Portsmouth provided port access for cargo ships

Portsmouth was once a bustling seaport adjacent to Ocracoke Inlet, and this Carteret County community contributed greatly to the colonial economy of North Carolina.

Portsmouth’s earliest settlers pronounced it as “Porchm’uth,” in their “Outer Banks brogue.” 

One of the best storytellers to share Portsmouth’s early history is Dr. Marvin P. Rozear, a neurologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C. His article was published in the North Carolina Medical Journal in June 1991. 

“Portsmouth was contrived by the colonial government in 1753 to fill a crucial need in North Carolina: facilitation of the practice of ‘lightering,’” Dr. Rozear wrote. “Bound as the state is by the Outer Banks, which are cut by treacherous, changing inlets,” access to North Carolina can be quite difficult. 

“Ocean-going ships drew too much water to manage the systems of bars, swashes, shoals and sounds. Ships fit for commerce within the sounds were too small for trans-oceanic work. The best solution at the time was to ‘lighter’ (lighten) large ships arriving from Europe, New England and the West Indies,” he said.

 

“Near the inlets, portions of the cargoes were transferred to smaller ships, ‘coasters,’ which could then be distributed to interior towns,” including Bath, New Bern, Washington and Edenton, N.C. 

Once lightered to draw less water, the larger ships could then enter the inlets to lie at anchor in the relative protection of the islands, take on provisions and give crews shore leave. “This business, cumbersome, labor-intensive and dangerous as it was, actually worked,” Dr. Rozear said. 

“Lightering required locals to pilot the ships in and out of the inlets, hands to assist with cargo transfer, wharves, warehouses and other storage facilities” as well as all the “ancillary furniture of a busy port town.” Such as taverns. 

During the American Revolution, Ocracoke Inlet was invaluable for bringing in supplies and provisions for the Continental Army because the British Navy had blockaded all the larger ports to the north. 

One historian observed: “Gen. George Washington’s frostbitten troops awaited supplies at Valley Forge that would pass through Ocracoke Inlet.” 

“The local pilots accordingly found themselves saddled with unprecedented responsibility for the birthing of a nation. Their unique skill set, of paramount importance in the capricious shoals, helped them shepherd in vital supplies,” wrote the autonomous authors at the “History Bandits” digital media site. 

After American independence, Portsmouth enjoyed new prosperity. 

The British naval forces, however, would return during the War of 1812, launching a sneak attack at Portsmouth and Ocracoke in July 1813. 

Dr. William H. Thiesen, a U.S. Coast Guard historian, said the British squadron included 15 armed barges, supporting approximately 1,000 sailors. They hoped to plow right through Ocracoke Inlet and “capture the important commercial center of New Bern.” 

The Revenue Cutter Mercury managed to escape from Portsmouth by “crowding upon her every inch of canvas she had, and by cutting away her long boat,” Dr. Thiesen said.

 

Mercury outran the barges, sailing to New Bern to warn officials of probable attack by British invaders. Mercury’s early warning allowed New Bern’s military leaders the time to muster army regulars and militia forces to defend the city. 

Meanwhile, while left “unsupervised” in Portsmouth and Ocracoke, British sailors wreaked havoc by ravaging, looting and vandalizing homes and rounding up provisions and livestock. They sailed away before the militia could arrive. 

North Carolina Gov. William Hawkins immediately requested federal funding to help build new forts at Portsmouth and Ocracoke to protect the state from future British attacks. His request was denied.

Gov. Hawkins