Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. More of his work can be found on his website.

Earlier today, March 20, I gave a lecture at the annual Whales and Whaling Symposium in Beaufort. It is a special event, and one that I treasure.

Sponsored by the Bonehenge Whaling Center, which is part of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the symposium invites scientists, historians, and the public to come together and share their knowledge of whales and the history of whaling on the North Carolina coast and throughout the Atlantic.

My lecture was titled “Nye’s Clock Oil and the Bottlenose Dolphin Fishery at Hatteras Island.”

The photograph above was one of the illustrations that I used in my lecture. It shows one of the crews that was hunting bottlenose dolphins on Hatteras Island in the winter of 1907 to 1908.

This crew worked for the William F. Nye Co., a New Bedford, Massachusetts, firm that operated a bottlenose dolphin fishery on Hatteras Island between 1907 and 1928.

Arising in New Bedford when it was the whale oil capital of the world, the William F. Nye Co. was the country’s largest maker of highly specialized whale and dolphin oils uniquely suited for lubricating clocks, watches, chronometers, scientific instruments, and other delicate machinery.

The company did not obtain those oils from whale blubber, but from two anatomical structures only found in the heads of bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, belugas and other small-toothed whales.

Specifically, the William F. Nye Co.’s “oilers” extracted those oils from the fatty tissues in the animals’ lower jawbones and from an organ in their foreheads that is called the “melon.” 

Both play central roles in the echolocation ability of those whales and dolphins. That is, they are key to the way that they navigate, find prey and generally “see” underwater by emitting sound waves and interpreting their echos when they reflect off objects around them.

On Hatteras Island, the company’s workers butchered the dolphins on the beach. They then did a small degree of refinement at a facility on Durant’s Island, a knoll on the sound side of the island.

They then shipped the oil to the company’s factory in New Bedford for far more extensive refining.

Between the American Civil War, which spanned from 1861 to 1865, and 1900, the William F. Nye Co. acquired the largest part of its supply of those oils from pilot whale strandings on Cape Cod and Long Island.

In many of those cases, local fishermen herded the whales into shallow waters where they were trapped and grounded.

To establish a more stable supply of those oils, William F. Nye’s son Joseph came south and established the bottlenose dolphin fishery on Hatteras Island in 1907. He recruited local fishermen and seafarers, many of whom had been involved in earlier bottlenose fisheries on Hatteras.

Hatteras Island was the site of the oldest and longest running bottlenose dolphin fishery in North America.

At the National Museum of Natural History’s Paleobiology Archive, I found records indicating that there had been a commercial bottlenose dolphin fishery on Hatteras Island on and off since at least 1851.

To oversee the Hatteras fishery, Joseph Nye employed a third-generation Hatteras oiler, William C. Rollinson.

Rollinson had been involved in hunting bottlenose dolphins most of his life, as had his father and grandfather before him.

His father, John W. Rollinson, had been superintendent of a bottlenose dolphin fishery at Hatteras that had been operated by a company based in Wilmington, Delaware, in the 1880s and 1890s.

Even further back in time, his grandfather had been captain of a bottlenose dolphin crew at Hatteras Island before the Civil War.

It was hard, dirty work. When I was younger, and some of the men were still alive, they described it as a very grim business, the kind of job that one only did if there was no other way to make a living. But that was often the case on Hatteras Island in those days.

The William F. Nye Co.’s bottlenose dolphin fishery remained on Hatteras Island until 1928 or 1929.

I do not want to give the whole story away here, but if you want to learn more, the North Carolina Maritime Museum has already posted my lecture on its YouTube channel.

The whole symposium was wonderful. The amazing Vicki Szabo, who teaches at Western Carolina University, gave a fascinating presentation on the extensive mythology and scientific knowledge of whales in Medieval Iceland and other parts off the North Atlantic.

Keith Rittmaster, the founder and driving force behind the museum’s Bonehenge Whaling Center, gave an extremely informative overview of the 35 species of cetaceans that have been documented on the North Carolina coast.

Keith also discussed the conservation challenges ahead for whales and dolphins on our coast, and he charted some the exciting, day in and day out work that is happening at the Bonehenge Whaling Center, also in Beaufort.

Another exciting presentation was by marine biologist Tommy Tucker of the Coastal Studies Center on Cape Cod. With a contagious passion, they are devoted to understanding and raising public awareness of the critically endangered Rice’s whale, which is only found in the Gulf of Mexico.

Their presentation was brilliant. In addition to studying Rice’s whales, Tommy also uses arts and crafts to nurture interest in them, including this tapestry in which each depiction of a Rice’s whale represents one of the 51 Rice’s whales currently known to be surviving in the Gulf of Mexico.

All of these presentations are now available on the museum’s YouTube channel. I don’t know about mine, but the presentations by Vicki, Keith, and Tommy are not to be missed!

I found the whole day inspiring. It was so encouraging to be at a museum where the staff are so dedicated to telling the story of North Carolina’s coastal history and do so in such a professional way.

The museum’s auditorium was full of people from many walks of life, including scientists, historians, students, fishermen and women, and all sorts of other lovers of whales and the sea.

All were coming together to discover more about these glorious creatures of the sea and what we might do to make sure that they are still here to inspire and enthrall our children and grandchildren.

It was a joy to be part of it.

* * *

The Bonehenge Whale Center was built by volunteers dedicated to marine conservation, education, and research on the whales, dolphins, and porpoises of the North Carolina coast. You can learn more about the Center’s remarkable work and how you might contribute to it here.

This story is presented in celebration of Women’s History Month, the theme for which in 2026 is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.”

Heather Rose flashes a knowing smile toward her sister, Becky, across a table at Blackbeard’s Grill, their family’s seafood restaurant in Beaufort. “Honey, we’ve got some gooood memories together.”

“Epic memories,” Becky replies.

Those unforgettable moments were often squeezed into late nights between the grueling days when Heather clocked 12-hour kitchen shifts, and Becky, stepping away from the restaurant and neighboring Rose Seafood Market, worked dawn to dusk, moving dirt, hauling rocks and setting shrubs for her own landscaping company.

Their grind never stood a chance against the tide.

“When darks come and the businesses closed, we go get in the truck, go to the boat ramp,” Heather says.

Pushing off for the banks to fish until the sun touched the horizon, the women were overjoyed to be under the stars, even that night when a mud-clogged motor stranded them, exhausted and ravenous, until their parents arrived like a rescue squad with cheese biscuits.

“We just sat there in the boat eating those biscuits. We could barely hold our eyes open,” Heather chuckles, Becky nodding in rhythm. “But we had a boatload of flounders, and we had spent all night talking to each other.”

The sisters’ bond is as deep as their roots on the Carolina coast. It’s a connection forged in the salt of their shared seafood heritage and tested by the daily demands of the family business.

Despite the relentless labor of running both Blackbeard’s and Rose Seafood Market, and the looming shadow of an uncertain commercial fishing industry, Heather and Becky are unwavering. They’ve made it their mission to keep their landmark corner of Beaufort thriving for the next generation.

A legacy without blueprints

Surrounded by black-and-white snapshots of the commercial fishers and boat builders who came before, the women reflect on the proud way of life handed down to them. Today, the sisters lead that legacy: Heather oversees the seafood market, while Becky serves as the chef and proprietor of Blackbeard’s Grill.

Their ties to the coast reach back to the 1700s, Becky says. Ancestors were boat captains in the Northeast before navigating south to Swan Quarter, where a bay bears the Rose name. Some relatives headed to Cape Lookout, establishing the early Rose Town community.

In 1910, their great-great-grandfather, George Rose, moved his family from the cape to Harkers Island. There, later generations established Rose Brothers Boat Works, which became famous for crafting fine wooden yachts and charter boats built entirely by eye without plans or blueprints.

It was in that boatyard that Heather and Becky’s parents, Rodney and Mary, first met.

Rose Seafood Market was born of necessity. Frustrated by low dockside prices, Rodney and Mary founded the business in 1986 to eliminate the middleman. What started as a backyard mom-and-pop grew into a Marshallberg fish house sourcing from 30 local commercial fishers. By 1993, the couple moved to their current Beaufort location, soon after adding a take-out window. Two years later, they opened Blackbeard’s Grill to highlight “Down East” heritage recipes.

Today, the sisters manage day-to-day operations, with their parents’ constant inspiration and presence. The women draw strength from recollections of their father networking with fishermen, setting the standard for relationship building his daughters rely on today.

Dad, who still fishes, pops in — though not often enough, Heather laments, missing her father — to deliver and help process the catch, as well as share insight with customers about the challenges facing commercial fishers.

Years of watching their mother diplomatically negotiate the sale of thousands of pounds of fish weekly to far-flung markets in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, then turning around to masterfully head shrimp, shuck scallops and pack fish, made anything seem possible.

“Growing up and seeing that, I never felt like a woman was out of place in this industry,” Becky says of the male-dominated seafood sector.

The market still sources catches docked by local commercial fishers, including Heather, and carries beloved Rose family recipes, like their Aunt Dora’s shrimp salad. Locals watch Blackbeard’s specials for regional favorites such as scallop fritters and hard crab stew. Offerings depend on what’s fresh next door.

The scale is staggering. “We’re probably going to feed about 60,000 people here (at Blackbeard’s), and just on five nights that we’re open each week, for the year,” Becky says. Between the restaurant and the market’s grab-and-go section, which Becky stocks with crab pies, lasagnas, shrimp salad and more, the sisters are in a state of constant motion.

“We love the connection,” Becky says. “When you go and catch something yourself, do all the work involved in doing that, and then you prepare it and cook it for somebody, and you hand it to them and they eat it…that’s a feeling that can’t be duplicated in any other way.”

‘Don’t fight it, accept it’

Heather remembers happy childhood days clamming and shrimping with her parents and packing seafood at their then-fledgling business. “I was young, full of energy, you know, and always willing and anxious to help.”

Becky, 11 years younger, was just a toddler at the time, trying to stack boxes in her tiny oilskins. As a youngster, she headed shrimp after school at Rose Seafood in Beaufort and told customers, “My daddy caught these.”

“I still have some older ladies that come here and say, ‘Were you that cute little blonde-headed girl that waited on me in the seafood market?’”

Despite those precious memories, both women envisioned paths away from the water. In college, Becky studied marketing, a talent she skillfully applies to the businesses’ engaging social media feeds. Heather worked for 10 years as an officer with the Morehead City Police Department. Throughout their own careers, both sisters kept a foot in the family seafood business.

“I think both of us felt that was our calling,” Becky reflects.

“There was a time when I was younger, I was always trying to run away from it,” Heather adds.

“Well, I think we both knew how hard it was,” Becky says, finishing her sister’s thought.

The pair’s management era began with the COVID-19 pandemic. When the virus’s spread shuttered dining rooms, the Roses, like many restaurateurs, turned to walking takeout orders to vehicles lined up in the parking lot. By then, the market had closed, but with the public’s limited access to grocers and other seafood outlets, the Roses realized that they needed to reopen the store to sustain the community and their own livelihoods.

Heather had already left police work to help her parents at the restaurant, but she was facing burnout even before the pandemic. That’s when Becky stepped in, leaving an unfulfilling job in the wholesale plant industry to help her family keep up.

“It was really hard on me at first, because I hadn’t really been dealing with seafood for a decade,” she remembers. “It was hard to build up to the strength and endurance that it takes to clean 500 pounds of spots a day, to filet 1,000 pounds of flounder, to head 1,000 pounds of shrimp.”

The sisters stop to compare scars. “You can look at our hands, and you know,” Becky says.

Heather smiles. “Me and Beck, we look at each other when we’re exhausted and we say, ‘Don’t fight it, accept it. This is your calling.’”

‘These are the really special times’

Demanding work and a powerful desire to make their parents proud fuel the sisters’ mission. They also genuinely like their jobs.

Becky, always a foodie, found that working in horticulture deepened her interest in herbs and cooking, setting her up as a chef who understands both local food culture and how to craft contemporary dishes like crispy crab Rangoon with sweet Thai chili sauce or half-shell oysters roasted with bacon jam, a dollop of goat cheese to finish.

“She literally elevates this kitchen to a different level than it’s ever been,” Heather says of her sister. “She has a lot of pride, and she’s, she’s a perfectionist. She wants it to be right and won’t accept it any other way.”

Heather loves nothing more than fishing, but her wide-ranging experience in and outside the business make her indispensable to both operations, Becky says. Heather’s seafood chowder is an enduring menu staple, and she formulated the various breading recipes used to fry different seafoods.

“The tenacity,” Becky says of Heather, “if she makes up her mind that we’re doing something or she’s doing something, she’s doing it…And she can wire things. She’s very mechanical, and I am totally not…So when we come together, we don’t fight or argue like sisters sometimes do. We really work well together.”

Who will take on the business years from now is a constant worry, especially as North Carolina commercial fishers lose docks to new waterfront development. They also face fierce competition from recreational fishing interests with the capital to fund lobbyists and marketing campaigns that, as the sisters see it, demonize fishing families as destroyers of the very resources they depend on.

“We don’t have family to leave it to,” Heather says. “And that makes me very sad,” Becky adds, “and it’s something I think about every night before I go to bed.”

That uncertainty pulls at them, but it hasn’t slowed their pace. Instead of pulling back, the duo doubles down with new ideas, like Heather’s upcoming seafood boils to go and adding beer and wine sales to the market’s offerings. Becky takes on public education, sharing the story of the state’s seafood heritage through speaking engagements and staging fundraising dinners aimed at preserving the commercial fishing way of life.

Both agree they’d like nothing better than to fire up the boat after work more often and head out for an all-nighter. Meantime, they try to live by the advice Becky often gives Heather.

“You’re going to look back on today, and you’re gonna say, ‘Those were good times,’ even if you’re having a bad day here … We got to make the most out of each day, because these are really special times right now for this business and for our family.” 

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort will devote a full day to exploring whales and whaling from multiple perspectives, highlighting both the cultural history of whaling and today’s conservation efforts.

The annual Whales and Whaling Symposium is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 20, followed by an evening program at 5:30 p.m. in the museum’s auditorium. The symposium was held at Fort Macon State Park last year while the Beaufort facility was undergoing renovations.

The symposium is offered at no charge, but reservations are requested because there is limited seating. For more information or to RSVP, call call 252-504-7758 or visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com.

“We wanted to create a program that looks at whales through many lenses: science, history, art and conservation,” Associate Education Curator Christine Brin, who coordinated the symposium, said in a release. “Whales have shaped coastal communities for centuries, and they continue to shape conversations about how we care for our oceans today.”

The program begins at 10:15 a.m. with “NC Whales: Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation,” presented by Keith Rittmaster, the museum’s natural science curator and director of the Bonehenge Whale Center.

Rittmaster is to discuss the 35 species of cetaceans, or the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, documented off North Carolina’s coast, conservation challenges and ongoing work at Bonehenge Whale Center, a facility in Beaufort focused on marine conservation, educational programming, outreach, publications, and stranded specimen collection and maintenance for these mammals.

Next on the schedule is historian David Cecelski who will present at 11:15 a.m. “Nye’s Clock Oil and the Bottlenose Dolphin Fishery at Hatteras Island.” His talk examines the surprising connection between North Carolina’s coastal fisheries, the waning days of American whaling and the rise of the U.S. clockmaking industry at the turn of the 20th century.

After lunch at 2 p.m. Dr. Vicki Szabo, professor of ancient, medieval and environmental history at Western Carolina University, will present “Watching Whales in the Middle Ages.” In her talk, Szabo contrasts whale mythology in medieval Europe with the practical knowledge of coastal communities, drawing on historical texts and archaeological evidence.

Marine biologist and conservation-based crafter Tommy Tucker is to present at 3 p.m. “How Many Whales Does It Take to Save a Species?” that focuses on the critically endangered Rice’s whales and uses the stories of individual whales to illustrate the intersection of maritime history, natural history and conservation.

The day concludes with the evening program featuring the North Carolina aerial survey team for North Atlantic right whales. Operated locally in Beaufort by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute in Florida and funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the team will discuss right whale biology, current population trends and how aerial surveys are supporting recovery efforts for this critically endangered species.

“Each speaker brings a unique perspective, but together they tell a much larger story,” Brin said. “From medieval whale myths to modern aerial surveys, this symposium shows how our understanding of whales has evolved and why that understanding matters more than ever.”

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort is part of the Division of History Museums under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort plans to resume this month its outdoor field programs.

The museum offers each year during the warmer months three field programs: “Hiking and History on Shackleford Banks,” “Exploring Coastal Habitats on the Rachel Carson Reserve,” and “Kayak the Salt Marsh.”

Related: Beaufort Maritime Museum reopens after yearlong closure

“We designed these programs to help the community explore our rich environment, history and culture while also learning about the diverse habitats found here,” Education Curator Courtney Felton said in a statement.

The first two programs take participants to local barrier islands and through the various habitats found just off our mainland.

“Exploring Coastal Habitats on the Rachel Carson Reserve” is set to resume for the year 8:30 a.m. to noon March 11. Participants will be guided on a walking tour through maritime forest, salt marsh and sound-side habitats while learning about the plants and animals that make the estuarine system unique. Additional dates for this program are April 23, May 26, June 24, Sept. 8 and Oct. 6. Cost for each program is $25, which includes transportation by local ferry to the islands.

“Hiking and History on Shackleford Banks” is scheduled to resume for the year 8:30 a.m. to noon March 25. The guided hike combines natural history with stories of the people who once called the island home, offering insight into maritime lifeways, shipwrecks and the wild horses that roam the island today. Additional dates for this program are May 12, June 9, Aug. 19, Sept. 22 and Oct. 20. Cost is $35, including ferry transport.

“The Rachel Carson program is perfect for those interested in coastal ecology,” Felton said. “And the Shackleford tour is perfect for history buffs and nature enthusiasts alike.”

“Kayak the Salt Marsh” is a guided 1.5-mile paddle in one of the museum’s sit-in kayaks that will resume 9 a.m. to noon April 2. The tour winds through Gallants Channel’s marshes, focusing on the plants and wildlife that can be found within. Additional dates for this program are May 5, June 3, Aug. 13 and Sept. 1 and 30. Cost is $35, or $30 with your own kayak.

“Some kayak experience is helpful,” Felton said. “However, we provide basic kayak instruction on shore and work with the tides to keep the program accessible to all skill levels.”

A special “Science and Exploration on the Rachel Carson Reserve” program is to take place April 27 as part of the NC Science Festival. During the monthlong effort April 1-30, sites and organizations offer science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, programming to spread science education.

The hike will be guided by a museum educator and the Central Sites manager from the N.C. Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve. They will additionally highlight how the reserve’s ecosystems are managed for research, education, and long-term stewardship. Participants will also learn how they can support the reserve through citizen science efforts. Cost is $25, which includes transportation by local ferry to the islands.

“These field programs provide an opportunity for visitors to experience the coast in a deeper way,” Felton said. “We hope participants leave with a greater appreciation for our natural resources and a sense of stewardship for these special places.”

All of the museum field programs are recommended for ages 12 and up, with adult supervision required for those under age 18. Members of the Friends of the Maritime Museum, which sponsors the programs, receive a 10% discount. Advance registration is required.

To register or for more information, visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com or call 252-504-7758.

Featured Image

Ice covers a patch of volunteer vegetation near Michael J. Smith Field Tuesday after an overnight freeze in Beaufort. Cold temperatures are forecast to continue through the weekend, when there’s potential for a coastal low pressure to develop, possibly bringing wintry weather, National Weather Service forecasters said Tuesday. Photo: Dylan Ray

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, publisher of Coastal Review, is launching a leadership and professional development program focused on coastal issues.

The cohort-based Coastal Leadership Institute is designed for individuals who play leadership roles in coastal North Carolina communities, as well as leaders from across the state whose work influences the coast.

The institute is designed as a six-month program with two full-day sessions per month beginning in March. The cohort size is limited to about 20–25 participants. Registration is now open for the inaugural class.

“The Coastal Federation has established a strong reputation as a convener of people and organizations interested in protecting and restoring the coast,” said Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis, “so the launch of this new Institute is a natural fit for us and will be important to advancing our mission.”

Through facilitated discussions, expert-led sessions, and site-based learning, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the forces shaping coastal communities, examined through economic, environmental, natural, and cultural history lenses, while building strong professional relationships that support effective leadership in complex coastal settings, institute organizers said.

“Coastal issues rarely have simple solutions,” said Coastal Federation Chief Community Engagement Officer Amanda Lyle. “By bringing together leaders from different communities and sectors, the Institute creates space for shared learning and helps build the capacity for informed decision-making.”

