Schooner Blanche ~ 17 December 1890

The two-masted schooner Blanche ran ashore on Ocracoke Beach about 12 miles SW of the station. She was out of Sydney, Australia under the command of William Tandry and bound for Boston, MA with a cargo of log lumber. "Capt don't no how he got there," wrote keeper Howard (transcribed as found):

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890:

H.H. Ballance out on beach discover a vessel on beach in breakers, sunk. Finding live men on board put whip to his horse for the station. Arriving to station 8:30 reported sch ashore on Ocracoke beach with distress signals fliang. Keeper imedieatly cauld out crew, hitch up team, tuck apparatus cart left station 9 a.m. for the sch sunk. Very rough running over beach. Wind SW fresh gale witch made our proggress very slow. The distance about 12 miles with water and wind to contend with, it was all ce cold do. Reaching abrest of wreck sch we was near fag out but seaing the condition of the wreck men we tuck curedg went at work. First shot was unsuckcessful. Haul shot line gain. The nex shot line dropped on vessel. The crew of sch got line hauling off whip. Shot line hauled. The thire shot line dropped across deck, crew got the line hauld of whip line made fast in starboard rigging. Sent off hausser, the current so strong and force of sea was hard to handle the gear. The men from settlement rendered us valuable service. Hop us to haul on gear after hauser hauled out bouy sent off, landing in all eight persons all right. Hade to cut out hauser, cut shot line, current so fierce cold not risk man to cut them. One shot lost. The wreck crew was very bad off, they had life lines run around them to keep them from washing overboard. All the peple that was ther to sea the site and my jugment seas ther was nothing elce cold be saved. Capt was very thankful and meny thanks for our assistance.

Vessel and cargo sold by Capt gave up for lost. Captain - crew of wreck sch lost all of there clothes. Donated to them from the donation of Women Relief Association as follows: 3 pear pants, 3 pear drawers, 3 shirts top, 3 shirts under, 4 jackets knit, 3 pear shoes. Thay wear very thankfull for them."

Read more at the Ocracoke Island Journal.

Steamer Glenrath ~ 30 September 1890

NORTH CAROLINA MARITIME MUSEUM

Beaufort, NC

www.ncmaritimemuseum.org

On this day in 1890 at roughly 4:45 p.m. the British steamship Glenrath, enroute from Pensacola, FL for Antwerp via Norfolk, Va, hit the remains of the British steamer Aberlady Bay off of Cape Lookout. The Glenrath eventually sank along with it's cargo of lumber. Around 9 p.m. the chief mate and 12 crew members manned a lifeboat and left to summon help. They made it to shore safely in the ships boats after rowing for eleven hours and were cared for at the Cape Lookout Life-Saving Station. The master and remaining crew departed the sinking vessel the next morning and were met by a life boat around 2 p.m. and towed to Beaufort. 

New Berne Weekly Journal, October 9, 1890

Schooner Henry H. Keeney ~ 28/29 March 1890

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890:

The large coal-ladened schooner William H. Keeney, of New York, stranded at 4 o’clock in the morning of the earlier of these dates, about eight hundred yards southeast of the Little Kinnakeet Station (Sixth District) coast of North Carolina, and some three hundred yards off shore. She was on a voyage from Baltimore, Maryland to Savannah, Georgia, at the time and, in beating down the coast against a strong southerly wind, stood too long on the inshore tack, the weather being hazy, and ran aground. Three-quarter of an hour later she was discovered by one of the station men, the regular patrolman being father down the beach. The alarm was immediately given, and, while the surfmen were making ready to run out with the apparatus cart, the keeper sent a man to burn a signal near the schooner and then telephoned to the Big Kinnakeet and Gull Shoal Stations for assistance. They responded promptly to the call and, not being burdened with any gear, were soon on the scene. At 5 o’clock the crew of the Little Kinnakeet Station were abreast of the vessel, and five minutes later a shot was fired from the beach gun. This fell short. Again the gun was trained, with a change of elevation, and fired, but with a like result. A lighter line was then bent to the projectile and a third trial was made. This time the line fell across the spanker boom, and at a signal from the life-savers the sailors hauled the whip line on board and made if fast to the mizzenmast. In the meantime the wind had veered to south-southwest and increased to a fresh gale. In sending the hawser on board the whip worked very hard and the cause of the trouble was not explained until the first man (the captain) was landed, with much difficulty, in the breeches boy, when he reported that the sheave had spilt out of the tailblock. Another block was procured and sent off on the same line. A delay in nearly a half an hour was occasioned by this accident. The six remaining members of the Keeney’s crew were soon brought ashore, nothing further occurring to interfere with the work, when all were taken to the station and given stimulants to counteract the effect of their long exposure in wet clothing. All of the gear, with the exception of the hawser, which the keeper preferred to leave attached to the schooner for the present rather than to cut it, was conveyed to the station and put in order. As soon as the residents in the vicinity learned of the wreck many of them hurried to the beach and ably assisted the surfmen in the rescue of the crew, which was rendered very laborious owing to the heavy wind and strong coast current. The following day the crews of the Big and Little Kinnakeet Stations made three trips to the schooner in the surfboat of the latter-named station, the wind and sea having sufficiently moderated, and brought ashore the effects of the sailors, some small articles of ship’s stores, and the schooner’s sails. It is seldom that a vessel, particularly when loaded, once fairly lodged on the treacherous sands of the North Carolina beach is ever floated off, and this one proved no exception—the Keeney and her cargo became a total loss. The wreck was sold on April 1st, and two days later her crew left the station for their homes. They gave the keeper the following letter when they departed:

LITTLE KINNAKEET LIFE-SAVING STATION.

“Our vessel having been wrecked near the above-named station on the morning of March 28, 1890, we with to commend the keeper and crew of said station for their prompt, cool, and courageous work in saving our lives by landing us from the wreck. And we wish also to thank them for their kind treatment while at the station. We feel that we can not with the pen adequately describe our feelings of gratitude to the United States Life-Saving Service. SAMUEL LIPPINCOTT, Master. WILLIAM H. NUGENT, First Mate. ANDREAS NELSEN, Second Mate. N. JENSEN, Steward. C. ALLSTON, Seaman. CHAS. JONES, Seaman, A.B. WILLIS, Seaman

Schooner Hattie S. Clark ~ 15 May 1890

THE HATTIE S. CLARK LOST.

ALL HANDS EXCEPT THE COOK SUPPOSED

TO HAVE BEEN DROWNED.

BOSTON, May 18. Capt. Lewis of the steamer City of Macon, from Savannah, reports that on Friday, the 16th, at 11:20 A.M., in lattitude 33° 38', longitude 77° 21', he sighted a man adrift in a waterlogged dory, with the sea breaking over him. Capt. Lewis stopped his steamer and sent a boat, which rescued the man and brought him on board in an exhausted condition.
     He said his name was Charles Polaski, cook of the schooner Hattie S. Clark of Gloucester, Mass. that the Clark had capsized Thursday, the 15th, at 6 A.M., in a squall off Frying Pan Shoals, and that he believed all hands on board except himself were lost, including Capt. Sargent Lane. The agents of the steamer will forward Polaski to his home in New-York. The City of Macon furnished him clothes, and among the crew and passengers raised $40.
     The Hattie S. Clark was bound for Key West for pineapples. She carried no passengers. There were six men in her crew. The supposed owner is George Steele of Glouster.

The New York Times
May 19, 1890

Schooner Joseph H. Neff ~ 17 December 1890

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891:

