versions were created, one for generation six consoles and the Wii, and the other for Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation 3. Double Agent features a "trust system" that presents the player with moral dilemmas. It is the first game in the series with a hub-like area, where Sam can explore and do objectives between missions. This is also the only game in the series to have different endings, based on player decisions. Only one ending is used to continue the storyline.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010) |
9719_5 | Conviction was officially announced on May 23, 2007, when Ubisoft released a trailer for the game. The game was due for release on November 16, 2007. However, the game missed its initial launch date, and on May 19, 2008, it was reported that Splinter Cell: Conviction was "officially on hold" and that the game had been taken "back to the drawing board". Ubisoft announced that the game had been pushed back to the 2009–10 fiscal year. At E3 2009, the developers confirmed that the "new" Conviction had been in development since early 2008, commenting that "the gameplay has evolved a lot" and "the visual direction is simply much better". The game's release date was pushed back several times. On March 18, 2010, the demo was released for Xbox 360. Ubisoft wanted to make the fifth game more accessible. so Conviction was designed around the new core elements "Mark and Execute" and "Last Known Position", while stealth elements present in the previous games were omitted, such as the ability to |
9719_6 | whistle, lock picking, hiding bodies, etc. Conviction uses a cover system and adds simple interrogation sequences to the series. |
9719_7 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013) |
9719_8 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist is the sixth installment in the Splinter Cell series developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft and was released on August 20, 2013. Splinter Cell: Blacklist boasts new features combining gameplay from Chaos Theory and Conviction. Series veteran Michael Ironside was replaced in his role as Sam Fisher by actor Eric Johnson. In the game, Sam Fisher has been appointed as the commander of the new "Fourth Echelon", a clandestine unit that answers solely to the President of the United States. She has denied any existence of the agency and Fourth Echelon is working to stop a new terror plot known as the 'Blacklist'. Fourth Echelon also has the secondary objective of stopping all operations in which Third Echelon is still running. Features returning include a moving "Mark and Execute", Sam's signature goggles and a new knife, the Karambit, and the ability to perform "abduction" stealth melee takedowns. |
9719_9 | Future
At E3 2017 regarding Splinter Cell, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated: "I can't say much about that. But, for sure, all the Clancy games are taken care of. It's just we have quite a lot on our plate at the moment...[A]ll the Clancy games are really coming along, so we are not forgetting Splinter Cell." Later in an Ask Me Anything Reddit post, he stated: "We don't have anything specific to share at the moment but teams are working on different things, so stay tuned for more."
In May 2019, Julian Gerighty, Ubisoft Creative Director, announced on their social media page that a game is currently in development. In his statement, he said he had been working on the game with Ubisoft Montreal creative director, Roman Campos-Oriola, and executive producer Dan Hay. However, Ubisoft later disputed this.
In December 2021, Ubisoft revealed that they are working on a remake of the first game. |
9719_10 | VR Game
On September 16, 2020, it was announced at Facebook Connect that a virtual reality version of the video game series is coming exclusively to the Oculus VR platform, along with an Assassin's Creed game. They are set to be developed by Red Storm Entertainment.
Novels
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2004)
Splinter Cell is the first installment of a series of novels based on the successful video game series. It was written by Raymond Benson under the pseudonym David Michaels. The plot follows Sam Fisher as he investigates a terrorist group called "The Shadows" and a related arms-dealing organization named "The Shop". Members of "The Shop" use inside information to attempt to kill "Third Echelon" members, including Fisher. Shortly after its publication in December 2004, it spent 3 weeks on the New York Times list of bestsellers. It also made it to the list of Wall Street Journal mass-market paperback bestsellers. |
9719_11 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda (2005)
In Operation Barracuda, which was released on November 1, 2005, and which also made the New York Times bestseller list, Raymond Benson (again as David Michaels) continues the story of the first Splinter Cell novel. |
9719_12 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate (2006)
For Checkmate, Grant Blackwood took over as author behind the David Michaels pseudonym, Benson having declared that he was "finished with Splinter Cell". Unlike the first two books, Checkmate is not written from the first person perspective of Fisher, nor does Checkmate continue the running subplots that were established in the previous. This novel was released on November 7, 2006.
