Blasius, | 212 {Dec.7, 
Causes of the Huron Disaster. 
By Pror. Wm. Bmastus. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, December 7, 1877.) 
The whole country mourns for the appalling and terrible disaster that 
befel the United States war-vessel ‘‘Huron’’ with her hundred brave 
mariners in the recent storm on our coast. It is not the rareness of such 
terrible calamities that causes this surprising and deeply felt sympathy with 
the brave and gallant men who found here so unexpectedly and untimely 
their watery grave. The Public Ledger of Philadelphia, only a short time . 
ago enumerated 44 vessels belonging to, or bound to, or from American 
ports only that shared during the short period of one single month a simi- 
lar fate. Unfortunately such calamities are not seldom on our shore, and 
they indeed follow each other so rapidly in succession that the last one 
only obliterates the still vivid traces of the preceding one. Thus they are 
forgotten one by one, and their stories are only revived for moments, 
when commerce and pleasure seekers apply to the Government for the 
removal of the wrecks that are in the way of their pursuits. 
What makes, however, this case so particularly impressive in the minds 
of all men is, that the Huron was a war-vessel, recently built, supposed to be 
well fitted and found, staunch and speedy, that it was commanded by naval 
officers who are looked upon as particularly skilled navigators, and under- 
stand how to fight the storm as well as the foe, and to whom the nature of the 
depth in these friendly waters ought to have been as familiar as their state- 
rooms. We cannot wonder then that the public anxiously inquires into 
this dreadful and mysterious disaster, and tries to unravel its cause. 
Neither is it strange in these corrupt conditions of society that some find 
it in the defective construction of the vessel ; some lay the blame on the 
commander for having started at sea when the warning signals were flying, 
and for hugging the coast too closely in order to gain time. Some wise old 
captains of merchantmen lament the loss of good old practical seamanship; 
they hint ‘‘that the naval officer proper need now be but an indifferent, 
kind of a sailor, so long as he is a good mathematician, chemist or drill- 
master, appears well, dresses tastefully in well-fitting uniform according 
to the latest edicts of the naval Turveydrops, and has possessed himself of a 
diploma issued by the United States Naval Academy.’’ There may be some 
truth in these suggestions, but it is not likely. 
From the meagre facts hitherto published, it will of course be useless to 
argue any of these surmises; but as the Government doubtless will 
probe this matter to the bottom for the sake of preventing future simi- 
lar accidents, I would respectfully draw its attention to a third potent 
agent which seems to have been completely overlooked by these wise crit- 
ics, and which probably had more to do with this fearful disaster than the 
strength of the vessel or the lack of so called seamanship, and this third 
