JLUME XX NO. 4
SPEEDING CAR
TURNS OVER,
GOES IN CANAL
Two Persons Hospitalized,
Another Escapes Injury,
As Car Is Demolished
Two persons were hospitalized
Sunday and the car in which
they were riding was totally de
molished in an accident about
10 a.m. at Paynes Creek Bridge,
located on U. S. 264 between
Engelhard and Stumpy Point at
a sharp curve.
Roy Gilbert Gibbs of Hickory,
Va., and Mary Spencer of Nor
folk were rushed to Pungo Dis
trict Hospital in Belhaven for
treatment, but another passen
ger in the car, Elford Richard
Stedman of St. Brides, Va., mir
aculously escaped injury. Gibbs
suffered a brain concussion, cuts
about the head, and bruises,
while Miss Spencer received a
fractured ankle, cuts on the
knee and face, and bruises.
According to Patrolman W. E.
Williams, who investigated the
accident, the car in which the
three were riding was traveling
along highway 264, headed to
ward Stumpy Point, at an esti
mated 80 miles an hour. The
driver apparently lost control
when he hit the bridge, and the
car hit the right-hand shoulder
after crossing the bridge. It then
skidded back across the highway
to the left-hand shoulder, turned
sideways, and skidded down the
road sideways for 136 yards; it
then started rolling over and as
it rolled over the fourth time it
went into a canal on the right
hand side of the roadway. Sted
man and Miss Spencer were
thrown out but Gibbs remained
in the car which was more than
four feet under water. Help
quickly arrived and they were
able to rescue the unconscious
victim from the submerged car.
The car, a 1947 Hudson with
an estimated value of SSOO, was
See CAR, Page Four
MORE SHRIMP BOATS
COME TO ENGELHARD
Cold Weather Delays Season;
Shrimpers Expert Good Runs
in Next Weeks
X
3 the shrimp season reaches
j peak, 300 to 400 boats are
expected in Engelhard .At pre
sent about 100 boats are opera
ting there.
Besides local shrimpers, boats
will come from Hatteras, Atlan
tic, Morehead City, Norfolk. I
Pamlico River, Coinjock, Hobo-|
ken and other places. At this
time of year Engelhard has more
and better shrimp than any other
area of the state, shrimpers
report.
Only about 100 headed boxes
were handled last week but
shrimpers say that this was ex
pected so early in the season.
•Unusually cold weather has de
layed the season for as much as
two or three weeks, but better
weather and good runs should
bring more shrimp into Engel
hard this week, they report.
Shrimp brought in, although
few, are described as large and
indicative of a good season.
Prices to shrimpers that were
12 to 13 cents a pound last week
have picked up to about 17 cents
and are expected to go higher.
This compares unfavorably with
22 cents last year. Dealers as
cribe the price drop to surplus
frozen shrimp left over from last
year’s good runs.
Retailing from 50 to 60 cents
a pound, the shrimp supply has
not yet been great enough to
merit more than local sale. A few
have been sold in the Dare
County resort area.
Five shrimp houses, two or
three less than last year, are
operating in Engelhard.
DANIEL B. PAYNE DIES
Daniel Bradford Payne of
Wanchese died in his home Mon
day, five days after his 80th
birthday. Mr. Payne was bom
in Rodanthe on July 13, 1874,
the son of Mr. and Mrs. Benja
min Payne, and has been living
the last 55 years in Wan
e A retired fisherman, he
V i been ill for ten days before
V death. Mr. Payne is survived
a sister, Miss Elva Payne,
and three brothers, Folger and
Dameron Payne of Wanchese
and Zion Payne of Norfolk. He
was a member of the Fair Haven
Methodist Church of Rodanthe
and the Junior Order U. A. M. of
Elizabeth City. The funeral was
on Wednesday at 2:30 in the
Wanchese Methodist Church
with the Reverend C. W. Guth
rie officiating. Burial was in
Davis Cemetery in Wanchese.
