10.5- Harkers Island Flare

Capt. Hodges circles Jenny back around in Raccoon Creek
(click on image to enlarge)

I have mentioned the 40-foot F/V "Jenny" in a couple of prior postings, where she appeared in the background... but today I decided to take my last opportunity to feature the boat as the subject of the daily photo.

Jenny is a prime example of a Down-East NC heritage treasure... the flare-bowed wooden workboat style known as "Core Sounders" or "Sink-Netters," developed since the advent of gasoline engines by the boat-builders of Harkers Island, NC.

Boat building has taken place on Harkers Island (see map, right or View Larger Map) since 1730, when the island's namesake, Ebenezer Harker, purchased the island and set up a plantation and boat yard there.

There are currently three boat-builders on the island, all small operations... one boat at a time, hand built, and without plans - only tried and true "rules of thumb" for achieving the shallow drafts and flared bows that make the boats perfect for navigating the "thin waters" above the shoals of NC's Bogue, Back and Core Sounds, and for taking on the steep waves stirred up in the sounds by frequent squalls.

Jenny was built by Clarence Willis, who learned his craft from the master of the style, boat builder Brady Lewis.

Lewis is credited with developing the "Core-Sounder" archetype in the 1930s, particularly the signature flared bow. He is the "grandfather" of the style, and his methods have been passed down to the current generation of Harkers Island builders.

I was really lucky that Capt. Hodges circled Jenny back around after leaving the dock at the Oriental Yacht Club, or I could not have gotten the above shot of her head-on... A friend of the crew was lucky, too... He had forgotten his beer, cigarettes and lighter on-board, so Capt. Hodges came back around and First Mate "Fuzzy" made the hand-off:

(click on image to enlarge)

... Then Jenny and crew (including the ship's dog, Belle) left in search of green-tail shrimp:

(click on image to enlarge)

Some links related to Harkers Island style boats:

• photos of Brady Lewis' boat yard from the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum
• history of "Jean Dale," a Harkers Island style F/V donated to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum
• Lots lots more history, paintings and photos of "Jean Dale" at site raising funds for her restoration
  
• article about and photos of Jenny's creator, boat-builder Clarence Lewis on WRAL.com
• A photo of a Harkers Island boat yard at work (but no other info) from HarkersIslandBoats.Com
  

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10.3- Net-working

Shuttles, twine and electrical tape at the ready for net repair

For the past couple of days, First Mate "Fuzzy" of the commercial fishing vessel "Jenny" (like in Forrest Gump, he explained) has been repairing "mongoose trawl" nets on the deck of the Oriental Yacht Club in preparation for white shrimp season.

Jenny has been docked at the OYC for the past couple of weeks while Capt. Dave Hodges and crew repaired the bulkhead between the OYC building and Fulcher Seafood Co.

Jenny is a 40 foot "Core Sounder" wooden commercial fisher, capable of operating in less than three feet of water, thanks to a shallow draft and a tunnel-mounted prop.

Capt. Hodges is particularly proud of Jenny's hydraulic system for controlling the outriggers and warp cables, pointing out that very few vessels in her size-range sport such equipment, instead relying on engine-driven pulley linkages.

The Capt. and crew have stayed a little longer than planned because Jenny's starter fritzed out... They hope to have it repaired and re-installed soon so they can begin the white-shrimp season.

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6.29- Provisioning "Shelly Lewis"

Capt. and crew of "Shelly Lewis" prepare to get underway

(click on image to enlarge)

The "Shelly Lewis" shoved off this afternoon to go shrimping. I'm guessing she is going out to trawl in Pamlico Sound, but that is just a guess.

The Captain (on the right, on the dock) and his two crew spent about a half hour carrying gear and provisions out to the boat at one of the Garland Fulcher Seafood Co. docks on Raccoon Creek.

About a case of Dr. Pepper (I'm guessing that is reserved for the Capt.'s mess), several of bottled water, bags of groceries, boxes of who knows what, block and tackle, gasoline (prob. for a generator) and my favorite, the giant sealed plastic bag stuffed with clothes, shoes and a sleeping bag (crewman in black shirt).

