The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1957-01-18
SAlLBOAT
Continued from Page One)

but admits that he has fallen
from grace, has become, we
gather, a decided agnostic.
"We don't know, Mrs. What
field" he remarks, after a candid
confession of sins which horrifies
his hearers, "what the parsons say
may be true, and then again it
mayn't. We don't know. His oppo-
nent, however, yields the weapon
which has overthrown many a
doubling castle. eve know, be-
cause we feel it," she maintains,
and the argument wakes warm
and edifying.
At one o'clock suddenly the
breeze dies out. In five minutes
time the water is smooth as glass.
The sloop lies on the northern end
of the island in Albemarle Sound,
having made eight miles during
the morning. Southwest are Croa-
ton Island and the fisheries. North
ward, twenty-five miles distant
we see the green fringe of pines
on Powell's Point, behind which
lies our port. A half dozen sail
that have been booming aggravat-
ingiy down the sound all the
morning with fore and aft breeze
lie becalmed near US. At ten min
utes of two o'clock, precisely, we
feel a puff of hot air from the
southwest, and see a long, faint
ripple making up from the west
ward of the island.
"There she comes," cried the
skipper, and sure enough in ten
minutes the sails are full, and the
sloop is dashing through the wa
ter under a ten knot breeze that
brings her at five o'clock to the
dock at Morgan's Mill. It is a little
frame house and platform on piling
a half mile from the shore, the
extremely shallow water not allow
ing steamers to come nearer. On
shore there are only the piney
woods and a quaint old windmill
that gives the name to the place.
The harbor master, gaunt and hir-
suite, has come off in flat-boat
for possible passengers, and of him
we inquire about the "Harbinger."
"No, the "Harbinger" amt in
yet" he replies, slowly taking his
time for thought. "She's been late
now regular for a week; so much
fish at the landings"
"When do you look for her," we
ask.
"About ten, I reckon" he says.
So we wait on the wharf while the
sun sets, the neighboring forests
darken, and twilight fades into
night. At nine o'clock two lights, a
red and a green one, way out in
the sound, herald the steamers
approach, and half an hour later
she glides up.
The "Harbinger" is one of those
light, reckless, ambitious little
crafts that ply between Norfolk
and the Albemarle Sound venturing
boldly up into the tributory rivers,
now warping themselves around a
bend or over a bar, now sending a
deck hand into the trees to cut
away an overhanging limb from
the smokestack, picking up the
planters cotton, corn, wheat, oats,
cattle and truck generally, and de-
livering him his supplies of bacon,
flour, sugar and fertilizers in re-
turn. In the fish season, too, they
call at the, fisheries for the produce
Of the seines.
In the pilot house of the "Har-
binger" we asked the captain to
give us an itinerary of his voyage.
"We leave Norfolk" said he,
"every Wednesday and Sunday, go
down the Elizabeth River ID miles,
then through the Chesapeake &
Albemarle Canal eight and one
half miles to North Landing River,
which lets us into Currituck Sound
nicely; then across the sound
and on through five miles more of
canal into the North River, which
lets us into Albemarle Sound; then
across the sound to the mouth of
the Perquimans River, which we
ascend twenty-five miles to New
by's Bridge, some 100 miles from
Norfolk. There have been IL land
ings on the way. We go back on
Monday and up the Pasquotank
River to Elizabeth City,"
To inspect the canal was the
chief reason Of my returning to