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wretched voyage around Cape
off'
was further hampered by a shortage of fuel-
The Old Navy
The High and Dry
Wateree
By Paul B. Thompson
The demise of a warship can usually be predicted. Destruction in battle is a common fate; another is to succumb to the insatiable appetite the sea possesses for ships. For those vessels that manage to survive the strenuous life of a warship, there often remains a melancholy voyage to the breaker’s yard.
Some ships, however, one-up fate. Those with a particularly noble record may be preserved, like the USS Constitution or Admiral Dewey’s USS Olympia. Others vanish without a trace. There is much honor and mystery in the fates of warships.
The demise of the USS Wateree falls into none of these predicted categories. After an uneventful career, the Wateree went on to a destiny unmatched by any other U. S. naval vessel.
The Wateree was built by Reany, Son, and Archbold of Chester, Pennsylvania, and laid down in 1862. She was part of a huge program of warship construction, undertaken by the Union Government, in order to make the declared blockade of the Southern coast a reality. The Wateree was a double- ended, paddle wheel-powered gunboat, a half sister to the famed Sassacus-class gunboat. The Water-
ee’s design was based on the Sassacus's charac istic full section and light draft. Her construe ^ anticipated the later Mohongo-c\&ss gunboats- ^ asmuch as the hull of the Wateree was iron ins ^ of wood. This feature stood her in good stea the day of her demise.
The Wateree displaced 1,173 tons. At the wa line, she was 240 feet long and 35 feet wide ships—excluding the protruding paddle boxes. R'S® as a two-masted schooner, her basic means ot P pulsion was by an inclined, direct-acting, suib' condensing steam engine fired by two vertical ers. The Wateree's best speed was about ten kn Launched on 12 August 1863, the gunboat was1^ livered to the Navy, in Philadelphia, on 29 Decent
After a thorough shakedown cruise, the was commissioned on 20 January 1864 and ordc to the Pacific to join the Union squadron. The g boat took nearly ten months to reach San Francis While seakeeping characteristics of the than once, the Wateree was forced to anchor shore while work parties cut wood for her bo»e - ly ^ovember 1864, the gunboat finally arrived in w n ^rancisco. She required a major overhaul at the are Island Navy Yard and was not to put to sea “gain Untii February 1865.
ro t- Wa*eree's war service was both brief and ^utine. Usually, her duty was limited to patrolling 'he ^entra^ America. When the war ended,
Wateree had not engaged an enemy warship, g ” I^66, the U. S. Navy’s Pacific units were or- ^nized into northern and southern squadrons. The a,eree was assigned to the latter group. The patrol Urr^1 -^e Pacific Squadron was from Pan-
a ,,a t0 (“aPe Horn and as far west as Australia. Such ca aS* exPanse of ocean was beyond the steaming Pacity of the Wateree, so her patrol area was the astal sea-lanes of Central and South America. n 14 January 1866. Mariano Prado, president of U' declared war on Spain over long-standing Dr Vances concerning Peruvian sovereignty. The asesence of U. S. naval forces off Peru was required te r rcrtfinder of the Monroe Doctrine and as proof il?0 ^or S. citizens on shore. In the summer of . . ’ 'he Wateree was on station in the harbor [l87QICa’ ^eru- (As a reslJl' 'he War of the Pacific ^-1884]. Arica became a possession of Chile.) fl he Wateree, along with the Navy storeship Fre- r *!,w> .Was sent to Arica to escape the yellow fever g*ng in Callao. Arica was a modestly prosperous jn ’ as 'he number of brick and white plaster build- q Seen from the sea testified. sji_ n 13 August 1868, the Wateree and Fredonia co harbor with the Peruvian Navy’s ironclad
