McKnight's Shipyard, A-66 - North Carolina Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Text on marker:

McKnight's Shipyard

Thomas McKnight, colonial merchant and legislator; Loyalist during Revolution. Operated large shipyard which stood near here.

This historical marker is located at US 158 at SR 1149 (Indian Town Road) south of Shawboro. It was erected in 1971.

The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources has an essay on McKnight's Shipyard, from which the following is excerpted:

Proclaimed by its owner "the most commodious, and . . . best shipyard in the province" with "large warfs and convenient warehouses," McKnight’s shipyard was located on the Indiantown Creek area of the north side of the North River, which is the boundary between Currituck and Camden counties. Specific details as to the McKnight’s establishing the shipyard are lacking, but it was in operation during the colonial period. It was closed in 1775 when McKnight fled to Virginia due to local hostilities and an assassination attempt related to his very public Loyalist convictions. British Loyalist claims made by Thomas McKnight provide important information as to the size and scope of his shipbuilding operation. In one passage he recalls "From this yard I have launched a ship (one hundred feet long) into fourteen feet of water, upon sliding boards not more than thirty in length, the whole run did not exceed twenty-five feet; and from the top of the keel blocks to the surface of the water was a fall of little more than two feet."

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