The book starts off with a ship by the name of Trego sailing towards the American east coast. Sam Fisher is called in from a training mission to disable the ship. After Fisher stops the ship from irradiating the American west coast with nuclear waste he is informed that a town by the name of Slipstone has just been radioactively attacked and 5,000+ people are dead. All these events lead to more questions which eventually leads Fisher to Ukraine, Iran, Dubai, and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. |
9719_13 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Fallout (2007)
On November 6, 2007, Fallout, was published, Blackwood's second Splinter Cell novel and the fourth in the series. Like the previous novel, it was written by Grant Blackwood, under the pseudonym David Michaels. The story follows Sam Fisher as he combats Islamic fundamentalists who have taken over the government of Kyrgyzstan. |
9719_14 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (2009)
Conviction, is the tie-in novel to the game with the same name. It was published on November 3, 2009, and was written by Peter Telep under the name David Michaels. It was published by Berkley Books, under Penguin Group. In this book you follow Sam Fisher after the killing of Lambert. Fisher is on the run and has 'gone rogue.' He is being chased by a team of rookie Splinter Cells led by Ben Hansen. Tales of treason and betrayal are being heard about Sam throughout the underworld. He will not let Lambert die in vain as he travels around the world untangling intricate plots of murder, espionage, and international arms dealers. |
9719_15 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Endgame (2009)
Endgame is the second "half" of the Conviction novel. The plot runs parallel to the Conviction novel, but from the point of view of Fisher's antagonists; which begins as he tries to track down a Doppelgänger factory conspiracy. It was published on December 1, 2009. The story is told from the perspective of Ben Hansen and the rest of the team pursuing Fisher. The events reveal a plot of international intrigue.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist: Aftermath (2013)
Published in October 2013, this tie-in novel takes place after the events of the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. |
9719_16 | "Eccentric billionaire Igor Kasperov owns one of the most influential and successful anti-virus software companies in the world. But when the Kremlin orders him to unleash a catastrophic computer virus against the United States, he is forced to flee for his life. Sam Fisher and Fourth Echelon are charged with finding Kasperov and presenting the American president’s offer for political asylum. Because there are others looking for Kasperov. And the only thing they will offer him is a swift death."
Aftermath is written by Peter Telep and the first in the series to be authored without the use of the David Michaels pseudonym. |
9719_17 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Firewall (2022)
Firewall is expected to release in March 2022. It was written by James Swallow and will feature Sam Fisher's daughter, Sarah, working alongside her father. The plot finds Fisher facing off against an assassin from his past and a sinister threat to global security - a powerful cyberwarfare technology known as Gordian Sword, capable of cutting through any firewall in existence, to be auctioned off to the highest bidder in a rogue’s gallery of terrorists, criminals and renegade states.
Common elements
Plot and themes
The first game explains that "Splinter Cell" refers to an elite recon-type unit of single covert operatives (such as Sam Fisher) who are supported in the field by a high-tech remote team. |
9719_18 | In the first three games (Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory), terrorists are planning attacks, usually by use of information warfare, which Sam Fisher, an operative for Third Echelon, a secret branch of the NSA, must prevent. The missions range from gathering intelligence to capturing and/or eliminating terrorists.
In the fourth game, Double Agent, Fisher assumes the identity of a wanted criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist ring.
The fifth game, Conviction, starts after events in the conclusion of Double Agent: Sam has abandoned Third Echelon. When he discovers that the death of his daughter Sarah had not been an accident (as had been purported at the beginning of Double Agent), he strikes out on his own in search of those responsible until Sam's investigation uncovers a conspiracy within his old agency. |
9719_19 | In the sixth and most recent game, Blacklist, Third Echelon has been disbanded by the President of the United States. A new outfit, Fourth Echelon, is formed by the President and placed under the command of Sam Fisher with the mission of stopping the Blacklist attacks and the Engineers - the organization behind them. Blacklist deals with the morality of war and how far Sam and his team go in order to prevent these plots against America.
Trifocal goggles |
9719_20 | A device used for seeing in the dark features strongly in the series. Originally, Tom Clancy had rejected the idea of Sam Fisher having these "trifocal goggles", having stated that such goggles (with both thermal vision and night vision) were impossible to make. The creators argued that having two separate sets of goggles would have made for awkward gameplay and convinced Clancy to allow it. This also gave the Splinter Cell series a recognizable signature, a desirable feature. Chaos Theory added a third one, electromagnetic view, which shows the path of electricity in the area, mainly electrical cables and any device that has electrical power, like TVs, computers, etc. Conviction allows a fourth module to be accessed, a sonar module that can scan through walls for interactable objects, such as weapons, people, and consoles. |
9719_21 | The trifocal goggles however, didn't remain completely fictional. In 2004, Northrop Grumman produced and delivered one such device. The device, called Fused Multispectral Weapon Sight (FMWS) was capable of combining thermal and intensified imaging. Later in 2007, ITT Industries developed another such device, designated AN/PSQ-20. |
9719_22 | Characters
The characters of the games, as well as the organization "Third Echelon", were created by J. T. Petty. The main recurring ones are:
Sam Fisher is the main protagonist of the series. The character ranks 24th on the "Guinness Top 50 Video Game Characters of All Time" list.
Irving Lambert, leader of "Third Echelon", serves as the player's guide by leading Fisher through the games' missions, until he is killed by Sam in Double Agent.
