Tom Kelchner

Chicamacomico Cookery Tom Kelchner

This is a facsimile edition of a nearly forgotten little cookbook that epitomizes the spirit of the North Carolina's Outer Banks and evokes a name that is legendary there: Chicamacomico. Chicamacomico Cookery is a collection of unique local family recipes contributed by 43 residents of Rodanthe, Waves and no doubt other parts of the barrier island that extends north from Cape Hatteras. The book was published more than 50 years ago as a fund raiser by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Chicamacomico Banks Volunteer Fire Company. That organization is carrying on a life-saving tradition that springs from the most spectacular ocean rescue in the history of the U. S. Life Saving Service and the U. S. Coast Guard which descended from it. That event was the 1918 rescue of 42 sailors from the HMS. Mirlo a petroleum tanker that had been torpedoed seven miles off shore and set on fire by a German submarine. The crew from the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station fought through rough seas and burning fuel to save them. In following years, the rescuers were awarded medals by the British government as well as the U. S. Coast Guard. The lifesaving station (on the cover of the cookbook) is now a museum that honors the life savers, shows their way of life and keeps alive the memory of some spectacularly brave men of the U. S. Life Saving Service.