Day 27

The community of Murrells Inlet is thought to be the oldest fishing village in the state. Popular legend says the community is named for a pirate, Captain Murrell, who used the inlet as a hiding place and to bury treasure, although no treasure has ever been found. Legend has it that the notorious pirate Blackbeard would lay over here from time to time during his exploits up and down the eastern coast. A more historical background is that John Morrall purchased over 600 acres here in 1731. His name has been corrupted over the years to the present spelling. The area was heavily planted in rice all along the river, and the inlet was a favored place for the plantation families to escape the heat and mosquitoes of the rice-growing plantations during what was referred to as the "fever season" of malaria. Today the picturesque village of Murrells Inlet is known as "The Seafood Capital of South Carolina" because of its many excellent seafood restaurants 


Off Murrells Inlet is Drunken Jack Island, where, according to local legend, in the early 1600s a pirate was accidentally marooned on the island, where the notorious pirate Blackbeard had stopped to unload and hide a load of hijacked rum. The pirate was left with no provisions except for the rum supply, thirty-two casks in all. Almost two years later, when the ship returned to load the rum cargo it had forgotten, all the crew found was case after empty rum case, spent rum bottles all along the shore, and the bleached bones of poor Jack. The treasure of Blackbeard is also reputed to be buried here, as well as in many other locations along the coast of the Carolinas.