THE COASTLAND TIMES
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTEREST OF THE WALTER RALEIGH COASTLAND OF NORTH CAROLINA
NATION’S POPULAR
NEGRO BAND WILL
PLAY AT PAGEANT
The Booker T. Washington
Summer School Band of Norfolk,
Va., will give a pre-curtain per
formance at The Lost Colony on
Roanoke Island Friday night,
July 23, when the annual “Negro
Citizens Day” of Paul Green’s
symphonic drama is observed.
The principal speaker for the oc
casion will be Dean Thomas H.
Henderson of the Virginia Union
University of Richmond.
Director James A. Clark of
the band stated this week that
plans and rehearsals for his
group’s appearance Friday night
was now in progress and that the
program would be associated
with national history in music,
including salutes to the kings,
queen, sea voyages, friendly In
dians, colonial church, North
Carolina and Virginia state
songs.
S. D. Williams, president of
Elizabeth City State Teachers
College is overall chairman of
the event. On Roanoke Island
Mrs. Lila Simmons and Mrs.
Agatha Gray have charge of
housing arrangements for Negro
visitors.
“This will be the first time
that a nationally famous Nagra
band has appeared as guests to
take part in a “Negro Citizens
Day” program,” said General
Manager R. E. Jordan.
The band frequently repre
sented the City <sf Norfolk and it
represented the State of Virginia
in the recent Inaugural Parade.
The band has 115 pieces and its
director, James A. Clark was a
former member of the Howard
and Columbia University college
bands.
TOWN COMMISSIONERS
MEET TUESDAY NIGHT
D. L. Cannady Is Chosen to Re
place Former Night Police
man Don Midgett
Manteo Town Commissioners,
meeting Tuesday night with
Mayor Martin Kellog in the
Town Hall, elected D. L. Can
nady to replace night policeman
Don Midgett. Routine business
of approving payment of bills
occupied the remainder pf the
short meetings.
Commissioners present were
Sam Midgett and G. T. Wescott.
The regular monthly meeting of
the board had been postponed
from July 5 to Tuesday night.
The Commissioners received
j Midgett’s resignation early this
I week. He returned with his fam
ily on Tuesday to their former
home in Freeport, Long Island.
Policeman Cannady leaves a
temporary job as Dare County
Deputy Sheriff, patroling the
beach area. He expressed his
appreciation to beach residents
for their cooperation in his work
there.
HERE ISA PICTURE OF THE OMAR BABUN AS SHE LOOKED ON THE MORNING OF ARRIVAL
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THIS PICTURE, made the day of the stranding of the Omar Babun on Pea Island shore, early in May, shows the Coast Guardsmen on the
beach making ready to rescue the crew. In the left fore-ground is a Coast Guard duck, amphibious vehicle used by surfmen. The crew was
landed by use of a breeches buoy.
KITTY HAWK GIRL
IS DUKE STUDENT
I -
MISS TANYA DAWN TILLETT,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lin
wood Tillett of Kitty Hawk, re
cently entered Duke University
where she will work toward a
diploma in the school of nursing.
Miss Tillett, who graduated from
Kitty Hawk High School in the
class of ’54, won many honors
before her graduation. She was
valedictorian of her class, having
an average of 95.66. Previously
she had been a commencement
marshall, being chief marshall
her junior year. She was busi
ness manager of the high school
annual, a member of the girls’
basketball team, held many class
offices during her four years in
high school, was president of the
Kitty Hawk MYF and secretary
of the Kitty Hawk Methodist
See STUDENT, Page Four
DARE COUNTY MAN
ON RECRUITING DUTY
A former Wanchese resident,
Dallas E. Quidley Jr., has been
assigned recruiting officer for a
new five county Air Force re
cruiting area to include Dare.
Quidley, Techinal Sergeant, US
AF, has been living in Greenville
and working in the Post Office
Building there. He plans to be
gin weekly trips to Manteo on
securing an office here.
Mrs. Rovena Quidley of Bux
ton is Sgt. Quidley’s great-grand
mother. He has other relatives
who live in Buxton and for two
years he went to school in Man
teo.
