We have kept ourselves busy here in
Beaufort, using the marina cars several times. They automatically know their way
to Wal Mart, Piggly Wiggly and this massive out of town
shopping mall where West Marine calls out to Bear on a regular basis, so
much so he had accumulated loads of vouchers. Once that news was out, I very
happily helped him spend them.
We bought posh new
lights as a Christmas present for Beez Neez, half price. Her old ones at
ten years old looked tatty next to them, the new ones have a double switch that
goes from white to red, funnily enough the red ones use about ten times more
juice than the white, but for a few minutes at a time we can preserve our night
vision all over the girl. They are so bright we can see the difference between
our blue and black numbers when we play Rummikub so an extra bonus.
Very strange to have the boot on the other
foot. On one of our journeys we had to wait for the
bridge into Morehead City to open for a Canadian yacht. We later met the
captain who loved our “we don’t go aground, we sail on the spot”. It turns out
that he is a writer for one of the North American sailing magazines and wants to
use it as a quote.
One job Bear occupied himself with
was replacing Beez pram hood handle cover. It had
actually worn through to the point that Bear could pull it off via the splits
and not have to cut the thread at all. Then he spent three half days in the
warmth of the afternoon sun to sew all seven hundred and sixty eight stitches.
The new one does look rather smart, must get over the urge to stroke it when I
come and go as not to get it dirty just yet. Meanwhile I have carried on copying
our films to hard drives and catching up on blogs from as far back as New York
in July.
We saw this dog
in Christmas cheer out for a walk. I had a great rack
of letters during one of our games of Upword, needless to say I got a
good trouncing
We had this
lady as our neighbour for a few days. We came back from one of our
wanders round the little town and found we had a Canadian boat next to us. Every
time the owners left the boat the dog barked incessantly, I was not sorry they
left the next afternoon. My rejoicing was short lived as they came back around
nine that night. Apparently they had just got out to sea when the conditions
changed and said dog was being flung around the cockpit, they had to come back
as “the dog was very seasick”. Well. The boat has a draught of six feet so
heaven knows why they don’t go down the ICW, rig up a hammock for the dog, or
fly it south. If none of the above, sell the boat OR preferably sell the dog,
choices eh.
Mind you it was just as well they were
there as we were out when the marina boys came to tell us that they had changed
the shower code. I was keen ........................... so off Bear went to seek
out our neighbours and the new code. I sat on a bench clenching ‘things’ until
his return. The good thing about this odd incident was as I was sitting there I
saw a big, fat cockroach scuttling along a fence. So the lesson of the day is to
maintain our discipline when it comes to the ‘no cardboard aboard rule’. We had
wondered if we would see them in the cooler weather and not having seen one for
such a long time we have been a little softer on our rule. No more
though.
We spent some time
in the visitors centre and saw this plan of Beaufort c
1830.
Early Law and Order for Carteret
County: Following the establishing of Carteret precinct or county from
Craven in 1722, the General Assembly proceeded to appoint the necessary
officials to carry out the business of law and order for the new county. As in
other counties of the colony, the administrative powers were in the hands of the
justices of the peace, duly appointed for life by the governor. First named to
fill these important offices here were John Nelson, Richard Rustaull,
Enoch Ward, Joseph Bell and Richard Whitehurst. These men constituted the county
court as well as having control of almost every aspect of local government and
administration. The court appointed, or nominated to the governor for
appointment, the sheriff, constables, overseers of roads, searchers, patrollers,
inspectors, town commissioners and almost all local officers.
Crime and Punishment from
1829-1954: . During the time the old jail was in use, the way criminals
were punished underwent a lot of change. The jurisprudence system in colonial
times relied on the concept of vengeance. This involved sentences which shamed
or maimed or in some cases death. Shaming included stocks and
pillories, ducking stools, or whipping. Maiming included branding or cutting off
an ear or hand alike. The death sentence at this time was hanging. So, there was
no need for long-term incarceration. In fact the main use of jails during
colonial times was for holding the accused for trial and then waiting for the
sentences to be carried out. Also, jails were used for debtors who could not pay
their debts.
Some of the crimes then are very much
still the crimes of today – trespass, assault, petty larceny, burglary, murder,
manslaughter and forgery to name but a few, but the treatment was a little
different ???. Others were more specific to the time such as dueling, swearing
and opening a store on a Sunday. Some examples of punishment:
10s - Playing games on a
Sunday
2s
- Drunk in Court
5s
- Burning a lime kiln in town.
10s
- Firing a gun in
town on weekdays.
40s
- Failure to bury
fish offal and culls along the shores of the town.
$0.3 - per dog – Killing dogs without a
collar.
$10 - opening a shop or store on a
Sunday.
$10 - Robbing catbirds and mocking bird
nests.
$20 - Commissioner not attending
meetings.
$10 - Congregating in front of Churches or in their
vestibules.
$100 - Entering Beaufort after leaving a place where
smallpox is evident.
Quarreling or fighting in Beaufort – A fine, 24 hours in
prison or two hours in the stocks. I’m OK with this so
far.........
Perjury - One hour in the pillory and have ears nailed
to the pillory, then both ears cut off and
left......................Oooooooooooo Ouch.
Murder - Burned to death, or half each ear cut off,
branded with an M on the cheek and whipped.
Accessory to murder -
Drawing and quartering and hanging. I’m not really certain if this was a great
deal compared to the actual sentence for murder.
In 1943, due to the shortage of meat,
Beaufort commissioners suspended the town’s ordinance of May 1942 that
prohibited citizens from raising pigs within the town
limits.
The T brand was used on
thieves
By about 1825 “shaming and maiming”
punishments were increasingly viewed as “cruel and unusual” and by the end of
the century would fall out of use. They also were seen as not being a very
effective deterrent to crime. In addition, reformers believed that solitude
would help the offender. Two different ideas on prison reform came into
being.
One system was call the “Separate” or
“Pennsylvanian System”, because it was first tried at Eastern State Penitentiary
in Philadelphia. A prisoner remained in a cell or adjoining yard working alone
at trades such as weaving, carpentry or shoemaking, and saw no one except the
prison officials. The other system was called “Silent”, or “Auburn.” In this
system the prisoners worked together, but in strict silence. They were also
confined to an individual cell at night. By 1850, the Silent System was the more
favoured of the two.
Around 1850 another system had begun. It
was called the “Mark System”, later to be renamed the “Elmira System,” in 1876.
Instead of serving set sentences, prisoners were required to earn credits or
marks that were proportional to the sentences of the crime. Good conduct, hard
work and study earned points. Bad conduct and refusal to apply oneself led to
subtractions. The use of indeterminate sentences, individual treatment, training
and parole were emphasised. Three stages to release eventually evolved in the
system. Stage 1, the prisoner was kept in isolation. Stage II featured
associating with other prisoners in various work projects. Finally, Stage III
occurred six months before release and the prisoner was given sufficient
freedoms and responsibilities to prove fitness for release. By the late 19th
century, many of these features were adopted in the U.S.
We learned a little more about
the Civil War. A man I met in the laundry said that the British were happy to
leave the U.S. after Lord Cornwallis toured round the swamps declaring “Who in
their right mind wants this godforsaken land anyway”.
