Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-10
G0SSIPS ON A GRIN
Over the Finding in the Wrecked
Despatch Investigation.
MORE THAN HINTS OF WHITEWASH
Naval officials Accused Of Such Personal
Partially That .
VERDICT OF ACQUITTAL WAS. CERTAIN
FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT

FROM STAFF CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9.-If Secretary
Tracy could hear the gossip-not only in
naval but in army, official and private
civil circles-anent the finding of the
Board of Inquiry and his approval of it in
regard to the loss of the United States
steamer, Despatch, his ears would tingle as
they have not before for many moons. The
approval came late Saturday, and Yesterday
being Lords Day except at the navy yards,
little could be learned of the public senti-
ment which come to-day with an avalanche.
That the conventional railroad disaster
verdict of nobody to blame" should be
found by Board of Inquiry and approved
by the Secretary of the Navy, after hearing
and reading the evidence given before the
Board. is inexplicable on anv other theory
than that of personal friendship: and that
valuable Government property may be reck-
lessly thrown away without blaming any,
body. because of personal friendship, is
scandal that certainly calls for hearing be-
fore that court higher than boards of inquiry
and cabinet officers, the court of the people
through the public press.
The Verdict That Was Anticipated.
Il is privately. though very confidently,
asserted in region little removed from the
Secretarv's Office and by naval officers of
high rank and of cautious tongues that the
board was appointed to acquit, and that be-
cause Lieutenant Cowles was really sort
Of master of what was Secretary Tracv's
private Yacht The Secretary, while on
board. sal with the Captain at the testal
board. and the wine and rich viands that
tickled his palate were gracefully dispensed
by servants trained TO pleasing manners un-
der the Captains epicurean eve.
As the court could not convict a subor-
dinate without casting a severe reflection
on the commanding officer, the executive
officer, Noel, who changed his chiefs or
ders and he and others who mistook ASA
league light fo- the light of winter quar-
tiers shoal light, and so drove the vessel on
the beach at a speed of nine miles an hour,
are let off scott free Bnt Lieutenant
Cowles himself does not escape the severe
criticism of naval officers, who, truth to
say, are none too eager TO keelhaul q fellow
salt when they themselves may soon be
caught in similar pickle.
4 bad Night for Conflicting Orders.
From all the evidence before the board
the weather was very dirty when Cowles
gave his orders for the night and sauntered
to his pretty cabin, performed his perfumed
ablutions, clad his precious body in its
silken night robe and tucked himself in the
soft berth which a coddled naval officer
knows how to secure, with all its oriental
drapery and color at public expense. Not
only was the weather dirty but it promised
to be "a very de ii of a night, as one of the
witnesses at the hearing said in stage
aside.
A good and worthy commanding seaman,
it is asserted, would not have lazily and
lu1uriously turned in under such circum-
stances He should have been on deck and
on the bridge. He turned in, however, and
SO fine was his discipline that his executive
officer changed his orders given for the
night, a mistake was made in lights, though
the Assateague light was white and the
winter quarters shoal light red, and the
poor Despatch, perfectly lonely in her as
soc ations with Presidents and Cabinet
officers, ''ladies of the best society,"" Amer
lean sycophancv and foreign nobility, was
run bang on the shore.
Blame Only on the Light-Keeper.
Nobody is to blame, saws the board of
inquiry, and Secretary Tracy attaches his
affirmative hand and seal Lieutenant
Cowles said it was a good night to see a
light Therefore the board of inquiry con-
cluded that the winter quarters shoal light
ship light was out, OF that it was tempo
rariIy so dim that it could not be seen.
the finding, if it was good night to see a
light, how did Lieutenant Noel and his men |
mistake the red light of Assateague for the |
white light of the winter quarters shoal |
lightship? Apparently the board and Sec |
retary Tracy did not care to 90 into the |
question of color.
Once similar board of inquiry sat upon |
Captain Dewey, then commanding the |
Shenandoah, and exonerated him when he |
L. L n
vowed that a certain white light showed red |
on that night. The fault was attributed to |
some peculiar condition of the atmosphere. |
This was new and startling proposition to |
students of the phenomena of color, but |
this newer one, that a red light showed |
white, is yet more thrilling sthan the other. |
Some Contradictory Testimony Taken.
But there is testimony that the white |
light of the winter quarters shoal lightship |
was there all the time when the Despatch |
was within its radius of eight miles, the |
wick trimmed and the blaze at its brightest. |
The keeper Of the ship SAYS so, but as he |
may be an interested party there is the |
testimony by telegram of the commanding /
officers of two coasting steamers, the Fair
fax and the Delaware. The former passed
the lishtship just before the Despatch and
the latter just after, and from both the light
was seen with its brilliancy all unimpaired.
These abstruse questions of time and
color were too deep for the board and Sec
retary Tracy. They did not go into them.
On account of this timiditv about going
into such deep water. the Despatch. lying
awreck in very shallow water, is forever
lost, and nobody is to blame except the poor
lighthouse dufer, who is of no account
anyway.
These officials of cabinets and boards of
inquiry seem to forget that naval vessels
are the peoples property, and that the peo-
pie have right to know the cause that
brings them to ruin in the heydey of their
youth, and in this case with the lonellest of