Packet Brig Ashley ~ June 1842

Weekly Standard, June 15, 1842

Brig Amanda Coons ~ 11 November 1858

Richmond Dispatch, Richmond, VA, November 30, 1858

Brig Black Squall ~ 8 April 1861

PHOTO: Ocracoke Island Journal

Built in 1856 by the Wilder Brothers, the Black Squall was en route from a performance Havana, Cuba to Philadelpia in March, 1861. She carried a load of sugar and Nixon’s Royal Circus & Menagerie of Living Animals. She encountered a Spring storm and wrecked at Ocracoke Inlet on 8 April 1861. Drowned circus performers and exotic animals ... lions, tigers, bears, a giraffe, a hippopotamus and horses ... washed up on to the beach. Two crewmen were drowned and one drowned young couple was found in an embrace. Tents recovered from the wreck were used by the islanders to make sails. It's said that some of the surviving horses enhanced the wild pony population on Ocracoke.

Brig Carroll ~ 8 February 1837

On January 25, 1837 the brig Carroll set sail from New Orleans, bound for Baltimore. She carried a cargo of cotton, pork, hides, lard, castor oil and madder. Captain Miller and his crew also carried two passengers and a dog named Pillow.

     After two uneventful weeks at sea, they approached Cape Lookout the night of February 8. Because it was obscured by fog, the first indication Captain Mitchell had of his proximity to Lookout Shoals was when, at 10 p.m., the Carroll suddenly struck a sand bar, ground to a stop and careened over on her side. Almost immediately, the brig drifted over the bar and into deep water again. An investigation showed she was shipping relatively little water and to outward appearances was not badly damaged. But when the helmsman tried to carry out a command he found that the wheel had lost contact with the rudder—it was soon obvious the rudder had been completely torn loose from the ship, leaving her practically unmanageable.

     Due to rapidly increasing winds from the southeast, Mitchell decided to make every effort to get his vessel ashore before she foundered at sea with the imminent possibility of death for them all. “Finally,” passenger Bangs reported later, “the light of Cape Lookout came in sight, distance about one mile. We endeavored by shifting the position of the sails to gain the light, but it was impossible to do so as the wind headed too much, and we struck the shore one mile to the south of the Cape. We remained beating on the shore all night, with a tremendous sea breaking over us every minute, looking forward with the greatest anxiety for daybreak, to see and get ashore if possible.

     “The looked-for hour arrived,” Mr. Bangs continued. “Orders were given to clear the boat and all hands get in. The boat, however, no sooner touched the water than was filled, capsized, and dashed to pieces in the surf. It was fortunate for us all it so happened, for it was impossible a boat of any kind could live on such a sea, much less gain the shore with the wind ahead and the tide making out.”

     As the morning wore on Mitchell, his crew and passengers made attempts to get a line to the beach some 40 or 50 yards away, but without success; and when people arrived on shore opposite the wreck they were powerless to get a line out to the Carroll as Mitchell and his cohorts were to get one in to them. Soon, the sky clouded and it began to rain. This turned to sleet, then hail and finally snow. By noon, with huge breakers crashing down around them, Mr. Bangs noted, “we had been exposed for 14 years and almost chilled to death.”

     No one had attempted to swim to shore for rear of the terrible surf, but as the prospect of high tide threatened to engulf them all, it was decided to try to swim ashore with a line. It was further decided the one to do the swimming should be Pillow. As the crew of strong, able-bodied men clung helplessly to the violently pitching hull of the wrecked brig—other standing equally as helpless on the snow-covered show—Pillow, half choked by the rope around his neck, swam with all his fast ebbing strength toward the low lying beach and made it, with the line still tight around his neck. Soon afterwards his shipmates, nearly dead from cold and exposure, were safely pulled ashore!

Brig D.W. Hall ~ 8 Jun 1842

The brig D.W. Hall, Captain Atwell commanding, was en route from Mobile, AL to Baltimore when it went ashore 12 miles south of Hatteras Light during a strong southeast gale. Her crew and cargo of cotton were saved.

The Times Picayune, New Orleans, LA, 14 Jun 1842

Brig Escambia ~ March 25, 1840

Vicksburg Tri-Weekly Sentinel Mississippi, April 17, 1840

                           

Brig Helen McLeod ~ October 11, 1846

Joliet Signal, Illinois, Oct. 20, 1846

Brig Hannah ~ 12 January 1834

Fayetteville Weekly Observer, January 21, 1834

Brig Indus ~ 18 December 1837

The British brig Indus was wrecked 10 miles west of Cape Hatteras Shoals during a heavy gale. Her crew, which was rescued, was en route to Norfolk, VA from Montago Bay.

