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Maritime History of North Carolina:
A Research Guide
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With over 300 miles of coastline, North Carolina has a rich maritime history that is tied to the state's trade, culture, and politics. Its maritime culture dates from pre-colonial times--when native tribes-people traveled the area's waterways and coastline in dugout canoes--and has continued to the present day. Historically, the state has been involved in virtually every aspect of official nautical economy, including tourism, ship building, whaling, fishing, and trade of all kinds, including the slave trade. This area of the coast also served as the operating grounds of some of the world's most famous pirates, including Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Stede Bonnet. During the Civil War, civilian Confederate blockade runners braved both capture by Union ships and natural hazards to bring vital supplies in and out of N.C.'s ports. These natural hazards are some of the most dangerous on the Atlantic coast. Because as many as 1,000 ships have wrecked along North Carolina's Outer Banks since the 1500s, the area has been nicknamed the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," and the Cape Fear Civil War Shipwreck District holds the largest collection of Civil War shipwrecks in the world. These wrecks provide modern underwater archaeologists and historians with significant primary information about the maritime history of the state and the region.
This guide addresses the broad topic of North Carolina's maritime history and it also covers a large chronological span: from pre-colonial times to the 20th century. It contains a sample of materials that are representative of various time periods and subtopics. Among these included subtopics are pirates, shipwrecks, and maritime archaeology. It is important to note that North Carolina's naval history has generally been excluded, both for the sake of clarity and due to the enormous amount of information related to the state's seagoing military involvement. Although there are many materials related to North Carolina's maritime history that are designed for children and young adults, these materials have not been included here. This pathfinder is also not meant to be an exhaustive list of resources, nor is it meant to delve into the highly technical aspects of subtopics like ship-building. Hopefully, however, it can help lead people towards these more in-depth or advanced types of resources.
All of the sources listed in this guide are available from one or more of the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries or are free online resources. Whenever possible, the titles of sources link directly to the UNC online catalog record or to the resources themselves. Before getting started, please take a moment to read over some Tips for Using this Guide.
This pathfinder was created by Jennifer McElroy as part of a class project in Fall 2008.
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This section includes guides, encyclopedias, and dictionaries related to N.C. Maritime history.
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Encyclopedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology
Author: Delgado, James P., editor
Publication: New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.
This encyclopedia has an international scope, but several aspects of North Carolina's maritime history are covered, ranging from the prehistoric Lake Phelps dugout canoes to Civil War shipwrecks. It is helpful to have specific types of vessels, locations, or ship names in mind when using this resource.
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Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Hatteras Inlet South
Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Diamond Shoals North
Author: Gentile, Gary
Publication: Philadelphia: Gary Gentile Productions, 1993.
Although packaged as a series of 2 dive guides, these books will be of interest to historical researchers interested in North Carolina's shipwrecks and general maritime history. Each volume contains profiles of shipwrecks from the area with brief information about each ship followed by a narrative about the ship, its sinking, and its current situation. Each book includes appendices with suggested readings and locations of the wreckages, listed both alphabetically with LORAN number coordinates and by location using these coordinates. According to the author, the selection of wrecks for these volumes was based on the "human drama" involved in each.
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Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks
Author: Gaines, W. Craig
Publication: Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.
Provides descriptions of over 2,000 Civil War shipwrecks, organized alphabetically by geographical location. For each shipwreck, the book lists the vessel's final locatin, type, dimensions, tonnage, size of the crew, origin, registry, casualties, salvage operations, and the circumstances surrounding the wreck. Also included are maps showing the locations.
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Encyclopedia of North Carolina
Author: Powell, William S., editor
Publication: Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
A number of the entries in this resource relate to the state's maritime history. This is a fairly comprehensive resource about North Carolina, however it generally does not include biographical information. Entries usually include references to additional sources devoted to specific topics.
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North Carolina Gazetteer
Author: Powell, William S., editor
Publication: Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
Also available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
This geographical source provides brief information about locations in North Carolina, including rivers, lakes, inlets, islands, etc. It also provides historical naming about these locations and features which could be very useful for researchers of the state's maritime history.
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Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
Author: Powell, William S., editor
Publication: Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Also available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries. Click for: Volume 1 (A-C), Volume 2 (D-G), Volume 3 (H-K), Volume 4 (L-O), Volume 5 (P-S), Volume 6 (T-Z)
This comprehensive volume provides biographical information about North Carolinians and people important to North Carolina history, including naval, exploring, and pirate personages.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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The Waterman's Song : Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina
Author: Cecelski, David S.
Publication: Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
This history discusses several aspects of maritime life in North Carolina, including: slave fishermen, slave and free blacks working the fisheries, canal building with slave labor, abolition and the maritime underground railroad, and slaves as civil war pilots, as well as a biographical essay on Abraham Galloway, a former slave turned waterman and Union spy in coastal NC. The author grew up in coastal North Carolina and presents what he sees as an interesting dynamic between the system of slavery and the need for freedom and independence for succesfully running a ship. This book contains illustrations and maps and an illustrated "Glossary of North Carolina Watercraft, 1790-1865." It also includes an extensive bibliographical notes and a detailed index.
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Shipwrecks : Diving the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Author: Farb, Roderick M.
Publication: Birmingham, Alabama : Menasha Ridge Press, 1991.
