Biographical/historical information

The Olive was a river steamboat for the Albemarle Steam Navigation Company. The boat was a 987 ton, 120 foot long steamer built in Philadelphia in 1869. It ran a regular route between Franklin, Virginia, and Edenton, North Carolina, by way of the Blackwater and Chowan rivers serving multiple towns along the way transporting passengers and cargo. On 16 February 1903, the steamboat left Franklin on its regular route to Edenton. That evening, a strong wind forced the boat to turn around near Holly's Wharf and make for shelter. Before they reached safety, however, a storm (often credited as a cyclone or tornado) overtook the boat and water rushed in. Several crew members and passengers were able to board the one remaining lifeboat, while Captain George H. Withy remained aboard the Olive with the stewardess and four passengers. The people who remained on the Olive were rescued the following morning by the Norfolk and Southern steamer Marie Roberts, and the survivors on the lifeboat were saved by the tug Gazette of the Roper Lumber Company. Seventeen lives were lost in the wreck.

A few days later, the Olive was raised and tugged to Franklin Wharf (now known as Barrett's Landing). The boat was rebuilt from the waterline up and returned to service under a new name, the Hertford. The newly rebuilt boat continued in service for the Albemarle Steam Navigation Company until 1914 when it was replaced by a newer vessel. Hertford was sent to Newport News for scrapping.

Scope and arrangement

The collection is comprised of three photographs and two newspaper articles related to the wreck of the steamboat Olive during a storm on 16 February 1903. The first photograph shows the crew of the steamer Hertford, which was previously known as the Olive, aboard the boat. The second photograph shows an unknown wrecked steamer, which may be the Olive. The third photograph shows the Olive after its sinking while still in the Chowan River with only the uppermost section of the vessel above the water. The two newspaper articles are retrospectives written in 1952 recalling the sinking of the Olive.

Administrative information

Custodial History

April 21, 2006, 4 items, 0.0001 cubic feet; Collection (1903, 1952) of two photographic prints and a newspaper clipping relating to the steamer Olive, its crew, and its destruction in a cyclone on 16 February 1903, near Holley's Warf, on the Chowan River, in Bertie County, North Carolina; also a photograph of an unidentified sunken steamer. Donor: Clara Murphy Bond Bell

June 10, 2010, 1 items, 0.001 cubic feet; Albemarle Boat Sinking Recalled (16 February 1952) a retrospective newspaper article concerning the destruction of the steamer Olive by a tornado, on 16 February 1903, on the Chowan River near Holley's Warf, in Bertie County, North Carolina. Newspaper Clipping. See preliminary inventory. Recd. 11/4/2009. Notes: The donor's grandfather, J. T. Murphy, was the assistant engineer on the Olive when it sank. The disaster killed 17 people. Donor: Clara Murphy Bond Bell.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Clara Murphy Bond Bell

Processing information

Processed by Allison N. Miller, 7 April 2016

Encoded by Lindsay Flood, April 1, 2008

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Metadata Rights Declaration

Key terms

Topical

Shipwrecks--North Carolina--Bertie County
Steamboats--North Carolina--Bertie County
Tornadoes--North Carolina--Bertie County

Container list