During the early morning hours of June 21, 1860, in heavy weather, the Robert J. Walker was heading north along the coast of New Jersey toward New York City. The 132-foot, iron-hulled, two-masted side paddlewheel steamer was under the command of John J. Guthrie, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Navy. The Walker, a Coast Survey vessel, was returning from the Gulf of Mexico when, within sight of Absecon Lighthouse, she was rammed by an unknown schooner.

According to Charles Clifford, the Walker’s quartermaster, “The crash struck the cutter on her first forward guards,…