November 2022

Originally published in the October 2017 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Head to the west end of Shipyard Boulevard, get as close as possible to the shadow of the big blue cranes, and it just might be possible to hear the echoes of the past. This once was the location of the North Carolina Shipbuilding…

Originally printed in the June 2006 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. As the 750-foot Torgovy Bridge tanker makes its offshore approach to the Port of Wilmington, a 48-foot black-and-white fiberglass pilot boat slips unnoticed from its berth in Southport, heading out to meet the ship at the sea buoy  10 miles off the coast. The…

Originally published in the August 2001 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Who really knows how legends are created? They’re usually remembered as larger than life, but weren’t they mere mortals? What separates them from us? One thing we do know about the people, the heroes if you will, that become our legends. We know that…

Originally published in the July 2016 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. The story begins in 1857, with the final voyage of the SS Central America. The 280-foot side-wheel steamer was carrying nearly  600 passengers and crew when she sank in a hurricane about 160 miles off the Carolina coast. It was America’s worst peacetime sea…

Originally published in the February 2009 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. If John Newland Maffitt did not have saltwater in his veins, he should have. Born at sea, he spent much of his life on the ocean as an officer in both the United States Navy and the Confederate States Navy, and as a successful…

Originally published in the May 2015 issue of  Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Early on, boats were built on and near Roanoke Island for sport fishing off the North Carolina Outer Banks, and their designs were honed through trial and error. These boats had to  navigate the chop of the bank’s Oregon Inlet and cut through the…

Originally published in the February 2010 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Nearly 100 years ago, beachgoers enjoying a late summer afternoon at Wrightsville Beach spotted a large ship on the horizon. Those with nautical experience noted the vessel was dangerously close to shore. The ship was the William H. Sumner, a 165-foot three-masted schooner toting…

Originally published in the October 2004 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. It has been five decades  since custom boat builder T.N. Simmons of Myrtle Grove Sound completed his last boat. He was not a boat builder by profession; he never set out to be one and his methods were highly untraditional. Like his father before…

Originally published in the August 2001 issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Ever since man has gone down to the sea in ships, great risks have been run to rescue those in danger. To improve the possibility of success, responsibility had to be delineated and means appropriated. In 1831, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury directed…

Floating Masterpieces The Rebel, a 48-foot classic Elco motor yacht  restored by boatbuilder David Flagler, cruises down  the Cape Fear River in August 201 . Originally published in the September 2016 issue of  Wrightsville Beach Magazine.