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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, has, together with the
suggestions of other friends and shipmates, decided me to launch my
narrative of the cruise and wreck of the Saginaw on the sea of
publicity.

The story itself may be lost in the immense current of literature
constantly pouring forth, but some good friends advise me to the
contrary.

The fact that stories of sea life and adventure have ever possessed
the power to attract the interest and stir the imagination, adds to
the courage given me to set forth my plain unadorned story without any
pretensions to literary excellence.

Some of the first instructions given to a newly fledged naval officer
enjoin upon him the necessity for brevity and directness in his
official communications, both oral and written, and eventually he
becomes addicted to formal expressions that pervade his entire
correspondence. Eloquence or sentiment would probably be crushed with
a reprimand. I trust, therefore, that the reader will consider the
above conditions as they have surrounded me throughout my service,
should he or she find a lack of decorative language in my narrative.

To my mind, as a participant in the related events, there is material
in the story to rival the fictions of Fenimore Cooper or Marryat, and
I think that the heroes who gave up their lives in the effort to save
their shipmates should stand as high on the roll of fame as do those
lost amid battle smoke and carnage.

                                                    G.H.R.

  August 16, 1911.




CONTENTS


I. THE BEGINNING OF THE CRUISE                                  1

II. THE WRECK                                                  12

III. ON THE ISLAND                                             31

IV. THE SAILING OF THE GIG                                     58

V. WAITING                                                     72

VI. RESCUED                                                    85

VII. THE FATE OF THE GIG                                       96

     APPENDIX                                                 121




ILLUSTRATIONS


LIEUT.-COMMANDER MONTGOMERY SICARD                 _Frontispiece_

U.S. STEAMER SAGINAW, FOURTH-RATE                               2

THE LANDING AT MIDWAY ISLANDS, SHOWING SEALS AND ALBATROSS      8
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

THE MIDWAY ISLANDS AS WE LEFT THEM                              8

OCEAN ISLAND AND REEF                                          14

VIEW OF OCEAN ISLAND, REEF AND LAGOON AS SEEN FROM THE
  SOUTH                                                        16
  (The island is at the lower edge of the circle)

OCEAN ISLAND AS VIEWED FROM THE NORTH                          16
  (The arrow shows where the Saginaw struck)

THE SAGINAW IN THE GRIP OF THE BREAKERS                        24

THE CONDENSER MADE FROM A SMALL BOILER AND SPEAKING-TUBES      36
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

GATHERING TIMBERS FROM THE WRECK                               36
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

THE CAPTAIN'S TENT                                             42
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

THE STOREHOUSE--ELEVATED TO AVOID THE RATS                     42
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

LIEUTENANT JOHN G. TALBOT                                      46
  (Who volunteered and navigated the Saginaw's gig a distance
  of fourteen hundred miles to the Sandwich Islands and was
  drowned when the boat was in sight of land)

THE GIG BEFORE LAUNCHING, WITH SAILS MADE ON THE ISLAND        54

PASSED ASSISTANT ENGINEER JAMES BUTTERWORTH                    62
  (Who, standing waist deep in the water, put the finishing
  touches to the gig)

RIPPING TIMBERS FOR THE SCHOONER                               74
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

THE FRAME OF THE SCHOONER AS WE LEFT IT                        74
  _From a sketch by Captain Sicard_

THE FLAGSTAFF FROM WHICH THE KILAUEA WAS SIGHTED               86

CAMP SAGINAW ON THE DAY OF RESCUE                              86
  _Taken from the masthead of the Kilauea_

CAPTAIN LONG, COMMANDER OF THE HAWAIIAN STEAMER THE
  KILAUEA                                                      90

MR. JOHN PATY'S BUNGALOW AT HONOLULU                           98

STARBOARD SIDE OF THE GIG AFTER HER EVENTFUL JOURNEY          102

DECK VIEW OF THE GIG AFTER HER EVENTFUL JOURNEY               102

WILLIAM HALFORD, COXSWAIN, THE ONLY SURVIVOR OF THE GIG'S
  CREW                                                        110
  (He is now a retired chief gunner in the Navy)

THE TABLET NOW ON THE WALLS OF THE CHAPEL AT THE UNITED
  STATES NAVAL ACADEMY AT ANNAPOLIS                           119




THE LAST CRUISE OF THE SAGINAW




I

THE BEGINNING OF THE CRUISE


During the winter of 1869-70 the United States Steamer Saginaw was
being repaired at the Mare Island Navy Yard, and her officers and crew
were recuperating after a cruise on the west coast of Mexico,--a
trying one for all hands on board as well as for the vessel itself.

The "Alta-Californian" of San Francisco published the following soon
after our return from the Mexican coast. It is all that need be said
of the cruise. We were all very glad to have it behind us and forget
it.

    The Saginaw, lately returned from the Mexican coast, had a
    pretty severe experience during her short cruise. At Manzanillo
    she contracted the coast fever, a form of remittent, and at one
    time had twenty-five cases, but a single death, however,
    occurring.

