The story behind the inscription at West Harbour Bluff.

By Jeff Dodge

Not long ago, Dr. Donald Keith, a marine archaeologist and Turks & Caicos National Museum board member, asked if I might be interested in a research project. The topic was an 1842 inscription on a rock outcropping on West Harbour Bluff at the southwest end of Providenciales. As a retired U.S. Navy analyst, having worked on Grand Turk in the 1960s, and after reading the inscription, I agreed to undertake the project.

The mysterious inscription

The inscription in question is: “[S]HIP ST. LOUIS BURNT AT SEA 1842.” My objective was to find out more about the event recorded on this rock outcropping as well as who might have left it there. The chart below depicts the location of West Harbour Bluff as well as the dangerous waters off the west end of Providenciales and between Providenciales and West Caicos. 

The beginning

On August 17, 1842, the packet ship St. Louis left Boston Harbor on a routine voyage to New Orleans. She carried a complement of 24 passengers and crew as well as mail and a cargo insured for $44,500, including $10,000 in gold.

The St. Louis was a packet ship of 426 tons owned by John Fairfield, William Lincoln, and Isaac Stevens, et. al. of Boston. The St. Louis was built in Medford, Massachusetts in 1838 and was one of the Messers. Fairfield & Lincoln’s line of New Orleans packet ships.

In the 18th century, packet ships were typically medium sized vessels under contract by the British government to carry mail on a regular schedule between fixed ports, such as Ireland and her colonies. By the 19th century, American packets were carrying passengers and cargo in addition to the mail.

Disaster strikes

Ferdinando de Castillo, a steward from the ship St. Louis, reported (after the fact) that on the night of August 29, 1842 at about 7 PM after passengers and crew had eaten dinner and were all on deck, a passenger, aft of the main hatch, saw a column of smoke rising from what she thought was the ladies’ cabin below. The steward said the fire was actually not in the ladies’ cabin, but in the hold below it.

The smoke was so dense in the companionway that the crew could not descend below to extinguish the fire. That being the case, the crew closed all hatches and covered them and the deck with wet sails to try to smother the fire below.

In the meantime, Captain Reuben Eldridge, master of the St. Louis, raised a lantern at half mast to signal distress. As the fire intensified, the decks became so hot that crew and passengers were forced to abandon the St. Louis on her long boat and stern boat. A brig they had sighted earlier in the day bore down on the St. Louis and took her crew and passengers aboard.

The ill-fated rescue

The brig Impulse—Captain William Wallace master—left Baltimore on August 13, 1842 heading for Kingston, Jamaica. She picked up the crew and passengers from the St. Louis early on the morning of the 30th. Both vessels were located in the Atlantic between Bermuda and the South Carolina coast. At about 5 AM, the masts of the burning ship were seen falling—Impulse lost sight of the St. Louis a few hours later. By then she had burned to the water line.

At about 9 PM on September 3, four days after rescuing passengers and crew from the St. Louis, the Impulse wrecked on the Caycas (sic) Reef near the island of Providence Caicos (Providenciales). It was reported that a hurricane played a part in the incident—perhaps it was the storm known as Antje’s Hurricane. It’s not clear if Impulse was navigating the Caicos Passage off northwest Providenciales or was on a different course when it wrecked on a reef. 

A brig wrecked on a reef

It wasn’t long before a wrecker appeared on the scene to salvage the cargo and anything else of value from the foundering vessel. This is described in a letter Captain Eldridge wrote from Cienfuegos, Cuba to Messrs. Harrod & Darling—the New Orleans agents for the St. Louis. 

Cienfuegos, Sept. 20 [1842]

Messrs. Harrod & Darling:

    I am sorry to say that the good ship St. Louis is no more.  We left Boston on the 17th Aug., and on the 30th after sundown we found the ship was on fire below. We made an effort to put it out, but of no avail; it made such progress that we did not save all our things, and some of the passengers only saved what they had on at the time. Fortunately for us there was a brig in sight who came to our rescue.— She was the brig Impulse, Capt. Wallace [master], from Baltimore bound for Jamaica. On Sept. 4th  about 9 P.M. she run ashore trying to get through the Caycas (sic) passage in the night, and was lost.  We then got on board of a wrecker belonging to Turks’ Island, and on the 7th started for that place. On the 9th fell in with the brig Sarah Williams, who took me, my mate, cook and two passengers to this place [Cienfuegos, Cuba].— The passengers expect to start to Havana tomorrow, on their way to your city [New Orleans]. I did not save the ship’s papers nor the letter bag. 

Note: Times and dates reported in newspapers and written reports on these events did not always agree. One reason was because the chronometer aboard a ship was usually set for Greenwich Mean Time, or because the author just got his facts wrong.

Some go to Cuba

On Sept. 7 a wrecker left Providenciales for Grand Turk with the crews and passengers from the Impulse and St. Louis. Two days later, the brig Sarah Williams of Boston, on her way to Cienfuegos, Cuba, “spoke” (sic) [met] with the wrecker and took Captain Eldridge; Felix Whitney, his 1st officer; Joseph Wells, the cook and two passengers aboard. They arrived at Cienfuegos on Sept. 20.

As Captain Eldridge’s letter states, the two passengers that traveled with him to Cuba planned to leave Cienfuegos for Havana on Sept. 21. Once in Havana, they secured passage on the Schooner Belle for New Orleans—they arrived on October 1.

Captain Eldridge, his 1st officer, and cook left Cuba on September 26 aboard the Sarah Williams on her return trip to Boston. They arrived in Boston on October 16—21 days after leaving Cuba. In the meantime, the crew and passengers that remained aboard the wrecker reached Grand Turk on September 11. The following day, John Arthur, the U.S. Consul on Grand Turk, wrote the following in his log. 

