The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-12

brings out tbs fact That the greatest losses
! of life in all tho navies of the world hayo
been in times of peace and not war. The
battle Of tho Nile, one of the most decisive
,, of naval actions in modern history, which
reduced Stho French navy to impotence,
rendered abortiYastho schemes of Napoleon
for eastern cor6l Est. secured for the Brit
ish navy the aE&4sfase control Of the Medi
| terrancan sea and relieved the United
Kingdom of any fear of invasion for many
years, cost tho British q butchers bill'
of l6 officers. 1856 ealnen and As marines
killed and 5G3 seaiHen and Is marines
wounded, only els Killed and GA wound
ed. The Queen Charlotte, which was
burned off Leghorn in 1907, caused the
death of $50 men, moro than were "ex-
pended" on the British side at Trafalgar,
the First Of June st. Vincent and the
Nile, four great fieet actions. The United
States has had its full share of losses in
! peace. III they have lar exceeded tho cost
of war. 1t is doubtful if the roll of those
killed in naval actions during the Reyolu-
tionary war oqualed tho loss of tho Insur-
gent frigato alone, which went down with
SI3 men. And to this must be added the
loss of the Wasp and tho Hornet, bots of
which disappeared mysteriously. Neither
of these vessels was lost by tho hap Of war,
though there is a tradition that the Wasp
was blown to pieces in a night encounter
with a British frigate. The one great OK
J plcsion, however, that stands out in Amer
lean history is q Revolutionary war story.
Tho captain of tho British ship Yarmouth,
reported that OF the island of Antigua
in 1850 he chased six sail; that tho largest
of these met the fro of his vessel and ox-
changed Eroadsides and after the second
was fred blew up with such force that
DO trace Of the crew could be found.
Two days later the Yarmouth, cruising in
4 the same locality, picked up two nearly
dying mon from a spar and learned that
the hapless vessel was the Randolph, pri-
vatecr OF SO guns and more than 800 men.
In lato November of the year 1877 the
United States steamship Huron, a new iron
vessel, was wrecked off Nag's Head, on
tho coast of North Carolina, and of a ships
company Of 1879 officers and men only 81
were saved. The cause has never been
thoroughly understood. There was only
a moderate gale blowing at tho time,
though there was a tremendous sea run-
ming. 1t las been supposed that some
local magnetic attraction disturbed the
compass and threw the vessel off it's proper
course. At any rate, it struck the rocks,
and in less than an hour the disaster was
complete. The wreck of the Huron viii
be over memorable for the heroisn dis
played by Cadet Engineer Lucien Young
and Seaman Williams. Young had boon
out OF the Naval academy littlo more than
a year. When stationed on tho European
! squadron, he had distinguished himself by
jumping overheard and saving the life of
q sailor who had fallen into the water
from ono Of the yards and had been partly
stunned by the fall. On tho night when
the I.lTon struck there appeared but n
chance to save any part Of the crew. No
boat could have lived for a moment in the
pounding, grinding sea. A volunteer was
asked for to attempt to carry a line to the
shore. Young volunteered to make the
trial, and Seaman Williams said that he
would go w.ssh him. The cadet and the
sailor took what is known as a blasa, at
tached a rope and made their way out up
on a spar and thence dropped into the Icy
water. A great wave threw them back
ngainst the spar, and Young was badly
bruised by the contact, but he stuck to bis
task and succeeded, with Williams, in
escaping death among the wave beaten
rocks and in reaching the shore beyond.
To these two American All many Of
those who escaped from the wrecked HUI
ron owe their lives.