The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-04-04
WAR SHIPS SUNK.
Terrible Disaster to the American and German
Nayies-Great Loss Of Seamen in the Samoan
Islands by Hurricane.

Islands by Hurricane.
A dispatch received by Secretary Of the Navy
Tracy from Admiral Kimberly, commanding
the Naval Squadron in the South Pacific Ocean,
stationed at the Samoan Islands, gives an ac-
count of terrible disaster which occurred at
Apa March 10. The telegram reads as follows:
AUCKLAND March so, 1889,
To Secretary Nary, Washington, -. q:
Hurricane at Apa on March 10 Every vessel in
the harbor shore except the English man -of-War
Calliope, which got to sea.
The Trenton and Nandalia a total loss.
The Nipsic is beached, rudder gone and may be
saved but chance is against it. win send her to
Auckland if possible.
The vandalia lost four officers and SO men,
namely G.. NJ shoemaker, Captain; f. ID
Arms, Paymaster; T. E. Sutton, Lieutenant OF
Marines John Roche, Pay Clerk; Michael
Cashen Quarternastcr: Henry Baker, Warren
Brisbane, William Brown, Michael Craigen Benz
+. Davis Thomas c. Downey, Magnu5 Ericsson
5. c. Ghriug, Adolph Goldner, George German
Nathan b. Green, Joseph Griffin, u. NJ. Hanlmar
John Hanchett c. Hawkins, W. Howatt Frank
Jones George Jordan, w. II. Joseph John Kelly
Thomas Kelly, II. kinsella. c. Z. hratzer, Charles
kraus, Frank Lessman George Merrage John
Milford AylmeT Montgomery, Thomas Riley, H.
p. Stalman, G. Z. G. Stanford, John Sims, q. ii.
Wells, Henry Wixted, All kow All Peck, Pend
ing. Techor
The Nipsc lost seven men, as follows: Geo. w.
Callan, Joshua Heap, David helleher, William
Watson, John Gill, Thomas johnson, Henry
Pontsell.
All were saved from the Trenton. The Trenton's
board All stores possible were saved. The Ger
man ships Adler and Eber total losses. The
Olga is beaehed an1bmay be saved. German losses
are 96.
Important to send 500 men home at once. Shall
| charter steamer? Can charter IN Auckland.
your orders. Further accounts by mall
KIMBERLY.
1t was very startling message for the new
Secretary of the Navy to receive, but Secretary
Tracy is man of strong nerve, and not easily
ratified" He communicated the sad tidings
to the President, and sent copy OF the dis
patch to the State Department and held
lengthy consultation with the President.
AS Admiral Kimberly's dispatch called for an
answer, it took but a short time for this answer
to be decided upon
In the midst of wreck and ruin the Admiral
had to preserve discipline and await orders, but
the President and the Secretary promptly gave
him all the power necessary to act as he thought
best and as the situation demanded. On return
ing to the Navy Department the following dis
patch was sent to Lieut. Wilson by cable, who
is stationed at Auckland, New Zealand, to act
for Admiral Kimberly, who is supposed to be
still at Apia
Lieut.. Wilson, for Admiral Kimberly, care Ameri-
can Consul, Auckland:
Take such steps with regard to Hipsic and wrecks
and sending men home as you deem proper. Full
power given you.
Monongahea sailed for Apia Feb. 81. TRACY.
As it took two weeks to convey the news from
Apa to Auckland it viii of course consume the
same time for the above dispatch to reach Adj
miral Kimberly. Lieut.. Wilson will be author
lied charter steamers soon as he receives the
dispatch, aud viii start at once for the scene of
disaster. It is expected that the letter. which
the Admiral says will be sent, will reach San
Francisco by April Is, if nothing happens and
then the details of the disaster viii be fully
known. 1t is said at the Navy Department
+i1at Anal nd thn
Government about 5000.
The State Department had confrmatory
telegram from Berlin, in which Minister Pen
dleton informed Secretary Blaine that the Ger
man Foreign Office had official information of
a typhoon at Samoa, in which the German
men-ofwar Eber and Adler had been totally
wrecked, with loss of 80 men, and that the Olga
was stranded. Also that three American ships
and all the mercantile vessels Ia the port Of Apia
had been lost The message put the American
loss of men at go, and asserted that the English
war-ship had been damaged, bus had gone to
Sidney.
There was great commotion at the Navy De-
partment, where all the naval officers were
talking about the disaster and trying to think
out the details which the Admirals cablegram
to Secretary Tracy did not give. No such storm
had ever struck American ships before with
the same result. The wonder was how the
English ship Calliope managed to escape. Com
modore Sehley expressed the general opinion
on that subject when he said he was sure it
must have been mere hu1e on the part of the
Britisher, one of those strokes OF good luck
which have nothing whatever to do with good
management.
Capt. Cornelius NJ. SHOEMAKER, who COM
manded the Vandalia. was born Feb. 2, 1889.
He entered the Naval Academy Sept %, 1854,
and was graduated in 1859. His first service
was on the west coast of Africa. In 1861 he
was on board the Minnesota, and participated
| IN the fights at Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark.
| He was promoted to a Lieutenantcy Aug. 30,
| 1861. He served on the South Atlantic block
| aiding squadron and in Rear Admiral Wilkes's
! flying squadron, and afterwards in the West
| Gulf blockading squadron. He was Executive
/ Officer of the monitor Manhattan, and after
| wards on the gunboat Augusta. He was made
| a Lieutenant Commander Dee. 81, 1865. In
| 1872 he commanded the Frolic, bearing the flag
| of Nice-Admiral Rowan, and went to st. Johns
! n. F., and brought back part of the crew of the
! Polaris, taken from an ice-floe. lie was made
Captain Oct Z, 1886, and was ordered to tho
command of the Vandalia April 5, 1883, join
ing her in California. His widow and brother
Judge Schoonmaker, live in Kingston N Y,
| and have been notified by the Navy Depart
ment of the sad occurrence. Mrs. Schoonmaker
is at present in Albany n. " caring for her
three daughters, who attend st. Agnes's school
there.
Lieutenant of Marines Francis e. Sutton was
appointed to the Naval Academy from New
York in 1887. lie graduated sixth in a class of
96, and after a cruise returned TO the Academy
| for examination for promotion, and passed sec
ond. On his own application he was appointed
| Second Lieutenant of Marines, being the first
graduate of Annapolis to enter the Marine
| Corps He WAS promoted to be First Lieuten-
ant March 8, 1883, and has been stationed at
Mare Island. He had just been detailed to
command the marine guard OF the Mohican,
but the Vandala sailing suddenly for Samoa
before the arrival of her commanding marine
officer, Lieut. Sutton took his place, expecting
to fall III with the Mohiean on the cruise. His
father is resident of Rome, n. Y. At the
| Navy Department Lieut.. Sutton is regarded as
having been one of the brightest and most in
telligent officers of the Marine Corps, and his
loss is deeply deplored.
Paymaster Frank II. Arms of Connecticut.
was appointed from that State to the Naval
Academy, and was made an Acting Assistant
Paymaster on April II, 1864. He served on
the steamer Memphis, of the East Gulfsauadron,
until 1866; became Past Assistant Paymaster
July %, 1866, and Paymaster Oct Ia, 1871. He
was detailed at the Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition in 1876, and was ordered from the
Naval Academy to the Vandalia on Nav u
1887. His total sea service up to the time OF
his death was seven years and FIVE months
His family resides at the Crawford House, New
London.