|
Home>
Community News & Events>
Rare Postcard
The Southport Times Acquires Rare
River View Postcard
March
15, 2012 - Southport, NC - The Southport Times is proud
to announce the addition of a rare Southport river view
postcard to our extensive collection of
Southport area
postcards.
The card is a split-view card depicting a cargo ship
anchored on the Cape Fear River in front of the Stuart
House. The card reads: "Steamer Chimu, Drawing Twenty
Five and One Half Feet of Water, Loaded With Nitrate of
Soda, From South America, Lightering Cargo at Southport,
NC."
Very little information could be found on the Steamer
Chimu other than records indicating it made frequent
trips between Chile, Peru and Brazil to the United
States.
Soda of Nitrate was commonly used in the manufacturing
of fertilizers, pyrotechnics and smoke bombs, glass and
pottery enamels and as a food preservative. It was also used to make gunpowder.
The term "lightering" is used to describe a process of
offloading cargo from one ship to a barge or other
smaller ship that can navigate in shallower waters. In
the case of this postcard the Steamer Chimu was likely
too large to dock in Southport and too large to navigate
up the river to Wilmington without "lightering."
The postcard is undated, but would likely date to
sometime in the 1910s. This card was published by
Watson's Pharmacy Co. in Southport.
The Southport Times is happy to have been able to
acquire this postcard and share it with our website
visitors.
Learn More About This Postcard
View Our Entire
Postcard Collection
|
