There are names mentioned in this story of an event that happened in 1870 in the Pacific Ocean. I thought might be of interest as we don't think a lot of times that maybe our ancestor might not have been on a census but out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far from home. I don't know where these men lived. Maybe California? Names mentioned, Murray, Read, Sicard, Talbot, Halford, Francis, Andrews, Muir and King Kamehameha Barb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-7/106674787776440.xml Ship's story a colorful one Tuesday, October 21, 2003 ANDY GRIMM THE SAGINAW NEWS Marine archaeologists have found the wreckage of the USS Saginaw submerged in remote Pacific Ocean waters, but the most interesting artifact of the ship's 133-year-old story has remained in Saginaw for decades. The tale of the sinking of the USS Saginaw in 1870 reads like fiction. After the ship sunk, five crew members set out for the nearest port about 1,300 miles away aboard a 22-foot gig outfitted with makeshift sails and a homemade sextant. All but one of them died within sight of their goal, and the gig today is in storage at the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History. Castle Museum Chief Curator Sandy L. Schwan said the gig has remained in Saginaw since a crew of naval reservists offered to restore it in the 1950s. The gig, not much more than a rowboat, was on display at the Castle Museum until last year, when it went into storage. "It's an amazing story," Schwan said. "What they overcame was incredible. People like stories, and they like stories with heroes. This one definitely has those." James Murray, public affairs officer for the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center at Pearl Harbor, wrote a brief account of the ship taken from the captain's log and a version recorded by Supply Chief Lt. George H. Read. Murray said the gig was on display at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., until it moved to Saginaw. Built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California, the Saginaw was on a mission on the morning of Oct. 29, 1870, to search for castaways in the treacherous seas near Ocean Island and the Kure Atoll near Midway Island. As the ship passed through the poorly charted area on its way back to California from Midway, it struck a reef. The ship sank within minutes, but all 93 men aboard managed to row to the relative safety of Ocean Island aboard the gig and other lifeboats. The Saginaw, broken and tossed onto a reef, was beyond repair, Murray said. Read was responsible for rationing the scant supplies rescued from the wreckage. The supplies would not hold out long, even with crew members dining on the native seals and albatross on the island. Lt. Commander Montgomery Sicard had the crew, which included 80 engineers and laborers who had built a coaling station on Midway Island, modify his gig with sails and decking for a voyage to Hawaii. The small craft was designed for short trips from ship to shore. Five men volunteered to crew the gig: Lt. John G. Talbot; Coxswain William Halford; Quartermaster Peter Francis; and civilian contractors John Andrews and James Muir. Sicard and Talbot estimated the trip would take about 21 days and stocked the boat with food for 25. Three days after setting out Nov. 18, Talbot discovered much of the food was tainted with weevils or rotten. The men ate some of the food anyway, and all but Halford, who would later eat a mixture of lamp fuel and dried potatoes, became violently ill and suffered dysentery for the remainder of the voyage. After five days at sea, storms began to toss the tiny craft. The gig leaked, leaving the men soaked for days on end, and the moisture sped the rotting of the remaining food. Storm followed storm until the 24th day at sea -- one day before their food supply ran out. On the 26th day, Halford grabbed an albatross that had landed on the ship's gunwale, and later succeeded in catching several flying fish -- which the crew ate. The men soon sighted the shores of Kauai, but winds buffeted them for several days, and they had lost their oars. On the 30th day, the gig was caught in breakers and Andrew and Francis were swept overboard even as the waves drew them toward shore. Both drowned. The boat overturned and Muir was trapped under the deck, and Talbot drowned as he swam back to the boat. As another wave righted the boat, Halford jumped on deck and hauled Muir out with him. The two dove into the surf as another wave overturned the boat again. Halford pulled the exhausted Muir to shore, then swam back to the gig to retrieve what he could before he too collapsed on the beach. When he woke up, Muir was dead, likely of internal injuries, Schwan said. Halford was the sole survivor. The gig eventually washed ashore. "When you think about all they went through," Schwan said, "everything that could possibly have gone wrong did." Halford arrived in Honolulu on Christmas Eve, and King Kamehameha ordered his steamship, the Kilauea, to set sail for the wreck of the Saginaw on Christmas Day. The 88 men on the island had sustained themselves on a diet of albatross and seal, but most were suffering from severe malnutrition. After 67 days on the island they had begun to lose hope of rescue, and the dwindling albatross population was growing wary of the human guests. The joy of seeing the Kilauea's smokestack on the horizon faded quickly when the men learned of the fate of Talbot, Andrew, Francis and Muir. Halford later received the Medal of Honor. "It's a great story and it's largely unknown, even in the Supply Corps," Murray said. "I can't think of another one like it." No one from the team of naval archaeologists has contacted Schwan in search of the gig, which still is Navy property. She said the boat needs restoration work if it is to return as an exhibit. Decades of exposure to light, dry air and dust have battered it in more subtle ways than the pounding it endured at sea, she said. "It would be nice to be able to put it under a glass case," she said. t Andy Grimm is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9688. © 2003 Saginaw News. Used with permission