Beaches 14 - Coastal Observer

Beaches
WHAT’S INSIDE | Things the locals know
Loggerhead sea turtles come home to nest ..................... Page 24
Murrells Inlet in the Civil War ........................................ Page 26
Parades salute humor on the Fourth of July ................... Page 31
Zoo exhibits the wild side of Brookgreen Gardens .......... Page 40
Summer 2014
Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
The sun first rose over Pawleys Pier in the summer of 1954. Below, the pier as it looked in 1967.
Pawleys Pier turns 60
BY JAMES WILLIAMSON
pier. “We had access to
the little restaurant and
we’d take our fish in there
and cook them. We were
pretty simple back then.”
At one time Hall even
pitched a tent in the parking lot. He lived there or
out of the surf shop.
Roberts
remembers
buying breakfast fish
platters for a dollar before going to work at the
pier from Mr. Horne, a
fisherman who began
helping Johnson around
1965. “I didn’t tell the
guys about it because it
would mess up my program, then they’d be eating all the fish bait,” said
Roberts. “It became a ritual. I’d have a Coke in
the restaurant, sit out on
the pier and eat my seafood platter. What’s good
enough for a fish is good
enough for me.”
The pier was as much
a source of entertainment
as an outlet for solitude.
COASTAL OBSERVER
It’s been 60 years since
7-year-old Connie Bull
cut a red ribbon stretched
across the entrance to the
Pawleys Island Pier to
open a new chapter in the
island’s long history.
Unlike today, the pier
was a dominant feature
for visitors as soon as
they crossed the North
Causeway at Myrtle Avenue. Condos and houses
block the view now, but
on July 10, 1954, there
was a bare, clay-and-sand
parking lot the size of a
football field adjoining
the pier. About 750 people attended the opening
in a light rain. As niece of
co-owner Arthur Ehrich,
young Connie was selected to cut the ribbon during
the ceremony. State Rep.
James Moore presented a
certificate for $50 to the
pier’s construction superintendent. Shrimp plates
were served, and prizes
awarded for the most fish
caught from the pier that
day along with the smallest and biggest. Pawleys
Island had its landmark.
Visitors paid 50 cents to
walk to the end.
Three months later
Hurricane Hazel swept
the 800-foot pier away
like a bunch of toothpicks.
It was rebuilt by the following summer. “Every summer of my childhood we would go and get
a half pint of milk and a
muffin and go fishing and
take the fish home and
clean them for breakfast,”
said Bull. “I think it was a
success up until the end,
really.”
During the ’50s and
early ’60s the pier was
managed by Guy Slagle,
who was also vice president of the Pawleys Island Co., the company
that purchased the 2.7
acres from the A.J. Howard family of Darlington for $10,000. It was a
prime location. Ehrich
acted as the company’s
agent, which included Dr.
Paul Sasser and Ernest
Sasser of Conway, and
was complete in three to
four months.
■
BILLY HALL WAS 14
when he started working at the pier during the
summer of 1963. “My job
at the pier was to take
Pawleys Island Civic Association via Georgetown County Digital Library
Photos by Rob Hammonds (left) and Jason Lesley (right)/Coastal Observer
The pier was rebuilt a second time after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The surf club sign from the 1960s.
out the trash, clean up
the pier, the parking lot,”
he said. “It was a pretty
good size. It could probably hold 80 cars. After I
did all that, I would go up
into the tackle shop and
thaw shrimp – a 5-pound
thing of shrimp — take
those shrimp and put
them in smaller containers and wrap that up and
sell it for 50 cents. We’d
make our money back on
the 5 pounds, and during
the times when the spots
were running we would
do the same thing with
blood worms.”
Soon after Hall started, Esther Johnson of
the rural community of
Rhems took over as manager. “I suspect she was
a companion of Belle Ba-
ruch,” said Linwood Altman. “When Belle died
she got left out in the cold
and that’s probably why
she came to Pawleys, or
she may have known the
owners.” Before Pawleys
Pier, she managed a farm
and hunting lodge. She
lived in a trailer that sat
atop a dune.
Near the pier was Jimmy’s, a recreational area
with 18 holes of miniature golf and trampolines. Patrons bought a
ticket at the tackle shop
during the day but could
play for free after closing
in the evenings.
Fishermen
would
spend solid weeks at the
pier when the spot were
running. Small fish were
discarded on the pier’s
deck. Each morning Hall
used a broomstick with a
nail on the end to pick the
little fish up and lob them
over the side. Fishermen
took home coolers of fish.
“They’d all be gone,” Hall
said, “and we’d be sitting
in the parking lot like
‘woo’, we’ve got to clean
up again.”
Surfing became the
trend in the mid-60s.
Johnson
collaborated
with Ron DiMenna and
created the Ron Jon Surf
Shop, one of the earliest
on the East Coast. Surfers huddled at the little
shack beneath the pier
day and night, forming
the Pawleys Island Surf
Club which hosted surf
contests. They created
and sold a homemade,
lemon scented surf wax
to finance the organization while renting rafts,
chairs or surfboards and
keeping lookout as impromptu lifeguards.
“Esther was a tough
boss,” said Gary Roberts,
who came from Georgetown’s Maryville section to work at the pier.
“She was very demanding. There were a bunch
of young people there and
she kept them straight.”
Outside of work, however, she allowed a relaxed
atmosphere. “We’d take
hammocks out there and
sleep and fish when the
mosquitoes got bad. We
always had a breeze out
there,” said Larry Walker, who hung his hammock at the end of the
“It was a place you could
go and be out on the water and watch the moon
or the stars or whatever,
that was a draw for a lot
of people,” said Hall. He
met his wife, Carol, at
Pawleys in 1970. She said
she remembers walking
out on the pier at night
and enjoying the atmosphere.
The property experienced another metamorphosis in 1973. The parking lot was sold and the
pier became private as
part of a condo development. The Pawleys Island
Surf Club dissolved. An
era washed away, leaving behind nothing more
than clippings, photographs and fading memories.
22 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
K ITEBOARDS
A kiteboard
skims across
the water at
Pawleys Island.
Learning the
sport begins on
land with kite
control.
Photos by
Tanya Ackerman/
Coastal Observer
BY JAMES WILLIAMSON
COASTAL OBSERVER
“He shot right out,” Lee Dillon of Kentucky said.
“He must have strong arms,”
said Doris Bell as a kite cut
through the sky over Midway
Inlet. On the water below Mark
Hawn zipped through the inlet
on a kiteboard.
“Controlling the kite is the
challenge,” Hawn said. “Especially with other things going
on.”
The Atlanta resident has a
home on Pawleys Island and
began kiteboarding four years
ago after watching his friend
Skot Scott kiteboard. Scott
lives in Key West, Fla., and visits Litchfield. He runs UpWind
Kiteboarding in Key West.
From the shore, kiteboarding seems effortless. “It frankly is a dangerous sport,” Hawn
said. “The kite produces so
much power, that if you make a
mistake, it is easy to get pulled
into something and injured.
Luckily the worst accident I
had was getting drug across
the beach upside down, which
left a bunch of sand burns on
my back.”
“If you don’t know how to release from the kite, it can drag
you down the beach and into
the dunes,” said Joey Roper of
the Sail and Ski Connection.
“It’s definitely not recommended that you do it by yourself.
It’s like hiking or any other
sport, it’s best to be with someone or a group.”
At the beginning stages, kiteboarding starts on land rather
than water in order to build a
familiarity with the wind and
control of the kite. That’s a step
people often fail to take into account, Hawn said.
Hawn pulled back on the
steering bar that’s connected
to his harness as he faced the
breakers. Pulling the bar toward his chest accelerated the
kite. Releasing it stops the
board’s acceleration. The kiter
can slip out of the foot straps
and lift the bar, and there’s also
a safety release on the harness.
After trial efforts on land,
the next step is body dragging, the method of letting the
kite pull the boarder through
the water. Kiting without the
board helps with crashing and
losing the board, a frequent occurrence for kiteboarders. The
last step, best done on flat water, uses the kite for power and
brings all the steps together. “It
took me several days to be able
to go back and forth in the flat
water,” Hawn said, “and it took
me several weeks to become
comfortable in the waves.”
Injuries often occur as a result of losing control of the kite
or after being pulled by the
wind into a dock or other structure. Pawleys has not seen any
serious injuries. “The few people who kite here are very safety conscious,” Hawn said.
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843.318.1439 c | 843.237.7711 o
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14240 Ocean Hwy
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843-457-9449
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843-240-1284
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They are actually responsible for getting people out of
trouble.
“We’ve saved at least four
people a summer,” Hawn said.
“Every year floaters get in an
outbound tide and end up getting swept out.”
One afternoon a woman
started screaming at Hawn.
“I thought maybe I hit her kid
or something,” Hawn said. “As
I started going up to her, she
pointed toward the inlet where
one of her family members was
stranded and so I just scooted
out to the inlet which took me
about 10 seconds.”
Hawn pulled the swimmer
onto his board. People were
clapping when they reached
shore, Hawn said. Police Chief
Mike Fanning came by his
house on Pawleys and thanked
him. “That’s actually a common
part of the sport,” Hawn said.
“You’re out in the water for a
long time, and you’re actually able to help. It feels great to
help.”
He recommends people start
with lessons. “Online forums
are filled with stories of people
who were injured badly trying
to learn without lessons,” Hawn
said. The Sail and Ski Connection in Myrtle Beach offers lessons during the summer. “The
lessons have been going really
well,” said Roper. “The people
who get into it really do get into
it. You have to if you want to
become proficient.”
Troi Kaz
843-455-4523
darissathompsonrealestate@gmail.com
www.pawleysislandrealestatesearch.com
TroiKaz@DeBordieu.com
Darissa has been a proud resident of the
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
Beaches 23
The Most Unique Toys
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24 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
LOGGERHEADS
Sea turtles
come home
to nest
Photos by Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
BY JAMES WILLIAMSON
Phil and Mary Schneider, above, set out on a
June morning to walk to
the south end of Pawleys
Island to search for nesting sea turtles. Walter
McElveen, left, talks about
the turtles with people
gathered to watch a nest
inventory in September.
COASTAL OBSERVER
Mary Schneider walks from
Pawleys Pier to Hazard Street
every Tuesday at 6:30 a.m.
throughout the summer and
early fall in search of sea turtles. In early summer she looks
for signs of nesting females.
As the season progresses, she
checks on the nests that have
been laid and then to see if they
have hatched.
Walking the same area each
week provides her a keen awareness of any disturbances in the
sand above the high tide mark.
“The nesting turtle makes a
big, big crawl. She weighs 250350 pounds,” Schneider said.
“Her crawl marks are very distinctive, almost like a circle.”
With each nest, she jots down
notes and records everything
on papers that she carries in a
Ziploc – her file, she calls it.
