Fire at the Docks
An excerpt from the book Vandemere, NC-- Village By The Sea

Mr. Bryan Phelps of Vandemere, owner of a machine shop called the Hobucken Vandemere Machine and Railway, had an "experimental dream boat". Mr. Phelps and his head mechanic Daniel Swindell worked for two years to master this completely hydraulic system, which included the steering, fishing wenches and try net wenches. A boat of this kind was unheard of in this area in the early fifties. By the nineteen seventies, nearly every boat in our area was equipped with the hydraulics features. Neither of the men were still living to see their dream really come true.

Their boat in the pictures was named "Nancy Lou". It exploded at the railway docks in the spring of 1955. It was equipped with a gasoline engine, which was believed to have caused the explosion while they were working on it. As is evident from the picture, the whole town turned out to help put the out the fire.

We had several boats to explode at the docks for similar reasons.

The yacht "Joyce & Judy", owned by Earl Holton, exploded in 1952. Mike Monk, a mechanic, was in the engine room at the time. It was reported that it blew holes in his socks and blew him out of the engine room. He only had small burns on his arms. The yacht was burned badly. Captains of other boats managed to get a line on it and tow it away from the docks and up the creek. This kept other boats and the docks from catching fire. The yacht was a total loss.

Ten years later, the trawler "Grace M" exploded at the S.F. McCotter docks in the early nineteen sixties. It was around the lunch time hour and the explosion was heard all over town. It carried a fireball into the air that could be seen two blocks away. Men came from all over town to aid in moving boats and other efforts to keep the fire from totally destroying the fish house too.