A HISTORIAN'S COAST 



The Schooner 

 Ogeechee 

 at Hatteras Island 



By David Cecelski 



On a summer morning in 1873, a young man named Cecil Buckman set 

 sail from Beaufort aboard the schooner Ogeechee. Bound for Baltimore, he 

 would encounter all the trials of travel at sea — delays and detours caused by 

 shifting winds and storms, currents and tides. Time and again, he nearly lost his 

 life. But through it all, Buckman scrawled a remarkable journal of his voyage 

 and of an unforeseen sojourn at Hatteras Island. 



Preserved in a cluttered pantry at the Beaufort Historical Association, 

 Buckman' s travel log provides a fascinating glimpse of sea travel and Outer 

 Banks life a century ago. More than that, though, his journal offers insight into a 

 hidden dimension of the coastal past, one to which our modern conventions 

 often blind us. I am talking about the different ways that we understand the 

 nature of time: today and in the past, in our world and the sea's. 



Buckman' s tale of time and the sea begins at the Beaufort waterfront on 

 June 23, 1873. That dawn, the Ogeechee sailed for Baltimore. Laden with cotton 

 and resin, she carried Buckman, the 19-year-old son of a local carpenter, off to 

 seek his fortune. 



At the helm was Captain Sabiston, from one of Beaufort's oldest seafaring 

 families (and, if I might add a personal note, is my grandmother's family). He 

 was among several local mariners who commanded "coasting vessels," the 

 schooners and sloops that traded up and down the Eastern seaboard of the 

 United States and also to the West Indies. Though a freighter, the Ogeechee was 

 popular among Beaufort residents who preferred to travel with a local master 

 and crew. Sabiston usually proved willing to find them a berth or two. 



The Ogeechee 's voyage started slowly. Becalmed off Cape Lookout, the 

 schooner drifted all day and night, her sails jibing back and forth in the ocean 

 swells. On the second day of the voyage, June 24, a light but steady breeze 

 finally filled the sails, carrying the Ogeechee past Cape Hatteras around 5:30 

 p.m. Sabiston steered her toward Cape Henry north by east. 



Then, near midnight, a fierce storm ripped into the Ogeechee. The gale hit 

 when the schooner lay 12 miles east of the northern tip of Bodie Island. All 

 hands rushed to duty stations. To spill the wind, they desperately lowered the 

 gaff topsail, staysail and flying jib and double-reefed the mainsail. Waves 

 crashed across the deck, and Buckman listened warily to "the mournful sound of 

 the wind whirling through the rigging." 



Continued 



