(Editor's note: The crew of the Ada Mae has cancelled its planned trip to Hatteras for Day at the Docks on Saturday, Sept. 15, because of a stormy weather forecast. A cold front is predicted to cross the North Carolina coastal waters on Saturday with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Organizers hope that the boat will make next year's event.  Susan West tells the story of how the historic craft was found abandoned and restored to its former glory.)
 

The last North Carolina skipjack will sail into Hatteras this week for Day at the Docks – A Celebration of Hatteras Island Watermen - on Sept. 15.

Built in 1915 by Captain Ralph Hodges of Rose Bay in Hyde County, the Ada Mae was one of the many skipjacks that plied North Carolina’s sounds in the days when oysters were the crown jewels of the fishing industry.  

Hodges built the workboat with efficiency, stability, and strength in mind. 

The 62-foot skipjack drew just four feet, allowing the boat to navigate shallow waters. 

A large boom pulled oyster dredges across the bottom of the sounds, and low sides eased hoisting the heavy equipment back onboard.

Hodges named the skipjack for his youngest sister, Ada Mae.

One of Ada Mae’s grandsons, Jeff Aiken, lives in Hatteras village.

Aiken said that, according to family legend, Ada Mae pestered Ralph with so many questions and stories while he was building the skipjack that he couldn’t help but christen the boat with her name.

The Ada Mae hauled her oysters to markets in New Bern, Washington, Belhaven, and other towns. 

Laden with vegetables and fruit, she sailed to Annapolis and Baltimore and other northern ports in the summer. 

The boat worked in North Carolina through the 1950s and dredged oysters in the Chesapeake Bay the following decade. 

Later, National Brewing Company in Baltimore bought the Ada Mae and entertained beer brewers and their guests on trips aboard the boat.

Eventually, however, the old skipjack came to rest on a Chesapeake creek bank, tossed there by the steep cost of restoration.  

By a stroke of good fortune, the Ada Mae was identified as an authentic North Carolina skipjack, and in 1995, Gordon Watts of the Institute for International Maritime Research arranged her return to Washington, N.C..

The restoration started by Watts was completed by Carolina Coastal Classrooms, a non-profit educational foundation in New Bern, last year.

Students and teachers can now climb aboard the Ada Mae for hands-on learning experiences in ecology, history, weather, and navigation.

Carolina Coastal Classrooms President Ben Bunn and several crew-members will sail the skipjack from New Bern to Hatteras to take part in Day at the Docks.

Aiken, who owns a seafood wholesaling business in Hatteras, also serves on the Day at the Docks planning committee and approached Bunn about bringing the Ada Mae to Hatteras.

Aiken said the itinerary for the crossing was not complete, but that he and other family members hope to join the crew for the last leg of the journey.

He noted that Captain Ralph’s communities in Hyde and Dare Counties were intimately connected by maritime trade.

He said his cousin, Hatteras Island physician Al Hodges, recalls the late George Gray telling stories about the Mildred, a large trawler built by Ralph Hodges, carrying coal to Avon.

Aiken hopes other Dare County residents might share similar memories of boats built by Ralph Hodges with his family during Day at the Docks.