Beaufort

 

Fish house

Styron Fish House (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).

https://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/14734156/

The Beaufort fish house belonged to the Styron family since the 1940s. Celia Faye Styron was born here and has renovated it as a tourist venue.

View of side porch from the water showing shingle construction (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Interior of fish house filled with fishing paraphernalia (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Woodworking tool box for boat building and house repairs (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Homemade lead weights for fishing net (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Fish net mending needles (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU)
Scale for weighing catches (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU)
Clothes irons (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU)
Nets drying in the roof rafters (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Shoulder clam rake (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Assorted shell fish rakes and ice block chopper (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU)
Sales and purchase accounting notebook held open with an old oarlock (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).
Interior façade showcasing a framed picture of the young fisherwoman, old locks, keys and a shelf holding the family bible (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).

Menhaden Industry

A giant net reel, a lasting icon of the extant Menhaden Industry in Beaufort (Photo by Lynn Harris, ECU).

Menhaden processing started in North Carolina shortly after the Civil War. The  1890s was the start of an economic boom for menhaden fisheries.   Local companies in Carteret County provided generations of workers — boat captains, boat pilots, engine runners, ring setters, fish bailers, factory foremen, shore engineers. The last factory, Beaufort Fisheries on Front Street, closed in 2005 and was razed a few years later. Although nothing remains of the structure, a old net reel is on display.

“The Fish that built Beaufort” Our State, April 30, 2014.

https://www.ourstate.com/fish-built-beaufort/

Listen to recordings from “Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing” at carolinacoastalvoices.com

James “Poppy” Frazier of Harlowe, was interviewed as part of the Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing project undertaken in 2009—2010 in Beaufort and Harkers Island, NC. He talks about his history as a menhaden fisherman. He describes pulling the purse seine net by hand before the mechanized hydraulic power block was introduced in the early 1960s. He describes the jobs of a captain, a bunt puller and a fish bailer. He discusses singing chanteys.

http://www.carolinacoastalvoices.com/exhibits/vex1/C2E02B23-51D5-415C-911B-661337564890.htm

NC State Archives
NC State Archives

Other images and resources

Menhaden Plant, Beaufort 1986, n.d. Folder N.86.1.32 0
4.1.13.37 NT Drying Menhaden, Beaufort 1986, [ca. 1900] Folder N.86.1.37 0
4.1.15.101 NT Boat at dock unloading fish 1988, [n.d.] Folder N.88.8.8 0
4.1.27.406 NT Hunting party return from hunt on menhaden boat with game, New Bern, North Carolina, ca. 1925-1930. 2000; 1925-1930 Item N.2000.4.86 0
4.1.28.166 NT Net reel and Menhaden Boat, Morehead City, N.C., c. 1920 2001; c. 1920 Item N.2001.2.66A-B 0
4.1.29.402 NT Menhaden Boats off Cape Lookout, c. early 1950s 2002; c. early 1950s Item N.2002.12.32 0
4.1.29.403 NT THE SOUTHLAND, a menhaden boat, Morehead City, N.C., c. 1950 2002; c. 1950 Item N.2002.12.33 0
4.1.29.406 NT The KING FISHER laden with menhaden, Beaufort, N.C., c. early 1950s 2002; c. early 1950s Item N.2002.12.36 0
68.1.2.5 NT Albemarle Sound Fishing 1889 Item OP-6 0
68.1.2.6 NT A Big Menhaden Catch 1889 Item OP-6.1 0
5000.1.1.15 HICATS “Won’t you Help me to Raise ’em”? 1990 Item 33AUD-0-15 0
5000.2.3.1213 HICATS The Men All Singing : The Story of Menhaden Fishing 1978 Item 33BOK-0-1213 0
5000.2.3.5005 HICATS Menhaden : Natural Resource from the Pastures of the Sea UNK Item 33BOK-0-5005 0
5000.2.3.9019 HICATS The Fish Factory:Work and Meaning for Black and White Fishermen of the American Menhaden Industry 1994 Item 33BOK-0-9019 0
5000.2.3.9584 HICATS Chanties as Sung by the Menhaden Chanteymen of Beaufort, NC 10/1989 Item 33BOK-0-9584
“Parkins”-1941 1941 Item 33GRF-0-43 0
5000.4.569.44 HICATS Crewmen with Deckload of Menhaden 1941 Item 33GRF-0-44 0
5000.4.569.81 HICATS A Big Menhaden Catch 08/10/1889 Item 33GRF-0-81 0
5000.4.570.274 HICATS Atlantic menhaden : Brevoortia tyrannus UNK Item 33GRF-1-274 0
5000.8.2468.30 HICATS No. 85-02:Medhaden:Soybean of the Sea 01/1985 Item 33SER-139-30 0
5000.8.2468.119 HICATS No. 72-12:The Menhaden Fishing Industry in NC 01/1973 Item 33SER-139-119 0
5000.8.2469.17 HICATS No. 83:Estimated Socio-Economic Impacts in NC of a Shortened Menhaden Season 06/1983 Item 33SER-140-17 0
5000.8.2952.36 HICATS No. 45:Socioeconomic Impacts of a Shortened NC Menhaden Season 10/1985 Item 33SER-623-36 0
5000.8.3069.107 HICATS NC’s Atlantic Menhaden Fishery, 1984-85 04/1985 Item 33SER-740-107 0
5000.8.3197.1 HICATS No. 2:Atlantic Menhaden:A Most Abundant Fish 08/1979 Item 33SER-868-1 0
5004.1.1.352 HICATS The 177-Foot-Long Atlantic Mist, a Menhaden Purse Seine Netting Vessel, Lists About 200 Yards off the Beach 11/27/1990 Item 301GRF-0-352 0
5004.1.1.540 HICATS A Young Woman Plants Beach Grass on Dunes in Nags Head With an old Menhaden Boat in Background 1988 Item 301GRF-0-540 0
5004.1.1.2371 HICATS Four Anglers on the end of the Outer Banks Fishing Pier Watch as a Giant Commercial Menhaden Boat Passes 1992 Item 301GRF-0-2371 0
5004.1.1.2892 HICATS Thousands of seagulls take flight as an angler four whells down the beach ND Item 301GRF-0-2892 0
5004.1.1.2925 HICATS The 177-foot-long Atlantic Mist lists Tuesday morning as crewmen pump water from its bilges 1990 Item 301GRF-0-2925 0
5004.1.1.2962 HICATS Larry Lamborne walks through thousands of pounds of menhaden and other fish that were dumped by the fishing vessel Atlantic

Mist

 UNK Item 301GRF-0-2962 0