First of two parts The Battle at Ocracoke between the notorious pirate Blackbeard and Royal Navy Lt. Robert Maynard is among the best-known events of North Carolina maritime history. It may also be one of its most inaccurately interpreted stories. One modern historian wrote that the battle was “one of the most pivotal naval engagements […]

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  Coastal Review Online is featuring the research, findings and commentary of author Kevin Duffus. Last of three parts Like a solar eclipse, a dark shadow crept over the towns of the Pamlico a few weeks after they had been visited by Sir Richard Grenville’s 1585 expedition. Expedition scientist, ethnographer and Algonquian translator Thomas Harriot […]

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Coastal Review Online is featuring the research, findings and commentary of author Kevin Duffus. Second of three parts It happened about 10 weeks before the second of Walter Raleigh’s three expeditions to establish an English colony on the North American continent arrived at Ocracoke Inlet in 1585. The expedition of seven ships was led by […]

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Coastal Review Online is featuring the research, findings and commentary of author Kevin Duffus. First of three parts Pamlico Sound is traversed each day by innumerable people aboard ferries, fishing boats and sailboats. Most, however, probably don’t consider or are even aware of the intrepid explorers who first circumnavigated the vast estuary for the purposes […]

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In spring 1942, the nation and its military leaders faced a dire disaster worse than Pearl Harbor. German U-boats operating within the nation’s territorial waters were sinking Allied merchant vessels at an ever-increasing number and killing an appalling number of helpless noncombatants — more than 5,000 in fewer than six months, including some women and […]

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