The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-10
Captain Sigsbee's Nerve.

| Captain Sigsbee's nerve has stood hin
| in good stead on many previous occa-
| sions. The promptness of his action IL
| New York port last July, when he rar
| the Maine into a pier and thus probably
| saved hundreds of lives. is still fresh IL
| the public mind. The Maine was on hel
way to the man-of-war anchorage al
| Tompkinsville, and coming from the op.
posite direction was the excursion steam
er Isabel. crowded with hundreds of wo-
| men and children.
| The course was crowded with smaller
craft. Suddenly the two vessels were seer
to be heading directly for each other
| Captain Sigsbee was on the bridge, and
the signals were quickly exchanged. But
| * was too late.
The commander of the Maine knew he
had to do one of two things. He had his
choice of cleaving his way through the
frail pleasure craft, with its panic-strick-
en- passengers, or of hurting the great
weight of the Maine against an adjoining
pier. perhaps TO wreck herself and her
commanders career.
There was no time for more than an in
stants consideration. Captain Sigsbee
saw the Isabel directly ahead. with her
sea of blanched faces. That was enough.
Hard a-port"' he shouted Sound the
call TO collision quarters!"
Slowly the battleship swung from her
course. There was deafening crash. The
air was filed with flying splinters. The
big pier was completely wrecked, with
all its contents. But the Isabel passed on
the other side in safety, and Captain
Sigsbee had accomplished his purpose.
The damage to the Maine was fortunately
slight
That Inflated battleship is not the only
vessel under the command of Captain
Sigsbee that has been sunk. On one occa-
sion, when he was in command of the
coast survey steamer Blake, he saved the
vessel from utter destruction by deliber-
ately sinking her. 1t was in one of the
west Indian ports and hurricane was
blowing.
A very high sea was running, and the
ships anchors refused to hold Slowly
but surely she was drifting on a reef The
waters were dashed 10 fury. In that
emergency Captain Sigsbee's determina-
ton asserted itself in a most extraordi-
nary manner. He knew that unless heroic
measures were adopted the Blake would
be ground to pieces on the reef.
He knew also that if her keel rested on
the sandy bottom the action of the waves
would be much less severe. So he actu-
of it as daring thing to do. but Captain
Sigsbee, once he had decided upon his
plan of action, never faltered. He opened
the ships bottom, the water poured in AMI
she quickly settled.
After the storm had subsidized divers
were sent down, the water was PUMPED
out and the ship was raised. There was
no little damage and no little expense con-
nected with this startling operation, but
the vessel was saved, and that was the
main thing.
That is the kind of man Captain Sigs-
bee is.
Small wonder that the European press
has unanimously pronounced his course
in regard to the Maine disaster as one OF
most admirable judgment.
Sigsbee," remarked an old naval vet
eran the other day, lis a man who abso-
lutely does not know what it is to lose
his head. There isn't a man in the service
who does not envy him this trait. He has
nerves of IRON
Captain Sigsbee also has war record,
having participated in some of the fierc-
est engagements of the rebellion. After
having been graduated from the Naval
Academy in 1863 he was given the rank
of ensign on the steam sloop Mononga-
hela, of the West Gulf squadron. The
next year he was transferred to the
Brooklyn, which was engaged in the bat
tie of Mobile, on August 8, 1864. The year
following found him with the North "A
lantic blockading squadron. and he took
part in bath attacks on oFrt Fisher and
the final assault on that fertilization.