The Last Cruise of the Saginaw

Transcriber's Note:
Click on the images to see a larger version.


Dear Mr. Read:—
I am greatly obliged to you for letting me read your deeply interesting account of the wreck of the poor Saginaw and the loss of Lieutenant Talbot. With General Cutter's approval I shall take the manuscript with me to Boston, but I will return it carefully.
I leave the two photographs, but I have the curious drawing and newspaper scraps, which I will safely return.
Very truly yours, Edward E. Hale.
Dec. 21, 1880. Washington.
A recent re-reading of the above old letter from a friend who in his lifetime stood so high in the literary world, has, together with the suggestions of other friends and shipmates, decided me to launch my narrative of the cruise and wreck of the Saginaw on the sea of publicity.
The story itself may be lost in the immense current of literature constantly pouring forth, but some good friends advise me to the contrary.
The fact that stories of sea life and adventure have ever possessed the power to attract the interest and stir the imagination, adds to the courage given me to set forth my plain unadorned story without any pretensions to literary excellence.