Norfolk Landmark, February 20, 1877
Disaster to Accomac (Va.) Oysters Schooners.
Reprinted from Baltimore Sun – Capt. S. H. Wilson, of the steamer Tangier, which arrived at Baltimore yesterday, from Snow Hill and Crisfield, Md. brings particulars of the recent schooner disasters in Tangier sound, on Monday night, February 12, during a heavy gale. Two schooners were capsized. The schooner J. T. H. Coburn was lost on Terrapin Sands, in Tangier sound, and all hands perished. The crew consisted of Thos. Salisbury, captain; Wm. Fox, mate; Edward Tignor, John R. Small, George Small (white men) and Simon Fletcher and Levin Joynes, colored hands. Mr. Fox was lashed to the rigging. His body was recovered and carried to Crisfield. He leaves a widow and two children. Tignor leaves a widow and five children. He was from Chesconnissick. Capt. Salisbury belonged to Onancock, Va. The schooner lays on her broadside and a party was preparing to dredge for the six bodies and right the vessel.
The schooner Delmy, Capt. Davis, was capsized off Fox Island, in Tangier sound. The crew was saved by their small boat, and the schooner was raised on Thursday, the 15th instant. The vessel belongs to Messongo Creek, Accomac county, Va., and is owned by Wm. H. Stant. When she was capsized the stove set the cabin on fire, and considerable damage was done in that way. Her sails were torn to shreds and it was estimated that it will cost $800 or $1,000 to make repairs.
Reports prevailed at Crisfield that the other disasters to vessels by the gale occurred, but there was no verification of them at the time the Tangier left. It is probable the casualties to the two schooners were the only ones, and that but the one crew was lost.
Sources
Baltimore Sun.
Norfolk Landmark
Norfolk, Virginia
February 20, 1877
* Noteworthy
1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
1931 – The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
1933 – The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.
1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
1943 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.