Schneider is a member of
S.C. United Turtle Enthusiasts. The acronym SCUTE is
also the name for a plate on a
turtle’s shell. The volunteers
monitor sea turtle nesting activity on the state’s north coast,
working with the state Department of Natural Resources.
The group was founded in 1990
and the hatchlings they first
protected are now old enough
to begin laying their own nests.
“When we first started walking the beaches in the morning
we felt good to find 10 nests,”
Schneider said. “We’re hopeful
that the nests we’ve been protecting are the offspring coming
back.”
The loggerhead is the most
common species of sea turtle.
But Kemp’s ridley, green and
leatherback sea turtles also
nest along the South Carolina coast in a season that runs
from May through October.
During the 2013 season,
there were 23 sea turtle nests
laid on Pawleys Island, up from
11 the year before. The record
high of 24 was set in 2011.
Schneider is one of 40 volunteers on Pawleys Island.
After a nest has been laid,
SCUTE volunteers observe it
for about 55 days and watch
for any indications of “boiling,”
a term for when the eggs hatch
and baby turtles rise from beneath the sand. It leaves a crater-like dip and “all the heads
come out at the same time and
make a beeline for the ocean,”
said Mary’s husband, Dr. Phil
Schneider, emeritus professor
of bioethics at Coastal Carolina
University. “Studies show that
when the [temperature] gradient falls and then bottoms out,
that is the coolest part of the
night and normally triggers the
hatch boil. This sometimes occurs in cool overcast daytime
hours. The hatchlings apparently sense the gradient in the
nest.”
If the nest is laid too close
to walkways or the tidal zone,
SCUTE volunteers will relocate it. Orange mesh protects
the nests from foxes, raccoons
or feral hogs. Signs are posted
to warn humans to keep safe
distances from nests. Last year,
relocated nests had a 91 percent hatch rate. After the eggs
have hatched, SCUTE volunteers then inspect them for any
leftover turtles.
“Since a vast majority of boilings go unobserved by humans,
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
LOGGERHEADS
Turtles draw big crowds
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
we look for a depression in the sand under
the middle of our protective screens, which are always placed with the nest
in the center,” said Phil.
“The actual hatch is confirmed by observing a hollow cavity from where the
boil emerged and that is
where we excavate three
days later.”
■
ALONG WITH monitoring
nests, SCUTE volunteers
educate the public about
sea turtles. Those missions intersect when it’s
time to conduct an inventory of a nest.
From porches to the
beach, people gathered
one evening last summer as SCUTE volunteers
placed damp sand into a
bucket. They removed pliable egg shells and put
them to the side in piles
of five. For this inventory,
three groins north from
the public parking lot on
the south end of Pawleys
Island, there were 112
turtle eggs. Two baby loggerheads about 2 inches long remained, though
one appeared injured.
The crowd oohed and
aahed as Phil showed
them an egg about the size
of a ping pong ball yet to
hatch. It would be sent off
to a lab at the University
of Georgia for an ongoing
DNA study, he said.
Mary passed out pictures of loggerheads to the
crowd, informing them of
the arduous journey soon
to begin. “They’re going
to have to swim nearly
300 miles to the Sargasso
Sea,” she said.
The Sargasso Sea is
located in the middle of
the North Atlantic and
named for sargassum, a
free-floating seaweed. The
sargassum circulates the
Atlantic basin in what’s
known as the North Atlantic gyre, and the loggerheads will stay there
for about 10 years until
they are about 12 inches
in diameter.
Fathers with children
sitting on their shoulders
and mothers holding babies listened to Mary as
Phil and volunteers deposited the small piles of
shells back into the hole.
The two turtles inside the
bucket scrapped against
its side.
“Out of the 112 eggs,
106 hatched, which means
we had a 95 percent success rate,” Mary said.
She gave two thumbs up
just before she and volunteers cleared a path from
the dunes to the beach.
Two lines divided near the
ocean as Phil carried the
bucket from person to person and photos snapped.
Volunteers cautioned the
onlookers to turn off their
camera flashes, which disorient the hatchlings.
Mary spoke to the
crowd about the need to
keep beaches clean. Plastics jeopardize a turtle’s
digestive tract. Bags are
often mistaken for jellyfish, one of the loggerhead’s main foods.
Phil set the healthier
of the two turtles down. It
began its first instinctive
effort toward the ocean.
Its tracks were like tire
marks. It bobbed toward
the breakers that lathered the sand. The waves
knocked it backward a few
feet. It spun and flipped
over. “No one move,” volunteers said, fearing the
loggerhead might get
stuck in a footprint.
The audience cheered
with hopes it would find
a way. Then as the turtle
righted itself the current
swept it out and its head
Beaches 25
occasionally poked above
the foam.
“Once they’re gone,
they’re gone,” said Mike
Kingingham, a volunteer.
The
crowd
headed
home, thanking the volunteers.
SCUTE members gathered their belongings and
watched a squadron of
white pelicans with black
Photos by Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
wing tips glide past and
over the breakers.
A hatchling heads to sea. Below, a sample for testing.
DNA samples keep track of nesting activity
From each loggerhead nest, one
egg is sacrificed. The egg is opened,
cleaned of its yolk and albumen,
rinsed in the ocean to remove any
remaining juices and then inserted
into a vial of alcohol marked with
the year, beach ID and sequence
number before being shipped to the
University of Georgia for DNA sequencing.
“With DNA, we ‘capture’ every nester through the surrogate
of mitochondrial DNA,” said Phil
Schneider. He and his wife Mary
organize volunteer sea turtle monitors on Pawleys Island for S.C.
United Turtle Enthusiasts. Since
2010 SCUTE has sent 675 egg shell
samples to the state Department of
Natural Resources in Charleston to
be used for the “fingerprinting” of
loggerhead turtles at UGA. Each
sample shows the mother’s travels,
her frequency to the area and how
many nests she lays season to season.
“PAW-01 meandered between
Pawleys, Edisto and Botany Bay,
about 200 miles round trip in 2013,”
said Schneider, referring to the turtle by its sample number. “Except
for PAW-01, all the Pawleys 2013
nesters stayed between DeBordieu
and Litchfield.”
Before using DNA, tracking
the 300-pound pregnant mothers
was done by measuring and comparing their tracks or identifying the tag underneath their flipper or neck muscle, though the
continue sequencing for three more
years.
Researchers use DNA sequences
known as “microsatellites” to identify the turtles.
“Basically
we
throw
tiny
amounts of DNA on a machine that
heats up and cools down several
times which makes copies of that
DNA. From start to finish it takes
a few days,” said Dr. Brian Shamblin, research scientist at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural
Resources. “We process about 500
samples a week.”
The research has been conducted over the past eight years and
was discovered by accident after a
raccoon tore through a nest. “Once
that happened it opened up the
door. We hadn’t wanted to open up
a viable egg. We wanted a way to
do this without taking an egg,” he
said.
Of the 2,512 eggs laid last year
on Pawleys Island, 2,319 hatched
and four of the 23 nesting females
had nested here before; three in
2010 and one in 2011. The average
nest size came to 118 eggs with an
89 percent total hatch rate.
“Any egg shell DNA that matches a previously obtained sample is
identified and catalogued on seaturtle.org,” said Schneider. “Once
all the year’s shells are sequenced,
I list the matches for Pawleys Island. As far as I know, all shells are
successfully sequenced.”
– JAMES WILLIAMSON
SCUTE volunteers, who cover the
coast from Winyah Bay north, have
never engaged in tagging. “Only
DNR-authorized marine biologists
do that,” said Schneider. “Several
SCUTE members, including Jeff
McClary [its founder], are trained
and equipped with tag sensors and
measuring devices to report tags
found on stranded turtles.”
A small number of nesting females have been tracked with satellite transponders glued to their
shells and followed during the twoor three-year life of the transponder batteries. That’s an expensive
method.
Last October, the UGA researchers received a $1.3 million grant to
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26 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
MURRELLS INLET
A fatal mission
for a black sailor
BY CHARLES SWENSON
COASTAL OBSERVER
George Brinsmaid never
said a word.
He was ordered ashore with
a party of sailors from the brig
Perry on Dec. 5, 1863 to burn a
schooner that was loading with
turpentine in Murrells Inlet
and preparing to run the Union
blockade. Brinsmaid had enlisted just 72 days earlier. He
had been a laborer. Now he was
rated a landsman like others
with no experience at sea.
Brinsmaid was supposed to
go ahead as a scout, but the expedition was barely under way
when the 16 sailors were attacked by Confederate cavalry and surrounded. Brinsmaid
was shot in the left hand, one
of several wounded before the
sailors surrendered.
The first stop on their march
to captivity was the woods at
the Oaks plantation where the
cavalry was camped. Brinsmaid was taken away by two
cavalrymen and a man in civilian clothes. A horse’s halter was placed around his neck
and he was hanged from a tree
limb. He was then shot twice in
the chest.
He was 23; a native of Connecticut. And, George Brinsmaid was black.
■
AN ESTIMATED 18,000 men
of African decent served in the
Union navy, 20 percent of its
enlisted strength. “AfricanAmericans were admitted to
the U.S. Navy right from the
start of the war,” said Joseph
Reidy, a professor of history at
Howard University in Washington and director of the African-American Sailors Project.
The Navy had always been
open to black enlistments. “At
the start of the Civil War, a
number of men who had served
on merchant ships or whaling
ships presented themselves for
service,” Reidy said. The Navy
also drew black recruits from
among the dock workers at the
Northern ports.
Brinsmaid grew up along the
shore of Long Island Sound in
Milford, Conn. Census records
show his father was also a laborer. Records show his brother, Willis, enlisted in the infantry.
The Union navy needed
ships and men to enforce its
blockade of the South. In the
spring of 1861, it had just 82
ships. By the end of that year,
it had 264.
“They were turning everything into navy ships,” said
Mark Schultz, a professor of
history at Lewis University
in Illinois. “They were putting
everything they had into this
blockade.”
Schultz specializes in the
history of the Jim Crow era, but
as a graduate student, he wrote
about one of the men who rose
to command ships in the blockade, Samuel B. Gregory.
Gregory was a shoemaker
in Marblehead, Mass., but he
came from a family of sea captains. He received his commission in October 1861 and was
assigned as acting master of
the steamer Western World, a
converted cattle boat. He sailed
to join the blockade off South
Carolina in January 1862.
His service history is a hard
luck tale. “What jumped out
first was how often he had to
discipline his men,” Schultz
said. “He had a hard time keeping guys from getting drunk
and falling asleep on duty.”
In 10 months, the 90 men in
the Western World’s crew committed 49 violations, with nearly 40 percent of the crew being
placed in irons at one time or
another.
Library of Congress
Blacks made up 20 percent of the Union sailors.
In spite of that, Gregory won
praise for his role in capturing
ships trying to run the blockade. “He actually did a pretty
good job,” Schultz said.
