The Gallant Young: Heroism, Audacity, And Controversy Of A Kentucky Naval Officer (Part Two)
By: Joe D. Friday Jr.
Note: This is the second part of an ongoing multi-part series that will be presented once a month until completion. For further context of this story, please read the previous part in this series.
Commander Ryan received clearance to sail on Friday, November 23 and Huron put to sea at 10:00 am. The vessel cleared Cape Henry about 1:00 pm, discharged its pilot, and set a southeast by east course in the face of a moderate breeze blowing from the southeast. During Huron’s departure, Young had the 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm watch. He spent the time securing the ship for sea and recording Huron’s course and speed, and he reported all updates to the navigator, Lieutenant Lambert Palmer.14
Young completed his watch and went below deck shortly after 4:00 pm. He went to sleep but was awakened when he heard one of the officers ask another about the weather, and the officer replied, “Bad.”15 He was awakened again about 1:15 am by the impact of the ship running aground on a sandbar.16 Young immediately got dressed and went on deck. The captain and navigator believed Huron had run up on an uncharted shoal, probably eight or nine miles off the Carolina coast. But Huron was aground on the outer sandbar at Nags Head, N.C., only 200 yards from shore. The crew could not see the beach through the darkness and dense weather, and when someone finally saw and pointed it out to Commander Ryan, his response was, “My God! How did we get in here!?”17
Once on deck, Young tried to help the enlisted men with cutting away the sails. He then found Commander Ryan, and asked permission to throw the IX-inch guns overboard. Ryan gave the okay, and Young went to do so, but the listing of the ship made that impossible. Young then took several boxes of distress rockets and signals and found a dry position astern in the captain’s water closet. From that vantage point, he fired over one hundred distress rockets and signals until about 4:00 am.18
Commander Ryan ordered all hands forward about then, and Young, along with Lieutenant Palmer and ship’s surgeon, Lieutenant Commander George Culbreth, began to make their way across the deck toward the bow. Large waves were breaking over the ship. The waves caught the officers and washed them down to the port rail. Young was tangled in the folds of a sail and was badly bruised when he fell against a spar. Pounded repeatedly by waves, he struggled to get forward by crawling hand over fist across the deck toward the starboard side and along the rail, using the gun tackle to brace himself. Young said the ship was heeled over about forty-five degrees to port at that time. The crashing waves stove in the after deck, destroyed the ship’s cabin, and sent torrents of water into the hull. Young saw several men washed overboard by one huge wave. Commander Ryan and Lieutenant Palmer took up a position in the starboard launch in order to better see and direct the men, but a giant breaking wave ripped the launch from its davits, and spilled both men into the ocean. Caught in the turbulent wash between the ship’s hull and the debris of the crushed launch, Ryan and Palmer both died.19
Young scrambled across the deck and to the top gallant forecastle, and was there with about forty other men when he saw a light on shore. It might have been then that he knew for the first time how close they were to the beach, as daylight was beginning to break. Young saw the inflatable balsa raft on the forecastle and volunteered to try and take it ashore with a line. With the line attached, Young lowered the raft over the starboard side, but it became tangled in a mass of floating spars, tackle, and lines. Young went overboard and tried to get the raft free. Seaman Antonio Williams went with him, and together they worked in the cold, churning water for about twenty minutes to try and free the raft and line from the tangle. Others on board shouted for them to cut the line and try to get ashore.20 Young tried to cut the line with his knife, but his hands were too numb, so Williams cut the line. Then Young and Williams, both clinging to the raft, were washed along the starboard side until they passed Huron’s stern. The waves caught the raft and capsized it end over end until Williams and Young washed up on beach almost a mile north of the wreck. By this time, it was about 7:00 am. The sky was light, and Young could see the wreck clearly for the first time.21
As Williams and Young made their way down the beach toward the wreck, they stopped several times to pull injured and dying men out of the surf. When they got to the beach in front of the wreck, they found a group of fishermen gathered there. Young directed one of the men, who was on horseback, to go to the Kitty Hawk telegraph station and call for help. Although bruised, barefoot, and in great pain, he then took five men south three miles to the Nags Head lifesaving station to obtain rescue supplies. He got to the station about 9:30 am and broke it open. Dare County Sheriff William Brinkley came by with his cart and the men loaded it with the lifesaving equipment and supplies. By the time Young and the sheriff got back to the wreck, there was no one left alive onboard Huron.22 The men spent the rest of the morning pulling survivors and the dead from the surf.23
That afternoon Sheriff Brinkley took the surviving officers to his home and the surviving enlisted men to the Nags Head lifesaving station. Local residents provided blankets, bedding and food for the men. While the Huron survivors tried to recover from their ordeal, Brinkley and others patrolled the beach and recovered more dead.24 All told, ninety-eight crewmembers of USS Huron had died. The ship ran aground only 200 yards from shore and had the lifesaving service been operating at that time, it is likely that many of the crew would have been saved. News of the disaster shocked the nation.25
