The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-14
THE MISSING TENNESSEE.
~

THE MISSING TENNESSEE.
From ths N. p. World.
The Tennessee left this port on January II
en- CeyGg6 for San Domingo, commanded by
one of the most experienced and skilful cap
tains of the United States navy, and manned
by some four hundred men. Sne has not
since been heard of, and as she ought to have
reached San Domingo in ten days, it is widely
believed that she has met with some serious
accident The hypothesis of her destruction
by FIRE seems to be out of the question,
remembering the discipline observed on YES
sells of war, the number of men constantly
on guard, and the.resources at command to
extinguish it. Rarely, if ever, has a case
been heard of in which q man-of-war was
destroyed by fire. But if she were burned
some boatfuls of her passengers ought to
have been picked up. That it was perfectly
possible and even easy for storm to break
her amidships there has been too much evil
dence already published to allow of any
doubt; but fortunately she has not been ex-
posed to any storm. The long list of arrivals
from the latltudes through which her course
lay, already published in the World, proves
that there was no heavy weather until the
feet of arrivals was off Hatteras, and this
was long after the time which she, slow as
she is, could have occupied in sailing beyond
it. There is the possibility of her steam
chest exploding, and of course of this
rious seemingly authoritative statements
have been made concerning the strength and
satisfactory character of her boilers and ma
chinery. Again, it is possible that she was
cast ashore; but this is improbable, for other
wise she would have been heard from long
since. If cast on the American coast it would
be q matter of but few hours; if cast On any
of the deserted islands on her course between
this and San Domingo it would be a matter
of few days only, remembering the distance
and the number of ships plying in the region,
TO send word to an American port. That one
of her boats is much less likely to live in At
lantic seas than the boat of the recently
wrecked Saginaw was in its long voyage to
Honolulu is hardly to be supposed. The state
ment made by Mr.. Dickerson to our reporter
should be borne in mind by those account
ing for this prolonged absence of the Ten
nessee He is not one of those sanguine be-
levers in the character of her machinery,
which is ''marvellously cumbrous and COM
plicated." Assuming that some accident
short of explosion and fire has occurred to
this cumbrously complicated machinery the
| Tennessee would be as manageable as log
in hurricane" Mr.. Dickerson thinks that
in this event ''she may drift into the Horse
latitudes with some hope of being struck by a
portentous trade wind which would land her
on the hospitable shores of Africa" So
that if she is not soon heard of from Havana
there may yet be news of her from the oppo-
site hemisphere. Finally, there should be
| borne in mind the statements of many of our
shipmasters and shipowners that communica-
tion between Havana and San Domingo is
neither frequent nor regular, which may ac-
count for our not hearing of her arrival at
Samana, but while this ground for hope is
| not much relied on at present by the public,
and will lessen every day that we yet remain
without news, still. taken in connection with
the other facts mentioned before, there seems
no reason for supposipg that We shall not yet
have happy tidings of the Tennessee and her
| goodly company.
But while there is still much reason to hope
for the safety of the vessel, what comment
on the radical mismanagement of our navy is
this popular panic Here is a new vessel
which has been 'doctored" and patched to
the satisfaction of our naval authorities SC
that it is put forward by them as one of the
finest representatives of our naval marine
and selected by them to convey United
States commission on an important inter
national mission. She is hardly a few weeks
overdue when nearly the whole nation, judg
ing that nothing was more natural, believes
that she is lost Compared with the conf
depce felt in the safety of the City oi
Boston, of the Inman line, last year, which
almost every one possessed, even after she
was overdue from six weeks to two months
this absence of popular reliance on the worl
of our naval administrators is not very fat.
te1ipg.