This book provides profiles of various shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina. Each profile includes the history of the ship, story about the sinking, information about the discovery/current situation of the wreckage, and information about diving on the wreck. Most of the profiles include photos of original ships, photos of the wreckages, and diagrams of the wreckages. The book includes a selected bibliography and appendices with information useful to people interested in visiting the dive sites (federal and state laws, information on underwater photography, tables of wrecks). This volume covers some of the same ships found in Stick's Graveyard of the Atlantic, but often has more information on each one. The author also takes a current, practical approach rather than Stick's historical one, focusing more on the physical wreckage. The book is organized by location and divided into sections about near-shore and off-shore wrecks.
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Pirates of Colonial North Carolina
Author: Rankin, Hugh F.
Publication: Raleigh, NC : Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, 1965. This volume has been reprinted several times, most recently in 2008. Click here to see this edition in the UNC-Chapel Hill online catalog.
This volume, published and reprinted several times by the North Carolina state Division of Archives and History, contains chapters about the general subject of pirating and also chapters focused on pirates Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet. The appendices consist of a list a books about pirates (including several 19th century sources) and a chart with pirate terminology that describes how to recognize a pirate ship.
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X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy
Author: Skowronek, Russel K. and Charles R. Ewen, editors
Publication: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2006.
This collection of essays is focused on using archaeology to better understand piracy and how pirate ships differ from other types of sea-going vessels. The book has an international focus but it contains two substantial chapters related to North Carolina's maritime history and archeaology. Both are about the discovery of and investigation into the presumed wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship. The first is about the ship and discovery as a whole and includes maps, photos, charts, and illustrations. The second is more specifically focused on the artifacts discovered with the wreck and provides a chronological record of the project, descriptions of various types of artifacts grouped by category (ship parts, arms, personal effects, food preparation, etc.), a site plan, illustrations, and photographs.
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Derelicts : an account of ships lost at sea ..., 1861 - 1865
Author: Sprunt, James
Publication: Wilmington, N.C., 1920.
This volume has been reprinted several times, most recently an illustrated edition in 2006. Click here to see this edition in the UNC-Chapel Hill online catalog.
Also available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries, and from Google Books and the Internet Archive
This book's full title is: Derelicts : an account of ships lost at sea in general commerce and a brief history of blockade runners stranded along the North Carolina coast, 1861-1865. The author, James Sprunt, served on several blockade runners during the Civil War, and some decades later he wrote a series of newspaper columns about his first-hand experiences, as well as those of his acquaintances. This volume collects these columns and other writings by Sprunt. It profiles a number of lost ships and also contains excerpts from telegraphs, letters, and reports. Both the new illustrated edition and the original version are indexed by ship name, personal name, location, and other subjects.
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Graveyard of the Atlantic : Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast
Author: Stick, David.
Publication: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1952.
Also available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
This book is specifically focused on ships that were totally lost off the coast of North Carolina between 1526 and 1946. It includes information about over 600 wrecks that are substantiated by material found by the author in contemporary newspapers, magazines, books, pamphlets, interviews, and official records. Vessels of less than 50 tons and those lost in inland waters are excluded. The chronological organization of the main chapters extends to the book's extras, including references and tables of lost vessels (with name, type, place, date, and lives lost). The book is indexed by ship name, personal name, and location.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
There are several journals that publish scholarship about N.C. Maritime history, as well as newsletters that focus upon organizations involved in studying and presenting this history to public.
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North Carolina Historical Review
Publication: Raleigh: North Carolina Historical Commission, 1924 - present.
Some issues available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
First published in 1924, the North Carolina Historical Review is published quarterly by the state Office of Archives and History. It contains scholarly articles and book reviews about all aspects of North Carolina's history from the colonial period onward, and a wide variety of maritime subjects have been featured. There are print indexes of the journal available for all issues published through 1983, however, the articles in the Historical Review are also cataloged separately in UNC's online catalog and can be found with keyword or subject searches. Some of the more recent issues are available online. Among the articles related to maritime history are: "Ships and shipping in North Carolina, 1763-1789" (v. 8 no. 1); "Wooden ship construction in North Carolina in World War II" (v. 77 no. 1); "The shores of freedom: the maritime underground railroad in North Carolina, 1800-1861" (v. 71 no. 2); and "Trading in Lubberland: maritime commerce in colonial North Carolina" (v. 80 no. 1).
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Tributaries
Publication: Beaufort, N.C.: North Carolina Maritime History Council, 1991 - present
Tributaries is the journal of the North Carolina Maritime History Council. Each issue includes in-depth articles about various topics in North Carolina maritime history, as well as book reviews and field reports from maritime historians writing about North Carolina. Most articles are illustrated and include bibliographic foot- or end-notes.
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Stem to Stern
Publication: Greenville, N.C.: Department of History, Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research, East Carolina University, 1986 - present.
The newsletter of the East Carolina University's Department of History, Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research, this publication includes coverage of the program's projects, surveys, events, and equipment. It is also a source for finding further resources; each issue provides lists of publications by faculty, graduates, and students, as well as a list of that year's defended theses.
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Waterline
Publication: Beaufort, N.C.: The Museum, 1978 - present
The newsletter of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, it covers the museum's events, research, and exhibits, as well as other maritime historical, archaeological, and preservation efforts in North Carolina. Some issues include book reviews and many list and describe acquired maritime artifacts.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology: Theses Bibliography, 1971 to 1993
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1993.
This small publication lists every thesis written between 1971 to 1993 for the East Carolina University Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research. Many of the papers are about North Carolina locations and they cover a wide variety of maritime history, including people, specific ships, naval history, shipwrecks, ship design, maritime archaeology, maritime commerce, and maritime legislation.
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A Guide to Naval and Maritime History Resources in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection
Author: Fontenoy, Paul E. and Sabrina Faber.
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1996.