Anna "Grim" Grimsdóttír is portrayed as an official Third Echelon hacker and analyst, who helps Fisher when technical obstacles need to be overcome. In Conviction she takes over the role of guide from the deceased Lambert; her character also becomes the source of dramatic tension in the story. In Blacklist, she is the technical operations officer and butts heads with Sam over morality, ethics, and Fourth Echelon's operating parameters. |
9719_23 | Sarah Fisher, Sam's daughter and sole family member. She was presumed to be killed in Double Agent, but Conviction revealed her murder to be a deception. |
9719_24 | Gameplay
The encouraged way to progress through the games is to remain hidden, select non-obvious routes, and utilize diversions to pass guards. The first game in the series only features a single-player mode, Pandora Tomorrow introduces a two-on-two multiplayer mode. Chaos Theory further develops that mode and introduces a cooperative mode. Cooperative mode plays similarly to the single player mode, but adds situations that can only be overcome as a team. The cooperative storylines in Chaos Theory and the sixth generation version of Double Agent parallel those of Sam's actions in the single-player modes, letting players act on information he obtained or provide support in the field. |
9719_25 | Double Agent introduces a morality factor: Fisher may now encounter conflicting objectives between his superiors and the terrorists. For example, the terrorists may assign a mission to assassinate someone, while the NSA simultaneously instructs the player to prevent the assassination. This creates a delicate balancing act between gaining the trust of the terrorists and fulfilling the mission assignments. In addition, Fisher must not do anything to reveal to the terrorists that he is a double agent (such as let himself be seen with an NSA gadget), otherwise he will lose instantly. |
9719_26 | Conviction utilises a much faster and more violent form of stealth action gameplay than previous games in the series. It retains the cooperative multiplayer mode of the two preceding games.
The weapons that Sam Fisher uses are based more accurately on current real-world weapons which behave accordingly and all weapons can be upgraded by a points system. This points system is secondary to the main storyline and is achievement based. These points may be used to add silencers, sights, upgraded ammo, laser targeting and other upgrades, with up to three upgrades per weapon. |
9719_27 | This game provides an interactive mission update sequence that is built into the levels themselves. Instead of getting an objective-bar popup, the objective may appear in bold white text on the side of a building or in front of a barricade. This adds to the immersion and keeps the HUD uncluttered. The stealth element of the game allows Fisher to hide in the shadows and become almost invisible. Guards may be assassinated by unsuppressed or silenced weapons, gadgets, or hand-to-hand combat. After successfully completing a hand-to-hand kill, the player is provided with an 'execution' bonus, which allows the player to mark two to four targets (depending on the weapon selected) such as enemies or objects, and trigger the execution animation. Fisher will then dispatch all targets within a few seconds in an extraordinary fashion. |
9719_28 | Interactive interrogation cutscenes where Fisher beats up a target for information do not require the player to do anything other than press [Interrogate]. Though if the player happens to be near an interactive object like a television or table, Fisher may use that to alter the standard animation. |
9719_29 | Development and history
Origin
Although the game features his name, Tom Clancy had little to no involvement in the development of any of the Splinter Cell games.
According to Splinter Cell series producer Mathieu Ferland, the original game was developed so that Ubisoft's Montreal studio could demonstrate its full potential. After Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, "special ops was the natural next step" for Tom Clancy-endorsed games.
Graphics and technology
The first game in the series modified the Unreal Engine to allow the light-and-dark-based gameplay style. The other games continued this, using updated versions of the engine. |
9719_30 | By the release of the latest game – Blacklist – the engine had been upgraded to the LEAD engine, a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine 2.5. The game had active shadows on all consoles not simply as a graphical function – as in most games – but as a gameplay enhancer for the sake of the game's stealth features. This meant that more coding for the game was required and overall, required a powerful desktop computer in order to get the best clarity and performance.
Reception
By the end of 2004, sales of the Splinter Cell series totaled 9.6 million units. By October 2005, the series' global sales had surpassed 12.5 million units.
Other media |
9719_31 | Film adaptation
Originally announced as a special feature on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, a film adaptation for the series was confirmed to be in development, as early as 2005.
In 2011, Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, and Assassin's Creed were all planned to receive film adaptations. The company officially stated, "We want to keep ownership, retain control over the film content, and we're open to work with studios on the development of our projects, and eventually collaborate on the pre-casting, pre-budget and script." The following year, it was reported that Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures are the front-runners bidding to make a Splinter Cell film. By November, it was announced that British actor Tom Hardy was cast as Sam Fisher, while Eric Warren Singer was hired as screenwriter. By 2013, Ubisoft announced that the film will be made by New Regency, with Basil Iwanyk signed on as producer through his production company, Thunder Road. |
9719_32 | In March 2014, Doug Liman joined the production as director, with Jean-Julien Baronnet and David Bartis attached as producers. Later that month, Sheldon Turner was brought into the production team, to write a new draft of the script. Hardy told Collider in an interview that the studio was hoping to start filming that August. By June, Liman stated that both he and Hardy were working on the film's script, which will focus on a young Sam Fisher, in his prime as opposed to the portrayal of a seasoned spy in the video games. October of the same year, Iwanyk has stated that filming will start early 2015. |
9719_33 | April 2015, Liman had left as director, with reports that studio were talking with Joseph Kahn as his replacement. By July, Ubisoft hired Frank John Hughes to rewrite the film's script. In January 2017, Iwanyk confirmed that the script had been completed and sent to Hardy to read over. The producer explained that the film is intended to have its own style within the action movie genre, and that the production team is aiming to make an edgy PG-13 rated film.