'he V^tte ^mer‘ca an(Itwo British merchant vessels, Kantahamaha and the brig Chanarcillo. Also pe^Ser" were the bark Edward and numerous smaller lo\vU/*an anc* Chilean craft. With the danger of yel- hor a VCr 'n town’ 'he ships’ crews remained on a5a their respective vessels. c ,e officers of the Wateree dined, as was their ^st°m, at 1700. At 1720. lookouts noticed an im- nse cloud of dust rising into the air from a point (je°at ten miles south of Arica. The crew stood on to watch this phenomenon, which moved to- t^ar<J the town. The peaks of the mountains behind jne '0vvn were said “to wave to and fro like reeds 'he'1 |Storm-” The sea was calm, though tremors on 0f ‘and began with great violence. Large amounts earth and rock slid down from the mountains upon tj Ca s outer fringes. The officers on the Wateree tj ec* the approaching undulations of the earth, es- ^ ating their rate of progress at 600 miles an hour. Ian en t-^le sh°ck waves reached Arica, the town colin > 'nto ^eaPs of rubble within minutes. A boom- g' thunderous roar accompanied the quake as it »ved from south to north. People fled their houses ran into the streets screaming. Soon the town obscured from view by a huge cloud of dust. Nevertheless, the harbor was still placid. It was
almost too quiet, for no breeze blew at all. The surgeons from the Wateree, Dr. Winslow, and the Fredonia, Dr. DuBois, were sent ashore to treat the injured. In anticipation of this, a crowd of nearly 60 Peruvians assembled on the harbor mole to receive the doctors.
In the oppressive stillness of the harbor, the water began to recede from the beach, quietly but rapidly. The two American boats sent ashore were stranded in the mud as the water went down below the lowest low-tide mark. The sea had hardly reached this mark when it reversed its direction and surged back— higher and higher over the mole, washing away people, carrying away the port captain’s house, and flooding the waterfront of Arica. This first inward surge was 34 feet higher than the highest high tide. Peaking at this point, the water then receded again. It fell away more rapidly the second time and with greater force. The backwash from this recession was so strong it tore down the Custom House and destroyed the home of the British consul. The following outward decline by the sea was so great that the ships in the harbor went aground.
The third time the sea rushed into the harbor, the ships’ anchor chains strained against the water’s flow. The tidal bore smashed its way into Arica, soaking the dusty ruins. A train was knocked off its track and carried away by this wave, while an eight- minute-long shock wave rumbled up the coastline. Small craft in the harbor were swamped or dashed to pieces. There were ten distinct repetitions of the recession-return cycle by the water in the harbor.
Amidst the roar of the quaking earth, a different sound was heard rising over the tumult. The dazed crew of the Wateree looked up to see a wall of water. 45 feet high, bearing down on them. The Wateree had been rigged earlier for rough handling. Lifelines were set, guns were lashed down, hatches were battened. and extra anchors were dropped overboard. During the sea's first ten fluctuations, the Wateree fared without too much difficulty. But the impending doom of the coming wave made the end appear imminent.
The Wateree was lifted up by the forward push of the tidal wave; the anchor chains were snapped like light twine. Similarly, other nearby ships were wrenched from their moorings. The light-draft Wateree was carried up to the crest of the wave like an immense surfboard and rushed headlong in toward land. The gunboat’s cohort, the Fredonia, was propelled around the island of Alasanna. where she was crushed “to atoms” against the reefs. No one on board survived.
The Wateree plunged on with the force of the wave. As it fell, it deposited the gunboat high and dry, three miles north of Arica. She came to rest upright, intact, but more than 450 yards from the ocean. The survival of the Wateree rested entirely on the expert handling of her captain. Commander James H. Gillis, and her stout iron hull. The paddle wheel gunboat was hopelessly aground. The time was 1920.
There was only one casualty among the crew of the Wateree. This was the boatswain of the captain's gig, a seaman named Tait. Tait had been with Dr. Winslow when the latter had been rowed to the harbor mole. The doctor proceeded ashore, leaving Tait to mind the gig. As his comrades watched from the deck of the Wateree, Tait was swept off the mole by one of the inward waves and carried out to sea by the next outward flow. It is reported that as Tait was pulled inexorably to his death, he waved the flag from the gig at the Wateree as the current took him past.