After putting down a mutiny
on the Western World, he took
command of the brig Perry,
which had also had problems
with its crew. The Perry was a
sailing ship, built by the Navy
in the 1840s.
“The Perry was a man-ofwar of the fourth rate, carrying 10 broadside guns and one
howitzer. She was a very fast
sailer, but very cranky or topheavy, on account of the heavy
battery on deck and her lofty
spars,” wrote George Anderson, an ensign who joined the
ship in Boston in September
1863. As a merchant sailor he
had admired the Perry when he
saw her in the harbor at Rio de
Janeiro in the 1850s. “Now the
circumstances were altogether
different. It was a most undesirable vessel to be attached to
in war times.”
■
BRINSMAID ENLISTED in New
York on Sept. 24, 1863. He was
transferred to the Perry in time
for its journey south.
Anderson, who wrote about
his war service 34 years later,
recalled that Brinsmaid “was
useless for going aloft, or anything else, for that matter, so
he had extra guard duty to perform. He was given a loaded
rifle and stationed at the port
gangway.”
Anderson said he continually found Brinsmaid asleep on
duty. “The fact that he was so
useless formed circumstances
which resulted in his death,” he
wrote.
“There was still quite a bit of
what we would call discrimination or racist behavior,” Reidy
said of the Navy. “But if they
were good at what they did,
they would hold their own.”
Brinsmaid was one of 13
blacks in the 45-man crew of
the Perry. All but one had enlisted in New York. The other
enlisted in Boston. The proportion of blacks in the crew, 29
percent, was slightly above the
average for the South Atlantic
Blockading Squadron, according to Reidy’s figures.
The Perry took up its station
off Murrells Inlet late in 1863.
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
With the Union navy occupying the lower end of Winyah
Bay, Georgetown was no longer
a safe port for blockade runners.
Brig. Gen. James Trapier, who
commanded the Georgetown
district, said he didn’t have
the resources to open the port.
Murrells Inlet could accommodate small ships with a draft of
9 feet. “Having entered the harbor, however, they would not
even then be altogether safe, as
it is narrow and short,” Trapier
wrote in an assessment of the
local ports in November 1863.
Also, goods would have to be
hauled 3 miles to the Waccamaw River for transportation
inland.
■
A MONTH EARLIER, a former
Charleston pilot boat, Rover,
ran aground in Murrells Inlet
while trying to run the blockade with a load of cotton. It was
set on fire and destroyed by a
shore party from the schooner
Ward. The sailors returned to
scout the area and found another schooner, Cecilia, farther up
the creek. While they weighed
their options, the officer and 10
men were attacked by a detachment from the 21st Georgia
Cavalry and captured. Trapier was pleased. Gideon Welles,
U.S. Secretary of the Navy, was
not.
While the destruction of the
blockade runner was encouraging, the Navy Department
“must express its disapprobation of officers and men straying from their vessels, either
with or without permission,
resulting in their capture,”
Welles wrote the commander of
the blockading squadron.
The Perry was judged a better armed ship capable of dealing with the Confederates at
Murrells Inlet.
Anderson wrote of making
several scouting trips into Murrells Inlet after the Perry anchored offshore. The blockade
runner was docked at the south
end of the inlet. It could be seen
by landing on the beach and
crossing the dunes. He could
see the cavalry camped about a
mile from the beach.
On one trip, they got aboard
the Cecilia and found the cargo
of turpentine. He regretted not
burning the vessel, but said his
orders were to gather information. There were brushes with
the Confederate cavalry, but
each time, the shore parties got
away safely.
On Dec. 5, Gregory sailed
the Perry as close to the beach
as possible and began to shell
the Cecilia. After three hours,
she was still intact, so he sent
a shore party of 16 men to destroy her.
“We all well knew there
would be resistance offered to
our landing, under the circumstances, but I received orders
to set fire to the schooner, and
therefore had nothing to say,”
Anderson wrote.
In a report written in 1864
after he was exchanged from
prison in Richmond, Va., An-
“It was a blundering affair – without
judgment on the
part of the commanding officer.”
Rear Adm. John Dahlgren
Squardon commander
derson wrote that Gregory ordered Brinsmaid to join the
shore party to scout. In his
later account, he wrote that
he asked to have Brinsmaid,
whose job would be to carry a
small keg filled with strands of
rope and turpentine, to set fire
to the schooner.
“Everybody thought it would
be a good joke, so Mr. Brinsmaid was ordered into the boat,
and promoted to the office of
bearer of combustibles,” Anderson wrote. It was a dangerous time as well as a dangerous
place.
After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing
the slaves and allowing the enlistment of free blacks and former slaves, Confederate President Jefferson Davis responded
with a policy that black Union
troops would be enslaved or executed if captured. Lincoln replied with an order that one
Confederate solider would be
killed for every Union soldier
“killed in violation of the laws
of war.” For each one enslaved,
a Confederate would be “placed
at hard labor.”
“At the policy level, they
were trying to work through
this,” Reidy said. “At the local
level, passions often ran high.”
■
TWO BOATS rowed ashore
from the Perry to what was
then known as Magnolia
Beach. While Anderson, Ensign William Arrants and 14
others headed across the beach,
six sailors moved the boats just
beyond the surf.
“When we got to the sand
dunes, indications pointed
strongly to the fact that we had
got into a bad scrape,” Anderson wrote. The sand had been
turned up by a large number of
hoof prints. He posted a sailor,
Samuel Gregory Jr., the captain’s son, with a signal flag so
covering fire could be called if
there was an attack.
The cavalry charged up the
beach in two files. There were
120 horsemen from the 21st
and 5th Georgia Cavalry. They
cut off Anderson’s party from
the boats. Rather than signal
the brig, young Gregory ran to
warn Anderson.
Anderson still expected to
receive cover from the Perry’s
guns. “But, much to my surprise, the captain had allowed
the brig to swing around stern
to shore, and not a gun could be
brought to bear on the enemy,”
he said.
Anderson’s men took shelter
in the dunes from one group of
cavalry. Failing to capture the
boats, the other cavalrymen
came up behind the sailors. It
was over in five minutes.
One cavalryman lay dead.
Five sailors were wounded.
One, James Pinkham, was shot
in the hip and lying in the sand.
He was ordered to get up. He
said he couldn’t and was shot
again by one of the officers, Anderson said. Pinkham died later.
Another sailor tried to run.
He was shot in the leg and recaptured.
The cavalry men “were very
indignant because Brinsmaid
had been taken prisoner,” Anderson said. “‘Get in line there
with your nigger brother!’ was
the first order we got.”
Brinsmaid was killed when
they reached the cavalry’s
camp. “The poor fellow never
D ON THOMAS
spoke a word after leaving the
brig,” Anderson said. “Some
of the Confederates proposed
hanging all of us, on account of
have a ‘nigger’ with us.”
But tempers cooled and the
sailors were marched off to
Georgetown on their way to jail
in Columbia.
“It becomes my painful duty
to report the loss of three of my
officers and twelve men,” Gregory began his report to Rear
Adm. John Dahlgren, commander of the Southern Blockading Squadron. (His count of
the loss, 15, doesn’t tally with
that of the Confederate commander or Anderson, who
agree on 16.)
Gregory claimed he ordered
one man to scout the schooner
and two more to set it on fire if
the way was clear. It was Arrants who was in charge of the
party, he said. “To my surprise
he landed all but two of the
crew from the first cutter.”
Gregory also said it was shell
fire from the Perry that broke
up the attack on the boats waiting beyond the surf.
“These blunders are very annoying,” Dahlgren wrote to the
Navy secretary. “And yet I do
not like to discourage enterprise and dash on the part of
our officers and men; better to
suffer from the excess than the
deficiencies of these qualities.”
He put the blame on Arrants, based on Gregory’s report. “If he were in my power
he should surely answer for it,”
Dahlgren said.
But Dahlgren didn’t let it
rest there. He continued to
make enquiries.
Ten days after the capture
of the landing party, Gregory
sent someone ashore under a
flag of truce to find out if any
of his men had been killed,
and to learn the fate of his son,
who was 17. “There were three
wounded, one mortally,” he was
told.
Dahlgren sent four ships and
100 marines to Murrells Inlet
in response to the capture of
the sailors from the Perry. Escaped slaves who met the new
ships at the end of December
supplied the first rumors of
Brinsmaid’s hanging. They also
produced some clothing they
said belonged to the dead man.
Dahlgren told Gregory to look
Beaches 27
into it.
“I have no evidence that he
was hung,” Gregory replied.
Dahlgren told the Navy secretary, “If such an outrage has
been perpetrated, it will be
known satisfactorily from some
of the boat’s crew captured,
and suitable measures taken to
punish it.”
Overall, he concluded, “it
was a blundering affair – without judgment on the part of the
commanding officer, and aggravated by the alleged disobedience of the officer sent ashore
in charge of the party.”
Trapier reported the capture
of the Yankee sailors to headquarters in Charleston. “The
whole party, with but one exception, [was] taken, with most
of their arms,” he wrote. “The
missing prisoner is not yet officially accounted for.”
Anderson was exchanged in
October 1864. He gave an account of the landing party’s
capture that said two cavalrymen and a civilian took Brinsmaid away. “A few minutes later, we heard a loud yell, and
immediately after the report of
two guns,” he wrote. The cavalrymen returned to say they had
hanged and shot Brinsmaid.
“This fact was afterwards affirmed to us by several officers
of the command.”
He provided additional details in a memoir written in
1897, which also made it clear
he was in command. He said
his orders were to destroy the
blockade runner and buildings
and “do all the damage possible.” Gregory denied giving
those orders, he said.
■
NOTHING FURTHER appears
in the official records about the
death of George Brinsmaid.
But it was remembered.
In 1937, Genevieve Chandler recorded an interview with
a former slave, Ben Horry, who
was then 88 years old.
“Yankee soldier come off
in a yawl boat and our soldier
caught two of them men. And
they hang that man to Oaks
seashore,” he said. “When the
Yankee find out, a stir been a
stir here.”
The shelling of the Cecilia by
the larger force caused damage
“clean to Sandy Island,” Horry
said.
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28 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
MUSEUMS
History and culture make themselves at home
Brookgreen Gardens
The National Historic Landmark features a collection of permanent figurative sculpture and revolving sculpture
exhibits, display gardens, a zoo, a butterfly pavilion, restaurant, archeological sites and educational programs.
Brookgreen Gardens, on Highway 17
south between Murrells Inlet and Litchfield, is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to
5 p.m. From June 11 to Aug. 8, Brookgreen stays open until 9 p.m. as part
of its annual “Cool Summer Evenings”
program from Wednesday to Friday.
Also enjoy the mass planting of caladiums and summer bulbs, in the Live Oak
Allee and the new Kent Ullberg wildlife
sculpture exhibit.
Admission is adults $14, seniors $12
and kids $7. Children 3 and younger get
in free. Tickets are valid for seven consecutive days.
