After a winter of summer weather, four froze to death, and the others narrowly escaped in the terrific southeast gale that swept the sounds Thursday morning, and capsized the tugboat Julian J. Fleetwood in 14 feet of water off the mouth of North River in Albemarle Sound, about 30 miles below Elizabeth City.
The dead men are: Capt. Clyde Walker, master of the tug, age 45, formerly of Hertford, N.C., but now of Norfolk, Va.; Mate William Gray, 73, of Hertford; Fireman Vernon Lee, 21, of South Norfolk, Va.; and Garland Chance, negro cook, 37, of Hertford.
The surviving men are: Chief Engineer, E.D. Alexander, 32, of Elizabeth City; Assistant Engineer, Enoch Lee, 62, of South Norfolk, Va.; Fireman E.K. Mann, 19, of East Lake, N.C.; Deckhands, Leslie Barnes, 17, of Columbia, N.C., and J.W. Shawler, 21 of Kentucky.
The men were rescued at 7:30 o’clock Thursday morning by the Steamer Annie L. VanSeiver. Captain J.M. Richardson in charge of the North River Line. The bodies of the men who froze to death from the wind were recovered also.
The Julian J. Fleetwood, owned by the Richmond Cedar Works and bound from Norfolk, Va., to Alligator River with a tow of two empty lumber barges and one scow barge, struck a gale in Albemarle Sound shortly after midnight, according to Leslie Barnes, deckhand, whose story is as follows.
The night shift consisting of Gray, F. Lee, Mann, and Shawler were on watch, but because of the storm, Capt. Walker was at the wheel, and Chance, the negro cook, was standing by. The tug could make no progress in the gale, every ounce of power being con?? in keeping head to. At 1:10 in the morning Captain Walker decided to turn around and start back up North River. When the tug swung side to, the heavy seas bore down on her and the terrible strain on the towline of the barges capsized her to port.
The men escaped from the sinking tug, but in the pitch darkness, were unable to get together. Leslie Barnes, E.D. Alexander, Chance, the cook, and E.K. Mann, managed to get into a small lifeboat. Without oars and with the boat sinking under them, they pulled themselves down the straining cable 220 feet long to the first barge.
They could hear the screams of the five remaining men, who were clinging(?) to the upper work of the tugboat. The pilothouse of the tug was out of the water, and they managed to get on this. Some of the men had on nothing but night clothes. Thruout the night they were drenched with the spray and beaten by the gale, and when morning came, three of the men on the tugboat had frozen to death.
When the VanSeiver, bound for Elizabeth City, sighted the men and arrived on the scene at 7 o’clock, the ?? was so rough that a half hour was lost in taking the men off, according to C.H. Brock, Treasurer of the line, who was a passenger on the steamer. The surviving men on the tug wee in a helpless condition when reached. The four men on the barge, where there was a fire, had fared better, but Chance, the cook, had ?? so roughly when the vessel ?? he was never thoroly revived and expired, just as rescue arrived.
?? and bodies were viewed by the coroner here upon their arrival shortly before noon. The five surviving men were sent to the Pasquotank Municipal Hospital.
The tug may be salvaged, as there is little damage done the vessel. The barges were not damaged. The crews anchoring them as soon as the tug boat capsized.
The capsizing of the tug and death of the four men could have been averted had there been an axe handy ??? to have severed the ??? was the pull of the ??? gale that turned the craft over when the attempt was made ?? her around in the gale.
The tug was 70 feet long, 14 feet wide and was built in Hertford in ??. From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., March 30, 1923. The editor of The Independent preferred the “modern” spelling to though and thoroughly—tho and thoroly. The left side of the newspaper is difficult to read.
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