The following morning, November 25, three Navy ships, Powhatan, Swatara, and Fortune, appeared offshore, along with a wrecking tug from the Baker Wrecking Company of Norfolk.26 Shortly after 2:00 pm, the wrecking tug sent a small boat to try and land on shore, but the heavy surf upended the craft and sent its occupants into the sea. Of the nine men on board, five drowned, including the lifesaving service’s sixth district supervisor, Captain John J. Guthrie.27 This brought the tragic death toll to 103.28
The steamer, Bonita, also responding to the tragedy, had come from Norfolk to Nags Head that day through the Albemarle & Chesapeake canal, bringing medical supplies and other stores. Young, along with the other survivors, embarked on the steamer and returned to Norfolk that evening, bringing with them those bodies of their shipmates that had been recovered thus far.29
Young’s actions during the Huron saga and the associated publicity fueled his reputation for fearlessness.30 Almost every major newspaper in the country published his first-hand account of the disaster and testimony to the naval court of inquiry, and it would help catapult him to a career filled with fame. As an officer, he was not eligible for the Medal of Honor, but on the personal recommendation of President Hayes, Young was advanced thirteen places on the seniority list and promoted to the rank of Master, effective from the day of the Huron tragedy.31 For his efforts at saving lives, Seaman Antonio Williams received the Medal of Honor. Years later, Lucien Young credited Williams with saving his life.32
In tribute to their Bluegrass son, the Kentucky legislature voted to make Young an honorary member of that body, and it awarded him with a presentation sword with gold trim.33 Young had lost all of his possessions in the Huron, but he had two copper pennies with him in his pants pocket. He gave one to his mother as a good luck charm, and demonstrating that he knew how to repay a debt and cultivate friends, he presented the other one to the wife of his political patron, Kentucky congressman J. Proctor Knott.34
After recovering from his experience on Huron, Young received orders in March 1878 to go to Paris and lead a naval detachment there to represent the United States at the Paris World’s Fair. There Young supervised his men who built and moved exhibits and performed manual labor. The detachment spent approximately one month in Paris, and Young reported the exhibition to be a tremendous success and said the contributions of the naval detachment proved to be especially valuable. When the fair concluded, Young granted his men four days leave to enjoy Paris. In a letter to Captain Oscar Badger upon return to the U.S., Young cited Petty Officer John Flanigan for his good behavior and leadership in overseeing the enlisted men in Young’s absence, and he requested a favorable recommendation for Flanigan for promotion. Young said Flanigan was a man of, “firmness, cool, quick, and intelligent.”35 Here is an example of Young’s leadership style in recognizing Flanagan's performance and bringing it to the attention of other officers. Badger forwarded Young’s recommendation to the Secretary of the Navy with his endorsement.36
When Young returned to the United States, he joined the training ship Portsmouth for about eighteen months. He left Portsmouth in April 1880 and went to serve as an aid to the Secretary of the Navy, Richard W. Thompson.37 Working in the secretary’s office provided Young with easy access to many politicians and influencers. The notoriety he had received from the Huron wreck and the Alaska rescue made him a national celebrity of sorts. His name and the stories of his heroism appeared in newspapers across the country and it appears he found a degree of influence with people in powerful circles including military officers and prominent politicians. Wherever he went, he seemed to make the news. In May 1880 Young attended the wedding of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s daughter in Philadelphia. Although there were more than 100 guests at the ceremony and 600 at the reception, The New York Tribune included the following notation in its coverage of the event; “noticeable among [the guests] was Master Lucien Young the hero of the Huron disaster.”38 He met and came to know many other notable people. He was good friends with Robert Todd, nephew to Abraham Lincoln, and enjoyed the company of many congressmen and their ladies.39
Note: Please stay tuned for next month when part three will continue this multi-part series.
Notes
14 Proceedings of Court of Inquiry On The Loss Of The Huron, R.W. Thompson, “Letter From The Secretary of the Navy, February 13, 1878, Senate Executive Document No. 26, 45th Congress, 2nd Session, Serials Set 1780.
15 Court of Inquiry.
16 Court of Inquiry.
17 Court of Inquiry.
18 Court of Inquiry.
19 Court of Inquiry.
20 Court of Inquiry.
21 Court of Inquiry.
22 Court of Inquiry.
23 Court of Inquiry.
24 Court of Inquiry.
25 “A War Vessel Wrecked,” New York Times, November 25, 1877, p.1.
26 Court of Inquiry.
27 Annual Report of the United States Lifesaving Service For the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1878, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 29-30.
28 “The Huron Disaster,” New York Daily Herald, November 26, 1877, p. 5.
29 Court of Inquiry.
30 “Lucien Young’s Bravery,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 8, 1900, p. 2.
31 Abstracts of Service Records of Naval Officers, 49.
32 “The Navy Yard,” The Virginia-Pilot, (Norfolk, Va.), October 2, 1889, p. 4.
33 “Honors to Ensign Lucien Young, U.S.N., Of The Lost Huron,” The Courier-Journal, January 19, 1878, p. 2.
34 The Weekly Kentucky Yeoman, (Frankfort, Ky.), January 1, 1878, p. 1.
35 “Lieutenant Lucien Young to Captain Oscar C. Badger,” May 31, 1878, Letters Received By the Secretary of The Navy From Captains, 1805-1885, National Archives And Records Administration, Record Group 260, NARA Catalog I.D. 718998.
36 Letters Received By the Secretary of The Navy.
37 Records of Living Officers, 174.
38 “A Brilliant Wedding,” The New York Tribune, May 6, 1880, p. 5.
39 “Funerals,” Evening Star, (Washington, D.C.), February 15, 1890, p. 12; On The Potomac,” The Courier-Journal, July 14, 1882, p. 2.