Anime series adaptation
In late July 2020, streaming service company Netflix announced that an anime series adaptation is in the works. John Wick writer Derek Kolstad will be serving as executive producer on the series, while the animation will be created by Sun Creature and Fost.
References
External links
Fictional military organizations
Ubisoft franchises
Tom Clancy games
Stealth video games by series
Action-adventure video games by series
Video game franchises
Video games adapted into television shows |
9720_0 | The National Geodetic Survey (NGS), formerly the United States Survey of the Coast (1807–1836), United States Coast Survey (1836–1878), and United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) (1878–1970), is a United States federal agency that defines and manages a national coordinate system, providing the foundation for transportation and communication; mapping and charting; and a large number of applications of science and engineering. Since its foundation in its present form in 1970, it has been part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), of the United States Department of Commerce. |
9720_1 | The National Geodetic Surveys history and heritage are intertwined with those of other NOAA offices. As with the U.S. Coast Survey and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the agency operated a fleet of survey ships, and from 1917 the Coast and Geodetic Survey was one of the uniformed services of the United States, with its own corps of commissioned officers. Upon the creation of the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) in 1965, the commissioned corps was separated from the Survey to become the Environmental Science Services Administration Corps (or "ESSA Corps"). Upon the creation of NOAA in 1970, the ESSA Corps became the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (or "NOAA Corps"); the operation of ships was transferred to the new NOAA fleet; geodetic responsibilities were placed under the new National Geodetic Survey; and hydrographic survey duties came under the cognizance of NOAA's new Office of Coast Survey. Thus, the National Geodetic |
9720_2 | Survey's ancestor organizations are also the ancestors of today's NOAA Corps and Office of Coast Survey and are among the ancestors of today's NOAA fleet. In addition, today's National Institute of Standards and Technology, although long since separated from the Survey, got its start as the Survey's Office of Weights and Measures. |
9720_3 | Purpose and function
The National Geodetic Survey is an office of NOAA's National Ocean Service. Its core function is to maintain the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), "a consistent coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, and orientation throughout the United States". NGS is responsible for defining the NSRS and its relationship with the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The NSRS enables precise and accessible knowledge of where things are in the United States and its territories. |
9720_4 | The NSRS may be divided into its geometric and physical components. The official geodetic datum of the United States, NAD83 defines the geometric relationship between points within the United States in three-dimensional space. The datum may be accessed via NGS's network of survey marks or through the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network of GPS reference antennas. NGS is responsible for computing the relationship between NAD83 and the ITRF. The physical components of the NSRS are reflected in its height system, defined by the vertical datum NAVD88. This datum is a network of orthometric heights obtained through spirit leveling. Because of the close relationship between height and Earth's gravity field, NGS also collects and curates terrestrial gravity measurements and develops regional models of the geoid (the level surface that best approximates sea level) and its slope, the deflection of the vertical. NGS is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the NSRS over |
9720_5 | time, even as the North American plate rotates and deforms over time due to crustal strain, post-glacial rebound, subsidence, elastic deformation of the crust, and other geophysical phenomena. |
9720_6 | NGS will release new datums in 2022. The North American Terrestrial Reference Frame of 2022 (NATRF2022) will supersede NAD83 in defining the geometric relationship between the North American plate and the ITRF. United States territories on the Pacific, Caribbean, and Mariana plates will have their own respective geodetic datums. The North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022) will separately define the height system of the United States and its territories, replacing NAVD88. It will use a geoid model accurate to 1 centimeter (0.4") to relate orthometric height to ellipsoidal height measured by GPS, eliminating the need for future leveling projects. This geoid model will be based on airborne and terrestrial gravity measurements collected by NGS's GRAV-D program as well as satellite-based gravity models derived from observations collected by GRACE, GOCE, and satellite altimetry missions. |
9720_7 | NGS provides a number of other public services. It maps changing shorelines in the United States and provides aerial imagery of regions affected by natural disasters, enabling rapid damage assessment by emergency managers and members of the public. The Online Positioning and User Service (OPUS) processes user-input GPS data and outputs position solutions within the NSRS. The agency offers other tools for conversion between datums.