“Since I like Dare County and
have ma.ny friends and relatives
there”, Quidley says, “I am
quite happy over this assign
ment.”
“The Air Force is the greatest
organization for preserving
peace in the world. It is techni
cal and fast growing. We need
qualified young men and women
badly at present and the Air
Force is counting on filling new
vacancies quickly. We hope to
give these opportunities to many
of the youth of Dare County”,
I he concludes.
MANTEO, N. C., FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1954
ATTORNEY GRAY
RURITAN SPEAKER
AT WANCHESE
Attorney Wallace Gray of
Manteo was the speaker Friday
to the Ruritan Club of Wanchese.
He spoke of the changes and
opportunities taking place in the
new Dare County, and cited a
number of things that he expects
to bring untold development.
Our present development is only
a drop in the bucket, he thinks.
Mr. Gray cited the Cape Hat
teras Seashore Park as the num
ber one item in his opinion to
help develop our coast. He men
tioned in this list, the Wright
Memorial, the Lost Colony, the
proposed coastal highway from
Virginia Beach, the Croatan
Sound Bridge, and a possible
seashore road all the way down
our coast.
The Wanchese Club heard a
summary of club efforts to get a
deeper channel into Mill Land
ing at Wanchese, and a post light
in Davis Channel. The Club is
continuing its efforts in this
direction.
Minister’s Wife Finds Enjoyable Work
Operating New Motel Near Manteo
Roanoke Island’s First Complete Motel Unit Built By
Dare County People and It Is Now Enjoying
Good Patronage
“It’s a family affair”, Mrs. Earl
R. Meekins says of the new
$50,000 motor court located just
north of Manteo. The,idea that
we should build the Manteo
Motel just grew up in a natural
way as we saw the need for
such a place on the Island”.
Mrs. Meekins and her husband,
who is a Methodist minister in
Columbia, were born and reared
in Stumpy Point. “We love the
coast and our home county,
Dare,” she says. “Since our old
est daughter, Ina, lives here with
her husband, Burwell Evans,
this arrangement seems ideal to
us”.
“All our family together have
a part in it”, she continues. “I
divide my time between here
and Columbia. My youngest
daughter, Mary works here and
Ina and Burl take'over much of
the time. Our other daughter,
Lois, and her husband, Neal
Jackson Jr., are in McCormick,
South Carolina where Neal is a
chemical engineer with Milikin
Mills, but they are a part too.
Lois was a home economics
teacher so she did much of the
decorating, selecting color
schemes, spreads, drapes and
accessories. Burl did all of the
electrical work when the place
was being put up last winter.”
“And I’m chambermaid”
chimes in Mary, who will go to
Greensboro College next fall.
Mrs. Meekins laughs that Mary
does any of the work that needs
doing in managing a motel, from
MANTEO HAS NEW
WELL DRIVEN TO
IMPROVE WATER
The Town of Manteo’s water
consumers may soon hope for
improvement in the water sup
ply. A new well, costing $3,500
has recently been drilled by a
Norfolk concern, and it provides
softer water of better quality,
Seldon Midgett, waterworks
Superintendent said this week.
The well is 81 feet deep. It is
gravel-packed and will have a
capacity of 75 gallons a minute.
It will be used in connection
with a 65-foot well, and replaces
two 20 foot shallow wells which
have been in service for 12 years,
and which has long since been
losing volume.
Seven days were required to
put down the cement-cased well.
Pumping equipment and pipes
will be added in the next three
weeks to bring the total cost of
the well to around $4,000.
The well is located in the
south-west corner of the water
tower lot in a spot prescribed
See WELL, Page Four
greeting guests to making beds.”
Mrs. Meekins doesn’t say but
one is sure that the Evans’ two
little girls, Martha Lynn and
Olivia Dawn, and little boy, Burl
Ray, also have their part in
keeping this a going family con
cern.
“We have thought of this a
place to return to when my hus
band retires.” And Mrs. Meekins
hastens to add. “that won’t be
for 15 years or more yet.
