THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505140036
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OCRACOKE INLET LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
In the ankle-deep swash surrounding an oyster shell island, broken bits of 18th-century china are sitting on the sand. Fragmented cobalt scenes of English houses, emerald-feathered edges of antique plates, even pipe stems, wine bottles and pieces of pitchers mingle with the crabs and critters on the bottom of Ocracoke Inlet.
Once, trans-Atlantic vessels docked at a customs house constructed on a 25-acre pile of shells. In the 18th century, 600 ships a year sailed into the wooden wharves. Shell Castle Island was the biggest and busiest maritime trading center in North Carolina from the 1790s to 1820.
Today, its remains form the Outer Banks' own Atlantis - an ancient city whose traces have all but been erased by the tide.
``There's about a quarter acre of Shell Castle Island left exposed. The rest is all under water now,'' said East Carolina University graduate student Phil McGuinn. ``Most of the water around there isn't too deep anymore, either. You can see enough stuff just sitting on top of the sand to get a good feeling for what's still out there. This was the most valuable piece of property in the nation at one time.
``We want to help people understand its history - and see what's left of its heritage.''
Last week, McGuinn and four other students from East Carolina University's underwater archaeology program began exploring and mapping the remains of Shell Castle Island. No one has inhabited the area since a Portsmouth Island hospital worker formed a smallpox ward there in the 1840s. Only seagulls and oyster catchers now occupy the land, which is owned by the National Audubon Society.
``It's eroded a lot over the years. But there hasn't been any building on the island or habitation of it, so it's a pretty pristine site,'' McGuinn said. ``There hasn't really been any contamination to confuse the issue.''
Located in the center of the wide inlet, between Ocracoke and Portsmouth Islands, Shell Castle Island was the prime port of entry for all boats traveling to North Carolina's coastal communities during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In 1798, Shell Castle Island became home to the state's first lighthouse - a 54-foot, pyramid-shaped structure set on a 10-foot submerged foundation. The following year, Portsmouth resident John Wallace and Washington, N.C., merchant John Gray Blount bought the oyster shell island - and four other islands in the inlet. They began constructing wharves, a warehouse, a grist mill and windmill that spring.
Shell Castle Island was uniquely positioned in the inlet, protected from many of the harsh ocean waves and winds. It was surrounded, however, by 15 or more feet of water, so deep-draft boats could pull right up to port and unload their cargo onto smaller vessels that carried the goods through shallow sounds to inland towns.
``Wallace brought in logs from throughout the Albemarle area and supervised the building of all warehouses and homes himself,'' McGuinn said.
``There were houses, a tavern; later, a lumber company and porpoise processing facility where they extracted oil to light the lighthouses. Ships were coming in and going out of there every day.''
McGuinn said he stumbled on a reference to Shell Castle Island when he was researching a paper about Blount's mercantile business. The master's degree candidate decided to write his thesis on the Ocracoke Inlet community. With the help of historians from the N.C. Underwater Archaeology program at Fort Fisher, he hopes to complete his research - and degree - by spring 1996.
``So far, we've found a lot of foundation work around there, wooden-work beams that were connected in maritime-style building - construction similar to what you'd find on an 18th century ship,'' said McGuinn, who is one of 10 divers working on the 11-person project.
``We don't know exactly what these foundations were for. But one rectangular-shaped area that's still mostly intact was certainly the remains of a warehouse-type building. A lot of the pieces are in unnatural configurations because the waves have moved them around. We're also finding piles of hand-formed bricks and ballast stones jumbled all over and around the island.''
In 1810, 40 permanent residents lived on Shell Castle Island, mostly merchants and ship pilots who fished for extra profit. During the War of 1812, the Ocracoke Inlet began to shoal. By 1822, Ocracoke Lighthouse had replaced the tower on Shell Castle Island and much of the waterway traffic began bypassing Blount's waterfront town.
``One of the goals is to get an understanding and some sort of record of what was here,'' McGuinn said from National Park Service trailers where he is temporarily staying on Ocracoke.
``There isn't much definitive information about Shell Castle Island. We're hoping to add to the historical record.''
With historical study, a $3,000 grant from the Institute of International Marine Research and at least four days of scuba diving, the graduate students hope to piece together part of the mercantile center's past.
They've found more than two dozen artifacts so far, mostly shards of 200-year-old pottery and parts of 1/4-inch thick, hand-blown glass wine bottles. They've discovered that Shell Castle Island didn't have any wells or fresh water supply - so the residents relied on cisterns to catch rain water for drinking. And they've come across a two-century-old newspaper reference that says Blount once was offered enough silver dollars to cover the entire island - if he'd sell it. He refused. The port was too valuable and unusual to lose.
``We've done a lot of digging through old records and letters. But we haven't had to dig at all on or around the island,'' McGuinn said. ``There's a lot of stuff just sitting out there that no one has touched. Later, we might go back and do a more thorough exploration.''
The only real record the students have of what Shell Castle Island looked like is painted on a china pitcher housed in the state's archives.
The town's portrait shows extensive docks, at least two wooden houses, and a long, low warehouse with a 16-star American flag flying overhead. Three-masted schooners and other large sailing ships flank the pitcher, which Blount commissioned from an English china maker.
``We don't really know if that image is aggrandized as part of a promotional effort or if it shows Shell Castle Island as it really appeared at the time,'' said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, a state underwater archaeologist who is assisting McGuinn with his research and mapping.
``It's all we've got to go on, though. And we're hoping to find another pitcher out here somewhere.''
Most of the archaeological work is being done with side-scan radar that shows dips and hills on the ocean floor and with magnatometers that pick up anything metallic - including tiny nails in submerged shipwrecks.
Wilde-Ramsing said the diving itself has been difficult. Since much of the water is less than chest deep, scuba experts have had trouble deciding whether to wear their deep water gear or merely use snorkling equipment. Stinging nettles have burned their faces. Sediment has clouded their underwater video taping. And the sharp oyster shells that form Shell Castle's base have sliced through their booties.
``If we really did extensive screening out here, we could come up with some extremely interesting things,'' said Wilde-Ramsing. ``Hopefully, we can come back later and do some real digging. There's a fascinating piece of maritime, mercantile history out here in this inlet.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map
STAFF
Color photos
LAUREN LAMPE/Staff
DREW WILSON/Staff
Left, East Carolina University student Rick Jones records the
location of the remains of an 18th-century village on Shell Castle
Island at Ocracoke Inlet. Right, researchers have recovered plate
fragments on the abandoned island.
Photo
Courtesy of Division of Archives and History
A commemorative pottery pitcher details structures that may have
stood on Shell Castle Island around 1800.
by CNB