    On the way up, most of the time under sail, the machinery being
    disabled, the voyage was so prolonged that when she arrived at
    San Francisco there was not a half-day's allowance of provisions
    on board and for many days the officers had been on "ship's
    grub."

Our repairs and refitting were but preliminary to another (and the
last) departure of the Saginaw from her native land. Our captain,
Lieutenant-Commander Montgomery Sicard, had received orders to proceed
to the Midway Islands, _via_ Honolulu, and to comply with instructions
that will appear later in these pages. (I should explain here that the
commanding officer of a single vessel is usually addressed as
"Captain," whatever his real rank may be, and I shall use that term
throughout my narrative.)

    [Illustration: U.S. STEAMER SAGINAW--FOURTH-RATE
    Built at the Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, in 1859]

In a northwesterly direction from the Sandwich Islands there stretches
for over a thousand miles a succession of coral reefs and shoals, with
here and there a sandy islet thrown up by the winds and waves. They
are mostly bare of vegetation beyond a stunted growth of bushes. These
islets are called "atolls" by geographers, and their foundations are
created by the mysterious "polyps" or coral insects.

These atolls abound in the Pacific Ocean, and rising but a few feet
above the surface, surrounded by uncertain and uncharted currents, are
the dread of navigators.

Near the centre of the North Pacific and near the western end of the
chain of atolls above mentioned, are two small sand islands in the
usual lagoon, with a coral reef enclosing both. They were discovered
by an American captain, N.C. Brooks, of the Hawaiian bark Gambia, and
by him reported; were subsequently visited by the United States
Steamer Lackawanna and surveyed for charting.

No importance other than the danger to navigation was at that time
attached to these mere sandbanks. Now, however, the trans-Pacific
railroads, girdling the continent and making valuable so many hitherto
insignificant places, have cast their influence three thousand miles
across the waters to these obscure islets. The expected increase of
commerce between the United States and the Orient has induced the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company to look for a halfway station as a
coaling-depot, and these, the Midway Islands, are expected to answer
the purpose when the proposed improvements are made. To do the work of
deepening a now shallow channel through the reef, a contract has been
awarded to an experienced submarine engineer and the Saginaw has been
brought into service to transport men and material. Our captain is to
superintend and to report monthly on the progress made. Thus, with the
voyages out and return, coupled with the several trips between the
Midways and Honolulu, we have the prospect of a year's deep-water
cruising to our credit.


_February 22, 1870._ Once more separated from home and friends, with
the Golden Gate dissolving astern in a California fog (than which none
can be more dense). Old Neptune gives us a boisterous welcome to his
dominions, and the howling of wind through the rigging, with the
rolling and pitching of the ship as we steam out to sea, where we meet
the full force of a stiff "southeaster," remind us that we are once
more his subjects.

On the fourteenth day out we heard the welcome cry of "Land ho!" at
sunrise from the masthead. It proved to be the island of Molokai, and
the next day, March 9, we passed into the harbor of Honolulu on the
island of Oahu. We found that our arrival was expected, and the ship
was soon surrounded by canoes of natives, while crowds of people were
on the wharves.

After six days spent in refitting and obtaining fresh food and
ship-stores, we took up our westward course with memories of pleasant
and hospitable treatment, both officially and socially, from the
native and foreign people. Nothing happened outside of the usual
routine of sea life until March 24, when we sighted the Midway
Islands, and at 8 P.M. were anchored in Welles's Harbor, so called,
although there is barely room in it to swing the ship. The island is a
desolate-looking place--the eastern end of it covered with brown
albatross and a few seal apparently asleep on the beach. We can see
the white sand drifting about with the wind like snow. The next day a
schooner arrived with the contractor's supplies and lumber for a
dwelling and a scow, the latter to be used by the divers in their
outside work. There also arrived, towards night, a strong gale. It
blew so hard that with both anchors down the engines had to be worked
constantly to prevent drifting either on the island or the reef.

During the month of April work both afloat and ashore was steadily
pushed. The contractor's house was set up and the divers' scow
completed and launched. In addition, a thorough survey of the entire
reef and bar was completed.

Our several trips between the Midways and Honolulu need but brief
mention. They were slow and monotonous, being made mostly under sail.
The Saginaw was not built for that purpose. On one occasion, on
account of head winds, we made but twenty miles on our course in two
days.

The last return to the Midways came on October 12, and the
appropriation of $50,000 having been expended, our captain proceeded
to carry out his orders directing him to take on board the
contractor's workmen with their tools and stores and transport them to
San Francisco.

We found the shore party all well and looking forward with pleasure to
the closing day of their contract. They certainly have had the
monotonous and irksome end of the business, although we have not been
able to derive much pleasure from our sailings to and fro.

A brief resume of the work performed during their seven months'
imprisonment I have compiled from the journal of Passed Assistant
Engineer Bly