The tuition of $1,000 per participant covers program materials, meals, transportation for site visits, lodging, and alumni programming access. Scholarships are available.

The six sessions will convene in March, April, May, September, October, and November, with a summer break.

An orientation is set for March 9-10 in Beaufort. This session will also explore how the cultural, historical, and ecological context of coastal North Carolina factor into the region’s identity, challenges, and leadership needs.

Subsequent sessions will cover coastal and marine sciences, growth and economic development, coastal policy and management issues, and natural resource conservation and restoration. This year, sessions will primarily take place in Carteret County and the Wilmington area.

The program is intended to become an annual offering that brings together emerging and established leaders from a wide range of professional backgrounds, including business, local and regional government, military, education, nonprofit, and industry.

The Institute is geared to create a space for thoughtful dialogue, practical learning, and a trusted peer network that continues well beyond the program.

 “We really couldn’t do this without our partners and supporters – the many individuals and organizations who have committed to sharing their expertise, insights, resources and time with the participants and to helping create new professional connections for the betterment of our coast,” Davis added.

The inaugural Coastal Leadership Institute cohort is partially subsidized through the support of the Duke Energy Foundation, the Carlyle Adams Foundation, and the RBC Foundation.

More details and the application are online.

From shortly after the Civil War until the mid-2000s, when the last menhaden plant was shuttered, the town of Beaufort would “smell of money.”

“The menhaden industry made Beaufort prosperous. Local menhaden companies once provided hundreds of jobs in the local community and surrounding areas with numerous factories and vessels working this lucrative fishery,” according to information from the North Carolina Maritime Museum, which has held several programs on the industry.

“The fishery itself, processing plants ashore, and support infrastructure provided steady employment opportunities, especially for African-Americans. While many visitors remember the smell of the fish, locals call it the ‘smell of money,’” It was their livelihood. Local merchants all benefited from the influx of people and money during menhaden’s fishing season. Menhaden fishing was recognized throughout Carteret County as an important part of this county’s commercial fishing industry.”

In the early days of catching menhaden, the mother boat would deploy smaller purse boats to maneuver a large net around a school of fish. Once the string draws the net shut around the hundreds of pounds of menhaden, the fishermen would haul the net by hand.

To perform this physically demanding, dangerous work, the fishermen would sing work songs, or chanteys, to help rhythmically synchronize their movements.

Barbara Garrity-Blake, fisheries social scientist and adjunct at Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, told Coastal Review that the menhaden fishermen used to sing these songs before hydraulic net-lifting technology was introduced in the early 1960s.

“Each vessel carried a crew of about two-dozen men, mostly African Americans, who worked shoulder to shoulder in purse boats to pull in a giant seine net heavy with menhaden — sometimes a 100,000 or more fish. The men would coordinate their pulling by singing in a call-and-response style where the leader would sing out a line and the crew would answer in harmony,” she continued.

Their songs were a seafaring tradition known as chanteys.

After the menhaden industry became mechanized in the 1960s and 1970s, and the songs were no longer sung, some of the former and retired fishermen began to perform these traditional work songs for audiences, eventually becoming formally known as the Menhaden Chanteymen in 1988.

After the group began performing publicly, they sang for the North Carolina General Assembly, National Council on the Arts, at New York City’s Carnegie Hall and on national television, including for a segment on “CBS Sunday Morning” with Charles Kuralt. The group recorded the album “Won’t You Help Me to Raise ‘Em: Authentic Net Hauling Songs from an African-American Fishery,” for Global Village Music in 1990.

The remaining members made special appearances at events throughout the county, including a handful at Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

Beaufort Mayor Sharon Harker awarded in 2022 the two surviving Chanteymen, Ernest Davis and the Rev. Leroy Cox, the key to the city. Cox died in 2023, leaving Davis as the “last legacy-bearer of the Menhaden Chanteyman” until the final member, Davis, 86, died Jan. 3. His service and burial was Jan. 8 Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church of North River. Noe Funeral Services of Beaufort handled the arrangements.

Garrity-Blake noted that Davis was the youngest of the Chanteymen and had “explained that singing generated a special power or strength, used for nets otherwise too heavy for human strength alone. So the chantey songs were used as a tool.”

In a recording, Davis explains that the fishermen would sing a chantey when they needed to raise up a net full of fish.

“If we couldn’t sing, we couldn’t get them raised up,” Davis said. The singing “would give you more spirit, and more power” and you could raise your fish better.

“At night you couldn’t sleep because you’d be hurting and cold so you just make up songs,” Davis said. And most of the captains would be singing right along with the crew. “Music could be heard all over the ocean … like music was on the water.”

Garrity-Blake said in an interview that she worked for many years with Davis and other menhaden workers on a project called “Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing.”

The 2005 closure of Beaufort Fisheries, the last menhaden plant in the state, inspired North Carolina Humanities Council-funded project that Garrity-Blake helped launch in 2009 and 2010 with the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

Davis was among a group of menhaden workers, including captains, crewmen, cookhouse and factory workers, who met several times at the Beaufort train depot to plan the project, “which was hilarious because ‘planning’ took a backseat to telling tales,” Garrity-Blake said, adding that the meetings always turned into a big storytelling session and nobody wanted to leave when the meeting was over.

“I realized that the menhaden folks had a hunger for getting together to talk about fishing. They feared their experiences and the industry’s legacy as the economic backbone of Carteret County would be forgotten. So we decided to call it ‘Raising the Story’ — just as the men worked together to raise fish, we’d work together to raise the story of menhaden fishing,” Garrity-Blake continued.

Garrity-Blake conducted about a dozen oral history recordings of people representing different skills in the fishery, from ring-setter in the fishing process to factory owner, the late Jule Wheatly in December 2009. He died in October 2011.

Fine art photographer and Beaufort resident Scott Taylor took portraits of all the folks who were interviewed, and developed an exhibit for the waterfowl museum. The oral history interviews and photos are part of the Core Sound museum’s online collection, on a Facebook page also called “Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing,” and on Carolina Coastal Voices YouTube channel.

As part of “Raising the Story,” the group wanted to involve young people who didn’t know anything about the industry, so they collaborated with Josie Boyette’s seventh grade class at Beaufort Middle School.

“Three of the men, including Ernest Davis, were invited into the classroom to share stories, and the kids asked questions and recorded them,” Garrity-Blake said. “Davis talked about his role as first mate, although he’d also served as fish boat captain on occasion. He was proud to have made a good living, putting his kids through college, menhaden fishing. He said, ‘A lot of people think fishing is a disgrace. But I made a good living. Didn’t look to get rich or nothing.’”

She added that Davis’ grandson Trevor was in the classroom. “It was wonderful to see the pride on that little boy’s face when his grandad shared a story about fending off a shark that had swum in the net.”

The project culminated in what Garrity-Blake called a “jam-packed event” at Core Sound, where the middle school students showcased their work, captains and crewmen told stories to the audience, and the Menhaden Chanteymen performed their songs.

“When they performed, it was powerful and otherworldly; everyone was mesmerized,” Garrity-Blake said.

Historian and author David Cecelski has written extensively about coastal North Carolina’s fisheries, including that of menhaden, many of which can be found on his personal website such as “Menhaden Fishing Days” and “It Was Like a Ballet’: Menhaden Fishermen at Work, 1947,” which he describes the process of hauling a net based on a photo from the North Carolina State Archives.

He was invited to speak at the “Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing” event held in the fall of 2010. In 2017, Cecelski reflected on the “Raising the Story” project and shared his comments from that event in an essay he titled, “Music All Over the Ocean.”

In the essay, he calls the project a “commemoration of the central role that the menhaden industry played in Carteret County for generations.”

Cecelski, who grew up near Beaufort, writes that anybody listening to the oral histories Garrity-Blake recorded for the project would be impressed with what the menhaden fishery meant to Carteret County, particularly the stink that permeated the town when the fish were being processed.

“When the wind was right, the aroma of the fish covered those towns like a blanket. Coastal visitors sometimes complained, but my cousins in the industry used to call it ‘the smell of money,’” he wrote in 2021.

Cecelski explains in his 2017 piece that Davis’s story was typical of what the industry’s wages meant to local fishermen and fish factory workers.

Davis, who left school when he was 15 and went to work menhaden fishing at Beaufort Fisheries, said in his interview that it was hard work but it was what he had to do. He fished for 41 years and became one of the most respected first mates on the East Coast, sending all five of his own children to college and helping raise and educate nine younger brothers and sisters.

The oral histories also show how the men and women watched the menhaden industry change over their lifetimes, like motorizing the process to haul in the fish, business became more corporate, unions made headway and state and federal governments enacted environmental regulations, just to name a few.

“But through it all, I could hear two things in the men’s voices: a love for menhaden fishing — master net mender Lee Crumbacker said it well: ‘it grows on you like a barnacle on a pole’— and a fierce pride in their craftsmanship,” Cecelski writes.

Cecelski writes that as a child, the first thing he ever heard about the menhaden industry was his mother’s stories about those chanteys. His mother grew up in Harlowe in the 1920s and 1930s, when Highway 101 was still a dirt road.

“Many of Beaufort’s African American fishermen lived in Harlowe, particularly in a reclusive community just across the county line called Craven Corner. As they drove oxen and carts down the road on their way to Beaufort, the menhaden fishermen sang the same songs that they sung as they hoisted the nets onto their boats,” he writes.

“Early Monday mornings, long before first light, my mother would wake up in her bed at the sound of those beautiful, haunting songs and listen to them as the fishermen moved through the darkness and toward the sea.”

Cecelski observes that the fishermen in the interviews talk about the chanteys the same way his mother did.

Davis said in his “Rising the Story” interview they “would sing all night long just to keep their minds off the cold and hurt. It ‘just seemed like music was all over the ocean’,” Cecelski writes.

“The fishermen mostly stopped singing their legendary chanteys with the introduction of power blocks and hardening rigs in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but those songs have remained a powerful memory for all who ever heard them.”

And while the chanteys have not been heard on a menhaden boat in a long time, but older people from around Carteret County still remember them, and tell Cecelski “how, on cool autumn days, you could sometimes stand on shore and hear the songs coming across the water. They filled the air and stirred the heart and got deep inside your bones,” Cecelski describes.

“And if you heard those songs, like my mother did when she was a little girl, you never forgot them or the way that they made you feel. It is hard to put into words, but it was not just the beauty of the melodies or the men’s fine voices, but the appearance that the music was rising right out of the sea.”

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A small gathering watches 2025’s final sunset Wednesday over Taylors Creek from the wooden deck at Harborside Park at 322 Front St. in Beaufort. Here are some of Coastal Review’s most-read stories of the year. We thank you for reading. Photo: Mark Hibbs

The management and operation of Beaufort Town Docks will officially transition to what the town calls an “experienced marina management company” at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

The company, F3 Marina, specializes in the operation of public and private waterfront facilities along the East Coast, officials said Wednesday in a press release.

“On behalf of the Board of Commissioners and the citizens of Beaufort, I’m excited to welcome F3 Marina Management as the selected company to manage the Beaufort Town Docks beginning January 1,” Mayor Sharon Harker said in a release. “With their experience and proven track record, we’re looking forward to this new chapter and to working together to ensure the docks continue to operate safely, smoothly, and as a welcoming place for boaters and residents alike.”

As part of the transition, the new website, www.beauforttowndocks.org, has launched, to serve as the primary source for details on dockage, rates, policies, amenities, events, and contact information.

“The transition marks a new chapter for the Beaufort Town Docks, with an emphasis on enhancing services for residents, visiting boaters, and the maritime community while preserving the character and heritage of Beaufort’s historic waterfront,” the town said.

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The Duncan House at 105 Front St. in Beaufort, a structure that dates back to the mid-1700s, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only 11 properties in North Carolina designated as Statewide Properties of Significance, is cordoned off Tuesday after a blaze consumed the unoccupied building on Monday. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A siege of herons takes refuge Monday from high winds near Russell Creek in Beaufort. Photo: Dylan Ray

Stepping through the wrought-iron gate flanked by the First Baptist Church of Beaufort and Ann Street United Methodist Church, the Old Burying Ground offers a quiet respite from bustling Front Street in Beaufort, North Carolina’s third oldest town.

The low-hanging branches of gnarled live oaks tangle above most of the 300-year-old cemetery on the 400 block of Ann Street, casting shadows on the worn dirt paths that meander between the seemingly organized fenced-in family plots next to simple headstones wedged like crooked teeth between the ornate, weathered monuments, obelisks and statues.

There’s an area that appears to be an open space near the corner of Craven and Broad streets under a tree that Carteret County native Bill Lewis has determined is the unmarked grave of 13 of his ancestors, including Thomas Lewis Sr., born 1740 and died 1815.

A lifelong historian and genealogist of the Lewis family, Bill recently retired from the defense industry and splits his time between Morehead City and Virginia.

He told Coastal Review during a telephone interview that he has always known where his family was buried in the centuries-old graveyard. The location has been part of his family’s oral history for generations. 

He decided about three years ago, after his father and aunt died within days of each other, to expand on the family history research he inherited from them, and prove to some skeptics that his ancestors were in those unmarked graves. 

The Old Burying Ground

Beaufort, first known as Fishtown, was established in 1709 and the street plans for the town that were designed in 1713, and are still in use. Around 1724, the town deeded the lot to the wardens of St. John’s Parish, the first Anglican church in Beaufort, for the church and, presumably, a cemetery. Though speculation is that the land was used as a graveyard before 1724, documents state.

“The Old Burying Ground grew up around the building used for sessions of the Court and for reading the service of the Anglican Church in St. John’s Parish,” according to the Beaufort Historical Association, which manages the graveyard.

The property was transferred to the town in 1731 when an adjacent lot was added but was full by 1828. The graveyard was enlarged in 1851, 1855 and again in 1894 by the Baptist and Methodist churches that have stood on either side of the graveyard’s Ann Street gate since the mid-1800s. The Methodist congregation’s first building erected in 1820 now houses Purvis Chapel AME Zion Church, on the corner of the Old Burying Ground at Craven and Broad streets, according to the nomination form. 

The graveyard has around 500 marked graves, with about half from before and during the Civil War, which took place between 1861 an1865, 150 between 1865 and 1900, then a handful of 20^th century markers.

“The whole area with its lichen-encrusted stones shaded by great trees is pervaded by an atmosphere of age, peace, and pleasant melancholia that makes it one of the most memorable spots in one of North Carolina’s most picturesque communities,” reads the National Register of Historic Places nomination form submitted in 1974 for the nearly 3-acre graveyard. “The range of tombstone design is quite remarkable, from the primitive grace of the simple cypress slabs to the sober functionalism of the long brick grave covers to the ornate memorials of the Victorian period.”

Visitors can take self-guided tours using a map provided by the Beaufort Historical Association, the nonprofit that manages the graveyard, to see where the girl is buried in the barrel of rum, the monument topped with a cannon for Capt. Otway Burns, who was an American privateer during the War of 1812, the soldier from the British Navy who was buried standing up in full uniform facing England, the grave of a romance rekindled after decades of separation because her father didn’t approve, or the northwest corner, which is the oldest part of the cemetery. 

“The corner looks empty, however a 1992 archeological survey confirmed that there are many graves in this area. It is probable that some of the unmarked graves contain victims of the Indian wars whose skulls were cleft with tomahawks of hostile Coree and Neusiok Indians. It is recorded that in September, 1711 the area had ‘been depopulated by the late Indian War and Massacre,” according to the association. 

The Lewis ancestors

The Old Burying Ground holds “the history of our family roots, where Thomas Lewis, an often-overlooked progenitor, is buried alongside David Lewis and his wife. My siblings and I were captivated by our grandfather Raymond and father’s tales there. The cemetery was our playground, sparking imaginations with stories about our ancestors, including whimsical claims that Thomas was born a pirate and one of the first settlers in Carteret County,” Bill Lewis notes in his family research.

Bill is a native of the Promise Land, which is a neighborhood from 10^th  to 15th streets on the sound side of Morehead City, and a graduate of West Carteret High School. The Promise Land, Harkers Island and Bogue Banks were settled in the late 1800s and early 1900s by Cape Bankers, pronounced Ca’e Bankers, when these fishing and whaling families moved to the mainland after their settlements on Shackleford Banks experienced a series of devastating storms.

In his research, Bill introduces himself as “a proud descendant of Ca’e Banker and Waterman Thomas Lewis Sr. (1740 – 1815),” and he draws inspiration from his late father, Jerry Thomas Lewis (1937 – 2023), “a steadfast Promise Lander and beacon of strength” and his mother, Edna Faye Garner (1938 – 2013), who “came from a determined Salter Pather squatter family.”

His late father was in the military and traveled extensively, but every time they were home in Carteret County, they would visit the cemetery to put flowers on the unmarked graves. “He would say, I want you and your brother and sister to go out here in this graveyard and find Thomas Lewis Sr. Well, my dad new there was no headstones,” he told Coastal Review.

“We embarked on an exhilarating adventure through time as my father took us to a mysterious graveyard, where history whispered through the wind. He paused by an ancient oak tree, excitement gleaming in his eyes, and pointed to an elongated grave. ‘Can you believe this? This is the resting place of your great-great-great-great-grandfather, a son of a pirate!’ His enthusiasm was contagious,” Bill continues. “We were reminded of our family’s rich heritage in Carteret County, where the earliest Lewises settled between 1635 and 1730, helping to shape the community during its formative years.”

Bill said during the phone call that he pored over documents, records and other resources to corroborate the family lore. Once he had substantial proof, he approached the town with the idea to have a headstone installed marking his family gravesite. 

The Carteret County Historical Society oversees the History Museum of Carteret County, where Bill volunteers, and has been asking for donations to purchase and install the proposed 30-inch by 78-inch ledger, which, in this case, is a piece of stone about the size of an interior door the length of a grave, and the 13 footstones expected to be 8 inches by 4 inches.

He told Coastal Review Wednesday that, so far, they had raised around $1,700 and needed close to $5,000 for the simple marker they have designed, and are still taking donations. Call the society at 252-247-7533 for information.

Town of Beaufort Planning and Inspections Director Kyle Garner said in an interview Thursday that he has been working with Bill Lewis for the last year on the proposed headstone.

Bill “has done extensive research,” Garner said, “it’s amazing what he has been able to find.”

Garner added that the graves could have been marked at one time, but the marker could have been wooden and is no longer there. 

Because the cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Garner and Bill Lewis have been consulting Melissa Timo, the historic cemetery specialist at the Office of State Archaeology, to make sure the proposed marker wouldn’t degrade the cemetery. 

Timo explained to Coastal Review that the state has limited information on the cemetery and “I don’t believe that the cemetery has been 100% surveyed archaeologically” by ground penetrating radar or similar. 

“There was a limited archaeological survey done in 1991 where they opened shallow trenches in what appeared to be ‘open areas’ in the north-central part of the cemetery,” Timo continued. “No surprise, their work reveal that the area wasn’t free from graves at all. There were dozens of unmarked graves and potential graves,” but the digging was just deep enough to expose the tops of grave shafts and not into the burials or human remains themselves.

Timo said that while this survey doesn’t appear to line up where the Lewis ancestors are, “it is very telling for the possibilities in the section he’s concerned about. I tell people that what’s on the surface in a historic cemetery rarely, rarely matches what’s underground,” Timo explained. “There are probably a great deal more people in that cemetery than we expect. Additionally, since this is an urban cemetery, popular but hemmed in on all sides, we might expect people to be much more tightly aligned than a rural cemetery with plenty of room.”

Beaufort Historical Association Executive Director Michael Tahaney said in an interview that the Beaufort Historic Site is looking forward to including this newly publicized Lewis family heritage and the new headstones on tours of Beaufort’s Old Burying Ground. 

“The watermen and whalers were invaluable to the formation of coastal village settlements that grew into the Carteret County towns of today. I’ve spoken with several of our long-term docent guides who have very little previous knowledge of these unmarked graves. The headstones will be a testament to the family’s legacy,” he said.

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Wild horses cross tidal waters from Town Marsh to Bird Shoal along Beaufort’s barrier islands, which are part of the Rachel Carson Reserve, in Carteret County. The cluster of islands includes Carrot Island, Town Marsh, Bird Shoal, and Horse Island, and the horses are descended from those brought to the islands by a Beaufort area resident in the 1940s, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The state manages the horse population for its health and for the health of the environment, but the herd is otherwise left to fend and forage for itself. Photo: Dylan Ray

MOREHEAD CITY – The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management has awarded more than $2.25 million in grants to fund 10 projects to expand and improve public access to beaches and coastal waterways.

The grants, awarded through the Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Grant Program, will help local governments in the 20 coastal counties acquire land for public access sites and build or improve amenities such as dune crossovers, fishing piers, parking areas, restrooms and kayak launches.

