1775 Hurricane

This week's rain and tide from hurricane Joaquin pale in comparison to the October 6 storm of 1775:

According to The South Carolina and American General Gazette, October 6, 1775, "We learn from North Carolina that the damage done by [a recent, devastating] hurricane is incredible; the whole shore being lined with wrecks; upwards to 100 dead bodies have drifted ashore on Occacok Island."

Sonny Williamson reports in his book Shipwrecks of Ocracoke Island that "a violent hurricane out of the northeast struck at about 6 a.m. with winds steadily increasing until 2 p.m. Then the wind came around to the WNW (the eye of the storm had passed). From then until 4 p.m. the winds were most severe."

Ships that "wrecked at the Bar" included vessels from Massachusetts; Glasgow, Scotland; Virginia; and North Carolina.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a reproduction of a 1960s booklet titled The Great Ocracoke Cat Hunt. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news092115.htm.