For more information call 843-2356000 or go to brookgreen.org.
tion of Cassandra Williams Rush.
The museum, at 120 Broad St. in
Georgetown, is open Tuesday through
Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $5, seniors $4 and students $2. Children 6
and younger get in free.
For more information call 843-5457020 or go to georgetowncountymuseum.com.
Gullah Museum
Recently relocated to Georgetown
from Pawleys, the museum provides a
look into the history of the Gullah people and culture, and the role that the
Gullah/Geechee people have had in the
development of agriculture, the local
economy and state politics from 1670 to
today. There will be lectures about how
the Gullah/Geechee people have contributed to shaping America and how to
preserve Gullah/Geechee culture.
The Gullah Museum and Gift Shop
is located at 123 Unit 7 King
St. and open from 11 a.m. to 5
p.m. daily. Call 527-1851.
Hobcaw Barony
Georgetown County
Museum
The nine-year-old museum houses
over 300 years of history in its new facility, above, from documents to military
items to artifacts of everyday life. Collections include plantation life and slavery, fishing, hunting, Native American
history and famous Georgetown residents. This summer the museum features the African-American doll collec-
Exhibits and hands-on displays in the Discovery Center take visitors through Hobcaw’s history, from the time of
slavery through the present,
when it is used for education
and preservation. The center is also the starting point
for daily tours, which include
a stop at Friendfield Village,
where slaves and their descendants used to live.
Hobcaw Barony, on Highway 17 north
just before the bridges into Georgetown,
is open Monday through Saturday 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the Discovery Center museum is free.
There are introductory tours of Hobcaw’s history and ecology Tuesday
through Friday and on some Saturdays
at 10 a.m. The cost is $20.
Call 546-4623 or go to hobcawbarony.
org.
Huntington Beach
State Park
Along with places to camp, fish and
hike, educational programs and three
miles of beach, the state park is home to
Atalaya, the Moorish-style winter home
and studio of noted American sculptor
Anna Hyatt Huntington.
Huntington Beach State Park, on
Highway 17 north between Murrells Inlet and Litchfield is open daily from 6
a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is adults $5,
South Carolina seniors or active or disabled members of the National Guard
are $3.25 and kids 6-15 are $3. Children
5 and younger get in free.
Call 237-4440 or go to southcarolinaparks.com/huntingtonbeach.
the remains of an 18th century trading
vessel, dioramas that detail the steps
involved in rice production, tools used in
rice production, a scale model of a rice
mill and examples of plantation currency.
There are changing art exhibits in
the Prevost Gallery of the adjoining Kaminski Hardware building.
The Rice Museum at 633 Front St. in
Georgetown, is open Monday through
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and
Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. Admission
for the tour is adults $7, seniors $5 and
students $3. Children 6 and under are
free. Call 546-7423 or go to ricemuseum.
org.
Kaminski House
Museum
Located in a 244-yearold house overlooking the
Sampit River, the museum features artwork
and antiques from the
Lowcountry, Europe, the
Middle East and China.
Guided tours are offered
daily and can include a
visit to the neighboring
Georgian-style StewartParker House, built around 1740. The
museum also has a schedule of concerts
and lectures.
The Kaminski House Museum is located at 1003 Front St. in Georgetown
and is open Monday through Saturday 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults
and an additional $3 to tour the Stewart-Parker House, $5 for seniors and $3
for kids 6-1. Children 5 and younger are
free.
Go to kaminskimuseum.org. or call
843-546-7706 for tour times.
Rice Museum
As the name suggests, the museum
traces the history of rice production in
Georgetown County. Exhibits include
S.C. Maritime Museum
Opened in 2011, the museum tells
the seafaring history of the county and
state through ship models, above, and
photo exhibits. Two new exhibits will be
on display this summer, a replica of the
lantern room of the North Island lighthouse and a plantation-era canoe that
was found along the Waccamaw River.
Also new are several paintings donated
from the Kaminski family.
The S.C. Maritime Museum is located on the waterfront at 729 Front
St. in Georgetown and is open Monday
through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Call 520-0111 or go to scmaritimemuseum.org.
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
NORTH ISLAND
Beaches 29
The guiding light
A hundred years ago,
a day trip to the beach
might have taken you
down Winyah Bay to the
pavilion under the shadow of the Georgetown
lighthouse. A hundred
years before that, a summer away from the miasmal ricefields along Waccamaw Neck might have
taken you to the cottages along the seashore at
North Island.
The barrier island sits
at the southernmost end
of the Waccamaw Neck
between North Inlet and
Winyah Bay. It was a
summer retreat for rice
planters until a hurricane
swept the houses away
in 1822. The only structure left standing was the
lighthouse.
North Island today is
owned by the state. It is
still accessible only by
boat, but a new exhibit
at the S.C. Maritime Museum in Georgetown will
bring the historic lighthouse a little closer to
those who aren’t able
to make the trip to the
mouth of Winyah Bay.
The centerpiece of the
exhibit is a Fresnel lens
from the lighthouse that
was the beacon that directed ships to the port of
Georgetown. It is on loan
from the Coast Guard,
which had displayed the
lens at its 7th District
headquarters in Miami.
“The light was visible
between 10 and 15 miles
out to sea,” said Robert
“Mac” McAlister, author
and volunteer at the Maritime Museum who has orchestrated the exhibit.
The lens gets is name
from Augustin Fresnel,
a French physicist who
invented the system of
glass prisms that focus
light from a diffuse source
into a beam. The lenses come in different siz-
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Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
The Georgetown lighthouse stands near the
entrance to Winyah Bay.
es. For a major port city
like Charleston, a first-order lens was set up in the
Morris Island lighthouse.
The Georgetown lighthouse only needed a fifthorder lens.
“We’re getting it back
to where it belongs, in
Georgetown,” said Petty
Officer First Class David
Browne, who is in charge
of the Aids to Navigation
team at the Georgetown
Coast Guard Station. He
helped the museum with
the exhibit. “The lens belongs with the lighthouse
and nobody could see it
out there on North Island.”
The museum exhibit will recreate the lantern room at the top of
the lighthouse. “A ship
that was coming from the
north would round Cape
Fear and head down the
coast, offshore maybe 10
miles, and the first thing
he would see if his destination were Georgetown would be that light,”
McAlister said.
A lighthouse was built
on North Island in 1801.
It stood 72 feet high and
was made of cypress. A
keeper and an assistant
made sure the lamp was
kept burning. A two-story
keeper’s house and a tank
of whale oil (later replaced
by kerosene) stood on the
grounds of the lighthouse.
A storm in 1806 destroyed the lighthouse. It
was replaced with a brick
structure. Although it
stood up to the 1822 hurricane, it was damaged during the Civil War when it
was used by Confederate
troops as a lookout before
it was seized by Union
forces in May 1862. Major
repairs in 1867 extended
its height to 87 feet. The
present lens was installed
in the 1870s.
Upkeep was no easy
task. A keeper’s duties included whitewashing the
tower, maintaining property grounds, cleaning the
lamp, trimming its wicks
and carrying 5- to 10-gallon buckets of oil up the
124 spiraling stone steps
to the lamp.
The lighthouse was
placed on the National
Register of Historic Places
in 1974. It was staffed until 1986, when the beacon
became automated.
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30 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
OYSTERS
Under New Ownership. Come See Our Improvements!
Shellfish help define
the local landscape
BY JASON LESLEY
COASTAL OBSERVER
Oyster season is just ahead. Or just
past, depending on your perspective.
The season is easy to remember because
it covers all the months that contain the
letter “r.”
For those who look forward to harvesting and eating shellfish, the summer is also an important time. Its when
the oysters spawn.
This winter’s cold weather was good
for shellfish, said Beth Thomas, education coordinator at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research
Reserve. She and education specialist
Melissa Heintz led a tour near the end
of the harvesting season to oyster beds
on Hobcaw Barony and talked about the
life cycles of the animals.
Oysters and clams have been plentiful
here for centuries, Thomas said. Tribes
left more than a dozen mounds of shells
— called middens — in the salt marsh
near North Inlet as evidence. Trees like
cedars and wax myrtles thrive in the
middens’ calcium rich soil, making them
easy to spot from shore.
“The unique thing about our middens is that they were primarily clam
shells,” Thomas said. “In Georgia, they
are mainly oysters. I don’t know if clams
were more abundant here or we had
smarter Indians. Clams are easier to
harvest.”
Locally, oysters have overtaken clams
in popularity — for people as well as animals. River otter, raccoon and opossum
all try and eat oysters, and wild hogs
will crunch through the shells if they
are hungry enough, Thomas said. The
oystercatcher, a bird, uses its long bill to
reach into the oyster’s shell and snip its
adductor muscle so it can’t close while it
pulls the meat out.
“We will see an unfortunate one with
a shell on its beak when it didn’t snip it
in time,” Thomas said. Even blue crabs
love oysters, Heintz added.
Oysters spend the first three weeks of
life in a planktonic stage before they develop a foot and settle onto a hard surface, preferably other oyster shells, and
begin life as a spat.
“They use a chemo-sensory ability to
smell other oysters,” Heintz said. “They
know if there are other oysters present,
this must be a good place. Once they settle, that’s where they are going to be for
the rest of their lives.”
Thomas said an oyster bed is one of
the most dangerous things in the marsh
for people. “The edges are razor sharp,”
she said, “and have a huge amount of
bacteria.” She still has a scar on her
knee from falling on an oyster bed as a
child.
Thomas showed examples of oysters
that had settled on pieces of wood and
rock, even a discarded beer can.
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to the natural environment as reefs pro-
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Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
North Inlet oysters.
vide a better habitat for spat to attach
and become oysters in three years.
To harvest oysters – in season –
Thomas breaks them loose with a tool,
like a crowbar.
The individual harvest limit is two
bushels per day, so don’t waste time on
small oysters, she said. “You need some
kind of bonker to harvest oysters,” she
said. “Knock off anything that’s little.”
She recommended steaming oysters
for at least 5 minutes, even though she
enjoys them raw. “The only time I eat
oysters raw is when I’ve gotten them
myself so I know where they came from
and how long they’ve been out of the water. I’ve gotten sick from a bad oyster
and that’s a sick sick. You never want
to be sick from that. Steaming even just
slightly kills a lot of the dangerous bacteria and makes them a little easier to
open.”
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The people who are
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invite you to come as you are to worship with us.
Holy Eucharist
Sundays at 8:00 and 10:30 am
Holy Eucharist with Healing Prayers
Thursdays at 11:30 am
Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church
113 Baskervill Drive, Pawleys Island, SC 29585
The Reverend William J. Keith, Rector
The Reverend Sandra K. Moyle, Assistant Rector
Visit us on the web at www.holycrossfm.org
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
PARADES
Humor gets a salute
on the Fourth of July
Irreverence takes no
holiday for the Fourth of
July on Pawleys Island.