United States Consulate

Turks Islands

William Wallace, Master of the Brig Impulse, noted protest inconsequence of the shipwreck and loss of said Brig on a Reef off Providence Caicos on the night of the 3rd instant [September] in her passage from Baltimore to Jamaica.

Before me this 12 day of September 1842—

John Arthur  U.S. Consul

Wm Wallace  

[master, brig Impulse]

That same day John Arthur wrote the following letter to the U.S. Secretary of State regarding the brig Impulse and the ship St. Louis.

United States Consulate

Turks Islands 12th Sept. 1842

Honorable Daniel Webster

Sect. Of State of the United States 

Sir,

I beg leave to inform your Excellency that on the 30th ultimo [August], the Brig Impulse of and from Baltimore, Wallace Master, laden with flour, corn etc, in her passage to Jamaica spoke [to] the ship St. Louis, Eldridge late Master, of and from Boston, laden with an assorted cargo and bound to New Orleans, on fire; and the flames increased so rapidly, that the passengers, crew and Master could save nothing except what happened to be about their persons and I regret to say, that on the night of the third instant [September], the aforesaid Brig Impulse was totally lost on a Reef off the Providence Caicos [Providenciales], the Master and crew of the Brig together with the crew of the Ship and part of the materials saved from the Brig, were brought here on the eleventh and present instant; the crew of the ship St. Louis being perfectly destitute: Capt. Eldridge and Mate took passage on the Brig Sarah Williams to St. Jago [Santiago] de Cuba. 

I have also to advise your Excellency of the loss of the hurricane Brig Mary Silsbee, Soullard (sic) late Master in her passage from Norfolk to Jamaica laden with staves, and corn: On the night of the second instant Capt. Soullard (sic) was compelled to run her on shore on the N.E. Caicos, in consequence of her leaking badly. The Captain, Crew, and a small portion of the materials, have also arrived here.

I have the honor to remain with all due respect Your Excellency’s

Mo-.obdt-.Servt. [Most obedient servant]                     

John Arthur

On September 15, 1842, five St. Louis crew members and three passengers left Grand Turk aboard the brig Mary Emily.  Sixteen days later they arrived at the port of New York. It was standard practice for the U.S. Consulate on Grand Turk to assist those persons wrecked or stranded on the Turks & Caicos Islands to secure transportation back to the U.S. It’s not known when or how the captain of the Impulse and the remaining crew and passengers returned to America. 

Wrecking

It is said that 650 to 1,000 vessels have wrecked on the reefs around the Turks & Caicos Islands. In 1842, for example, at least 16 vessels are known to have wrecked there. Hence, salvaging shipwrecked vessels became an important enterprise—especially on the Caicos Islands. This activity was known as wrecking or wracking and those who participated in it were wreckers.

High elevations such as Blue Hills on the north side of Providenciales and Birch’s Lookout were used by wreckers as lookout stations where they would watch for ships foundering on nearby reefs. Blue Hills became known as the wrecking capital of the Caicos Islands. 

Who inscribed the epitaph?

On September 3 or 4, crew and passengers from the Impulse  went or were taken to Providenciales by a small boat from the Impulse or by a wrecker. It is unclear where they were put ashore. The location of the wreck had been vaguely described as “Caycas Reef” (sic) by Captain Eldridge and as “a reef off Providence Caicos” by the U.S. Consul John Arthur. The location of the inscription suggests the Impulse wrecked near West Harbour Bluff. Another theory suggests someone from the St. Louis went to West Harbour Bluff and chiseled the inscription because he could see the wreck of the Impulse from there. 

Since wreckers typically operated from small sloops, it is unlikely that one would conduct salvage operations with the addition of 28 or more people from the Impulse on board. The crew and passengers from the St. Louis and Impulse would have remained on Providenciales until they left for Grand Turk aboard a wrecker on September 7, giving someone from the St. Louis plenty of time to chisel “SHIP ST. LOUIS BURNT AT SEA IN 1842” on a rock on West Harbour Bluff. Of course, it’s possible that someone from the wrecker or a local resident carved the inscription. In spite of all that has been uncovered while researching this story, the answer to who authored the inscription remains a mystery.

Protecting the historic site

The entirety of West Harbour Bluff is within the Frenchman’s Creek and Pigeon Pond Nature Reserve established by the Turks & Caicos National Trust. The Trust was established in 1992 to protect and safeguard the cultural, natural, and historical sites on the Turks & Caicos Islands.

In addition to Frenchman’s Creek and Pigeon Pond Nature Reserve, other protected areas include several 18th century Loyalist plantations, the caves on Middle Caicos, Bird Rock Point, Heaving Down Rock, Little Water Cay, and others. Damaging or removing natural and historical features or objects from these sites is prohibited.

Deterioration and damage observed 

Unfortunately, over the years the inscriptions on West Harbour Bluff have shown signs of deterioration and damage—the missing letter “S” in “SHIP” and the presence of graffiti are examples. Since these rock formations are  composed of calcium carbonate or limestone, depending on their age, they are soft and the inscriptions on them are susceptible to damage by both weather and sightseers. It is hoped this story will serve to inform sightseers and tour operators of the importance of the historic inscriptions on West Harbour Bluff and that visitors will endeavor to protect them from further damage and deterioration.

The author thanks Dr. Donald Keith of Ships of Discovery for the idea for this story as well as a copy of the consulate’s letter and log; Agile LeVin of VisitTCI.com; and Deborah Dodge for editing suggestions.