COROLLA, N.C. - I recently visited the Currituck Maritime Museum to check out a piece of local history.
"The Currituck Maritime Museum is just really a look at how we lived on the water here in Currituck," said Chandler Sawyer, the museum's manager. "A lot of people don't realize that Currituck is really shaped by our maritime history. That's why we focus on all these boats. They were used for pleasure, for work, for transportation, they carried the mail, they did everything."
One of the most important boats in the collection is the Mother Goose. This boat was built in 1948 by Pat O'Neal, one of Currituck’s most famous boatbuilders.
"The thing about this boat that is really neat is it's a design that Pat made and perfected. It's got a concave tunnel, which if you look at the back of the boat, underneath, the propeller sits in a tunnel, so it can run in shallow water," explained Sawyer.
And that is key for the Currituck Sound with an average depth of just four feet. This boat was in the water for 55 years, before retiring here at the museum. It now serves as a teaching tool for Currituck locals and Corolla visitors.
"I come to work by boat every day. This morning, I passed three crabbers working the water," says Sawyer. "So we're still doing the same kind of maritime things that we were doing in the past."
The Currituck Maritime Museum is located in Corolla near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 pm. Admission is free.
