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THE LAST CRUISE OF THE SAGINAW




    [Illustration: LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER MONTGOMERY SICARD]




    THE LAST CRUISE OF
    THE SAGINAW

    BY

    GEORGE H. READ
    PAY INSPECTOR, U.S.N. (RETIRED)

    _With Illustrations from Sketches by Lieutenant
    Commander (afterwards Rear-Admiral)
    Sicard and from Contemporary
    Photographs_

    [Illustration]

    BOSTON AND NEW YORK
    HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
    The Riverside Press Cambridge
    1912




    COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY GEORGE H. READ
    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    _Published February 1912_

    ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES OF
    THIS FIRST EDITION PRINTED AND
    BOUND UNCUT WITH PAPER LABEL




                          THIS BOOK
           IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE NOBLE
               MEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE
                 EFFORT TO OBTAIN RELIEF FOR
                      THEIR SHIPWRECKED
                           COMRADES




PREFACE

Dear Mr. Read:--

I am greatly obliged to you for letting me read your deeply
interesting account of the wreck of the poor Saginaw and the loss of
Lieutenant Talbot. With General Cutter's approval I shall take the
manuscript with me to Boston, but I will return it carefully.

I leave the two photographs, but I have the curious drawing and
newspaper scraps, which I will safely return.

                                      Very truly yours,
                                                  EDWARD E. HALE.

  Dec. 21, 1880.
    WASHINGTON.

A recent re-reading of the above old letter from a friend who in his
lifetime stood so high in the literary world