NC: The Hurricane of 1806

Via Cousin Colby

 

As we approach the height of hurricane season, here is an account of a storm that had a significant impact on Pamlico's past.

 It was September 28, 1806. Busy Ocracoke inlet was filled with trading vessels hailing from far away ports found in the Caribbean and along America's northern coast. Many of the mariners in the harbor had little clue as to the maelstrom they were about to suffer.

"Lighters," small vessels more suited to the shallow inland waters of eastern North Carolina, were busy off loading cargos of naval stores and lumber onto larger ships to be transported to distant ports.
Others were taking on mercantile goods from such localities as New York and Philadephia, or sugar and molasses from the West Indian islands to be transported across the sound to the river ports of Washington and New Bern. In addition, there were two Revenue Cutters at anchor in the busy harbor.

The Revenue Cutters were part of the Revenue-Marine, which was established by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790 to serve as an armed maritime law enforcement service. The service operated under the authority of the U. S. Department of the Treasury, the commanders of the local cutters answering to local customs officials. The service officially changed its name to the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service in 1894, and in 1915, it merged with the U. S. Life-Saving Service to form the U. S. Coast Guard.

Washington, N.C. played a key role from the very start of the history of the Revenue Cutters. On August 4, 1790, Congress passed and George Washington signed a bill authorizing the construction of "ten boats" for guarding the coast against smugglers. The "ten boats" were to be cutter types, speedy heavy keeled schooners carrying an abundance of sail. "Boats of from thirty six to forty feet keel will answer the purpose, each ... armed with swivels," Hamilton told Congress. One of these first cutters was the Diligence, built in Washington, N.C. She was a 40 ton schooner armed with 4 swivel guns and carried a crew of four officers, four enlisted, two boys. She was commissioned on April 25th, 1791 and was commanded by William Cook who was joined by First Mate Joseph Wallace.

This first Diligence was replaced in 1796 by a second cutter of the same name, followed by a third Diligence in 1803. It was the third Diligence that had the misfortune of arriving at Ocracoke Inlet to join her sister Revenue Cutter, the Governor Williams, on the eve of a fierce hurricane.

The first signs of the approaching storm were seen at Ocracoke when gales began blowing from the east-northeast around midnight of September 28.

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