ARTE RET COU NT Y
Ln rM n i-i
AGES1T0 4
SECOHD SECTION
A Merger ol THE BEAUFORT NEWS (Established 1912) and THE TWIN CITY TIMES (Established 1936)
38th YEAR NO. 46.
10 PAGES
MOREHEAD CITY, AND BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1948
10 PAGES
PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAY!
si S
A Mountaineer Fell in Love with the Coast
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ME 5
I:
i
He Helped Fight a War, Then
Became Famous Free-Lancer
By Ruth Peeling
This is the second and last in
stallment of a two-part story on
the life of Aycock Brown. The
first part appeared in the issue
of THE NEWS-TIMES publish
ed Tuesday, Oct. 19.
"Everywhere we went people told
mc how wonderful the story was,
and I figured (hat at Ocracokc
they would be so pleased they
would probably erect a monument
to me." smiled the writer. "But
when I got there, I got the big
gest shock of mv life
They were
:ts mad as could be.
"What do you mean," one of the
women of the island asked, "say
ing we don't have any clocks here.
I have one."
Aycock replied, "Yes, but it
doesn't run." He went on to ex
plain that in the story he was
simply trying to point out that
Ocracokers mainly reckoned time
by the tide.
But the week's cruise ended hap
pily. Billy Brown, the expected
baby who is now 7 years old,
wasn't born until after the Ilat
tcras returned its passengers to
Beaufort.
After Dec. 7, 1941. United
States was at war. In the files of
the sixth Naval district. Charles
ton, Aycock Brown was listed as
"contact man." Soon this section
of the coast was made a part of
the fifth Naval district, and Ay
cock was given the title of civilian
agent for the Navy, becoming one
of the few civilian agents in the
country.
"I couldn't even give Bill Hatscll
two weeks' notice that I was leav
ing. The Navy wanted me on the
job right away, so Amy Muse help
ed Bill out and I went from Camp
Davis north to the Virginia line,
establishing contacts along the
coast," the columnist relates.
He had served as editor of The
Beaufort News seven years . . .
he had become a newspaperman.
But next to the fishermen them
selves, Naval intelligence knew
that they could get no one who
know the coast better than Aycock
Brown, and so he gave up his
newspaper work momentarily,
to work for Uncle Sam.
This involved suoplying informa
tion on the depths of water in
various coves and inlets along the
coast ("I thought the Navy would
have known that, but they didn't,"
Aycock remarked), identifying bo
dies that were washed up on the
beach, investigating suspicious
characters, or lights burning along
the coast when they should have
been blacked out.
Soon he was assigned operation
al intelligence work also and was
based at Ocracoke. He knew the
location of every ship and sus
pected submarines in the area and
kept patrol boat captains inform
ed of convoy and air movements.
He lived through a few danger
ous moments during the war. One
time, on report that there was to
be an attempted landing between
r 4 Buddies
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At Tony's Sanitary Fish Market, Aycock has the cup of coffee
that precedes all his meals, art talks things over with Tony him
ell , , (Phot by Theodore Baiter)
Cape Lookout and Cape Ilattcras,
he and a group of other intelli
gence men were riding along the
beach at night. Coast Guard pa
trolmen had been given orders to
shoot anyone in the beach.
The driver of the jeep was going
along in the dark, and finally said
that he couldn't see to go ahead
another inch without lights, as he
flicked the white beams on. Be
tween Cape llatteras and Ilattcras
village suddenly came a shout out
of the dark, "Cut those lights off!"
As Aycock climbed out of the
' l'CD someone shoved a gun pgair.st
nis cnest a'Hl commanded, Identi
fy yourself."
"There were a lot of new fel
lows in the Coast Guard and I
knew they wouldn't know who Ay-
cock Brown was, so 1 reached into
The work of a master
my pocket for identification cards,"
relates the former intelligence
officer, "With that, the patrolman
"-'H. "Keep vour hands up or I'll
drill a hole through you."