“These state investments will both ensure safe and expanded public access to our coastlines and strengthen the resilience of our communities by supporting infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather,” said DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson in a news release announcing the awards. “As we face increasingly severe storms, these projects will play a key role in safeguarding both public safety and the long-term health of our coastal environments.”

The division on Thursday announced the following awards:

• Atlantic Beach in Carteret County is awarded $115,200 for improvements to the New Bern Street Public Access. The work will entail removing the existing dune crossover and rebuilding 381 feet of the walkway with treated wood, Trex decking and handrails to provide access to the Atlantic Ocean.
• Beaufort in Carteret County is awarded $120,000 for an Ann Street Park water access project. The work will create an access site at the west end of Ann Street featuring an observation deck, greenspace, a picnic area and rain gardens while preserving existing open vistas and improving stormwater drainage.
• Belhaven in Beaufort County is awarded $540,000 for its Harbor Park expansion, which involves acquiring 0.74 acres. Recent site improvements include a new bulkhead and a 200-foot dock.
• Bertie County is awarded $80,000 for the second phase of the Tall Glass of Water Beach Access enhancement and will provide safe, maintenance-free access to the beach by providing a solid surface, accessible 12-foot by 440-foot path to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and expanding the existing public beach by planting vegetation to stabilize the base of the bluff.
• Cedar Point in Carteret County is awarded $305,000 for the second phase of the Boathouse Creek Park bathroom facility project. The project is to add three ADA-accessible bathrooms and associated accessible parking to support and enhance usage of the town’s existing water access site at Boathouse Creek Park.
• Nags Head in Dare County is awarded $400,000 to replace the bathhouse and dune walkover at its Hargrove Street Public Beach Access. The project will also remove and replace existing decking, the emergency vehicle ramp, all wooden stairs and walkways, trash cans, fencing, three shower stations and signage.
• New Hanover County is awarded $265,000 to install a new kayak launch, ADA parking, and an ADA sidewalk to the existing pier, along with additional signage at the Trails End Waterfront Access. The work will be completed concurrently with bulkhead repairs.
• Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County is awarded $82,500 to replace a non-ADA-compliant dune crossover at the Shallotte Boulevard Beach Access. The new access will be widened to 8 feet and made to comply with ADA requirements. The stairs will be replaced with wheelchair-accessible ramps.
• Swansboro in Onslow County is awarded $127,623 to demolish the Main Street Dock, rebuild an existing pedestrian, fishing, and dinghy day dock at the end of Main Street, along the downtown waterfront area south of the White Oak River Bridge. The new docks will be built within the footprint of the existing facility.
• Vandemere in Pamlico County is awarded $167,700 to build an ADA-compliant fishing pier about 80 to 100 feet long and 9 feet wide. It will be located at the end of North First Street and provide access to the Pamlico River.

The North Carolina General Assembly created the Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program in 1981 in response to concerns over declining public access by amending the Coastal Area Management Act, also known as CAMA.

The program was expanded in 1983 to include estuarine areas. The program uses 5% of state Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, or PARTF, annual funds to offer matching grants to local governments. It has supported more than 528 projects, enhancing public access for recreation and coastal enjoyment.

For more information about the program, go to the Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access website.

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A male luna moth, or Actias luna, finds a perch in the branches of a Japanese maple near Russell Creek in Beaufort. The easily identified species flies mostly at night and is found statewide this time of year in and near hardwood forests, wooded residential areas and, on North Carolina’s barrier islands, in maritime forests. Adult luna moths do not feed and live off food they consumed as caterpillars for the moths’ seven- to 10-day lifespan.

Beaufort officials are looking to the federal government for another $6.5 million to pay for a water infrastructure project that’s running months behind schedule and millions over budget.

The Carteret County News-Times reported that the town board has also acted to replace the contractor handling the U.S. Department of Agriculture-supported improvements to the water distribution system because of the delays.

The Beaufort Board of Commissioners in July 28 gave the town manager approval to apply for the additional USDA loan.

The estimated need is based on the most recent calculations of the cost to complete the project. The town is looking at a 3% interest rate on the loan, which is typically a 40-year note.

The work is to reduce flooding, improve water quality, and repair aging infrastructure.

The town had contracted Sunland Builders of Newport for the water distribution and stormwater work to include laying more than 20,000 feet of water line for just over $6 million.

The company’s contract expired Dec. 24 with nearly three-quarters of the work incomplete, but it will be required to finish the work it had begun on Pollock, Gordon, Marsh and Live Oak streets.

The contract includes repair and replacement of damaged sewer lines, manholes and other work, repairing storm drains and replacing parts of the water distribution system.

City leaders in two coastal counties were recently elected to the N.C. League of Municipalities’ board of directors.

Beaufort Mayor Sharon Harker and Washington City Manager Jonathan Russell were sworn in May 1 with other newly elected board members during the league’s annual CityVision 2025 conference in Greenville.

The league’s board of directors are elected by representatives of cities and towns across North Carolina. The board represents and works with league members from those cities and towns “working for a better North Carolina,” according to a release.

Harker, Beaufort’s first Black mayor, is now representing district 2, which includes Carteret, Onslow, Jones, Craven, Pamlico, Beaufort, and Hyde counties. Her two-year term ends 2027, the same year her mayoral term ends.

“Serving in this type of leadership role will allow me to make a broader impact, inspire and motivate others, foster growth, and contribute to a positive environment and organizational success for the NCLM,” Harker said in a release. “As a board member, I will aim to contribute to the success of the League’s future visions. I understand the importance of growing municipal leaders in all areas of North Carolina.”

Russell now serves as an at-large manager of the board of directors.

“My goal is to assist municipalities to thrive amidst changing demographics, urbanization, and economic forces,” he wrote in a question-and-answer segment posted on the league’s website.

He goes on to say he will advocate “for policies that enhance local decision-making, promoting sustainable growth, and supporting innovative solutions to community challenges.”

A gaggle of excited students and staff stand at the seawall, peering across the Beaufort Channel. Chatter ebbs and flows as people come up with possible explanations of what they’re seeing. Is it a sea turtle? A log? A lump of plastic? Finally, the silhouette moves, revealing its true identity. Excitement rushes through the crowd — it’s definitely a seal! 

While commonplace in the Northeast, this seal was 600 miles south of Boston in Beaufort, North Carolina. The animal, a harbor seal, was repeatedly sighted in the Beaufort area the week of March 24, swimming in Taylors Creek and hauling out at the Rachel Carson Reserve. 

Miriam Sutton, owner and director of Science by the Sea Eco-Tours, heard about the seal and set off on her paddleboard to catch a glimpse. She knew the seal was in the area but didn’t know it was so close. Sutton turned around and, “it just kind of caught me off guard,” she said. 

Ava Kocher, a sophomore at the Duke University Marine Lab, was part of the gathering that spotted the seal from the seawall. “It was a time where I wished I could have walked on water so I just could have gotten a little closer,” Kocher said. 

Luckily, Brantley Acree, chief mate aboard the Marine Lab’s R/V Shearwater, pulled up to the seawall in a skiff and offered to take students closer to the seal. Mindful to keep at least 50 meters, or 164 feet, between themselves and the seal, students took photos of the seal and noted its behavior. 

The seal was big news. “There was a lot of talk from the people who had been at the Marine Lab for so long, for so many years, and had never seen one, that if they hadn’t seen one in all of their time here, there must be something wrong with this one and you must be like a penguin in the North Pole, seriously lost,” Kocher said. 

Sutton has lived in the Beaufort area for 31 years and had yet to see a seal. “That’s the first one I’ve actually seen … certainly not this far south,” she said. 

Originally from Massachusetts, Kocher noticed a big difference in how people talk about seals here. “I’ve seen so many harbor seals, and when you see them on Cape Cod, you’re not even excited about the seals. You’re thinking about, ‘Oh, there’s seals on the beach. There must be sharks in the water’ … And so then to go from that to here in North Carolina, where that harbor seal is so much more rare and of an occurrence, then that suddenly was a huge anomaly.”

“It was exciting to see that something that was commonplace in one region of the world could be groundbreaking or indicative of a pattern in another place, and it just feels like you’re not learning what’s going on in the world. Because if the world is always changing, there’s always something new to be learned,” Kocher said. 

While seals are rarer in North Carolina than in Massachusetts, this one wanderer is closer to an established harbor seal colony than you might think. Harbor seals have been hauling out in Oregon Inlet, on the Outer Banks, for at least 10 years. 

As for when the Outer Banks population first popped up, “we don’t know a lot about its origins and when harbor seals were first seen regularly there,” said Dr. Andy Read, Stephen A. Toth Professor of Marine Biology, director of the Duke University Marine Lab and co-author of a scientific article about the Oregon Inlet harbor seal population. 

Read said we’re likely to see more harbor seals in this area “because the population of harbor seals has been protected since 1972 as the result of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and has been protected largely in Canada now, but also as a result of habitat exclusion by gray seals, which were also recovering and maybe squeezing harbor seals out of their former range.” 

Seals may have been in the area historically. A harbor seal specimen from the North Carolina Museum was found in Ocracoke Inlet in the 1930s, and there is some evidence that they’ve been seen in the intervening decades. 

Read is one of the leaders of a Duke Bass Connections Team that will attempt to dig into this in the next academic year. The team of doctoral, master’s and undergraduate students will pore through stranding records, newspaper articles, archeological information, scientific literature and other sources to reconstruct the timeline of harbor seal abundance in North Carolina. 

Dr. Vicky Thayer, the North Carolina Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator and adjunct professor for North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine, has gotten many calls about seals in the area over the years. North Carolina has the highest diversity of any state in the country when it comes to strandings and sightings of marine mammals with four species of seals, 35 species of cetaceans, and manatees reported stranded or seen off of the coast. 

“We get the northern limit of the tropical species and the southern limit of that temperate species. And it’s such an exciting place to work. We learn so much from stranded specimens. We never know what species, will wash ashore next,” Thayer said. 

Thayer received numerous calls about the recent harbor seal in the Beaufort area. Procedure dictates that the stranding team gives seals for 24 hours before responding because they need to haul out and rest.

“As long as the seal is resting in a place that seems that people will not harass it or obstruct its access to the water,” Thayer said, “then we attempt to educate people and let them know that observing from a distance is fine. We post volunteers and set up a perimeter if the seal is in a heavily trafficked area.”

On March 28, Jillian Daly of Beaufort was kayaking in Taylors Creek after work when she saw a “large gray lump” in the marsh. 

“I’d heard there was a seal hanging around the Rachel Carson Reserve, so I quickly realized that’s what I was seeing,” Daly said, “I zoomed in with my camera and saw bile pooled around it’s open mouth, a cut under its neck, and noticed it didn’t seem to be breathing.”

It was the same seal, now dead. 

Daly reached out to Thayer and with her location and photos of the seal. 

“It was so sad,” Daly said, “I’ve never seen a seal in Beaufort and I wish I’d seen it alive and well. However, I’m glad I was able to locate it before animals or other folks came across it so Vicky could retrieve it and perform a necropsy.” 

Thayer, N.C. Aquarium Veterinarian Dr. Emily Christiansen, and Bonehenge Whale Center Director Keith Rittmaster were able to recover the seal that night and perform a necropsy, an animal autopsy, a few days later.

The initial necropsy report found that the animal was a thin out-of-habitat subadult harbor seal. The seal had a cataract in its left eye, lesions on its tongue, and was missing a tooth, all of which may have made foraging difficult. There were also parasites in its stomach, intestines, lungs, and airways, which also could have contributed to its thin condition.

Even though there’s now a colony in North Carolina, this seal is still considered a straggler, out of its habitat. “The weather here isn’t really great for them …The climate is too warm and getting warmer, and so it’s not a good option for long term survival, for high numbers,” said Thayer. 

“The climate is shifting and the prey and the population numbers are changing, and so that’s causing species to expand their ranges, maybe, and it’s not always good for long term survival of individuals.”

We might never know why this seal was down in Beaufort, adding yet another question to the long list of things we don’t know about seals in North Carolina. “What are they doing here? What are they eating? How long are they staying? What’s their body condition? Like, what age and sex classes are here? Are they interacting with human activities like fisheries?” Read asked. 

Harbor seals are a conservation success story; they beat the odds and recovered from extirpation across their range. But without answers to these questions, the perception of seals might not be so positive. However, the unknown is also exciting; there’s so much left to discover. 

If you see a seal in North Carolina, stay at least 50 yards away. “The seals need to rest, and you shouldn’t obstruct their path to the water and stay away from them, because they carry diseases and they can bite,” Thayer said. Please call 252-241-5119 to report live and dead seals and manatees, and stranded whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

“If they’re not stressed, they can fight off disease better. People approaching them can stress them, and if they are sick, but might be able to recover with rest. People may be preventing their recovery by approaching them too closely and they carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans and dogs,” said Thayer.

Thayer and Read both expect to see an increase in the number of seals in the Beaufort area in the future. Only time will tell if this lone seal was a random occurrence or a harbinger of the future. 

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort is set to launch its 49th annual Wooden Boat Show this weekend.

Scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 3, the boat show and related events span across Beaufort’s Front Street, its town docks and the Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center. The museum facility is currently closed to the public while the HVAC system is under construction.

“This year’s show is shaping up beautifully,” show coordinator Grant Caraway, who manages the Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center, said in a release. “We’ve already got more than 20 boats registered for display and half of the in-water spots filled with even more expected as the date nears. It’s going to be a fantastic day in Beaufort.”

All Comers Sailboat Race on Taylors Creek begins at 10:30 a.m., free sailboat rides on Taylors Creek will be offered 1-3 p.m., and the awards ceremony at the Watercraft Center is at 4 p.m.

Boat owners interested in participating can register a boat for $30, which includes a shirt. Additional vessels are $5 each. Registration is open through Wednesday using the online form at ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com or by phone at 252-504-7758 through the morning of the show.

The show is to feature classic, modern, motorized and self-powered vessels lining the streets and waterfront, miniature vintage outboard motors, interactive stations for children on the museum’s front patio, nautical rope work and demonstrations, and sea shanties with Bob Zentz.

Books, crafts and art will be on display and for purchase on the museum patio and the deck at Harborside Park.

The opening reception is to begin at 5 p.m. Friday at the Watercraft Center, featuring refreshments, entertainment, and a preview of the weekend. The reception, as well as the boat show itself is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit beaufortwoodenboatshow.com.

Maritime Heritage Series

The museum’s Maritime Heritage Lecture Series features informal lectures focused on North Carolina’s rich maritime history, coastal environment, and culture held in in the Fort Macon Coastal Education Center. There is no charge to attend the in-person program.

The following are the May programs:

Civil Air Patrol during World War II 11 a.m. May 15. Join Associate Education Curator Christine Brin for a look at the history of the Civil Air Patrol specific to their work and defense of Eastern North Carolina.

Sea Turtles in North Carolina 11 a.m. May 23. Join Natural Science Curator Keith Rittmaster on World Turtle Day to learn about the different species of sea turtles that inhabit the coastal waters of North Carolina and the trials they face from before they even emerge from their sandy nest.

A Curiosity Grows in Carolina 11 a.m. May 29. On April 2, 1759, a letter was penned that would rock the botanical world: the first documented description of the Venus flytrap. Join Shannon Walker, curator of programming and education at the N.C. Maritime Museum at Southport, to learn the history behind the plant’s discovery.

And for youngsters is Kids’ Cove: Boats from 9-11 a.m. May 14. The free-play program designed for ages 0-5 and their caregivers with a different maritime-themed craft and wiggle activity each month. While the museum is temporarily closed for maintenance, the kids cove programs are being held in the Beaufort Train Depot, 614 Broad St.

A Carteret County town known for its waterfront is looking for help from the state to repair its town docks and replace the bulkhead and the boardwalk.

Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, who also represents Carteret, Chowan, Dare, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Washington counties, is the primary sponsor of the bill filed March 25 titled “An act to appropriate funds to the Town of Beaufort for upgrades and repairs to the town’s Boat Docks.” If passed, the bill would appropriate $12 million from the general fund “to provide a directed grant to the Town of Beaufort as title indicates. Effective July 1, 2025.”

The next day the bill was sent to the appropriations/base budget committee, where it remained as of Thursday, when he bill was still not listed on the legislative calendar.

There was no mention of funding for the town in the most recent edition of the Senate’s proposed budget passed April 17. The House is currently working on its draft. The North Carolina General Assembly has until June 30 to finalize the budget.

Beaufort Public Information Officer Rachel Johnson said the funds would be used for the needed infrastructure upgrades to include, but not limited to, the town’s bulkhead, boardwalk, and docks work, according to an April 20 article in the Carteret County News-Times, which first reported the proposed bill.

Beaufort, which “has a residential population of about 4,000 with a high influx of visitor traffic during the warmer months,” has had a “Waterfront Improvement Project” in the works for the past handful of years, according to the town website, to prepare for when Beaufort Waterfront Enterprises no longer manages or maintains the docks, which it has done for several decades. Their lease originally set to expire Dec. 31, 2024, was extended in August 2024 to Dec. 31, 2025.

Two of the committees that help steer the types of programs and management of coastal reserves in the state are set to meet later this month.

Spring local advisory committee meetings of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve are open to the public. The meetings are in-person only.

The local advisory committee for the Rachel Carson Reserve is scheduled for 3 p.m. April 22 in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Beaufort Laboratory administration building 101, Pivers Island Road in Beaufort.

The committee for the Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve will meet at 1 p.m. April 23 in Kitty Hawk Town Hall.

Committee members are residents, representatives from community organizations, government agencies and nongovernmental partner organizations who provide guidance and feedback on program activities and site management to the N.C. Division of Coastal Management’s Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the state’s coast. More of his work can be found on his personal website.

As I looked through an extraordinary group of historical photographs at the State Archives in Raleigh, I found a group of old photographs taken during the Second World War that surprised me.

Some of the photographs show local fishermen harvesting seaweed in the waters off Beaufort in the summer of 1944. Others show the inner workings of a factory in Beaufort that was established during the war to process that seaweed into a jelly-like substance called agar.

Produced by extracting polysaccharides from the cell walls of certain species of seaweed in the red algae family (Rhodophyta), agar has dozens of uses today.

Many of them are culinary. Others have to do with the pharmaceutical industry, medical research, and health care.

Agar is even used in the textile industry, food preservation, and brewing.

However, if you are like me, you remember agar for just one of those uses. Like medical researchers and basic scientists around the world, my high school biology teachers used agar as a growth medium for bacteria. The translucent gel that lined the bottom of our petri dishes was agar.

By using agar, we could grow bacterial cultures on our own, and our teachers could help us to understand the basic properties of bacteria, one of the most ubiquitous forms of life on Earth.

In those petri dishes, that thin layer of agar served as a solid, stable, and nutritious surface for the bacteria to grow, and one that would not be eaten up by the bacteria before we could plumb its secrets.

In the photographer’s notes on the agar factory in Beaufort, I was also surprised to see repeated references to Pivers Island, the small island that is just across the channel from Beaufort and is home to the Duke University Marine Laboratory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Beaufort laboratory.

The notes were rather obscure, but they made clear that scientists on Pivers Island at the Duke marine lab and at the U.S. Government Fisheries Laboratory, a predecessor of NOAA, or both had played a central role in the establishment of the agar factory in Beaufort.

I felt a little chastened that I had not previously heard a single word about the agar industry in Beaufort or Pivers Island.

I grew up only 20 miles from both Beaufort and Pivers Island. I even lived on the Pivers Island for four months back in 1981, when I was a student at the Duke marine lab. I was a history and botany double major at Duke.

My mother even went to school on Pivers Island during the Second World War. She grew up out in a rural part of Carteret County, but she attended Beaufort High School during the Second World War.

She was a senior when the school burned down over the Christmas holidays in 1944.

My mother’s class finished its senior year on Pivers Island. Her classes met in buildings that were usually used by the marine lab’s summer students.

On several occasions, I have done historical research in two libraries on Pivers Island: the Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Lab and the library next door at what is now called the NCCOS Beaufort Laboratory.

Yet I had somehow never seen any historical accounts of the agar industry. Even after I found these photographs and began to look for articles or books that might have discussed it, I found only a couple of brief accounts that were written 75 years ago by one of the scientists involved in the agar facility.

Needless to say, my curiosity was aroused. As a historian, I have always been interested in the ways that our lives are entangled with the sea and I felt as if I had missed something important.

That curiosity led me on a bit of a deep dive into subjects that I could never have imagined studying: the history of agar, the ecology of seaweed, and the story of the wartime crisis that led to seaweed harvesting and the construction of the agar factory in Beaufort.

