It was only last week that we reported the safe arrival of the Federal Steamer “Union” after a protracted voyage from London, got without divers mishaps on her way, and now we have to notice a disaster which, happening most inauspiciously the first time she attempted to leave our harbor, almost left her a complete wreck. On Tuesday last the Steamer, with a pilot on board, was ordered round to English Harbor to take in coals. A great many persons assembled on the wharf to witness her first performance, but a few moments after lifting anchor and putting on steam she was seen to run swiftly on a cluster of rocks lying in the immediate neighborhood of Rat Island. The time was just after noon-day, and the rocks are familiar to almost every male inhabitant of the city; those therefore who happened not to witness the mischance could hardly when told believe it possible that a vessel represented to be provided with efficient hands and well commanded could have come to grief in a locality so well known. But the fact, however for the present inexplicable, is just as we have briefly noted it, and the Steamer lay, “all that day, in the bay”—not indeed of Biscay nor in any place having the slightest affinity to that much dreaded region, but in the serene waters laving the placid shores of Rat Island, the delight of juvenile bathers, any of whom might have warned the navigator of the Union of the existence of the rocks on which the ill-fated vessel was suffered to run. Thanks to the energy and skill of Mr Dickenson, master ship-wright, who was sent for late that evening, the holes in the bilged vessel were temporarily stopped during the night, and at about 2 am she was floated or pulled off the rocks, and with Mr Dickenson on board proceeded to English Harbor where she underwent further examination and repairs. Whether she is deemed in a fit condition to go to sea at present, we are not aware, but we have been assured by Mr. Dickenson that what ever is required to be done to her he will undertake to do, and that in his judgment the government need not send her to the docks either of Martinique or St. Thomas, the resources of the island affording means for her complete renovation. Meanwhile the public are anxiously, awaiting the result of the investigation, which we learn the government has ordered, into the circumstances of the extraordinary occurrence.
Since penning the above we learn that it has been determined to send the Union, which came round from English Harbor yesterday, to Martinique for repairs.
Antigua Observer, St. John’s, Antigua, September 20, 1873
