The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1884-08-24
Our Dangerous Navy.

Apart from tho question OF responsibility
for the loss OF the Talapoosa, the main re-
| Election upon her career must be one OF sur
prise that she did not 70 to the bottom long
ago. II she ever passed u twelvcmonth in
her history, which we very much doubt,
| without running aground or colliding with
some other vessel. II must have been by all
extraordinary exception to her familiar ex-
| perience. How. with her numerous perform
ances of breaking machinery. houndering
upon reefs, and humping against other craft.
the Tallapoosa has SO long escaped destruc-
ton Is unaccountable.
During tho Forty-seventh Congress the
House, struck with the proclivity OF our navy
for running upon shoals and rocks and get
ting in the way of merchant vessels, gravely
asked the Navy Department whether during
the year then recently ended "any vessels
of the United States have been lost or ma
tcrially damaged at sea, or have been run
| aground in port or elsewhere The answer
| of the department disclosed that there had
been accidents Of the kind mentioned.
To begin with, the Shenandoah had been
damaged by fire, and the Essex and the
Ranger had been disabled by the derange-
ment OF machinery. or collisions resulting
in injury there had been no fewer than
fourteen during the year. At the head of
the list stood, OF course, tho Tallapoosa On
the l4th Of March she had collided with the
fishing schooner Willie Edix near Boston,
and, official investigation having shown that
the Tallapoosa was wholly at fault, the Gov
ernmcnt repaired the Edix at its own ex-
pcnse. Again, on the 18th OF September the
TallapOOsa ran into tho schooner u. Is. Has
kins. and once more the Navy Department
paid the bill for the victims repairs. This
was an ordinary seasons work for the ITALIA
poosa. while her own repairs. with all her
bangings and groundings, were very costly
The other collisions for that year were
those OF the Fortune with the sloop q. T..
Mercereau, in which the Government vessel
was alone ut fault, and the Treasury paid
damages; Of the Standish and Mayflower,
both Government vessels OF the Alert with
q Japanese junk, for which the Alert, bein.
solely responsible, caused the Government
to pay damages; OF the Jingsi Kan with the
Alert, in which, rather strangely the former
was Mt fault and paid for the repairs; OF
the Brooklyn with the Mozart. in which
tho former vessel was seriously injured;
Va eho -tAohoSdSy Will
junk, in which the latter was sunk
with Its cargo; OF the Vandaia with the
schooner Abbio Dunn; OF the Hartford with
the steamer Virginian OF the Da 10 with the
Cornelius Grinnell, whose bill Of S2,32iG9
damages the Treasury paid; Of the Nan
tucket with the Alcne; of tho Ashuclot with
tho Meiji Maru, and of the Fortune with the
Excelsior.
The groundings that year numbered ten,
and included those Of the Tennessee in tho
Mississippi, of the Alarm in the Potomac, OF
the Powhatan near Florida Reefs. of the
Alarm again near Piney Point, OF the Ten
nessee again in Boston harbor, OF the Dis
patch in management Bay. OF the James
town near Hampton Roads, OF the Seaweed
ut Port Royal, OF the Juniuta In New York
harbor, OF the Nipsic mt Lisbon.
This was the record for 1882, and, so far as
we know, it was IN average one. The record
OF last year was not called for by Congress,
but it would have shown very much greater
loss and calamity from this same source, and
so would that OF the current year, even for
the part OF it already elapsed. The loss OF
Arctic vessels would further swell the lists.
When we reflect that there are only be-
tween thirty and forty vessels In commits
sion to do all this annual damage, we see
that the theory that the American navy is no
longer an object OF fear entirely erroneous.