* * *

I began my research by learning more about agar and its history. With a little bit of digging, I soon learned that China, Japan, and other East Asian countries had been using seaweeds extensively as food, medicine, and fertilizer since at least the time of Confucious.

The invention of agar came out of that traditional knowledge of seaweeds and their uses.

By all accounts, agar was invented in Japan. The production of agar in Japan was first documented by Western observers around the time of the American Revolution, but it is believed that Japanese cooks had been using agar in soups, desserts, and other foods long before that time.

Agar was the first seaweed product that was traded extensively in international markets.

According to a scientific overview of the agar industry published soon after the Second World War, approximately 500 small factories in Japan were making agar by the turn of the 20th century. By then, Japanese firms were already exporting large quantities of agar to Europe and the Americas.

Scattered over the Japanese main island of Honshu, those factories were what we might call “craft industries” today: local and using traditional, hand-crafted techniques, not reliant on electricity or machinery.

Cooks in Japan first used agar in their kitchens, but agar spread from Japan to cuisines in many parts of East Asia and the Pacific. In fact, the name “agar” comes from a Malay word for red algae, agar-agar.

The first use of agar as a growth medium for bacteria was not in Japan or elsewhere in East Asia, however.

That use for agar first began in Germany in the late 19th century. In the 1880s, scientists in the great German physician and microbiologist Robert Koch’s laboratory first used agar as a growth medium for bacteria.

Using agar, they succeeded in isolating the bacteria that caused tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax for the first time. Discoveries that saved the lives of untold millions.

It was agar’s exceptional ability to serve as a bacterial medium that led to the agar factory in Beaufort.

Prior to 1939, the vast majority of the world’s supply of bacteriological agar came from Japan, where agar was produced mainly from a red seaweed whose scientific name is Gelidium corneum.

With that supply cut off by the war, many U.S. Allies began seeking to develop their own internal sources of agar.

In a time of war, the availability of bacteriological agar was especially important in medicine.

Physicians and microbiologists sometimes relied on agar to grow bacterial cultures in order to identify diseases. More commonly, they relied on agar to produce vaccines and to grow Staphylococcus aureus, one of the leading causes of wound infections, and other bacteria to test the potency of penicillin.

Great Britain was among the first countries that recognized a shortage of agar as a national emergency. Beginning in 1942, British leaders initiated the large-scale harvesting of red seaweeds on England’s west coast and to a lesser extent in Northumberland.

The United States also declared agar a “critical war material” and moved to assure an adequate supply of agar in 1942.

According to an April 1943 AP story, the federal government’s War Production Board, or WPB, froze the nation’s entire stock of agar in 1942, restricting its use to medical and pharmaceutical purposes. In addition, the WPB authorized the creation of a federal stockpile of 750,000 pounds of agar, more than twice what was available in the country at the time.

The AP story also noted that the U.S. had been using approximately 600,000 pounds of agar a year prior to the war, nearly all of it obtained from Japan.

On a quest to develop a domestic supply of agar, the Food and Drug Administration’s E. G. Poindexter seems to have started the inquiry that led to the agar factory on Pivers Island.

On a tour of the southern coast in 1942, Poindexter met with Dr. Harold J. Humm, a young marine scientist at the Duke University Marine Laboratory, which had opened on Pivers Island a few years earlier.

A specialist in marine alga and marine bacteriology, Humm was later the marine lab’s director and eventually founded what is now the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Sciences.

At Pivers Island, Poindexter and Humm discussed the possibilities for locating seaweeds suitable to the production of agar on the East Coast of the United States.

According to an Oct. 5, 1944, Beaufort News article, the War Production Board, based on Poindexter’s recommendation, soon funded Humm to survey sources of red seaweed that could be used to produce agar.

With that support, Dr. Humm explored coastlines from Chesapeake Bay to the Florida Keys and along the Gulf Coast.

He also began experimenting on making agar with seaweeds found in the vicinity of Pivers Island. By June 1942, he was focusing especially on a red seaweed that locals called “red moss” that was common on the area’s beaches at low tide and in local waters up to a depth of about 60 feet.

Dr. Humm described his research on seaweed and agar in an article called “Agar: A Pre-War Japanese Monopoly” that appeared in the journal Economic Botany in 1947.

A few years later, he published a more comprehensive survey of his work on agar and on the history and uses of agar in general in a chapter of a larger scientific work edited by Donald K. Tressler and J. M. Lemon titled Marine Products of Commerce: Their Acquisition, Handling, Biological Aspects, and the Science and Technology of their Preparation and Preservation (1951).

The experiments showed promise. According to Dr. Humm’s findings, two red seaweeds, Gracilaria confervoides and Gracilaria foliifera, both in a genus commonly called “Irish moss,” were available at commercially viable levels in the intertidal zones on that part of the North Carolina coast.

Persuaded by Dr. Humm’s research, a private firm called the Van Sant Co. began recruiting fishermen to harvest the seaweed and also began fashioning a small experimental facility. I am a bit unclear if that temporary facility was located in Beaufort or on Pivers Island.

The company had been established by Harvey G. Van Sant, the driving force behind a biochemical firm called the American Chlorophyll Company that was based in Washington, D.C.

Several years later, in 1947, Harvey G. Van Sant described the American Chlorophyll Company as “a pioneer in the field of processing and refining natural pigments and vitamins” from organic sources for use in “foods, cosmetics, feeds, and pharmaceuticals.” The Palm Beach Post, April 4, 1947.

During the spring and summer of 1943, the Van Sant Co’s scientists also undertook research on seaweed harvesting methods and on the preparation of agar.

That research was done in cooperation with Dr. Humm, as well as with scientists at the U.S. Government Fisheries Laboratory, also on Pivers Island, and other government fishery scientists.

“We Could See Ships Burning”

One of the scientists who supported the company’s agar research was Dr. Herbert Prytherch, the director of the U.S. Government Fisheries Lab. His son later wrote a brief reminiscence of his childhood that gives a sense of what the Second World War was like in Beaufort that is not revealed in our photographs.

In his excellent history of the U.S. Government Fisheries Lab, NOAA scientist Douglas A. Wolfe quoted Herbert Prytherch, Jr.:

“The port terminal at Morehead City [a half-mile west of Pivers Island] afforded safety for a number of ships, and they would stay there until dark of the moon came each month.

“German submarines would lurk offshore, waiting for these ships to leave the harbor. Late at night we would hear the distant thud of torpedoes and depth charges. Next we would hear endless sounds of airplane engines, followed by more explosions. Sometimes on the morning after, we could see ships burning….

“During these days the beaches were black, covered with oil. Many sailor caps were also found, and sometimes bodies.”

By November 1943, the Van Sant Co. had begun to produce commercial agar, though again I am unsure if those first efforts were undertaken somewhere in Beaufort or on Pivers Island.

Soon local fishermen with boats piled high with tons of seaweed were a not uncommon sight on that part of the North Carolina coast.

The fishermen would say that they were going out “mossing.”

“Thousands of unexpected dollars have found their way into fishermen’s pockets and `mossing’ has begun to take its place with clamming, crabbing, fishing, and other industries,” The Beaufort News announced.

Over the course of that fall, the fishermen delivered an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 tons of seaweed to the company’s dock.

For the old salts at least, collecting seaweed was nothing new, though they had never done it anywhere close to that extent. But old timers still used seaweed as a fertilizer in their gardens, and many fishing people used that same red seaweed to stuff the mattresses where they slept at night.

Sometime that fall of 1943, for reasons that are unclear to me, Harvey Van Sant sold the company to a M.W. Stansfield, a businessman who renamed the firm the Beaufort Chemical Co.

Stansfield also purchased a 40-acre waterfront lot a few miles away in Lennoxville, on the far side of Beaufort, and began to build the agar facility that we see in these photographs from the State Archives.

In a Feb. 21, 1943, article in the Raleigh News & Observer, reporter Amy Muse described how the company’s workers followed a method of making agar that was very similar to the traditional methods used in Japan.

“The [sea] grass is spread out to dry and bleach for several days, during which time it is sprinkled at intervals with sea water. Then the cooking: The grass is boiled in a generous supply of water, resulting in a soupy product. This is strained through cloth and poured into shallow pans, where it solidifies like a clear gelatin. It is from this, through a scientific process, that pure bacteriological agar is obtained.”

Muse left out a step or two, a great deal of filtering, dehydrating, freezing, chemical additives, drying, and milling, but that was it in a nutshell.

I have not found historical records on the quantity of seaweed harvested at the company’s plants, or on the quantity of agar produced at them, or of the company’s profits.

However, I do know that the local agar industry was relatively short-lived. With the support of the War Production Board, the Beaufort Chemical Co. seemed to thrive during the war and played an important part in helping the country to overcome its reliance on Japanese agar.

But by the winter of 1945-46, soon after the war’s ghastly ending at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the company’s leaders were already saying that the local supply of Gracilaria confervoides and Gracilaria foliifera, the “red mosses” necessary to make agar, was dwindling.

The company soon shuttered its facility in Lennoxville and relocated its base of operations to the Florida coast. In 1948, the Beaufort Chemical Co.’s directors declared bankruptcy.

At that time, another company, Sperti, Inc., bought the company’s plant in Lennoxville.

Named for its president, a Cincinnati research scientist named Dr. George Sperti, Sperti, Inc. continued to make bacteriological agar and apparently also agar for culinary and other uses for a few more years.

Today Dr. George Sperti is remembered most often for inventing another product connected to the sea– the hemorrhoid treatment Preparation H. The original formulation of Preparation H included shark liver oil as a central ingredient.

Dr. Sperti closed the facility sometime in 1951 or 1952. Then, in the summer of 1953, the company’s main processing plant on Lennoxville Road, abandoned at the time, burned to the ground. The agar industry’s brief moment on the North Carolina coast was over.

* * *

Special thanks to Douglas A. Wolfe for sharing his extensive knowledge of Pivers Island’s history and the work of its marine laboratories with me. 

This is the 2nd in my “Working Lives” series that looks at the stories behind a collection of historical photographs that were taken on the North Carolina coast between 1937 and 1953. 

The photographs were originally taken for a state agency called the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development. Today they are preserved at the State Archives in Raleigh. 

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Snow covers Front Street in Beaufort Wednesday morning as the winter storm continues to blanket Carteret County and much of coastal North Carolina. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Visitors during a recent chilly day carry fishing poles while strolling along the water’s edge at Cedar Street Park in downtown Beaufort, with the construction site of the 103-room Compass Hotel Beaufort by Margaritaville Resorts on Gallants Channel in the background. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A tiny Z-scale model train operated by Mike Basher of Basher and Sons Hobbies rounds the bend during an appearance earlier this month at the 30th annual John Costlow Train Show at the North Carolina Maritime Museum Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center in Beaufort. The three-day show included model train layouts of various scales, including working antiques.

This model transported a yellow rubber ducky on a flatcar.

Basher said the Z-scale, a ratio to actual size of 1:220, is his scale of choice due to its diminutive size and a lack of space at home.

“My permanent layout at home consists of a Z-scale layout inside a glass-top coffee table that sits inconspicuously in our living room, ready to be operated at a moment’s notice,” he told Coastal Review.

But Z is not the smallest model railroad scale — there’s at least one smaller: the T-gauge, a scale of 1:450, or about half the size of Z-scale models.

Dozens of staff working in a building of a longstanding federal fisheries science lab in Beaufort have been displaced after it was discovered the building’s foundation is structurally damaged.

On Oct. 16, 40 employees had to move out of Building 2 at the National Ocean Service Lab after engineers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of the Chief Administrative Officer verified the damage the day prior, a National Ocean Service spokesperson confirmed Friday.

Spokesperson Maureen O’Leary said in an email responding to questions that the damage was found during a routine assessment by the NOAA Beaufort Lab facilities team.

“As a result, the building has been vacated to ensure the safety of personnel,” O’Leary said. “We are looking at temporary facilities for our scientists to continue their work.”

The lab on Pivers Island between Morehead City and Beaufort is operated by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, or NCCOS, under NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

Scientists in the NCCOS lab research harmful algal blooms, coastal resilience and restoration, habitat mapping, aquaculture siting and impacts and ecology of marshes and coral reefs.

The Beaufort Lab, as it is more often called, started out as a U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries field station in 1899 before moving to Pivers Island in 1902.

Nearly 100 years later, it was made part of the NCCOS.

The lab also houses NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center and Southeast Regional Office, the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve.

“Father, oh father, Please let me go with thee.
I long to see old England, across the deep blue sea.”

— From “The Rum Barrel Girl” by Gumbo Lily

I was on a morning run in the crisp fall air with golden aspen leaves littering the ground like an abstract mosaic. The crunching of leaves under my footsteps caused a red fox to raise its head, catching my attention. Peering at me from around a headstone, I stopped. We stared at each other for a few seconds, then the fox went about its business mousing for rodents.

Old cemeteries, especially those with old-growth trees, are perfect habitat for a variety of animals such as foxes, deer, rabbits and owls. This is why I seek them out; the older the better. I abandoned my run and began walking the pathways between the headstones looking for wildlife. High up in a lanky pine tree, a raven scolded an oblivious great horned owl.

As I stepped between the graves, one headstone caught my eye. The entire gravesite was a memorial covered with mementoes. A basketball, stuffed animals, angel figurines, flowers, toy horses, lariats and cowboy boots. There was even a ball cap with the words, “Beach Cowgirl” printed on the crown. The gifts spoke of an adored and obviously beloved young girl.

Related: Special tour to give voices to Beaufort’s oldest residents

Curiously out of place at the base of the grave was a seashell. Not a tourist-bought, clean and polished seashell, but a raw, ocean-tumbled helmet shell that you would find along the beaches of the East Coast.

The owl, the grave and the seashell caused synapses to fire in my brain like a pinball lighting up memories.

As if in a trance, I was teleported back to the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort, North Carolina. Here I have searched the live oak trees for the great horned owls, where they nest year after year, near the grave of the intriguing “rum keg girl.”

With burials starting in the early 1700s, the Old Burying Ground is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Primordial looking live oak trees drape their branches creating a canopy of shade over the headstones. Twisted arms of wisteria grip any surface like a rat snake climbing a tree while patches of ivy and ferns fill unclaimed ground. Time and weathering have erased the etchings on some headstones, leaving the epitaphs unreadable. Moss and lichens have colonized most stonework throughout the grounds in a patina of time.

Surrounded by concrete and wrought-iron fencing, tombstones and monuments stand low and tall, from modest to elaborate. Placement of family plots and individual graves appears helter-skelter, resulting in a maze of paths that weave among the graves.

Upon entering the gated churchyard, visitors can soak up the history while taking a self-guided tour. With 28 points of interest, the tour features Capt. Otway Burns, “naval hero of the War of 1812,” a British officer reported to be buried standing up in full uniform, the crew of the shipwreck known as the Crissie Wright, and of Jechonias Willis, a soldier who died during the siege of Fort Macon.

Yet, on stop No. 24, people are stunned when they come upon the resting place of a young girl buried in a keg of rum. Listed on the tour brochure simply as, “Girl in Barrel of Rum,” this story has captivated people for years.

I have read numerous accounts of the story and here is what I have pieced together.

In the mid-1700s, a merchant captain, named Sloo, possibly a Nathaniel Sloo, arrived from England to Beaufort with his wife and infant daughter, where he built a stunning house on Front Street with a splendid view of the water.

As the child grew, her homesick mother regaled her with stories of England. Fascinated by the tales of her homeland, the child dreamed of visiting there someday. The captain often set across the ocean to England and his darling daughter pleaded to take the voyage with him. Fraught with danger, the journey for a young child was just too risky. Her begging was denied. With persistence, and the passage of time, at 12 years old, her wish was finally granted. With his wife still unsure, Sloo pledged to return with his dearest daughter. The voyage to England was uneventful and she delightfully reveled in the land of her birth.

On the passage home, tragedy struck and the girl fell ill and died. Horrified and heartbroken, he was unable to slide his sweet daughter off a plank into the cold Atlantic for a burial at sea. Haunted by his vow, Sloo would return with his child.

Pretty heartbreaking stuff, but is the story true, a legend or folklore? There isn’t really any documentation on record that can authenticate the burial of a child named Sloo in the Old Burying Grounds.

As they sailed west across the ocean, the captain pickled her remains in a keg full of rum. Upon return to Beaufort, the distraught mother did not want to disturb her baby’s body. The captain’s wife agreed to bury the little girl still encased, like a cocoon, inside the keg of rum.

Records do show that a Nathaniel Sloo did own a lot on Front Street in 1768, however he quickly sold the lot, never building a house on the property. This is the only documentation that can reliably place a man named Sloo with a presence in Beaufort.

In a few the stories, Nathaniel Sloo is referenced as the seafaring captain and father of the rum keg girl. Yet, there is no archival provenance that references the name of his wife, his daughter, or the burial.

The grave is marked with a primitive looking wooden plank with the words “Little Girl Buried in Rum Keg” carved into the surface. I read in one publication that the wood is a “slab of cypress more than two hundred years old.”

Even assuming that this is the original marker, I don’t think that any loving parents would omit their child’s name on the marker. The wording on the marker just seems to sensationalize the burial and not honor the deceased.

But maybe the story isn’t so far-fetched, there are other accounts of people being buried in a barrel of spirits. The Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington has its own “girl in the barrel” who died in 1857. The daughter of a merchant captain, Nancy Martin, sailed with her father on a lengthy trading excursion. Nancy is thought to have fallen victim to yellow fever and died at age 24 in Cuba. Secured in a sitting position on a chair, her body was placed in hogshead of liquor for the return trip to Wilmington for burial in the family plot.

In the Old Cutler Cemetery in Maine, Jeanette Corbett is said to also be buried in a cask filled with rum in 1873. Known as the “Lady in a Rum Cask,” Corbett died while with her merchant captain husband on a trading trip to Cuba.

While dying, she insisted to be buried in her home state of Maine. A new bride at 26 years old, she was preserved in the intoxicant for the passage home. Fearing that she might have died of yellow fever and could infect others, she was left in the barrel for burial.

So, there are other accounts of people spending their eternal rest soaking in a barrel of alcohol.

In 2016, the rum keg girl grave gained some unwanted notoriety when the Beaufort police and fire departments responded to a report of a fire on the Old Burying Ground. When they arrived, they found the grave had been desecrated. Set ablaze for some cryptic reason by a vandal.

Her story has intrigued the interest of musicians, inspiring the haunting song, “The Rum Barrel Girl” by the North Carolina Americana band, Gumbo Lily. A chance visit to the grave site influenced writer Katy Simpson Smith to pen the 2014 novel, “The Story of Land and Sea.”

I was able to speak with Patricia Suggs, executive director of the Beaufort Historical Association, which offers guided tours of the Old Burying Ground. She more than hinted that it is entirely possible that the rum keg girl story could be a fanciful fabrication. She stated that the story could have been conjured up and given life by a storytelling group called the Fishtown Liars in the 1960s.

The group conducted tours on the history of Beaufort including the Old Burying Ground. To keep their tales entertaining, it is said they never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I think it is fair to say that this story is now part of the town’s oral history.

Today, the grave continues to attract tourists, history buffs and the curious. Pilgrimages are made to adorn the grave with stuffed animals, toys, bead necklaces, bracelets, coins, flowers and lots of seashells. The last time I visited, there was even a colorful kite propped above the vaulted grave.

Piling up like cairns, these tributes need to be regularly removed by the site managers. Soon enough, though, the decorations will again quickly accumulate, covering the grave.

Legend, folklore, myth or fact, the rum keg girl lives on. Stories persist that she comes out at night and runs around the cemetery, her own haunted playground. Gifts left at her grave mysteriously move around to different locations. Listen closely and you can even hear her humming.

It is a captivating story weaved into the fabric of Beaufort’s cultural heritage. It is an enduring story that will continue to fascinate people for years to come – a story too good not to be told, nor forgotten.

Is it fact or fiction?

You decide.

I like to think that the story is true and that her spirit drifts high through the tangle of branches hovering above the graveyard. Many cultures believe that owls are the spirits of people that have passed on.

Perhaps she lives on through the generations of great horned owls that glide through the twisted, moss-covered limbs of the ancient oak trees in the Old Burying Ground.

Branches of centuries-old live oaks tangle in the sky over the Old Burying Ground, cocooning Beaufort’s oldest resting place.

Located in Beaufort’s historic district, the graveyard is filled with hundreds of graves, some dating back to the early 1700s, some marked with a simple headstone, some topped with an obelisk or imposing sarcophagus, and some not marked at all.

