Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1894 — ON THE ROCKS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ON THE ROCKS.

The Famous Old War Ship Kearsarge Wrecked. OBlc<,r» Cs<r cr** K»cmp«—An Historical Vessel. The old United States steamship Keatsarge Is a wreck on Roncador reef. She struck there February 2. Lieutenant Brainard managed in some way to reach Colon. Thursday, and a cable message from him announced to the Navy Department at Washington the fact that the Kearsarge was wrecked and that officers and crew were ail saved. The Kearsarge sailed from Port-au-Prince, Haytl, on January 30. for Bltiefieids, Nicaragua, to protect American interests there, in view of the invas on of the military forces of Honduras. She was wrecked, three days out. Roncador reef is a little over two hundred miles from the Mixquito coast of Central America. It is believed at the Navy Department that tho officers and crew wnild h able tb reach Old Providence With 1 1 lifficulty in case they were in danger of o.j.iir lives on the reef, except in event of rough weather. It is the impression also at the Department that the Kearsarge has not gone to pieces, a id may not do so for some time unless rough weather comes up. although the tides and currents about the reef swift and dangerous. Immediately ttpo.i receiving the news of the wreck the Navy Department sent a cable dispatch to Lieu-

tenant Brainard at Colon, ordering him to charter a steamor and proceed at once to the relief of tiie shipwrecked crew. The Kearsarge was one of ihe most famous ships in the navy of tho United States. She was one of tlie old-time vessels, which would stand little chance in a conflict with the steel-armored battle-ships of today, but when she was in active service during tho war of the aebellion. she was a type of the then approved\ pattern. She has been in service continuously since, but so many improvements havo been made on her that she became practically anew ship, at least so far as increased armament and better protection were concerned. The great sea battle which made the Kearsarge famous occurred on ,Hin<> i'MfOf. fii neutral water*, just- off tlie harbor of Clierl ourg. in France, with tlie Alabama, a vessi 1 bearing tlie commission of the Confederate States of America. The battle lasted but a few minutes over an hour, and ended in a signal victory for the ship bearing tho American flag. '

THE ORIOINAL KEARSARGE.