Many yachts have passed the North Carolina capes in recent weeks, en route to Florida, most of them putting in the ports east of here for supplies or overnight refuge from the heavy water outside. “Banker” pilots and boatmen say North Atlantic and Great Lakes backlotters are becoming a race of Vikings. Some of them attempt feats the ancient Norse navigators would have quailed at, according to the “bankers.” Some of the craft that the voyageurs to Florida travel in are smaller than the ancient Scandinavians crossed the Atlantic in and the passage offers more dangers in some respects.
“Yachting to Florida,” the Tarheel salts observe, used to be a diversion for rich owners of the deep sea craft. Now numbers of powered cockleshells capable of making a few knots an hour make the trip. Occasionally a crew will e comprised by “the man of the house, little Jimmy, and two or three women.” Where these sleep at has not been “doped out” by the incredulous Carolina tars. Though statistics are not available, some veteran pilots declare “some of ‘em don’t come back, and some of ‘em don’t reach Jacksonville.”
From the front page of The Kinston Free Press, Saturday, Sept. 23, 1922
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