This guide is divided into sections on naval and maritime sources and items are listed alphabetically by collection name. The naval sources section is significantly larger, but the maritime sources section includes personal and family papers, as well as the papers and records of some maritime businesses. For each entry the collection name and number are given, as well as dates of the materials, number of items, and a brief abstract/scope-note that includes mention of items of specific interest. If there are related materials in ECU's manuscript collections, this is also noted. Nearly all of the maritime sources are directly related to North Carolina, though there are some that are connected more generally to the maritime history of the southeast. The collections are indexed by name (of ship or person), location, event/time period, and subject. The guide also includes an addendum of collections acquired after the rest of the book was written.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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Maritime Museums of North America, including Canada
Author: Smith, Robert H.
Publication: New York: Finley-Greene Publications, Inc., 1998.
For those interested in doing site visits or on-site research, this guide to maritime museums includes a section on institutions located in North Carolina. A variety of site-types are listed in addition to traditional museums, including lighthouses, a lifesaving station, a replica historical ship, a maritime fort, and a battleship memorial. It provides the name, address, and phone number of each museum, as well as directions, admissions information, hours, general information, and highlights. If a museum has provided information about any on-site research libraries or archives, this is also listed in the highlights section.
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North Carolina Maritime History Council
Website: www.ncmaritimehistory.org
North Carolina Maritime History Council is an organization consisting of several dozen cultural institutions (libraries, museums, national and state parks, historical sites, colleges, etc.) with an interest in preserving and sharing the maritime heritage of the Southeastern U.S. Its website includes several valuable resources, including a spreadsheet listing over 3,000 ships built in North Carolina from colonial times to the present (when available, it includes information about tonnage, dimensions, builder, hull type, fuel type, and function). The site also includes a list of Master's Theses defended by students in East Carolina University's Maritime Studies Program and the organization has begun building an online, illustrated registry of North Carolina's historic vessels.
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Outer Banks History Center
Website: http://www.obhistorycenter.ncdcr.gov/index.htm
According to their website, The Outer Banks History Center "is a regional archives and research library administered by the North Carolina State Archives and located in Manteo, on historic Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Its holdings document the history, development and growth of the North Carolina coast." The Center is located at 1 Festival Park Boulevard in Manteo, NC and it is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
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North Carolina Maritime Museum
Website: http://www.ncmaritime.org/
According to its statement of purpose, the North Carolina Maritime Museum "documents, collects, preserves, and researches the maritime history--and its corollary natural history--of coastal North Carolina for the purpose of interpreting this history through educational services and exhibits for our contemporary society, and passing intact its material culture to future generations." It is located at 315 Front Street in Beaufort, NC and is open seven days a week, 360 days per year. In addition to its regular activities, the Museum also takes part in local events and festivals and runs The Watercraft Center, which offers classes in boatbuilding, model building, and half-model construction.
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Coastal Studies Institute of the Univeristy of North Carolina
Website: http://csi.northcarolina.edu/index.htm
The UNC Coastal Studies Institute (UNC-CSI) is an inter-university institute founded in 2003 and located in Manteo, NC. Its stated mission is "to undertake research, offer educational opportunities, provide community outreach programs, and enhance communication among those concerned with the unique history, culture and environment of the maritime counties of North Carolina." UNC-CSI research focuses on four main areas, one of which is Maritime History. Among their projects in this area of study is the exploration of shipwrecks off the NC coast. In 2008 the Institute took part in a collaborative project to explore and catalog the wrecks of three German U-boats that were sunk in 1942.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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The Graveyard of the Atlantic: 400 Years of Shipwrecks, Mysteries, and Heroic Rescues
Writer: Duffus, Kevin P.
Publication: Raleigh, NC: Video Marketing Group, 1997.
This documentary examines the area of North Carolina's Outer Banks known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic in two 45-minute segments. The first part covers the 1500s through 1899. It contains general information about the area, as well as profiles of a number of wrecked vessels, inlcuding the Home (1837), USS Monitor (1862), USS Huron (1878), Ephraim Williams (1884), and Priscilla (1899). Part 2 covers the years of the 20th century and features the Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals mystery, German submarines, and profiles of a number of specific ships. It also includes film footage of ships actually sinking off the North Carolina coast.
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Treasure Coast
Writer: Gerard, Philip; Producers: Kemp, Ron and Barnes, Donna
Publication: Wilmington, N.C.: University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1997.
Produced by UNC-Wilmington in cooperation with NC State University and North Carolina Public Television, this documentary is slightly less than an hour long. It explores the people, culture, and ecology of the North Carolina coast.
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Made of Salt and Water
Publication: Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Museum of History, 2006.
This twenty-seven minute documentary presents the history of the town of Beaufort, North Carolina. It also includes descriptions of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Parade of Sail 2006, the discovery of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, and the development of the Olde Beaufort Seaport site.
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Blackbeard
Producer/writer: Mason, Scott.
Publication: Raleigh: WRAL 5, 1998.
This twenty-seven minute documentary examines the life of Edward Teach, also known as Captain Blackbeard. It also addresses the wreckage of what was believed to be his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, found off the coast of North Carolina in the mid-1990s.
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North Carolina Wreck Diving
Publication: GRK Productions, 2008.
This 30 minute documentary includes an on-shore tour of the Morehead and Wilmington areas, as well as tours of several shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast, including a German U-Boat, The Papoose, The Caribsea, Indra, Spar, USS Schurz, and Aeolus. The film also includes information about maritime fossil hunting, particularly for Megalodon shark teeth.