WRECK OF THE SCHOONER JOSEPH H. NEFF

Charles Price, a seaman serving on the schooner Joseph H. Neff, died from exposure upon the wreck of that vessel off Oak Island at a point about two and a half miles west of the Oak Island Station (Sixth District) near the entrance to the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, on the morning of December 17, 1890. The Joseph H. Neff was a small coaster of about ten tons register, hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, and had a crew of two men. She was wrecked on the way from Lockwoods Folly, a small inlet on the North Carolina coast, to Wilmington, with a cargo of naval stores. from the reports received it would appear that Price died before assistance could reach him from the life saving station. The distance from Lockwoods Inlet to the Cape Fear River bar is about ten miles.
   The schooner put to sea in the afternoon of the 16th, the wind then being from the northeast. Before she had gone far, however, the wind shifted to the southwest and blew a gale, with squally weather which made it unsafe to enter the channel during the night, and the schooner was anchored off the beach, not far from the place where she was soon afterward wrecked. It is supposed that she dragged into the breakers at about midnight, the the first seen of her by the patrol on his way west from the station was at 4 o'clock, when he observed a small, dark object out on the surf. It was so indistinct that after trying in vain to make it out he kept on to the end of his beat. On his way back, however, he found a small skiff and a number of barrels of turpentine scattered along the shore, and this convinced him, although the morning was so dark that he could see nothing, that there must be a wreck in the vicinity, and he accordingly quickened his pace to the station and gave the alarm. The men were at once turned out, and after some delay in making coffee they proceeded down the beach, and strangely enough without their boat or any of the beach apparatus; the keeper, as he came to the barrels lying in the swash of the surf, still further delaying the arrival of the party upon the scene by giving orders to the men to roll them up out of reach of the waves. Upon pushing further on a small vessel was made out on the bar some fifty or sixty yards from the beach. She appeared to be sunk to the deck, and there were two men on top of the cabin. This was as the first dawn of day, or about half past 6 o'clock. 
   Upon making this discovery the crew dragged the skiff abreast of the wreck, intending to launch it, but as it had no oars it could not be used. Keeper Savage, therefore, turned back to the station, with his crew for the surfboat, leaving one man, Surfman A.C. Burrus, on the beach to render aid in case the people attempted to land before the surf boat could arrive. While the station crew were gone the tide began rising, and at half-past 7 o'clock the schooner's windlass gave way, and, being thus released from her ground tackle, she drove in over the bar much nearer to the beach One of the crew of the schooner, the captain, was holding the apparently lifeless form of his companion to save him from being washed overboard, and Burrus at once waded out and succeeded, single-handed, in getting both ashore. In his testimony he describes it thus:
   "I waded out waist-deep when she got close enough, and told the captain, who was holding the other man to pass him to me and to get overboard himself. I got the man around the waist, while the captain took his hand, and we started ashore, but had not got far when the captain was knocked down by the sea. I hurried and got my man ashore and then went back just in time to reach the captain, who had again been knocked down by the breakers, and assisted him ashore also."
   Burrus further states that although Price showed no signs of life when brought to the beach he set himself to work at once in an effort to fetch him to. The station crew coming up shortly afterward with the surfboat and other appliances which he was thus engaged, the body was quickly stripped of its wet clothing, wrapped in warm blankets, and every possible means used to restore animation. But it was of no avail, the stiffening limbs and other unmistakable signs of death making it but too plainly apparent that the man was beyond recovery. He had doubtless died from exposure. His shipmate, the captain, expressed the belief that he had died some time before the schooner broke adrift from her anchor and came in over the bar. Nevertheless, as a last resort, the body was conveyed to Southport and medical skill summoned to supplement the efforts of the station crew, but the physician could do nothing and pronounced the man beyond human aid. The rescued captain was furnished with dry clothing from the supply placed at the station by the Women's National Relief Association, and also given shelter and sustenance for one day. The crew at the station also assisted in recovering about two-thirds of the cargo, but they were unable to do anything towards saving the schooner, which was an old craft, and became a total loss.
   In conclusion it should be stated that while there is no doubt from the captain's own statement that Surfman Burrus saved the captain's life, it  is an open question whether Price could have been brought ashore alive even if the boat has been taken to the spot in the first instance. Nevertheless, it was held when the first reports came in that the keeper was at fault in delaying his departure from the station until coffee could be served to his men, and, when this had been done, in proceeding to the locality of the wreck without his boat or any other appliance for saving life. His course in going empty-handed and thus permitting himself to lose much valuable time was determined upon. He and for this and other reasons his removal was determined upon. He was accordingly discharged and his place has been filled by the best available selection, and, it is believed, an abler and more efficient man

Found at GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC by David Stick

 One of the few instances on record of a North Carolina coast lifesaving station keeper being discharged for negligence resulted from the wreck of a schooner of only 10 tons burden, with two crewmen, carrying a cargo valued at less than $300. This was the schooner Joseph H. Neff of Wilmington en route from Lockwoods Folly to the Cape Fear River with a cargo of tar, wood and turpentine.

