Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1900 — BIG CRUISER IS SUNK. [ARTICLE]

BIG CRUISER IS SUNK.

Yosemite Goes Under in a Typhoon Near Island of Guam. During a terrific typhoon which visited the Island of Guam the United States auxiliary cruiser Yosemite was wrecked and thousands of houses, among them the headquarters of Gov. Schroeder, were demolished. The towns of Indrajan and Terraforo were swept away, and it is estimated that hundreds of natives met their deaths. .The typhoon wns of unprecedented violence. The Yosemite had two anchors down, but both were dragged a mile across the harbor entrance. At 11 a. m. it struck the reef and stove in forward. It drifted for an hour, and at noon struck the rock near Somnye, carrying away the rudder and damaging the propeller. A launch had been sent to find shelter, but it capsized and the occupants, five of the crew, were drowned. Meanwhile the Yosemite was blown seaward, her head down and the forward compartment filling. The boiler and engine rooms, however, were free of water and the, pumps were kept going. The cruiser was kept afloat until the afternoon of the second day afterward, when the United States collier Justin, which also had suffered damage to its anchors and had narrowly escaped the reef, was sighted. The Justin attempted to tow the Yosemite with two chains and two cables, but these parted. Finally 138 of the Yosemite’s crew, 26 marines and 9 Officers were transferred to the Justin, together with SOB,OOO Mexican. The Yosemite soon plunged head foremast and sank. The Yosemite was a second-class converted cruiser which was purchased by the United States government from the Morgan Line during the war with Spain. Her name when she belonged to the merchant marine was El Sud. Her gross tonnage wns 4,659. When she came into possession of the government she was a comparatively new dud stanch boat, with a steel bottom. She wait built at Newport News, 1892, and was purchased with three other ships from the Morgan Line for the auxiliary navy. She was armed with ten six-inch quick-firing guns, six six-pounder quick-firers and two machine guns. Her complement was 285 men, peace footing, and 350 men, war footing. Her service during the Spanish war consisted in patrolling the coast of Cuba, but she did not take part in any action. She was manned by members of the naval militia, chiefly from the State of Michigan.