Tay Bridge disaster warned of their unreliability, and declined to estimate conditions at Dundee from readings taken elsewhere. One modern interpretation of available information suggests winds were gusting to . Usage of the bridge was restricted to one train at a time by a signalling block system using a baton as a token. At 7:13 p.m. a train from the south (consisting of a 4-4-0 locomotive, its tender, five passenger carriages, and a luggage van (brake van) slowed to pick up the baton from the signal cabin at the south end of the bridge, then headed out onto the bridge, picking up speed.
John Tay stop at Tahiti to pick up John I. Tay, then continue to Pitcairn Island where Cudney could perform the promised baptisms. However, the "Phoebe Chapman" was lost at sea without trace, and John Tay returned from Tahiti to the US. The General Conference eventually paid for a ship to be built for missionary expeditions in the South Pacific. After a fund raising campaign, the schooner "Pitcairn" was purchased for US $12,000 in 1890. The "Pitcairn" reached Pitcairn Island on 25 November 1890 bringing Tay and his wife with the elders Gates and Read and their wives. On 26 November 1890