"This all happened in a mat
ter of seconds," Aycock co'itinucd,
"and I w;isn't seared at the time,
but when I thought of it later, I
realized how close 1 had been to
getting shot."
At another time al! the civilian
vessels from shore 25 miles out to
i sea between tape Ilattcras and
! Virginia beach were to lc warned
that craft within that area were
going to he sunk Aycock was
j given orders to gel the warni'g
to the fishermen so he look off
in a plane from Cherry Point, plan
ning to fly over the area, land be
side the fish boats ami tell them
, to go beyond the l!r -mile line or
( else make port.
I As the plane was .t;oin over
I Ocracoke. he noticed some trawl
! ers in the harbor which could
netp spread the warning
the plane landed. Both Aycock
one of Aycock's most
and the pilot left the plane to
talk to the men on the fishing
boats. When they returned to
take off, the plane had sunk.
A section in the bottom part of
it had been fitted without a rub
ber gasket. "Maybe it was sabo
tage maybe it was simply negli
gence," comments the columnist,
"anyhow if we would have landed
at sea, we never would have come
home the same way we left."
Photographic equipment was at
a premium as soon as the war
got underway. The Navy had none
in this area, so Aycock used what
he had until movie cameras and
all other types of equipment were
sent here. "Then I had so much
stuff I couldn't begin to use it all,"
he remarked.
He made pictures of the Russian
tanker Ashkabad as it was sinking
after being torpedoed by an enemy
submarine and made numerous
other flights to take pictures of
the coastal area for war purposes.
At his suggestion commercial
fishermen were made confidential
observers for the Navy and their
boats equipped with radio.
A few months before the war
was over, Aycock was transferred
to Norfolk where he started wri
ting "Covering the Waterfront"
again. After his contract with the
Navy expired on Dec. 31, 1945, he
came to Morehead City and opera
ted a photographer's studio for
Roy Eubanks for about three or
four months but the confining four
walls made him long more and
more for salt wind, sun, and water.
It was in the early months of
fvi"''vT ,i'A.
Going (or a Ride
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Sf.WEW.O.W ! ,,, mm mmmmm
"Aren't you coming with us, Daddy?" seems to be the question
in Stormy Gale's eyes as she stands beside her mother in the new
family car. Brantley's at the wheel. Stormy Gale seldom sees her
daddy. He's usually at Manteo,
iniiskect heaven knows where!
well-known shots.
1946 that Tony Scamon, Morehead
City's famous restauranteur, in an
expression of gratitude to Aycock,
set North Carolina's well known
columnist on the road that has led
him today to fame and sobriety.
It's a story few people know.
One day Tony walked in to see
Billy
Aycock who was still of the
opinion that the best way to relax
was with a bottle.
Tony told him that he would
like to do him a favor, for it was
Aycock who first put his name in
print, (The owner of the Sanitary
Fish Market caught the first sail-
I i &
Morehead City, Beaufort, Malta
(Guess Who Took This One!)
fish ever taken off the Carteret
coast back in the days when sail
fish were never dreamed of here
as a likely catch for sports fish
ermen. Aycock sent the story off
to the stale papers. That was the
beginning of reams of publicity
which has been written ubout
Tonv).
"I knew Avcock wanted a good
camera, one like his friend, Loomis
Deane, a Life photographer, has,"
Tony relates. "So I asked him how
much a camera like that cost. He
told mc $350."
Aycock finishes the story. "Not
long after that conversation, Tony
walked in and handed me three
one hundred dollar bills ami a
I
I
'6i?: I "Stan fiaij t I
TofMl ,ts "
Railroads hurt operate around the clock
every day and night of the yenr.
Although they know this, leader of 16 raU
road unions are demanding a five-day, Mon
day through Friday, week for one million
railroad employes.
They want 48 hours pay for 40 hours work
in itself a 20 wage increase.
They also demand a minimum of 12 hours
pay for any work performed on Saturdays,
and 16 hours pay for any work performed on
Sundays and holidays.
