From Historic Port of Washington

 

Historic Port of Washington Inc. will host a leading figure in the academic field of maritime history, Dr. William N. Still, adding to events lined up for the annual Marine Market.

Still will be the guest speaker Thursday at HPOW’s quarterly maritime heritage lecture series Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The lecture is co-hosted by the North Carolina Estuarium and supports Washington Harbor District Alliance’s 2019 Marine Market, as well as HPOW’s annual nautical flea tent fundraiser. The Marine Market is set for next Saturday, April 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Still will discuss research for his latest book, “Shipbuilding in NC 1688-1918,” and also, as time allows, will field questions about shipbuilding in Washington and the surrounding counties. The comprehensive book’s publisher is North Carolina Office of Archives and History, with tentative publication end of summer 2019.

In this authoritative history of boat and shipbuilding in North Carolina, Still and co-author Richard Stephenson document for the first time a bygone era when maritime industries dotted the Tar Heel coast. The work of shipbuilding craftsmen and entrepreneurs contributed to the coast’s and the state’s economy from the era of exploration through the age of naval stores to World War I. The study also includes an inventory of 3,300 ships and 270 shipwrights.

While visiting HPOW’s new local history and maritime artifact collection, Still said he has lost count of the number of books, publications, pamphlets he has written over the years. He explained that he first started maritime and naval research when serving in the U.S. Navy in the Mediterranean when there were only two choices for free time: “I could either see old movies on the hangar deck or read, so that’s when I became intrigued by maritime and naval history. Later in my academic career I got into the topic of NC shipbuilding for two reasons: I read a book published on the subject and an article on colonial shipbuilding and felt I took exception to some of their findings, especial those historians’ findings concluding ‘no significant shipbuilding occurred south of the Chesapeake.’”

Still will field questions at the end of the 45-minute presentation.

“I’d be happy to talk to attendees about research for this new book and also about aspects of the little-heralded shipbuilding heritage of Washington and the Pamlico. In the latter case, I have found small-town shipyards located, like Washington, in the Tar-Pamlico-Neuse-Roanoke water basins truly illustrate southern colonial, 19^th– and early 20^th-century shipbuilding and craftsmanship,” he said.

Still is professor emeritus in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University. He was associated with the Maritime History and Underwater Archaeology Program at ECU from its inception until his retirement. He was the first director of the program in maritime history at ECU and is a noted award-winning author of works on U.S. Civil War history and the U.S. naval history. Following his retirement and move in 1994 to his retirement residence in Kailua, Hawaii, the University of Hawaii appointed him as adjunct researcher in 1995. Still has won many awards for his books and research during his academic career.