     She was discovered anchored and in distress just beyond the breakers 2-1/2 miles S.W. of the Oak Island Station at 4 a.m. by a surfman on patrol who hurried back to his station with the news.

     Keeper Savage, recently taken over in that capacity, decided it would be a good idea to brew up a pot of coffee before departing for the wreck—the first of several needless delays. When finally he and his crew started for the scene they went empty-handed, leaving their surfboat and beach apparatus behind, and when several barrels were found floating in the surf at the scene of the wreck, Savage ordered his men to drag them out of the water and place them above the high water mark before going to the wrecked vessel.

     When the lifesavers finally reached the wreck, two men were found hanging onto the partially submerged craft. A small skiff belonging to the Neff had drifted ashore nearby, but was without oars. Savage left one surfman on the beach while he and the remaining members of the Oak Island crew returned to the station for the surfboat. Meanwhile the Neff went to pieces in the surf, and the lone lifesaver managed to drag both men to the beach, where one was found to be dead.

     By the time Savage returned the whole business had come to an end as did his brief position as keeper.

Schooner Joseph Rudd ~ 22 March 1890

At 3:20 a.m. on March 22, 1890 the three-masted schooner Joseph Rudd stranded on Cape Lookout Shoal, 7 miles SSE of the station during a heavy fog and fresh south wind. She was loaded with lumber from Charleston, SC and bound for New York City.

Because of the fog it was three hours later when the day watch finally discovered her. The station surfboat was immediately sent to the vessel arriving at 10:30 a.m. The lifesavers had experienced a very difficult passage because, according to the wreck report, “a very heavy and dangerous sea was encountered rising from every direction making it very difficult to handle the boat as quickly as the sea would dash upon all sides and threaten to swamp her.” The U.S. Life-Saving Annual Report for 1890 stated: “To add to the difficulty a strong current had to be contended against… There was a small lee just astern of her and, after some maneuvering, this was gained by the surfmen and a line was thrown to them by the sailors.”

At this time the sea was washing completely over the forward half of the vessel, making it extremely difficult to approach her from any direction. Five of the crewmen were on the stern and the remaining two were in the ship’s yawl which was loaded with their personal belongings, ship’s papers and nautical instruments. The five survivors on the stern climbed down to the surfboat, one at a time, while the lifesavers desperately tried to keep the two boats apart and to avoid becoming entangled in the wreckage. The men in the yawl were furnished cork jackets and then towed clear of the vessel and transferred to the lifeboat. The ship’s crew, along with the yawl and all its contents, was safely landed at 12:30 p.m., “all thoroughly wet and fatigued from the hard pull.” The Annual Life-Saving Report concluded:

“The following morning (23^rd) the patrol, when some four miles northeast by north of the station, saw a vessel close inshore and flashed his signal of warning. The craft soon took bottom and, as day was just breaking, the surfman delayed a few minutes and ascertained that she was the same schooner that they had boarded with so much difficulty the previous day. She had pounded over the shoals during the night. The keeper and the captain walked up the beach and viewed the wreck. Her port side was stove, the sails (excepting foresail and jib) were blown away, deck load and after house washed off, and the foremast had settled. Later in the day wreckers took charge and saved such of the rigging and cargo as they could. Some lumber that washed ashore was secured by the surfmen. On the morning of the 24^th the keeper took the shipwrecked men and their baggage to Core Sound (about two miles distant) in a wagon and there procured a boat to convey them to Beaufort. On the 26^th the captain returned to the station and remained until the next day, when the wreck was sold.”