The Beaufort Historic Site is offering special tours Nov. 2 called Voices of the Past to “bring to life the stories of those who have long passed and have been laid to rest in the Old Burying Ground.”

A volunteer “burial caretaker” will guide ticketholders through the grounds to the eight different burial sites, where reenactors will tell the story of the deceased.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for ages 6-12. The hourlong tours are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Space is limited. Organizers recommend purchasing tickets ahead of time by calling the Beaufort Historic Site at 252-728-5225 or by visiting the Old Beaufort Shop, 130 Turner St.

The 2-acre Beaufort Historic Site is managed by the nonprofit Beaufort Historical Association and features six authentically restored buildings.

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The faint tail of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS pointing away from the setting sun is visible Sunday evening over Taylors Creek in Beaufort. NASA says the “dirty snowball’s” appearance is “a once-in-80,000-years sight.” The comet believed to be from the Oort Cloud at the edge of our Solar System was expected to swing close by at about 44 million miles from Earth — its closest pass — on Saturday. Discovered in 2023, it is named for both China’s Tsuchinshan, or Purple Mountain, Observatory and an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope in South Africa. Photo: Mark Hibbs

Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. More of his work can be found on his personal website.

I first learned about the Bohemian oyster shuckers who used to work in North Carolina’s oyster canneries almost 40 years ago.

I was living in Swan Quarter that winter, and I still remember how surprised I was when some of the old timers told me how, when they were young, Bohemian immigrants would come from Baltimore and work in a local cannery.

At the time, I wondered how they had come to be there, and what their lives had been like, and where else, besides Swan Quarter, they might have gone.

Many years have passed since those days in Swan Quarter, but I thought maybe it was time to see if I could discover their story.

Here is what I found out.

***

From 1890 until at least 1914, thousands of central and Eastern European immigrants worked in oyster canneries on the North Carolina coast. Typically recruited by “padrones,” or labor agents, in Baltimore, they all came to be known as “Bohemians,” though they had actually immigrated to the United States from many different parts of Europe.

They included men, women and children, all of whom, except for the youngest children, shucked and canned oysters. An unknown number of the men also worked on oyster boats.

Many had actually come from Bohemia, a land of low mountains and plateaus in what is now the Czech Republic. More, however, had left homes in other parts of Europe to come to America.

Among them were especially large numbers of Polish immigrants, but also Serbs, Dalmatians, and other Slavic peoples, Germans, and even Italians. 

For simplicity’s sake, I will also refer to this diverse group of immigrants as “Bohemians,” unless historical sources allow me to identify their nation of origin more precisely. 

By the mid-19th century, Baltimore, Maryland, had become the center of the nation’s oyster industry.

But by the 1880s and 1890s, many of Baltimore’s oyster companies had begun to expand beyond Chesapeake Bay. They began to open canneries both on the North Carolina coast and as far south as Mississippi and Louisiana.

Many of those oyster canneries relied on immigrant laborers who had settled in Fells Point, Camden, and other waterfront neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. Typically, they transported the Bohemian workers south by train, though some also traveled to the North Carolina coast by steamer.

For a time, the Bohemian immigrants seemed to be in every town and village on the North Carolina coast.

In my survey of coastal newspapers, I found the Bohemians working in oyster canneries in Elizabeth City, Swan Quarter, Belhaven, Washington, Morehead City, Beaufort, Marshallberg, Swansboro and Shallotte.

I suspect that the Bohemians worked in other oyster ports on the North Carolina coast as well, but sources are scant — I cannot be sure.

In some other parts of the coastal South, the Bohemians are at least somewhat better remembered. But, on the North Carolina coast, they seem to have been completely forgotten. To my knowledge, no book, article, or museum exhibit — or blog, podcast or anything else — has ever told their story.

Today I hope that I can take at least a small step toward changing that.

By drawing especially on coastal newspapers, and with help from some wonderful librarians, archivists, and museum curators, I will try to sketch the best portrait I can of the Bohemian oyster shuckers and their lives on the North Carolina coast between 1890 and 1914.

At the John Boyle & Co.’s Cannery at Goat Island

One of the best accounts that I found of the Bohemian oyster shuckers here on the North Carolina coast comes from Elizabeth City, a town on the Pasquotank River, just north of Albemarle Sound, that was transformed by the boom in the oyster industry that began in 1890.

In the spring of 1902, an Elizabeth City attorney and newspaper publisher named Walter L. Cohoon wrote an account of his visit to a large group of Bohemian immigrants that were living and working at the John Boyle & Co.’s oyster cannery on Goat Island.

John Boyle & Co. was one of probably half a dozen or more Baltimore companies that had opened oyster canneries in Elizabeth City since 1890. The company had first located in the town’s Riverside neighborhood, then moved to Goat Island, now called Machele Island, which is located just across the Pasquotank from Elizabeth City’s waterfront.

Cohoon and a friend or two crossed the river in a skiff, then tied up at the oyster cannery’s wharf on Goat Island.

Touring the cannery, they discovered a large force of Bohemian oyster shuckers, “four score of them,” as well as many local African Americans, hard at work.

At that time, the John Boyle & Co.’s workers could, at peak capacity, shuck and can 15,000 bushels of oysters a month, which amounted to some 16,000 cans of oysters a day.

In his newspaper, the Tar Heel, Cohoon wrote, “We listened to the songs of the negroes and to the broken English of the foreign element until becoming tired we turned our attention to the Bohemian quarters.”

They then walked next door to the barracks where the Bohemian workers and their families stayed during the oyster season.

“Here,” Cohoon reported, ” … we found one long room with rows of bunks built along the sides of the building.”

Seasonal and migrant labor camps of that kind were not uncommon on the North Carolina coast in that day, but Cohoon does not seem to have visited any of them before.

“The members of a dozen families lay themselves down to sleep with not so much as a thin curtain separating their different births. The sons and daughters of different families cooped up in one small building like so many beasts is a condition of affairs that one can hardly believe, yet such is a fact, and they live peacefully together, never trespassing or intruding upon one another in any other manner.”

‘Two Trainloads of Bohemian Goat Islanders’

The Bohemian oyster shuckers on Goat Island continued to show up in the pages of the Tar Heel for another couple of years.

The very next year, for instance, on April 10, 1903, the Tar Heel referred to the Bohemians while railing against a change in state law that regulated the oyster industry more closely.

In that article, the Tar Heel warned Elizabeth City’s citizens that the new law would have a disastrous impact on the town’s economy.

The headline read:

 “The Oysterman’s Boats are Idle and without Employment. TWO BIG CANNERIES SUSPEND. Several Hundred Bohemians go Home—Colored Laborers are Walking the Streets—and the Oyster Tongers are out of Pocket Money.”

The Tar Heel observed that oyster cannery owners had gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to “send a mass of Bohemian population from Maryland to North Carolina.”

The newspaper then went on to say that local merchants would suffer if the Bohemian oyster shuckers left the North Carolina coast for good:

“In Elizabeth City alone, an entire island colony have migrated to Baltimore this week, whose combined salaries were practically invested here and who might have gone this month into the pockets of our merchants.”

The “entire island colony” was of course a reference to the Bohemian oyster shuckers at Goat Island.

The paper continued:

“The Boyle Oyster Canning Company suspended active business Wednesday the 1^st. Monday April 6^th two train loads of Bohemian Goat Islanders, left Elizabeth City for Baltimore, where they will engage in picking strawberries, or canning sundry goods.”

That was actually typical. When the oyster season ended on the North Carolina coast, usually later in April, the Bohemian immigrants most often returned to Baltimore to work either in canneries there or in the fields of Maryland and Delaware that supplied the city’s canneries with fruits and vegetables.

The Song of the Oyster Shucker

According to newspaper accounts, the first Bohemian immigrants had come to work in Elizabeth City’s oyster industry in the latter part of 1890.

In a December 1890 issue of another Elizabeth City newspaper, the Weekly Economist, I found an article that noted:

“The oyster packing house of Wm. Taylor received 75 Bohemian laborers yesterday from Baltimore with their families…. There are about 25 women and 15 to 20 children.”

At that time, oyster canneries and shucking houses were springing up along the North Carolina coast, but no place more so than in Elizabeth City.

Two years later, the Weekly Economist Oct. 27, 1893, looked back wistfully at the prosperity and excitement that came to Elizabeth City during that first year or two of the state’s oyster boom.

Pondering all of Elizabeth City’s history, the newspaper’s editor declared that he could only compare the impact of the oyster boom on the town to the days after the opening of the Dismal Swamp Canal in 1829.

Referring to the oyster boom, the newspaper observed:

“It was a jolly time—a new revelation. Population and money flowed in a perpetual stream and prosperity was felt in every fibre and pulsation of business.”

On one hand, he seemed anxious about the large influx of immigrants into what had been a relatively quiet southern town.

“New people, new faces, new ways, new manners, almost destroyed the homogeneity of the population,” he wrote.

On the other hand, the newspaper’s editor clearly found something intoxicating in that historical moment.

“The song of the oyster shucker was heard in the land, the refrain of its suggestive melody was joined by Bohemians, Hittites, Hivites, Jebezites, Virginians, Marylandros, and Afro-Americans, in happy harmony and peaceful intercourse.”

“Every Saturday night was a new and upward departure in business,” he exclaimed. “There was money and plenty of it in all hands.”

While the local oyster industry never again reached the heights it did in 1890-91,  Elizabeth City remained home to oyster canneries well into the first decade of the 20^th century, and Bohemian immigrants continued to make the journey from Baltimore to work in the town’s canneries.

The John Boyle & Co. cannery continued to employ Bohemian oyster shuckers at least until 1903. According to the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, “Bell’s oyster house” in Elizabeth City also employed “a large force of Bohemian oyster workers” in those first years of the 20th century.

Other oyster canneries in Elizabeth City likely employed Bohemian immigrants as well, but I have not found any record of them doing so.

Beaufort, Morehead City and Marshallberg

Another part of the North Carolina coast where “the song of the oyster shucker” could be heard was Beaufort, a small town in Carteret County where local people had always made their livings from the sea.

I found historical references to Bohemians working in Beaufort’s oyster canneries from 1890 to 1914.

In December 1890, for example, The Daily Journal in New Bern reported that a sizable group of Bohemian immigrants had passed through that coastal town on their way to a cannery in Beaufort.

A few weeks later, a second group passed through New Bern. According to The Daily Journal Jan. 15, 1891, they arrived on the steamer, Neuse, then took a train east to Morehead City, where they could board a ferry for Beaufort.

Surveying the Bohemians passing through New Bern, The Daily Journal’s correspondent wrote:

“There were in all about 100 people, about 75 of whom were workers, the remaining 25 being children too small for labor. They were especially Poles and Bohemians, but there were a few Germans among the number. They appear to be quiet, industrious people, who will make desirable citizens.”

Over the years, large numbers of Bohemian shuckers worked in oyster canneries both in Beaufort and in other parts of Carteret County.

For instance, a report in Washington Progress, Feb. 2, 1892, indicated that the North Carolina Packing Co. was employing Bohemians at its oyster cannery in Beaufort.

Six years later, The Daily Journal in New Bern on Dec. 15, 1898, reported that Bohemian oyster shuckers were working at the A.B. Riggin & Co.’s oyster cannery in Marshallberg, a village 8 miles east of Beaufort.

“The steamer Neuse brought in quite a passenger list yesterday, the large number being Bohemians of all ages, from infants in arms to grandmothers. The crowd were from Baltimore…. [and] were engaged by the Oyster Canning Factory at Marshalberg, and will shuck oysters at the factory. There were 48 persons in the party.”

That same month, a Raleigh newspaper, Carolinian, reported Dec. 22, 1898 that “fifty foreigners” were shucking oysters at the Booth Packing Company’s cannery in Morehead City.

Two years later, on Oct. 30, 1900, the New Berne Weekly Journal commented that “about 20 Bohemians” had passed through New Bern on their way to an oyster cannery in Beaufort.

 “They came from Baltimore and were men, women, and children,” the newspaper observed.

Polish Oyster Workers in Swansboro

At least for a time, in 1907 and 1908, Bohemian oyster shuckers were also working and living in Swansboro, an old seaport that is in Onslow County, just across the White Oak River from Carteret County.

In Swansboro, the immigrant laborers worked at a cannery owned by a local merchant named Guy D. Potter.

On Oct. 11, 1907, New Bern’s Daily Journal reported that Potter had gone to Baltimore to recruit “a hundred head of Poles as shuckers.”

Six months later, on March 31, 1908, an article in the New Bern Weekly Journal indicated that Potter employed the Poles not only to shuck oysters, but also to harvest the oysters.

We only know that was the case, unfortunately, because the newspaper reported that one of the Polish immigrants had a tragic accident while returning from the oystering grounds. According to the Weekly Journal, his sail skiff overturned and, unable to swim, he drowned.

The report did not give the Polish oysterman’s name. It did however say that he left a wife and four children in Swansboro.

At Thomas Duncan’s Cannery in Beaufort

The last reference that I found to Bohemian oyster shuckers in Carteret County was in the April 4, 1914, edition of the New Bern Sun Journal.

That article was brief. It indicated only that a Beaufort oyster cannery owner named Thomas Duncan had accompanied a large group of Bohemian immigrants back to Baltimore.

The Bohemians had worked for him that winter and were returning to Baltimore after finishing the oyster season in Beaufort.

The article gave no more details. However, I found it especially interesting because several photographs at the State Archives of North Carolina show interior scenes of Thomas Duncan’s oyster cannery in Beaufort.

One of those photographs, above, shows a group of women wearing dark hats and shawls in the oyster factory’s canning room.

Another photograph, at the top of the post, shows a long view of the cannery’s shucking room.

I cannot say for sure, but I strongly suspect that at least the first photograph, and probably the second, portray Bohemian immigrants, as well as, in the case of the second photograph, African Americans.

If that is correct, they may be our only surviving images of Bohemian oyster shuckers anywhere on the North Carolina coast.

‘Bohemian Headquarters’

Another, very different account of the Bohemian oyster shuckers on the North Carolina coast, comes from the Washington Gazette, a newspaper published in Washington.

On Nov. 6, 1890, at the height of the oyster boom, one of the Gazette’s writers described his visit to what he called Washington’s “Bohemian Headquarters.”

He was referring to an old school building on Third Street that had been converted into a migrant labor camp for the oyster season.

I do not know what the Gazette’s reporter expected to find at “Bohemian Headquarters.” Evidently it was not this:

“It was discovered that a fiddle and a banjo were employed in dispensing sweet music, while about two dozen gushing Bohemian maidens with pale-faced partners were tripping the regular old fandango in high glee.”

He must have gone there on a Saturday evening, after the oyster shuckers finished their shift at a local cannery.

The Gazette’s correspondent apparently enjoyed his visit. He observed that “both men and women seemed courteous and kind.”

He also mentioned in passing that he found some of the young women quite attractive, and he expressed some surprise at how many of the Bohemians were “conversing well in English.”

He then went on to describe their living quarters:

“There are 63 quartered in the building which crowds it to its uttermost capacity…. The only furniture noticed were trunks or chests with one or two bedsteads. The balance of the sleeping paraphernalia consists of bunks in a continuous row from one end of the room to the other. There were four or five stoves placed about the room….”

Most likely, that group of Bohemian immigrants was employed at the J.S. Farren & Co.’s oyster cannery that was located on the town’s waterfront, near what is now the Children’s Park.

Based in Baltimore, J.S. Farren & Co. had opened the cannery earlier that fall.

Another Baltimore firm, the H.J. McGrath Canning Co., also opened an oyster cannery in Washington that winter. However, its workers had not yet arrived from Baltimore at the time that the Gazette’s correspondent wrote his story.

According to another local newspaper, the Washington Progress on Jan. 13, 1891, 100 Bohemian oyster shuckers arrived in Washington a week or two after New Year’s to begin work at the McGrath cannery.

I do not know how many more years the Bohemians came to Washington. The last reference that I found to them in the town’s oyster industry was from the Washington Gazette on Feb 18, 1892.

Anti-immigrant Views

When he visited the “Bohemian Headquarters,” the Washington Gazette’s correspondent seemed to have been rather charmed by the oyster shuckers from Baltimore.

However, I found a much different sentiment expressed in the Gazette the next year.

At that time, an uncredited article on the Gazette’s front page had this to say about the Bohemian immigrants:

“The Bohemians are rapidly developing the innate cussedness of their true nature. They are a nuisance in the sections where they are located and the sooner Washington is rid of this very undesirable acquisition to her population the better pleased many of her citizens will be.”

Where that hostility was born, and why the Gazette’s view of the Bohemian oyster shuckers had changed so profoundly, is far from clear.

Had some incident occurred that colored town leaders’ attitudes toward the immigrants?

Or perhaps that comment reflected anti-immigrant or even anti-Catholic bias, both of which were on the rise in the U.S. at that time? Most of the Bohemians came from predominantly Catholic homelands.

Or had cannery owners courted trouble by employing immigrant laborers instead of hiring local workers?

Those are all possibilities, but I do not have anywhere near enough evidence to say more.

‘Now she now sleeps in quietude’

In that same year, 70 miles away, an even darker view of Washington’s Bohemian immigrants was expressed in the Perquimans Record, a newspaper published in the coastal town of Hertford.

 On March 18, 1891, the Record noted that a train carrying Washington’s Bohemian shuckers back to Baltimore at the end of the oyster season had passed through Hertford.

Referring to Washington, the newspaper’s correspondent wrote, “Our sister town has at last gotten clear of the dirty, ugly tribe, and now she sleeps in quietude.”

I do not know what stirred the Perquimans Record to that level of maliciousness, but clearly some local people greeted the Bohemian oyster shuckers warmly and others did not.

At the Pungo River and Swan Quarter

Bohemian immigrants also worked in oyster canneries in the more remote coastal communities east of Washington.

On Oct. 23, 1903, for instance, the Elizabeth City Tar Heel reported that  “two (train) carloads of Bohemians” were en route to Belhaven, 25 miles east of Washington.

Beginning in the late 19th century, hundreds of oyster shuckers — one government report said as many as a thousand — left their usual homes and created what amounted to a here-today, gone-tomorrow boom town of oystering people there on the banks of the Pungo River.

Another 25 miles east, Bohemians were also shucking oysters in Swan Quarter, a village bordered by seemingly endless plains of salt marsh on the edge of the Pamlico Sound.

I lived in Swan Quarter for a time when I was young, and I remember old-timers then telling stories about the Bohemian immigrants who used to come and shuck oysters there.

However, the only newspaper account I found that mentioned those immigrant laborers concerned a brawl that broke out between them and local oystermen in February 1902.

That story ran in several North Carolina newspapers, including the Kinston Free Press of Feb. 11, 1902:

“Some Bohemians, who are employed at the oyster canneries there, were having a dance, when the crews of several [oyster] dredges came ashore and attempted to take charge of the dance.”

The story continued:

“A general fight ensued, and when the smoke of the battle cleared away it was found that 13 people were wounded, seven of them seriously, four badly cut and three shot.”

Whether that incident was rooted in tensions between locals and immigrants or was just a run-of-the-mill dance hall fight — fights were almost a Saturday night ritual in some coastal villages — I do not know.

All I can say for sure is that if the fight had not made the news, I would not have found any written evidence of Bohemian oyster shuckers ever living and working in Swan Quarter.

By the Calabash River

The last incident involving Bohemian oyster shuckers that I want to mention comes from the quiet salt marsh creeks located below Shallotte, 50 miles southwest of Wilmington.

The exact location of the oyster cannery where the Bohemians worked there is somewhat uncertain, but as best I can tell it was 12 or 13 miles below Shallotte, in the vicinity of the Calabash River.

According to several articles that ran in the Wilmington Morning Star in December 1907, 60 Bohemians — actually Poles, by all accounts — were recruited in Baltimore and transported to the A. B. Riggin & Co.’s oyster cannery on that part of the North Carolina coast. Copies of the articles are in the Brunswick County Historical Society’s newsletter of April 2007.

Things must have been bad at the cannery. Only a few days after arriving there, half of the Polish workers gathered whatever possessions they had and left. According to a Dec. 1, 1907, account, they had found “the pay and conditions” at A.B. Riggin & Co. intolerable.

They did not have an easy time getting back to Baltimore. Some walked all the way to Wilmington. Others somehow got passage to Wilmington aboard a steamer called the Atlantic.

 According to the Wilmington Morning Star, the Poles spoke little or no English, and they seem to have been penniless. When they reached Wilmington, they had no place to stay, so town leaders let them bed down for a few nights first at the police station, then at City Hall.

Many stayed in Wilmington for a time and took temporary jobs at a local lumber mill. Others did farm work. A few chopped wood and did other odd jobs around the seaport.