Once loaded, they backed out into Raccoon Creek, then headed headed out the harbor towards the end of the breakwater and Oriental Marker No. 8:

Godspeed, "Shelly Lewis," and may you return safely with all aboard and a hold full!

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6.23- "Buoy Maker"

"Buoy Maker" sails down Raccoon Creek into Oriental Harbor

"Buoy Maker" is a beaut of a boat I regularly spot sailing around local waters. Here she is on a run out of Raccoon Creek into the anchorage of Oriental harbor after buzzing the Town Dock.

Now, I would call Buoy Maker a "gaff-rigged catboat," but certain people I know insist that that is a redundancy...

One of those people is this really really really old dude (and for you folks who live outside of Oriental, add another two or three "really"s) who thinks he can sail, tells me that if it has any other sail rig, it is not, by definition, a catboat of any sort whatsoever.

This nameless person insists, for instance, that the boat I called a "catboat" in my May 5 2009 DP is not a catboat at all, but a "non-such."

Well, the nameless critic may be from one of our Yankee states wherefrom catboats originate (state remains nameless to protect identity), and he may have owned a catboat or two (gaff-rigged, of course), but I maintain that a catboat can have ANY sail rig at all provided it is only one sail, there is no standing rigging (the mast is free-standing), and the mast sets way forward near the bow.

In any case, my critic and I can certainly agree that "Buoy Maker" is 100% "Catboat."

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6.22- Shrimping in the harbor

A small boat trawls for shrimp in Oriental harbor at sunset

With June comes the evening ritual of a dozen or more small boats trawling for Brown Shrimp (Penaeus aztecus) in and near Oriental Harbor... they are not allowed to shrimp on the other side of the Hwy. 55 bridge, seen in the above photo.

The boats motor slowly around the harbor and a bit into the River Neuse (generally counterclockwise, so far as I can tell) dragging their trawlnets behind, then hoisting and sorting the catch in the boat.

Typically the first shrimpers show up in the harbor in the late afternoon/early evening, and by sunset there will be a dozen or more working the harbor, many staying until near midnight.

Brown shrimp comprise about 65 percent of all shrimp catches in NC... In the fall, shrimpers will concentrate on White shrimp (aka Green Tail) and a minuscule catch of pink shrimp in the spring.

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2.08- Harker's Island Harbor

Clams, scallop and oyster shell remains in a cage on the stern of a commercial fishing boat, Harkers Island Harbor
(click on image for full size)

Today's picture comes from Harkers Island Harbor, operated by the Carteret County Harbor Authority. Carteret County is home to most of North Carolina's commercial fishing licenses.

The harbor is inhabited mostly by 30-40 foot commercial fishing boats, about half the length of most of the commercial fishing vessels that line the two fish-house docks in Oriental's Raccoon Creek (as seen in the banner photo at the top of the blog.)

Vessels docked at Harkers Island Harbor
(click on image for full size)

View Larger Map

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1.14- "Capt. Cecil" and Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker

"Captain Cecil," tied up stern-to at the Garland Fulcher Seafood Co. docks on Raccoon Creek

Captain Cecil was tied stern-to the docks while crew pulled out, straightened and re-wound her warp cables this afternoon.

As you can see, all was calm in the creek, and yesterday's rain and clouds have departed.

Can anyone help me identify these birds?

Please drop me a comment or e-mail if you can help!

[OK, thanks to Keith Bruno and Raf for identifying this bird for me!]

I saw these two birds by the roadside in Minnessot Beach today, and was only able to grab about three drive-by shots of them...

One is seen flying away, while the other waited warily for me to pass by. I looked through my NatGeo Birds of North America guide, to no avail... (I need to find my Peterson's Guide)

[UPDATE: Keith Bruno dropped me a note identifying this as a "a flicker, possibly the yellow shafted variety"... Then, while I was writing this update, Raf from Port Townsend, WA dropped me a comment to the same effect... Yes indeedy, my NatGeo guide does have an illustration and description of the very bird as a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), "Yellow-shafted" variety... I had not looked carefully through the Woodpecker section because I spotted these birds hanging out on the ground, which seemed unlikely woodpecker behavior... various internet sources confirm that the Flicker, unlike other woodpeckers, forages on the ground for ants and such...

