
DATE: Sunday, July 13, 1997                 TAG: 9707110313

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 08   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND                   LENGTH:  171 lines

TAKE A TRANQUIL TRIP FREE FERRIES CARRY YOU AWAY

With a rumble and a roar, the M.V. Baum pulls out of the docks, its steel deck laden with cars and trucks and motorcycles and bicycles.

As the 140-foot ferry gently lurches from the island, it leaves a bubbly wake that looks like champagne. Above, fluffy white clouds billow like bed linens on a heavenly clothesline, backed by a blue sky.

Jean Powell gets out of her late-model car which is parked on the deck of the now-moving boat. Dark glasses hide her eyes. But even folks back on the docks can see her wide smile.

``I've really wanted to go to Ocracoke,'' says Powell, a retired school administrator from Pikesville, Md. ``I've had all these visions of what it would be like. We're staying up in Corolla. But we just decided to drive down and get on the ferry and go.''

Powell has been on ferries before, in New England and on the Pacific coast. But there's something special about the five-mile sojourn across Hatteras Inlet to Ocracoke. The free state ferries shuttle more than a half-million visitors along the southern Outer Banks each summer.

``There's lots of character,'' Powell says of the islands. ``Coming down here to Hatteras you go through all of these little villages. And every one of them is unique. Plus, coming down from Corolla and going on to Ocracoke, we'll get to see four of the five lighthouses. It's not at all like the California and New England oceanfront.''

As the ferry gently slices the water, chugging about 7 miles an hour across the inlet, Powell makes it clear she prefers ferry travel to crossing the waters by bridge.

``I'm not a bridge person,'' she says. ``This is like going back in time. Going through little towns like Buxton, I think about my ancestors and all that they went through growing up in little towns like that.''

The romance between the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry and its passengers goes back to just after World War II. The waters around Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands were again safe for travel after Allied warships chased Nazi U-boats from the Atlantic. After the war, Frazier Peele of Hatteras built a small wooden ferry capable of carrying four automobiles across Hatteras Inlet.

In 1957, after four years in business, Peele sold his operation to North Carolina.

Today, the state operates a fleet of eight boats between Hatteras and Ocracoke. Ferries carried 37,072 vehicles and 91,988 passengers across the inlet just in the month of May. In summer months, the free trips leave Hatteras and Ocracoke every half-hour between 5 a.m. and midnight.

Other ferries operate between Currituck County's mainland, north of the Outer Banks, and Knotts Island; between Ocracoke and Swan Quarter and between Ocracoke and Cedar Island. The former, like the Hatteras ferry, is free. The later two each require reservations and fees.

The state-supported ferry system is funded entirely through taxes, ferry fees and revenue from souvenir sales at the Ship's Store on site.

North Carolina has the second-largest ferry system in the nation, behind Washington state.

The state's involvement in ferries predates the founding of the Ferry Division in 1924. In the early spring of that year, Jack Nelson of Colington initiated a ferry operation across Oregon Inlet, between Nags Head and Hatteras Island. Because of a lack of business, he abandoned the operation after a few months.

J.B. ``Toby'' Tillett of Wanchese re-established the operation a short time later with a tug and barge system. Later, Tillett replaced it with a wooden trawler-style ferry.

In 1934, the North Carolina State Highway Commission (now NCDOT) laid the groundwork for the current ferry system by subsidizing Tillett's business in order to reduce his toll rates. Over time, and thanks to the reduced rates, ferries became increasingly popular.

In the early 1940s, Kitty Hawk native T.A. Baum began ferry service across Croatan Sound from Manns Harbor to Manteo. James C. Clark and his son, McDonald, were hired by Baum to run the ferries: ``Kitty Hawk'' and ``Dare.''

But while bridges now span the Croatan, Currituck and Roanoke sounds - as well as Oregon Inlet - the Hatteras ferry remains.

John B. Miller Jr., 36, a lifelong Hatterasman, is the son of a son of a ferry captain. He follows in the family tradition.

