"Port and power boat place" a Morehead City Travel Page by grandmaR

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Loading a freighter 2002

We've never visited Morehead City, but I took these photos as we passed by in the spring of 2002. Beaufort and Morehead City are adjacent, and Beaufort is supposed to be the sailboat town (which we've never visited either although we've anchored in Town Creek) and Morehead City is the power boat town.

Morehead City is also a major port. The city is home to several marine-research facilities such as the Institute of Marine Sciences and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. It is also home to the Ferry Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and serves and a port of the Second Division of the US Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune.

According to the North Carolina Port page of Port Facts

Facilities
Four miles from the open sea
Situated along the Newport River and Bogue Sound
5,500 ft. of continuous wharf
Two berths served by modern ship-loader and maximum loadout rate of
3,000 tons per hour of bulk cargo
Dry-bulk facility (used mainly for phosphate) with 225,000-ton capacity warehouse, conveyor system and shiploader
Wood chips handling facility which can outload 1,000 tons per hour with a two million-ton annual capacity
Concrete capped sheet pile bulkhead, solid fill with 1,000 psf concrete deck with rubber and/or timber fender system
Deck height averages 10 ft. above mean low water
Apron widths from unrestricted to 45 ft. opposite transit sheds
Roll-on/Roll-off ramp
Well-lighted wharf areas and 24-hour security
Barge Fleeting Area
Over 90 acres available for development on Radio Island

Tides and Climate
Mean tide range 2.9 ft., current velocities 2 to 3 knots
Mild temperatures year 'round with rare snow accumulation

Harbor Features (US Army Corps of Engineers Project Dimensions)
Ocean bar channel depth of 47 ft. M.L.L.W. and width of 450 ft.
Inside harbor channel depth of 45 ft. M.L.L.W. and widths of 400, 600, 775 and 820 ft.
East turning basin depth of 45 ft. M.L.L.W. and diameter of 1,420 ft.
West turning basin depth of 35 ft. M.L.L.W. and 1,200 ft. radius
Depth of 45 ft. M.L.L.W. at NC Ports berths 1, 2 and 3; 35 ft. M.L.L.W. at Berths 4 through 9

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Tug at the dock 2003

History
This area of North Carolina's "Crystal Coast" was the product of extensive planning by John Motley Morehead, governor of North Carolina from 1841 to 1845. He envisioned "a great commercial city" where Shepherd's Point intersected with the Newport River and Beaufort Inlet. Plans were developed to extend the North Carolina Railroad from Goldsboro to Shepherd's Point.

The first lots were sold at public auction in 1857. When the railroad was completed a year later, the area seemed destined for rapid development as a major port. However, Morehead City's continued development as a port was interrupted by The Civil War. Following the war, the shipping terminal deteriorated, but the railroad continued hauling vast quantities of seafood to the state's inland sections.

The section of the city known as the "Promised Land," -along Bridges Street- was settled by refugees from the whaling communities on Shackleford Banks. These communities, approximately six mile east of Morehead City by boat, were utterly destroyed by the great hurricane of 1899.

In recent years, a large charter-fishing fleet has developed. The town has regained its commercial viability as a modern port terminal as well as a being the "sound-side" of the Atlantic Beach resort trade.