On top of all this they want an additional
increase of 25c an hour for every employe 1
You'd Pay the Bill!
Summing up these demands, they mean that
these union leaders seek to force the railroads
to give 'one million employe an annual raite
which would average $1600 per employe!
The total cost of this would be no 1ms than
154 billion dollars per year, which is more
than twice the expected net income of the
railroads this year.
You'd pay the bill, because if these in
creased cost are forced on the railroads,
fifty. I decided then that here
was my chance to do free-lancing,
writi.ig and photography."
The beautiful shots of the Caro
lina coast with that well-known '
credit line, Photo by Aycock
Brown, is evidence enough that
Tony made a good investment, that
Aycock proved he had the stuff
men are made of plus the ability
to take photos that arc works of
art. To top it off, he turns at
the kinds of stories readers like to
see in their newspapers.
Some of the talcs he tells are
branded by critics as lies and gross
inaccuracies, others are kinder and
say our columnist is inclined to
exaggerate al times. If it is in
accuracy or over-exaggeration, it's
never intentional, it has never hurt
anyone, and !(! per cent of the
time it has helped. Call it whal
you will, he turns out what we in
the newspaper business call "good
copy."
Aycock considers his best publi
city job the one on Dean Israel
Noe. Noe was dean of an Epis
copalian cathedral in Memphis,
Tenn , and in the late thirties tried
to prove that "a human being
could lake on the Godhead bodily,
Aycock says. The dean fasted for
30 days, eating only cashew nuts
and drinking orange juice. Final-
j ly to regain his health he had
I to he sent to John Hnnkin.i: hnmii.
tal in Baltimore, and in the mean
time his communicants at Mem
phis, having become outraged at
his actions, demanded his resigna
tion. Dean Noe then came to the Car
teret coast and preached to various
congregations. In the summer of
193!), because the Episcopalian had
become so popular here, Aycock
. - . I, MSI i I .
they must have still further rate and fare
increases.
Demands Unreasonable
Those employes have had substantial raises
during and sitoethe war. Their average week
ly earnings are higher than the average weekly
earnings of workers in manufacturing indus
tries. They have more job security than the
average worker in American industry. They
also enjoy paid vacations, a retirement sys
tem and other advantages more generous
than the average worker receives.
In contrast with the demands of these IS
unions, which add up to the equivalent of 48c an
hour, the Conductor and Trainmen recently
settled their wage request for an Increase of 10c
an hour.
On lhe Job
Here on Boguc Banks, Aycock
Path fisherman, left, on the recent
tried to sell the idea to Atlantic
Beach interests to sponsor a Sun
day afternoon sermon by Dean
Noe at the beach, turning the
dance hall into a "Cathedral by
the Sea."
Nobody liked the idea but Ay
cock got $15 to finance what was
undoubtedly thought a crack pot
scheme. Publicity on the service
in the "Cathedral by the Sea" went
We are publishing this and other advertisements to
at first hand about matters which are important
queries Randolph Smith, Salter
catches of spot.
(Photo by Robert G. Lows)
out all over the slate and beyond
and the afternoon Dean Noe
preached the beach was jammed.
The upshot of it all was the call
ing back of the dean by his con
gregation in Memphis where he Is
preaching today to nearly u thou
sand communicants.
Perhaps the thing thai put Ay
cock Brown's name before mora
people than anything rise was the
Sec MOUNTAINEER Page 3
Railroads Run for Everybody
Not Employes Alone
The railroad industry must serve not one but
many groups producers, businessmen, ship
pers, passengers and the general public
night and day, every day of the year. These
union are proceeding in utter disregard of
this important difference between railroads
and other industries. Industrial plants can be
shut down over weekends and holidays, but
freight, mail, express and passengers must
continue to move, Everybody who tnlert rail
road employment knows this.
Strike Threat
On September 18, 1948, the leaders of these
16 unions began taking a strike vote. But the
threat of a ttrike will not alter the opposition of
the railroads to such unreasonable demands!
talk with you ,
to everybody,
1