``I'm from Avon. But I'm really a full-blooded Kinnakeeter,'' Miller says, a big grin showing through the shadow of his tan North Carolina Ferry Division hat. On this day - during one of the busiest tourist times of the year - the ferries are pulling double duty.

``Usually we run four ferries. But we keep four others on standby,'' he says. ``They're all running today. We do six round trips a day in a 12 half-hour shifts. We work seven days on, seven days off. It's great. I have a small charter fishing business, so the weeks I'm not on the ferry, I'm out fishing.''

Today is especially crowded. About 30 automobiles are bunched bumper-to-bumper on the Baum.

``It's just crowded during the middle of the week,'' Miller says. ``It's fairly slow on the weekends because of the cottage changeover. And, too, after two or three days, people decide they're tired of the beach, and decide to take a ride on the ferry over to Ocracoke. I'm a people person, so I love this job.''

Miller, a 10-year veteran of the ferry division, worked his way through the ranks to his job in the wheelhouse as skipper of the long, flat craft. The Baum is painted red, white and black - the colors of North Carolina State University. Many of the state's ferries are painted with the colors and emblems of the institutions in the state university system.

``I started out in traffic control, then deckhand, then engineer and eventually worked my way up to the wheelhouse,'' Miller says. ``I think that's good because they want you to know your boat.''

Wind rather than waves pose most of the problems for ferry operators, Miller says. On this day, the wind is moderate. But waves are causing some passengers to scramble for their sea legs in a hurry. The boats rock a bit. But because they're so wide and flat, people seldom get seasick on the crossings.

``People ask me if I ever get bored going back and forth,'' Miller says. ``And I never do. There's always something interesting to see. I'm a morning person, so when you're coming across at sunrise, you can really see beautiful things.''

Miller has witnessed several passages of life on the ferries as well.

``We buried a man at sea here once,'' Miller recalls. ``He was a Navy man. And his wife wanted him buried at sea. So at her request, we took his ashes, said a few words and a prayer, and scattered his ashes into the water. It was something.''

Lovers have become engaged on the ferries. And some even have married aboard the boats. Throughout the 40-minute ride, couples embrace and hold each other close.

``It's those diesel fumes,'' says Bobby Reynolds of Greenville, S.C., who was riding last week with his wife, Mary. ``They're an aphrodisiac.''

But one person's floating barge of love is another's lifeline. For residents of Ocracoke Island, the ferry is their connection not only to the rest of the Outer Banks - but to the rest of the world. Ocracoke residents and business owners have priority passes so they can avoid the long lines of the summer season.

``It's amazing how many people get in and out of here,'' says Cee Touhey, who owns an Ocracoke hotel with her husband, Bob. ``The ferry division does a great job of getting people in and out efficiently.''

The ferry also serves as a school bus of sorts for some children on Ocracoke who attend Cape Hatteras School.

``The guys on the ferry are great,'' says Touhey, whose child makes the daily boat trek to class nine months of the year. ``Sometimes, if we're running a few minutes late, they'll hold the ferry up. Or if they have to turn around to get an ambulance, the guys make sure the kids get to school.''

And while some Ocracokers privately say a bridge would bring more business to the popular tourist spot - and expedite their errands on the northern Outer Banks - others say the island would be changed for the worse if the ferries ever were abandoned and automobiles were allowed to just drive over the inlet.

``It's one of the things that make this island unique,'' says Russ Newell, a well-known Ocracoke storyteller. ``This place would be different, that's for sure. The ferry is part of who we are.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON

After a trip across Currituck Sound from Knotts Island, motorists

prepare to disembark from the ferry onto the Currituck County

mainland. Other ferries operate between Ocracoke and Swan Quarter

and between Ocracoke and Cedar Island. The Currituck ferry, like the

Hatteras ferry, is free. The others require reservations and fees.

Riders on the Hatteras ferry to Ocracoke watch as another boat makes

the return trip. The state runs eight boats between Hatteras and

Ocracoke.

Photos by WILLIAM P. CANNON

Mary Dixon and her daughter, Melody, 18, enjoy the sun at the back

of the Hatteras ferry as it makes the five-mile crossing to

Ocracoke. The free state ferries shuttle more than a half-million