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The Outer Banks: North Carolina's Coastal Treasure
Publication: Winston-Salem, NC: Wide Eye Productions and UNC-TV, 2002.
This forty-four minute documentary presents a view of both the historical and the modern Outer Banks. Featured locations include: Currituck Beach, Blackbeard's hideout on Ocracoke Island, the Wright Brothers Memorial, the Lost Colony location, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the four lighthouses that remain on the Outer Banks.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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The Citizen's Guide to North Carolina's Shifting Inlets
Author: Baker, Simon.
Publication: Raleigh: Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services and Sea Grant Services, 1977.
This publication illustrates the actual shifting and/or stability of 22 of the state's inlets in the mid-20th century and emphasizes the changing nature of North Carolina's maritime landscape. It features aerial photographs of North Carolina's inlets and barrier islands taken in 1974 with scale drawings overlaid on the photos to show the changes in the landscape between 1949 and 1966.
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Gilmer Civil War Maps Collection
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/gilmer/
This online project provides access to high quality digital scans of 161 Civil War-era maps showing areas of the south. It includes unique manuscript maps, printed maps with annotations, and engineer's drawings of military constructions. The best way to find maps and plans from maritime North Carolina are either to browse by state or to search by coastal place names like Cape Fear or New Hanover.
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An Oceanographic Atlas of the Carolina Continental Margin
Author: Newton, John G.
Publication: Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development, 1971.
This oversized volume includes maps, tables, and brief essays covering various geographic aspects of the North Carolina coast. It also includes historical charts/maps by Franklin and Verrazanno and coverage of the area's shipwrecks. Although somewhat out of date due to more recent underwater discoveries, 697 wrecks are listed in tables with the ship names, types, dates sunk, location, sizes, and other information (generally the depth of the wreckage). There is also a series of maps illustrating the wrecks' locations.
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North Carolina Maps Project
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/
This online project includes maps from North Carolina State Archives, the North Carolina Collection at UNC, and the Outer Banks History Center. When it is finished, the website will provide access to over 1,500 maps of the state of North Carolina, dating from the 1500s to the 1900s. Currently, maps can be browsed by location name, county, or region and can also be searched. Researchers interested in maritime history can use these functions or can browse by map types, including nautical maps and maps produced by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
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The Weidenfeld Atlas of Maritime History
Author: Natkiel, Richard and Antony Preston, editors
Publication: New York: Facts on File, 1986.
Atlas of Maritime History
Author: Lloyd, Christopher.
Publication: New York: Arco Publishing Co., 1975.
The Atlas of North American Exploration.
Author: Goetzmann, William H.
Publication: New York: Prentice Hall General Reference, 1992.
These atlases have few maps or essays specific to North Carolina's maritime history, but they do provide an understanding of how the state fits into a more world-wide maritime history. The first two volumes have maps illustrating the maritime world from ancient times to the late 20th century and include maps that illustrate North Carolina's participation in whaling, the slave trade, and the Civil War. The third provides more specific maps that illustrate North Carolina's maritime events, including the voyage of Verrazano and the arrival of the Lost Colony.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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North Carolina Civil War Image Portfolio
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/civilwar/index.html
This online project displays images from the North Carolina Collection that depict various aspects of the Civil War. These images are from a variety of sources and formats, including woodcuts, engravings, lithographs, and photographs. The majority of these images were created by and for northern publications, and therefore display a distinctly northern bias, both in imagery and in captions. The images presented here are free, but are low resolution for reference; researchers needing higher quality images can request them from the North Carolina Collection (this is a fee-based service). The images are grouped by subject and the subjects that include maritime images are Blockades, Campaigns and Battles, Destruction and Pillage, Equipment and Supplies, Military Facilities, Naval Operations.
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North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives
Subjects (Miscellaneous)--Collection P3 Guide available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/03subj.html
North Carolina County Collection--Collection P1 Guide available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/01counties.html
The North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives contains a number of images related to the state's maritime history. However, these images may be somewhat difficult to find since there is no unified guide to the images. Two collections with significant maritime imagery are the Subjects and Counties collections. Look under subjects like Sailing Ships, Fishing, Ferries, and Civil War- Blockades and under county names like Dare, New Hanover, Carteret, Hyde, Pamlico, and others that have coastline. There may also be related photos in a variety of named photographic collections; ask for assistance at the NC Collection reference desk.
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North Carolina Postcards Project
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/nc_post/
Containing images and information about postcards from the North Carolina Postcard Collection and the Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards, this online project contains a variety of postcards related to maritime North Carolina and is continually being expanded. You can choose to search by keyword or browse by image subject. There is a wide variety of maritime subjects represented, including boats, pirates, sailing, lifesaving stations, harbors, yachts, ships, shipwrecks, waterways, fishing, fishing boats, and longshoremen.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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Newspaper Microfilm Collection
Located in the North Carolina Collection at Microforms C071
This collection includes a variety of historic newspapers from coastal communities. These newspapers are an important primary source of information about maritime history. One of the largest current papers is the Wilmington Morning Star (now the Star and Times) which has been a daily paper for over one hundred years. There are also smaller papers and several coastal papers dating from the 18th century in the collection, including the Newbern Gazette, the Wilmington Gazette, and the Herald of Freedom from Edenton.
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Local Ephemera Collection
Located in the North Carolina Collection at VC 971.
This is a collection of 20th century ephemeral items and includes brochures, pamphlets, programs, and periodicals related to various localities in North Carolina. It is organized by region, county, and major metropolitan area. The materials related to coastal communities and the Outer Banks include information on various historical, maritime-related sites like the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the maritime Forts, as well as locations like museums that interpret the state's maritime history.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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The Graveyard of the Atlantic: 400 Years of Shipwrecks, Mysteries, and Heroic Rescues
Writer: Duffus, Kevin P.
