What do you think?
Rate this book
The Hatterasman
Fifty years after its original hardcover publication, this anniversary edition features a new introduction by Philip Gerard and a biographical essay by Barbara Brannon. Winner of the 1958 Mayflower Award, The Hatterasman is part nature story, part historical narrative, part adventure story, and part rhetorical farce.
- GenresHistory
290 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2008
3 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 30, 2017
A history of the Outer Banks, specifically Hatteras and Okracoke Islands, although the author specifically makes a point in the introduction that it is NOT a history. I guess because it's not written in historical style (is there such a thing? it doesn't sound like a textbook anyway), nor does it attempt to be comprehensive. It's written in journalistic style with short chapters each covering a single story or topic. I was amazed at how it makes fascinating discussions of topics such as ocean currents and the amount of sand on a ridge in Hatteras Island. It was particularly fun to read while on vacation at the Outer Banks.
Strongly recommended for anyone with an interest in North Carolina history.
Strongly recommended for anyone with an interest in North Carolina history.
April 11, 2020
Under false pretenses, I post this review under the 2008 edition, although I read the original 1958 book. It has been sitting on my shelf since my father, a sea captain died in 1978. I kept it to read because it is signed on the frontispiece as a salute to Dad as a great navigator. My Father was from the mainland where the Neuse River empties into the Pamlico Sound across from Hatteras
This book has been awaiting my attention for as relaxed a time as this Covid19 virus shut down could give.
Author MacNeill seems to have adopted and been adopted by the “surfmen” thereby permitted to hear their stories and perform research in order to spin Hatteras tales. I say Hatteras because the book is mostly about the island and the men are a kind of “everyman” inhabiting it, ready to perform heroic deeds that must be remembered.
The book begins a bit like a Michener novel with how the ocean built the sand and dunes into the strip of land that is Hatteras. Fortunately, there is a chronology at the end for although the book is somewhat chronological, digression abounds.
Chronology begins with 1497 Amerigo Vespucci anchoring near the Hatorask Indians. By 1547 English and Spanish fight.
In 1712, 154 baptisms into Church of England take place. Also in the 1700s, Edward Teach, the famous pirate is in the nearby areas, a windmill is built, and the sinking of a cargo ship brings 100 horses to the islands. Politics arrive with Alexander Hamilton, Independence Day, and a lighthouse on Hatteras.
As we enter the 1800s, hundreds of shipwrecks occur. The federal forces start occupancy at the beginning of the Civil War; the rebels at the end, but the seamen just want to be seamen.
By World War 1, German submarines sink ships, and a transition from sailing and rowing to the noise and oil spills from steamships begins. The 2nd World War ending in 1945 gave the author his chance to talk with those who served instead of those earlier in the book who could only relate family and community tales.
If you find yourself sloughing during the first 100 pages, turn towards the end of the book where the writing is more immediate, but do read enough of it to feel its old-fashioned flavor.
This book has been awaiting my attention for as relaxed a time as this Covid19 virus shut down could give.
Author MacNeill seems to have adopted and been adopted by the “surfmen” thereby permitted to hear their stories and perform research in order to spin Hatteras tales. I say Hatteras because the book is mostly about the island and the men are a kind of “everyman” inhabiting it, ready to perform heroic deeds that must be remembered.
The book begins a bit like a Michener novel with how the ocean built the sand and dunes into the strip of land that is Hatteras. Fortunately, there is a chronology at the end for although the book is somewhat chronological, digression abounds.
Chronology begins with 1497 Amerigo Vespucci anchoring near the Hatorask Indians. By 1547 English and Spanish fight.
In 1712, 154 baptisms into Church of England take place. Also in the 1700s, Edward Teach, the famous pirate is in the nearby areas, a windmill is built, and the sinking of a cargo ship brings 100 horses to the islands. Politics arrive with Alexander Hamilton, Independence Day, and a lighthouse on Hatteras.
As we enter the 1800s, hundreds of shipwrecks occur. The federal forces start occupancy at the beginning of the Civil War; the rebels at the end, but the seamen just want to be seamen.
By World War 1, German submarines sink ships, and a transition from sailing and rowing to the noise and oil spills from steamships begins. The 2nd World War ending in 1945 gave the author his chance to talk with those who served instead of those earlier in the book who could only relate family and community tales.
