Nineteenth Century Shipwrecks

During the 1800’s many Ocracoke natives were involved in the seafaring professions, most as sailors, captains, and owners of several of the many schooners that plied the waters off the Atlantic coast.

As grim testimony to the importance to Ocracoke of seafaring activity more than 100 years ago consider the following April dates:

April 7, 1887 – The sharpie "Hattie" was stranded on "Legged Lump" [a shoal near Ocracoke Inlet],

April 8, 1861 – The brig "Black Squall" was wrecked at Ocracoke [folks who have taken my Creekside Ghost & History Walk may remember this wreck and the part it played in Ocracoke’s second murder],

April 9, 1885 – The schooner "Sudie," which hailed from Ocracoke, was stranded nearby on "Tarpin Shoal,"

April 10, 1885 – The schooner "General Banks" struck Ocracoke beach one mile south of Hatteras Inlet,

April 14, 1895 – The schooner "Addie Henry" wrecked at Ocracoke,

April 15, 1893 – The schooner "E.M. Burton" was stranded at Hatteras Inlet.

This winter several large sections of wooden sailing ships were uncovered on the beach north of the Pony Pen. Who knows, perhaps they came from one or more of the vessels wrecked in April many years ago.

[A technical note: Recently our area internet service provider has been having connection & interference problems. Sometimes we do not have reliable service for days at a time. This is often the reason for missing daily posts. They have decided to discontinue wireless service on Ocracoke so we have contracted with another company. More reliable service should be available by the end of next week. Keep checking our daily journal. We'll post whenever possible.]

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