As best I can tell, they probably worked just long enough to earn passage home to Baltimore.

Four or five other Poles got home by taking passage aboard “the leaking schooner Grace Seymour in exchange for manning the pumps on the voyage North,” a grueling job if ever there was one.

Remembering the Bohemian oyster shuckers

The history of these Bohemians immigrants — these Czechs, these Poles, these Slavs, Italians and others —  is remembered at least somewhat better in other parts of the American South.

To an important degree, that is because of a child labor investigation more than a century ago.

Between 1909 and 1916, a social reformer named Lewis Hine documented “Bohemian” and local children, both Black and white, in oyster and shrimp canneries in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.

Working for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine used his photographs and reports to advocate for stricter child labor laws across the U.S.

His photographs are powerful, and many, particularly those of the youngest workers, are unforgettable. They stunned many people when they first appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books.

Now preserved at the Library of Congress, Hine’s photographs and investigative reports highlighted child labor in the South’s oyster industry.

But they also brought public attention to the low wages, long hours, and often atrocious working conditions that shuckers of all ages, races, and backgrounds experienced in oyster factories at that time.

In the parts of the coastal South that he visited, Hine’s work assured that the Bohemian oyster shuckers, and really all who worked in oyster canneries, would be remembered.

Lewis Hine never visited the North Carolina coast, however.

Without his work to remind us of them, all memory of the Bohemian oyster shuckers — and really all those who worked in North Carolina’s oyster canneries — gradually faded away here, then was lost.

What I hope is that what I have written here today, however incomplete it is, might be the beginning of remembering them.

 *  *  *

For their help with the research for this story, I want to express my deep gratitude to Stephen Farrell at the George H. and Laura E. Brown Library in Washington, N.C.; Ray Midgett of the Historic Port of Washington Project; David Bennett at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort (especially for his work on A.B. Riggin & Co.); and to my old friend Amelia Dees-Killette at the Swansboro Area Heritage Center Museum. 

I also want to extend a special shoutout to my dear friend Bland Simpson for his lyrical evocation of Machele Island in “The Inner Islands: A Carolinian’s Sound Country Chronicle,” one of my favorite books. 

If you want to learn more about the history of the state’s oyster industry, my essay “The Oyster Shucker’s Song.” might be helpful. And if you’d like to read more about the Bohemian immigrants in the South as a whole, I wrote a piece called “Shuckers and Peelers”  for Southern Exposure magazine many years ago that you might find interesting. 

I dedicate this story to the memory of one of my ancestors on the Polish side of my family, my great-uncle Peter, a lobsterman who lost his life at sea. 

BEAUFORT – A united town board on Thursday agreed to extend its lease with the longtime operator of the Beaufort docks for another year and prepare to release all records pertaining to its previous search for a new concessioner.

The records are to be released electronically to the public once scanned and uploaded. The board also unanimously agreed to formally terminate all pending requests for proposals and reject all proposals received for future dock operations.

The actions came after the board reconvened its meeting from the Monday session in which it had voted 3-2 to halt efforts to secure “the company of interest” in line to take over management of the Beaufort Docks. The actions were also a bit of housekeeping needed to clarify and solidify the vote taken during the previous session.

Mayor Sharon Harker, during Thursday’s meeting, appointed Commissioners Sarah Spiegler and Paula Gillikin to chair and vice-chair, respectively, a new Beaufort Waterfront Operations and Finance Committee to pick up the work done by a previous panel.

“This committee will review the recommendations from the Harbor and Waterways Advisory Committee, assess the feasibility and practicality of these recommendations and update the vision and objectives to align with our financial goals and expectations for the docks,” Harker said at the well-attended daytime meeting.

The new committee has no time to spare. The mayor set a Dec. 31 deadline for its report.

Attendees again, as during the meeting Monday, broke into applause numerous times in response to the board’s 180-degree turnaround. But previous tensions and opposing viewpoints among commissioners still simmered, as evidenced in a few exchanges.

Commissioner Dr. John LoPiccolo noted how the action Monday had created costs for the town. He asked how the board could ensure confidence in the process going forward.

“We spent a lot of money on attorneys,” LoPiccolo said. “We spent a lot of money on engineers. There is quite a bit of loss to this process that the taxpayers, they did have to pay for that. And I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I just want to make sure that we don’t get into that same situation again.”

Valid points, said Gillikin, who had offered the motion Monday to terminate the letter of intent to “the company of interest” – until this week, the board’s chosen name for Safe Harbor Marinas, which had taken on Voldemort-like status among town officials despite being well known among residents.

“I think some of those monies that we spent with our discussions with Safe Harbor, I think there’s things that came out in those discussions that we can use in the new discussions. Not all is lost there,” Gillikin said.

She said it was important to look at the town’s objectives in the new search, because the goal in the original request for proposals, whether stated or unstated, was “to maximize super- and mega-yachts and look at the greatest profit, which is a great way to look at things, if that’s the objective.

“But I’m not sure that that is our current objective,” Gillikin said, adding that preserving the town’s character, views and the type of vessels most suitable to Beaufort were clearly tantamount to residents.

Commissioner Bucky Oliver, who like LoPiccolo, had opposed the action taken Monday to “reset” the process, said he was on board with the new direction.

“I’m very comfortable where we are, but I think that we need to, as a board, if you would, I think we need to recognize the importance now to support this effort and to solely look in the windshield and not look in the mirror,” Oliver said. “And I would ask our board to think about that on a personal basis, and I’d ask our community to look at it on that basis. I’d ask people in the audience to look at it on that basis, because that’s where we are.”

BEAUFORT – A split board of commissioners on Monday heeded the public’s increasingly vocal demands to slow down the process of selecting a new concessioner to operate the town docks.

Beaufort commissioners voted 3-2, with commissioners Charles “Bucky” Oliver and Dr. John LoPiccolo opposed, to terminate all discussions and rescind a letter of intent that was written to “the company of interest as it relates to future management of the Beaufort Docks.”

That was how Commissioner Paula Gillikin worded her two-part motion. The second part of her motion was to direct the town manager and/or the assistant town manager to work with Beaufort Waterfront Enterprises, the current and longtime operator of the docks, on a 12-month lease extension to be approved by commissioners no later than Sept. 9.

Related: Beaufort residents blast dock operator selection process

The action was in response to public demands for transparency in the selection process, which had been moved behind closed doors with town officials deeming it an “economic development” matter and therefore confidential.

Folks here found that specious, especially given the prominence of the town waterfront. The move was also in response to objections to apparent conflicts and legal cases in other coastal communities involving the “company of interest.” Despite the cloak of closed sessions, that company’s name — Safe Harbor Marinas — has for weeks been the worst-kept secret in Beaufort.

With a pouring rain outside, the meeting space, the old depot on Broad Street, was filled with residents and still more in a separate, overflow room with closed-circuit TVs, opposed to how officials had handled the process. After commissioners cast their votes, the raucous applause that erupted in the main meeting room was echoed after a slight lag by more cheering in the overflow room.

Gillikin’s motion followed Mayor Sharon Harker’s opening of a “general discussion of the steps going forward” with regard to the docks. Harker said it was time for “a fresh dialogue” to answer the public’s questions.

Some information was publicly available, and it was troubling to folks at the meeting.

Safe Harbor Marinas is a $2 billion company purchased in 2020 by Sun Communities Inc. Sun Communities is a Michigan-based real estate investment trust with about $17.4 billion in assets.

Gillikin said she had done “a deep dive” researching the firm’s operations elsewhere and concluded that the company’s philosophy “may not be the best match” for the town.

“And it was in my investigations and interviewing people and sitting down with coffee with people and visiting marinas and digging deeper into the philosophy behind the company of interest that led me to this conclusion,” Gillikin said to more applause.

Beaufort residents and business owners have told Coastal Review that their concerns with Safe Harbor were largely based on the corporate ownership and control that would be more focused on shareholder returns than Beaufort’s character and economy. They have worried that the fix was in for Safe Harbor from the start because the company had already purchased Jarret Bay Boatworks and the surrounding complex. Some speculated that the corporation had its eyes on the waterfront as a staging area for large yachts to be serviced at Safe Harbor Jarret Bay, which lacks sufficient marina space.

People have said they are worried about the further gentrification of Beaufort and how the business base of locally owned shops and restaurants may not appeal to those who arrive aboard the kinds of “superyachts” that Safe Harbor caters to in other locations.

Speakers who went to the podium during the lengthy public comment portion of the meeting Monday echoed these concerns. Commissioner Melvin Cooper said he had heard them, too. Cooper said he “fully supported” Gillikin’s motion to “terminate” the letter of intent.

“I know that Commissioner Oliver would love to see us carry on the discussion with the third party,” Cooper said, adding that there had been a push to “move along, move along” with the process when there was time to make a more careful and open choice. “Townspeople, who we represent, is asking us to back off of this, and I think we need to listen to them.”

Oliver said he strongly supported extending the lease but he saw no advantage to terminating the letter of intent. He urged Gillikin to amend that portion of her motion, which she refused.

“You may never get anywhere,” Oliver said in his plea to Gillikin. “I’m not promising anything, but I see no reason to shut off the consideration of it based on what I’ve heard. I can’t find a factual reason to do that, and I think it might potentially be, terminating that, it might potentially be detrimental to us, depending upon how the continued negotiations, which are ongoing, might turn out.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Barry Slade of Beaufort said his career was in marina and slip management, and waterfront development. He said the situation here was familiar to him. He told the board that marina operators come in all shapes and sizes and tend to specialize in what they do best, and the town should select one appropriate to its needs. But he worried Beaufort hadn’t cast far enough with its request for proposals to bring in the right operator.

“Remember, Beaufort doesn’t have a downtown marina,” Slade said. “What we have is a priceless downtown waterfront, which is the heart and soul of our town.”

He said that in reaching out to people in the industry, “It didn’t take many phone calls to find that some did not even know about Beaufort’s RFP and never received a bid package. These same companies, given the chance, would be happy to submit a proposal if that opportunity were presented. Many of these firms are flush with cash, are actively looking for projects and put a strong emphasis on relationships, not just the bottom line.”

‘Keep Our Docks Public’

Signs reading “Keep Our Docks Public!” and “Keep Beaufort Docks Public!” pepper lawns all over town.

Commissioner LoPiccolo during the meeting took issue with the signage, calling it a “misrepresentation” because the docks have been private for more than 40 years.

“We have had someone manage those docks who has been kind enough to let day boaters come into those docks, but I do want to make sure that the town does understand that those docks have been private,” LoPiccolo said.

LoPiccolo said his due diligence on the matter convinced him that a third-party concessioner was necessary because of the substantial improvements needed on the waterfront, an estimated $13 or so million, which a well-heeled company could finance rather than the town.

The town’s financial adviser, David Cheatwood, spent a chunk of meeting time early in the evening giving his rationale for opposing town-financed improvements through the various mechanisms available.

Mayor Harker had invited Cheatwood, managing director of First Tryon Advisors of Charlotte, to discuss the financing options in the public setting. Cheatwood explained that North Carolina has three basic types: general obligation bonds, limited obligation bonds and revenue bonds, all of which he advised against because of the financial peril to the town for this type of project.

“Looking ahead and kind of knowing what you have on the horizon, I think that is a lot of risk for the town to take when you have some other more traditional projects to fund that are more essential service type,” Cheatwood said.

Oliver said that people in attendance had not had the benefit of hearing the financing information before. He thanked the mayor for having the information presented to the public, because the commissioners felt the townsfolk’s lack of awareness was “giving us fits” as a board.

“When I can’t get information, I get frustrated too,” Oliver said.

LoPiccolo said the board had spent “countless hours in closed session, going over minute detail,” and nothing had raised suspicion.

“This is not being done by some dark hand managing all this. It’s not being done by some forces that we know the town is not aware of that’s pushing this along. These are the commissioners here that are leading the charge. So I would hope that you would trust in us, that we can make the right decisions for this town, and we do hear you,” he said, drawing applause.

Cooper said during the meeting that the closed meetings were not an attempt to hide anything, but rather based on North Carolina general statute.

“It did become apparent that we were in these closed sessions far too long without the community hearing from its commissioners,” Cooper said. “Citizens can be assured that whenever the decision is made, it will be made in a public meeting and with full disclosure.”

BEAUFORT – Residents here are outraged that town officials are negotiating behind closed doors a possibly decades-long contract to operate the town-owned docks that many say is already decided in favor of a giant conglomerate with operations already in Beaufort and in coastal South Carolina.

But the number of marina operators available with the needed expertise and financial heft to invest what Beaufort officials say would be $10-15 million in a needed rehabilitation of the town’s “iconic boardwalk” is likely finite. And, town officials say, grant funding could likely only result in about $3 million for the project.

Beaufort Waterfront Enterprises Inc. is the current operator of the Beaufort waterfront marina and has been for 46 years. Haywood Weeks, the corporation’s president, has told the town he no longer wishes to continue operating the docks after Dec. 31 when the current agreement expires.

The town has been planning for this inevitability for at least three years. Beaufort Waterfront Enterprises is a small corporation formed in 1979 with Weeks and Secretary Joseph “Jeb” Breary as the only agents on file with the state. A study committee was appointed in July 2021, but town residents say they’re not getting much information on such a high-profile, potentially environmentally sensitive deal that they worry will change Beaufort but not for the better. The entire waterfront infrastructure, including the boardwalk and fuel storage, are at the end of their useful life, with eyesores and environmental risks, according to the town.

Breary told Coastal Review Tuesday that Beaufort Waterfront Enterprises knows nothing about any negotiations because the town has essentially shut him and Weeks out of the deal, even in an advisory capacity.

“Nobody’s talking to nobody,” Breary said. “All we hear is what we’re hearing from the people who are screaming.”

Numerous townsfolk have told Coastal Review that the little they have been able to glean about the deal in the works, an apparent 50-year contract with a 50-year extension option, is deeply concerning because it has huge potential ramifications for Beaufort’s future.

Some have accused the town’s board of commissioners, which has put out a request for proposals and received responses, of using the cover of confidential “economic development” discussions to skirt public records law and advance their own personal business interests, rather than the town’s best interests. They say the fix is already in for Beaufort to contract with a company called Safe Harbor.

Town officials recently attempted to address those concerns in a detailed press release, saying they were “cognizant of the issues” and “taking into consideration the use of taxpayer dollars.”

The release noted the town’s financial position and the importance of considering “the level of service delivered” by whomever is selected as the contracted operator of the docks.

“Additionally, the character and charm of Beaufort must be preserved while meeting the public’s expectation to ensure the existing vistas of Rachel Carson Reserve. As a functional consideration, the Town must consider the availability of dock space for day boaters, the continuance of existing commercial activities, and the creation of mooring space in the harbor. Each of these issues is being considered by the Board of Commissioners along with the public feedback received throughout the process including the charrette conducted in May of this year. This is not an easy decision.”

But the announcement from the town doesn’t satisfy the Beaufort residents who have contacted Coastal Review in the past two weeks.

“It’s not a conspiracy theory to say downtown Beaufort will be different,” a town resident who wished to remain unnamed told Coastal Review last week.

Safe Harbor

Several Coastal Review readers have shared news reports from South Carolina, where Safe Harbor has operations and has made decisions that didn’t sit well with the folks in coastal towns down there.

Earlier this year, the Beaufort, South Carolina, City Council told Safe Harbor it wasn’t interested in the corporation’s proposed $27 million dock expansion.

“All the council members agreed that they think that expanding the dock will not only obstruct the view of the water that is so important to many who live in the city, but it will change the charm and feel that makes the city of Beaufort special,” reported the Island News of Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 4.

In February, the Hilton Head Island Packet reported that Safe Harbor Marina was “on the verge of beginning construction of what was originally billed as a megayacht marina” at its 317-acre site on Battery Creek in Port Royal, South Carolina. While the definition of a megayacht varies, the Island Packet report defined it as being between 130 and 590 feet in length. Residents here say it’s generally any vessel longer than 200 feet, and that worries them.

Breary, the dockmaster here, said the longest vessel capable of docking at the Beaufort waterfront is about 250 feet, essentially a mini-megayacht, he said. But the constant shoaling and necessary dredging required to keep the entrance channel to Beaufort Harbor clear is enough to likely keep the largest yachts away.

“A 250-foot boat doesn’t need to stop here unless something bad has happened,” Breary said, adding that the channel sometimes shoals to as shallow as 7 to 8 feet.

Breary also noted how Weeks had been instrumental over the years in raising and providing local funding to bring in the Army Corps of Engineers for periodic dredging.

In March, Port Royal took legal action to stop Safe Harbor from using part of the property there for dock manufacturing, allegedly for use at a different Safe Harbor property.

Safe Harbor Marinas was a limited liability company purchased in 2020 by Michigan-based Sun Communities Inc. As part of that roughly $2 billion deal, Sun acquired 99 marinas owned and operated by Safe Harbor and eight marinas Safe Harbor manages on behalf of third parties.

In 2022, Sun purchased Beaufort-based Jarrett Bay Boatworks — the entire 175-acre enchilada: manufacturing, marina, business park and all — for $51 million. Randy Ramsey, founder and then-president of Jarrett Bay Boatworks, has been vice president of operations with Safe Harbor Marinas since February 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Ramsey, who was until recently also chairman of the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors, did not respond to Coastal Review’s request for comment on Beaufort’s pending decision.

Marina expansion worries

Obstructed views of Taylors Creek and the Rachel Carson Reserve, and expansion of the marina here are among the concerns from outspoken residents who have reached out to Coastal Review. But the secrecy is perhaps a chief concern, along with what they say is the town’s handling of contracts in the past.

No one in attendance spoke favorably of the alleged lack of transparency during the public comment portion of the July 22 Beaufort Board of Commissioners’ work session. As seen in the video of the meeting, Beaufort resident Robert Harper said the town has a sorry track record in holding its contractors accountable.

“The history of this town in enforcing its contracts is abysmal,” Harper told the board during his allotted three minutes. “And if you want an example of that I can give you plenty.”

He said the town had not litigated contractual shortcomings or enforced its rules or ordinances in the past. He asked for assurances that residents get to review any finalized contract before it’s executed and that it would be enforced once it’s in effect.

“If you can assure us that you will stand up and you will enforce the agreement that you hammer out, then we’ll feel a lot better about that, but we have no information. It’s all a void. There’s this mysterious black box where all this conversation is going on, but the public has no idea, and what we are afraid of is that you guys will come out one day and say, ‘Well, this is our decision, vote, done,’ and we will have no recourse.”

Harper also reminded the board of its accountability to voters.

“After all, y’all represent us. You’re not there for your own good. You’re there for us. We put you there for that reason so we would like to see what you’re doing on our behalf,” he said.

Others in town have echoed concerns about the lack of transparency or questioned the apparent urgency. They’ve asked, why not temporarily extend the contract with the current operator to allow a more public process? Others have asked, why, if the town cannot afford the needed dock upgrades, were grants and other funding opportunities not pursued more diligently? Still others have said it appeared the board was secretly selling out the town in a way that will drastically change its character.

Resident J.P. Gooch, during the public comment portion of the meeting, said two of three residents he’d spoken with knew nothing of what the board was deciding. He called for a more public process and more examination of public funding options. He said it appeared the commissioners were pressing “the easy button” by bringing in Safe Harbor, a publicly traded corporation.

“I don’t even know if it’s Safe Harbor that you’re talking to because there’s a lack of transparency,” said Gooch, who added that because the firm is publicly traded, “They’re beholden to their stockholders. They’re not interested in what Beaufort has to say.”

Resident Dr. Jud Kenworthy said the board had simply failed to ask the public what it wanted for the waterfront, “a valuable asset,” he said. “I’m a biologist so I look through the lens of biology when I look at things like this, and what I see here is a classic predator-prey relationship, and what we are, the town of Beaufort, what you are as our representatives, you know what the entire community is, it is the prey.”

Mayor Sharon Harker, during the meeting, offered assurances that the board would not approve a contract behind closed doors, which would be counter to open meeting laws. Harker is a board member with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review.

“This board would not make any decisions to sign any contract behind closed doors. I don’t even know why we’d even think that,” said Harker during the meeting, referring to the town board. “And yes, it will come to public light, and then yes, you will be able to have your opportunity to talk about it. So, I want you to take that to the streets.”

With that, the mayor then asked for a motion to enter into closed session. But before that happened, Commissioner Bucky Oliver, owner of the Beaufort Hotel, said he was confident that the board was doing right by the town. He said the board was listening and had already considered and was still considering many of the concerns expressed.

