Ocracoke Off The Beaten Path

Ocracoke Island: Its People,the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Base During World War II by Earl William O'Neal, Jr.

"A mere six weeks after Pearl Harbor, U.S. involvement in the Second World War became a terrible reality to natives of North Carolina's Outer Banks with the sinking of the tanker Allan Jackson just 60 miles of Cape Hatteras. The thick black smoke which streamed skyward from the burning ship on January 18, 1942, marked the end of innocence for the islanders, and in the ensuing months they observed firsthand the hardships, human toll, and devastating effects of the war effort along the Atlantic seaboard."

O'Neal's book begins with the Navy's appropriation of land from the islanders, to the construction and commissioning of the Navy Section Base on Ocracoke's harbor on October 9, 1942. On January 16, 1944 it was converted to an Amphibious Training Base, and in 1945 it was setup as a Combat Information Center. In 1946 the Base was closed.

The book sells for $32.95 plus tax and shipping and handling. There are pictures of the base in the book

Fort Ocracoke is so OTBP that it no longer exists-monument says:

"The remnants of Fort Ocracoke are submerged in Ocracoke Inlet 2 miles to the west southwest toward Portsmouth Island, the last of possibly four forts on Beacon Island. The mostly earthen Fort Ocracoke was constructed by mainland Confederate volunteers beginning on May 20, 1861, the day North Carolina seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

"After Union victories on Hatteras Island in August 1861, the confederates partly destroyed the fort and abandoned it without a fight. Mainland Union froces completed the destruction in September 1861. Beacon Island was consumed by the waters of Ocracoke Inlet in the first half of the 20th century. The fort's remains were discovered and identified by members of surface interval diving co. in August 1998, acting on a tip from the Ocracoke Charter Boat Captain Donald Austin."

A description of the fort is in a report made by Lieutenant Maxwell of the US Steamer PAWNEE

..[the fort] is octagonal in shape, contains four shell rooms, about twenty five feet square, and in the center a large Bomb-proof, one hundred feet square, with the magazine within it. Directly above the magazine, on each side, were four large tanks containing water.

The fort had been constructed with great care, of sand in barrels covered with earth and turf. The inner framing of the bomb-proof was built of heavy pine timbers. There were platforms for twenty guns... The gun carriages had been all burned. There were eighteen guns in the fort—namely, four eight inch navy sell guns, and fourteen long thirty-two pounders. ... I found one hundred and fifty barrels also, many of them filled with water. There being no water in the fort, they had brought it from Washington and Newberry (New Bern)....

After destroying the guns, I collected all the lumber, barrels and wheelbarrows, and placed them in and about the bomb-proof, set fire to the pile and entirely destroyed it...

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES Y. MAXWELL Lt USN

Okay so a good part of the island is beach, but when you're there you'll feel like you've stepped into another world. Haven't you always wanted to look around at a beach and not see resorts towering over you, beer bottles sticking out of the sand, crowds of people and umbrellas? You really feel secluded out here and that's why it was the perfect place for my wife and I to spend our honeymoon. As many others feel, when they write on this location, I hate to tell the masses about it because then it might become too developed in the name of tourism. But I think the worst of that anyone will see is the over abundance of blackbeard trinkets that are for sale in various gift shops. Ocracoke Island is too beautiful for anyone to want to ruin with too much commercialization. And I don't think the locals would allow it. Enjoy the beach, it's especially peaceful in the morning right after the sun comes up. There's no one around except you.