Anyone and anything are
fair game to be mocked by
participants of the annual parade around the island. Paula Deen’s downfall was in the news a year
ago. Pawley Deen’s Kitchen was put together by the
Jackson family of Sumter. Kelly Jackson wore
the apron strings as the
chastened celebrity chef
making an “A-Pawley-gy
Tour.”
Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
Jackson waved a juicer at the crowds. “We’re
turning life’s lemons into
lemonade,” he cried.
Politicians are particularly vulnerable to parade satire. “Back on the
Trail” featured John Mills
as Mark Sanford and Andrew Mills as a buxom
Maria Belen Chapur holding a sign that read “My
Boyfriend’s Back!”
“Anytime we get a
chance to poke a little fun
at a political figure, we
Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
take it,” said Bert Mills,
who drove the float. “It is
Independence Day. It is
about freedom of speech.”
The boat towed behind
their pickup promoted a
Sanford-Weiner ticket in
2016, referring to the sexting former congressman
from New York.
The family has taken home several trophies
over the years, but last
year marked a first. They
won Best Musical.
The trophy and a $250
check have always gone
to performers, specificalFrances Bradshaw/Coastal Observer
ly The Grey Men. For the
Millses it was for playing Scenes from the Fourth of July parades at
a recording of the Jackson Pawleys Island, top, Murrells Inlet, middle,
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE and North Litchfield, above.
Beaches 31
32 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
QUIET
Parades salute humor
Ave.
Most Original went to
the Willcox and Buyck
families for “Super Heroes Gone Coastal” with
kids dressed as Boatin’
Batman, Surfin’ Spider
Man and other caped crusaders.
Best Kids went to
the Pawleys Island AllStars softball team. The
coaches noticed when the
all-star baseball team
won an award last year.
“That’s what we’re trying
to do,” said Ed Janco, an
assistant coach.
Most
Enthusiastic went to the family of
Jack and Kathleen Howard, which includes the
Froelichs, Corleys and
Gilroys. “Hatch This”
was the theme with a
trailered boat filled with
people hooting and hollering, some wearing cutout
paper sea turtle shells.
“It was done at 11
o’clock the night before,”
said Cindy Corley.
Most Patriotic was a
flatbed truck entered by
Frankie Marion that was
packed with people waving flags.
The parade begins at
10 a.m. from the South
Causeway, heads south
to the Birds Nest then
back to the north end before leaving on the North
Causeway. The judges
watch the parade from
outside Town Hall.
■
MURRELLS INLET TAKES
TO THE WATER for its
July 4 parade. This year
marks the 31st annual
event that awards efforts
for the boaters as well as
the docks along the way.
Leon and Jan Rice had
five generations of their
family on the dock at
Marshmere, their home
at Murrells Inlet, for
last year’s parade. Leon
said he was tired of getting honorable mention
awards, so family mem-
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
5 hit “I Want You Back.”
The judges said the
song, with its chorus “Oh,
baby, give me one more
chance,” deserved recognition for integrating music and theme.
“It took a couple of
minutes to sink in,” Bert
Mills said. “My daughter
figured it out.”
They planned to dine
out on their winnings,
but didn’t plan to take up
any instruments for this
year’s parade. “We’ll stick
with what we know,”
Mills said.
The deHaas, Visbaras,
Jackson and Sarvis families will do the same.
They tried politics. Once.
They prefer humor.
As Pawleys Island
Beach Bums, they won
Most Humorous. “We
were worried some people
would be offended,” Brandy deHaas said.
By fake plastic buttocks? Never.
The beach bums took
the Anglicized meaning
of the word to spin a web
of double entendres along
the parade route. “Say no
to crack,” read one sign on
the flatbed trailer just below the many moons that
seemed to shine from the
plastic posteriors.
“We thought about
‘Duck Dynasty,’ but we
knew a lot of people would
do that,” deHaas said.
They were right. There
was the Litchfield dynasty which had two
live ducks in a cage on
the hood of their pickup. There was the Pawleys Island Dynasty with
its stuffed duck. (“We
shot our duck,” said Beth
Stuckey, after sizing up
the Litchfield crowd.)
There was so much
duck to choose from that
the judges decided to give
one duck award. It went
to the “Dock Dynasty”
decorations at 564 Myrtle
bers went all out when
the judges’ boat passed
their dock, decorated
with the theme “Palmetto Pride Pub: It’s always
5 o’clock at Marshmere.”
Their efforts paid off.
Marshmere won first
place in the dock division.
Jan Rice said family
members came from California, Colorado and Arizona. Eighteen-monthold Ford Carmines added a fifth generation celebrating from the Rice
dock.
Leon Rice said the first
boat parade was “kind of
an impromptu thing” organized by Bob Hendrick
31 years ago. Now even
the dock competition has
gotten fierce, he said.
Rice’s neighbor, Sonny
Goldston at Kings Krest,
was entertaining participants in the parade with
guitar music until he was
squirted a few times by
water guns and had to
flee. “We are good Sandlappers,” he said.
For his part, founder
Hendrick said he’s in the
parade every year. “It’s
always been good,” he
said. “We had an unbelievable number of spectators.”
The Murrells Inlet parade fluctuates with the
tide, and it is scheduled
to begin at noon. Most of
last year’s boats were decorated with flags and balloons. Rod Swaim took
first place with a boatload
of palmetto bugs that
followed the “Palmetto
Pride, Inlet Tide” theme.
A placard on Swaim’s
boat paid homage to palmetto trees, the palmetto moon, the palmetto
dog and “don’t forget the
bugs.”
“My grandkids were
here,” Swaim said, “and
everybody wanted to
get into the parade.” He
said the idea for palmetto bugs seemed like a
Making
a noise over
fireworks
Litchfield by the Sea was the first community
to adopt fireworks-free zones.
Property owners at the
Litchfield Beaches are
hoping for more peace
and quiet this summer.
Signs marking “fireworks-prohibited zones”
on the beach in front of
about a dozen North Litchfield homes have been
erected since last year’s
effort to ban fireworks
from the beaches entirely.
Under state law, county government can’t regulate fireworks, but owners can designate their
property as fireworksprohibited zones. With
approval from the county, those zones extend to
adjacent public property,
such as the beachfront or
beach accesses.
Homeowners say they
find firework debris in
their yards and launch
pads on the beach. Explosions from the increasingly powerful ordnance
rattle windows and china cupboards, they say.
Restrictions on Pawleys
Island and Huntington
Beach State Park make
the Litchfield Beaches
a destination for shooters, community members
said. Under the law, it’s
a misdemeanor to shoot
fireworks within or across
a zone. A first offense carries a $100 fine.
natural with the parade
theme, and he ordered
seven cockroach outfits
on the Internet. He kept
the “bugs” wet so the outfits wouldn’t get too hot.
“Thank goodness it was a
nice day,” he added.
■
North
Litchfield
holds a children’s parade that continues to
draw a growing number
unofficial hostess and
serves watermelon and
lemonade at the end of
the parade.
“This is our gift to the
community,” Clay said.
Since there is no registration, no one knows
exactly how many people
participate, but last year
they held the first count.
It stopped at 128 golf
carts.
Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
of participants of all ages.
There are no prizes and
no internal combustion
engines.
Golf carts, bikes, scooters, wagons and even
walkers make their way
through the community,
all decorated for the occasion.
It starts on Hanover
Drive in front of Kitty
Clay’s home. She’s the
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May 23~John Warley (A Southern Girl) at Carefree Catering
May 30~Peter Warren (The Horry County Murders) at Caffe Piccolo
June 6~Mary Kay Andrews (Save the Date) at Pawleys Plantation
SAT., June 7~Jeff Shaara (The Smoke at Dawn) at Ocean One
*MON., June 9, 5-7 pm~Dorothea Benton Frank (Hurricane Sisters)
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July 18~Wendy Wax (The House on Mermaid Point) at Kimbel’s
July 25~Robert Clark & Tom Polland (Reflections of South Carolina)
at Carefree Catering
Georgetown County’s Museum
of History and Art
Video of the history of the rice culture
Maps, dioramas and artifacts
Other exhibits include:
History of the Kaminski Hardware Company
Gullah History of South Carolina Low Country
Miss Ruby Forsythe, one of South Carolina’s great educators
Joseph Hayne Rainey, First African American
elected to U.S. Congress
Georgetown Maritime
Museum Gallery
Featuring the Historic
Check the Lowcountry Companion Calendar of Events
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
Beaches 33
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34 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
RULES
S
Coastal Observer photos
BY CHARLES SWENSON
Spaces are often full on Pawleys.
COASTAL OBSERVER
Some came with photos. Some came
with stories. All left at least $25 lighter
from the monthly session of Pawleys Island Municipal Court.
There were 144 parking tickets issued in the town last July. About 30 of
the recipients showed up in town court,
which is no longer held in the Town Hall
but in the Georgetown County Magistrate’s Court. Several asked for trials,
but changed their minds when Judge
Alan Walters told them that meant coming back later.
The town ordinance that covers parking tickets allows those who receive
them to pay the $25 minimum. Those
who asked for a trial before Walters or
a jury are sent a warrant along with a
court date.
The fine, which can be as high as
$500 or 30 days in jail, doesn’t necessarily increase if a person is found guilty,
but there are fees and assessments
attached to the tickets that can’t be
waived, Walters told the courtroom audience. Six police officers occupied seats
in the jury box. Police Chief Mike Fanning stood at the left side of the judge’s
bench. James Purvis, the town prosecutor, was the only person wearing a suit
and tie. Sitting next to him at a table
facing the bench, Town Clerk Diane Allen had stacks of tickets spread out.
Two cases scheduled for trial had been
resolved. An N.C. State University student charged as a minor in possession
of alcohol agreed to enter the state Alcohol Education Program. A woman with
a parking ticket agreed to plead guilty
after talking with Purvis. She stood at
the bench and explained her situation to
Walters, her words drowned out by the
thrum of the air conditioning unit in the
converted mobile home that housed the
courtroom.
“That may be something you want to
take up with the council,” Walters told
her.
A woman who just moved to the area
EVERY
MONDAY NIGHT
l
gina
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r
O
he
T
from Tennessee said she was “probably
guilty.”
That wasn’t a valid plea, he said.
She explained that she was only in
the area two days before she went to
the beach at Pawleys Island. She drove
around for 20 minutes looking for a
parking place. “There was no sign that
all four wheels had to be off the pavement,” she said.
“Sounds like $25,” Walters said.
A Pawleys Island area boy, 17, was
up for a charge of “minor in possession”
of alcohol. “I’m thinking he might need
a trip down to the A.E.P.,” Walters said.
Officer Jono Fairfield agreed.
A man cited for a parking violation
at the south end lot wanted a trial. “I
couldn’t see the railroad tie,” he said,
adding that he had photos to show the
parking space wasn’t clearly marked.
