Episode 9: Pulaski
The S.S. Pulaski was built for the ocean, unlike her predecessor Home. Pulaski was larger, faster, more robust and far more glamorous. She was the who’s who of eastern seaboard ocean liners, everyone sought a berth aboard and dare to take a trip on board the new and elegant Pulaski.
She was built so impressively not only to attract the attention of rich businessmen, but to allay passenger fears after what happened to the S.S. Home.
S.S. Pulaski departed on her fourth voyage on the thirteenth of June, 1838.
She was to set sail from Savannah, pick up more passengers in Charleston, then carry on to Baltimore.
Many of the passengers on board were wealthy businessmen with last names we have all heard of, Hamilton and Rochester to name a few. The passengers who traveled on the Pulaski were some of the richest folk in the Southeastern United States. But, not all of the names are recorded in the manifest for the transit. And truthfully, this was a pretty common occurrence for the time.
Sometimes tickets were exchanged, or someone signed on last minute, and there would be no record of that person on the ship. Sometimes, people just disappear from our written history. The North Carolina Coast is a mysterious place.
There is one place in particular though, that leaves you with an eerie feeling.
Hatteras Island used to be known as Croatoa or Roanoke Island.
And yes, that’s the same Roanoke Island where the settlers disappeared from without a trace. A large part of Hatteras island is mad up by the sandy Cape Hatteras. And while it may seem like a lovely vacation spot with a quaint lighthouse, this mystifying jutting cape off the North Carolina Coast and the area surrounding it, is also known as the graveyard of the Atlantic.
Further Reading: Graveyard of the Atlantic
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