"racking", n.5, 1807 -- now certain, and half as rare as before

[Joel S. Berson]

For the Farmer's Cabinet.
           THE LISTENER. No. 9.
  ...
           WRECKERS---
      Of whom we are informed that they are licensed by the Governor
of the Bahamas to cruise among those islands for the benefit of
salvage, which they receive on all property they may chance to rescue
from the waves.
      ... It is said that on a small key near the passage between
Cuba and St. Domingo, there have been lately planted some cocoa nut
trees, with the intent that when grown they may serve as a warning to
mariners to keep clear of the shoals; but some uncharitable people
have insinuated, that the wreckers will never suffer these trees to
grow up, lest they prove prejudicial to their trade. Whether these
suspicions are probable or not, we shall leave to the reader's
determination, after quoting the following dialogue held by Mr.
Kinnon with one of this kind of gentry, whom he fell in with in
passing through the Bahamas.
      "Kinnen. From whence came you?
      Wrecker. From Providence---last from Philimingo bay, in
Icumy.  [omitted footnotes identify these three places.]
      K. Where are you bound to?
      W. On a _racking_ voyage to Quby[?] and the westward.  [The
uncertain letter looks like a long ess shape (but not a long ess
letter) superimposed on an oval, lower-case o -- or perhaps a pair of
long ess shapes, the right one higher than the left.]
      ...
      K. ... Then certainly you must have had many opportunities of
being essentially serviceable to vessels passing the Gulf Stream, by
directing them to keep off from danger, with which you made it your
business to become acquainted.
      W.  Not much of that: they generally went in the night.
      K. But then you might have given them timely notice by making
beacons on shore, or by showing your lights.
      W.  No, no, [_laughing_] we always put them out, for a better chance.
      K. But would there not have been more humanity in shewing them
their danger?
      W. [figure of hand with outstretched finger pointing to the
right] _I did not go there for humanity---I went_ RACKING."

Farmer's Cabinet [Amherst, NH]; Date: 07-07-1807; Volume: V; Issue:
36; Page: [1]; col. 4.  [This source does not come up via searching
for "wrecker".  Underlines enclose words in italics; capitals are
either large caps or small.]

Reprinted July 20, 1807, Poulson's American Daily Advertiser
[Philadelphia]; July 21, 1807, New-York Spy; July 24, 1807,
Alexandria [VA] Advertiser; July 28, 1807, Newburyport [MA] Herald;
Aug. 19, 1807, City Gazette [Charleston, SC]. EAN.  Also Misissippi
[sic] Herald & Natchez Gazette, Friday, November 13, 1807; Issue 45;
col A.  [19th C. U.S. Newspapers]

Postdates OED2 (June 2008), ?1689 -- which is the only quotation in
the OED.  Here both noun and attributive.

Joel

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