As the NatGeo guide describes them: "Two distinct groups occur: "Yellow-shafted Flicker" in the east and far north, and "Red-shafted Flicker" in the west.... brown, barred back; spotted underparts, with black crescent bib. White rump is conspicuous in flight [see my flight photo below]... "Yellow-shafted Flicker" has yellow wing lining and undertail color..."

Another new one for my life list and my photo life list, Yay!]

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12.16- Raccoon Creek & Hodges St. Causeway

A Great Blue Heron stands near the edge of Raccoon Creek

A gray misty day here in Oriental.

The portion of Raccoon Creek in today's photo is separated by the Hodges' Street causeway from the navigable area of the creek where sailboats tie up at Town Dock and Oriental Marina & Inn and shrimp boat/trawlers tie up alongside the Town's two fish-houses, Point Pride Seafood (on the left) and Garland Fulcher Seafood (right).

The causeway is partially obscured by reeds at the other end of the water in today's photo, but you can see part of the wooden railing along the street.

Originally, Hodges Street ended at the northwest bank of Raccoon Creek (on the right side of today's photo.)

In 1908, the John L. Roper Lumber Company (which owned a large lumber mill across town) offered to supply the Town with the required materials if the Town would build a

"bridge across Raccoon Creek at the foot of Hodges St. and... get a right of way from the foot of said bridge on the East side of the creek out to Factory Street."
Minutes of Board of Commissioners of Town of Oriental, February 4, 1908)

The property over which such road would pass was at that time owned by the Oriental Manufacturing Company, and had been the site of lumber mills and manufacturing operations.

The Bank of Oriental foreclosed on the Oriental Manufacturing Company property, and sold it to H.A. Stephens by a February 6, 1911 deed which specifically reserved an easement for:

"... a strip on the Northernmost end of said land running from Hodges St. to a point on Wall St. the Southern line of which is forty feet distant & parallel with the present Bridge walk across said Raccoon Creek from Hodges St. to said Wall St."

(this is the earliest recordation of the easement, and earliest reference to any causeway across Raccoon Creek so far found in Pamlico County land records... no original easement has yet been found)

At some point the Town replaced the "Bridge walk" across the creek with a road-bearing causeway, allowing vehicular traffic across the creek, but blocking water and water traffic.

Before the causeway blocked water traffic, boats could come up the creek as far as Main Street, which also traverses the creek, and is where I stood to take today's picture. Town co-founder Louis B. Midyette built the road now known as Main St. across the creek some time prior to 1898 (some 1898 deeds for properties between Factory St. and Raccoon Creek describe land as bordering on the "New Road built by L.B. Midyette.)

Boats could come up to a store on the bank of the creek just opposite of where the heron appears in today's picture (just out of camera shot on the left.) L.B. Midyette was an owner and co-owner of the store for awhile.

There has been some discussion removing the Main St. crossing over the creek, and possibly re-engineering the Hodges St. causeway to return the creek to its more natural state as an actual flowing creek...

Many folks don't even realize the bodies of water east of Hodges are the now-blocked remnants of Raccoon Creek. Many refer to the bodies of water between Hodges and Main and east of Main as the "Duck Ponds," which I think is an unfortunate nick-name in that it devalues the waters' actual status as the artificially-blockaded Raccoon Creek.

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12.10- Above the fog

The outriggers of a trawler peak out above the fog on Raccoon Creek

Fog covered many waterways today, including the Neuse River, Oriental harbor and nearby creeks.

As warm (70+ degrees F) air soaked with moisture (97% humidity) moved over cooler water, fog formed... such fog is called "advection fog."

I went to the top of the Hwy. 55 bridge for this shot... It was about 4:00 PM, and I was standing about 50 feet above the water, just about the limit of the surrounding fog below.

I could barely make out the harbor's breakwater and the Neuse River beyond that was invisible, completely covered in fog.