The officer had photos, too, Walters
said, but told the man a trial would have
to be scheduled.
“I’ll plead guilty, your honor,” the
man said.
“Sorry about that,” Fanning said as
the man lined up to pay the $25.
“It’s OK,” the man said.
An area woman was also sent to the
alcohol program after coming to court on
a charge of “disorderly conduct.” “I cut
her a break because she was intoxicated,” Fairfield said.
After 20 minutes, the line to pay fines
held more people than the courtroom’s
seats.
“I’m guilty,” one woman told Walters,
handing him her ticket.
“Let me see what it is first,” he said.
It was for parking in front of a fire hydrant.’
“I didn’t know it was there,” the woman said.
A man in work clothes brought two
small children to court. He told Walters
he thought he was parked properly although he was cited on Atlantic Avenue.
“We might have a little mercy left,”
Walters said. “Twenty-five dollars.”
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
SURFING
Members of the Pawleys
Island Surf Club gather to
remember old times. From
left, Chip Lachicotte, Gary
Roberts, Larry Walker,
Craig Thomas and Karl
Cooler.
BY JASON LESLEY
COASTAL OBSERVER
Larry Walker loved surfing
at Pawleys Island more than
anything in the 1960s — far
more than spending a warm,
sunny day at Winyah High
School. If the morning wind
and the tide were right, the
temptation was often so great
that he’d take the chance his
daddy wouldn’t see him leaving
home with his surfboard.
“When I walked out to go to
school in the morning,” Walker said, “if I could smell International Paper Company and I
knew what the tide was, there
wasn’t any school that day.”
Walker would often find his
friends at the beach too, ready
for a whole day on the waves
and away from the books. And
it was no surprise when Gary
Roberts would pull up in his
1959 VW bus from Georgetown.
Once the teens at Pawleys
Island discovered surfing in the
mid-’60s, it became a passion
bordering on obsession. Nothing seemed quite as important
as catching a wave.
A dozen members of the
Pawleys Island Surf Club got
together last August to reminisce about the days of “hanging 10” and “shooting the pier”
when they were young and thin
and tanned. Their old surfboards were leaning against
a porch rail at the Lachicotte
house on Rising Sun Avenue
off the North Causeway. Host
Billy Hall had pork and chicken on the charcoal grill, and
the stories flowed like, well, a
good wave. David Mercer re-recorded some 8-mm movies his
father took of Pawleys Island
surfers from the top of Pawleys
Pavilion, bringing back memories of the old long boards and
how riders had to “carve” into
the little waves to reach shore.
“It was a time of relative innocence,” said Avis Havel
Hutchinson, a member of the
surf club. “Life was simple and
carefree, for the most part. We
made our own fun and looked
out for each other. I miss those
days.”
Beaches 35
Jason Lesley/Coastal Observer
Members Club
OF
THE
Craig Thomas was the surf
club’s first co-president, along
with Bruce Hall, Billy’s brother. Thomas lived on the beach
at Pawleys Island from spring
until fall with his grandparents and was a year or two older than most of his fellow surfers. He’d play surfing songs on
his guitar for campers near the
Pawleys pier, mimicking The
Ventures and the Beach Boys.
“Surfing got over here later
than California,” Thomas said.
“We were right behind Virginia Beach, the first surfers in
South Carolina.”
People didn’t know what to
make of these young guys riding the waves. “I remember
people standing on the fishing pier,” Roberts said, “and
they would watch us paddle
out and they thought we were
riding doors off the bathroom
or something. They’d watch
us paddle on those boards and
stand up, and they’d ask ‘How
can they do that?’”
Thomas said members of
the Pawleys Island Surf Club
would see pictures in surfing
magazines and copy the moves.
“We were doing a 360, where
you circle the board, and practiced shooting the pier,” he
said. “We didn’t realize the pylons are 15 feet apart in California. Ours were 6 feet apart,
kind of tricky for us. We wanted to learn it anyway and kept
practicing, but our waves break
once they hit the pier. You
couldn’t really shoot em, so we
gave up on that.”
Not long into the summer of
’64 the kids from Georgetown
wanted to surf too. “When they
saw it,” Thomas said, “they had
to have a board.” There was
little rivalry between the two
surfing clubs, Thomas said.
Members knew each other
from school and summer dances at the Pavilion. The North
Pawleys Island club was sponsored by Fogel’s men’s store in
Georgetown and had blue jackets as opposed to the orange
and white of the Pawleys Island club with black embroidered lettering.
■
The idea of surfers at Pawleys Island didn’t go over well
with the Civic Association at
first. The boys’ long hair and
that rock ’n’ roll music were
worrisome, but Bruce Hall convinced the establishment that
the surfers were good kids.
“Bruce spent a lot of time meeting with the association as liaison,” Thomas said, “so the Civic
Association agreed to go lighthanded if we’d maintain decorum. Some homeowners on the
beach stood up on our behalf.
Esther Johnson managed the
fishing pier and ran herd on
us.”
The surfers became ad hoc
lifeguards on the island, responding to trouble when a
call came to the pier’s gift shop
and warning swimmers about
sharks. If outsiders came to
Pawleys Island to surf, club
members would make sure everybody was cool. “We wanted to bring surfing up with the
character you needed to have on
family beaches,” Thomas said.
“We did a good job, considering
we were all kids.” The club was
recognized for its beach cleanup at a surf contest at the steel
pier in Virginia Beach.
The club hosted contests
that drew big-name surfers like
Mike Doyle, Rusty Miller and
California big wave rider Corky
Carroll. “All the big guys,”
Thomas said, “they all stopped
here. We were the premiere
stop between Cocoa Beach,
Fla., and Virginia Beach.” Winners’ trophies were little wooden surf boards.
■
Roberts ran the surf shop
during the long summer days
and played drums at the Pavilion at night. He slept in his
VW van at night and showered
in the mornings under the pier.
Roberts said his parents called
the pier, asking when he was
coming home. “I don’t know,”
he told them.
He was having too much fun
in what seems like a fantasy
land just a half-century ago.
“You couldn’t get in trouble,”
Roberts said. “There was nothing to do but surf all day.”
Though it seems dangerous
today, surfers would run to the
end of the Pawleys pier, throw
their boards over the edge and
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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36 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
Pawleys surf club reunion
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
dive into the ocean. “We
were all good swimmers,”
Thomas said. When the
waves were choppy before
a storm, the surfers had
to go to the end of the pier
and jump in because they
couldn’t ride against the
strong wave action to get
in position to surf. “Big
storms came in with three
sets of waves,” Thomas
said. “At the end of the
pier you could get beyond
what they called the third
set, the shore break. The
only way to get past the
first set was to walk out
on the pier.”
When
Avis
Havel
Hutchinson agreed to be
secretary of the surf club
she had to paddle on a
surfboard around the pier
in her nightgown.
“I became a member,
not because I could surf
(although I did give it
a try; it’s not as easy as
it looks!), but because I
could type,” Hutchinson
said.
“They needed a secretary and I thought, ‘I can
do that!’ And yes, I did
have to paddle around the
pier with a nightgown on
— a long, flannel granny
nightgown! But I wasn’t
alone. Ellen Lachicotte
was also undergoing initiation into the club and
we were accompanied by
my brother, Jeff, and his
best friend, Bruce Hall.
I’m not sure exactly why
they went with us. For
protection? So our moms
wouldn’t kill them if anything happened to us on a
solo journey? It’s hard to
say, but we appreciated
their company. It’s a long
way around that pier! We
enjoyed being the only local girls to be a part of a
group of guys, most of
whom were like brothers
to us.”
Nothing seemed to faze
the young surfers.
• When a fisherman
at the pier caught a big
shark, the surfers went
up to help pull it to shore
because they wanted to
ride waves close to the
pier. Roberts remembered
the shark’s tail dragging
the sand as the fishermen drove away with it in
the back of their pickup.
“It must have been 9 feet
long,” he said.
• Roberts and Johnny
Knowles
spotted
what they thought was a
weather balloon drifting
off shore. They wanted to
retrieve it because there
might be instruments.
“The harder we paddled,”
Roberts said, “the further
it blew out to sea. We paddled for probably an hour
and a half, chasing that
thing. It was a dadgum
beach ball. When we
looked back we must have
been 5 miles offshore, so
far that we squinted and
asked ‘Is that Pawleys Island?’”
• A call came into the
pier that people were
drifting out to sea off
King’s Fun Land on a
raft. “We could just see
something,” Thomas said.
We jumped on our boards
and went to the rescue.
We get out there, and it’s
a shark rig with a test
tube full of blood and a
big sign saying ‘Do Not
Disturb.’ We went out to
save somebody, but we
didn’t even go back to the
pier. We went straight to
King’s and called DNR.
In three days they caught
the guy who set that rig.”
• David Mercer remembered racing around
the pier and back paddling a surfboard. He was
leading the race but realized that he had gone
out too fast and wouldn’t
be able to finish. “I came
back around the end of
the pier and just kept going,” he said. “About six of
my friends went with me,
and we came in about 30
minutes later.”
■
Deputy Sheriff Claude
Altman would sometimes
give the boys a ride when
he passed them walk-
ing down the road. Some
would return the favor for
a dog named Castro. A
newly hired pier manager
named Mr. Horne began
giving Castro, a Pawleys
Island mainland family’s
dog, rides to the beach in
the mornings and home at
night. Castro would spend
his days on the pier’s gift
shop roof, watching the
parking lot. Castro was
quite a romantic, according to Walker. “We’d wait
on the girls to come in every week,” he said. “Castro was waiting on their
dogs.”
Roberts would sometimes give the dog a ride
when he closed the surf
shop early. “He’d get in
my VW bus,” Roberts said.
“I got home one night in
Maryville when I had a
date, and there was Castro in the back seat. I forgot to let him out. I had to
take him all the way back
to Pawleys Island. When
my date asked why I was
late, I said, ‘You won’t believe this, but ...’”
Those were the days.
Even cutting school to
surf occasionally worked
out.
Walker said he and
some friends saw an old
man casting into the surf
on the north end of the island one beautiful, warm
day. As they got closer,
they realized it was W.W.
Doar, vice principal of
their high school, playing
hooky.
“We were supposed
to be in school,” Walker
said. “So was he. We saw
who it was and paddled
right by him. ‘Mr. Doar,
see you taking a day off
from school too.’
“We went in the next
day and heard the announcement:
‘Larry
Walker come to the principal’s office.’ He had
me an excused absence.
Needless to say we didn’t
have to worry about missing school as long as we
caught him over there at
the beach.”
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The South Carolina Maritime Museum
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1/2 day sessions in June & July
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Registration Fee: $200 per camper
Museum Members receive 10% discount
Visit: scmaritimemuseum.org
Email: sail@sc-mm.org
Call: 843-520-0111
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Beaches 37
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
TIDES
Most activities on the beach
are governed by the tides. Here
are the tides for Pawleys Pier.