History
Earliest years |
9720_8 | The original predecessor agency of the National Geodetic Survey was the United States Survey of the Coast, created within the United States Department of the Treasury by an Act of Congress on February 10, 1807, to conduct a "Survey of the Coast." The Survey of the Coast, the United States governments first scientific agency, represented the interest of the administration of President Thomas Jefferson in science and the stimulation of international trade by using scientific surveying methods to chart the waters of the United States and make them safe for navigation. A Swiss immigrant with expertise in both surveying and the standardization of weights and measures, Ferdinand R. Hassler, was selected to lead the Survey. |
9720_9 | Hassler submitted a plan for the survey work involving the use of triangulation to ensure scientific accuracy of surveys, but international relations prevented the new Survey of the Coast from beginning its work; the Embargo Act of 1807 brought American overseas trade virtually to a halt only a month after Hasslers appointment and remained in effect until Jefferson left office in March 1809. It was not until 1811 that Jeffersons successor, President James Madison, sent Hassler to Europe to purchase the instruments necessary to conduct the planned survey, as well as standardized weights and measures. Hassler departed on August 29, 1811, but eight months later, while he was in England, the War of 1812 broke out, forcing him to remain in Europe until its conclusion in 1815. Hassler did not return to the United States until August 16, 1815. |
9720_10 | The Survey finally began surveying operations in 1816, when Hassler started work in the vicinity of New York City. The first baseline was measured and verified in 1817. However, Hassler was taken by surprise when the United States Congress – frustrated by the slow and limited progress the Survey had made in its first decade, unwilling to endure the time and expense involved in scientifically precise surveying, unconvinced of the propriety of expending U.S. Government funds on scientific endeavors, and uncomfortable with Hassler leading the effort because of his foreign birth – enacted legislation in 1818 removing him from the leadership of the Survey and suspending its operations. Congress believed that United States Army and United States Navy officers could achieve surveying results adequate for safe navigation during their routine navigation and charting activities and could do so more quickly and cheaply than Hassler, and it gave the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy responsibility for |
9720_11 | coastal surveys. Under this law, which prohibited the U.S. Government from hiring civilians to conduct coastal surveys, the Survey of the Coast existed without a superintendent and without conducting any surveys during the 14 years from 1818 to 1832. |
9720_12 | Work resumes
On July 10, 1832, Congress passed a new law renewing the original law of 1807, placing the responsibility for coastal surveying back in the Survey of the Coast and permitting the hiring of civilians to carry it out. Hassler was reappointed as the Surveys superintendent that year. The administration of President Andrew Jackson expanded and extended the Survey of the Coasts scope and organization.
The Survey of the Coast resumed field work in April 1833. |
9720_13 | In July 1833, Edmund E. Blunt, the son of hydrographer Edmund B. Blunt, accepted a position with the Survey. The elder Blunt had begun publication of the American Coast Pilot – the first book of sailing directions, charts, and other information for mariners in North American waters to be published in North America – in 1796. Although the Survey relied on articles it published in local newspapers to provide information to mariners in the next decades, Blunts employment with the Survey began a relationship between the American Coast Pilot and the Survey in which the Surveys findings were incorporated into the American Coast Pilot and the Surveys charts were sold by the Blunt family, which became staunch allies of the Survey in its disputes with its critics. Eventually, the relationship between the Survey and the Blunts would lead to the establishment of the Surveys United States Coast Pilot publications in the latter part of the 19th century. |
9720_14 | Association with United States Navy |
9720_15 | The United States Department of the Navy was given the control of the Survey of the Coast from 1834 to 1836, but on March 26, 1836, the Department of the Treasury resumed the administration of the Survey, which was renamed the United States Coast Survey in 1836. The Navy retained close connection with the hydrographic efforts of the Coast Survey under law requiring Survey ships to be commanded and crewed by U.S. Navy officers and men when the Navy could provide such support. Under this system, which persisted until the Survey was granted the authority to crew its ships in 1900, many of the most famous names in hydrography for both the Survey and Navy of the period are linked, as U.S. Navy officers and Coast Survey civilians served alongside one another aboard ship. In addition, the United States Department of War provided U.S. Army officers for service with the Survey during its early years. Hassler believed that expertise in coastal surveys would be of importance in future wars and |
9720_16 | welcomed the participation of Army and Navy personnel, and his vision in this regard laid the foundation for the commissioned corps of officers that would be created in the Survey in 1917 as the ancestor of todays National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps. |
9720_17 | Growth years
During the nineteenth century, the remit of the Survey was rather loosely drawn and it had no competitors in federally funded scientific research. Various superintendents developed its work in fields as diverse as astronomy, cartography, meteorology, geodesy, geology, geophysics, hydrography, navigation, oceanography, exploration, pilotage, tides, and topography. The Survey published important articles by Charles Sanders Peirce on the design of experiments and on a criterion for the statistical treatment of outliers. Ferdinand Hassler became the first Superintendent of Weights and Measures beginning in November 1830, and the Office of Weights and Measures, the ancestor of todays National Institute of Standards and Technology, was placed under the control of the Coast Survey in 1836; until 1901, the Survey thus was responsible for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States. |
