History of Portsmouth Village

Portsmouth Village main page

Portsmouth was established in 1753 by the North Carolina legislature during British Colonial rule, and within twenty years it became one of the largest towns in the North Carolina Outer Banks. Shipping companies sending goods to and from the North Carolina mainland would use the shortcut through Ocracoke Inlet where Portsmouth Village was located. However, the big ships could not make it through the shallow inlet, so they would unload cargo at Portsmouth and transfer it to smaller boats that could carry the goods to the mainland, or in the case of exports, carry the goods to Portsmouth for loading onto the larger ships. This was called “lightering,” and Portsmouth Village became a busy center for lightering, offering docks, boats, and warehouses to store and transport the cargo. By the mid 1800s, nearly two thirds of North Carolina exports went through Ocracoke Inlet.

Unfortunately, in 1846 a hurricane busted a new inlet through the islands near Hatteras Island. This inlet was deeper, and soon the lightering business in Portsmouth dried up. At this point, Portsmouth became a fishing village. The isolated lifestyle didn’t sit well with many residents, and each year saw less and less people living on the island. The last two residents, Elma Dixon and Marian Babb, left in 1971.