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    Hand-Crafted Boats of Old Currituck: Fishing & Boating on the Carolina Coast
    Hand-Crafted Boats of Old Currituck: Fishing & Boating on the Carolina Coast
    Hand-Crafted Boats of Old Currituck: Fishing & Boating on the Carolina Coast
    Ebook209 pages2 hours

    Hand-Crafted Boats of Old Currituck: Fishing & Boating on the Carolina Coast

    By Travis Morris

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    About this ebook

    Before sleek factory boats dominated Currituck Sound, locals piloted these waters in hulls made by hand. Some still can be seen today--beautiful works of art designed for the utility of travel, fishing, hunting, scouting and touring. They figure prominently in recollections of a bygone sportsman's paradise, and native storyteller Travis Morris offers this engaging collection based on anecdotes, interviews and detailed craft descriptions. It's an insider's history of Currituck's boating heritage featuring the famed Whalehead Club, an accidental run-in with the Environmental Protection Agency and a harrowing U.S. Coast Guard rescue.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateJul 15, 2014
    ISBN9781625851758
    Hand-Crafted Boats of Old Currituck: Fishing & Boating on the Carolina Coast
    Author

    Travis Morris

    Travis Morris was born in Coinjock, North Carolina, in 1932 (in the same house his mother was born in on April 3, 1908). In 1970 he started Currituck Realty, a business he still owns forty years later. In 1971, he took people across Currituck Sound in an old gas boat and out to the beach in an old Corvair for which he paid fifty dollars. He'd written "Currituck Realty" on the side of the car with white shoe polish. He sold oceanfront lots for $12,000 that are now valued at over $1 million. In 1974, he operated Monkey Island Club and opened it to the public for the first time since its founding in 1876.

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      Book preview

      Hand-Crafted Boats of Old Currituck - Travis Morris

      also.

      PART I

      BOATING AND FISHING IN OLD CURRITUCK

      I’ve loved boats all my life. When I was a little boy and we lived in the village of Currituck, Mama would send me to Mr. Henry Snowden’s Store to get ten cents worth of meal, and I’d slip down to the wharf before I came home. I got more spankings over that than anything else I can remember.

      The county wharf was where the ferry dock is now. This was a long wharf that had a slight curve to the south near the end.

      On the north side of the wharf, there were several fish houses. As I recall, these belonged to Charlie Snowden, Mr. Earl Snowden and Mr. Lou Brumsey. Mr. Wallace Davis may have had one at one time (I know he had a fishing rig), and there were probably others. In between the fish houses were racks for drying the cotton nets. There was no such thing as nylon or monofilament nets back then. There was one little house that was built just for ice. It was just a little house with double walls and sawdust in between the walls for insulation.

      There were three carp pounds (impoundments: enclosed areas in the water to keep the fish or turtles alive, yet unable to escape) and one turtle pen I remember. When the fishermen came in, they would have the carp in a carp car. They would pull it up on a ramp so the water would run out, put the carp in fish boxes, weigh them and dump them in the carp pound.

      A carp car was basically a little skiff decked over with two lids that would open so the carp could be taken out. The sides and top of the little skiff, or car, were bored full of holes so it would fill with water. When they caught the carp in the fish net, they would put them in the carp car to keep them alive, and they would tow this carp car along with the skiff that held the net. There was a little ramp beside the wharf that they pulled the carp car up on. This way the water would drain out and make it easier to get the carp out.

      Every so often, a truck with a tank of water would come to pick up the carp and take them live to Fulton Fish Market in New York City. I’ve been told a rabbi would bless them before the Jews ate them.

      The way they caught the fish in the carp pound was they had a net the width of the impoundment, with small enough mesh not to gill the carp. Two fishermen, one on each end of the net, would get overboard (the water was not too deep) and pull this net up toward the wharf end of the pound to crowd the fish up so they could be dipped up with a big dip net. Then they’d be put in fish boxes, weighed and put in the tank truck.

      There was another wharf and carp pen just south of the county wharf. This was right behind Mr. Ed Johnson’s store. It was called Johnson’s Wharf. There was a deep hole between the county wharf and Johnson’s carp pen. This was caused by the gas boats. All except Mr. Earl Snowden’s boat were hooked up straight. By hooked up straight, I mean she had no transmission; when you hit the starter, she went (at least you hoped she did). Mr. Earl’s was the only one that had a marine transmission. This caused a high shoal to be next to Johnson’s carp pen. Boys and girls swam down there a lot in the summertime. Some of the boys would dive off the fish house in the deep water, and some would play around on the shoal.

      The fishing rigs were what we called long net rigs. The nets in later years would be about nine hundred yards long. If I remember correctly, that was as long as the law would allow later on.

      The way this worked was like this: the captain picked the hauls (where he was going to run the net) and ran the gas boat. There would be two men in the skiff, one on either side. One was there to pull the lead line, and one was to pull the cork line. Of course, the skiff was tied to the gas boat.

      When the captain got to where he was going to make the haul, the other two men would get in the skiff and stick the staff down (a long stick or spud, with one end of the net tied to it). Now the captain would start the boat. Remember that most of the gas boats were hooked up straight, so the boat took off as soon as it was started. The nets had sticks about every eight feet to hold the cork line and lead line apart. The two crew members that handled these lines stayed in the back of the skiff to keep the sticks from getting hung up going out over the stern. It was very important not to get hung up in the net while it was going out or you’d go overboard, too (as you will find out later in a story by Bootie Spruill). After the net was run out, the two men would get back in the gas boat and usually sit in the lee of the cabin, where it was warmer, while the net was being pulled back around to the staff. If the net got hung, they would untie the skiff, stick a spud (long pole with a pointed end) down and tie the skiff to it, then take the gas boat and go back and unhang the net. After they got the net unhung, they would come back and tie the skiff back to the gas boat and keep pulling on the net until they got back to the staff.

      Currituck Wharf. Cecil Sears’ house boat is at the end of the wharf. His pulling boat is in the foreground, and the fishing skiff is anchored out. Note the nets piled up on the net rack to dry. Wayne Taylor.

      Currituck Wharf. On the right is what is left of Johnson’s wharf and carp pen. This is where the dock for the ferry to Knott’s Island is today. Author’s collection.

      Bootie Spruill’s fishing rig, ringing around taking in the haul seine. Susie Spruill.

      Bootie Spruill. Susie Spruill.

      Carter Lindsey, with Lou Brumsey’s gas boat in the background at Currituck Wharf. Note the curve in Currituck Wharf. The poles are for drying nets. Wayne Taylor.

      This picture shows how net was carried in the stern of the big skiff with the fish in the bow. Susie Spruill.

      When pulling in the net, the skiff would be turned sideways. A line that ran under the skiff would be tied to the bottom of the staff, and another line would be tied to the staff at the top of the net and fastened to the washboard. Another line ran from the middle of the skiff to the gas boat. Now they would do what they called ring around. The gas boat would pull the skiff sideways back just like it had come, and one man would pull in the lead line and one the cork line. The man pulling the cork line would usually have the most fish to take out that were gilled (their gills stuck in the net). When they got this down to a close circle, about fifty yards of net out (this was deeper and heavier mesh net than the wings), they would do what they called bunt the net down. They’d put a spud down beside the staff to close the net up and pull the rest of the net in by hand under the spud. If they had too many fish to roll the net in, they had a big dip net they would use to bail them out.

      The net went in the back of the skiff. Then there was a solid bulkhead ahead of the net and another bulkhead up close to the bow. In between is where they carried the fish.

      After you took out the expenses for the gas, the money was divided into four shares. The rig got a share, and each of the three men got a share. The only exception I know to that was Cecil Sears, who had three thousand yards of net and two gas boats, and the rig got two shares. This was before they put the limit on the yardage of nets.

