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CDR C R P Rodgers, USS Iroquois writes SECNAV"On the 1st of this month I touched at Singapore to receive intelligence by the mails just arrived from British India, China, and Australia, but I could hear nothing of the Shenandoah. I therefore sailed the next morning, passing through the Strait of Rhio and the Strait of Banca to the Strait of Sunda.
    Thence I went to Batavia, where I remained only long enough to take on board coal and to get our letters.
    After a careful consideration of my correspondence with our consuls and merchants in different parts of the East Indies, and of all the information that had reached me from various sources, I came to the conclusion that the Shenandoah was no longer to be looked for upon this station, and that under the instructions of the Department it had become my duty to return to the United States. I therefore sailed at once for the great naval establishment of Holland at Sonrabaya, at the east end of Java, in order to overhaul our machinery and boilers preparatory to our long homeward voyage, and also to get a new jib and maintopsail, of which I was much in need. I also hoped to obtain a supply of good bread and other necessaries, which we had not been able to buy either at Singapore or Batavia.
    As the bread had to be baked for us, we were detained at Sourabaya until the 23d, when we sailed with only half the quantity ordered, and that of a very inferior quality.
    I am now on my way to Batavia, where we shall fill up our provisions as best we can, and I hope before the end of the month to sail for New York."

SECNAV writes RADM William Radford, North Atlantic Squadron, "The sounds of North Carolina as a naval station is to be abandoned. Withdraw all naval vessels and all naval property from those waters without unnecessary delay. Keep at Beaufort, N. C., a steamer which can cross the bulkhead and proceed to New Berne, or elsewhere in the sounds in case of emergency."