Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-17
The Gho1tl of Nays Head.

There is hardly a loot OF land on the
whole coast Of North Carolina but has at
some time or other been covered with the
debris of wreck. Cape Hatteras .cx-
tends farther out into the sea than any
other land upon the Atlantic coast except
Cape Cod, and seamen have always
thought it we'll to give it as wide berth
as possible. The whole coast of the
State is a dangerous one, shoals and bars
running parallel with the main land, the
bays and inlets thus formed changing
their position with almost every storm or
unusually high tide. This place, Nag's
Head, eight miles north Of Oregon Inlet,
has always been considered one Of the
most dangerous on the coast So many
vessels have struck in this vicinity, and
so many lives have been lost, that one of
the first life stations on the Southern
coast was located here; and in the first
annual report Of that service it was re-
commended that another should be es-
tablished only six miles south of here,
two miles north Of Oregon Inlet. Since
the establishment Of these stations no
lives have been lost by shipwreck in the
immediate neighborhood, except in the
case OF the Huron, a calamity that is
still fresh in the minds Of the public
The heartlessness and criminality dis
played by some of the ignorant fisher
men in the vicinity of Mays Head and
Kitty Hawk at the time that the Huron
was lost, and Lieut.. Walton's recent ex-
pose of several Of the worst cases, par
ticularly that of Even O'Neill, who, after
discovering the wreck, waited for It to go
to pieces, in hope Of plumber. instead of
brought to recollection some of the old
traditions of the place, in which the fish
ermen on the coast figure in an unpleas-
ant light. It has long been said that
when a wreck came ashore, no matter
whether lives were lost or not, these men
regarded it as a public benefaction;
and that some of the supposedly religious
ones went about saying that God was al
ways good to his children, for another
wreck had come ashore. It is not so
we'll known, however, that the very name
of Mays Head came from the rascality Of
these men, and one of their peculiar
methods Of bringing vessels ashore on
their coast. Since the recent terrible dis
astcr the story has become common prop
erty again, and many old residents in the
neighborhood remember the old man and
the white horse that are the heroes in the
tragic story.
The coast of North Carolina century
ago, as we'll as nearly all the southern
coast of the country, and, indeed, much
Of the coast of the Northern States, was
wholly without lighthouses or other aids
to the mariner. Even the old fashioned,
heavy, creaking lanterns, swung between
two posts, like a gallows on some high
hill, had not then come into use, and after
the sun went down the shore was dark as
the grave. There we're then, as there ar
now, many men along the shore, living in
the rudest manner imaginable, subsis,ine
on what they could catch and shoot, shut
off almost entirely from communication
with the outer world. Fishing was thei,
main dependence, and in years when they
were unsuccessful life went hard with
them, and getting through the winters
which, on the immediate seaboard, are al.
most as long and cold as in the North
was tough work. Most of these men
lived, as their successors live now, within
stones throw of the beach, and some Of
them had a few acres of sandy soil under
cultivation, and kept a bony horse. When
as sometimes happened, several years Of
bad luck at fishing came in succession
getting through the winter was mater
oflife and death with many of them.
Among the fishermen who tarmed ;
little piece of land back of his cabin wa!
Thomas Rider. Rider was rather better
off than his neighbors, older than most Of
them, and lived alone in his cherries
cabin. He was reputed to be rich, ant
he had the reputation of fastening hi
clutches on everything that came within
his reach and giving nothing up in return
He was a mean man, as his neighbor
thought, and he was generally Stunned
even by the ignorant and careless fisher
men. The conduct that is imputed t
him in the latter years of his life show
that he was more william than mise1
Rider owned an old gray horse, wit
which he plowed his land in the sprin!