French v. The Excelsior

On the 1st day of December. 1881, about 2 o’clock a. m. , the large passenger and freight steamer Excelsior, on her way from Norfolk to Washington city., while aiming'for Old Point wharf in a thick fog, and endeavoring to avoid the shipping then lying in Hampton Hoads, and.feeling her way cautiously, drifted with the strong tide then coming in, and grounded on the eastern shoal of Hampton bar, about 1,000 yards from the south end of Old Point wharf. She grounded broadside on, heading to the east. She tried for some time to get off by putting her engines hard at work, but these efforts only…