The nice thing about sitting with my old pal Lawson and braiding our journeys together for the book project as I work on it now is that I get to work out little things I didn't even know I didn't know. For example: Lawson, talking about the ten-person canoe adventure that got the journey started, mentions that he has to get through "the Breach," a passage "Northward of Sullivans Island," where the water gets so low that even a canoe can't get over it if the tide isn't high enough. Lawson tells us all about the coast pilots nearby and a lookout right near the breach and how they have to time their passage. I just sort of shrugged it off, assuming the canoe must have gone out through Charleston Harbor, around Sullivan's Island on the ocean side, then headed into the tidal creeks thereafter.
What a dope. Of course that makes no sense. In the first place, Lawson himself describes "leaving Sullivans Island on our Starboard," which he could only do if he were passing out through the breach into open ocean, which made no sense. And in the second place, who on earth takes a heavily loaded canoe out into the open ocean when there are tidal creeks protected by barrier islands? Nobody, that's who.
Anyhow, I looked up the excellent Mills Atlas images of South Carolina from 1825, and a single glance shows the obvious route: Lawson crossed the harbor, went into the cove north of Fort Moultrie, and then wended his way through the tidal creeks, timing their passage over the breach to continue northeastward up the coast. Of course I checked with my old pal Val Green, who agreed: that's the way Uncle John (Val's term for Lawson) went.
A tiny thing. But it's fun noticing things I hadn't noticed I hadn't noticed.
What a dope. Of course that makes no sense. In the first place, Lawson himself describes "leaving Sullivans Island on our Starboard," which he could only do if he were passing out through the breach into open ocean, which made no sense. And in the second place, who on earth takes a heavily loaded canoe out into the open ocean when there are tidal creeks protected by barrier islands? Nobody, that's who.
Anyhow, I looked up the excellent Mills Atlas images of South Carolina from 1825, and a single glance shows the obvious route: Lawson crossed the harbor, went into the cove north of Fort Moultrie, and then wended his way through the tidal creeks, timing their passage over the breach to continue northeastward up the coast. Of course I checked with my old pal Val Green, who agreed: that's the way Uncle John (Val's term for Lawson) went.
A tiny thing. But it's fun noticing things I hadn't noticed I hadn't noticed.
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