Immediately after the hurricane subsided, early on 17 March 1889, work began to survey the wrecked ships and salvage what could be saved. The first few days were spent recovering stores and food from USS Trenton, in order to support the hundreds of survivors encamped ashore. Survey work to determine whether the ships could be saved began soon after, with the assistance of divers from HMS Calliope. USS Vandalia, whose hull was broken and almost completely submerged, was clearly beyond hope. Though largely above water, Trenton was found to have broken her back in two places, with a hole in her hull and propeller and rudder broken away. She was beyond economical repair and was later broken up where she lay, though work to recover guns and equipment from her and from Vandalia went on well into April. Similar salvage efforts were made by the Germans on Adler, which lay on her port side in shallow water on the harbor's western side.
The beached German corvette Olga and USS Nipsic were both found to be repairable. The former was able to leave Samoa in early April, convoyed by the steamship Lübeck. Nipsic, with a badly bent propeller, collapsed smokestack, and shattered rudder, was refloated on 20 March. She was rerigged, given a new smokestack (taken from the ruined Vandalia), and a makeshift rudder. Leaving Apia on 17 April, she immediately encountered a squall, broke her jury rudder, and had to be towed back in. On 9 May a second attempt to depart was also aborted, but Nipsic finally got away from Apia on 15 May to begin a long voyage to Honolulu, where she was repaired during the last several months of 1889.
This page features and provides links to all the views we have related to ship salvage and repair efforts after the March 1889 Apia hurricane.
For additional photographs concerning ship salvage and repair
after the Apia Hurricane, see:
For more images related to the March 1889 Apia hurricane,
see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions. |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
For additional photographs concerning ship salvage and repair
after the Apia Hurricane, see:
For more images related to the March 1889 Apia hurricane,
see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions. |
Page made 24 March 2002
New images added and page divided 20 July 2002