The times are Eastern Daylight. The heights are in feet.
HIGH
Jun 1
Jun 2
Jun 3
Jun 4
Jun 5
Jun 6
Jun 7
Jun 8
Jun 9
Jun 10
Jun 11
Jun 12
Jun 13
Jun 14
Jun 15
Jun 16
Jun 17
Jun 18
Jun 19
Jun 20
Jun 21
Jun 22
Jun 23
Jun 24
Jun 25
Jun 26
Jun 27
Jun 28
Jun 29
Jun 30
LOW
a.m.
ht.
p.m.
ht.
a.m.
p.m.
10:58
11:47
4.3
4.4
12:32
1:19
2:07
2:54
3:44
4:36
5:29
6:22
7:14
8:05
8:56
9:50
10:48
11:50
12:19
1:19
2:17
3:14
4:10
5:07
6:01
6:52
7:39
8:22
9:04
9:45
10:26
4.7
4.5
4.4
4.4
4.4
4.4
4.6
4.8
4.9
5.1
5.2
5.2
5.2
5.2
5.8
5.5
5.2
5.0
4.8
4.7
4.6
4.6
4.6
4.6
4.6
4.5
4.4
11:00
11:45
12:36
1:25
2:11
2:57
3:44
4:32
5:22
6:11
7:00
7:49
8:38
9:29
10:22
11:19
5.1
4.8
4.2
4.2
4.3
4.5
4.8
5.1
5.4
5.8
6.1
6.4
5.0
6.5
6.3
6.1
4:48
5:31
6:16
7:05
8:00
8:59
9:59
10:55
11:48
12:53
1:54
2:53
3:49
4:45
5:39
6:29
7:14
7:56
8:34
9:11
9:49
10:27
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.5
5.6
5.6
5.6
5.6
5.6
5.4
5.3
5.1
4:53
5:31
6:11
6:52
7:37
8:25
9:17
10:09
11:00
11:49
12:38
1:28
2:18
3:08
3:59
4:50
5:41
6:34
7:30
8:28
9:27
10:24
11:17
12:20
1:08
1:51
2:32
3:11
3:48
4:24
HIGH
Jul 1
Jul 2
Jul 3
Jul 4
Jul 5
Jul 6
Jul 7
Jul 8
Jul 9
Jul 10
Jul 11
Jul 12
Jul 13
Jul 14
Jul 15
Jul 16
Jul 17
Jul 18
Jul 19
Jul 20
Jul 21
Jul 22
Jul 23
Jul 24
Jul 25
Jul 26
Jul 27
Jul 28
Jul 29
Jul 30
Jul 31
12:39
1:29
2:21
3:14
4:08
5:03
6:01
7:02
8:10
9:21
10:28
11:28
12:06
12:52
1:36
2:18
3:00
3:41
4:21
LOW
HIGH
a.m.
ht.
p.m.
ht.
a.m.
p.m.
11:10
11:56
4.3
4.3
12:36
1:23
2:12
3:03
3:58
4:56
5:54
6:51
7:46
8:40
9:35
10:32
11:32
4.5
4.4
4.4
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.8
5.1
5.3
5.5
5.6
5.6
5.6
5.4
5.1
4.8
4.6
4.5
4.5
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.7
4.7
4.7
4.6
4.6
4.9
4.7
4.3
4.5
4.7
4.9
5.2
5.5
5.9
6.2
6.5
6.7
6.7
6.5
6.2
5.8
5.6
5.5
5.5
5.4
5.4
5.4
5.4
5.4
5.5
5.5
5.5
5.4
5.2
5.0
4.8
5:00
5:36
6:13
6:53
7:37
8:27
9:23
10:21
11:18
12:11
1:04
1:56
2:48
3:39
4:30
5:20
6:11
7:04
8:00
8:59
9:58
10:52
11:43
12:45
1:27
2:05
2:42
3:18
3:53
4:27
5:01
5:03
5:45
6:31
7:20
8:16
9:17
10:18
11:16
12:58
1:56
2:52
3:48
4:43
5:38
6:29
7:16
7:58
8:38
9:16
9:54
10:33
11:14
11:08
11:51
12:42
1:28
2:15
3:03
3:54
4:47
5:42
6:36
7:29
8:20
9:12
10:05
11:01
11:59
12:33
1:34
2:32
3:27
4:22
5:15
6:05
6:51
7:31
8:09
8:45
9:20
9:56
10:33
11:13
Aug 1
Aug 2
Aug 3
Aug 4
Aug 5
Aug 6
Aug 7
Aug 8
Aug 9
Aug 10
Aug 11
Aug 12
Aug 13
Aug 14
Aug 15
Aug 16
Aug 17
Aug 18
Aug 19
Aug 20
Aug 21
Aug 22
Aug 23
Aug 24
Aug 25
Aug 26
Aug 27
Aug 28
Aug 29
Aug 30
Aug 31
12:13
1:09
2:04
2:59
3:54
4:50
5:47
6:46
7:51
9:00
10:08
11:08
11:59
12:29
1:12
1:54
2:35
3:16
3:56
4:36
5:17
LOW
a.m.
ht.
p.m.
ht.
a.m.
p.m.
11:59
4.6
12:45
1:37
2:32
3:30
4:31
5:32
6:32
7:28
8:23
9:16
10:11
11:08
4.5
5.0
4.5
4.6
4.8
5.1
5.4
5.7
6.0
6.1
6.1
6.0
5.4
5.1
4.8
4.6
4.6
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
5.1
5.1
5.2
5.2
5.2
5.2
4.7
4.8
4.9
5.1
5.4
5.7
6.0
6.4
6.6
6.8
6.8
6.5
6.2
5.8
5.9
5.7
5.5
5.4
5.3
5.3
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.5
5.5
5.5
5.4
5.2
5.0
4.8
5.2
5:37
6:14
6:57
7:47
8:47
9:51
10:54
11:55
12:41
1:34
2:26
3:16
4:05
4:55
5:44
6:35
7:30
8:28
9:29
10:27
11:18
12:17
12:56
1:33
2:09
2:43
3:18
3:52
4:27
5:03
5:41
6:00
6:46
7:39
8:40
9:45
10:48
11:46
12:34
1:32
2:29
3:25
4:19
5:13
6:03
6:49
7:31
8:09
8:45
9:21
9:57
10:36
11:19
11:56
12:46
1:36
2:28
3:22
4:19
5:17
6:14
7:09
8:02
8:54
9:46
10:40
11:36
12:08
1:07
2:05
3:01
3:55
4:47
5:37
6:22
7:03
7:41
8:16
8:50
9:24
10:00
10:39
11:23
12:09
12:52
1:49
2:44
3:39
4:34
5:29
6:25
7:26
8:33
9:41
10:42
11:33
12:05
12:48
1:30
2:10
2:50
3:30
4:10
4:50
5:33
6:19
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38 Beaches
Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
U /V RADIATION
WATER
They aren’t playing around
Best sunscreen?
It’s the one you
actually use
BY JASON LESLEY
COASTAL OBSERVER
BY JAMES WILLIAMSON
COASTAL OBSERVER
Returning home looking like a cooked
lobster is nobody’s idea of a pleasant
summer memory. To avoid the painful
and damaging effects of the sun, it’s important to slip on sunglasses, slap on
a broad-brimmed hat and slop on sunscreen.
Sunscreen labels have undergone
a few changes since last summer. The
Food and Drug Administration ruled
that labels inform the consumer of a lotion’s protective properties; that lotion
is water-resistant, not waterproof; that
anything under SPF 15 will not reduce
chances of skin cancer; and that “broadspectrum protection” means both ultraviolet B and ultraviolet A rays.
“There have been improvements
in the sunscreen chemicals to provide
broader ultraviolet protection, but there
is still no ‘complete block,” said Dr. Elizabeth Sherertz, a dermatologist who
practices at Georgetown Hospital System’s Waccamaw Medical Park.
It’s important to apply sunscreen 15
minutes before sun exposure and then
re-apply about every 90 minutes, Sherertz said. “Use a ‘shot glass’ full to cover
the exposed areas if in a bathing suit.
Use an SPF number of 30 or higher. The
brand doesn’t matter that much,” she
said. “Even Consumer Reports last year
suggested that generic store brands are
as effective, if applied properly, as brand
names.”
According to the American Academy
of Dermatology, an SPF of at least 30
can block 97 percent of the sun’s rays.
“Sun protective clothing is also helpful –
any tightly woven cloth will do, although
there are some clothing lines marketed
for sun protection,” said Sherertz. “A
wet T-shirt does not prevent sunburn.”
Although sunscreen sprays come in
handy, the FDA is currently investigating the dangers of accidentally inhaling
it.
“In a dermatology practice in this
area, we see patients every day who
show the effects of sun exposure over
the years. Most common are actinic keratoses, which are dry pink sandpapery
Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
spots on the skin,” said Sherertz. “These
spots are considered precancer, which
means over the years without treatment, the area could evolve into a common treatable skin cancer.”
Sherertz has practiced dermatology
in the area for about two years and over
the course has seen about 10 new cases
of melanoma, one of the deadlier forms
of skin cancer. South Carolina nears the
top tier of skin cancer rates according
to a 2010 report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Even in a 20-something who had been
a tanning bed user,” she said. “There is
no question that the number of melanoma cases is increasing everywhere. If
there is any good news about that, it is
that cases are being diagnosed at earlier
stages, and with a better outcome.”
When inspecting for any abnormal
spots, Sherertz stresses the acronym of
“ABCDEs”: Asymmetry, Border irregularity, Colors of blue, black, red and
shades of brown, Diameter bigger than
a pencil eraser and Evolution, or change
in appearance of an existing lesion. “We
also teach patients about the ‘ugly duckling,’ a concept based on the children’s
story. If one mole looks very different
than the other moles on a person, it
should be checked.”
It’s important that children six
months old or younger not be in the sun
because of skin sensitivity. The peak
times for sun exposure are between 10
a.m. and 2 p.m.
After sun exposure when the skin begins to peel, it’s recommended to stay
hydrated, take an aspirin or ibuprofen
to reduce inflammation of the skin. It’s
also recommended to apply topical relief
like aloe vera or cortisone cream.
“In my opinion, the most effective
prevention is the one the person will use
on a regular basis,” said Sherertz. “If it
stays on the shelf, or in the beach bag or
tackle box, the sunscreen doesn’t work.”
bushels per tide today, he
said.
The game warden |
Brookgreen is a whole
lot more than a sculpture
garden. There are thousands of acres of forests
and fields that need managing as well as protecting
from poachers and trespassers.
Mike Ammons, a commissioned Department of
Natural Resources officer,
patrols the creeks and the
Intracoastal
Waterway
from The Reserve to Richmond Hill Plantation, to
keep watch over the former rice plantations. He
is the only employee who
lives at Brookgreen.
