Schooners chronicled in new book on North Carolina shipwrecks

Tuesday, 23 August 2011 06:26 Written by Joe Follansbee

Maritime Heritage Minnesota, a non-profit that investigates maritime archaeological sites in the upper Midwest and elsewhere, has published a book about its work in North Carolina. Authored by MHM principal Ann Merriman, North Carolina Schooners 1815-1911: A History of Shipping, Civil War Confiscations, Archaeological Sites, and the S. R. Fowle and Son Company of Washington, NC, was published to coincide with the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

The book tells the story of North Carolina mariners and the confiscations of schooners as Civil War prizes, many of which were used as sunken obstructions in the rivers and sounds. Other schooners were taken for Confederate service during the war. Some of these vessels are now nautical archaeological schooner sites, including the Cypress Landing Shipwreck of Chocowinity Bay, the schooner Isabella Ellis in the Roanoke River, and the schooner M. C. Etheridge/Black Warrior in the Pasquotank River.

The book grew out of Merriman's master thesis that focused on the shipping enrollments and registries for the ports of Elizabeth City, Edenton, Plymouth, Washington, Ocracoke, New Bern, and Beaufort. The book has been expanded to include Wilmington as well. the shipping firm of S. R. Fowle and Son is investigated through three surviving shipping ledgers and the stories of their schooners. The book is illustrated with color charts, modern color photographs, and period photographs and drawings.

The book is available for Amazon Kindle and mobile devices running the free Kindle app. The price is $4.99.

Maritime Heritage Minnesota is planning another book for publication later this year on the CSS Curlew, a Confederate gunboat sunk during the Battle of Roanoke Island in 1862.