Shipbuilding History

Beaufort NC

Bock Marine Builders, Inc. began in 1975 as Roanoke Island Steel & Boat Works, in the fishing port of Wanchese, North Carolina. The owner, Carl Bock, Jr., had worked in different shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia all his life, and after the death of his wife, Katherine, in 1973, Mr. Bock decided to move to the northern Outer Banks of North Carolina and begin his own steel boat-building business.

Although the very first contract he landed was for a 53' sailboat, his interest was in commercial fishing vessels, and soon after that, a contract for a 90' clamboat, the “Kristy Lee” for Stanley Smith of Ocean City, Maryland, was signed and the boatyard was on its way.

While in Wanchese, the yard went on to build three fishing trawlers for the Wanchese Fish Company, three small tugboats for Cottrell Engineering, a 57' trawler, a 45' ocean cruiser, a 112' clamboat, and a 54' trawler. All the commercial fishing boats the yard built were designed by Carl Bock, Jr.

Although the fishermen of Wanchese kept the yard busy between contracts with repair work and building of trawl door and scallop dredges, seasons change, and in 1983, feeling that the company had outgrown its one acre of land in Wanchese, Mr. Bock decided to relocate. With the help of Morty Brous, agent for International Paper, he soon discovered and purchased the 6-acre parcel of land that was known as the "barge landing" in Core Creek, 8 miles north of Beaufort, North Carolina.

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