The U.S. Coast Guard recently approved illuminating the remnants of an abandoned quarantine station in the Cape Fear River near Southport.
U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, who had been petitioning the Coast Guard to light the structure for the past year following a fatal boating accident that occurred when a boat crashed into the station, recently announced the approval to light the platform was granted.
McIntyre was previously told the Coast Guard “does not have the authority to remove, mark or light the former quarantine facility structure located in the Cape Fear River off of Southport,” he said.
On the night of Aug. 4, 2012, a 20-foot boat carrying four people crashed into the platform’s concrete base, killing 55-year-old Barbara Lee Pierce of Wilmington.
“In the aftermath of the tragic events that occurred two years ago, I am pleased to see that the Coast Guard has approved Ed Pierce’s request and that steps are being taken to make the Cape Fear River safer for our boaters,” McIntyre said. “Last August, we contacted the U.S. Coast Guard to request their assistance in finding a solution to the abandoned concrete quarantine station that would address security concerns posed to navigational safety while also preserving the rich historical significance of the structure.
“I am pleased we were successful in working together with those concerned and I hope that the new special lighting on the platform will improve the safety of all those who travel our waterways.”
Structure’s history
The abandoned quarantine station has stood in the river’s current for more than 100 years. An 1896 publication by James Sprunt of Wilmington gives an in-depth history of what brought it about.
“The Cape Fear river is the only marine gateway of importance by which epidemics may gain an entrance into North Carolina; and while vessels never pass up the river more than two or three miles above Wilmington, the whole state is, of course, deeply and directly interested in the efforts to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases at this port,” the editorial explained, adding if the state was interested, so was the rest of the country.
Yellow fever was among serious concerns, with no lack of credit to a vessel called Kate, which in 1862 had come from Nassau, Bahamas, and entered the Cape Fear with bacon and other supplies. According to a 1996 report on file with the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources (DCR), an infected Kate dropped anchor at the foot of Market Street in Wilmington amid scant quarantine practices and yellow fever subsequently blazed through the city, killing numerous residents over the following weeks.
Two years after, health officials issued tight protocol for inspection.
Later wanting its quarantine activities conducted offshore, the government in the 1890s built the station on pilings in the east side of the river channel near Southport. It went into service in 1897.
“All vessels coming into port had to stop and be checked for contagious diseases,” said a blurb from the New Hanover County Public Library Digital Archives. “Infected individuals were quarantined here and their ship was sprayed with sulfur before continuing to the port of Wilmington.”
The offshore station had replaced an on-land quarantine hospital that burned down in the 1882, according to an 1888 North Carolina Medical Journal entry. The river site operated until about 1937; another fire claimed most of the structure in 1951, ultimately leaving little more than the large, concrete platform standing above the water today, according to the DCR report.
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