THE North Carolina is ashore on Western Reef full of water, and the captain has stripped and landed the material preparatory to selling the hull as she lies (text of a cablegram from Bermuda to the Liverpool Salvage Association, 13 January 1880).

THE first day of the new year of 1880 was probably much like the outstanding Christmas Day we enjoyed in 2006. A brilliant sun maintained the heat of the day, the envy of those in the continental north or at the snowbound Denver airport. Flags hung limp on the highest poles, for no wind of any character blew across the sea and the minor landmass that is Bermuda. Another perfect day in paradise, with not hint of tsunami waves on the edges of the western reefs, where the island platform begins its steep descent to the ocean floor 15,000 feet below.

On a similar day of calm on the high seas on New Year's Day 1880, an iron barque of English manufacture went straight to the bottom, not in the deep of the nearby Atlantic, but in some 30 feet of water on the edge of the Bermuda reef platform. Salvage boats may have been lurking in the shallows, for much of the cargo of cotton was apparently saved from a watery dissolution in record time. The respectable North Carolina, not an old hulk on a "one last trip" syndrome, but a vessel only four years old, was abandoned to the elements by a captain who may have run the ship aground some months before. The day before, a Bermuda law on salvage matters had lapsed, so the normal legal enquiry into such wrecking could not be held.

The New Year opened with more than a whiff of skullduggery and shenanigans out on the reefs, but the Governor of the day, who smelled a fleet of rats, could do little. Today, the site of the North Carolina is one of the prettiest underwater exhibitions of the museum that is Bermuda's shipwrecks, but questions still remain as to whether the sinking was accidentally, as the Captain maintained, or deliberate, as he would of course not declaim. When launched in November 1976, a little over four years prior, the North Carolina was given a rating of 100-A1, the highest for its class of vessel and presumably one that gave the best insurance return if lost at sea. Some evidence uncovered by marine archaeologist, Dr. Richard Gould of Brown University, seems to suggest that Captain Alexander Buchan was also a part owner and therefore a beneficiary of any insurance payout.

The North Carolina was built at a time of rapid change in ship design and building. It was constructed at the MacMillan shipyard at Dumbarton in Scotland. The yard had built nothing but wooden sailing ships until 1863, when for two years only it fabricated transitional vessels with iron frames and wooden hulls. By 1865, all of ships would be made entirely in iron. As one historian has remarked, "It is one of the ironies of industrial change that the modern industry in steam and metal was not born out of the decline of the traditional craft (wooden sailing ships), but displaced it at the peak of its achievement in design and construction".

As one of the early all iron, all sail, cargo vessels, the North Carolina was a small ship at a little over 500 tons. Within a few years, the larger yards on the Clyde were making "Windjammers" at 2,000 tons, with several times the carrying capacity of the North Carolina. This imbalance in scale made the small ships more expensive and less profitable and may have contributed to the demise of the North Carolina, if deliberately sank she was. The ship had already been grounded off Cape Henry in the late summer of 1879, after which Captain Buchan attempted to abandon it, but the insurers would not accept its proposed loss.

Shortly before that, the North Carolina had delivered a cargo of coal to Bermuda and then proceeded to the East Coast, where the grounding occurred. It is possible at that time that Captain Buchan heard that the Marine Court of Enquiry Act would expire on 31 December that year. After the grounding, Buchan took the North Carolina to Baltimore for repairs, setting out for Liverpool on 15 November 1879 after a stop at Hampton Roads. Apparently having steering problems, the ship put into St. George's for more repairs on the 21 November, then cleared for sea on the afternoon of 30 December. A day and a half later, at 6 a.m. on New Year's Day 1880, in clear sight of land only a couple of miles distant, the North Carolina started to sink on the edge of the reef in calm circumstances.

In 1999-2001, an Earthwatch and Bermuda Maritime Museum team of archaeologists under Dr. Richard Gould investigated and recorded some of the aspects of the shipwreck, but no excavation took place in the sand filled lower portion of the hull. While the jury is still out after 126 years, there was little evidence in the upper parts of the surviving hull of an obvious technical cause for the sinking of the North Carolina.

Governor Laffan was incensed and as early as 10 January 1880, he tried to pass a Bill so that the case of the North Carolina could be examined in a special court of inquiry. The Parliament would not cooperate and voted against the Bill a month later, citing its "retrospective" nature. It was left to authorities in Britain to look into the matter and Captain Buchan had his Licence suspended. Apparently, he never had another command, having grounded one and sunk another ship prior to the North Carolina. Professor Gould states that 19 times as many wooden ships, as opposed to iron ships, were lost in the late 1870s, suggesting that one would have expected a longer life for the four year old North Carolina. Whether Captain Buchan collected any insurance monies is something of a mystery for Bermuda Triangle fans to ponder over as well.

Photographs

1: Plan and profile of the wreck of the North Carolina by Dr. Richard Gould.

2: Still visible is "ORTH CAROLI" of the name of the ship.

3: A cow-polly guards the stern of the North Carolina.

4: Four deadeyes for the rigging yet stand on the wreck.

5: An archaeologist in suspension below the bowsprit of the North Carolina.

Dr. Edward Harris, MBE, JP, FSA, Bermudian, is the Executive Director of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. The views expressed here are his opinion, not necessarily those of the Trustees or Staff of the Museum. Comments can be sent to drharrislogic.bm or to P.O. Box MA 133, Sandys MABX, or by telephone 799-5480.