January 11, 1886 – “…..that winter so cold that no one remembered its like before or has acknowledged its equal since. The winter when the Crissie Wright foundered on Shackelford Banks, the crew lashed to the rigging and freezing while men who would rescue them could only signal helplessly from our shore unable to put out a boat in the storm.
“The Nellie B. Dey, Mr. Dey’s fish boat, finally brought the victims in to the wharf at the foot of Turner Street. But one man was revived; the others were laid out in the sample room of Mr. Billy Dill’s hotel on the southwest corner of Front and Turner Streets and Mr. Jurney buried them in the graveyard back of the Church.
“’Miss Daisy’ Hatsell tells of standing in the cold of the upper piazza of her home on Queen Street watching as the men were borne to the cemetery on improvised biers, and “Miss Lutie” Jones tells of the feeling of awe that came over her when as a child she ran in to the cemetery and saw so many graves open at the same time. None of the men were from Beaufort, but it was an incident that would have stirred any people and to a people as compassionate by nature as those in Beaufort, it left such an impression that voices are hushed to-day as the story is retold. A small compensation for the tragedy was the establishment of the Cape Lookout Life-Saving Station in 1887 which is said to have been a direct result of the event.”
The Plight of the Crissie Wright
By TLCoston
From the Chesapeake, on New Year’s Eve,
A three mast schooner heads out to sea
Laden with phosphate on a winter’s day
The Crissie Wright approached the Atlantic grave
Twenty below, the temperature dropped, gale winds brayed
Snow and sleet battered the ship along with icy waves
Beaufort Inlet, Captain Clark sought
When the main mast brace began to part
Rudderless, the Crissie Wright foundered off Shackelford Banks
There the vessel tossed about with each violent wave
“Lash yourselves men,” the Captain ordered
His voice barely audible above the winds howl
The deck and rigging covered in ice
Treacherous, each footing was a slide
The biting cold, assailed flesh and bone
Wrapped in sails they hid from being exposed
On shore, residents looked on in horror
As the sailors fought at deaths door
Bonfires they built; don’t despair
Take heart Crissie Wright, help will soon be there
Whalers and fishermen gathered their boats
Over the dunes they tried to launch
Ten feet high the ocean’s waves
Held the rescuers at bay
A loud pop was heard over the wind
The mizzenmast snapped and bent
A sailor was flung overboard
Later found handless, scalped and bound by rope
Merciless was this unrelenting storm
One by one, crew began to succumb
Two fell from their rigging into the boiling morass
Spectators, helpless, could only swear, cry and gasp
Finally, a break from the blizzards assault
The steamer Nellie B. Dey approached
One sailor was found barely alive
Badly frost bitten, he would survive
In Beaufort, they have a common grave
Locals still remember to this day
The plight of sailors and residents alike
The night the Atlantic claimed the Crissie Wright
References
Costons Complaint
The Story of the Methodist in the Port of Beaufort, 1941, Amy Muse
* Noteworthy
1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
1986 – The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is officially opened.