The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-04-16

WASHINGTON, April 1.-THE long graphic
report of the disaster at Samoa was read
with a great deal of interest mere. Naval
officers generally were of the opinion this
evening that no blame could be attached to
any one for the loss of the ships and life.
They were not inclined to hazard any de-
cided opinion in regard to the handling Of
the various vessels.
COMMODORE WALKER,
chief of the bureau of navigation and act
ing secretary of the navy,,probably voiced
the general feeling when he said to an
Associated Press reporter tonight: "Any
man who gives an opinion is simply CUES
sing. we do not know just how matters
stood and it would be merely guess work
to say what might have been done. 1t is
impossible to tell much about it. There
were some fine men and excellent officers
on the ships and we know that the vessels
were lost. Admiral Kimberly is a splendid
officer and fine man, and Captain Farqu-
har, Commander Mullan and Captain
Schoonmaker of the Vandalia, who lost his
life, are excellent officers. They doubtless
did all they could. l think probably there
is no blame to be attached to any one"
Commodore Walker thought the escape of
the Calliope was largely a matter of luck.
''She probably owed her survival, " he said,
s'to the fact that she had more steam power
than the other vessels. The dispatches
show that she had very hard work IN get
ting out of the harbor. Again, the Calliope
may have been more favorably placed
than the
GERMAN AND AMERICAN VESSELS.
Our vessels NAV not have been able to go
against the fearful gale; and even if they
had been, it may be that they were not able
to turn round so as to 90 out. But, sad
the commodore, 1--WE can't tell, its all guess
work. The management of the vessels
seemed to have been about the same after
the hurricane struck them. a mistake
seems to have been made in staying IN the
harbOr, but this is a case of our hlnd-slght
being better than our foresight
s"The vessels may not have had time 10 get
out There is no telling, though. but what
some of the vessels might have gone down
with all on board, even if they had put to
sea. It was probable, however, they would
have pulled through, but there the ludg-
ment of the officers would come in, and
they no doubt did what seemed best They
NAV have thought the blow was coming up,
but that they could weather it. They all
took the same course and were all caught
in the same box. The men could not do
great deal in these hurricanes The wind
blew everything down and the seas We're
heavy, almost beyond conception l re
member a hurricane in the Barbados
which blew down large, heavy stone build
ings and razed almost the entire town, and
this seemed to have been such storm.
THE Idaho. a United States war vessel,
was once caught at sea in hurricane, ana
though she escaped, she was never any
good afterwards.
THE WIND WAS so FEARFUL
that it forced the oal1um out from between
the planking of the ships deck and twisted
the vessel all out of shape, until 1t resem-
bled twisting withes in a wicker basket.
The deck was so sprung that you could go
down below and see through the creases
what was going on above. y little more
and the vessel would have foundered."
The commodore sententiously expressed
his opinion of the9hurricane by saying: y
don't want any hurricanes in mine. we
were more fortunate than the Germans IN
not losing so many men, but TINS was
cur. good luck They were all fighting
for their lives and did everything they
could. Allthe vessels adopted the same
course and none of them would nave done
ANYTHING much out of the way. Both had
two or three anchors down and were steam
inc up to them. They frequently were IN
collision and did not have much room to
move about. 1t might have been that had
only one vessel been in the harbor she
could have been saved.'
Admiral Porter was seen but had not yet
read the published report, and therefore
could not express any opinion on the stu
alton in the light Of the fuller particulars
received.