It was in this house, on the lower part of Ocracoke Island, that the pirate, Teach, was supposed to have made his
home for several years.
The Story of Ocracoke
Although much longer Ilian most articles
published in THE STATE, we believe that
.you w ill find this story of picturesque Oera-
coke well worth the space we are devoting
to it.
TO the majority of North Carolin¬
ians wlm are at all acquainted
with Ocracoke Island, it is merely
a place for hunting and fishing. Some
few may have heard that it was near
< tcrncoke two hundred years ago that
the pirate “ Hlaekbeard." whose real
name was Teach, was captured. Some
few know it as the place where the
"hanker ponies" have roamed wild
for many years and where in late
years each Fourth of duly has fea¬
tured a round-up and auction of
these ponies. Hut few there atv win»
know that behind all this lies a his¬
tory bearing not only upon North
Carolina, lint upon the development
of the young nation itself, in colo¬
nial days. in Itcvolutionary days, and
in the decades preceding the Civil
War. In fact, as long as shallow-draft
vessels plied the seas, Ocracoke Inlet
ffi/ Alice K. Hontllhuler
was the commercial key to North Car¬
olina.
Indeed Hoanoke Island, with its
claim of tirst white settlers on Ameri¬
can soil, must share the honors with
Ocracoke. .Inst as the Pilgrims of
old disembarked at Provincetown on
Cape Cod before their final settle¬
ment at Plymouth, Massachusetts, so
in 15S5 the Walter Italeigh Expedi¬
tion under Captain Lane, liefore pro¬
ceeding to its final site on Roanoke
Island, lir.st disembarked at Oera-
coke. Ihiklnyt’s history of the Raleigh
expeditions testifies to this fact in
the following statement : "At length,
the preparations being completed, n
licet of seven vessels, all small how¬
ever, and capable of entering the in¬
lets of Virginia sounds, under the
command of Sir Richard Grenville.
- . - set sail from Plymouth. Eng¬
land, April 9, 1585. After various
adventures that caused delay the fleet
passed the Cape Feare on June 23d
and days later came to anchor at Wo-
kokon (now Ocracoke), southwest of
Cape llatterask (now Hatteras)."
Name No Mystery
The gradual change of name from
Wokokon to Ocracoke is interesting,
but not as mysterious ns legend has
made it. Legend recounts that during
the long night preceding his capture
by Lt. Maynard, " Hlaekbeard," im¬
patient for the dawn, cried out “0
crow cock!
О
crow cock!” and that
thence came the name Oeraeoek or
Ocracoke. Actually, old maps of the
North Carolina reel’s show tliat long
