Tag Archives: Port Royal
Port Royal begins rebuilding 30-year-old dock. Move shows renewed commitment to shrimping
O’Quinn Marine Construction, hired by the town for $130,000, is now tearing down the Battery Creek landmark, piling by piling and plank by plank. But the scuttling of dock isn’t the end but rather a new beginning for shrimping and fishing and seafood processing, which have deep roots in northern Beaufort County. “It’s a first of several steps to reestablish fishing and shrimping as a iconic industry in Port Royal,” Van Willis, the town’s manager, said of the dock removal. A new dock and processing facility for fisherman and shrimpers are now being planned to replace the old facilities that had been in place since 1989. Over the past two years, the State Legislature has allocated the town $2 million for the work. Video, >click to read< 08:57
Last of broken down boats leaving old Port Royal dock. Now new construction can begin
At a Thursday auction, ordered by a federal court, an old shrimp trawler sold for $50. It will be moved shortly, Town Manager Van Willis said. The town previously removed the oil and fuel from the vessel. A sailboat also was up for sale at the auction, Willis said, but there were no bidders. As a result, Willis said, “It’s officially ours now.” The town plans to scuttle the sailboat. The town’s plan to replace one of the few publicly owned commercial fishing docks remaining in South Carolina comes as Safe Harbor Marinas begins its initial work in a major redevelopment that will transform the town’s waterfront. >click to read< 13:23
Old Port Royal shrimp boat is sunk off Hilton Head Island. It’s now being put to good use
A 70-foot shrimp boat, once docked in the town of Port Royal, has joined New York City subway cars and other unusual materials that make up a man-made reef off of South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island, where black sea bass, grouper and barracuda and other fish hang out. On Oct. 25, the Palmetto Pride, a shrimp boat with Beaufort-based Sea Eagle Market, captained by Cameron Reaves, towed the Buccaneer to Betsy Ross Reef, 16 miles east of Hilton Head, where it was sunk the next day, said Craig Reaves, Cameron’s brother. Craig Reeves sees it as a “win win,” he said, because the older shrimp boat will benefit both the environment in its new life and Port Royal’s efforts to remove old boats from its water prepares as it prepares to build a new shrimp dock and processing facility. Video, >click to read< 09:05
Old shrimp boat goes down in Battery Creek in Port Royal
An old shrimp boat has sunk while anchored in Battery Creek near the city-owned dock in Port Royal, which is in the process of evicting boats, many of them in disrepair, in order to build a new dock. The F/V Josie N had been tied to the Port Royal dock, but recently it was moved and anchored about 100 yards out in a channel. “It must have gone down overnight,” Van Willis, Port Royal’s town manager, said early Friday afternoon. The owner, 
he said, was on his way to the location with another shrimper to bring it back up and “drag it out of here.” Includes a video, Woody Collins knew William North for years. He walked the shrimp docks in Port Royal on Wednesday recalling the man the Lowcountry came to know as “Captain Billy.” >click to read< 15:58
Port Royal ousting old shrimp boats from dock.
Port Royal is moving ahead with a plan to demolish the town-owned dock,,, “I think we all want to see a working waterfront,” Town Manager Van Willis says of the effort. “We’re hoping with a new dock and state-of-art processing facility we’ll become a location to offload.” Owners of the old boats tied up at the dock have been given until April 15 to move. The town, however, will be responsible for moving abandoned boats or those that have sunk. Most of the boats never leave the dock. “Unfortunately, almost every single one doesn’t actually shrimp,” Willis says of the shrimp boats, some of them barely seaworthy, that are tied to an equally dilapidated dock. >click to read< 16:33
‘Disgusting and embarrassing’: Sunken shrimp boat spurs call for changes in Port Royal
Only the top of the shrimp boat’s pilothouse was visible Wednesday morning from the Port Royal dock where the 60-foot vessel had floated abandoned for months. The shrimp boat sank Tuesday, sending fuel into Battery Creek and calling attention to the other rotting, junk-laden and abandoned boats amassed at the town-owned dock. “If those folks owe us money or they’re not shrimping, they don’t need to be here,” Willis said. “This is supposed to be a working shrimping dock.” Video, >click to read< 13:03
Port Royal will continue shrimp dock operations, explores building new seafood processing facility
Charles Abner is still docked in Port Royal, finishing some work on his 73-foot shrimp trawler, “Lady Bernice,” before going to work as shrimp season begins. Abner plans to offload most of his shrimp at Benny Hudson Seafood on Hilton Head Island, where he said the money is a bit better. He also likes likes to offload in North Carolina and Georgia, where he said docks will front shrimpers fuel and ice. “I love the conditions over there (on Hilton Head),” Abner said Friday. “It’s a whole lot closer to the fishing ground; there’s quite a few other things. Port Royal wants to keep shrimpers like Abner from going elsewhere, aiming to make the docks off 11th Street on Battery Creek the desired destination in the area. Read the rest here 08:20
