- Title
- State
-
-
- Date
- June 1978
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
State
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A Long Night For
The USS “Huron"
>1
<»
in <‘iil by moment in n historic*
.shipwreck of the Outer Banks.
tty JOSEPH G. O'KEEFE
"Stay away from the Gulf Stream."
Commander George P. Ryan said.
"The strong current in the Gulf Stream
helps a ship sailing north, but it slows a
vessel heading south. Hold the Huron
between the current and the shore."
Two U.S. Navy lieutenants. S. A.
Simons and Lambert G. Palmer, nod¬
ded. A stalwart young Kentuckian.
Ensign Lucien Young, overheard the
commander’s orders, covertly glanced
at the gray skies and frowned.
Storm signals had been flying for
three days when the USS Huron, a
175-foot twin-screw steamer with four
guns, sailed from Hampton Roads.
Va.. for the West Indies and the coast
of Cuba on November 23. 1877.
So menacing was the weather that
the ship’s executive officer. Lieuten¬
ant Arthur H. Fletcher, had adamantly
refused to sail. He went ashore and
was placed under arrest.
But if a ship could be described in
terms of human personalities, the
Huron might have been labelled
jaunty, self-confident, a bit compla¬
cent. Her builder rated her one of the
strongest ships in the world for her
size.
Commander Ryan was regarded as a
top notch officer who ran risks to com¬
plete a swift voyage. He operated a
tight ship, and the Huron's crew func¬
tioned at a high level of professional¬
ism.
When crewmen went ashore they
bragged about the seaworthiness of
their vessel. "I never knew her to leak
a drop." Michael Trainor. captain of
the after guard, often told his friends.
Young. 25. an energetic officer who
had rescued a sailor who fell into the
Mediterranean during a storm, stood
the afternoon watch. He saw the
Huron drop her pilot and turned his
glasses on Cape Henry. Va.. as the
ship cruised past shortly after I p.m.
в
The ensign experienced a twinge of
apprehension as he felt the quickening
breeze and noted the heavy sea run¬
ning from the southeast. He gave way
to Ensign F. W. Danner at 4 o'clock.
The First Trouble
Master William P. Conway was in
charge of the deck and Robert G.
Denig. an assistant chief engineer, was
also standing watch when the Huron
encountered her first round of trouble.
The wind hauled more to the south,
gaining velocity as the sea roughened.
The Huron rolled to leeward about 10
degrees and the men watched
helplessly as the wind tore away the
ship’s jibstay.
The churning, surging ocean
brusquely reminded all 132 men
aboard that the Huron was traveling in
North Carolina waters, the most
dangerous along the Atlantic coast.
Edward Lynch, the ship’s apothe¬
cary and an avid reader of sea stories,
cautioned his shipmates. "There’s
many an unlucky ship went to the bot¬
tom in these waters. In 1853. the Bla-
den McLaughlin and the Augustus
Moore were both wrecked off the
Outer Banks. Last year the Henry G.
Учу
ran aground and broke up. and the
Patriot sank in 1817. I've read about
plenty more."
For some, the incessant pounding
grew bothersome. Lieutenant Palmer,
the navigator, ruefully considered the
tribulations of a seafarer’s life. He was
35 years old. the son of a former Navy
surgeon general, who followed the sea
as a family tradition. Yet he deeply
regretted the long separations from his
wife and two children in Washington.
His sister Juliet was soon to become a
bride, a family event for which he
could not be present.
Fireman Henry W. Avery pencilled
a letter to his mother in Buffalo. N.Y..
although he realized it would be weeks
before she would receive it. Bugler
John Mahon recalled the green hills
and quiet lanes of his native Ireland
and wondered if he would ever have
the good fortune for the Huron to
cruise to his country. Paymaster Carey
N. Saunders paused in his calculations
and tried to picture what his friends in
Philadelphia might be doing that night.
The Ship Aground
By then the 540-ton ship was rolling
5 to 20 degrees leeward. "She’s blow¬
ing a gale.” Danner told Young. The
latter turned in at 8:30 and sleepily
pondered over Commander Ryan's
order to keep the Huron between the
Gulf Stream and the shore.
"But what if we get too close to the
shore?" he mused drowsily before
dozing off. About midnight he heard
the quartermaster arouse Master
Walter S. French.
"How's the weather?” French
asked. "Bad." was the reply.
French, a native of Maine, put on
Young’s overcoat. When he stepped
on deck he flinched. He had encoun¬
tered severe storms before, but
nothing to match this monster.
The wind, that night more than a
century ago. reached whole gale force
of 68 miles an hour. Doggedly, the
Huron fought her way past the flashing
red and white beacon at Currituck.
N.C. Cape Henry lay 75 miles behind.
At 1:10 a.m. a chorus of frantic
shouts climaxed by a grinding thump
r
"Huron" »o* on* ol IK* “Alert" do»» ot iron gun-
boon (fitting out
о
bout 1 873), ond wot roled
о»
on*
of Ihe tlronaetl in «He world tor Ker tin ol thol lime,
(officlol U.S. No»y photo)
THE 8TATE. JUNE 1878