Record #:

8574

Author(s):

Hoyt, Bessie Willis

Abstract:

Disasters have struck those who live around Core Sound several times when severe winter weather brought icy conditions. For example, on January 11, 1886, a three-mast schooner, CHRISSIE WRIGHT, bound for her home port of New York, was overtaken by an extremely cold gale off of Cape Lookout. The cook and four crew members huddled down on the deck under a sail, but only the cook was still alive when a whaler was finally able to reach the ice-covered ship. In 1898, when the sound froze over, the fishing village of Davis, accessible only by boat, suffered near-famine conditions. Many people became ill, and several died. Close by, a ship, the PONTIAC, had shipwrecked. Survivors made a fire which produced a black column of smoke visible to the townspeople in Davis. Three rescuers set out and found the survivors and their ship full of molasses and grain. When the sound froze again in 1917, Davis's food supply again dwindled, but no one died.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 50 Issue 7, Dec 1982, p7-8, 30, il

Subject(s):

Winter storms--Core Sound