Ammons watches for
poachers who cut the locks
or the chains on the gates
to enter by boat and hunt
deer or waterfowl or fish.
He even finds canoeists
who ignore the no trespassing signs posted on
gates at the creeks’ en-
tries. Most get a warning
and are escorted safely off
the property.
Ammons says riding
the creeks in his patrol
boat is his favorite part of
his job. “We are good stewards of the land,” he said.
The scientist | Karen
Sundberg says she has the
best of both worlds at the
Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences.
As a research assistant,
she spends half her time
in the pluff mud of the
marsh and the other half
analyzing samples of water she collects.
Sundberg’s research is
helping determine the future of North Inlet and the
marsh at Hobcaw Barony.
By mimicking sea level
rise through flooding regimes, Sundberg studies
how plants respond. The
marsh will eventually succumb to the rising ocean,
she said. “It won’t keep up
to the sea level rise.”
People who work on
the water in Georgetown
County have a connection
to the sea that links them
to generations who sailed
or rowed or raked the mud
for a living. The work can
be dangerous as well as
fulfilling.
The fisherman | Steve
Johnson is cleaning triggerfish on a boat, Malachi III, tied to the dock in
Murrells Inlet. He says
commercial fishermen are
dying out.
“It’s really a young
man’s game, but nobody’s
getting into it any more
because there’s no future
in it.”
Johnson said he did everything in his power to
steer his son away from
fishing after they attended
the dedication of the Lost
At Sea memorial when the
boy was about 5. “He said,
‘Daddy how many of these
people do you know?’ and
I got to looking and it was
scary. Then he said, ‘Daddy, you’re going to be on
that wall one day, aren’t
you?’ That hurt.”
The oysterman | Franklin Lee Smalls looks over
the creekbeds at Murrells
Inlet and says it won’t be
long before the oyster harvest starts. He started
working in the creek with
his father at age 9.
“That creek done raised
many a family on this inlet, white and black, yes
sir.”
Smalls is better known
by his nickname, Snake
Man. He and his cousin William Nesbit are the
last old-time oystermen
left. Smalls remembers
a cousin who could pick
Photos by Tanya Ackerman/Coastal Observer
90 bushels of oysters on
Clockwise
from
top
left, Ammons, Johnson,
a tide for Nance’s. A good
day will yield four or five Sundberg and Smalls.
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
X MARKS THE SPOT
Georgetown County
Parks & Recreation
Treasures along the coast
The periodic recovery of
gold bars and coins make
the S.S. Central America one of the best known
shipwrecks off the South
Carolina coast. The 280foot steamship sank during a hurricane in 1857
with a cargo of gold.
There are many sunken ships in the waters
around Georgetown County. Some have more historic value than cash value. Among them:
• The Capitana was the
lead vessel in a Spanish
expedition to settle along
the Southeast coast in
1526. It ran aground and
sank as it neared Winyah Bay, taking with it
most of the supplies for
the planned settlement.
Archaeologists have spent
years looking for its remains in the waters off
the Georgetown coast, but
have yet to find any trace.
• The craft known today as the Browns Ferry
Vessel sank around 1740
with a cargo of 12,000
bricks. Archaeologists discovered its remains on the
bottom of the Black River in 1976. It’s considered
the earliest craft of colonial manufacture ever
Beaches 39
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Two locations in Georgetown County!
Jason Lesley/Coastal Observer
The propeller from the Lief Erikkson, which
sank off Bulls Bay in 1905, was raised last year
and brought to Georgetown for display last
year.
found. The remains are on
display at the Rice Museum.
• In March 1865 U.S.S.
Harvest Moon, the flagship of the Union naval
blockade, was struck by
a Confederate torpedo
in Winyah Bay. It blew
a hole through the starboard quarter, causing
the sidewheel steamer to
sink in five minutes in
about 15 feet of water. It
still rests in the mud and
her iron boiler is visible at
low tide.
• Known as the “copper pot wreck” to local divers, the S.S. North Carolina sank on July 26, 1840
after colliding with the
S.S. Governor Dudley.
The ships were owned by
Cornelius Vanderbilt as
part of the Wilmington
and Raleigh Railroad. Salvage efforts in the 1990s
discovered items from the
passengers’ cabins and
18 gold “Quarter Eagle”
coins.
Y’ALL
You might be a typical tourist if …
You are from South Carolina. You
drove to get here. You’re a woman and
you’re over 55 years old.
Of course, that’s true only if you are
a typical visitor to Georgetown County.
Data compiled for the county Tourism Management Commission, which
handles marketing efforts, shows that
visitors also have something else in
common: they consider the area to be
a well-kept secret and want it to remain that way. That finding led to the
creation of the “Hammock Coast” campaign.
Over half the visitors in a survey of
vacationers last year were women. Over
half were over 55. Although known for
family vacations, only half the travel
parties included kids.
Over half come for typical vacations,
but more are coming for shorter stays.
South Carolina was home to 28 percent of visitors. North Carolina was the
second largest source of visitors with 12
percent.
And the median household income
for visitors was between $95,000 and
$104,000.
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Coastal Observer
Summer 2014
ZOO
Brookgreen Gardens has a wild side
BY JAMES WILLIAMSON
COASTAL OBSERVER
Efforts to extend the manicured landscape of the sculpture gardens to the Lowcountry Zoo didn’t go well with some
Brookgreen Gardens residents.
“We tried a couple years ago
planting some nice plants,”
said Andrea DeMuth, curator
of animals, peering over the
wall at the red and gray foxes.
“They just tear them up. The
natural vegetation they leave
alone but if you put a hibiscus
bush in there, they’re going to
tear it up. What a lot of zoos do
is make fake sculptures of what
looks like natural stuff.”
Although best known for its
sculpture gardens, animals are
also part of Brookgreen’s mission. The Lowcountry Zoo exhibits species native to the
Southeast and breeds of domestic animals that were part of
life on the former rice plantations that now comprise Brookgreen Gardens.
There’s no need to create an
artificial habitat for these animals.
At the alligator exhibit
when the tide falls, the zoo’s
12 foot male alligator – a member since 1970 – enjoys basking on a mound of mud in the
reed grass. He and a 7-foot-long
female produced a pod of offspring last year.
Next door are the river otters
that also depend on the tide.
“They get little crayfish that
come in with the tide,” said DeMuth. The otters approach as
though thinking they’re about
to be fed, circling and dipping
into the dark water. “We have
a group of three and a group
of four and the keepers move
them back and forth between
the exhibits daily.”
An aquarium that’s adjacent
to the outdoor exhibit was installed six years ago. Here the
otters dart end to end and catapult through the clear-blue wa-
River otters,
above, are
among the most
popular animals
in the collection. Spanish
goats, left, are
among the species from the
plantation era.
Tanya Ackerman/
Coastal Observer
ter behind the glass. It provides
a full-on depiction of their maneuverability. “We don’t normally go in with them. They’re
nasty biters even though they
look really sweet,” said DeMuth. “They just play real
rough. It’s not that they are vicious, when they start chewing on your shoes or just rubbing on your legs, they just play
rough. Their teeth are like a
chainsaw.”
The otter exhibit kicked off
Phase I of the zoo’s master plan
in 2008. Completed over the
last few years have been the
butterfly exhibit, vet clinic and
administrative office, zoo kitchen and most recently, renovations to the white-tail deer exhibit.
Ten acres are divided between the deer and Spanish
goats by a long boardwalk.
At the end is a shelter. Visitors can sit and catch a closer
view of fawns treading the tree
line for their feeding trough or
goats lying in the shade of an
expansive live oak.
“A lot of times you come out
here on a regular day at the zoo
you don’t see the deer, even if
we feed them up close. We’ve
even planted grass plots like
the hunters do and it encourages them to come up but not
until 4 o’clock in the afternoon,”
said DeMuth. “It’s a deer thing.
But it’s a natural behavior for
them. Now the goats will be another story. Once the goats get
tired of the new habitat and the
grass then they’re going to be
up here trying to get through
the vegetation of the fence.
They’re always going to be up
to something.”
The zoo’s next project is a
waterfowl exhibit. At one point,
waterfowl were in the Cypress
Aviary that covers a portion of
a wetland. But predators could
break through the aviary’s
mesh.
“If it wasn’t for the tall trees
we’d be able to regulate the
breeding,” said DeMuth. She
added that the wings have not
been cut on these birds, which
include great blue herons,
egrets, white ibises, hooded
mergansers and black-crowned
night herons.
■
THE ZOO IS ACCREDITED by the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums. It first acquired that status in 1983. Every five years
the facilities, animal health,
keeper qualifications and conservation efforts are reviewed.
“What we have tried to do is
bring [the zoo] forward in standards and creativity to make
sure it’s on par with our sculptures and horticulture,” said
Bob Jewell, Brookgreen’s president and CEO. “AZA accreditation is very important to us and
very comforting to know that
our animals are getting the
same care that animals are getting around the country.”
Keepers can identify birds
by their bands and mammals by scanning the microchip that’s been implanted underneath the skin. “It’s just a
good way to identify an animal
for their medical records,” said
DeMuth. “Like the foxes – we
pretty much know all of the foxes and if there’s any discrepancy to know which is which then
we can use the microchip.”
In the aviary, the blonde
great horned owl, was originally found in Maryland and then
put into a rehab center, is easily identifiable because of its
light colored feathers. Brookgreen received it from the Sea
Biscuit Wildlife Shelter in Oak
Island, N.C.
“Rehab centers can only keep
them for so long, then they either have to place them, release
them or euthanize them,” said
DeMuth. “They really get on
the horn of calling zoos when
they can’t release one and can’t
keep it at their facility. So we
can always get birds from different rehab centers for these
exhibits.”
The last casualty at the
zoo was a barn owl. A necropsy showed it was 19 years old.
When birds have been cared for
they can live a long life but if
they live in the wild and are injured, they will likely be eaten,
she said.
But the overabundance of
birds has steered the zoo toward more land-based exhibits. After the waterfowl exhibit,
nocturnal animals such as the
striped skunk, armadillo and
bat will be next. Phase II will
encompass Carolina wetlands
– beavers and snakes – and
Phase III will include the red
wolf, an endangered species,
and black bear. “We’re going
to try to do some of the smaller
ticket item exhibits first to be
able to show that we can build
this if you give us this amount
of money and if you give us a
lot of money we can build this,”
said DeMuth. “We have an architect who has designed all
these exhibits, so it’s just a
matter of funding.”
A high percentage of people
who visit the gardens also come
over to the zoo, especially since
the Storybook Forest opened
last year. In front of the butterfly exhibit are castles, fortresses and playhouses. The most recent is modeled after the “Little
Engine that Could.” Also new is
the Children’s Nature and Sensory Trail.
“Kids do get antsy from looking at sculptures all day,” said
DeMuth. “A lot of people don’t
know that there’s a zoo here.
It’s an integral part of the gardens.”
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