The remains of a maritime forest on Harkers Island 



Life went on much as it had in Dia- 

 mond City. Most residents were fisher- 

 men and boat builders. They lived sim- 

 ply and what little money they had 

 came from the shore whaling that they 

 did during a short season each year. 



According to amateur historian Mrs. 

 Earl Davis of Harkers Island, whaling 

 on Shackleford Banks had been a com- 

 munity effort. During the season the 

 men of Diamond City would take turns 

 watching for whales from Lookout 

 Hill. Once a whale was sighted a crew 

 of eight men would be put together to 

 give it chase. The men shot old- 

 fashioned harpoons and later, harpoon 

 guns, from their sturdy little boats. 

 The chase often lasted hours. Families 

 who watched from the shore would 

 later be enlisted in the laborious 

 process of cutting the whale up. 



After the chase 



Once the dead whale was hauled 

 ashore, blubber had to be cut off and 

 dried out or cooked in large pots set up 

 on the beach. The resulting oil was 

 poured into 50 gallon barrels and sold 

 to merchants in Beaufort and 

 Morehead City. The bone, which was 

 used mostly for corsets and umbrella 

 ribs, also brought a good price. 



Diamond City whaling crews had a 

 tradition of giving names to the whales 

 they killed. Mayflower, caught one 

 May 4, was reputed to be among the 

 toughest to subdue. The Little 

 Children was a whale killed by a crew 

 made up largely of young boys. 



Whaling days didn't end until 1918 

 and whaling stories are still told on 

 Harkers Island. Charlie Hancock likes 

 to recount one of the most famous of 

 the Diamond City whaling stories. 



"This is the story I've been told by 

 my father who said he was told by his 

 father," he begins. 



It had been a long season without 

 whales one year when Hancock's 

 grandfather was a young man living in 

 Diamond City. Finally one day a 

 whale was sighted and the men went 

 after it. They harpooned the whale 

 but, after a long fight, lost it. "They 

 hung to until after dark" but finally 

 gave up the search and went home — 

 disconsolate. 



"It was a bright moonshiney night 

 and my grandfather couldn't sleep. . . . 

 In the night sometime he got to sleep 

 but he dreamed that the whale had 

 died and had caught up on the Cape 



Lookout point. He was a fast runner 

 and he went around and told all the 

 boys. 'The whale,' he says, T dreamed 

 it so plain. It's there.' Some of them 

 thought it was just a nightmare or 

 what have you, but they decided to go 

 look." 



'One chance left' 



As the story goes Hancock ran 

 several miles to Lookout Point, by the 

 light of the moon. Sure enough, there 

 was the whale, beached. 



"When the boys got there, he told 

 them, 'Now we've got one chance left. 

 We've got to go to Beaufort tomorrow 

 and see if we can get rope enough.' And 

 they had to do that by their honor 

 because they didn't have any money." 



Hancock sailed to Beaufort the next 

 morning and found a merchant willing 

 to let him have rope on credit. With 

 the rope, the men secured the whale on 

 shore. There was spending money that 

 year after all. 



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