Yes, indeed, Dennis.
Philidelphia newspapers of the May and Dec. 1869 are the sources I want to peruse. Newspaper archives are not internet accessable, as yet.
Weather was, if not the primary cause of the sinking of the Haitian registry ship, part of the ships inability for bouyancy. A series of storms in December 1869 were some of the meterological phenomenon chronicled by the newly organized National Weather Service.The conditions are described as Saxby Waves, atmospheric and tidal conditions partially powered by forces caused by planetary conjunction on the Earth's equator. You wouldn't have wanted to sail in those weather conditions in something better suited to high seas, not the topheavy, built-up timber construction of the "Triumph".
N.&A. Tift, marine constructors of Savannah, Ga. did the work of converting the merchantman hull of the Fingal into the C.S.S. Atlanta.
My opinion of it all is that somebody should have kept Capt. Webb on orders not to wander off anywhere until the C.S.S. Savannah was finished, less then two weeks after the capture of the C.S.S. Atlanta in Wassaw Sound.
Capt. Webb was in contact with Secretary of the Navy Mallory by telegram before the sailing of the Atlanta.
Thanks for the references.