by Carolyn Erland Brower As far as humanly possible, this is a
factual account of the wreck of the Circassian. However, the
last century did not have the advantages of authentic audio
reports. as in the Hindenburg disaster, or analyzable video
records, as in the Kennedy assassinations. Gathering information
about an incident of over a hundred years ago is not without its
difficulty. In 1876 journalism itself was in a different era.
Even photography was still too cumbersome a process to be the
invaluable aid that we know today, and rapid communication
systems were, comparatively, poor. Rivalry for readership among
the many New York daily papers sometimes led to haste and human
error in reporting. It also led, in some cases, to exaggeration
and sensationalism when actual details were not known. On the
other hand, the official government reports of the wreck were
written by capable eyewitnesses who, though necessarily
subjective, endeavored to be as accurate as possible.] Those
individuals directly involved neve