x Foreword

the stevedore, “Go ahead, horse” and “Back down lively.” No
more do we hear the song of the chanty man rise shrill and clear
to the accompaniment of chuckling blocks and creaking yards,
nor the hearty, deep tones of the chorus as the old-time sailor
men tramped round the windlass from wharf to wharf, singing:

“Oh, blow, ye winds, I long to hear you,
Blow, bullies, blow!
Oh, blow today and blow tomorrow,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

“Oh, blow today and blow tomorrow,
Blow, bullies, blow!
Oh, blow away all care and sorrow,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!”

“A tremulous echo is all that is left of these old-time re-
frains,” but some of our older citizens will recall these plaint-
ive though senseless ditties, also the John Kooner songs, which
have enlivened many a dull hour in the old seaport of the Cape
Fear.

Many years ago, when the arched courthouse stood at the foot
of Market Street, a party of prominent citizens were discussing
under its roof the events of the day in the soft light of a beauti-
ful full moon, and while they talked they heard the tramp of
twenty sailor men from a near-by French ship moored at Market
Dock; and then in clear and exquisite tones the sailors sang
with all the enthusiasm it inspired the Marseillaise battle
hymn. Colonel Burr, who heard them, told me many years after
that it was one of the most delightful memories of a lifetime.

But now the distracting hammering against rusting steel
plates, the clanking of chains against the steamship’s sides, and
the raucous racket of the steam donkey betoken a new era in
the harbor of Wilmington; yet the silent river flows on with the
silent years as when Vassall sent the first settlers, or as when
Flora Macdonald sailed past the town to the restful haven of
Cross Creek; and the Dram Tree still stands to warn the out-
going mariner that his voyage has begun and to welcome the
incoming storm-tossed sailor to the quiet harbor beyond.

I have obtained the data of the commercial development of
the river largely from official sources or reliable records, and I
have copied verbatim, in some technical detail, the generous
responses to my inquiries by Maj. H. W. Stickle, Corps of
Engineers, U. S. A.; Capt. C. S. Ridley, assistant engineer, U.

 

Foreword xl

S. A.; Mr. R. C. Merritt, assistant engineer; Mr. Joseph Hyde
Pratt, State geologist; Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, director Bureau
of Mines; Capt. G. L. Carden, commanding U. S. revenue
cutter Seminole; Mr. H. D. King, inspector lights and light-
houses, Sixth District, and Hon. S. I. Kimball, general super-
intendent of the Life Saving Service, now embraced in the
Coast Guard, to each of whom I make this grateful acknowl-
edgment. _

This book is intimately associated with two good friends,
Capt. Samuel A’Court Ashe and Miss Rosa Pendleton Chiles,
to whom I am especially indebted for their invaluable aid, and
sympathy, and advice; for without their generous assistance this

work might not have been accomplished.

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