Publication: Raleigh, NC: Video Marketing Group, 1997.
This documentary examines the area of North Carolina's Outer Banks known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic in two 45-minute segments. The first part covers the 1500s through 1899. It contains general information about the area, as well as profiles of a number of wrecked vessels, inlcuding the Home (1837), USS Monitor (1862), USS Huron (1878), Ephraim Williams (1884), and Priscilla (1899). Part 2 covers the years of the 20th century and features the Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals mystery, German submarines, and profiles of a number of specific ships. It also includes film footage of ships actually sinking off the North Carolina coast.
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Shipwrecks : Diving the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Author: Farb, Roderick M.
Publication: Birmingham, Alabama : Menasha Ridge Press, 1991.
This book provides profiles of various shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina. Each profile includes the history of the ship, story about the sinking, information about the discovery/current situation of the wreckage, and information about diving on the wreck. Most of the profiles include photos of original ships, photos of the wreckages, and diagrams of the wreckages. The book includes a selected bibliography and appendices with information useful to people interested in visiting the dive sites (federal and state laws, information on underwater photography, tables of wrecks). This volume covers some of the same ships found in Stick's Graveyard of the Atlantic, but often has more information on each one. The author also takes a current, practical approach rather than Stick's historical one, focusing more on the physical wreckage. The book is organized by location and divided into sections about near-shore and off-shore wrecks.
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Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Hatteras Inlet South
Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Diamond Shoals North
Author: Gentile, Gary
Publication: Philadelphia: Gary Gentile Productions, 1993.
Although packaged as a series of 2 dive guides, these books will be of interest to historical researchers interested in North Carolina's shipwrecks and general maritime history. Each volume contains profiles of shipwrecks from the area with brief information about each ship followed by a narrative about the ship, its sinking, and its current situation. Each book includes appendices with suggested readings and locations of the wreckages, listed both alphabetically with LORAN number coordinates and by location using these coordinates. According to the author, the selection of wrecks for these volumes was based on the "human drama" involved in each.
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Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks
Author: Gaines, W. Craig
Publication: Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.
Provides descriptions of over 2,000 Civil War shipwrecks, organized alphabetically by geographical location. For each shipwreck, the book lists the vessel's final locatin, type, dimensions, tonnage, size of the crew, origin, registry, casualties, salvage operations, and the circumstances surrounding the wreck. Also included are maps showing the locations.
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Made of Salt and Water
Publication: Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Museum of History, 2006.
This twenty-seven minute documentary presents the history of the town of Beaufort, North Carolina. It also includes descriptions of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Parade of Sail 2006, the discovery of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, and the development of the Olde Beaufort Seaport site.
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Blackbeard
Producer/writer: Mason, Scott.
Publication: Raleigh: WRAL 5, 1998.
This twenty-seven minute documentary examines the life of Edward Teach, also known as Captain Blackbeard. It also addresses the wreckage of what was believed to be his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, found off the coast of North Carolina in the mid-1990s.
-
An Oceanographic Atlas of the Carolina Continental Margin
Author: Newton, John G.
Publication: Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development, 1971.
This oversized volume includes maps, tables, and brief essays covering various geographic aspects of the North Carolina coast. It also includes historical charts/maps by Franklin and Verrazanno and coverage of the area's shipwrecks. Although somewhat out of date due to more recent underwater discoveries, 697 wrecks are listed in tables with the ship names, types, dates sunk, location, sizes, and other information (generally the depth of the wreckage). There is also a series of maps illustrating the wrecks' locations.
-
North Carolina Wreck Diving
Publication: GRK Productions, 2008.
This 30 minute documentary includes an on-shore tour of the Morehead and Wilmington areas, as well as tours of several shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast, including a German U-Boat, The Papoose, The Caribsea, Indra, Spar, USS Schurz, and Aeolus. The film also includes information about maritime fossil hunting, particularly for Megalodon shark teeth.
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Graveyard of the Atlantic : Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast
Author: Stick, David.
Publication: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1952.
Also available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
This book is specifically focused on ships that were totally lost off the coast of North Carolina between 1526 and 1946. It includes information about over 600 wrecks that are substantiated by material found by the author in contemporary newspapers, magazines, books, pamphlets, interviews, and official records. Vessels of less than 50 tons and those lost in inland waters are excluded. The chronological organization of the main chapters extends to the book's extras, including references and tables of lost vessels (with name, type, place, date, and lives lost). The book is indexed by ship name, personal name, and location.
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Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology: Theses Bibliography, 1971 to 1993
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1993.
This small publication lists every thesis written between 1971 to 1993 for the East Carolina University Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research. Many of the papers are about North Carolina locations and they cover a wide variety of maritime history, including people, specific ships, naval history, shipwrecks, ship design, maritime archaeology, maritime commerce, and maritime legislation.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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Made of Salt and Water
Publication: Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Museum of History, 2006.
This twenty-seven minute documentary presents the history of the town of Beaufort, North Carolina. It also includes descriptions of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Parade of Sail 2006, the discovery of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, and the development of the Olde Beaufort Seaport site.
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Blackbeard
Producer/writer: Mason, Scott.
Publication: Raleigh: WRAL 5, 1998.
This twenty-seven minute documentary examines the life of Edward Teach, also known as Captain Blackbeard. It also addresses the wreckage of what was believed to be his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, found off the coast of North Carolina in the mid-1990s.
