provemem s, and some wo ndered if even that much would be necessary. USS Saginaw was chosen to serve as the support vessel for the commercial divers from Boston who wo uld labor for six months on the deserted island. They set off with the bare essentials: " . .. seven Yankee experts in submarine diving and blasting, twenty-one Chinese laborers, 1,000 bags of powder, with lumber and material ... "4 But there was only one suit of heavy di ving gear. By October 1870 the money had run out but the dredging of the channel had barely begun; the operation was terminated. Saginaw picked up the sunburned contractors and, departing for San Francisco o n a Friday, first made for nearby Kure Atoll some sixty nautical miles to the wes t.
The Wreck The actual loss of USS Saginaw is a study in slow motion as well as indicative of the remarkable hazards of the No rthwes tern H awaiian Islands. Lieutenant Commander Montgom ery Sicard, a responsible and capable officer (later Rear-Adm iral), shaped his course for Kure Atoll to check fo r castaways. Knowing that the atoll lay ahead (but ignorant of the westerly currents), Sicard navigated his ship cautiously th ro ugh a heavy swell under reduced sail. The moon had set, but they did not expect to be with in vis ual range until dayb reak. The night orders h ighlighted the need for a "bright lookout" and co nstant vigilance. Eyes strai ned in to the inky darkness fo r any indication of rocks, shoals, or discolo red water. The engines were kept below six revolutions, the minimum required to turn the paddlewheels. At least nine crewmen and officers, including the captain, remained on deck in the early hours of O ctober 29th. Saginaw was m aking less than three knots, the pace of a leisurely stroll. None of this helped them one bit. At 03 13, the forward lookout asked the Officer on Deck "if those are not breakers ahead . .. " and then starting running aft. Rising from his seat at the port paddle box, C aptain Sicard confirmed breakers ahead and ordered the topsails clewed up and halyards let go; the engines were o rdered back hard. Wo rd was passed for "all hands," but in just a few minutes the ship was going omo the reef. SEA HISTORY 112, AUTUMN 2005
Lt. Com mander Montgomery Sicard A design Raw m ay have contributed to the disaster as well. Saginaw's inclined oscillating steam engines featured a single eccentric fastened securely to the paddlewheel shaft. The sidewheels were designed to work fo rward only; in backing, the valves had to be operated by hand. Even that effort was doom ed. The reef punched th rough the hull just starboard of the keel when the ship struck, steam connections were broken, and the compartment was has tily abandoned . Herschel M ain, 2d assistant engineer, recalled: We had hardly gotten down into th e fire room, when a great volume of smoke and gas came pouring These sketches by Lt. Commander Montgomery Sicard depict the initial wrecking and subsequent break-up of the stern as the ship's stranded crewmembers tried to salvage as much of the ship's timbers and provisions as possible.
through the furn aces. This was owing to the smoke stack being carried away just at that moment; being perfectly suffocating, we were compelled to leave the fire room d irectly, and I again reported to Mr. Bu tterworth , and the engine room was abandoned .. .. Everything at this time seemed to be in perfect co nfusio n, and the m en seemed paral yzed. The waves were dashing over the ship, each wave driving her further o n the rocks. 5 Retrieving provisions from the holds became their immediate priority. With daylight, the ship's boats were lowered, and the crew made their way onto the reef. They needed to locate a path through the surf and co ral into the relative calm wa ters of the lagoo n. From the boats, they could make our a low island less than a m ile away to the southwest. Provisions were passed across the reef and through the surf to the boats in the lagoon, a chain of men and boats stretching to the sandy beach of Green Island. Miles to the north, the crew could make o ut the rimbers of tl1e Brirish whaler Gledstanes, lost on Kure Atoll th irty-three years earlier.
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