9720_18 | When it resumed operations in 1833, the Survey returned to surveys of the New York City area and its maritime approaches. Although U.S. law prohibited the Survey from procuring its own ships, requiring it to use existing public ships such as those of the Navy and the United States Revenue-Marine (which in 1894 became the United States Revenue Cutter Service) for surveying operations afloat, the U.S. Department of the Navy worked around the law by allowing Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney to purchase the schooner Jersey for the Navy, then deeming Jersey suited only for use by the Survey. Under Gedneys command, Jersey began the Surveys first depth sounding operations in October 1834, and made its first commercially and militarily significant discovery in 1835 by discovering what became known as the Gedney Channel at the entrance to New York Harbor, which significantly reduced sailing times to and from New York City. |
9720_19 | In 1838, U.S. Navy Lieutenant George M. Bache, while attached to the Survey, suggested standardizing the markings of buoys and navigational markers ashore by painting those on the right when entering a harbor red and those on the left black; instituted by Lieutenant Commander John R. Goldsborough in 1847, the "red right return" system of markings has been in use in the United States ever since. In August 1839, the Coast Survey made another kind of history when the U.S. Revenue-Marine revenue cutter , conducting sounding surveys for the Coast Survey off Long Island under Gedneys command, intercepted the slave ship La Amistad and brought her into port. In the early 1840s, the Survey began work in Delaware Bay to chart the approaches to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
9720_20 | Professor Alexander Dallas Bache became superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey after Hasslers death in 1843. During his years as superintendent, he reorganized the Coast Survey and expanded its work southward along the United States East Coast into the Florida Keys. In 1846 the Survey began to operate a ship, Phoenix, on the United States Gulf Coast for the first time. By 1847, Bache had expanded the Surveys operations from nine states to seventeen, and by 1849 it also operated along the United States West Coast, giving it a presence along all coasts of the United States. In 1845, he instituted the worlds first systematic oceanographic project for studying a specific phenomenon when he directed the Coast Survey to begin systematic studies of the Gulf Stream and its environs, including physical oceanography, geological oceanography, biological oceanography, and chemical oceanography. Baches initial orders for the Gulf Stream study served as a model for all subsequent integrated |
9720_21 | oceanographic cruises. Bache also instituted regular and systematic observations of the tides and investigated magnetic forces and directions, making the Survey the center of U.S. Government expertise in geophysics for the following century. In the late 1840s, the Survey pioneered the use of the telegraph to provide highly accurate determinations of longitude; known as the "American Method", it soon was emulated worldwide. |
9720_22 | Disaster struck the Coast Survey on September 8, 1846 when the survey brig Peter G. Washington encountered a hurricane while she was conducting studies of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina. She was dismasted in the storm with the loss of 11 men who were swept overboard, but she managed to limp into port. |
9720_23 | The Mexican War of 1846–1848 saw the withdrawal of virtually all U.S. Army officers from the Coast Survey and the Coast Survey brig was taken over for U.S. Navy service in the war, but overall the war effort had little impact on the Coast Surveys operations. Army officers returned after the war, and the expansion of U.S. territory as a result of the war led to the Coast Survey expanding its operations to include the newly acquired coasts of Texas and California. The famous naturalist Louis Agassiz studied marine life off New England from the Coast Survey steamer Bibb in 1847 and also conducted the first scientific study of the Florida reef system in 1851 under a Coast Survey commission; his son, Alexander Agassiz, later also served aboard Coast Survey ships for technical operations. In the 1850s, the Coast Survey also conducted surveys and measurements in support of efforts to reform the Department of the Treasurys Lighthouse Establishment, and it briefly employed the artist James |
9720_24 | McNeill Whistler as a draughtsman in 1854–1855. |
9720_25 | Ever since it began operations, the Coast Survey had faced hostility from politicians who believed that it should complete its work and be abolished as a means of reducing U.S. Government expenditures, and Hassler and Bache had fought back periodic attempts to cut its funding. By 1850, the Coast Survey had surveyed enough of the U.S. coastline for a long enough time to learn that – with a few exceptions, such as the rocky coast of New England – coastlines were dynamic and required return visits by Coast Surveyors to keep charts up to date. In 1858, Bache for the first time publicly stated that the Coast Survey was not a temporary organization charged with charting the coasts once, but rather a permanent one that would continually survey coastal areas as they changed over time. |
9720_26 | Another significant moment in the Surveys history that occurred in 1858 was the first publication of what would later become the United States Coast Pilot, when Survey employee George Davidson adapted an article from a San Francisco, California, newspaper into an addendum to that years Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. Although the Survey had previously published its work indirectly via the Blunts American Coast Pilot, it was the first time that the Survey had published its sailing directions directly in any way other than through local newspapers.
On June 21, 1860, the greatest loss of life in a single incident in the history of NOAA and its ancestor agencies occurred when a commercial schooner collided with the Coast Survey paddle steamer Robert J. Walker in the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey. Robert J. Walker sank with the loss of 20 men. |
9720_27 | A Coast Survey ship took part in an international scientific project for the first time when Bibb observed a solar eclipse from a vantage point off Aulezavik, Labrador, on July 18, 1860, as part of an international effort to study the eclipse. Bibb became the first Coast Survey vessel to operate in subarctic waters.