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The Outer Banks: North Carolina's Coastal Treasure
Publication: Winston-Salem, NC: Wide Eye Productions and UNC-TV, 2002.
This forty-four minute documentary presents a view of both the historical and the modern Outer Banks. Featured locations include: Currituck Beach, Blackbeard's hideout on Ocracoke Island, the Wright Brothers Memorial, the Lost Colony location, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the four lighthouses that remain on the Outer Banks.
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Pirates of Colonial North Carolina
Author: Rankin, Hugh F.
Publication: Raleigh, NC : Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, 1965. This volume has been reprinted several times, most recently in 2008. Click here to see this edition in the UNC-Chapel Hill online catalog.
This volume, published and reprinted several times by the North Carolina state Division of Archives and History, contains chapters about the general subject of pirating and also chapters focused on pirates Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet. The appendices consist of a list a books about pirates (including several 19th century sources) and a chart with pirate terminology that describes how to recognize a pirate ship.
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X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy
Author: Skowronek, Russel K. and Charles R. Ewen, editors
Publication: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2006.
This collection of essays is focused on using archaeology to better understand piracy and how pirate ships differ from other types of sea-going vessels. The book has an international focus but it contains two substantial chapters related to North Carolina's maritime history and archeaology. Both are about the discovery of and investigation into the presumed wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship. The first is about the ship and discovery as a whole and includes maps, photos, charts, and illustrations. The second is more specifically focused on the artifacts discovered with the wreck and provides a chronological record of the project, descriptions of various types of artifacts grouped by category (ship parts, arms, personal effects, food preparation, etc.), a site plan, illustrations, and photographs.
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North Carolina Historical Review
Publication: Raleigh: North Carolina Historical Commission, 1924 - present.
Some issues available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
First published in 1924, the North Carolina Historical Review is published quarterly by the state Office of Archives and History. It contains scholarly articles and book reviews about all aspects of North Carolina's history from the colonial period onward, and a wide variety of maritime subjects have been featured. There are print indexes of the journal available for all issues published through 1983, however, the articles in the Historical Review are also cataloged separately in UNC's online catalog and can be found with keyword or subject searches. Some of the more recent issues are available online. Among the articles related to maritime history are: "Ships and shipping in North Carolina, 1763-1789" (v. 8 no. 1); "Wooden ship construction in North Carolina in World War II" (v. 77 no. 1); "The shores of freedom: the maritime underground railroad in North Carolina, 1800-1861" (v. 71 no. 2); and "Trading in Lubberland: maritime commerce in colonial North Carolina" (v. 80 no. 1).
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Tributaries
Publication: Beaufort, N.C.: North Carolina Maritime History Council, 1991 - present
Tributaries is the journal of the North Carolina Maritime History Council. Each issue includes in-depth articles about various topics in North Carolina maritime history, as well as book reviews and field reports from maritime historians writing about North Carolina. Most articles are illustrated and include bibliographic foot- or end-notes.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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North Carolina Civil War Image Portfolio
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/civilwar/index.html
This online project displays images from the North Carolina Collection that depict various aspects of the Civil War. These images are from a variety of sources and formats, including woodcuts, engravings, lithographs, and photographs. The majority of these images were created by and for northern publications, and therefore display a distinctly northern bias, both in imagery and in captions. The images presented here are free, but are low resolution for reference; researchers needing higher quality images can request them from the North Carolina Collection (this is a fee-based service). The images are grouped by subject and the subjects that include maritime images are Blockades, Campaigns and Battles, Destruction and Pillage, Equipment and Supplies, Military Facilities, Naval Operations.
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Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks
Author: Gaines, W. Craig
Publication: Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.
Provides descriptions of over 2,000 Civil War shipwrecks, organized alphabetically by geographical location. For each shipwreck, the book lists the vessel's final locatin, type, dimensions, tonnage, size of the crew, origin, registry, casualties, salvage operations, and the circumstances surrounding the wreck. Also included are maps showing the locations.
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Gilmer Civil War Maps Collection
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/gilmer/
This online project provides access to high quality digital scans of 161 Civil War-era maps showing areas of the south. It includes unique manuscript maps, printed maps with annotations, and engineer's drawings of military constructions. The best way to find maps and plans from maritime North Carolina are either to browse by state or to search by coastal place names like Cape Fear or New Hanover.
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North Carolina Maps Project
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/
This online project includes maps from North Carolina State Archives, the North Carolina Collection at UNC, and the Outer Banks History Center. When it is finished, the website will provide access to over 1,500 maps of the state of North Carolina, dating from the 1500s to the 1900s. Currently, maps can be browsed by location name, county, or region and can also be searched. Researchers interested in maritime history can use these functions or can browse by map types, including nautical maps and maps produced by the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
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North Carolina Historical Review
Publication: Raleigh: North Carolina Historical Commission, 1924 - present.
Some issues available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
First published in 1924, the North Carolina Historical Review is published quarterly by the state Office of Archives and History. It contains scholarly articles and book reviews about all aspects of North Carolina's history from the colonial period onward, and a wide variety of maritime subjects have been featured. There are print indexes of the journal available for all issues published through 1983, however, the articles in the Historical Review are also cataloged separately in UNC's online catalog and can be found with keyword or subject searches. Some of the more recent issues are available online. Among the articles related to maritime history are: "Ships and shipping in North Carolina, 1763-1789" (v. 8 no. 1); "Wooden ship construction in North Carolina in World War II" (v. 77 no. 1); "The shores of freedom: the maritime underground railroad in North Carolina, 1800-1861" (v. 71 no. 2); and "Trading in Lubberland: maritime commerce in colonial North Carolina" (v. 80 no. 1).