“I have to step back and reflect on the fact of where we are in our country and in our times, and we are in uncertain times, and we are anxious, and I am,” Oliver said. “And I’m not speaking about national issues, and I’m not speaking about dock issues. This is something that is right here in the midst of our thing, and our goal is to try to do the best job we can for the town of Beaufort. And I’m comfortable in looking anybody in the face, and I can tell you that I feel that confidence across this commission.”

Study committee recommendations

The town-appointed Harbor & Waterways Master Planning Advisory Committee began its work in summer 2021, “to evaluate needed improvements” to the docks, according to a town news release dated July 22. “After considerable review,” the committee presented its recommendations in September 2022.

“Armed with these recommendations, the Board decided to investigate whether a private market exists for a third-party operator with sufficient capital to invest in and manage the Town’s docks. Consequently, the Town set forth to explore these questions in the context of a long-term lease or in the form of a public-private partnership,” according to the news release.

The recommendations include $9.8 million in necessary improvements to the bulkhead, boardwalk and dock infrastructure and $4.1 million in “desired improvements, such as extending the boardwalk, a mooring field, replacing vessel fueling and storage tanks, creating more aesthetic and pedestrian-friendly features and adding other amenities.

Town officials determined that a private market does exist, but the town was “not financially positioned to invest $10-15 million in the rehabilitation of the waterfront.”

“With this understanding, the town investigated the possibility of financing the improvements through commercial lending as an alternative to a third party,” the town said in the release. “In consultation with First Tryon Advisors, the Town’s financial consultant, it was determined that commercial lending would be very difficult given collateral required for a loan requires the pledge of Town-owned assets other than the waterfront assets themselves. As such, a comprehensive review was conducted to determine what other fixed assets of the Town could be used as collateral. Unfortunately, the fixed assets that have an appreciable value are obligated. As such, they represent encumbrances and therefore cannot be used as collateral for a loan to improve the docks.”

Town officials said they also considered a bond referendum. “This option, if approved by the voters, requires an increase in property tax rates to satisfy the associated debt service. The Board has not expressed an interest in pursuing this alternative as the tax burden for improvements would be distributed to all property owners, and not just those who use and/or enjoy the docks.”

BEAUFORT — A private plane wound up in a ditch near a runway taxiway at Michael J. Smith Field Saturday.

Carteret County Emergency Services, Sheriff’s Office, Beaufort Fire and EMS, and Beaufort Police Department all responded to the scene, said Nick Wilson, a county spokesman.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, the single-engine fixed-wing aircraft crashed into a fence and ended up in a ditch near U.S. Highway 70

An excavator was used to remove the plane, a 2003 Lancair LC42-550FG registered to Jackson Blane of Beaufort.

Beaufort Public Information Officer Rachel Johnson told Coastal Review Monday that no injuries were reported and that the Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the incident.

Michael J. Smith Field is a general aviation airport managed by the Carteret County-Beaufort Airport Authority with three runways, the longest of which is Runway 8-26 at just over 5,000 feet.

BEAUFORT — Yard games, sailboat rides and other nautical fun will be offered during Maritime Day, set for 11 a.m. to 2 pm. Saturday on the Gallants Channel grounds off West Beaufort Road at the foot of the high-rise bridge.

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort’s Friends of the Museum organization host the annual Maritime Day event on the second Saturday in June. The day celebrates the maritime industry and stems from National Maritime Day, which was created by Congress in 1933 and is observed annually on May 22.

“Maritime Day is a fun, family-friendly, community event that brings people together on the beautiful Gallants Channel waterfront,” said Friends Director of Operations Brent Creelman.

Activities include sailing in the museum’s fleet of traditional wooden boats, cane pole fishing, kite flying, kids’ activities and games. There will also be educational displays, live music and more along the Gallants Channel waterfront. All activities are offered at no charge, though donations are appreciated.

“Free traditional sailboat rides are very popular,” Creelman said. “There will also be lots of yard games on the Great Lawn, so come ready to play.”

Food and beverages will be available for purchase, or feel free to bring a picnic lunch. Maritime Day will wrap up with a celebration to specially recognize those who have purchased bricks for the courtyard by the flagpole.

Maritime Day is taking place where the new Maritime Education Center will be located. The groundbreaking is expected this summer with the facility up and running in early 2026.

For more information on the museum, visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com. For more information on Maritime Day or the Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, call 252-728-1638 or visit maritimefriends.org.

This special news feature is part of Coastal Review’s 12-month observance of the Coastal Area Management Act’s 50th year.

BEAUFORT – The state’s Rachel Carson Reserve protects more than its herd of around 30 wild horses.

The dedicated nature preserve’s five uninhabited barrier islands, totaling 2,315 acres, protect historic downtown Beaufort from the ravages of ocean winds and tides.

“You can see just how vulnerable the town of Beaufort can be during storms coming through that Beaufort Inlet,” Central Sites Manager Paula Gillikin said early Friday afternoon from the boardwalk on Carrot Island, one of the five islands making up the site.

Gillikin was speaking to North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality leadership, local, state and federal elected officials, fiscal research and governor’s office budget staff, partners, residents and volunteers, as part of a “Discover the N.C. Coastal Reserve Tour.”

The gathering of about 20 had met earlier that morning at Beaufort Hotel to tour the Rachel Carson Reserve. It was the third stop on a multi-year campaign launched in June 2023 when the Currituck Banks Reserve reopened after repairs. The second stop was at Bird Island Reserve in December 2023.

NCDEQ Chief Deputy Secretary Tim Watkins explained before the tour how 50 years ago, “North Carolina enacted the Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, as we all know it.”

“Passing CAMA in 1974 was a bold and important step that was intended to balance economic development and protection of coastal resources through coordination and planning under the umbrella of state and local partnership,” Watkins said. “CAMA was also intended to reflect the will of coastal residents in finding this balance.”

He noted how CAMA was amended in the 1980s to establish the state Coastal Reserve Program, which “provides public access to coastal areas, essential habitat, fisheries and wildlife, and a cleaner healthier environment for all. The reserve sites also strengthen our communities by developing a sense of place and creating opportunities to reconnect and recharge with our natural world.”

Coastal Reserve Program Manager Rebecca Ellin said that the reserve program protects more than 44,000 acres of coastal and estuarine habitats across the 10 sites.

These sites provide essential habitat for wildlife, educational opportunities for students, teachers and the public, living laboratories for scientists to inform the management of the state’s coasts and estuaries, public enjoyment for citizens and visitors and protection of local communities from storms and erosion, Ellin said.

“The reserve program in North Carolina started nearly 40 years ago with the designation of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve. This happened in 1985 via a state-federal partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Estuarine Research Reserve System and the Division of Coastal Management,” she said.

The designation of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve provided an inspirational model for the state of North Carolina to protect additional habitat areas, Ellin continued.

“In 1989, the General Assembly amended the Coastal Area Management Act to do just that and formally established the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, which includes the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve.”

There were a handful of past and current elected officials on hand, including Rett Newton, who was raised in Beaufort and is a former town mayor. He said that protecting the Rachel Carson Reserve is “personal for us. It is personal. It may not be personal for Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, or Washington, D.C., but I assure you it is very personal for us.”

Beaufort Mayor Sharon Harker, who is in her second term, added that the reserve has a lot of talents, and the town is working with the state programs to protect the island for future generations. “It’s a classroom, it’s a laboratory, it provides us information so that we can inform policies to be better and proactive caretakers of the island, but the reserve is a gem. It’s part of our character, it’s part of our history.”

Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, who also represents Carteret County, told attendees that the reserve is worth fighting for and worth protecting, “not only for its beauty, but its protection” as a barrier island.  “It’s up to us to save it for the next generation.”

Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, was on the coast for the tour, as well. A resident of Greensboro, Harrison said she spends her weekends patrolling the shoreline of the Rachel Carson Reserve and has for 34 years.

She extended her gratitude to those who have made the reserve “such a special place” adding, “I love this place. I’m going to do what I can save it.”

Rep. Celeste C. Cairns, R-Carteret and Craven counties, spoke briefly, stating she is “so proud of this district. It’s impossible to express how much I love it here.”

Gillikin, who grew up in Beaufort and is currently a town commissioner, has been with the reserve program since 2007, and oversees both the Rachel Carson Reserve and Permuda Island Reserve near Topsail Island.

Gillikin said she feels “privileged to coordinate the stewardship of this site and to work with all the passionate community members and commercial users and teachers and advisory committee members. It really is all about people.”

She echoed Newton in that the site is very personal to her, because five generations back, her family owned a lot of the land, and “I never thought that I would come back to Beaufort and be a steward of the land.” She left Beaufort to attend the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“Their blood, sweat and tears are out there. And mine are too,” she said, clarifying “no big injuries, just some nicks and cuts.”

After the tour, Ellin expressed her gratitude for those who joined, “to celebrate the Rachel Carson Reserve, share their perspectives, and take in its beauty and the diverse roles the reserve plays for ecosystems and people alike.”

About the Carrot Island Living Shoreline Project

Part of the event included a quick peek by boat of the Carrot Island Living Shoreline Project, currently under construction.

A representative of consulting firm Moffatt & Nichol, which is a contractor on the living shoreline project here, told Coastal Review Monday that work began April 12. A joint project between Carteret County and the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, the work includes around 1,475 linear feet of living shoreline, extending along the east side of Carrot Island, which is adjacent to Taylor’s Creek. 

The design features two sills. There is a sill of wave-attenuation units, called ExoForms and manufactured by Natrx, a nature-based resilience and restoration company in Raleigh, and a sill with oyster habitat units called Oyster Catchers, which are manufactured by Sandbar Oyster Co. in Beaufort.

The footprint for the ExoForms is around 11,250 square feet, with a length of 1,250 feet, and the footprint for the oyster habitat sill is about 6,960 square feet, and about 1,270 linear feet.

The sills run parallel to one another with a gap of 10 feet in between. Both are 100-foot segments with 10-foot gaps between the segments to allow water and wildlife to move through.

Plans include planting marsh grass, both Spartina alterniflora and Spartina patens, to support stabilization of the shoreline and enhance the ecological value of the project, according to the company.

“The length of shoreline to be protected was chosen to provide maximum benefit to the Carrot Island shoreline based upon available funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality,” according to the company.

Gilikin said monitoring the project’s performance over time and sharing successes and lessons learned could inform future living shoreline design and estuarine shoreline management in coastal North Carolina.

About the reserve program

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve program initiative began in 1982 with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

Three sites were dedicated in 1985 to be part of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve: Rachel Carson, Currituck Banks and the Zeke Island reserves. The fourth national site, Masonboro Inlet Reserve, was designated in 1991.

The state initiated the parallel program in 1987. This move, according to NCDEQ, was to protect other coastal areas that could not be incorporated into the national program. The state acquired Permuda Island near topsail Island that year and Buxton Woods in the southern Outer Banks in 1988.

In 1989 CAMA formally established the North Carolina Coastal Reserve Program. In the following years, the state program grew to include Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve in 1992, Bald Head Woods Reserve in 1993, Emily and Richardson Preyer Buckridge Reserve in Tyrrell County in 1999, and Bird Island Reserve, the southernmost site, in 2002.

North Carolina Maritime Museum officials and staff are set to welcome visitors to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras for the first time in two years.

Also in the coming month, officials with the museum system’s are planning to welcome back watercraft enthusiasts for its 48th annual Wooden Boat Show May 4 in Beaufort; and at the Southport museum, staff are preparing to launch a new program May 29.

The Hatteras facility has been closed since 2022 for a complete renovation. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, May 20, when the overhauled facility reopens to the public.

First opened in 2002, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is named after the thousands of shipwrecks off the state’s coast.

Public information officer Cyndi Brown told Coastal Review that the Hatteras museum has undergone a “major transformation, with a completely redesigned lobby and a new gallery space with state-of-the-art features and interactive elements that bring our coastal history to life.”

Exhibits cover from precolonial times to the present and offer a comprehensive journey through the region’s history.

Inside, visitors will find interactive experiences, from touch screens to holographic video displays, “providing visitors with engaging ways to delve into the region’s maritime heritage,” Brown said. She added that children, in particular, can enjoy scavenger hunts and programs designed to both educate and entertain.

There is a Monomoy-class life-saving surfboat, a first-order Fresnel lens from Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and displays showing shipwrecks off the coast, Brown added.

Special programs and activities are scheduled for the week the museum opens, Brown said.

Following the museum opening at 10 a.m. Monday, May 20, there will be a program at 11 a.m. on the “U.S. Life Saving Service Operations along the North Carolina Coast” with Beaufort museum’s Education Curator Benjamin Wunderly. He will share the history of U.S. Life-Saving Service operations, the precursor to the Coast Guard.

“The History of the Oldest NC State Law Enforcement — 200 Years of Service (1822-2022)” is at 1 p.m. May 20 with N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Marine Patrol Capt. Christopher Lee. Visitors can hear about the state’s longest-serving law enforcement agency, which can trace its roots back to 1822 when the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation to impose gear restrictions on oyster harvest.

“Brigadier General Billy Mitchell: Father of the U.S. Air Force and Hatteras Hero” is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 20 with area historian Danny Couch. Mitchell is often regarded as the father of the U.S. Air Force. Aviation experts often question why Mitchell chose to conduct his historic strategic bombing experiments at Hatteras, and the answer is simple: He liked to fish, according to the museum.

“North Carolina Whales: Diversity, Distribution and Conservation” will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday, May 21. Beaufort museum Associate Education Curator and Bonehenge Whale Center Director Keith Rittmaster will talk about the whales most commonly spotted off the coast and show related display items.

Learn about “John Rollinson: Hero of Hatteras Island” 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, with Couch. Rollinson (1827-1906), was Hatteras’ first paid schoolteacher, collector of the Port of Hatteras and reluctant Civil War outlaw.

“Women in Whaling” is at 11 a.m. Friday, May 22, with Beaufort museum’s Associate Education Curator Christine Brin.

A talk on the “Lost Colony” is at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 23, with Hatteras native Scott Dawson. Hear Dawson’s take on the English who attempted to colonize the New World in 1587 and the mystery surrounding their disappearance.

North Carolina Aquariums’ Aquatic Wildlife Inhabiting Shipwrecks will take place May 20 to May 24. Staff with the Roanoke facility will be on site with this hands-on activities.

The museum will operate on a new schedule after reopening. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and will be closed Saturdays and Sundays.

There is no admission but donations are appreciated and directly support museum operations, Brown said.

48th annual Wooden Boat Show in Beaufort

The Beaufort museum has set aside one Saturday a year for almost 50 years for enthusiasts to celebrate traditional wooden boatbuilding.

The 48th annual Wooden Boat Show scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 4, will again bring to the coastal town dozens of wooden vessels, ranging from classic, vintage sailboats to modern power boats.

Grant Caraway, director of the wooden boat show, told Coastal Review that the annual show has been a mainstay for those in the antique and wooden boat community.

There will be many attractions this year, including dozens of classic restored boats and motors, a pirate encampment, and kid’s activities like face painting and toy boatbuilding, Caraway continued.

Plus, Caraway said, there will be public sailboat rides offered from 1-3 p.m.

In addition to the wooden boats, for the second year there will be miniature vintage outboards on display.

“We’ll have outboards on both sides of the street,” Caraway said in a statement. “These miniature outboard motors are really cool. While most people think they’re toys, they were actually used by manufacturers as a marketing tool.”

Brown said Monday morning that though online registration closes Tuesday, boats can register up until the day of the show by calling 252-504-7758. “We will always make room for more boats,” she said. “Right now we have 35 registered.”

Registration for a first vessel is $30 and includes an event T-shirt. Additional boats are $5 each. Register on the website by April 30 or by phone at 252-504-7758 until the day before the show.

Also on the grounds will be knot-tying demonstrations, a book sale, vendors, maritime art, boating skills virtual trainer, sailboat races and more, all offered at no charge.

While most activities are at the museum, the in-water boat show will be a few blocks away at the Beaufort Docks.

“We award 16 different categories with handmade wooden awards made here at the Maritime Museum,” Caraway said for the judge’s selections.

Attendees will be able to choose their favorite by voting for the People’s Choice winner and for the model expo.

An opening reception with refreshments and entertainment is set for 5-7 p.m. Friday, May 3, at the museum’s Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center across the street. There is no charge to attend. The kickoff is being held at the same time as the museum’s Spring First Friday, which celebrates featured artists at the museum’s Port of Call Museum Store.

‘Anchors Aweigh’ in Southport

The North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport is launching its new program,
“Anchors Aweigh,” on May 29.

The drop-in style program offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day its scheduled features hands-on activities that focus on a specific part of Lower Cape Fear and North Carolina history.

The debut activity is “Anchors Aweigh: Got the Blues?” an indigo-dying program from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Several “Anchors Aweigh” events are scheduled throughout the summer, as well.

The program June 12 will be on map reading and orienteering, on June 26, declaring independence, July 10 “Wash it up! Laundry in the Age of Sail,” July 10, flags in history July 24, and cyphers and codes Aug. 14.

More Maritime Museum events

Beaufort museum

The Cape Lookout Lighthouse — 11 a.m. May 2 will focus on the history of the Carteret County landmark. The presentation will cover both the destroyed 1812 tower, and the still-standing 1859 tower, as well as some lesser-known facts about the “Diamond” tower. No charge to attend the Maritime Heritage Series program.

Kids’ Cove — 9-11 a.m. May 8 and again 11 a.m.-1 p.m. May 12. This free-play program is designed for children up to 5 years and their caregivers. There is a different maritime-themed craft and wiggle activity each month. This is screen-free program begins an hour before the museum opens to the public. To register, call 252-504-7758 or visit the website.

Kayak the Salt Marsh — 9 a.m.-noon May 9. A member of the education team will give a basic kayak instruction and safety lessons on shore then lead a 1.5-mile paddle through the salt marsh. The program is recommended for ages 12 and up, though anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Participants must know how to swim; some kayak experience is recommended. Cost is $35 or $30 if you bring your own kayak. Register online by noon May 8 at 252-504-7758 or on the website.

Museum’s Most Wanted: Conservation Basics-Identifying and Dealing with Museum Pests — 11 a.m. May 9. Museum conservator Michelle Crepeau will identify common museum pests, their impact on collections, and both historical and modern methods of mitigation and prevention. The program offered at no charge is part of the Maritime Heritage Series.

Exploring Coastal Habitats on the Rachel Carson Reserve — 9 a.m.-noon May 15. The guided hike will take visitors through the different habitats and the sandy, muddy, and wet terrain found on Town Marsh and Bird Shoal in the Beaufort area. The program is recommended for ages 12 and up, but all participants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $25. Register online or by calling 252-504-7758 by noon May 14.

Behind the scenes at the Whale Center — 10 a.m. May 17. The 40-minute, behind-the-scenes look shows how marine mammal skeletons are prepared for educational display and the mammals found in area waters. The Bonehenge Whale Center operates as a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the Carolina Cay Maritime Foundation. Register online or by calling 252-504-7758 by noon May 16.

Sea Turtles in North Carolina — 11 a.m. May 23. Program for World Turtle Day will focus on different species of sea turtles and the trials they face before they even emerge from their sandy nest. No charge for the program through the Maritime Heritage Series.

Southport museum

Skippers Crew: Mullet Over — 10 a.m.- 3p.m. May 4. Designed for all ages, but specifically geared toward younger patrons, this activity features hands-on activities and crafts focusing on combining arts and history. Lights will be dimmed and interactives muted during the first two hours to provide a calmer environment for those with sensory sensitivities. No charge to participate.

Deep Dive into History — drop-in series 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18. Madline Spencer of the state’s Underwater Archaeology Branch based at Fort Fisher State Historic Site will explain the tools of the trade of an archaeologist, how they preserve what they find, and how they help us understand the past during the program, “Digging for the Past.” Designed for all ages, the series gives visitors a deeper understanding of our shared past through costumed interpreters and artifacts. Being offered at no charge, registration is not required.

Third Tuesday: “Silent Sentinels” — noon May 21 with the North Carolina Military History Society. Part of the museum’s Third Tuesday lecture series held at the Southport Community Building, 223 E. Bay St. Lectures are geared for ages 16 years and older. No charge to attend, but registration is requested because seating is limited. Call -910-477-5151 or visit the website.

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Southport is hosting a ceremony for a newly installed exhibit highlighting Cape Fear’s commercial fishing history and its redesigned display on hurricane history. And the Beaufort museum is also gearing up for the season with a spate of programs.

In Southport, the ribbon-cutting is set for 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, for the new “A Way of Life — Working the Water” and the updated “Storms that Shape Us” exhibits.

This ceremony is just one of many activities and programs the state Maritime Museums Systems has in store for Southport and its Beaufort location. The Hatteras museum remains closed for renovation, so there are no public programs currently scheduled there.