American Civil War |
9720_28 | The outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861 caused a dramatic shift in direction for the Coast Survey. All U.S. Army officers were withdrawn from the Survey, as were all but two U.S. Navy officers. Since most men of the Survey had Union sympathies, all but seven of them stayed on with the Survey rather than resigning to serve the Confederate States of America, and their work shifted in emphasis to support of the Union Navy and Union Army. Civilian Coast Surveyors were called upon to serve in the field and provide mapping, hydrographic, and engineering expertise for Union forces. One of the individuals who excelled at this work was Joseph Smith Harris, who supported Rear Admiral David G. Farragut and his Western Gulf Blockading Squadron in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip in 1862; this survey work was particularly valuable to Commander David Dixon Porter and his mortar bombardment fleet. Coast Surveyors served in virtually all theaters of the war and were often in |
9720_29 | the front lines or in advance of the front lines carrying out mapping duties, and Coast Survey officers produced many of the coastal charts and interior maps used by Union forces throughout the war. Coast Surveyors supporting the Union Army were given assimilated military rank while attached to a specific command, but those supporting the U.S. Navy operated as civilians and ran the risk of being executed as spies if captured by the Confederates while working in support of Union forces. |
9720_30 | Post–Civil War |
9720_31 | Army officers never returned to the Coast Survey, but after the war Navy officers did, and the Coast Survey resumed its peacetime duties. The acquisition of the Territory of Alaska in 1867 expanded its responsibilities, as did the progressive exploration, settlement, and enclosure of the continental United States. George W. Blunt sold the copyright for the American Coast Pilot – the Blunt family publication which had appeared in 21 editions since 1796 and had come to consist almost entirely of public information produced by the Survey anyway – in 1867, and the Survey thus took responsibility for publishing it regularly for the first time, spawning a family of such publications for the various coasts of the United States and the Territory of Alaska in the coming years. In 1888, the publications for the United States East and Gulf coasts took the name United States Coast Pilot for the first time, and the publications for the United States West Coast took this name 30 years later. NOAA |
9720_32 | produces the United States Coast Pilots to this day. |
9720_33 | In 1871, Congress officially expanded the Coast Surveys responsibilities to include geodetic surveys in the interior of the country, and one of its first major projects in the interior was to survey the 39th Parallel across the entire country. Between 1874 and 1877, the Coast Survey employed the naturalist and author John Muir as a guide and artist during the survey of the 39th Parallel in the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah. To reflect its acquisition of the mission of surveying the U.S. interior and the growing role of geodesy in its operations, the U.S. Coast Survey was renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) in 1878. |
9720_34 | The American Coast Pilot had long been lacking in current information when the Coast Survey took control of it in 1867, and the Survey had recognized that deficit but had been hindered by a lack of funding and the risks associated with mooring vessels in deep waters or along dangerous coasts in order to collect the information necessary for updates. The U.S. Congress specifically appropriated funding for such work in the 1875–1876 budget under which the 76-foot (23-meter) schooner Drift was constructed and sent out under U.S. Navy Acting Master and Coast Survey Assistant Robert Platt to the Gulf of Maine to anchor in depths of up to 140 fathoms (840 feet/256 meters) to measure currents. The Survey's requirement to update sailing directions led to the development of early current measurement technology, particularly the Pillsbury current meter invented by John E. Pillsbury, USN, while on duty with the Survey. It was in connection with intensive studies of the Gulf Stream that the Coast |
9720_35 | and Geodetic Survey ship USC&GS George S. Blake became such a pioneer in oceanography that she is one of only two U.S. ships with her name inscribed in the façade of the Oceanographic Museum (Musée Océanographique) in Monaco due to her being "the most innovative oceanographic vessel of the Nineteenth Century" with development of deep ocean exploration through introduction of steel cable for sounding, dredging and deep anchoring and data collection for the "first truly modern bathymetric map of a deep sea area." |
9720_36 | Crisis in the mid-1880s |
9720_37 | By the mid-1880s, the Coast and Geodetic Survey had been caught up in the increased scrutiny of U.S. Government agencies by politicians seeking to reform governmental affairs by curbing the spoils system and patronage common among office holders of the time. One outgrowth of this movement was the Allison Commission – a joint commission of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives – which convened in 1884 to investigate the scientific agencies of the U.S. Government, namely the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the United States Geological Survey, the United States Army Signal Corps (responsible for studying and predicting weather at the time), and the United States Navy's United States Hydrographic Office. The commission looked into three main issues: the role of geodesy in the U.S. Government's scientific efforts and whether responsibility for inland geodetics should reside in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey or the U.S. Geological Survey; whether the Coast and |
9720_38 | Geodetic Survey should be removed from the Department of the Treasury and placed under the control of the Department of the Navy, as it had been previously from 1834 to 1836; and whether weather services should reside in a military organization or in the civilian part of the government, raising the broader issue of whether U.S. government scientific agencies of all kinds should be under military or civilian control. |
9720_39 | At the Coast and Geodetic Survey, at least some scientists were not prone to following bureaucratic requirements related to the funding of their projects, and their lax financial practices led to charges of mismanagement of funds and corruption. When Grover Cleveland became president in 1885, James Q. Chenoweth became First Auditor of the Department of the Treasury, and he began to investigate improprieties at the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, and United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, more commonly referred to as the U.S. Fish Commission. He had little impact on the Geological Survey or the Fish Commission, but at the Coast and Geodetic Survey he found many improprieties. Chenoweth found that the Coast and Geodetic Survey had failed to account for government equipment it had purchased, continued to pay retired personnel as a way of giving them a pension even though the law did not provide for a pension system, paid employees whether they worked or |
