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By Jay Whipple
Trend Magazine Online™
Olde World Charmcont'd.!
Re-published from a previous edition...
Trend Magazine Online™
Olde World Charmcont'd.!
Re-published from a previous edition...
In addition to having a healthy sense of humor our captain also had a wealth of knowledge of Charleston, SC, history in which he conveyed without the assistance of notes or cue cards which let me know (as a tour guide myself) that he had been doing this for quite some time. The first thing that I learned on this tour was that the City of Charleston, SC, was first to enact historic preservations laws and charters in the United States. Early on our cruise/tour he pointed out a provost building which once held two signers of the Declaration of Independence which was pretty fascinating if you are into history -- as I am. Captain Craig also stated that Charleston, SC, was once the richest city among the colonies during the Revolutionary War era in the late 1770"s to early 1780"s, and that Charlestown (named after King Charles II) was established in the spring of 1680 and incorporated in 1783, along the Ashley River.
One of my favorite tidbits on this cruise/tour was the mention of pirate activities from 1690 to 1720 and in particular the capture and death of the now infamous Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard in 1718. A special mention was made of Robert Smalls, a Mulatto Slave who in 1862, planned and executed a daring escape − with eight fellow Slaves -- in this very same Harbor. He went on to become the first Black Captain of a U.S. Navy vessel, a South Carolina State Legislator, a Major General in the South Carolina Militia, a five-term U.S. Congressman and a U.S. Collector of Customs. At this point in the tour we were tasked with a trivia question and the first guest to walk up to Captain Craig"s steering compartment with the correct answer won free snacks at the snack bar. I was not fast enough even with the assistance of my Android mobile phone. Our Captain continued to ingratiate us with a plethora of area history like the fact that South Carolina was first to secede from the union in 1860 and that there were over 600,000 fatalities during the Civil War in the early 1860"s. He also pointed out the Morris Lighthouse which was completed in 1673 but was not in use and replaced by the Sullivan Island"s Lighthouse. At this point during our cruise/tour I could feel a very nice and cool harbor breeze blowing across the upper deck − it was pleasantly surreal and I likened it to a pirate sailing the ocean blue.