The Maritime Museum System’s Maritime History Curator David Bennett and Exhibit Design Curator Rebecca Edwards will attend the April 3 ceremony in Southport.

“The exhibit has been very well-received since its conception,” Edwards said in a release. “I really appreciate the community support, and I am looking forward to having the chance to celebrate it.”

Edwards pointed out that many of the artifacts on display were donated specifically for the exhibit. “Having these items and sharing them in the context of how they were used can help give visitors insight and appreciation for the Cape Fear fishing communities.”

Museum Education Curator Shannon Walker said one part of the fishing exhibit has been particularly popular with the younger visitors.

“The kids love playing in the wheelhouse,” Walker said in a statement about the space designed to mimic the helm of a shrimp trawler. “They have all of the captain’s tools at their command, including the wheel, throttle and even a radio.”

Last reimagined in 2019, the recent redesign of the “Storms that Shape Us” was out of necessity to accommodate the fishing exhibit and to update what was on display, officials said.

Edwards streamlined the layout and worked with Bennett and other Maritime Museum System staff to incorporate additional information on the community’s resilience in the face of the many hurricanes that have come ashore in the Cape Fear region.

The Southport museum also is offering for younger visitors SKIPPER’S CREW: Skipper’s Naturalists from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 6. This event features hands-on activities and crafts that combine arts and history. Lights will be dimmed and interactives muted during the first two hours to provide a calmer environment for those with sensory sensitivities. The program is being offered at no charge, but donations are accepted and appreciated.

As part of the museum’s Third Thursday lecture series, join Jim McKee, manager of the Brunswick Town Historic Site, for the presentation “Rice Culture in the Cape Fear” at noon April 16 in the Southport Community Building, 223 E. Bay St. Lectures are geared for ages 16 years and older. Open to the public at no charge, reservation are required since seating is limited. To register call 910-477-5151 or visit ncmaritimemuseumsouthport/events.

Beaufort events

A few hours up the coast is the Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Open to visitors from 10 a.m.to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, there’s no charge to visit the museum but donations are welcome.

The staff at this location are offering a variety of activities in April, including guided kayak trips and walking tours on Shackleford Banks and the Rachel Carson Reserve.

Most programs require registration, which can be done by calling 252-504-7758 or visiting ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com.

“Kayak the Salt Marsh” is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon April 10. The education team will teach the basics of kayaking and safety on shore followed by a 1.5-mile paddle through the salt marsh in sit-in cockpit touring kayaks. The program is recommended for ages 12 and up, though those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Participants must know how to swim and some kayak experience is recommended. Cost is $35, or $30 with own kayak. Registration is required by noon the day prior.

“Kids’ Cove” will be held from 9-11 a.m. April 10 and again 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 14. This free-play, screen-free program for birth up to age 5 and their caregivers is designed with a different maritime-themed craft and wiggle activity each month. Programs begin an hour before the museum opens to the public.

Take a look “Behind the scenes at the Whale Center” 10 a.m. April 12. The 40-minute program at the Bonehenge Whale Center is being offered at no charge. Learn about the marine mammals, including bottlenose dolphins, that live off the coast of North Carolina, and preparing the marine mammal skeletons for educational display. The Bonehenge Whale Center operates as a partnership between the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the Carolina Cay Maritime Foundation. Registration required by noon the day prior.

During the program, “Exploring Coastal Habitats on the Rachel Carson Reserve” set for 9 a.m. to noon April 18, attendees will be able to discover the various plants and animals through Rachel Carson Reserve’s different habitats and the sandy, muddy, and wet terrain found on Town Marsh and Bird Shoal. The program is recommended for ages 12 and up, though all participants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $25. Registration required by noon the day prior.

“Beaufort’s Dolphins, Getting to Know Them” is at 11 a.m. April 18 with Museum Natural Science Curator Keith Rittmaster in the museum’s auditorium. He’ll lead an informal discussion about the biology, behavior, and conservation issues affecting “Beaufort’s Dolphins.”  Bottlenose dolphins occur in the waters off Beaufort year-round but they’re not the same individuals all year. The program being offered at no charge is part of the museum’s Maritime Heritage Series, an informal lectures focused on the state’s rich maritime history, coastal environment, and culture.

The education team will lead Hiking and History on Shackleford Banks, a part of Cape Lookout National Seashore, from 9 a.m. to noon April 24. Participants will take a ferry to the undeveloped barrier island for the 2.5-mile hike through sandy terrain. Recommended for ages 12 and up, all participants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $35. Registration required by noon the day prior.

A program is being offered at no charge on the International Fishermen & Allied Workers of America in Eastern North Carolina starting at 11 a.m. April 25 in the museum’s auditorium. Following World War II, the Congress of Industrial Workers embarked on a campaign to unionize the South. As a part of that campaign, the International Fishermen and Allied Workers of America, a small Seattle-based labor union, attempted to unionize the state’s commercial fishing industry. The union found short-term success before failing. The program is part of the Maritime Heritage Series.

Guest commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.

In 2018, one of my best friends, Ashley, moved from her lifelong home in northern Durham to Beaufort, North Carolina, a beautiful coastal town with gorgeous views, a walkable historic district and a peaceful, slow pace of life. I visited on numerous occasions, enjoying the fresh seafood, taking trips to sea on her family boat and falling in love with the old-world, Southern charm of North Carolina’s fourth oldest town.

Once college started and my academic and extracurricular obligations made trips to Beaufort difficult, I was not able to return to the town, until my girlfriend spent the spring 2023 semester at the Duke University Marine Laboratory, a small research facility and campus on Pivers Island in Beaufort. She took marine biology classes and conducted research, quantifying chlorophyll biomass variations at different depths in the water column. When I took a weekend visit, I was fortunate enough to learn about other research being conducted by bright Duke students and staff at the lab, including the measurement of ocean warming and acidification through year-round water samples, the evaluation of microplastic presence in oysters at their aquafarm and analysis on the impact of the decreasing fish population on local fishing economies.

These discouraging findings made me curious — how are these climate trends impacting the residents of Beaufort? And how can Beaufort residents play a role in mitigating these impacts?

Beaufort has faced worsening coastal and climate hazards, like sea level rise, flooding and hurricanes, threatening the homes, businesses and natural infrastructure of the “frontline community” and jeopardizing the well-being and prosperity of residents.

The alarming rise in sea levels and increased flooding during storms disrupts coastal communities like Beaufort. More than 1,300 residential and commercial properties along the North Carolina coast, valued at almost $340 million, are at risk of chronic flooding. If no climate action is taken, by 2045, this estimate increases to almost 15,600 properties, valued at almost $4 billion.

Beaufort has faced particularly severe flooding, especially on the historic Front Street, a bustling hub for local businesses, where the roads are becoming more frequently impassable, hurting the local economy.

The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events will continue to have disastrous effects on Beaufort and other coastal communities. Hurricane Florence in 2018 caused $1 billion in combined crop and livestock losses and $50 million in forestry losses in North Carolina. From 2004 to 2016, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) spent an average of $65 million per year on storm cleanup. From 2017 to 2019, they spent an average of $222 million per year.

Warmer waters and ocean acidification are disrupting marine ecosystems, leading to declining fish populations and shifting habitats for commercially caught fish species. For example, the summer flounder, a species integral to the Beaufort’s trawling industry, is moving north, damaging the local economy and reducing the local food supply.

Commercial fishermen in Beaufort are also facing decreasing shrimp and blue crab populations.

Beaufort residents are not powerless in fostering change. In addition to embracing climate-conscious behaviors and sparking climate change discussion with family and friends, Beaufort residents must exercise their voting power to elect politicians that will protect wetlands and other vital climate-mitigating ecological systems, delegate resources to disaster relief and promote the executive branch’s ability to fight pollution.

In 2022, Beaufort received a grant to participate in the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program (RCCP), helping the town develop strategies for dealing with coastal and climate hazards. The public is a key partner in this project, as they can provide local knowledge and perspective on the coastal and climate hazards, informing the resilience strategies. Beaufort residents can help foster effective, equitable solutions and shape the responses taken through the program.

Beaufort is a beautiful, easygoing town with a captivating history spanning over 300 years. The town was organized in 1709. Blackbeard the Pirate ported in Beaufort frequently. The town played roles in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The destruction of Beaufort is the destruction of history. Beaufort residents must take action.

See our guidelines for submitting guest columns. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

As the year ends, so too will Cape Lookout National Seashore’s presence in Beaufort.

Since 2013, the National Park Service has had a visitor information center in Beaufort town hall, located in the historic post office building on Front Street.

In the 10-year agreement expiring Jan. 1, 2024, the town provided at no charge to the National Park Service space in town hall for a visitor center, use of the dock on Front Street for ferry transportation through a concessionaire, and part of a town park for national seashore signage.

In addition to the visitor center closing permanently in January, “suspension of ferry transportation from Beaufort to Cape Lookout National Seashore will likely follow sometime thereafter,” National Park Service officials said in an announcement Thursday. “With no agreement in place between the town and the National Park Service, there is no way the NPS can require a ferry service to operate out of Beaufort. This change opens the door for the ferry service to choose another location, negotiate with the town independently, or discontinue the service completely.”

According to the town, the National Park Service notified Beaufort officials in August of its plans to terminate the existing lease. The 10-year contract had the option for the park service to extend the lease an additional three years, expiring Jan. 1, 2027.

In early negotiations to renew the agreement, town officials “expressed a desperate need for space to expand services” for residents and proposed using the visitor center space for new offices for town employees, according to the park service. There were also complaints about a lack of parking in Beaufort.  

“The town suggested the NPS pay ‘fair market value’ to continue use of the portion of the building currently housing the visitor center. Unfortunately, there are no federally allocated funds to pay for this change,” the park service said.

National Park Service officials noted in their announcement that there was the option to for a three-year extension to retain the visitor center through the end of 2026.

“However, there is no viable reason to execute this extension for the visitor center beyond the end of the current ferry service contract. Cape Lookout National Seashore intends to close the visitor center at the end of the season in 2023 to provide the town with the office space they have requested,” the park service release continues.

Park Superintendent Jeff West said he made several attempts to discuss this with the town leaders. During the town commissioners meeting in August, it was “confirmed that without direct financial compensation, they were not interested in retaining a National Park Service presence in Beaufort,” West said.

“I think a lot of Beaufort,” he said, adding that he believed the visitor center was “great for the community economically, and great for visitors to experience such a wonderful place. I am greatly disappointed that we were not able to reach any kind of viable agreement with the town.”

Beaufort Mayor Sharon Harker said that she values “the great partnership between the National Park Service and the Town of Beaufort. Although our partnership is not over, I respect their decision to close the visitor information center. I appreciate the many years the visitor center has provided information about the Park Service and Beaufort to visitors near and far.”

The town explained in a news release Thursday that it is “uniquely poised to undertake significant rehabilitation investments to the waterfront area” and could include the reconfiguration of the east end of the boardwalk and dock facilities. “The scope of the project is yet to be determined; therefore, the Town is not prepared to re-enter a long-term lease on the facilities at this time.”

State recreational water quality officials posted a swim advisory Friday at the public access at the Lennoxville Boat Ramp in Beaufort because bacteria levels in Taylors Creek exceed the state’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s recreational water quality standards.

Test results from water samples taken June 28 and June 29 indicate that bacteria levels exceed the state and federal action levels of 104 enterococci per 100 milliliters for Tier 2 nondaily use sites, officials said Friday. Swimming areas are classified based on recreational use and are referred to as tiers.

Those swimming or playing in waters with bacteria levels higher than the action level have an increased risk of developing gastrointestinal illness or skin infections. 

The advisory is not a beach closing, nor does the include all of the Taylors Creek area. Swimming advisories are for waters within 200 feet of the sign.

The North Carolina Recreational Water Quality Program tests water quality at ocean and sound beaches in accordance with federal and state laws.

Enterococci, the bacteria group used for testing, is found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. While it does not cause illness, scientific studies show that enterococci may indicate the presence of other disease-causing organisms.

State officials will continue testing the site, and they will remove the sign and notify the public again when the bacteria levels decrease to levels below the standards.

For more information on the program or to a view a map of testing sites, visit the website or the program’s Twitter feed.

Four miles before the eastern end of U.S. Highway 70, there is a right turn that brings travelers across a small bridge and into the town of Beaufort, North Carolina.

Beaufort is humming with activity in all months of the year, whether with government business near the 115-year-old Carteret County courthouse or tourist activity closer to the waterfront. The town has nearly as many restaurants and museums as it has accolades from national magazines.

But for much of its history, Beaufort was almost forgotten. It was a small outpost that represented a bypassed hope for the future of North Carolina. Over the span of a century, Beaufort has turned itself into a center for history, water activities, and environmental study. It has gone on a long journey to become one of the most memorable places on the North Carolina coast.

Beaufort was laid out in 1713 and incorporated in 1723, making it the fourth oldest town in North Carolina. It was part of the English attempt to turn North Carolina into a productive colony. Beaufort was founded near Beaufort Inlet, one of the few longstanding ocean inlets along the Outer Banks. Given the primacy of water transportation at the time, the hope was that ocean-going traffic through Beaufort Inlet would help bring North Carolina the prosperity that Virginia was experiencing at the time through its wide, deep Chesapeake Bay.

Unlike two of the first four towns, Edenton and New Bern, Beaufort remained isolated throughout its first several decades. Edenton was the colonial capital for several decades and close to Tidewater Virginia, while New Bern benefitted from substantial growth in the Neuse and Trent River basins. Beaufort remained isolated, like the original town of Bath, and did not attract settlement to the mainland area of Carteret County. Consequently, the town only had a few dozen people in 1765, according to a French traveler’s account cited in the downtown district’s nomination form to the National Register of Historic Places.

Even after Beaufort grew to a few hundred residents by the first census in 1790, Carteret County was the state’s second-least-populated county in that census and remained one of the 10 smallest for decades. Beaufort also was not as defined by plantation slavery as the other larger, early towns. Despite the lesser reliance on large cotton or tobacco plantations, enslaved people still worked in agriculture and in maritime professions throughout the town and the coastal area of Carteret County.

Despite its small size, Beaufort had several resident political leaders. These included Otway Burns, the famed privateer of the War of 1812, and revolutionary leader William Thompson. Some of these leaders were interred in the Old Burying Ground, one of the state’s oldest cemeteries. According to land records, the earliest potential burial at this Beaufort graveyard dates to 1724. There are dozens of stories about its most notable graves, from the British officer buried standing up (and facing England) to the little girl buried in a barrel of rum.

Another early heritage of Beaufort is its historic houses. The housing landscape in Beaufort today stretches back to the late 18th century. There was once a theory that one of the oldest houses in town, the Hammock House, was built in the early 18th century and was even visited by Blackbeard. Despite its popularity among locals and mid-20th-century writers, this theory is almost certainly false. It would have been difficult for residents so far from centers of commerce and industry to have brought together the materials and expertise to build such a substantial home in the 1710s. Instead, Beaufort’s earliest standing houses were likely built around the 1780s, which still ranks them as some of the oldest in the state.

Beaufort was only of nominal strategic importance during the Civil War. Beaufort Inlet never grew to the size and depth that the town would have required to become a major port. The Union captured the town early in 1862 after subduing nearby Fort Macon and held it for the rest of the war. There were no substantial battles to rival those in important towns like Wilmington, New Bern, or even Plymouth, where the Confederates secured arguably their greatest North Carolina victory in 1864. Instead, Beaufort was taken with almost no effort.

The 20th century was defined by two developments that continue to shape the town to the present day. One was the growth of industry. Beaufort counted a number of businesses by 1916 including two manufacturing plants, two banks, nine building contractors, and eighteen grocers.

The study of marine biology also brought experts and attention to the town. One of the nation’s first centers for the study of marine biology was opened in the Gibbs House by Johns Hopkins in 1880. The Johns Hopkins Seaside Laboratory eventually helped prompt the foundation of the numerous marine labs currently located on Pivers Island, including a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility and the Duke University Marine Lab. 

The other major development of the past century, of course, was tourism. With the railroad’s arrival in 1906, travelers began to see the benefits of the quaint coastal town. Beaufort also benefited from having been small throughout the 19th century. Unlike more developed towns such as Elizabeth City or Wilmington, limited growth meant that the town kept its original cityscape. While the town began adding hotels, restaurants, and marinas in the 20th century, it retained its 18th-century homes and street grid. A 1988 report in the New York Times noted, “though surrounded today by modern shipping facilities and undistinguished commercial development, the heart of Beaufort has changed little since it was laid out in 1713.”

One of the legacies of tourism’s impact in the town is its keen interest in historic preservation. It is an attractive place for new homeowners to move in, restore old houses, and showcase those houses to the greater community.

One of these homeowners is Eric Lindstrom, who recently finished renovating the 18^th century Piver House on Ann Street.

Lindstrom had worked on historical rehabs in Fayetteville for many years and had been on the lookout for a historic home project before settling on Beaufort. Lindstrom said that the biggest challenge to this renovation was not material or labor but time.

“The work takes a long time and we wanted to do it right,” he said.

The project included some modernization but also a strenuous effort to retain original material such as period-appropriate windows. With the renovation, Lindstrom joined a community of other historic homeowners in Beaufort who share tips and open up their homes for the Beaufort Historical Association’s annual Old Homes Tour.

Today, Beaufort could be viewed as an economic success story. As of June, it had 21 restaurants, one of the highest totals for any North Carolina town with fewer than 5,000 permanent residents.

Beaufort was voted America’s Coolest Small Town in 2012 and has been featured on HGTV and other television channels. It has also started to work harder to acknowledge its African American history with attention to historic Purvis Church and a regular African American bus history tour.

The town is 7 miles from the nearest beach and yet has the kind of summer traffic that sand-adjacent towns often enjoy.

Beaufort stayed mostly the same for over 100 years, but a combination of economic development, tourist attention, and rising sea levels have made change a reality. Now, Beaufort looks to move beyond its small-town identity as it grapples with this newfound importance in its fourth century of incorporation.

Submitted by North Carolina Maritime Museums

The undead won’t be the only reawakening during a Halloween event set for Friday. The event itself is a sort of resurrection of the Fright Nights hosted in years past by the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. 

The museum’s inaugural “Boo-Fort Halloween” will feature a trunk or treat and haunted trail hayride, both from 4 to 6 p.m., and a drive-in showing of “Night of the Living Dead” Friday at its Gallants Channel Annex, 293 W Beaufort Road Extension.

Kicking off the Halloween-related activities, there will be a talk at 11 a.m. in the museum auditorium on Maritime Myths and Legends. The free, informal lecture looks at the possible origins of some of the best-known sea monsters and more.  

“Boo-Fort grew from one little thing,” museum Associate Education Curator Christine Brin explained. “We started with the drive-in movie thinking it’d be fun. Then we added the Trunk or Treat, which I wanted to do at the museum for years.” 

Not long after planning started, museum volunteer Joanne Powell brought in the East Carteret High School Film Club to add a haunted trail hayride.  

“Joanne was the creator of the Fright Night programs,” Brin said. “So she came out of ‘retirement’ for this.” 

The free Trunk or Treat activity from 4-6 p.m. features decorated trunks filled with goodies for trick-or-treaters. Businesses, organizations and individuals who would like to host a trunk are welcome to do so. The spots are free but trunk hosts must decorate with a child-friendly theme, supply their own treats and be set up on site by 4 p.m. and leave no later than 6 p.m. Contact Brin at Christine.Brin@ncdcr.gov to reserve a spot. 

The haunted trail hayride will also run from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday and then again from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 30. Students from the East Carteret High School Film Club will be haunting the nature trail. Officials warn that some of the scenes may not be appropriate for younger children. 

Brin said while she was initially most looking forward to the Trunk or Treat, after meeting with the ECHS students her excitement has increased about the haunted hayride. 

“Now that the haunted hayride is coming together with the high schoolers, it’s beyond my imagination,” she said. “Their enthusiasm and ideas are unmatched.” 

Admission to the Haunted Trail Hayride is $5 each and 8 and under free. Proceeds benefit the film club. 

Yard games will be set up on the lawn, and Frank’s Franks food truck will be on site starting at 4 p.m. for those who want to grab some refreshments.

Boo-Fort Halloween wraps up with a free drive-in showing of 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead” at sunset around 6:30 p.m. The low-budget horror movie where the dead come back to life is not as violent and gory as later horror movies, but there are still plenty of violent moments. Parents should note that there is also occasional mild profanity and some cigarette smoking. There is no pre-registration or fee for the showing. Parking is on a first-come, first served basis. Donations will be accepted. 

For more information, call 252-504-7740 or visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com.