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owns
by RoAnn Bishop ’
ike the sea he loved, Otway Burns's life
was full of ups and downs. The swash¬
buckling sea captain became North
Carolina's first naval hero during the War
iof 1812. Later he built one of the state's
first steamboats and served in the legislature. Yet he
died poor and unnoticed, living his last years as a
lonely lightboat keeper on the Pamlico Sound.
Born about 1775 in Swansboro on Onslow
County's White Oak River, Burns mastered seaman¬
ship skills at an early age and became a merchant
captain. When the War of 1812 broke out, he and
some business partners bought a fast Baltimore clip¬
per ship and renamed it the Snap Dragon. They got a
license to operate the Snap Dragon as a privateer — an
armed, privately owned ship authorized by the gov¬
ernment to attack enemy shipping.
Snap Dragon measured more than eighty-five feet
long and twenty-two feet wide, and weighed 147
tons. It carried a crew of eighty to one hundred men
and as many as eight cannons. Between 1812 and
1814, Burns commanded the ship on three wartime
cruises. It sailed from Newfoundland, Canada, to
South America, capturing more than forty British
ships and their cargoes worth more than $4 million.
After the war, Burns used part of his privateering
profits to open a shipyard in Swansboro. There, in
1818, on waterfront lot number six, he built one of
North Carolina's first steamboats, Prometheus. The
paddle-wheeler traveled the Cape Fear River
between Wilmington and Smithville (now Southport)
for seven years, even carrying President James
Monroe in April 1819 on a visit to
inspect Fort Johnson. The vessel
was abandoned in 1825, probably
because its engine wasn't as
powerful as those of newer
steamboats.
After trying his hand at ship¬
building, Burns moved to
Beaufort and dabbled in other
businesses. But politics next
grabbed his interest. A Democrat,
he represented Carteret County
in the state legislature from 1821
to 1835 (seven terms in the house
and four in the senate).
Near the end of his political
career, Burns suffered money
An oil painting of Otway Burns by F. Mahler, ca.
1875-1895. Image courtesy of the North Carolina
Museum of History.
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faring
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problems.
Having
stressed his
financial
resources by
investing in
too many
businesses, he
had to sell
most of his
property to
pay his
debts. In
1836
President Andrew Jackson, another hero of the War
of 1812, came to the aid of the near-destitute Burns.
Jackson appointed him keeper of the Brant Island
Shoal Lightboat near Portsmouth. Burns died there
on October 25, 1850 — having outlived his three
wives — and was buried in the Old Burying Ground
in Beaufort. A cannon from the Snap Dragon now
rests atop his tomb.
Two North Carolina towns — Burnsville in Yancey
County and Otway in Carteret County — were named
for Burns, as were two U.S. Navy destroyers during
the first half of the 1900s. And there are two places in
the state where statues still preserve the likeness of
the scrappy — if somewhat delicate-looking — captain:
one in Burnsville's town square and one in
Swansboro that overlooks the sea. Burnsville was
named for Burns because, in 1835, he supported
western North Carolina's efforts to get more repre¬
sentation in the General Assembly. As a
result, the easterners that he represented
voted him out of office. ,
I
More Fascinating Tar Heels to Learn About
A cannon from his ship, the Snap Dragon, rests
atop the grave of Otway Bums in Beaufort.
The monument was unveiled on July 4, 1901.
Image by M. B. Gowdy, of Beaufort, courtesy of
the State Archives, North Carolina Office of
Archives and History.
Henry Lawson Wyatt
Ava Gardner
Ray Hicks
Josiah Martin
Tsali
Gabriel Rains
Helen Gray Edmonds
George Preddy
Dolley Madison
William Gaston
Golden Frinks
Nancy Ward
William Holland Thomas
Tiny Broadwick
Fabius J. Haywood
Nathaniel Batts
Estelle Lawson Page
Elizabeth Keckly
John Coltrane
Walter Hines Page
Thomas Wolfe
George Moses Horton
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‘RoAnn Bishop is the curator of agriculture, industry, and economic life at the North
Carolina Museum of History
TIIfH, Fall 2008
31