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Writer's pictureDenis Raczkowski

Whales Along the Crystal Coast

The earliest record of whaling in North Carolina was of a proposed open ocean voyage in 1666. In that year Humphrey Hughes of Long Island, New York, secured from Peter Carteret, secretary of Albemarle County, a lease for whaling between "the Inlet of Roanoak and the island of Caretuck.” In return, Hughes was to pay one fifth of the oil and bone to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. Early settlers on the Outer Banks of North Carolina also recognized the coast of North Carolina as a promising whaling ground. These pioneer watermen harvested the blubber of carcasses that came ashore, and some whale oil was exported from the 1660s onward. New England whalemen whaled along the North Carolina coast during the 1720s. Some of these whalemen from the northern colonies settled in North Carolina and a shore-based whale fishery developed slowly. Indeed, one hundred years later, in the early 1800’s, the organized pursuit and killing of whales along the coast seem still not to have been established despite the sightings of plenty of whales. Whalemen seemingly were content with processing carcasses cast on shore.



Eventually, when these shore whalers on the Outer Banks took to boats, they did not fasten their whaleboats to the whale with a harpoon and line. A block of wood called a drudge or drag was attached to the short (under 200 feet) harpoon line. Once the harpoon was made fast to the whale, this drudge was thrown into the water and the whale allowed to swim otherwise untethered. The drudge functioned mainly as a buoy enabling the whalers to follow the submerged whale's course and anticipate its subsequent surfacings. The drudge also may have performed the function of slightly impeding the whale's progress. North Carolina shore whalers relied on a drudge at the end of the harpoon line into the 1890’s. Rarely, did they tie fast to the harpooned whale. They seldom employed harpoon guns, and then only during the waning years of the fishery And, this may explain why, according to oral tradition, no crewman was ever killed by a whale or in a whaling accident during the 150-200 years of the Outer Banks shore fishery.


There is no doubt that the principal target of the shore fishery on the Outer Banks was the black or right whale. Indeed, the capture of whales other than right whales was a rare event. Hence, the name. This ability to capture right whales has a lot to do with behavior. Female right whales often were encountered along the North Carolina coast accompanied by very young sucklings. The whalemen would fasten an iron into the calf. Just enough to hold it. If they killed the calf, the cow would leave. But, she’d never leave as long as the calf lived. Humpback or sperm whales would have been greatly desired but the men of Shackleford were scared of them.


Fear aside, it seems unlikely that many sperm whales would have been sighted from shore. The sperm whaling grounds were along and seaward of the Continental Shelf, and thus well beyond the range of shore-based observers. The finback was the only whale other than the right whale that was "at all common" on the Carolina coast. Strandings of this species on the Outer Banks are relatively frequent. Oil and baleen were the fishery's chief products. The latter would have been valued only if it came from right whales. To harvest these products, the carcass was taken ashore for processing. Lines fastened to the carcass were attached to anchors which were buried in the sand above the high· tide level. By this procedure the whalers could take full advantage of the tide in bringing the whale onto the beach. A block and tackle may have been used at times to help drag the carcass above the water line. The average yield of oil from whales taken near Cape Lookout was 40 barrels. There would be up to I,000 pounds of bone or baleen in the mouth of a good Right whale. Individual right whales often were worth $1200 to $1500, taking account of the proceeds from oil and baleen. The oil and baleen were sold in Beaufort or Morehead City to the highest bidder. Some of the oil went to Baltimore by schooner, and some was shipped out of Portsmouth Island. Though the monetary return may have been modest by some standards, the sale of whale products was one of the few ways inhabitants of remote communities on the southern Outer Banks could obtain cash. However, it is probably true that the people did not depend on whales for their annual subsistence and that whales were but one of various renewable resources they exploited to survive. Stacy Guthrie, a whaler whose experience would have been mainly in the late 1880s and later said, "Whaling was not a sure business. Some seasons brought no whales at all. It was called a substitute, something one could not depend upon." Lifetime catches reported by other whalemen on Shackleford Banks suggest that the average annual catch was no more than one to two right whales during 1830·60, perhaps about four during the late 1870s and early 1880s, and declining to about one by the late 1880s. North Carolina is the only state south of New Jersey known to have had a long and well established shore whaling industry.


In North Carolina waters, the whaling season extended from late December to May, with most captures occurring between February and May when whalers frequently encountered whales moving northward close to the coast . Although some whaling occurred as far north as Cape Hatteras, it centered almost exclusively in Carteret County on the outer coasts of Core, Shackleford, and Bogue banks, particularly near Cape Lookout. Charts of the Cape Lookout area show numerous "Whaler's Hutts" on Shackleford Banks. Those within view of the Cape Lookout lighthouse evolved into the village named Diamond City. In addition to Diamond City on Shackleford Banks, whaling was quite an industry off Bogue Banks involving the hearty residents of Rice Path and later Salter Path and also Sheppard's Point. The peak of the shore whaling industry was between 1870-early 1880s when 12-15 crews plied the waters off Shackleford and Bogue Banks. By the late 1880s and 1890s only about 6 crews were active. North Carolina whaling had become desultory by the early 1900s, and ended completely in 1917.


To learn more about the history of whaling and what is going on in Carteret County and the Crystal Coast, today, go to my website, www.EmeraldIsleHomesforSaleNC.com and sign up for my blog. Ready to buy or sell? Call me at 919-308-2292. Explore the video tab for my weekly uploads to my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and receive free donuts at my Flip Flops Donut shop. Text your email address to 919-308-2292 and subscribe to my newsletter. My book, "Live Where You Vacation" is available on Amazon.com.

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