Chicamicomico, NC Bark Josie Troop Ship Wreck, Feb 1889

Eleven Seamen Drowned Off the North Carolina Coast

MARINERS DROWNED.

NORFOLK, Va. – Feb 23. – The Nova Scotian bark Josie Troop, with a cargo of chalk and a crew of seventeen men, was wrecked at 7 o’clock last evening at Chicamicomico, N. C. The master and ten men were drowned. Six were saved. The vessel and cargo are a total loss. The vessel is broken up and strewn on the ocean.

The cause of the disaster was miscalculations owing to thick weather, which made it impossible to get accurate lights and bearings. The crew of life-saving station No. 19 could see no signs of the vessel until the eleven men had been lost, and were just in time to save the six survivors. Thus far only one body has come ashore, that of CHARLES MEDEAC. Following is a list of the saved and lost:

SAVED
Robert Hunter, chief mate;
Edward Hunter, steward;
Albert Williams, seaman;
A. Brown, seaman;
Walter Cauley, seaman;
C. Anderson, seaman.

LOST
Capt. W. G. COOK, master,
C. S. SCINDBALD, carpenter
H. R. CHRISTIESIN,
J. B. RUTHDERSEN,
THOMAS MCCOY,
GEORGE WILLIAMS,
HARMOND ANDERSON,
JOHN CAFFIE,
CHARLES MEDAAC,
JOHN ROGERS,
J. JOANNSEN, seaman

Albert Williams is badly injured about the neck and is being attended by the physicians at the station.

The Sunday Inter Ocean, Chicago, IL 24 Feb 1889
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Transcribed by Jenni Lanham.