If you find yourself sloughing during the first 100 pages, turn towards the end of the book where the writing is more immediate, but do read enough of it to feel its old-fashioned flavor.
May 20, 2019
I live in Virginia Beach, about two hours north of The Oregon Inlet Bridge, and have been going down to Hatteras Island at least a couple of times a month for many years. I picked this book up at Buxton Village Books about a week ago when I was there. The book was originally published in 1958, and it basically pulls together many of the stories I have heard over the years. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
July 24, 2016
North Carolina's Outer Banks is so rich in history and Southern story-telling that finding one book (or two, or just three) that summarizes the experience of this amazing place is impossible. Inundated with all the choices while on Hatteras Island earlier this year, the friendly owner of Buxton Village Books recommended this classic, originally published in 1958.
Good thing she remarked about its stylish quirkiness, or I might have given up on it early on. In his introduction, Philip Gerard calls it "archaic and colloquial at the same time," which is true. It sometimes makes for puzzling sentences, but the authenticity of the author's voice underscores his credibility and familiarity with the place he so richly describes for us.
Editor John F. Loonam, Jr., chose to reproduce (with just a handful of corrections for accuracy) the original book exactly as it appeared. There's value to this, to be sure, but something is lost, too. MacNeill wrote his book as if speaking to someone sitting across his table "at the top of this hill," giving the book an accessible, conversational feel.
If only Loonam had provided a few insights for those of us who, despite visiting the Banks frequently and feeling as though we know our way around a bit, aren't familiar with where Portsmouth was, to cite one example of where this reader felt left adrift in the text. Sometimes MacNeill describes something in a way that assumes we readers know certain particulars about the back story -- which, by 2016 (or even 2008, when this edition was published) have fallen by the wayside over the years. The book would have been richer and more enjoyable had those particulars, those details of location, of history, been expanded upon. It makes me wonder if, because the book is so venerated on the Island, the editor was loathe to do anything that might suggest the book could be improved upon, forgetting that after 50 years, some things just need a bit more explanation, more background, additional reference points.
Even so, the book stands as a classic, a must-read for residents and frequent visitors to the Outer Banks. Though many of the tales MacNeill tells have been re-told (sometimes better) in other books, this collection stands alone in the way it captures the voice of the Island. MacNeill evokes the misty, tremulous, soothing and scary moods of the ocean and sound in ways only a true Islander could. No other book will make you feel as though you're sitting across a scarred table, hearing the old tales from a local, the way this book will. For that it's worth every minute you spend with it.
Good thing she remarked about its stylish quirkiness, or I might have given up on it early on. In his introduction, Philip Gerard calls it "archaic and colloquial at the same time," which is true. It sometimes makes for puzzling sentences, but the authenticity of the author's voice underscores his credibility and familiarity with the place he so richly describes for us.
Editor John F. Loonam, Jr., chose to reproduce (with just a handful of corrections for accuracy) the original book exactly as it appeared. There's value to this, to be sure, but something is lost, too. MacNeill wrote his book as if speaking to someone sitting across his table "at the top of this hill," giving the book an accessible, conversational feel.
If only Loonam had provided a few insights for those of us who, despite visiting the Banks frequently and feeling as though we know our way around a bit, aren't familiar with where Portsmouth was, to cite one example of where this reader felt left adrift in the text. Sometimes MacNeill describes something in a way that assumes we readers know certain particulars about the back story -- which, by 2016 (or even 2008, when this edition was published) have fallen by the wayside over the years. The book would have been richer and more enjoyable had those particulars, those details of location, of history, been expanded upon. It makes me wonder if, because the book is so venerated on the Island, the editor was loathe to do anything that might suggest the book could be improved upon, forgetting that after 50 years, some things just need a bit more explanation, more background, additional reference points.
Even so, the book stands as a classic, a must-read for residents and frequent visitors to the Outer Banks. Though many of the tales MacNeill tells have been re-told (sometimes better) in other books, this collection stands alone in the way it captures the voice of the Island. MacNeill evokes the misty, tremulous, soothing and scary moods of the ocean and sound in ways only a true Islander could. No other book will make you feel as though you're sitting across a scarred table, hearing the old tales from a local, the way this book will. For that it's worth every minute you spend with it.
December 12, 2015
A classic book about the people of Cape Hatteras.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews