Category Archives: shipwrecks

Working Waterfronts

Several decades ago Hatteras Island was a bit different. The island had yet to be discovered by the masses and many locals made livelihoods from the sea. I was particularly taken with the commercial fishing industry. On the sound side of all seven villages, there were small working waterfronts where individuals could keep their boats and bring in the catch. Today those waterfronts are all but gone.

The village of Avon originally known as Kinnakeet had one of those waterfronts. That’s where generations of native Kinnakeeters had lived, and worked on the water. I saw this place as a hidden gem.

While wandering the Avon Harbor in 1977, I photographed a wooden workboat that lay derelict in the marsh. It was about 40 feet long and beautiful. With rounded stern, dead-rise design and distinctive trunk cabin, it could have been a sister ship to the Albatross boats built in Marshallberg, NC. The Edwin Jr. had seen better days. Little did I know at that time, it was a precursor to a way of life in decline.

For Valor

A hundred and six years ago today, one of the most daring rescues in Coast Guard history occurred. August 16, 1918 during World War l, the British tanker Mirlo exploded offshore after being targeted by a German U-boat. The crew at Chicamacomico Coast Guard Station launched their 25-foot surfboat offshore to where the Mirlo, loaded with fuel, was an inferno. Despite the danger, Keeper John Allen Midgett and 5 Surfmen maneuvered among the flames. Miraculously, they rescued 42 out of a crew of 51 and brought them to shore.

As a result, Captain John Allen Midgett, Zion Midgett, Arthur Midgett, Prochorus O’Neal, Clarence Midgett, and Leroy Midgett received highly prestigious awards.

All six men were decorated with United States Gold Lifesaving Medals.

In 1921, King George V of Great Britain bestowed specially minted Gold Lifesaving Medals to each of them.

July of 1930 the same lifesavers were awarded the American Cross of Honor. At the time only 11 had ever been given. Six of them belong to those men at Chicamacomico.

 

Captain John Allen Midgett was also presented a silver cup by the British Board of Trade.

As a past board member and president of Chicamacomico Historical Association, I kept personal photographic records of events at the station over many years. I photographed these awards in 1993, when we displayed them in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Mirlo Rescue.

For a detailed account of this heroism go here:

https://chicamacomico.org/mirlo-rescue/

Les and Elsie’s Place

The May 15 edition of Island Free Press reported a whale skull washing up on the beach in Salvo. It reminded me of a home there years ago, with a similar find decorating the front yard.

Leslie and Elsie Hooper’s home was perhaps a hundred feet off of Highway 12. I didn’t know what the unusual yard ornament was until being told by their son Jimmy, with whom I worked on John Luke’s crew, building cottages. The sun-bleached whale skull was huge and must have taken the village to remove it from the beach.

In 1975 something about it appealed to me, enough to stop and take a picture. I adored the simplicity of the house, the yard with a fenced in garden, the old wagon wheels and fig trees. I also adored the family living there. The village had more of a rural feel back then. 

Les and Elsie were active in the community, involved in church, the volunteer fire department, fish fries and bake sales. She made the best pineapple upside down cake, and  Les was a ferry boat captain for NCDOT. To say the family had deep roots here is an understatement. 

The house built from the timbers of shipwrecks was destroyed when Hurricane Irene damaged it beyond repair. For details see the link below.

Miss Elsie’s Place

 

 

Parting Shots

Some of my first memories living on Hatteras Island involved surfing next to the Salvo shipwreck. Locals referred to it as the Richmond. It was, and still is an iconic feature of the village. Over the years, even surrounded by tumultuous seas, it has held fast and never budged.

According to state records it is the remnants of the Pocahontus, a Civil War transport steamer that wrecked during a storm in 1862.

I go to it regularly, sometimes checking the waves, to meditate, relax or take some pictures. Last Saturday I did just that. It was a beautiful day, waves rolling in with four cormorants perched on it.

Early Sunday morning an approaching front brought gale force winds. Anxious to see the transforming ocean conditions, I drove out on the beach to see how it looked. Hunkered in my truck, I photographed the wreck through a windswept downpour. 

I shoot impulsively. So could these be my last photographs of 2021?

Maybe not!

Mirlo Commemoration

Cape Hatteras is well known for it’s proximity with the offshore waters known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Over the centuries there have been numerous documented shipwrecks and loss of life. Most of these have been weather related incidents, but some were a result of German U-Boat activity off our coast during both world wars.

One of the most notable was the daring rescue of 42 British sailors by personel from Chicamacomico Coast Guard Station in Rodanthe. On August 16, 1918, the tanker Mirlo, carrying a load of fuel for the war effort in Europe, was struck several miles offshore by a torpedo fired by the U-117. The explosion split the tanker in two, setting the sea aflame.

Hair-raising details of the event can be found at www.Chicamacomico.org

The Mirlo Rescue was led by Captain John Allen Midgett, the officer in charge at Chicamacomico. He was accompanied by 5 surfmen: Zion Midgett, Arthur Midgett, Prochorus O’Neal, Clarence Midgett and Leroy Midgett. They were all awarded Gold Lifesaving medals from the British Government and the American Grand Cross of Honor. It has gone down as one of the most heroic rescues in the history of the United States Coast Guard.

As a former president and board member of Chicamacomico Historical Association, I attended the recent centennial commemoration of the Mirlo Rescue.

The day began with the raising of colors of Britain and the United States.

Chicamacomico Station was all decked out.

Dignitaries representing the British Government, U.S.  Coast Guard and descendants of the rescuers and were on hand to pay their respects.

The newly restored Bebe-McClelland Surfboat used in the rescue was on display in the original 1874 station.

The event was culminated, as reenactment surfmen carried a wreath on the beach cart out toward the ocean.  At the same time the U.S. Coast Guard out of Elizabeth City Air Station conducted a flyover.

The wreath was then transferred to the Chicamacomico Water Rescue Team’s jet ski, and handed over to an awaiting Coast Guard vessel.

The Coast Guard then committed the commemorative wreath to the sea, miles offshore at the site of the famous Mirlo Rescue, a hundred years to the day.

In a final tribute: Left to right.                                                                                                               David Hallac, Superintendent Cape Hatteras National Seashore.                                                     Admiral Todd Sokalzuk, Deputy Commander U S Coast Guard Atlantic Area                         Colonel Laura Fogelsong, U S Air Force retired and great grand daughter of John Allen Midgett Commander Richard Underwood, British Royal Navy                                                               Matthew Shepard, Chaplain U S Coast Guard Base Elizabeth City