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Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology: Theses Bibliography, 1971 to 1993
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1993.
This small publication lists every thesis written between 1971 to 1993 for the East Carolina University Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research. Many of the papers are about North Carolina locations and they cover a wide variety of maritime history, including people, specific ships, naval history, shipwrecks, ship design, maritime archaeology, maritime commerce, and maritime legislation.
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A Guide to Naval and Maritime History Resources in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection
Author: Fontenoy, Paul E. and Sabrina Faber.
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1996.
This guide is divided into sections on naval and maritime sources and items are listed alphabetically by collection name. The naval sources section is significantly larger, but the maritime sources section includes personal and family papers, as well as the papers and records of some maritime businesses. For each entry the collection name and number are given, as well as dates of the materials, number of items, and a brief abstract/scope-note that includes mention of items of specific interest. If there are related materials in ECU's manuscript collections, this is also noted. Nearly all of the maritime sources are directly related to North Carolina, though there are some that are connected more generally to the maritime history of the southeast. The collections are indexed by name (of ship or person), location, event/time period, and subject. The guide also includes an addendum of collections acquired after the rest of the book was written.
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North Carolina Maritime History Council
Available online at www.ncmaritimehistory.org
North Carolina Maritime History Council is an organization consisting of several dozen cultural institutions (libraries, museums, national and state parks, historical sites, colleges, etc.) with an interest in preserving and sharing the maritime heritage of the Southeastern U.S. Its website includes several valuable resources, including a spreadsheet listing over 3,000 ships built in North Carolina from colonial times to the present (when available, it includes information about tonnage, dimensions, builder, hull type, fuel type, and function). The site also includes a list of Master's Theses defended by students in East Carolina University's Maritime Studies Program and the organization has begun building an online, illustrated registry of North Carolina's historic vessels.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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Treasure Coast
Writer: Gerard, Philip; Producers: Kemp, Ron and Barnes, Donna
Publication: Wilmington, N.C.: University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1997.
Produced by UNC-Wilmington in cooperation with NC State University and North Carolina Public Television, this documentary is slightly less than an hour long. It explores the people, culture, and ecology of the North Carolina coast.
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Local Ephemera Collection
Located in the North Carolina Collection at VC 971.
This is a collection of 20th century ephemeral items and includes brochures, pamphlets, programs, and periodicals related to various localities in North Carolina. It is organized by region, county, and major metropolitan area. The materials related to coastal communities and the Outer Banks include information on various historical, maritime-related sites like the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the maritime Forts, as well as locations like museums that interpret the state's maritime history.
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Made of Salt and Water
Publication: Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Museum of History, 2006.
This twenty-seven minute documentary presents the history of the town of Beaufort, North Carolina. It also includes descriptions of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Parade of Sail 2006, the discovery of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, and the development of the Olde Beaufort Seaport site.
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Newspaper Microfilm Collection
Located in the North Carolina Collection at Microforms C071
This collection includes a variety of historic newspapers from coastal communities. These newspapers are an important primary source of information about maritime history. One of the largest current papers is the Wilmington Morning Star (now the Star and Times) which has been a daily paper for over one hundred years. There are also smaller papers and several coastal papers dating from the 18th century in the collection, including the Newbern Gazette, the Wilmington Gazette, and the Herald of Freedom from Edenton.
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North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives
Subjects (Miscellaneous)--Collection P3 Guide available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/03subj.html
North Carolina County Collection--Collection P1 Guide available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/pcoll/01counties.html
The North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives contains a number of images related to the state's maritime history. However, these images may be somewhat difficult to find since there is no unified guide to the images. Two collections with significant maritime imagery are the Subjects and Counties collections. Look under subjects like Sailing Ships, Fishing, Ferries, and Civil War- Blockades and under county names like Dare, New Hanover, Carteret, Hyde, Pamlico, and others that have coastline. There may also be related photos in a variety of named photographic collections; ask for assistance at the NC Collection reference desk.
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North Carolina Postcards Project
Available online at http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/nc_post/
Containing images and information about postcards from the North Carolina Postcard Collection and the Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards, this online project contains a variety of postcards related to maritime North Carolina and is continually being expanded. You can choose to search by keyword or browse by image subject. There is a wide variety of maritime subjects represented, including boats, pirates, sailing, lifesaving stations, harbors, yachts, ships, shipwrecks, waterways, fishing, fishing boats, and longshoremen.
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North Carolina Wreck Diving
Publication: GRK Productions, 2008.
This 30 minute documentary includes an on-shore tour of the Morehead and Wilmington areas, as well as tours of several shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast, including a German U-Boat, The Papoose, The Caribsea, Indra, Spar, USS Schurz, and Aeolus. The film also includes information about maritime fossil hunting, particularly for Megalodon shark teeth.
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The Outer Banks: North Carolina's Coastal Treasure
Publication: Winston-Salem, NC: Wide Eye Productions and UNC-TV, 2002.
This forty-four minute documentary presents a view of both the historical and the modern Outer Banks. Featured locations include: Currituck Beach, Blackbeard's hideout on Ocracoke Island, the Wright Brothers Memorial, the Lost Colony location, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the four lighthouses that remain on the Outer Banks.
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Encyclopedia of North Carolina
Author: Powell, William S., editor
Publication: Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
A number of the entries in this resource relate to the state's maritime history. This is a fairly comprehensive resource about North Carolina, however it generally does not include biographical information. Entries usually include references to additional sources devoted to specific topics.
