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6. Hawai`i and the End of the Archipelago
- University Press of Florida
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6 Hawai`i and the End of the Archipelago The United States . . . are more interested in the fate of these Islands and in their government, than any other nation can be. Daniel Webster, 1842 Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Sicard, looking down on USS Saginaw as she was decommissioned at Mare Island from the nearby deck of USS Pensacola, may have recognized the little side-wheeler from his days on the China Station, when he had served as sailing master on USS Dacotah in East Asia. Following in the wake of Commanders Schenck, Hopkins, McDougal, Scott, Franklin, Mitchell, and Meade, Sicard was to be Saginaw’s next commander. In some ways, he would be the ship’s best commander, but assuredly he would be her last. Sicard was born in 1836 in New York City, the son of Lydia Hunt (sister of Supreme Court Justice Ward Hunt) and Steven Sicard, a merchant. In 1840, following his father’s death, the family moved upstate to Utica, Lydia ’s former home. Prior to the Civil War, he served as a young midshipman on both USS Potomac and USS Wabash in the Home Squadron. At twentyfour years of age, he was promoted to the rank of ship’s master and sent to the East India Squadron. During the Civil War, Sicard served in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron on USS Oneida, participating as an executive officer in the capture of New Orleans in April 1862 and the passage of the Vicksburg batteries several months later. Rank moved quickly during the conflict, and Sicard was promoted to lieutenant commander that same year. He was a promising and talented officer, and a rising prospect, as long as he survived the war. During temporary leave ashore in 1863, he married Elizabeth Floyd, a descendant of William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The 180 u A Civil War Gunboat in Pacific Waters couple would have three children. At sea again, Sicard took command of the steam gunboat USS Seneca during the hard-fought assaults at Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865. After the war, he returned to New York and then Washington, D.C., and took up shoreside ordnance duties, serving as chief of the Bureau of Ordnance from 1881 to 1890 (see figs. 9–10). But before any of that occurred, Sicard was a thirty-four-year-old lieutenant commander, looking at his new peacetime command, a small vessel out of commission at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Craven had initially defended Saginaw’s role in Alaska, but to no avail. He had obediently laid the vessel up. But plans had inexplicably changed back East, and again there seemed to be the usual difficulty in communicating with the recalcitrant rear admiral. Had Craven’s overly optimistic report on the condition of the ship had an effect? Sicard’s own inspection of the ship, ordered by Craven while Saginaw’s crew was busily removing their provisions and equipment, revealed that though the vessel was generally in good condition, she could not be considered ready for sea duty: Left: Figure 9. Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Sicard, Saginaw’s last commander, ca. 1870. From Read, Last Cruise of the Saginaw. Right: Figure 10. Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicard during the 1890s, briefly in command of the North Atlantic Squadron during the Spanish-American War. Courtesy of Library of Congress. [44.223.70.167] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:01 GMT) Hawai`i and the End of the Archipelago u 181 the “engine frames are loose, two holding down bolts corroded and broken off. Possible defective state of inside keelsons.”1 Was another mission being planned? Only a week after the final stores had been removed from the ship, Borie wrote to Craven, again admonishing him that the Department had received but few acknowledgments of their communications: “The Department has telegraphed you today not to put the Saginaw out of commission but to order Lieut. Comd’r M. Sicard to command her.”2 Such crossed signals could be more the general rule than the exception. The telegraph system, though a great advancement in communications, had not, after all, made information instantaneous. Craven had already laid up the vessel and sent all her officers east. Sicard would have to start with a brand-new group, many lacking in experience on small gunboats. Nonetheless, Craven assured Borie that the ship would be ready for sea in two weeks. Actually, it would be more than two months. At first, it seemed that...