New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-11-28
Inr rELEGRAPn 10 rHR rRBrSy.l

TAcHED TO THE OFFICERS FOR SAILING on FRI
DAY-THE ENGINES IN GOOD ORDER.
Inr TELEGRAPH TO rHB rRsBrSyl
WASHINGTON. Nov. 27.-Master VIM. p Conway,
Cadet Engineer f. T. Warburton and Ensign
Lucien T. Young have arrived in Washington. and
were examined privately this afternoon at some
length by the Secretary of the Navy. Very little
information which has not already been made
pubic is believed TO have been ELECTED. The Off
GERS of the Huron were aware that the danger
flags of the Signal Service Department were flying
when they left Hampton Roads on Friday. The
vessel had been delayed until Thursday to await
the arrival Of an officer from the Navy Department.
and. In the meantime an order had been issued by
Admiral Trenchard for a boat drill to take
place on Friday afternoon, in which the boats
Of the Huron were to take part Owing
TO the continued incement weather, the order
for the boat drill was revoked, and the
Huron was signalled permission on Friday morning
to depart upon her cruise whenever her commander
should see fit. Her officers were nearly unanimous
in the opinion that it WAS advisable and safe to
start at once. The wind although blowing mod
crate gale, not such they thought should deter
nayigators from putting out especially in vessels
staunch and seawOrthy the Huron. Chief-Engineer
Olsen was indeed heard to say that the danger sig
nails were up, and that it might be well to heed
/
if the gale proves to be too put back"
Neither at the time the vessel struck the beach nor
previously say the surviving officers was there wind
enough to make navigation along the coast perlous
There was TO trouble with the machinery, the com
pass, or with the vessel in any respect.
The theory Of the disaster held by the surviving
officers, and one in which the officials of the Navy
Department seem to agree with them, is that tenn
porary but strong surface current. caused by the
wind was setting in toward the shore all along the
beach north Of the point where the vessel struck;
and that, whiie-accOrding to compass bearings
and soundings-they should have been ten miles of
shore, they had been slowly making leeway, and
running in toward the Land. \ sharp lookout had
been ordered for the Body Island light and, had the
weather not been thick to render the sight OF
this beacon impossible their peril would have been
discovered and their changed. 30 far IS can
be learned the officials Of the Navy Department
are not disposed to attribute serious blame
10 any one for the disaster The entire
responsibility for the choice Of the time of
sailing. as we'll as for the course which the vessel
was supposed to be taking rests upon the shoulders
Of her commander. YET, acting upon the informa-
ton accessible 20 him. it is considered that IN both
these matters his course was Che one which most ex-
perionced navigators might have taken, and that
the insaore current which it Il held caused
the disaster, was thing not to have been
foreseen. If the vessel hal gone further ont
she would have had 10 make headvay directly
against the Gulf Stream, while by keeping in shore
size had in her favor the ,outheriy counter current
of which vessels bound for Cuba usually seek to take
advantage. The fact seems to attract some atteL-
ton that the rigging Of tie Huron, being Of WlTe'
could not be cut, and So when the m3sis ana spars
broke away, they were held floating about the
wreck, and are believed to have been the cause oil
the I5ss Of several lives that might otherwise have
saved.