USS Trenton

A 3,900 ton steam frigate of the 'Contoocook' class, built at the New York Navy Yard and commissioned in February 1877, the flagship of Rear Admiral Lewis Ashfield Kimberly, USN (1830-1902), Commanding U.S. Naval Force on Pacific Station. Commanded by Captain Norman Von H. Farquhar, USN (1840-1907). She was the first American vessel to have electric lighting installed (in 1883) at a cost of $5,500. Only one unfortunate man (J. Hewlett, landsman) from the complement of 450 lost his life.

The largest warship begun for the Navy in the years between the Civil War and the beginning of "New Navy" steel ship construction in 1883, the USS Trenton suffered from a well-known defect in design in which heavy seas regularly allowed water to menace the boilers via the hawse pipes. Her length was 253 feet, beam 48 feet and draught 20 feet 7 inches. She had reputedly a good turn of speed, one which surprised the British in the Red Sea one time as being between 14 and 16 knots, but which was officially 12.6. She was armed with 7 guns on her upper deck, 2 each side, 2 forward facing and 1 rearward on the poop. Her most powerful armament were the 8 large guns, 4 each side on the gun deck. 24 furnaces fed 8 boilers arranged 4 in line on each side in an engine room 94 feet long containing equipment which alone weighed nearly 800 tons. She was fitted with a large underwater ram at the bow.

USS Vandalia

Named after a city in Illinois on the Kaskaskia River, Vandalia was a 2,033-ton Swatara class screw sloop, built at the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts and commissioned on 10th January 1876. She was 260(?) feet long, 30 feet beam, 17 feet 4 inches draught. Other reference material make her dimensions: length between perpendiculars: 216 feet; breadth of hull 39 feet; depth of hold: 20 feet. She was rated as a 12 knot ship and armed with 8 guns. From December 1877 until March 1878, she transported former President Ulysses S. Grant on a tour of the Mediterranean Sea and its historic ports.Vandalia recommissioned in February 1886, and in August of that year left the east coast for the long voyage around South America to join the Pacific Station. She served as the Navy's Pacific flagship during much of the next two years until destroyed in the Samoan Hurricane under Captain Cornelius M. Schoonmaker, USN.

USS Nipsic

A 1,375-ton Adams class gunboat, she was built at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., the last significant ship to be constructed at that facility. Officially, she was the Civil War gunboat Nipsic rebuilt, but she actually was a completely new ship, with a displacement more than half again that of the original. Length, 185 feet; beam, 35 feet; draught 14 feet 4 inches; a 10 knot ship, relatively slow. The new Nipsic was commissioned in October 1879 and served for several months in the West Indies. In March 1880, she crossed the Atlantic to join the European Squadron. Nipsic was transferred to the South Atlantic Squadron in Mid-1883 and remained on that station until March 1886.

Following overhaul, Nipsic went to the Pacific by way of Cape Horn in early 1888 and on to Samoa in time for the hurricane, under Commander Dennis W. Mullan, USN.

SMS Olga

A 2,424-ton Carola class corvette, she was built at Stettin, Germany. Commissioned in September 1881, she served overseas during the rest of the decade. She spent some considerable time in the South African squadron before being despatched to Samoa in the worsening political climate of 1888 as flagship under Korvettenkapitän Baron Freiherr von Erhardt (some references spell this Ehrhardt and others give him the rank Fregattenkapitän). Her engines were reasonably powerful, capable of producing 2,200 h.p. and pushing the vessel along at 13 knots or more on a good day.

Although this vessel was the most powerful of the German fleet assembled at Apia, due to unusual German military regulations Erhardt was not the senior German Naval Commander, that position was held by Fregattenkapitän Fritze of Adler. After surviving the Samoa Hurricane, Olga returned to Germany (surviving a collision with a British merchant vessel in the Suez Canal on the way), and was soon extensively modified for use as a training ship. She continued in that role into the early years of the Twentieth Century. SMS Olga was sold in March 1906 and scrapped two years later.

SMS Adler

A 1,040-ton gunboat (some records indicate 884 tons, which I think more likely, since she seems to have been a sister ship to Eber) with a composite iron and wooden hull, she was built at Kiel, Germany and launched 3rd November 1883. She was commissioned in May 1885 and served overseas for her entire career. Her 950 h.p. engines could propel the vessel at just over 11 knots in a good sea. Armed with five 12.5 cm (5 inch) and five 3.7 cm (1.5 inch) cannon and crewed by approximately 127 officers and men, she was 61.8 metres long, 8.8 metres in breadth and 4 metres depth of keel. Whilst Olga was undoubtedly the most senior German vessel present, the Adler's commander, Fregattenkapitän Fritze, was in fact the senior German Naval officer at Samoa.

The wreck of the Adler remained on the reef for many years, finally succumbing when the western part of the reef was reclaimed; in the 1970s the new Government Building at Apia is believed to have been built on top of, or very close to, the final resting place of the ship.

SMS Eber

Launched 15th September 1887 Eber, a 760-ton iron-hulled gunboat, was also built at Kiel, Germany. She was 51 metres long, 8 metres breadth and 3.8 metres depth of keel. She carried approximately 87 officers and crew and was armed with 3 cannon. After commissioning in September 1887 she was sent to the Pacific for active service. There seems to be little further information available about this vessel. She had been involved in a number of the skirmishes in Samoa in the few months of conflict between Germany and the Samoan natives prior to the Samoan Hurricane. She was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Wallis, who taken over the role when she had first arrived at Apia in November 1888.

She had been damaged in the storm which hit the bay a couple of weeks earlier, when her propeller touched the reef. This seriously impaired the functioning of the screw, and put the whole shaft out-of-balance. This would have meant that had she used her screw at full revolutions for any significant period of time, it would almost certainly have ruined the bearings and caused the engine to fail. The crew were therefore severely handicapped when the hurricane hit - caught in the dilemma that they needed maximum power from the engine, but to run it that way risked losing it altogether. Recognising this danger even before the storm hit, her Kapitan Wallis had repeatedly requested permission to leave the bay and weather the approaching storm at sea, but this had been refused by Fritze on Adler. The decision cost 75 men their lives. The crew did very well nursing their engine, using it in short bursts to try and stay off the reef, but really they were doomed from the outset.

The Other Merchant Ships, Barques and Schooners in Apia Harbour, March 1889.

Various reports and reference sources list the other ships, though in many cases the spelling is contradictory and on occasion, a different name entirely appears. From all these other ships, whatever their name and size, only one vessel - unfortunately unidentified - would emerge, and by no means unscathed. Thrown high onto the beach by virtue of being located nearest in, she survived the rigours of the hammering waves suffering damage which the American Carpenters made short work in repairing. She was refloated within a day or two, and despatched to intercept the fast mailboat on its run from Honolulu to Auckland with the terrible news of the disaster. She made poor work of the passage and needed a tow from Calliope in order to reach the rendezvous point at Tuituila.

The names here I have taken from a newspaper report in the "Queenslander", Brisbane, dated Saturday, April 6, 1889. In brackets are some of the alternate spellings I have encountered. All these vessels were reported as lost.