9720_40 | not, and misused per diem money intended for the expenses of personnel in the field by paying per diem funds to employees who were not in the field as a way of augmenting their very low authorized wages and providing them with fair compensation. Chenoweth saw these practices as embezzlement. Chenoweth also suspected embezzlement in the Survey's practice of providing its employees with money in advance for large and expensive purchases when operating in remote areas because of the Survey's inability to verify that the expenses were legitimate. Moreover, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Julius Hilgard, was exposed as a drunkard and forced to resign in disgrace along with four of his senior staff members at Survey headquarters. |
9720_41 | To address issues at the Coast and Geodetic Survey raised by the Allison Commission and the Chenoweth investigation, Cleveland made the Chief Clerk of the Internal Revenue Bureau, Frank Manly Thorn, Acting Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey on July 23, 1885, and appointed him as the permanent superintendent on September 1. Thorn, a lawyer and journalist who was the first non-scientist to serve as superintendent, quickly concluded that the charges against Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel largely were overblown, and he set his mind to the issues of rebuilding the Survey's integrity and reputation and ensuring that it demonstrated its value to its critics. Ignorant of the Survey's operations and the scientific methods that lay behind them, he left such matters to his assistant, Benjamin J. Colonna, and focused instead on reforming the Survey's financial and budgetary procedures and improving its operations so as to demonstrate the value of its scientific program in |
9720_42 | performing accurate mapping while setting and meeting production deadlines for maps and charts. |
9720_43 | To the Survey's critics, Thorn and Colonna championed the importance of the Coast and Geodetic Survey's inland geodetic work and how it supported, rather than duplicated, the work of the Geological Survey and was in any event an important component of the Coast and Geodetic Survey's hydrographic work along the coasts. Thorn also advocated civilian control of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, pointing out to Cleveland and others that earlier experiments with placing it under U.S. Navy control had fared poorly. Thorn described the Coast and Geodetic Survey's essential mission as, in its simplest form, to produce "a perfect map,". and to this end he and Colonna championed the need for the Survey to focus on the broad range of geodetic disciplines Colonna identified as necessary for accurate chart- and mapmaking: triangulation, astronomical observations, levelling, tidal observations, physical geodesy, topography, hydrography, and magnetic observations. To those who advocated transfer of the |
9720_44 | Coast and Geodetic Survey's work to the Navy Hydrographic Office, Thorn and Colonna replied that although the Navy could perform hydrography, it could not provide the full range of geodetic disciplines necessary for scientifically accurate surveying and mapping work. |
9720_45 | In 1886, the Allison Commission wrapped up its investigation and published its final report. Although it determined that all topographic responsibility outside of coastal areas would henceforth reside in the U.S. Geological Survey, it approved of the Coast and Geodetic Survey continuing its entire program of scientific research, and recommended that the Coast and Geodetic Survey remain under civilian control rather than be subordinated to the U.S. Navy. It was a victory for Thorn and Colonna. Another victory followed in 1887, when Thorn headed off a congressional attempt to subordinate the Survey to the Navy despite the Allison Commission's findings, providing Cleveland with information on the previous lack of success of such an arrangement. When Thorn left the superintendency in 1889, the Coast and Geodetic Survey's position in the U.S. Government had become secure. |
9720_46 | Before Thorn left the superintendency, the United States Congress passed a bill requiring that henceforth the president would select the superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey with the consent of the U.S. Senate. This practice has continued for senior positions in the Coast and Geodetic Survey and its successor organizations ever since.
Later 19th century and early 20th century
In the 1890s, while attached to the Coast and Geodetic Survey as commanding officer of George S. Blake, Lieutenant Commander Charles Dwight Sigsbee, USN, Assistant in the Coast Survey, developed the Sigsbee sounding machine while conducting the first true bathymetric surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. |
9720_47 | With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, the U.S. Navy again withdrew its officers from Coast and Geodetic Survey duty. As a result of the war, which ended in August 1898, the United States took control of the Philippine Islands and Puerto Rico, and surveying their waters became part of the Coast and Geodetic Survey's duties. The Survey opened a field office in Seattle, Washington in 1899, to support survey ships operating in the Pacific Ocean as well as survey field expeditions in the western United States; this office eventually would become the modern National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Marine Center. |
9720_48 | The system of U.S. Navy officers and men crewing the Surveys ships that had prevailed for most of the 19th century came to an end when the appropriation law approved on June 6, 1900, provided for "all necessary employees to man and equip the vessels" instead of Navy personnel. The law went into effect on July 1, 1900; at that point, all Navy personnel assigned to the Surveys ships remained aboard until the first call at each ships home port, where they transferred off, with the Survey reimbursing the Navy for their pay accrued after July 1, 1900. Thereafter, the Coast and Geodetic Survey operated as an entirely civilian organization until May 1917.
In 1901, the Office of Weights and Measures was split off from the Coast and Geodetic Survey to become the separate National Bureau of Standards. It became the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1988. |
9720_49 | In 1904, the Coast and Geodetic Survey introduced the wire-drag technique into hydrography, in which a wire attached to two ships or boats and set at a certain depth by a system of weights and buoys was dragged between two points. This method revolutionized hydrographic surveying, as it allowed a quicker, less laborious, and far more complete survey of an area than did the use of lead lines and sounding poles that had preceded it, and it remained in use until the late 1980s. |
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