It may surprise you to know that the U. S. Coast Guard had a long tradition in the town of Washington, N. C. One of the first ten cutters of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, one of the predecessor services of the Coast Guard, was built on the Washington waterfront and launched in the summer […]
Oyster Canneries Come to Washington By 1890, the City of Washington had finally recovered from the economic disaster that was the Civil War. Maritime commerce was once again booming and two rail lines had brought their tracks to town. With easy access to northern markets, two oyster canneries were built in Washington to take advantage […]
As I sit at home during the Covid 19 pandemic and practice “social distancing,” I am wondering about the last great pandemic, the 1918 Spanish Influenza. How did it affect my ancestors living on Hatteras Island? At the time Hatteras was a place where the populace was generally poor, isolated, and had little access to […]