Monday, February 19, 2018

Capt. Zora Gaskins

The following article appeared in The Tar Heel (Elizabeth City), Friday, February 18, 1910:

"NOTHING HEARD YET OF CAPTAIN GASKINS - Great uneasiness is experienced by the family of Captain Zora Gakins at his prolonged delay in reaching Wilmington, NC from Baltimore with the schooner George I. Phillips, laden with fertilizer.

"Captain Gaskins cleared 3 weeks ago, and since the date of his clearance nothing has been seen or heard of him or his vessel. It was reported several days ago that his vessel was sighted burning at seas, but this report was an error, since the burning vessel proved to be the J.S. Hopkins, whose crew was rescued by a Danish ship.

"Shipbrokers in Baltimore are of the opinion that Captain Gaskins has been blown offshore by the heavy winds and will eventually arrive in port safe and sound. They express no uneasiness at his long delay in arriving at his destination. Captain Gaskins' friends at Hatteras feel confident that he will eventually show up as his vessel is an able one and Captain Gaskins is an experienced seaman. A number of his friends in this city do not feel so hopeful of his safety and they greatly fear that the captain and his crew are lost."

When I first read this article I wondered if I would ever discover what happened to Capt. Gaskins, his crew, and their vessel. Look for a follow-up post tomorrow. 

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is about Old Christmas in Rodanthe. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/old-christmas-rodanthe/.    

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous8:34 AM

    Goodness if you think the rhetoric of today is troubling, just google Captain Zora Gaskins and some of the results, such a Dare County archives has images and old newspaper accounts of back in the day. The slanderous comments and accusations of the writers back then are disturbing by today's standards. Hmm, it is like the internet today or chat rooms or tweets but not the everyday newspaper with standards wait, the everyday Daily Paper has been said it will be Dead in ten years. Where will we find the truth if all that exits is a channel for fake news and those that know the truth don't want John Q Public to have the truth. Think about it and be the change you want to see in the world.

    ReplyDelete