The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1953-06-12
SCHOONER WATERS
OFF MACS HEAD 1889

Second ON the same date is
the wreck of the schooner
Francis E. Waters, of Baltimore,
Maryland which was capsized
and driven on the Coast of
North Carolina about two and
three-quarter miles north of the
Mays Head Station, (Sixth Dis
trict), the same night that the
Henry P. Simmons stranded,
near False Cape, October %,
1889. The entire crew persisted.
AS shown in the account pub
lished of the Simmons, fur
ious storm ragged all that night.
Nothing was known of the dis
aster on shore until the next
morning, when the schooner
was discovered bottom up in
the breakers. The story is nee
essarily brief. It appears that
Francis E. Waters left George
town, South Carolina, with a
cargo of lumber and shingles
valued at $2,425. for Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania, on or about
October Goth, her crew consist
ing of six men.
The much dreaded Frying
Pan and Hatteras Shoals had
been safely passed and the
prospects seemed good for a
quick voyage up the coast,
when, in the afternoon of the
23rd, freshening easterly wind
and the gathering clouds gave
portent of the coming storm.
BY shutdown the wind backed
to the northeast and increased
to gale of terrific violence,
the night becoming, in nautical
phrase "as dark as a pocket"
This, together with a tempest
of driving rain and the binding
spray flying shoreward from
the crests of the breakers, pro-
duced atmospheric conditions
upon the shore absolutely i'm
penetrable to human vision.
There was also an extraordin-
arily high tide, so that after
midnight almost the entire ex-
panse of low beach was SUBJ
merged, compelling the patrol
men for their safety to take the
higher and remote parts of the
shore, thus increasing the dis
lance between themselves and
the outer line of breakers on
the bar, where vessels might be
expected to fetch up. This dis
lance was fully from one-half
to three-quarters of a mile, and
in some places prob bly,
greater.
The patrols of the Mays Head
and Kill Devil Hills Stations,
between which the unfortun-
ate craft stranded, met regular
ly and exchanged checks up to
the time stated, but after that
the surf and rising tide swept
over the beach in greater vol
ume, and cut such deep gullies
in the sand that the man who
took the north beat from Mays
Head at 3 o'clock in the morn
ing of the oath was unable to
get nearer than within half a
mile of the point where he
should have met the south
patrol from Kill Devil Hills.
The patrolman referred to
was the late Ashley Dough of
Roanoke Island, who had made
his way against the storm, find
| ing the beach cut in two by
gullies, and he was obliged to
swim across one, but found the
next one too deep, which pre-
vented him from getting to the
scene of the wreck on foot.
Ashley Dough, lived at the
place later belonging to Capt.
Jeff Hayman, long time keeper
of Fort Raleigh, who married
the late Hattie Dough, daugh-
ter of Ashley.
Therefore, after peering as
far as was possible through the
storm toward the end of his
beat, he turned back, reporting
upon reaching the station that
he had been unable to get
through, and that he had seen
objects which he took to be
lumber or wreckage of some
kind floating in the swash of
the surf.
This is, it should be remark
ed, not an unusual occurrence,
and while it is strong presump-
tive evidence of a wreck it is
not always proof that one has
happened, as vessels. off the
coast frequently lose their deck
loads in stormy weather. But in
all such instances the effect is
! to quicken the men to greater
vigilance in their lookout for
stranded craft.
The patrol from the Kill
Devil Hills Station, who should
hoyo y,onf fIo ,1o@ro1