STORM OF SEPTEMBER 8, 1846

On this day in 1846 during the early morning hours the second of two new inlets was created by a hurricane that lashed the Outer Banks. Oregon Inlet (named for the first vessel to pass through the connecting channel), just south of Bodie Island. The following excerpt is from a letter written by Sarah Ann Clark to her husband, she was staying at Portsmouth at the time of the storm and wrote to him about the destruction and news from Hatteras Island.

The Coast Survey brig, or brigantine-rigged vessel, Washington was badly
damaged and nearly lost in a hurricane while conducting Gulf Stream studies.
Photo: NOAA Photo Library

Lost and drowned off the Coast Survey Brig WASHINGTON in a hurricane off the North Carolina coast:

George M. Bache, Lieutenant Commanding,
James Dorsey, quartermaster
Benjamin Dolloff, quartermaster
John Fishbourne, quartermaster
Henry Schroeder, sailmaker's mate
Francis Butler, seaman
Lewis Maynard, seaman
Thomas Stamford, seaman
William Wright, seaman
Peter Hanson, ordinary seaman
Edward Grennin, ordinary seaman.