THE BRUNSWKIffeftACON D
THURSDAY, MARCH 7. 1991 ' D
under the sun
^ f
THEIR CARGO RANGED FROM PIGS TO PRESIDENTS
Steamboats Once Linked Rural Areas On Cape Fear Waterways
HY SUSAN USHER
The first steamboat on the Cape Fear River, the
Prometheus , had been in operation about a year
when it earned what was to be its most presti
gious passenger.
Constructed by Otway Burns at Swansbo rough, the
Prometheus had arrived at the Cape Fear in 1817, and
was used as a packet boat between Wilmington and
Smithvillc. Carrying freight, mail and passengers, the
boat went into regular service June 20, 1818.
On April 17, 1819, its complement was anything but
usual, including the president of the United States,
Wilmington researcher Bill Reaves notes in Volume I of
his Southport : A Chronology.
James Monroe, serving his first term as the nation's
fifth president, traveled from Wilmington to Smithvillc,
now Southport, aboard the Prometheus. From Smith
ville, he proceeded to Georgetown,
that purpose, leaving the name of the boat and the com
pany that owned it and how much wood was taken, said
Mrs. Brown.
"If there were no woodpiles along the way and wood
was needed, the crew would go into the river swamps
and cut what was needed," she said. 'The river swamps
were considered common property."
Stopped On Demand
While there were about 115 official landings between
Wilmington and Elizabcthtown alone, as a rule the
boats didn't stop at every landing on each trip. Rather,
they watched for signals ? a white Hag tied out or, at
night, the glow of a lantern.
Upon arrival the boat would blow its whistle three
times and people living around would all run to the
landing, she said.
Of all the steamers that plied area waters, only two
5.C., by other means.
One hundred feet long and flat
boiiomed, it was said the paddle
wheel steamer "could run on a
heavy dew," though her career was
a shortlived seven years, notes
Bonita Dale Brown of Currie.
Mrs. Brown has spent the past
10 years researching the steamers
that once ran the Cape Fear River
and its tributaries. She spoke re
cently about river boats on the
Cape Fear to the William Gause
Chapter, National Society of the
Daughters of the American Revo
lution.
Mrs. Brown's interest in steam -
boating was piqued by Olivia Prid
gen, grandmother of her husband,
Teddy Brown. "She told us stories
of riding to Wilmington on the
Alice and the Whiilock. She would
then take the train to Enfield where
her husband's family lived."
Hooked On River Lore
Other older people in the com
munity also had memories of the
steamers; soon she was hooked on
the stories they told. Armed with a
basic text, F. Roy Johnson's River
boating in Lower Carolina, Mrs.
Brown began her continuing pur
suit of factual details, oral histories
and photographs relating to the
steamers.
But all the pleasure isn't in the
Finding; it's also in the sharing, as
when she was able to link another
local researcher, Jerry Dunn of
Wilmington, with a photograph of
his grandfather and his farm-to
market steamer, the Black River.
"That's what makes it fun to
me," she said. "I would do it every
day if I didn't have anything else to
do."
When she started collecting,
Mrs. Brown '"and there were more
than 100 of tne boats and they ran
these rivers from 1817 until 1939.
All of the larger steamboats had
WOTO COURTESY OF BONITA DALE MOWN
THE "ALICE," captained by John Lewis, was among the steamers that in their heyday ran regularly along the lower Cape Fear River, Town
Creek and Black River. This photo was taken at Lone Creek.
a cook who cooked for the captain and crew, she said.
Meals were served to passengers on long trips such as
from Wilmington to Fayetteville. Some of the boats
were elaborately furnished, especially the captain's
quarters. Some guests dined with the captain, a special
privilege.
A few boats even had saloons. These were usually on
the upper decks, away from the majority of the passen
gers. Many of the boats had as many as 30 berths for
the passengers who made long trips.
The Thelma, built in 1914, ran between Wilmington
and Fayetteville, then Wilmington and Elizabethtown,
finally sinking at the bridge in Elizabethtown. It had 10
staterooms on the second deck, said Mrs. Brown, and
the fare from Kelly's Cove (near Currie) to Wilmington
was 75 cents one-way, including lodging and two
meals.
The steamboats made stops along the river at springs
or artesian wells to bring drinking water on board. They
also stopped for firewood stacked along the river for
were paddlewheeiers, the Prometheus and the side
wheeler Henrietta, which was built in Fayetteville and
ran between there and Wilmington.
She made her first trip in July 1818, and had a lot of
mechanical problems, said Mrs. Brown. "On the sharp
turns in the river she had to be 'dropped around.'
Several of the men had to secure a line to a tree on the
bank so she could be hand pulled around the bend."
Still, in her old age, the Henrietta was called the
fastest boat on the river because she made the 115-mile
trip in less than 10 hours. She logged more than a mil
lion and a half miles on the river during her 40-year ca
reer.
