The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-22

New York, Feb. 21.@The steamer
City Of Paris arrived here this morning
from Colon. bringing the officers and
crew of the warship Kearsarge,
wrecked on Roncador reef.
The City of Paris arrived at the dock
shortly after noon. The dock was
gaily decked in honor of the returning
sailors and a large American flag was
spread over the gang plank A large
crowd of friends and relatives was on
the pier.
Admiral Stanton told this story of
the wreck of the Kearsarge to an AS
ISOLATED Press reporter:
The accident occurred about 9 n m
on February 2, a stiff northeast trade
wind blowing. The Kearsarge struck
lightly at first, then went high and
dry on the reef. The crew remained
on board that night The following day
all hands were taken off on a, catama-
ran boat, together with water and pro-
VISIONS, old sails, awnings and duck.
TO Tx shelters. Everybody was per-
fectly cool and the work of arranging
rats, ETC., to take the plumber ashore,
was carried on SyStematically Water
was rather scarce, allowing them only
pint per day for each man. In the
transfer, a seaman named Anderson
Robbins. who tried to swim to the reef,
was drowned. This was the only ia
tally and the rest of the officers and
the crew are in good health. AS soon
as they got ashore, Lieutenant Brain
ard was dispatched with seven men to
Old Providence to secure a vessel to
take the shipwrecked wen off.
At Colon, Brainard secured the City
of Paris, which arrived at the scene
feoruary 10 and took them off, the
men not having undergone any special
hardship, aside from the shortage of
water.
Admiral Stanton declined. in advance
of the investigation by the govern
ment, to say anything as to the cause
OF the wreck or the responsibility there
for. He expressed the opinion that
there was no possible chance of saving
the hull of the Kearsarge as she was
badly stove in and nearly full of wa
ter.
Commander Oscar F. Heyerman said:
Admiral Stanton and 1 were together
from the moment the vessel struck IN
till we went ashore the next day to-
gether. He and I were the last per-
sons to leave the Kearsarge We went
ashore to save our lives, as the Kear-
sarge was beginning to ship a great
deal of water We made several eff
forts to go ashore, but were unsuccess-
full till we finally succeeded in getting
ashore on a catamaran boat. We got
along very well after we reached
shore, although the supply of provis-
ions was short, and until we dug a
we'll the water was very scarce As to
the responsibility for the accident. 1
do not care to say anything. Those
facts will be investigated, in all prob
ability, by court of inquiry, or by
investigation by the navy department.
We managed to save a great many in
struments, the chronometers, the log
of the Kearsarge and other articles"
The story Of the wreck as told by
Lieutenant Brainard was substantially
the same as the admiral and com
mander. He said: "At the time of the
accident, there was quite a sea run
ming, which broke over the poop. After
she struck, she ran up high and dry
on the reef and left her full of water
and in very bad condition There
was nobody on the bridge at the time
of the accident, and there was no pi-
lot; but l do not care to talk about
causes or effects, or responsibility, or
anything of that sort; that will have
to be left for investigation. It was
known we were in the vicinity of the
reef. There is no chance of saving the
ship. She is full of water and high
and dry on the reef, and the wrecking
company could not save enough of her
to pay for coal, nor could all the en-
gines in New York do anything with
her. She struck so hard she glided
over two of the reefs like a grey
hound before she stopped"