The Rev. Meekins has been a
minister for twelve years, the
last nearly four of them at Co
lumbia. Before that time he was
a merchant and commercial fish
erman. Mrs. Meekins says seri
ously, “the Motel must come
second to my church work.
When the winter comes I will
not be able to spend any time
here. We have not yet decided
whether to hire someone to keep
the Motel open or not. We will
wait and see how many fisher
men are here and whether there
are enough customers to merit
it before we decide.”
The motel, accommodating
about 50 people, is modern and
beautiful. Mrs. Meekins says that
it is filled about 70 per cent of
the time and she adds proudly
that almost all of the customers
express their satisfaction with
accommodations. “So many of
them exclaim ‘what pretty
rooms’ as they enter”.
There are 18 sleeping rooms,
12 of them with private baths
See MOTEL, Page Four
STEAMER FLOATED AFTER TWO
MONTHS ON HATTERAS STRAND
COAST LOSES AN ATTRACTION
The Honduran Freighter Omar Babun De
parted Monday Morning after Being Pulled
Off by New Methods and the Help of People
of the Villages of the Outer Banks; Was
Drawing Card for Sightseers.
RODANTHE, July 22—Three
transplanted mountaineers who
didn’t know they couldn’t do it
and who had the good sense to
hire the first native who told
them they couldn’t do it, went
away from here shortly after
midnight Monday morning in the
Honduran freighter Omar Ba
bun and laid course for Norfolk
and a profit for their ignorance
reportedly well above a hundred
thousand dollars.
I Even as late as 10 o’clock Sun
, day morning anybody who had
a dollar he wanted to bet could
I find takers along Hatteras Is
i land who would give odds that
even though she was floating
I easily at the end of her tether,
: the Omar Babun would never
leave here. It had. just never
been done in the history of this
Island and when the Graveyard
of the Atlantic gets its hands on
a ship it never lets go.
But daylight today and the
Omar Babun was plumb past
Oregon Inlet, towed by a tug but
with her own propellors lending
a hand at progress and a trium
phant streamer of smoke flow
ing back out of her funnel. Also
aboard wefe the three trans
planted mountaineers, too tired
and too sleepy to know whether
they felt triumphant or not.
These mountaineers are the
three Canipes, father, son and
grandson, ranging in age from |
60 for the grandfather down to
18 for the grandson who came
straight here from Edwards Mil
itary Institute when the family
decided to the undoable. The
Canipes left their foothills in
Cleveland County and around
Shelby ten years ago and when
the war was ended the whole
tribe was established at Have
lock where they took over the
Buick agency and became pur
veyors of motor vehicles to the
U. S. Marine Corps.
Not one of them has had time
in the 59 days they worked on
the Omar Babun to explain to
anybody how they ever got the
notion that they could do a piece
of salvage that had been turned
down by the professionals. They
came up within 48 hours after
the little West Indian freighter
hit the beach three miles north
of here at 4 a.m. of May 14th
and started wanting to know
why they couldn’t get the job.
Nobody wanted the job because
it was hopeless. The Omar Ba
bun would stay right there until
she broke up.
There was considerable invol
ved. The boat itself, an ex-net
tender of 1250 tons, was insured
for $122,000. The cargo, mostly
heavy cement and sugar mill
machinery, was insured for an
other SIIO,OOO. After a week’s
dickering with the insurance
companies, the Canipes just
bought the boat, reportedly for
$2 000 and made an arrangement
with the insurance company to
salvage the cargo. Details of that
arrangement have not been dis
closed. /
Salvage people in Norfolk and
to haul on the foundered vessel,
with no promise that they would
get her off. That was too much
and the Canipes got their heads
together, hired Ray Austin as
Salvo and a dozen other Island
ers and went to work. They sum
moned a fleet of bulldozers and
trucks, bought some steel land-
See STEAMER, Page Four
MANTEO BOY SCOUTS
TO INSPECT CARRIER
Twenty nine scouts from the
Manteo Troop 165 will inspect
the aircraft carrier, Inteperid, in
Norfolk Saturday. Scouts from
the entire Tidewater Council
have been invited aboard the
carrier from one to four by the
CoAmandei; and officers of the
ship.