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11.03- "Lady Hawk" and "Emily Brooke"

The "Emily Brooke" heads out of Oriental Harbor towards Pamlico Sound, as the "Lady Hawk" sails upriver

Another shot taken from the Bauer 10 Classic as I was sailing out in the Neuse River.

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10.11- Bay River fish-house

Shrimp boats rafting at Gaskill Seafood Co. docks in Bayboro.

Today I walked in the rain around the Gaskill Seafood Co. on the Bay River in Bayboro (county seat of Pamlico County).

Gaskill Seafood is a twelve mile trip up the Bay River from its' mouth on the Neuse River...

The Bay River is only a tad over 100 feet across where these 70 foot long trawlers are rafting.

Makes me wonder just how they turn around.

There were six trawlers in tied up at Gaskill today.

You can zoom in on the Gaskill Seafood Co. and explore the Bay River on the embedded Google Maps below, or Click here for full size Google Map ZOOMED IN ON GASKILL SEAFOOD:


Embedded with Map Channels.

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10.1- Breakwater perch

A Brown Pelican surveys the Neuse River from its' perch at the end of the Oriental Harbor breakwater

I photographed this brown pelican (one of my favorite subjects) from about twenty feet away as I was sailing around the breakwater in the Bauer dinghy.

Usually birds perching on the breakwater fly away as I sail closer, but this one stayed put, keeping one eye on me and the other on the river.

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9.23- Warp factor five

Workers stretch out "warps" at Garland Fulcher Seafood Co.

These guys are untangling the cables that drag the trawling nets behind shrimp-boats. The cables are called "warps," and the are quite long.

Sometimes I will see workers using forklifts to haul the heavy cables several hundred feet down the streets near the two fish-houses in town because they are too long to stretch out on the property. The man on the left of the picture, with the white galoshes (standard wear for all shrimp-boat and fish-house workers, apparently) is standing across South Water St. from the Fulcher Seafood Co. parking lot

After the warps are stretched out and straightened, they are wound up on reels on the deck of the trawler.

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9.19- Rigging the trawl nets

Workers stow and rig trawl nets on shrimp boat docked at Point Pride Seafood
(click on picture or here for full size)

I am frequently dumbfounded by the apparent complexity of rigging on the commercial trawlers that inhabit the two Raccoon Creek fish-houses.

The outriggers reaching to the sky, the assorted superstructures, attachments and the miles of cables and rigging remind me of the multiple masts, spars and rigging I've seen on various models of old square-rigged ships (and as described in Patrick O'Brian's Aubry-Maturin books.)

The guy up top was stacking the various nets on which he is standing, and passing lines to the guy down on the deck.

I took this picture from the Bauer dinghy while sailing up Raccoon Creek.

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9.16- Welding an outrigger

A worker welds a support to the starboard outrigger of the trawler "Betty H."

"Betty H" has been undergoing some repairs for the last week while tied up at the Garland Fulcher Seafood Co. docks on Raccoon Creek.

I have seen this guy doing welding in various spots on the starboard side of the deck on top of the cabin area behind the pilot house... Now I see that he must have been welding the base of the long white (albeit somewhat rusty) pole that extends from the deck to where he is welding it to the black outrigger.

The pole appears to be a supporting bracket that pivots with the outrigger as it is lowered/raised into the horizontal/vertical positions.

I guess these outriggers take a pretty good beating... see another trawler with a damaged outrigger (and a discussion of outriggers, trawlers, troll poles, and trolling) in my July 21 posting, "Amazing Grace..."

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9.14- Parade of Shrimp Boats

Four commercial trawlers (shrimp-boats) leaving Oriental Harbor as the weekend shrimping curfew ends.
(Click on picture for full size)

I was out sailing on the Neuse River in the Bauer dinghy today when these four shrimp-boats left Oriental harbor and headed down the Neuse River for a new week of shrimping. (yes, there are four trawlers in the picture... the second closest one is mostly obscuring the third closest, but you can just see the third's starboard outrigger peeking out just below the second's starboard outrigger...click on picture for full size... or, see all four in today's slide show on sister blog "The Dinghy Dock")

There is a shrimping curfew from Friday midnight to Sunday noon, so on Sunday afternoon most of the commercial shrimp boats leave their weekend berths at Garland Fulcher Seafood Co. and Point Pride Seafood Co. to go out shrimping.

