The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1956-01-06
CAPT. BUCK" SAUNDERS
GOING STRONG AT IT

derS OF Wanchese has proved
that hard work doesn't always kill
people. He's still going strong
after n years of an active life on
the water, and 81 years of married
life. His boyhood was spent near
Powells Point in Currituck County,
but at the age of IL he went. to
Norfolk on boat with load of
watermelons, and he didn't come
back home for three years. He got
a job on a four-mast schooner
freighting white oak railroad ties
to Boston, and carried his end of
the load for the princely sum of
SIP a month, being on duty at all
hours of the day and night. Sailing
was tough in those days for a II
year old boy. The vessel had no
conveniences nor comforts. The
crew lived on salt behring's, hard
tack, and similar diet. The boats
were infested with vermin and rats.
At the end Of three years, he de-
cided to come home, and after he
had left the boat in Norfolk, he
ran into a neighbor boy and got
coaxed back on another schooner.
While his first skipper had been
good to him, his second was mean
old sob and kicked him one day
when a topsail halward got away
from the boy in a gale. He left
that ship in Boston, and when he
got back to Norfolk, he made a
bee-line for home, and next thing
h. was down to Wanchese fishing
nets and boating around for a
living. 1t was there he married
Miss Dell Montague when he was
"a years old.
From then on his life was spent
on the water, freighting fish, and
farm crops northward; hauling
lumber and commodities back
home. He was one of the smartest
! boatmen in this whole coastland,
and he was a money-maker and
known as a good-provider for his
large family. He was considered
one of the most dependable of
men on the water. He was never
afraid of little weather. This
faculty for going ahead in tough
times won him a mighty fine piece
of freight" while boating water
melons to Norfolk back in the days
when everything went by water,
some 40 years ago. He got five
cents apiece for freighting these
melons, and he had a load of 5000
aboard for a Currituck farmer.
Capt. Saunders offered him Is
cents apiece for his melons, but the
farmer, holding out for a high
price in Norfolk, found at the end
of three days the market was
glutted in that port and came back
and offered them to Capt.
Saunders, who would then pay him
only ten cents each.
Capt. Buck knew because there
was a big blow on, most of the
boats that usually went up the Bay
to Baltimore and other points be-
/ tween, had tied up in Norfolk and
glutted his market. He Immediately
cast off and set sail, and headed
for Baltimore while the timid
shippers were tied up, and he sold
his melons for 60 cents apiece.
Now that was big windfail in
those days, but it is an illustration
of how some men got ahead Of
others; how some men had bet
ter home and provided more for
their families. (Such men are
often envied by those with less
nerve and energy.) And now and
then it was the reason while once
in awhile an unlucky one didn't
get back home.
Capt. "Buck" today is enjoying
life in his comfortable home in
Wanchese. His boating days are
over, but he enjoys tending nice
garden, and he revels in the fine
friendship of. all the men of the
community who hold him in high
est esteem and affection. Two
things he especially enjoys are mis-
weekly visit to the mems Bible
class at the Methodist church, and
his monthly attendance at the
Ruritan Club dinner in the school
house. He is about as happy as
any man on the place, yet he will
tell you life was still happier 80
years ago, and for the good old
spirit of neighborliness that pre-
vailed, the village-get-togethers
and the sense o. security shared
by most everyone outwc:ghed