The boys solicited contribu-.
tions last week to charter a bus
' for the trip. Scout Leader, Theo
dore H. Noe, will go with the
Scouts. While on board the In
terperid, they will observe the
presentation of a Liberty Bell to
the ship.
The Tidewater Council in
cludes troops in the Norfolk,
Portsmouth, Elizabeth City, Cur
rituck and Manteo areas.
Single Copy 7<
GREAT GRANDMOTHER
FLIES THE CONTINENT
Aged Woman Pilot Visits Lost Col
ony Tuesday Night and Departs
Via Outer Banks Wednesday
Mrs. Zaddie R. Bunker, 66-
year old great-grandmother of
Palm Springs, California, who
learned to fly and soloed at the
age of 64, completed a coast-to
coast flight here yesterday when
she flew over the village of Kitty
Hawk, where the Wrigh Broth
ers began experiments in 1900
which led to their first success
ful powered-flight at the base of
Kill Devil Hills on December 17,
1903.
After flying over the area with
Myrtle Thompson, woman avia
tion columnist of Selma as her
passenger she landed at the Man
teo Airport where Manager Bill
Henderson provided them with
an automobile in which to visit
the historic sites of aviation’s
beginning. The famous woman
pilot was often in the spotlight
in the recent transcontinental
flight of the 99-club which held
its convention in Asheville. She
and Miss Thompson were special
guests at a performance of The
Lost Colony Tuesday night. They
departed Wednesday morning
for a return trip to Selma, N. C.,
Miss Thompson’s hometown via
the Outer Banks and Beaufort.
Mrs. Bunker, when asked how
it happened that she started fly
ing at her advanced age replied,
“I feel that God has some special
work for me. Maybe if is flying,
because my flying has attracted
attention. I belive flying has
added 15 years to my life.” She
loves to talk about her children,
her grandchildren and great
grandchildren.
“I was born in Missouri but
moved to California many years
ago. California is a great state,
but it took this flying visit to
North Carolina to teach me what
real genuine southern hospitality
is like,” she said.
She praised Paul Green’s
drama, The Lost Colony. “Just
think, Miss Thompson’s sugges
tion that I visit her in Selma
resulted in me visiting not only
the birthplace of modern avia
tion, but also the birthplace of
English-speaking America.”
HOPE TO START THIS
YEAR ON TOLL ROAD
Kitty Hawk to Virginia Beach Proj
ect Being Revived
The proposed 53 mile coastal
toll road between Nags Head and
Virginia may be opened to traf
fic during the fall of 1955, State
Highway Chairman A. H. Gra
ham revealed last week.
The road surface may be of
one of three types,—gravel with
asphalt surfacing, five-inch plant
mix asphalt or five inch mixed
in-place asphalt of the type used
in paving the state-built highway
down the Outer Banks. Designed
for tourist traffic the road may
be 22 or 24 feet in width de
pending on final traffic estimates
and costs.
The Carolina-Virginia Turn
pike Authority meeting jointly
with the Virginia Coastal Turn
pike Authority last week agreed
to the sale of approximately
$3,000,000 in bonds to finance the
project. They instructed engi
neering firms to have plans and
specifications ready by August
15.
The project will then be adver
tized for about 20 days, Graham
said, and the bids opened by
mid-September. Bonds will be
sold sometime after the bids are
opened and before the contract
is let.
Work should start in October
or November, it is said.
William F. Freeman, Inc.,
engineers and architects, of
Highpoint, will have charge of
• construction. The Dele uw,
‘ Cather and Company firm of
> Chicago is handling the traffic
survey. A Syndicate of Strader-
- Taylor of Lynchburg, Va. and
, Alex Brown and Company of
- Baltimore, Md.. and associates
will handle the bond sale.