HISTORY OF SHIPWRECKS
USS DESPATCH OFF
ASSATEAGUE
Delaware Breakwater,
Delaware, Monday, October 12, 1891:
The USS Despatch steamer
is a complete wreck on Assateague Shoals listed
off shore twenty to
thirty degrees.
Life Saving crews
signaled no assistance could be rendered and her crew is safe
ashore
at Assateague Life Saving
Station. She was in command of Lt. W. E. Crowles, US Navy.,
and had a full crew of
74 men on board.
The Despatch left New
York Navy Yard Friday, bound for Washington, D.C. To take
aboard the President,
Navy Secretary Tracy and Navy officials to take them to the
navel proving grounds down the Potomac to witness testing of
armor plate for new Navy vessels.
After this voyage the
Despatch was to be decommissioned as she was old and much in need
of repair. After leaving
New York she passed the Narrows and put to sea, bound for Cape
Charles them up the
Chesapeake to the Potomac and Washington. Immediately after
leaving the Narrows she ran
into foul weather, bad winds and ugly seas. It was decided to
keep close to shore
avoiding bad weather further out to sea from a hurricane off
Bermuda.
At nightfall a heavy fog
came up, the Despatch slowed, weather grew worse and when she
struck it was blowing a mean gale, a high sea with a decided land
swell. Two miles south of Sheep Pens Hill, 3 am Saturday,
she struck and settled, by 6 am the Life Savings crew was on
board and landed the crew by 9:30 a.m. All hands were saved by
the stations lifeboat.
Assateauge shoals are
60 miles from C ape Charles , bearing northeast by north and are
just off Assateague Island on the Maryland and Virginia state
lines.
The Despatch was built in
1874 by George Steers for Henry C. Smith, New York
bank borker and at the
time was the largest private yacht in the world which Smith named
r
the Americus that he sold
in 1878 to the US government for $98000 and her name changed
to Despatch . The Navy
used her to carry ammunition to Key West in the Virginus trouble.
Next Despatch went to
Baltimore and used by Navy apprentice boys, thence to Europe as
the dispatch boat for
Minister Maynard at Constantinople and remained at anchor off
that city for 13 months
during the Russo - Turkish War. In 1879 Despatch went out of
commission at Washington , had her boilers replaced , and in
1880 was used by Navy
cadet engineers as a
practice cruiser.
On October 19, 1880 the
USS Despatch became the President's yacht and served
Hayes, Garfield, Arthur,
Cleveland and Harrison, foreign visitors Dom Pedro of Briazil,
King Kalakaua and Queen
Kapiolana of Hawaii, Sir Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Chief Justice
Coleridge and The Duke
of Arayle.
The USS Despatch rendered
valuable service and represented the Navy at the
launching of the cruisers
Yorktown and Baltimore, and the Vesuvius in Philadlephia.
The USS Despatch has been
aground before, one at Cedar Point in the Potomac when
Navy Secretary Tracy was
aboard.
The Despatch carried
boats that became historic , her whaleboat and gig were used in
the expedition of The Bear & Thetis, the rescue of starving
Greely and crew in the Arctic.
The gig was named Dorothy
after the young daughter of Navy Secretary Whitney. The
ships barg held the name of Queen Kapiolani of Hawaii.
The cabin of the
Despatch was was largest and finest furnished in the Navy, it's
seats could be converted to berths when needed. Se was 200 feet
long overall , 25-1/2 foot wide, 15 -1/2 feet deep and a
draught of 12-1/2 feet. Had 7 feet between decks,
and net tonnage of 430,
560 displacement, coal capacity 124 tons, a 515 hp and could
run 12-1/2 knots per hour. The vessel carried on e gun, a
breech loading 6 pounder, forward . Her tmbers were fine
seasoned oak and logwood and her keel was oak.
The USS Despatch was to
have been soon displaced by the USS Dolphin being
fitted out at Norfolk as
a dispatch boat.
Abstract: Baltimore Sun,
Monday, October 12, 1891, Newsapers.com
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