      Now you should know what I mean by a long net rig.

      LONG NET RIGS AT CURRITUCK WHARF

      Mr. Lou Brumsey had an old shad boat with a Model A Ford motor in it. A big black man named Amos Etheridge fished with him.

      Mr. Lou had a car tire cut in half and nailed on each corner of the stern of his gas boat so the skiff wouldn’t bang it. Mr. Lou was Edward Poss Brumsey’s daddy, and his wife was Mr. Henry Dozier’s sister. Mr. Lou farmed in the summer and fished in the winter.

      Mr. Earl Snowden had the first gas boat I ever remember Mr. Pat O’Neal building. The boat first had an old car engine in it, then Dr. Fondie, who Mr. Earl carried duck hunting a lot, bought him a new Chrysler Crown marine engine. The deal was he just had to take Dr. Fondie duck hunting when he wanted to go. This was the only gas boat I knew of outside the clubs that had a marine engine. Local people just couldn’t afford them.

      Most of the fishing was done in the winter and spring after the duck hunting season. In the early years, when Bell’s Island was still a club, Mr. Earl guided there (as did Mr. Pat O’Neal and Mr. Jessie Twiford, Hambone’s daddy). He lived on the canal bank in Coinjock right next to the Ruritan Clubhouse. He never had a car, but he had a pretty little gas boat probably about 24 feet long that he went back and forth to work in. I remember it was painted white and had a wood varnished steering wheel on the back of the cabin. It didn’t have a shelter cabin. In the summertime, Mr. Earl worked for Currituck County schools painting and doing maintenance.

      Mr. Bryan Snowden worked at Bell’s Island, as did George Roberts. After Mr. William Steel Gray bought out the other members of the club and turned it into an Angus cattle farm, he hired Mr. Alphonso Lane full time to build fences and keep things repaired. Mr. Lane was known as one of the best carpenters in Currituck County. He was also one of the carpenters that built the Whalehead Club. Mr. Ed Sawyer was employed there, and I’m sure many more. These are just the ones I remember.

      Mr. Earl Snowden and his younger brother, Charlie, started a hunting lodge in the old Snowden house on Maple Road in the ’40s or early ’50s. Their mother, Miss Carrie, was living when they started the lodge. I guided for them in 1956 and 1957.

      Charlie Snowden had two long net rigs. Parnell Etheridge, a big black man, ran the old Tom Brumsey boat for him, and I don’t remember who helped him. That boat was 32 feet long, had a good-sized cabin up forward and most of the time had a six-cylinder Chevrolet in it, hooked up straight. This was a battery boat built for Tom and Carl Brumsey by Mr. Wilton Walker for market hunting with a battery rig.

      When the Snowdens first started the hunting lodge, they left from Mill Landing in Maple. Henry Doxey used to run the boat and pull seven skiffs with the guides and men across Coinjock Bay; he’d go out through the Haul Over and on out to Great Shoal, which is between Bell’s Island and Swan Island. They didn’t have outboard motors then. Henry would drop a guide and two men off at a blind, go to the next blind and do the same. If the wind was blowing hard and a guide got out to pick up a duck and couldn’t get back in, Henry would go pick him up and tow him back to his blind. In the evening, he’d go around and pick them all up and go back to Mill Landing.

      Tom Brumsey’s boat. I don’t know for sure who built it, but I think Mr. Wilton Walker did. When I knew the boat, Charlie Snowden owned it. At different times, different men ran it, pulling a fishing rig. In the hunting season, it was used for a float box rig. Mr. Wallace Davis and I ran it two seasons for Charlie and his brother, Mr. Earl Snowden. This was in the late 1950s. Author’s collection.

      This is the boat Henry was running the day a storm blew up and they had to leave the rigs. The old boat was loaded real heavy because Henry had picked up some other people that were in trouble. The guides were busy pumping and bailing. The sportsmen wanted to know where the life preservers were, and Henry told them

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