Service Slow To Expand
While commercial and excursion steamers became a
matter of course along the Cape Fear River and on the
river between Wilmington and Smithville, it was 50 or
more years later before steamboat services came up
Town Creek and other tributaries of the Cape Fear.
"It was not because people didn't want a more effi
Black River.
The Whitlock , which was supposedly named for a pop
ular missionary Baptist minister in Wilmington, operated
on the Cape Fear River, Black River and Town Creek.
She was built at Point Caswell, at the time a bustling
town off Black River that boasted saloons, whorehous
es, boatworks, banks and post office. But, said Mrs.
Brown, "When the boats quit operating the town just
disappeared."
The Whitlock was among the last of the steamers, re
tiring from service in 1926.
Plying Area Waters
Other steamers include the Buck, which operated on
Town Creek and Black River; the C.F?>? with Cap! w.
Taft, which operated on Town Creek; the City of
Wilmington, which ran the Wilmington to Southport
route; the Cynthia, which ran the lower Cape Fear, and
the Elk, which operated from Wilmington to Town
Creek.
Running between Wilmington and Southport, several
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cient method of transportation," explained Mrs. Brown.
"The boats were too large to get up the streams and it
was also too expensive to travel up them for the small
amount of freight to be picked up."
Capt. R.P. Patterson and his Little Sam were responsi
ble for opening up the steamboat traffic along the lower
Cape Fear tributaries, she said. Others followed in short
order.
They took advantage of the improved steam power
plants available after the War Between the States that
made construction cheaper and made it possible to build
smaller steamers.
The Alice and the Charles M. Whitlock were perhaps
among the better known of the boats that came up Town
Creek in northern Brunswick County.
Owned by a black, Peter Simpson, and named for his
wife, the Alice traveled mainly on Town Creek and the
steamers, such as the Elizabeth, came into service as
primarily mail carriers.
The Elizabeth, owned by Capt. Joseph Bisbec, car
ried mail and passengers until its sale in 1 882 to a Capt.
Nelson, of Charleston, S.C.
In 1882 two other steamers, the Minnehaha, owned
by Capt. Joseph Bisbce and commanded by Capt. Ed
Burriss, and the Passport, under the charge of Capt.
J.W. Harper, began plying the Wilmington-Southport
run. Harper in 1884 bought the Louise, to run on the
winter schedule as the regular mail and passenger boat
between Wilmington and Smithville.
While freight was the main purpose of the steamers,
most also carried passengers, said Mrs. Brown.
Some, however, were "very elaborate" and designed
as excursion boats. In June 1871, the steamer Wac
carnaw took excursionists on a tour of Civil War sites.
wim stops at the ruins of Fort
Anderson, Fort Fisher, Battery
Buchanan and Smithville, with a
bypass of the ruins of Fort Caswcii.
Other steamers plying the waters
of the lower Cape Fear region in
cluded the Sea Bright, captained hy
George Hewlett, that sank off Bald
Head Island in 1901; the Sea Gate ,
owned by the Wilmington to
Southport Line; the Spray, which
ran from Wilmington to Southport
under the command of a Capt.
Sterett; and the Sylvan Grove, an
excursion boat carrying passengers
from Wilmington to Carolina
Beach.
Also, the Governor Smith, nam
ed for Governor Benjamin Smith
of Smithville; the Greyland, which
served the lower Cape Fear area,
including Southport and Town
Creek.
Steamboating Safe, But...
Overall, steamboating was safe.
But it did have its hazards. On an
outing to Fort Caswell in 1875, the
Governor Worth became stuck in
the mud flats for four hours and
was pulled free by the government
vessel Easton.
Mrs. Brown said boiler explo
sions and sinkings were also poten
tial hazards. Tne First such disaster
was the John Walker, which ex
ploded in 1830 near the Dram Tree,
a river landmark at Wilmington,
killing the captain and the engineer.
Over a period of 100 years, only
36 lives were lost to disasters on
the Cape Fear River.
That figure, though, doesn't in
clude the victims of "other acci
dents that were not so highly publi
cized," she said. The crews of the
steamers consisted mostly of
blacks and many could not swim.
If a man fell overboard it usually
meant he drowned.
The steamboat era began coming
to a close soon after the turn of the
century. The naval stores industry
was declining as the region's pine forests were exhaust
ed. Railroads were growing in popularity.
In fact, said Mrs. Brown, the steamboats carried the
crossties and other supplies upriver to build the rail
roads that eventually led to their own demise.
Wants Memories Preserved
While steamboats may have disappeared from the
Cape Fear River and its tributaries, Mrs. Brown doesn't
want them forgotten.
Her aim, collaborating with other area researchers
and interested residents, is to collect data on and pho
tographs of as many of the steamers as possible and to
eventually donate the collcction to an area museum.
So far she has photographs of about 30 steamers and
is looking for more.
"If anyone has a picture, if they would just let me
come copy it with my camera at their home," she said.
"1 don't need to borrow it."
Mrs. Brown can be contacted at (919) 283-7423, or
at Route 1, Box 10, Currie, N.C. 28435.
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