Steamer Alliance ~ 4 March 1869

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869:

The Alliance was built in Philadelphia, PA in 1853 and originally named Caledonia. She was a 162 foot 426 ton, steam-powered screw vessel. In 1859 she was purchased by the U.S. Government, armed, renamed Mohawk and used as a slave chaser. She captured the slaver Sygnet in the Atlantic soon after she was commissioned and in 1860 took another slave ship Wild Fire, near the Bahamas, with a cargo of over 500 Africans. During the Civil War the Mohawk was put on blockade duty where she was successful in capturing the blockader George B. Sloat.

On July 12, 1864 she was sold out of service at public auction in Philadelphia and redocumented Alliance the following September 30.

During the night of March 4, 1869 the Alliance, enroute from Boston to Charleston, went ashore about one mile south of Hatteras Inlet during a severe storm. The storm, which developed during the night into a full gale from the southeast, drove her onto the beach and completely wrecked the vessel. Portions of the cargo of boots, shoes and hay were salvaged and sold on the beach at public auction March 7th. The wrecking vessel Resolute, which had been sent from Norfolk, VA, was unable to move her and reported the vessal as abandoned.

Bark Ezra ~ September 2, 1869

The North Carolinian 9 September 1869

Steamer Gulf City ~ 11 June 1869

Schooner Ida Nicholson ~ 19 February 1869

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869.

Chartered out of Baltimore to deliver 101,600 bricks for the construction of the 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, a tenth of the one million needed to build the nation’s tallest sentinel. Caught on a lee shore and stranded three miles from Hatteras Inlet during a severe winter gale. Its cargo was a total loss.

Steamer Thames ~ 6 April 1869

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869:

While on its regular run between Galveston and New York the 560-ton passenger steamer Thames rounded Cape Hatteras on April 6th and headed north along the coast. When still within sight of the lighthouse on the cape, a cry was hear from amidships: “FIRE!” By the time Captain Pennington could organize his fire-fighting crew, the flames had spread so quickly that there was no hope of bringing them under control. All hands—9 crewmen and 9 passengers—were driven from the cabin.

     The Captain ordered the three aft boats removed from their davits and carried forward. Then, with passengers and crew gathered on the bow, he headed his vessel into the wind, toward shore. But the flames continued to spread and soon Pennington was driven from the pilothouse, leaving the vessel in an unmanageable state.

     The three boats were quickly lowered over the side and the passengers and crew crowded into them. By then the Thames, which was engulfed in flames, was abandoned in the sea off Hatteras. Two of the boats reached shore that night. The third, containing the ship’s cook, two cabin boys, a seaman, and a coal heaver, either drifted to sea or overturned on Diamond Shoals, all 5 being given up for lost.