True Marine
Romer
by MARIMAR McNAUGHTON
photography by ALLISON POTTER
alter Marine’s
family lore handed
down from one
generation to the
next has canonized this loving cup.
As the story goes, a storm blew up on
July 4, 1914, capsizing a party fishing
boat captained by Marine. Fourteen men
were tossed into the sea, four did not
know how to swim. Capt. Marine was
able to save three but the fourth did
not make it.
Capt. Walter Marine advertised
his fishing and hunting services in
Field & Stream magazine. He docked
his party boat, Romer, used for fish-ing
excursions, moonlight rides and
speedboat rides, at the Seashore Hotel in Wrightsville Beach.
Marine, from Marine, North Carolina, had been reared in
Onslow County. His granddaughter, Katherine McKenzie of
Landfall says, “To me, he had one of the most idyllic lives. He
fished in the summer and hunted in the winter.”
Her ancestors, she says, including her great grandfather
who was listed in the census as a merchant and gentleman farmer,
had tobacco fields with tenants, a store, salt mill, lumber mill and a
fleet of cargo ships.
To commemorate his heroic rescue, the surviving members of that
fateful fishing trip awarded him a silver loving cup for his skill and
daring on July 4, 1914.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” McKenzie says, “that’s always been a
treasure in our family.”
beachbights
loving cup – a large ornamental vessel,
usually made of silver and having two or
more handles given as an award in modern
sporting contests and similar events.
W
A silver loving cup was presented to Capt. Walter Marine on July 4, 1914.
Inset, his business card. Right, a photo of Capt. Walter Marine.
22
WBM july 2013