Portsmouth Adventure

 In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Portsmouth was the largest town on the coast of North Carolina.  Nearly eight hundred permanent residents lived on this island, just south of our island of Ocracoke.  Each year as many as twelve-hundred sailing ships unloaded at Portsmouth so that their cargoes could be transported across Pamlico Sound, a trip the large ships could not make due to the shallowness and uncertain channels of the Sound.  The village even had a hospital and a Lifesaving Station.

With the advent of steam and the gradual disappearance of the tall-masted sailing ships, the economy of the village faltered.  The Civil War brought evacuation following which many residents did not return.  With no jobs, children growing up sought better life on the mainland. 

In 1966 Cape Lookout National Seashore was established and the village was part of that acquisition.  The few remaining residents where allowed to live out their lives there if they so chose.  

The combination store and Post Office.

By 1971 only three people remained, two women and one man, Henry Piggot.  When Henry died, the women left the island and Portsmouth has been a ghost town ever since.  

The Methodist Church and the Babb house.  A descendants reunion is held here every other year.

With Jonathan and Kahran with us for the week, we went over to Portsmouth for the day on Friday.  

In the lookout tower of the Lifesaving Station.  It was functional until 1937.

It was a perfect day.  Moderate temperature and enough wind to blow the insects away.  We took a Picnic and had it at the old Lifesaving Station.  It was a great day.

Inside the kitchen of Henry Piggot’s house. He was a small man and built the house just to fit himself.