Brig Joseph ~ March 1809

Correspondence beginning on February 10 between David Stone, U.S. Senator and later governor of North Carolina; James Taylor, collector of customs at Ocracoke; and Samuel Tredwell, collector of customs at Edenton,concerning the wreck of the brig Joseph, commanded by Captain N.W. Easton which was cast away on the banks early the previous month while enroute to Baltimore, MD, from Bordeaux, France.
     Mr. Stone, while on his way from Washington to his home district in North Carolina, promised to visit the place of the wreck to recover and return to Mr. Madison his articles which were on the wreck. Mr. Taylor reported in one of his letters that there were “…five boxes marked IMB and two boxes marked IMC and two Barrels … part of which are directed to you and part for the President.”
     Mr. Taylor had the items, nuts and wine placed in a fire proof store in New Bern under the care of Francis Hawks, customs collector of New Bern. In April they were shipped on board the schooner Crispin, under the command of Captain Easton, to Mr. J. Brice, collector of customs for the port of Baltimore. Mr. Taylor forwarded the following bill of individual expenses along with the goods:

The Hnble James Madison, Esqr.
To James Taylor – paid U States duties on

40 Gals. White wine – 4.

1-1/2 groce bottles - .80

Wm Hollister & Co, Storage 3 months – 4.

Cartage & lighterage from the wreck of The Jacob to Sloop Union – 6.75

Freight to New Bern from Chickimacomi 9 packages equal to 8 brls – 8.

Proportional part of inspection & Guard – 1.

Dollars - $24.55

District Ocracoke, April 29^th, 1809

Errors Excep James Taylor

Brig Marion ~ November 4, 1842

The Times-Picayune, November 28, 1842

Brig Mary Turcan ~ December 13, 1852

The Baltimore Sun, Dec. 20, 1852

Brig Matilda ~ September 1856

The Louisville Daily Courier, Louisville, KY, 19 February 1856

Brig Margaret Hall ~ 18 July 1850

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, NY

Brig Orleans, Brig Eagle & Schooner Antelope ~ 25 September 1815

NORTH CAROLINA MARITIME MUSEUM

Beaufort, NC

www.ncmaritimemuseum.org

On this day in 1815, the brig Orleans, the brig Eagle and the schooner Antelope were wrecked on the coast near Beaufort during a gale. It is believed that the crew and passengers of all three ships were saved or came ashore safely in life boats.

Brig Pompey ~ 28 December 1766

"The brigantine Pompey, Benjamin Torbert master, from Philadelphia, for Cape Fear ... lost about three weeks ago ... 30 miles to the northward of Cape Look-Out." (Carolina Gazette, Charleston, January 26, 1767)

"A brig driven ashore on Cape Lookout" (Virginia Gazette, March 19, 1767)

Brig Seaman ~ 13 July 1849

The Tri-Weekly Commercial, Wilmington, NC

Brig Tyrrel ~ 3 July 1759

LOSS OF THE BRIG TYRREL, AND DREADFUL SUFFERINGS OF THE CREW.

The brig Tyrrel, Captain Coghlan, sailed from New York, 28th June 1759. She was bound for Antigua.

When they set out, the weather was very stormy, and the vessel heeled greatly, being deficient in ballast. In the afternoon the weather became more moderate; and the captain employed himself in painting the boat, with its appurtenances of oars, helm, and tiller. On the 30th, at four in the afternoon, a hard gale blew from N.N.E., and they felt much alarm, exhorting the captain to return to New York, as the vessel did not seem in a fit condition for the voyage. The top-gallant sails were taken in, and the top-sail close reefed in the evening; but the sea again turning calmer, more sail was made. The gale increased til the 2d July – they took in an additional reef in each top-sail, and brought down the top-gallant yard. There was water then in the hold, but not more than could be pumped out by each watch; and they brought forward the two after-guns, in order to make the wind shift to her head. This it did at four in the morning, without any probability of its abating. The captain now finding that the vessel was crank, and should have had more ballast, agreed to stand for Bacon Island Road, in North Carolina. While in the act of wearing her for this purpose, a sudden squall laid her on her beam ends, never to rise again. She was completely overset; sails, masts, and rigging lying in the water.

At the time of the accident, Purnell, the chief mate, who had never undressed from the time he left New York, lay on a chest in the cabin. He was rolled off by the ship going over, and with difficulty reached the round-house door, where he was instantly knocked down against the companion by the step ladder, which led from the quarter-deck to the poop. A fortunate circumstance this – for the ladder made for them a communication to the windward; and they could get through the aftermost gun-port on the quarter-deck. As the ship was completely on her broadside, every article rolled down as she went over; among these was the boat, the lashings of which having been cut by the captain’s order, she turned bottom upwards. A prompt effort was necessary, and Purnell, the cabin-boy, and two others, being good swimmers, plunged into the sea. At length they righted the boat, but she remained brimful, and washed with the water’s edge. By means of the painter or rope, they lifted her a little out of the water, so that she swam about two or three inches free, though almost full within. The cabin-boy and another were put in her, with buckets which chanced to float by. They commenced baling her, and in short time got the water out. Two long oars were next put into the boat, and they rowed right to windward; the mate and two men put off from the wreck, and succeeded in getting the oars, rudder, and tiller. Their return gave much joy to their companions, who had given them up for lost.

From: THE DEEP: A Series of Interesting Narratives of Naval Adventure and Suffering

Brig Waltham ~ May 4, 1874

The Baltimore Sun, May 11, 1874