I was sailing near Oriental Marker #1 when these four trawlers started coming out. In reverse order of departure (from closest to furthest in the above photo), they were:

• "Amanda Ashley" - 73 foot, 92 tons, owned by Forest H. Williams, Sr., Grantsboro NC
  
• "Emily Brooks" - 73 foot, 108 tons, owned Sherrill Styron"
  
• Capt. Cecil" - 75 foot, 130 tons, owned by Sherrill Styron
• "Goldie Marie" - 73 foot, 93 tons, owned by Chris Fulcher

Mr. Chris Fulcher owns "Point Pride Seafood," while Mr. Sherrill Styron owns "Garland Fulcher Seafood," which can be a bit confusing at first.

The late Garland Fulcher was the local fishing baron and Chris Fulcher's father. Sherrill Styron was Mayor of Oriental for 24 years, and is now a Town Commissioner. I don't know anything about Mr. Forest Williams of nearby Grantsboro.

"Point Pride Seafood" is on the Eastern side of Raccoon Creek (on the right side of the banner/title photo at top of page), while "Garland Fulcher Seafood" is on the Western side (on the left in banner/title photo at top of page.)

"Point Pride Seafood" sits on a property with a very long and interesting history in Oriental... the point of land it is on, at the confluence of Raccoon Creek and the Neuse River, was known as "Chadwick Point" in the late 19th century, and was home to two lumber mills at the time the town was chartered in 1899... one of the mills was owned by Robert Midyette, who in 1873 purchased the 350 acres of land on which the town was founded.

(For some reason, local lore credits Robert Midyette's nephew, "Uncle Lou" Midyette -- half of the namesake of "Lou-Mac Park" -- as the "founder" of Oriental, but my research indicates that Robert Midyette was the actual owner of the land and the real mover and shaker behind the town's creation)

"Raccoon Creek" was also known as the "log pond" when the Chadwick Point lumber mills were operating because "rafts" of logs which had been cut down farther up the local creeks were floated down to Raccoon Creek where they floated while awaiting milling at the Chadwick Point mills.

The Chadwick Point land was eventually purchased by the "Oriental Bulkhead and Improvement Company" in a fascinating (and ultimately disastrous for the OBIC) land development scheme, about which I'm sure I will explain more in a future posting.

Anyway, enough about Oriental history... today it looked like "Goldie Marie" was going shrimping on Garbacon Shoal, just across the Neuse River from Oriental (you can see Goldie Marie in the distance, turning off to starboard), while the others proceeded farther down the Neuse and possibly into Pamlico Sound.

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9.12- Casting for bait from Town Dock

Casting a net for bait fish at Town Dock in Raccoon Creek, Oriental, NC.

This gentleman and his wife arrived at Town Dock in their inflatable dinghy this afternoon... while the wife went to The Bean for some coffee drinks, the husband took out his cast net and began casting for bait.

The couple live aboard their boat at Pecan Grove Marina, right across Smith Creek from Oriental (straight ahead as the camera points.) "Yeah, this dinghy is our car, and the boat is our house," the wife explained to me.

Both I and the wife pointed out to the husband that there were thousands of Menhaden swimming around in a tight school near the Hodges Street bulkhead, 30 feet from Town Dock, but the husband wanted Pinfish, and was not interested in Menhaden... "They fall apart too easy," he said.

To see this guy's casting form, check out the full series of shots on my slide-show posting for today on The Dinghy Dock.

For those of you who have never used a cast net, this guy makes it look easy, but it just ain't so at first... I have been trying to learn, but I can't get it to spread out properly except maybe every fourth or fifth throw. See Capt. Robby trying to teach me at the end of the slide show on my Labor Day posting on The Dinghy Dock.

