Within easy striking distance of The Inn at Gray’s Landing, Ocracoke is the most beguiling of North Carolina’s barrier islands. One of its many charms is that it’s accessible only by sea or air.
Even then, air access is limited to small, private planes, due to the shortness of Ocracoke’s tiny, unattended landing strip. So, most visitors arrive by car ferry, or by high-speed foot-passenger-only hydrofoil.
Eighteen miles long and only a few hundred yards wide at its narrowest point, most of low-lying, sandy Ocracoke is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The only exception is the island’s widest, most southerly portion, which is home to Ocracoke Village.
The rest of Ocracoke’s 18-mile length is uninhabited, except for the island’s famous wild horses, which mysteriously appeared on this remote sandbar at some unknown point in Ocracoke’s misty past.
In all likelihood, they’re descendants of Spanish Mustangs, driven ashore when a ship carrying horses to the New World shipwrecked on one of Ocracoke’s infamous sandbars.
Other than its enchanting wild horses, Ocracoke’s most famous inhabitant was Edward “Blackbeard” Teach (circa 1680 – 1718). The most notorious pirate of all time, Blackbeard terrorized the Caribbean and North Carolina coast from 1716 to 1718.
He had fought as a privateer in Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713), and when the war ended, he went pirate, naming his 40-gun flagship the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Like most pirate ships, Queen Anne’s Revenge was small and light, making it fast – and able to outmaneuver larger ships.
In 1718, Blackbeard cut a deal with Governor Eden of North Carolina to “look the other way”, while he terrorized the North Carolina coast and Caribbean using the home he built on Ocracoke as his base.
Avoiding fights whenever possible, Blackbeard incentivized his victims to immediately surrender. To do this, he cultivated the fiercest look possible, at times even sporting lit firecrackers in his hair. Most surrendered as soon as they saw his distinctive flag, which bore a skeleton spearing a heart.
When he was forced to fight, Blackbeard was fearless. Legend has it that he once continued in battle despite suffering 5 gunshot wounds and 20 sword cuts. And when he finally met his end through decapitation off Ocracoke on November 22, 1718, his headless body was said to have swum twice around his decapitator’s warship before becoming motionless.
Blackbeard’s head was then mounted on the bowsprit of his decapitator’s boat as proof the pirate was dead, a pre-requisite to collecting the bounty put on his life. His head was subsequently hung from a pole on the Hampton River at a place now known as Blackbeard’s Point.
The Blackbeard legend is so compelling that it has mesmerized many an Inn at Gray’s Landing guest – once they’ve read books and articles about him available in the Inn’s library. Fortunately, the actual place he inhabited can easily be explored using the Inn as a base, since Ocracoke island is served by car ferries departing from both Hatteras Village and Swan Quarter, North Carolina.