The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1951-12-21
WRECK OF SCHOONER \
RICHARD S. SPOFFORD
Part One

Id uIlLGS SOuGLWSSG VI OCLdCOhC
Life-Saving Station, (Sixth Dis
trict) N. C.
The Spofford carried eight men,
all told, and one was lost. She was
three-masted centerboard schoon-
er of four hundred and lightweight |
tons measurement, built in 1890,
at Newberport, Massachusetts,, and
hailed from Boston, whence she |
sailed December %, 1894, bound
for Darien, Georgia, in ballast, !
sixty tons of stone having been
taken on board for that purpose.
The master was Captain Roger S.
Hawkes., of Dennisport, Massachu-
sets, who stated thath is voyage
was pleasant and without note
worth incident until about noon of
Wednesday, the 26th, when stiff
wind came in squalls from the
south southeast and the weather
was thick.
At eight o'clock that night, when
the schooner was on the western
edge of the Gulf Stream, the wind
canted to the south-southeast,
blowing heavily and with rapidly
growing strength. Captain Halves
at once reduced his canvas to
single-reefed mainsail and close
reefed foresail, and anticipating
that when the wind would shift it
would be to the westward, wore
ship and stood on the westerly
tack for the purpose of working
toward the land in order to take
advantage of the expected change
of wind when he would resume
course down the coast. By midnight
the gale was fierce, sweeping along
at the rate of nearly so miles an
hour, and the captain states that
he would have gladly put his YES
sci on the offshore tack, but did
not dare to make the attempt for
fear of losing his mainsail. The
centerboard was down full depth,
making the vessels draft about
twenty feet, and under the short
sail she carried her progress was
estimated to be only four knots an
hour. At one o'clock the gale haul
ed to little east of south, mount
ing to a hurricane and the atmos-
phere was thick with driving sleet
and rain, cutting so keenly that
the captain said it was impossible
even to look to windward. In view
of the probability of losing his
sails if he should try to wear ship,
and also the dangre of standing on
much longer, he resolved to come
to anchor as soon as he could
reach shoal water. Notwithstand-
ing the fact that he was in the
midst of a terrible storm, headed
toward the land, and without any
exact knowledge of his wherea-
bouts, he took no soundings, and
appears to have entertained entire
= confidence that he would fetch up
safely in the bay or bend in the
coast of the southwark of Cape
Hatteras, about two-thirds of the
distance to Cape Lookout. He says
he supposed that he had an album
dance of sea room, but as it turned
out he had entirely underestimate
ed or failed to take into considers
ton the powerful set of the north
ward current, and his other calcu-
lations were altogether out of the
way.
of the Course
Straight on to the westward the
vessel stood from eight o'clock P.
M. until about half past three, A.
M. the next morning, when the cap
tain, for the first time, concluded
that it might be well to cast the
lead, and with that purpose in
view turned out of his bunk, where
he had sought a little rest. But it
was then too late, and even before
he reached the deck the schooner
struck with frightful force. Instead
of being a few miles north of Cape
Lookout, as he had supposed, he
was only few miles off Cape Hat
teras, on the extreme outer end of
the north breaker, at.the entrance
of Ocracoke Inlet. AS soon as the
vessel struck she began to thump
with terrific shocks with every rise
and fall of the seas. In few mo-
ments the deep centerboard became
jammed in such a way that it held
fast in the hard sand, acting like q
great pivot upon which the ponder
GUS hull hung and swayed, until at
last the schooner turned completely
around, wrenching the centerboard
from it's fastenings and sending it
adrift. BY the loss of the center
board her draft was reduced to
about eight feet, so that she grad
ual.y pounded her way over the
shoal to the leeward, and fioated in
three fathoms of water. With the
hope of fetching her up before she
should be driven father shoreward,
the captain ordered the foresail to
be lowered and the large starboard
anchor to be cleared away, but the
rolling and pitching of the schoon-
err threw the inner fiuke of the