On board schooner E. W. Farrington Hatteras Inlet

Jan 14^th 1862       

                   

Dear Parents,

                        We left Fortress Monroe Saturday evening some where near midnight Our captain supposed he was to be towed for he had been told so when he was chartered, the day before we left Annapolis So they did tow us down to Fortress Monroe Saturday afternoon they came along side and asked if we were ready to sail they told him yes. he told him to lash everything fast on deck, get ready and go to sea, and as soon as we were well out to sea open our orders. they all seemed to have an idea that we were going up the York river.

 

When we were all ready, the Capt didn't like to sail for it looked so much like a storm, but as I said before along in the evening we put out. we were not long in getting outside of the / into the Atlantic Ocean, when the orders were opened and we started for Hatteras Inlet The wind being south west was dead a head so that all the head way we could make was by tacking. our progress was so slow that in the morning we were in sight of Cape Henry Lighthouse. we kept up this same slow progress all day Sunday, being a light breeze from the south west and quite pleasant. we were in sight of the beach all the way and there could be seen numerous wrecks of vessels all along the shore. we saw a great many wild geese all the way and plenty of gulls. we saw a few houses along the shore. The first to be sick was Obe. he was taken saturday night just after we came outside being up on duty and had to turn in where he staid until Monday afternoon being terrible sick. The rest of the men stood it pretty well, some of them being sick some, and most all feeling rather squamish. Sunday night we all turned in rather sober. The next morning / we got up and dressed. I pitched for the deck first thing, and I tell you what I thought I was gone for. I felt bad enough, for all the time since sunday morning I hadn't felt right smart, and thought sure I should have to cast up my accounts, but I weathered the day sunday. monday morning felt worse, about nine oclock came in sight of cape Hatteras Light in the dim distance. about this time we saw heavy black clouds in the north which betokened a squall the topsail was reefed and all got ready and we continued on our course soon the wind shifted round into the north freshened up into a pretty stiff breeze and then we stood out to sea rounded the cape and stood down the coast with sails set, the wind blowing at quite a gale and we scuded down the coast at a rapid rate. soon when looking down the coast I happened to see O! what lots of masts and soon the cry went there is Hatteras Inlet. we kept on our / course until we were opposite the Inlet which is a very narrow channel, then we stood in but the wind being directly ahead we couldn't make it. we tacked around hailed a small gun boat asked for a tow in, he said he couldn't. we then made another tack when the wind was so strong that our main jibsheet halyard gave way and down it came and then there was some stirring round to get up some new halyards and get the sail up again, which was quickly done. we tacked around, some time off, and then on the coast, until at last we had an acident that came near being serious when we were making a tack. as the mainsail swung round the block struck the rudder wheel and made two halves of it. it had to be taken of and mended; while it was being done they had to steer with ropes but at last it was fixed all right and the capt made up his mind to go to sea, but seeing some other schooners at anchor / near the coast he thought he would stand in on anchor; but the mates (who are the best sailors) didn't like the idea, and the first mate went and told him he could take her in; so the capt. let him try it, and in a few minutes we were safely inside the breakers, and soon after dropped our anchors safely inside the Inlet.

 

The mates are both well acquainted with this Inlet and with the channels of the sound having traded here before the war. If we weren't glad to get in, then its queer. Some of the schooners after we came in followed our example and are now anchored all around us nine nine of them. After we got in the wind increased; and has continued to do so up to the present time; when it is blowing a perfect gale; the vessels that were outside have weighed their anchors and gone to sea This is a false report, they didn't go to sea, but the fog held them. except two / schooners that are disabled, which couldnt be got in on account of the high winds last night. then then there is a large steam ship was run aground, some way, last night, a little while after we anchored, I suppose in attempting to come in. The little gun boat I have spoken of before as having met when we were trying to get in went to her and tried to get her off but didn't make it out. just about sundown one of the large steamers inside got up steam and went out, but didn't get her off for she lay lay there this morning. This morning the gale increased, so now we have a terrible gale; but I think we are safe where we are now and ride the storm safely. This morning the steamer lay of in just as helpless as ever, not long after light. We could see them cut away one of their masts. not long after she lost her smoke stack, and that is all we know about her; she lies there and will probably be a wreck. we considered that we had a great deal to be thankful for, that we got in when we did and as safely as we did. Last saturday when we were lying in Hampton Roads, there was firing at Craney island all day by the rebels. we could see the smoke; and hear the report quite plainly about two minutes after the discharge. we saw a rebel steamer come out under flag of truce from Norfolk, when one of the steamers at the fort run down and took off the passengers Sewells Point lay near only a short distance across the water. When we were coming down the coast sunday we saw men running along the shore, and in one place we saw men on horseback. Hatteras light house is very tall white, there is no light in it I believe All the shore down from Cape Henry down to Hatteras Inlet and I suppose the rest of the way down from the Virginia line down the shore we saw was nothing but a sand bank and water on the other side. once in a while there / a few trees, sometimes quite a large groth. some places the sand was drifted in high hills, some thirty or forty feet high.

 

Jan 15^th

As I said yesterday there was a steamer ashore of on the shoal about two miles from us, two the eastward of us. This morning there was a very thick fog so that we could not see her, but judging from the great quantities of wrecks floating we made up our minds she was going to pieces, for large quanties of hay float past boxes, boards, pieces of the deck and a great many other things floated past us as the tide came in. as soon as it was light, or soon after, you could see boats putting out from the vessels around us. they picked up a great deal of stuff, boxes barrels and anything they happened to come across. our boat went out past the breakers and was going to the schooner, when within about two hundred yards they were obliged to put back on account of the high sea. on their way out they picked kegs of powder and a barrel of flour, all dry. they were obliged to throw the powder over board when the came out to the big waves

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