Chowan County, NC - Miscellaneous

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Guy Potts.

Transcribed and posted by
Lori Price Cobb (jhcobb@iquest.net)


                      THE JOSEPH HEWES SHIPYARD

     Joseph Hewes was, undoubtedly, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence from North Carolina.  It is said
also, upon very good authority, that he was responsible for
the appointment of John Paul Jones to a command in the American
Navy, when Hewes was Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs
in the Continental Congress.

     Hewes was a merchant in Edenton.  The site of one of his
places of business is on the corner of Main and King Streets and
is suitably marked.

     He had another place of business, a shipyard at about the 
point where Pembroke Creek meets Edenton Bay on the Albermarle
Sound.  My home happens to adjoin the place where the old shipyard
is supposed to have been.  Its location and existence are considered
matters of historical fact, which I have always accepted, with faith, 
but without proof.

     During the recent storm we had a strong Northwest gale which
tends to blow the water out of the Creek and Bay.  On this occasion
it caused the lowest tide in the memory of any living inhabitant.
We have only wind tides and generally the variation does not exceed
two or three feet.  Yesterday (September 18th) there was a drop of
not less than six feet.  I might say more, but I wish to be
conservative.  The bottom of the sound was exposed for about a mile
beyond its normal shore line.

     At the lowest point of the tide I walked out on dry land and
explored the shipyard of Joseph Hewes, which had been submerged for
more than a hundred and fifty years.

     It had evidently been built considerably higher than it is 
today, but had been washed down by the storms and tides of a
century and a half.  There was an outer bulkhead of solid logs,
still perfrectly preserved in the fresh water.  Inside the bulkhead
was large stones, such as are never found in this part of the
Country.  We have no stones here larger than a pebble.  These were
evidently ballast rock from vessels which came to the port of
Edenton long years ago, when the inlets leading to the Albermarle
Sound were deeper and when the draft of ocean going ships was
lighter.  I found a quantity of coral rock.  No one will maintain
that Edenton produces coral.  It must have come from foreign lands.

     I also found a railway.  Inland people think of a railway as 
supporting a train of cars with a locomotive in front of it.  On 
the coast, it sometimes has another meaning.  It may mean a 
contrivance, rather like a railroad track, which is used to haul
ships out of the water, to be repaired.

     The railway on the shipyard was obviously very old.  It was
made of rough hewn timbers.  There were no iron rails, such as
more modern marine railways have.  The parallel wooden bars were
probably twelve feet apart.  Considering the fact that a ship is
usually wedge shaped toward her keel and much broader along her
water line, the railway must have been able to accommodate ships
of considerable size, for those days.

     I talked with a colored man on one of the docks on the water
front.  He had been working there since my earliest recollection.
He said he was seventy five years old and had never seen such a 
low tide.  Perhaps it won't happen again in more than seventy five
years.  Therefore I contribute this description of it, for what it
may be worth to historians.

     I may add that its approximate location is shown and marked as
a wharf on a map of Edenton published in 1769.


Sept. 19, 1936                            Written by
                                          W.P. Pruden

________________________________________________________________________

USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information 
on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as 
this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT 
be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons 
or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material 
for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the 
file contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of 
this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives 
to store the file permanently for free access.
__________________________________________________________________________