Pamlico River
Beaufort County, NC

Pilings lashed together are called dolphins. They were used as mooring points for commercial vessels. At one time a steady flow of commercial traffic flowed up and down the Tar-Pamlico River – schooners and flatboats, brigs and barks, steamboats, ships, tugboats, tankers, and dredges. The Chocowinity shore opposite Washington was once the site of lumbermills and a fuel depot. Oil tankers moored to this dolphin.

On a winter morning, the massive timbers are reflected by the rippled river. A thin mist layers the river’s surface. The trees are stripped of leaves and frost whitens the ground. A solitary gull roosts on an outlying timber. The world hasn’t yet fully awakened, people aren’t yet about their business, even the gulls aren’t yet squabbling among themselves. It’s the moment of silence before the day begins.