Oct. 7, 2010—Greensboro Lecture Club, 11:30 a.m., Black Beard’s Last Days
Oct. 12, 2010—Friends of Joyner Library, East Carolina University, 7 p.m., How Shipwrecks Shaped the Destiny of the Outer Banks.
Since 1997, Kevin Duffus has published three books and produced four award-winning documentary films all on Outer Banks history. His books and films have been widely praised for their groundbreaking research, historical accuracy and superior quality.
1854 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Fresnel lens and pedestal.
©2010 KPD.
Upcoming Events
Latest News
updated August 21, 2010
New discovery in the storied history of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Fresnel lens
WRAL: Smithsonian to examine remains thought to be of pirate
Bones going to NC relatives may have been pirate
VA-Pilot: What’s in a name? “Graveyard of the Atlantic”
Lawyers: State erred in Salter-remains case
Cannons thundered at Teach’s Hole for the
2nd annual Blackbeard pirate memorial (’09)
Pirates return to Ocracoke to honor their dead (’08)
Blackbeard group seeking an ‘Adventure’
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(click on DVD for direct link)
“When lighthouse enthusiast Kevin P. Duffus discovered a 12-foot-tall, 6,000-pound, bronze and crystal lens in a government warehouse he knew he solved a long-standing mystery. The whereabouts of the enormous missing Fresnel lens from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina had long eluded preservationists and investigators, emerging as the “holy grail” of lenses. Today, the mammoth antique lens is on display at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on Hatteras Island for locals and tourists to admire.”
Jenn Bain, Travel+Leisure Magazine, December 2008
Featuring Award-Winning Books & Films by Kevin P. Duffus
“Dedicated to researching, preserving, and promoting the true and fascinating
history of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and inland tidewater region.”
In 2008, after completing years of research, Kevin Duffus published The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate, a detailed examination of the famous seafaring rogue’s final six months in North Carolina. The controversial book presents stunning contradictions to traditional historical accounts about Black Beard’s (also known as Blackbeard) origins, his travels and motivations as a pirate, his death, and the identity and fate of his most trusted crew members.
(click here for more event info)
In 2007, Kevin Duffus wrote, designed and published Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks—An Illustrated Guide, which noted historian (and mentor of Duffus) David Stick called the long-awaited sequel to his own book, Graveyard of the Atlantic. Among his other historical accomplishments, Duffus discovered the lost history of the builder of the 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, preserved the amazing personal story of the World War II “baby born in a lifeboat” and oral histories of island residents, Coast Guard crews, Navy sailors, and merchant marines, all who survived “Torpedo Junction.”
Above clockwise from left: Prototypical Outer Banks lifesaver Patrick Etheridge; a surfboat rescue at sea in the 19th century; nameboards of vessels wrecked on the Outer Banks. ©2010 KPD.
Above: David Stick and Kevin Duffus in 2007. Stick, who passed away in May 2009, was a self-proclaimed maverick historian and author. ©2010 KPD.
Left: The sandstone grave marker of Susanna White, whom longstanding eastern North Carolina legend said was the sister of the pirate Black Beard. Her true identity led Kevin Duffus on a 30-year odyssey of discovery of the lost history of the notorious pirate. ©2010 KPD.
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