The Kearsarge was repaired at Cherbourg, and continued in the United States service throughout the war. Long after other vessels would have been broken up as too old for service she continued to receive repairs, once amounting almost to rebuilding. January 30th, 1894, she sailed from Port au Prince, Hayti, for Bluefields, Nicaragua. On the evening of Friday, February 2d, she struck on Roncador Reef in the Carribean Sea. The ship had to be lightened, and accordingly the guns were thrown overboard. She held together during the night, however, and the crew remained on board. The next morning a line was run ashore, and all hands were safely landed on the island, from which place one of the boats was sent to Colon for assistance. A steamer was dispatched to take off the shipwrecked mariners. Every person having been rescued, officers and crew watched the wave-lashed hulk slowly disappear from view, and the wreck of the old Kearsarge was left to the mercy of the sea. Footnotes: [1] "Aid thyself and God will aid thee." [2] Report of Consul Lawless to the British foreign office. [3] In reviewing an autobiography of Sir George F. Bowen, at one time governor of New Zealand, the London Spectator says (vol. 65, p. 20): "The visit of the United States ship Kearsarge at this time brought to light a bit of history which Sir George Bowen has done well to preserve. The Captain informed his host that after the Alabama was sunk, its commander, Semmes, was seen floating in the sea with the help of a life-belt. He could easily have been captured, but it was thought better to let him be saved by a passing British vessel, since, if taken to America, he would probably have been hanged, and the officers of the Kearsarge wished to save a gallant enemy from such a fate." [4] Two years on the Alabama, p. 263. Transcriber's Notes: Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. Punctuation has been corrected without note. The following misprints have been corrected: "Republcan" corrected to "Republican" (page 7) "tranferred" corrected to "transferred" (page 40) "Ronckendorf" corrected to "Ronckendorff" (page 84) "vesels" corrected to "vessels" (page 142) "hiusband's" corrected to "husband's" (page 177) Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.