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North Carolina Gazetteer
Author: Powell, William S., editor
Publication: Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
Also available electronically via the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries
This geographical source provides brief information about locations in North Carolina, including rivers, lakes, inlets, islands, etc. It also provides historical naming about these locations and features which could be very useful for researchers of the state's maritime history.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
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X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy
Author: Skowronek, Russel K. and Charles R. Ewen, editors
Publication: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2006.
This collection of essays is focused on using archaeology to better understand piracy and how pirate ships differ from other types of sea-going vessels. The book has an international focus but it contains two substantial chapters related to North Carolina's maritime history and archeaology. Both are about the discovery of and investigation into the presumed wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship. The first is about the ship and discovery as a whole and includes maps, photos, charts, and illustrations. The second is more specifically focused on the artifacts discovered with the wreck and provides a chronological record of the project, descriptions of various types of artifacts grouped by category (ship parts, arms, personal effects, food preparation, etc.), a site plan, illustrations, and photographs.
-
Blackbeard
Producer/writer: Mason, Scott.
Publication: Raleigh: WRAL 5, 1998.
This twenty-seven minute documentary examines the life of Edward Teach, also known as Captain Blackbeard. It also addresses the wreckage of what was believed to be his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, found off the coast of North Carolina in the mid-1990s.
-
Made of Salt and Water
Publication: Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Museum of History, 2006.
This twenty-seven minute documentary presents the history of the town of Beaufort, North Carolina. It also includes descriptions of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Parade of Sail 2006, the discovery of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, and the development of the Olde Beaufort Seaport site.
-
North Carolina Wreck Diving
Publication: GRK Productions, 2008.
This 30 minute documentary includes an on-shore tour of the Morehead and Wilmington areas, as well as tours of several shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast, including a German U-Boat, The Papoose, The Caribsea, Indra, Spar, USS Schurz, and Aeolus. The film also includes information about maritime fossil hunting, particularly for Megalodon shark teeth.
-
North Carolina Maritime History Council
Available online at www.ncmaritimehistory.org
North Carolina Maritime History Council is an organization consisting of several dozen cultural institutions (libraries, museums, national and state parks, historical sites, colleges, etc.) with an interest in preserving and sharing the maritime heritage of the Southeastern U.S. Its website includes several valuable resources, including a spreadsheet listing over 3,000 ships built in North Carolina from colonial times to the present (when available, it includes information about tonnage, dimensions, builder, hull type, fuel type, and function). The site also includes a list of Master's Theses defended by students in East Carolina University's Maritime Studies Program and the organization has begun building an online, illustrated registry of North Carolina's historic vessels.
-
Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology: Theses Bibliography, 1971 to 1993
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1993.
This small publication lists every thesis written between 1971 to 1993 for the East Carolina University Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research. Many of the papers are about North Carolina locations and they cover a wide variety of maritime history, including people, specific ships, naval history, shipwrecks, ship design, maritime archaeology, maritime commerce, and maritime legislation.
-
A Guide to Naval and Maritime History Resources in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection
Author: Fontenoy, Paul E. and Sabrina Faber.
Publication: Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 1996.
This guide is divided into sections on naval and maritime sources and items are listed alphabetically by collection name. The naval sources section is significantly larger, but the maritime sources section includes personal and family papers, as well as the papers and records of some maritime businesses. For each entry the collection name and number are given, as well as dates of the materials, number of items, and a brief abstract/scope-note that includes mention of items of specific interest. If there are related materials in ECU's manuscript collections, this is also noted. Nearly all of the maritime sources are directly related to North Carolina, though there are some that are connected more generally to the maritime history of the southeast. The collections are indexed by name (of ship or person), location, event/time period, and subject. The guide also includes an addendum of collections acquired after the rest of the book was written.
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Stem to Stern
Publication: Greenville, N.C.: Department of History, Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research, East Carolina University, 1986 - present.
The newsletter of the East Carolina University's Department of History, Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research, this publication includes coverage of the program's projects, surveys, events, and equipment. It is also a source for finding further resources; each issue provides lists of publications by faculty, graduates, and students, as well as a list of that year's defended theses.
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Encyclopedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology
Author: Delgado, James P., editor
Publication: New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.
This encyclopedia has an international scope, but several aspects of North Carolina's maritime history are covered, ranging from the prehistoric Lake Phelps dugout canoes to Civil War shipwrecks. It is helpful to have specific types of vessels, locations, or ship names in mind when using this resource.
N.C. Maritime History Home |
Guide Design
The guide is organized so that users can browse the listed sources by either publication type or subject. All subjects and publication types are listed at the top of the page and link directly to their category of materials.
Finding Materials
Some materials related to North Carolina's maritime history can be found in a variety of libraries, including public and university libraries. However, the largest concentration of these materials is almost certainly held by the North Carolina Collection (NCC) located in Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Most of the NCC's materials are housed in closed stacks and therefore cannot be browsed by researchers. However, the reference staff is very knowledgeable and willing to help.
Subject Headings
Below is a sample of subject headings that may help researchers find more materials specific to North Carolina's maritime history. Each heading links to UNC-Chapel Hill's online catalog; clicking on one will provide a list of the materials held by UNC-Chapel Hill that match that particular subject.
In addition, subject headings connected to the history of North Carolina's coastal communities or location names may lead researchers to useful resources. For example:
Problems, Questions, Comments
If you encounter problems while using the guide, or if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact the North Carolina Collection.
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This page was last updated Wednesday, April 22, 2009.
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