The Peruvian warship America, in very bad condition, was also stranded ashore, within sight of the American gunboat. The Peruvian jailors were given aid by the crew of the Wateree, as the captain of the America later remarked:
“In these our moments of supreme distress we find our salvation in the officers and crew of the United States’ man-of-war Wateree. Their whole cargo is safe and sound, and they have therefrom clothed and fed us, and offered every comfort that we need. It is my pleasant duty to make this fact known ... as well as the noble conduct of Doctors Winslow and DuBois . . . both have, with the utmost zeal, attended to our wounds.”
There were five survivors of the Fredonia—the captain, doctor, and three others who lived only because they had gone ashore after the first quake to assist the citizens of Arica. The two British vessels were total wrecks. The loss of life, on the ships as well as on land, was appalling.
The scene around the landed Wateree was incredible. A correspondent wrote in the San Francisco Daily Morning Chronicle:
“The scene beggars description; railroad rails, cars, machinery, gun carriages, household furniture, barrels, dead animals, and mutilated corpses are lying about in confusion. The city numbered 7,000 inhabitants, and its multitudes stood helplessly beggared on the beach. Three hundred lives were lost; a conflagration burned nearly all that was not destroyed by the earthquake. ...” (29 September, 1868)
Because the Wateree was intact and her disciplined complement safe, the first relief efforts for Arica came from the stranded gunboat. Commander Gillis reported to his superior. Admiral Thomas Turner, who was on board the USS Powhatan: “Although her hull has suffered much, still she appears to be in perfect condition. Not a plank has been started, and she stands upright as though in a dry dock. Considering her position, and its slight elevation above the sea, we do not think it
possible to float her again. It would be impossi L to dig under her, as the means are not at han • and it would cost more than the vessel is wort • My crew remain aboard by day, but as the rum bling of earthquakes still continues, and the 1 ruvian sloop of war America is ashore below in a direct line, with broadside on to us, I ha' deemed it advisable to remove them. Another sea bore would smash both vessels. ,
“I lent what aid in the way of provisions tha I could to the inhabitants of Arica, but have be® forced to suspend it, as I have scarcely what wt suffice for my men. I shall remain by my vesse until further instructions from you. We have l°s all our anchors, and if we have another rush o the sea that will turn the ship on beam ends s will become a worthless hulk.”
When the earthquakes subsided, a new threat the tired crew of the Wateree developed. Bands ® looters, many of them dispossessed Aricans, d® scended on the farrago of debris deposited on tn beach by the tidal waves. The depredations of thes pillagers caused as much outrage and fear as t quake itself. Not content to strip the ruins for item of value, the looters robbed the living and the dea • Some set fires, and there were widespread mcl dences of rape and murder. It was not long befoie the plunderers turned on the upright form of 1 Wateree. One, perhaps apocryphal, account re ported the sailors fired at the thieves with bronZ' boat howitzers, loaded with hard round cheeses.
Rescue operations by the U. S. Navy commence off the coast of Peru within a few days. Admit-3 Turner soon had a small fleet of ships on hand provide relief services to the stricken Peruvians- News of the great South American earthquak reached the cities of North America and Europe W September 1868. Public donations were solicited » London, New York, and San Francisco to buy sup plies for victims of the catastrophe.
Admiral Turner had a most peculiar problem-"" what to do about the Wateree? Despite her go® condition, the 1,173-ton gunboat was simply too D from the sea to make refloatation possible. By N® vember, it was clear the Wateree had to be sol • The crew and all portable stores were removed.
On 21 November 1868, William Parker bought tn hulk of the Wateree for a mere $2,775. Mr. Parker- evidently a man of original ideas, converted the ir° hull of the former warship into an inn.
Having never fired in anger on an enemy warship- never chased a rebel blockade runner, never bombarded a hostile fort—destiny dealt to the Watered a unique role, not as a ship of war, but as a hosp'13 to injured Peruvian sailors, protector to the defenseless citizens of Arica against brutal plunderers, 3° finally as a refuge to travelers on the rugged coas of Peru.