State

The Boat Builders of Harkers Island You <on tell о Horker'» lllond boot by »ti high lloted bow, beamy deeh, ond low jtern, built by о plon thof ho» been refined ond honded down from fother to »on for топу yeor*. i photo» by Phil Bowie1 I’roni workliont.s t €» lux¬ ury VilC'Ilt* — thc\v follow I lio olfl tradition. «•/ piiil кони: (Reprinted “illi permission from “Yachlinu" Mafia/incl Off the North Carolina Coast, a few miles south of the spot where the in¬ famous pirate Blackboard literally lost his head, there lies a small bush- covered lump of sand called Markers Jim Lewi» ho» mttolled the eobin ond deck, ond thi» croft i» now reody to be heeled o»cr for bot¬ tom plonking. Island. The thirteen hundred or so resi¬ dents of the place speak a strange dia¬ lect. look upon mainlandcrs with some¬ thing akin to suspicion, and exist by fishing, shrimping and building, with¬ out benefit of paper plans, a distinc¬ tive style of powerboat. Several centuries ago, the island was the home of the bloody and barbarous Corcc Indians. In 1730. a wily old codger named Ebenczcr Marker pur¬ chased all 2,400 acres, by then called Crany Island, from an heir of the origi¬ nal British grant recipient for the bargain sum of 400 pounds. By 1899. there were thirteen families settled and. after a vicious hurricane that year, they were joined by many more who moved their homes, board by board, from the more exposed Outer Banks. These early residents began building their own boats for fishing and whaling in the waters off Cape Lookout, and the sweet scent of fresh-cut boat wood still mixes with the constant sea breeze today. As my wife and I roamed the island talking with the residents and the build¬ ers. I added a few inches here and a couple of feet there to the custom-built Markers cruiser taking shape in my mind. There are a half-dozen major boat works on the island, producing every size of wood power-boat from eight-foot dinks to 80' luxury yachts, most with the same basic hull design. Many Built at Homes I'm defining a major boat works as an operation large enough to maintain a shelter of some kind. Many boats are built out in the weather. In small fields and house yards all over the island, boats arc fitted together in the shade of the scrub pine, yaupon and wax myrtle trees. The predominant project is an open 20-footer known as the Markers Island skiff, built to make a living with, to plans that have been refined and handed down from father to son. Beamy at the deck, high-bowed and low - sterned. the boats are used for trawling, shrimping, lobstering and dredging. Power is cither stem-well mounted outboards or marine conver¬ sions of old automobile engines. A sight to behold is an open boat rigged for trawling, with a weathered fisherman at the helm going at full speed over the shoals to flapping nets, and the throaty rumble of a reworked car engine. I’ve seen this same work- boat hull, outfitted with swivel chairs, outriggers and depth sounder used as a Sunday fishing boat in the Carolina rivers and sound waters. And I have talked with one retired gentleman who is adding a cabin of his own design to a 2 THE STATE. NOVEMBER 15, 1972