Rabun

For 169 years vessels crossed the Atlantic into the American colonies. The adventure cost numerous lives and property and vessels went down in storms and were caught on sand bars. Some vessels bound for Virginia, for example, found it necessary to unload their cargo in the ports of New England. When General Oglethorpe engaged the first vessel to the Colony of Georgia, the captain refused to go any further south than Port Royal. Hence, its passengers had to travel by foot into Georgia. Only today through the use of sonar equipment are we realizing that thousands of vessels sank in the shipping lanes traveling their routes from Europe and the West Indies to the American ports. An examination of the deed records of Sunbury, Georgia in Liberty County reveals contracts between ship captains and colonists. The content usually specifies that if the goods do not arrive by a date certain, or if the cargo is spoilt, the captain will not be paid. There is a good reason because the seas were fraught with storms, hurricanes, and sandbars. As one studies these deeds, it is quite obvious that deliveries were not always made in a timely fashion which prompted the captain to bring an official complaint. Ultimately, the resort town of Sunbury was destroyed by a hurricane in about 1800. A visit to the site is laughable. It is privately owned today and one cannot help but wonder how this remotely situated site between Charleston and Savannah housed more than 400 homes and a thriving economy. Yet the records reflect that it did. The loss of thousands of vessels during the colonial years means that the ship’s manifest and passenger lists also sank. This means that the collection of Immigration records at the National Archives is but a small percentage of a truer picture and it serves to emphasize the need to examine more closely ” all surviving” county records from the earliest times. All of Charleston, South Carolina’s records are intact, including affidavits and deeds pertaining to the affairs of the colonists.