Saturday, July 24, 2004

Pilots & Rascals

In 1718 the North Carolina colonial assembly passed an act for "settling and maintaining Pilots at ....Ocacock Inlett."  However, it wasn't until the 1730's that pilots actually began to settle on Ocracoke.  In 1783 an act made it the duty of commissioners of navigation to regulate the pilots.  They were examined and licensed only after they provided a bond for good behavior.  Clearly, there had been problems with earlier, unregulated pilots.  In fact, during the American Revolution some of the pilots at Ocrcoke had been accused of "rascality."  Oh my!

 

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