Wilmington Morning Star
March 26, 1890


A telegram from Beaufort, N.C. says: Schooner JOSEPH RUDD, went ashore on Lookout at 8 o’clock Saturday morning. The station crew took off the crew and their personal effects. The sails were left set and the vessel worked off and went ashore three miles north of Cape Lookout. She sunk fifty yards from the beach. The top hamper is out of the water. The hull looks all right. Vessel and cargo fully insured. The RUDD cleared for New York from this port Thursday last with cargo of pine lumber shipped by C.B. Mallett, Esq.

Atlantic Seaside
Beaufort, NC / March 26, 1890

Editor SEASIDE We wish to express, through the columns of your paper, our sincere thanks and appreciation to Captain Gaskill and his brave crew of the life-saving station at Cape Lookout for the heroic bravery displayed by them in rescuing the crew from the ill fated schooner JOSEPH RUDD. The hardship and perils which they encountered in saving our lives will long be cherished and remembered. Thomas Hanson, Master; F.W. Robertson, Mate; in behalf of the crew

Schooner Minnie Anna Bonsail ~ 31 January 1890

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890:

Daybreak discovered to the lookout at the Cape Fear Station (Sixth District) coast of North Carolina, a large three-masted schooner aground on the west side of Frying Pan Shoals. Notwithstanding the wind was light and the sea smooth, it took the life savers more than two hours to pull out to her in their surf boat. She was the Minnie Anna Bonsall, of Wilmington, Delaware, loaded with lumber, but full of water. She had been abandoned by her crew, but just before the station men reached her four pilots had boarded her from their schooner. At 1 o’clock, on the rising tide, she was hove into deep water, and the surfmen then started to row to Southport for a tug. Before arriving at the bar off the entrance to Cape Fear River, they fell in with a tug and returned with her to the schooner. An attempt was made to tow the latter into port at high tide, but she drew too much water and stuck on the bar. All hands then went to Southport to get something and also to procure assistance to discharge the deck load before the next full sea. During their absence the crew of the Oak Island Station visited the vessel and remained until the others returned (at 9 o’clock in the evening), when, their assistance not being required, they went home. About one-quarter of the cargo was thrown overboard before the schooner could be got over the bar. She was towed in and run aground on the flats off Southport. It was subsequently learned that the Bonsall had sprung a leak and filled at sea, and that when some fifteen miles southwest of the Frying Pan Shoals lightship her crew had been taken off by a passing vessel.

Schooner St. Johns ~ 21 March 1890

The Wilmington Weekly Star
Wilmington, NC
March 21, 1890

"Near Hatteras Inlet - Schooner St. Johns, of Belfast, Maine, from Jacksonville to Baltimore, with a cargo of lumber, is reported ashore 4 miles above the life saving station at Hatteras Inlet. Seven of the crew were saved, but one, Henry Saunders, was drowned. The vessel is full of water and is a total loss."

Schooner Sue Williams ~ 22 March 1890

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890:

March 22-26. Shortly after 8 o’clock in the evening of the first of these dates, and just as the north patrol from the Chicamicomico Station, (Sixth District) coast of North Carolina, and the south patrol from the New Inlet Station met at the outer limit of their respective beats, a large schooner was observed by them to emerge from the haze overhanging the ocean and strand a short distance down the beach. Both patrolmen hurried to a point abreast of the vessel, which was some four hundred yards off the shore and two miles from the first-mentioned station, burned several Coston signals, and then hastened away to procure the assistance of their respective crews. The keeper of the Chicamicomico Station telephoned the Gull Shoal Station of the disaster, after which he lost no time in proceeding to the scene with his men, taking the beach apparatus. The surfmen of the New Inlet Station started out with their surfboat, but, the wind being strong from the south-southwest and directly in their faces, progress was exceedingly slow, therefore the boat was soon abandoned and the men hastened down the beach with all speed, passed the schooner, and continued on to meet and assist the other crew. Their help proved effective, and all arrived abreast of the stranded vessel at half-past 9 o’clock. At the second shot, line communication was established with her. The first shot failed owing to the distance of the craft from the shore and the size of the line (No. 9) attached to the projectile. In hauling off the double whip it was fouled so badly by the strong current running up the beach that it could not be cleared from either end. A little delay was here occasioned in waiting for the surfboat, for which men had been dispatched when they were no longer needed for the apparatus cart, but when it arrived it was at once launched and pulled out far enough to disentangle the whip and to direct the people on the schooner how to proceed. The sea was too rough to permit a close approach to the vessel. The gear was soon in working order, and six sailors were landed, one at a time, by means of the breeches buoy. It was not half-past 3 o’clock in the morning of the 23d, and the rescued men were sent to the station. The captain and his two mates—there were nine, all told, in the crew—remained on board until about 7 o’clock, when, the sea having quieted sufficiently, the life-savers brought them ashore in the surfboat and conducted them to the station. The crew from the Gull Shoal Station reached the scene in time to render considerable assistance. No more trips could be made to the vessel that day, and the following morning the crews of the Chicamicomico and New Inlet Stations made two fruitless attempts to reach her. She was lying amongst the bar breakers off Loggerhead Inlet. Both life-saving crews were again on the scene early on the 25th, and three successful trips were made to the wreck. The clothing of the crew, some small articles of the vessel’s outfit, and two boats were landed. As nothing more could be done, the surfboat and such of the gear as was yet on the beach were taken to the station. On the 26th wreckers arrived, assumed charge of the craft, and, as it was seen that she could not be saved, began to strip her. The unfortunate vessel was the three-masted schooner Sue Williams, of and for Richmond, Virginia, with a cargo of phosphate rock from Charleston, South Carolina. In running up the coast the captain undoubtedly misjudged his distance off the shore in the squally, hazy weather; hence the disaster Vessel and cargo proved a total loss. The shipwrecked sailors were cared for at the Chicamicomico Station until the 28th, but the captain remained with the life-savers ten days. He gratefully acknowledged the services of the rescuers of himself and crew in the following letter to the assistant inspector of life-saving stations, Sixth District:

CHICAMICOMICO, NORTH CAROLINA, March 27, 1890

“DEAR SIR: I wish to convey to you my appreciation of the worth of the Life-Saving Service, as exemplified in the case of the schooner Sue Williams, stranded near the Chicamicomico Station on the evening of the 22d instant. It was less than an hour and a half from the time the patrol first signaled us until the life-savers arrived abreast of the schooner with their beach gear. At the second shot the projectile passed through the foresail, landing the line right across the deck. The gear was rigged, and six of my crew were landed before morning in the breeches buoy. In the meantime, however, the surfboat was launched and came within speaking distance of us, when she put back, it being too rough for her to come alongside. At daylight the boat, handled by L.B. Midgett, jr., keeper of the New Inlet Life-Saving Station, was pulled to the schooner and the three remaining members of her crew, together with such clothing as was handy at the time, were taken ashore. For these services I tender sincere thanks, both for myself and my crew. And for the kindness and attention we have received while at this station I cannot speak too highly, having had all, and more, done for us than was asked. In conclusion I must say that these men are a credit to the Life-Saving Service and should receive the thanks of the followers of the sea, as well as the commendation of you and others having in charge this branch of the Government service. Allow me to thank you, as well as them, for their efficient service. I am, sir, very truly yours, E.L. Pearce, Late Master of Schooner Sue Williams.”

Schooner T.M. Thomas ~ 8 February 1890

"... Feb 8, 1890, a two-masted schooner was driven ashore on Ocracoke beach by severe wind about `` a.m., day time about 10 miles SW of this station. Weather being thick cold not sea her from station. Sunday morning keeper tuck horse rode up beach in cerich of disasters. After riding about 6 miles spide sch on beach. Kept on to find out her condition. Arrived to wreck sch 10 a.m."

The schooner proved to be the T.M. Thomas, on passage to Beaufort from Baltimore, MD under the command of Captain J.T. Beveridge with a crew of four and cargo of general merchandise.

"The sch was light drafted, went well up on beach so the crew went ashore themselves, all right. All saved. The peple of the Island went down to sch the day that she went ashore and landed her cargo before night. I asked cap of wreck sch if ther was any assistance I cold render him. Sed nothing, was all right, the cargo gave up to wreck master. No assistance rendered."

The Thomas, built in Beaufort in 1873 and valued at $2,000, was a complete loss.