The community of Atlantic on Core Sound is where it all started.  My Great Grandfather (Thomas Hamilton) was a commercial fisherman, and ran the mail boat Hero from Beaufort to Atlantic.  Granddaddy (Julian Hamilton, Sr.} moved from Atlantic to Beaufort during the Great Depression to work at the bank, but always had a boat to run from Beaufort to northern Core Sound.  Daddy (Julian Hamilton, Jr.) grew up in Beaufort, and worked on the Menhaden Boats in the Gulf of Mexico before he took a job at Cherry Point, NC, and spent the rest of his life raising waterfowl, carving decoys, and fishing (mullet fishing was his favorite).

I grew up “on the water,” as Daddy used to take me floundering, gill net fishing, shrimp trawling, oystering, clamming, scalloping, waterfowl hunting, and just about anything else you can imagine doing in eastern Carteret County.  I also spent a year on the Nancy Lee here in Beaufort Menhaden fishing a very long time ago.

This is home and I love it here!

Capt’n Craig

Julian “Craig” Hamilton
North Carolina For-Hire Captain’s License
United States Coast Guard Captain’s License
Master 50 Ton Inland
OUPV (6-Pack) Near Coastal
Assistance Towing Endorsement
North Carolina Commercial Fishing License
Shellfish Endorsement
Federal HMS Charter (Bluefin Tuna) Permit

*Core Sound photo at top of page courtesy of Susan Mason of Atlantic, NC.

USCG Captain’s License

The Nancy Lee, the shad boat I worked on so long ago (about 1979). She is an artificial reef now off of Cape Lookout…