From his Harkers Island home, Alan Moore points to his native "Banks" 



more often than not included a relative 

 from Shackleford Banks. 



"They ate loons and a bird they 

 called a teetee bird, which was some 

 kind of sparrow," Hepburn says. 

 "They ate robins. I've often heard 

 they prepared a dish called 'rice and 

 robins.' " 



For drinking water, the people of 

 Shackleford Banks built wells by sink- 

 ing two or three large pork barrels into 

 the ground, Moore says. They dipped 

 the water out with a long stick which 

 had a bucket at the end. 



The Bankers sold salted mullet and 

 whale oil to buy necessities such as 

 cloth, flour and coffee. Moore says the 

 coffee was bought green. It had to be 

 parched in an iron pot over a low fire 



and then beat into small pieces for 

 brewing. 



Moore remembers how the lush 

 maritime forest, thick with cedars, 

 oaks and pines, once covered the 

 island. The Bankers' homes, built from 

 forest timbers or wreck lumber, sat on 

 stilts that lifted them off the ground. 

 Hepburn says the Bankers piled empty 

 clam and oyster shells beneath their 

 houses to prevent the wind from cup- 

 ping under the house during storms. 



And no talk of Diamond City would 

 be complete without mention of whal- 

 ing. The Bankers grouped together in 

 crews for whaling season, which lasted 

 from Christmas until April. One crew 

 member kept a constant watch for the 

 giant mammals from a "crows nest" 

 established on the tallest dune. 



When a whale was sighted, a crew of 

 six to eight men would run into the 

 surf carrying their 22-foot whale boat, 

 or pilot boat as it was called. The pilot 

 boats were light-weight, sturdy vessels 

 with lapstraked hulls. Once in the 

 water, the pilot boats were propelled 

 by oars and sails. 



The whalers used harpoons and har- 

 poon guns to make their kill. The most 

 accurate man with the harpoon was 



always stationed at the head of the 

 boat; another at the stern. Once the 

 harpoons were fired and the whale 

 began its struggle for life, the crew and 

 boat were always in danger of being 

 struck by the whale's lashing tail. 



After a kill was made, the whale was 

 pulled to shore. Huge chunks of blub- 

 ber were cut from the whale and taken 

 to a board where they were sliced into 

 smaller pieces. The small pieces were 

 cooked in iron pots to release their oil. 

 The oil was skimmed from the surface 

 of the boiling pot. The cooked blubber 

 was removed from the pot, squeezed 

 for its last drop of oil, and thrown in 

 the pot's fire for fuel. This process was 

 called "trying out" the whale and it 

 could take from one to two weeks to 

 complete. 



The Bankers liked to name the 

 whales they killed. One whale caught 

 in May was donned Mayflower. 

 Another was named "The Little 

 Children" because it was captured by 

 a group of young boys. And for lack of 

 good name, one whale received the ti- 

 tle of "Haint Bin Named Yet." 



Moore says he made one whaling 

 trip with his father, but didn't enjoy 



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