When the mailboat Violet arrived in Marshallberg, News & Observer correspondent C. J. Rivenbark discovered a whole village where life seemed to revolve around soft-shell crabbing.
Month: March 2025
A Journey to Sleepy Creek
In May of 1903, a newspaper reporter described his journey to a remote fishing village on the North Carolina coast.
Canning Sea Turtles, Marshallberg, N.C., 1938
In this photograph, we see workers slaughtering and canning sea turtles at a cannery in Marshallberg, N.C., in September 1938. (This is the 26th photograph in my photo-essay “Working Lives.”)
The Pamlico Shipyard, August 1944
This is the Pamlico Shipyard, Washington, N.C., August 1944. Built in the early part of 1943, the shipyard was located on the banks of the Pamlico River, at the site of an old gypsum mill.
The History of Buckhead (In Honor of Ms. Mary Clayton Wyche Mintz)
The legendary teacher Mary Clayton Wyche Mintz died at her home in Hallsboro, N.C. this week, age 106. I am re-printing this story on the Waccamaw Siouan community of Buckhead in her honor.
“It Was Like a Ballet”: Menhaden Fishermen at Work, 1947
In this photograph from the State Archives, we see a crew of menhaden fishermen at work in the waters off Morehead City and Beaufort, N.C., in 1947. They have tied their purse boats up against the mother boat after making a set and are beginning to load their catch onto the mother boat.
Lifting a Purse Seine onto a Net Reel, Beaufort, N.C., 1944
In this photograph, we see fishermen raising a purse seine onto a net reel at a menhaden factory in Beaufort, N.C., December 1944. They are standing in one of their crew's purse boats and another fisherman, or a factory hand, is turning the reel and lifting the seine onto the reel.
In the Galley of the Menhaden Boat Dewey
In the African American communities that were home to menhaden fishermen-- in Morehead City and Beaufort, in rural communities such as North River and Harlowe, and in fishing ports up and down the coast-- it seemed like everybody lost a loved one when the Parkins went down.
The Menhaden Boat C. P. Dey
In this unfortunately rather blemished photograph, we see the menhaden fishing boat C. P. Dey at the docks in Morehead City, N.C., looking well-used but tidy, her purse boats in good view, November 1942.
The Wallace Fish Factory, 1939
This is the Charles S. Wallace Co.'s menhaden factory in Carteret County, N.C., 1939. The factory was located three miles west of Morehead City, on Bogue Sound, just opposite the site of the county hospital today.
David Cecelski 