Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-01-28
THE STEAMER SAN FRANCISCO.
FOR THE NATIONAL rsrrLLIGKscxR.


steamboats," OF lighter build has this great
calamity and il is but plain that the very additional
strength or the guards Of the San Francisco which her
builders supposed would ensure her safety the direct
cause OF tue SAD catastrophe Indeed il is plain that
just in proportion to the strength with which the guards
OF steamer are fastened into her hull their power to
send her to pieces in storm They become huge levers
for the waves whose every heave racks the vessel her
centre IL TINS lesson be not thrown away upon our ship
owners and constructors the loss of the San Francisco
sad as it is, will not be all in vain"
The foregoing wise remarks of the New York Courier
quoted by you to-day deserve than passing notice
by others who may not be constructors and hpowners
by the War Department for example, that the transporta
ton OF troops and their equipments over distant seas
remote station should be put up to the lowest bid
der, as were contracted for by who of
necessity know nothing of the sea- its dangers or the
means OF meeting them by the selection of appropriate
ships to do the service surely well safely The lesson
which this terrible calamity teaches this Department Of
the Government is in my opinion, the immediate
with the Navy Department for the extension of the pre-
sent small transport and services so that whilst
the ordinary transportation for the distant squadrons
provided for as usual the requirements of the War Office
could De promptly met with the order discipline, and
ships Of the navy to guaranty security certainty and
health with as much comfort as can be expected ut sea
not within the walls of packetsteamer As a matter
OF economy 1t is of the first Importance The basis Of
the store and transport service is already laid in the
val services it merely requires extension The cost the
country ~ money within the last thirty days for fve hnn
dred troops would have the increase for
tho bills Incident to the loss of the San Francisco viii
reach, perhaps exceed, half million of dollars.f
The second 'lesson not to be thrown away will enure
to the navy and to the naval administration The wreck
of the San Francisco from stress of weather shows
the reliance which the naval administration may properly
nj, o. ~.
poses of The San Francisco, we told by her
terprisng builder who described her build was the
strongest and substantial vessel Of her kind
constructed in the private Of the country and
yet when deeply laden for special service and rolling
her fastenings for the first time at the first
of the wind and howng through the tempest after
short and hurried flight she turns to grappe with the
and is crushed to atoms Be it observed that
this the strongest aud most substantial commercial
sea steamer hitherto built in ports and strengthened
too over and above the ercal Standard in compl
ance with certain known conditions which make these
vessels the Government for purposes
What then, must be the value of all the rest, less
strongly built in fierce norhwester, of which We have
several every year, and which strong the
yphoons of the East by odds the pamperos the
heavy gales through which she would have pass about
Cape Horn. The entire spar-deck swept; guards
up deck broken through, IAN almost unheard-of acc
dent all her boats and of her masts with all
the sails carried off by the and wind; machinery
broken and disabled with the loss of than hun
dred souls, hurried into eternity and all this some ten
hours work Of heavy storm upon the strongest and
most substantial steamer built IN commercial
yards What would this packet-seamer, strong though
she be for the purposes of trade what could she have
done what would have been her ate If rugged, equip
and mad ,;p;p ofx Wh,fxy
she be fit for equipped man-ofwar, if thus certain
destruction with the first great gale? Nor it
be said that she oyertaken by of those and
extraordinary tempests which and then desoate the
face Of the mighty waters and destroy every thing afoat
which comes within its circle 1t no such thing,
is well atested by the crowd of ships Of every class by
which she was surrounded Many sailing ships were
daily seen, from the first day Of the wreck ncusve-or
dinary craft of them and of them unhurt.
ship was seen or spoken every day, one from the
25th inclusive, until the Some Of these vessels
were miserable craft of great strength and yet
more substantial aud seaworthy, as the event proves
than this strongest seasteamer built in
eial dockyards We have thus the precise value of the
exponent Of the sea-worhiness of private packet
steamers when perverted from their legitimate ends and
objectso wit, passengershps- carrying craft for
heavy freghts laden deeply for distant voyage and
lesson taught by dreadful calamity, from which
val administration, navy, and our legislators may
well profit.
1t affords hint of great significance 20 the naval ad
minstration-tha reliance be reposed in the COM
mercal steamers constructed hthertoo add strength
and power the naval defenoes of the country
o,car. 1t is true that it has been certified and pressed
upon the notice Of the country with pertnacy scarce
ly be resisted that they could easily be converted into
ships Of force nay that they were already the most
appropriate vessels the world for purpose and Cor
gress is beseged give up the construction of
to the private workshops and contractors of the
country that "may be ike unto them in other
words to confde the construction of steamships of
war, which demand professional knowledge of very
specific kind of which it is reproach the private
builder that he is for the most part ignorant to
the Of the mercantile marine Nor does
ignore the opinions Of naval officers and the naval
the condition of approval to wit that these vessels may
be converted at certain expense into Of
certain value that is into inferior class and force
ON expense which would about reach the cost of new
hull The is obvious. The commercial steamer
to be converted would have be pieces from
wales up aod entirely rebuilt above to carry guns and
1nasts and heavy outfits of -ofwar All the inside
fixtures and arrangements would have be disgorged
the entire lower body would have be strengthened and
er stronger and built than the conversion of the
old its purpose Still, it may be said that We
should get engine readymade and placed and true