On the morning of December 22, 1853, a brand new steamship left New
York Harbor on its maiden voyage. The length of a football field,
the San Francisco was arguably the best-made ocean-going vessel
built up to that time, and had been chartered by the United States
Government to carry most of the men of the Third Artillery to the
Pacific Coast. Only two days out, 300 miles off the coast of
Delaware, the San Francisco ran into one of the great hurricanes of
maritime history. Her sails and masts were blown away, the engine
was wrecked, and scores of human beings were washed overboard. With
no power of her own, the ruined steamer became a floating coffin as
cholera broke out on board. With people dying fast, and with the
ocean constantly threatening to drag the ship down at any moment,
the men battled frantically with the pumps to keep afloat. Other
vessels began to pass by, but with the seas so high they could be
of little help. Finally, with the storm abating, three ships in
succession managed to take off the survivors and bring them back to
civilization. After two weeks, the nightmare was over. But the
drama continued. Two of the three rescuing vessels had been so
damaged by the storms that they were hardly in a position to take
on such a large number of unexpected passengers, let alone the
threat of cholera, and it wasn't long before water and provisions
began to run out. Facing death at every turn from thirst,
starvation, exhaustion, exposure, and even a mutiny, they barely
made it back to land. But they did. As for the Third Artillery, it
had been decimated. Then came the aftermath, the accusations, the
denials, the shocking revelations of ineptitude and gross
negligence by the Government, the cover-up, and finally the Inquiry
and the price to be paid.
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