It seems just about every person has his or her own particular method of casting a net... just search "how to cast net" on YouTube, and you will come up with a dozen or more "how to" videos (watch one example below, with links to others), each involving different steps and techniques, and each one of which claims to be the easiest and most effective. The same is true of every fisher I have talked to in person... Typical instructions go along the lines of:

"You simply (coil the line in your throwing hand / coil in your non-throwing hand / let the line lay on the ground), then grab the net about (1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 3 feet, 4 feet down, waist-high, just above the waist, just below the waist), then grab the (front, rear, left, right) of the hanging lead-line (with your right pinky / left forefinger and thumb / in your teeth) then you grab (1/2, 1/3, 3/4, 5/8) of the remaining net in your (left / right/ throwing / non-throwing) hand, then put (this / that) part on your (left shoulder / right leg / left wrist / right elbow), do the hokey-pokey, blink three times, wiggle your right earlobe, and throw!"

Follow these easy instructions (!!!!) from "striper182" on YouTube and you too can throw a perfect cast net... after the video, a bunch of other cast-net instruction video links will pop up, all of course, just as simple:

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9.11- Fulcher Seafood docks as seen from OYC

(click on picture for full size image)

Three commercial trawlers docked at Fulcher Seafood Co. docks in Raccoon Creek, as seen from the deck of the Oriental Yacht Club.

"Betty H.," "Capt. Ryan" and "Capt. Jeff" were docked at Fulcher Seafood Co. this afternoon when I dropped by the "Oriental Yacht Club."

I'll have more to say about the OYC in the future... I need to get some more info so I don't end up telling some lies about it.

It is in some pretty old buildings, though, and it has this funky covered deck sticking out into Raccoon Creek right next to the Fulcher Seafood fish-house and docks, also on Raccoon Creek.

You can see the very end of the OYC deck, with it's peaked roof, on the extreme left side of the blog title/banner picture at the top of the page.

This is my fist B&W entry in either of my two blogs. I learned photography as a lad and young man with analog cameras... by the time I was in Junior High School I was doing almost exclusively B&W photos and my own processing and printing, which I continued to do for myself and my JHS and High School yearbooks and newspapers.

I kind of gave up photography at some point in college, no longer having access to good darkroom facilities and having failed to maintain / replace my aging and abused cameras and equipment.

As I re-entered the hobby in the digital age, I adapted to color photography, which was quite expensive back in the analog days, but now is just as inexpensive as B&W... As they say, film sure is cheap nowadays.

Now I have been seeing a lot of great B&W work on "City Daily Photo" blogs, and decided to give digital B&W a try for a while... not exclusively, mind you, but now that I have figured out how to switch the cameras to B&W mode, I expect to be doing a bit more...

Now I just have to figure out how to switch my brain and eyes to B&W mode; I hope it's something like riding a bicycle.

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8.25- Seafood Straight from the Boat

Boxes of "Fresh Seafood," each containing a bushel or thereabouts of Shrimp from Pamlico Sound, await pickup on the loading dock of a local fish-house (Garland Fulcher Seafood).

One of the commercial shrimp trawlers (the "Captain Jeff") peeks through the passageway while tied up at the fish-house dock.

Trucks of all sizes come in to pick up fresh-off-the-boat shrimp from Oriental's two fish-houses, mostly on the weekends when the boats come in to unload.

I'll try to do some more photos on the whole process of boats coming in, unloading and re-provisioning, and of the catches being processed.

A sad reality is that the very survivals of Oriental's two fish-houses (Garland Fulcher Seafood and Point Pride Seafood) are under threat from a host of factors, including global competition, diminished fishing stocks (and corresponding increased catch regulation), high fuel prices (upwards of $50,000.00 just to fill the tanks of a small commercial trawler), real estate values/land taxes that have led to the closing of so many fish-houses along the coast that boats have to go farther and farther (costing more non-fishing time and fuel) between fishing grounds and someplace to unload their catches.

Anyway, I am told that at least this year the size of the catch is larger than last year... and that last year's catch was larger than anyone has seen in a long time.

Look for future posts in what I suppose is becoming "this series."

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