Dan Robinson
Every time we sign in to Blackbeard’s Lodge, we look for the tall, gaunt figure of Dan Robinson, clad in dark green work pants and a khaki shirt, a billed cap over his weathered face. He is Mr. Fixit at the lodge. He repairs air conditioners, unstops plumbing, figures out electrical wiring, and gives advice on all manner of things. He always asks, ’’How did it go today?’’ when we come in. An expert on the weather and tides, he knows the latest reports about which fish have moved into Pamlico Sound or the inlets.
In the off-season Dan and his crew are responsible for refinishing floors and refurbishing the lodge for the next summer. When he first started working there, he learned carpentry from a one-eyed carpenter, Sammy Fortesque, and is kept busy with repairs on Blackbeard’s. The weathered, cedar shake lodge was built in 1936 and at that time, it had a dance floor, a skating rink and housed a movie theatre. Now many of the thirty-seven rooms have complete kitchens, and accommodate a variety of families.
Dan Robinson was born in Beaufort on the coast of North Carolina farther south. During his twenty-two years in the Coast Guard, he spent four years in charge of the Coast Guard Station at Ocracoke and settled there with his wife and two sons after his tour of duty was up.
Dan was just seventeen when he joined the Coast Guard Reserve in 1957. This was several years after German submarines were seen regularly off the coast of Ocracoke. Throughout the war, local residents reported seeing numerous ships burning offshore as the result of aggressive U-boat activity. In fact, one of the spots many tourists visit is the British Cemetery. Four British sailors washed ashore after the HMS Bedfordshire was torpedoed on May, 1942. Ocracokers arranged a fitting burial under the shade of several ancient live oak trees. Today the graves are under the care of the British War Graves Commission along with the US Coast Guard. Dan’s Coast Guard career did not lack excitement. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was stationed at Southport, south of Wilmington, S.C. He went out on a 65 foot Coast Guard cutter to make sure no ships or submarines infiltrated the Charleston Harbor. They were the ‘’eyes’ for the Navy at that time.
Later in 1963 he was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia on weather patrol. His ship was part of NORAD defense. Several times they spotted Russian subs on the surface.
In 1964 his ship lost all its lifeboats in a storm near Chincoteague Island. The storm tore the 5 inch guns off their mounts.
Then for two years his ship was on stand-by, ready to assist any vessels in trouble. In the Bermuda seas, they rescued some of the passengers and crew from a mid-air collision. Later the crew on his cutter spotted icebergs near Iceland in the North Atlantic. The ship was on Bravo Patrol. The Canadians handled Alpha. Dan was the boatsman, in charge of the boats that went into the water and the machine guns and depth charges.
After that for about two years he was the sea level light attendant at Diamond Shoals, Frying Pan Light Tower and Chesapeake. His job was to take care of the lights and rescue the crew of any ships that wrecked. Now all these sea level lights are automatic.
His next tour of duty was at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. There he learned to overhaul and sail the Coast Guard barque, the Eagle. This large ship had been a German cadet training vessel which came to the U.S. during World War II, seeking political asylum. The next post was off the coast of California on the cutter Ponchetrain for a year. His wife and young boys went with him. During the Viet Nam war he was Deputy Shipping Officer. His job was to check the shipping articles for explosives, the payrolls, and the type of voyage for all the ships that came into Wilmington, S.C.
Dan Robinson was in charge of the Coast Guard Station at Ocracoke for four years after that. He says that was a very busy station in those days. Two to three hundred shrimp trawlers went out from Ocracoke in the fall and winter. Sometimes their nets would get caught in their screw; other times shrimpers would get hurt. Now there are only two or three shrimp boats and they fish in the sound and not off shore.
He was in charge of the Wrightsful Beach Station near Wilmington N.C. for two years. He commuted from Ocracoke, and then he retired from the Coast Guard after 22 years. He tried commercial fishing for a couple of years. He says that going out was just like Christmas every day; you never knew what the day would bring. It was a hard, uncertain life.
There are now only three fishermen on the island and some of them are part time. There are gill net restricted areas; they have to record what they catch. If they catch a turtle, they have to take it to a safe place and fish are not as plentiful. Dan gave it up to maintain Blackbeard’s Lodge. At that time Doward Brewer was the owner and they rebuilt the top floor as the owner’s quarters. Today those spacious quarters are a wonderful gathering place for a family to rent with a large kitchen and plenty of room to play cards or watch a movie on the big screen TV-VCR.
Since then Dan has seen a series of owners come and go. Bob Martin in partnership with John Wahler, an orthodontist owned it, then Jim and Jeanette Hemmings. He was a Park Ranger, who retired from his post at the Ocracoke Park Service Station. Now Blackbeard’s Lodge is owned by Bucky Warner, who also owns Howard’s Pub. He was the youngest person ever to be a State Senator from West Virginia. He is a year round resident on the island now and both establishments are open all year.
We certainly hope that Dan Robinson will be on hand to greet us on our next visit to Ocracoke.
– Mary