Mourners pack service as Pamlico County fishermen laid to rest

 GRANTSBORO -- Three Pamlico County natives who died when their scallop boat sank off the southern coast of New Jersey were  remembered Monday afternoon as two of them were  laid to rest, surrounded by images of their family's fishing vessel and of the work that was surely in their blood.

Brothers Royal Smith Jr. and Timothy Smith and their uncle, Tarzon "Bernie" Smith were among the crew of seven aboard the Lady Mary when it began taking on water early last Tuesday morning.  It is not known what caused the boat to sink, but only one man, Jose Luis Arias of Wildwood, N.J., survived.

The brothers' bodies were found about 75 miles southeast of Cape May, N.J. Their uncle remains lost at sea.

Nearly 1,000 people gathered at the New Bern Eastern Missionary Baptist Association Headquarters in Grantsboro to remember the Smiths. The line of cars parked outside the country church stretched for two miles.

As the family was seated, Royal Smith Sr. put his left arm around his wife, Hazel, as they prepared to bury two of their boys.  He held his wife just that way for the entire service, never moving until it ended more than two hours later.

It was the senior Smith who owned the Lady Mary, which he named for his mother. He, too, has lived a life on the water, learning the craft that belonged to his father and grandfather. Four generations of Smith men have been commercial fishermen, and four generations of Smith women have worried about them.

Hazel Smith felt pressure on her heart the moment she heard her sons were lost; the first time the pressure let up was when their bodies were found.

She nodded just slightly when one of the ministers said: "For a spirit of heaviness, God will give me a garment of praise."

That minister was Clyde Smith III, a cousin to her sons who flew 13 hours from Japan to attend the service.

All of the Smiths were raised in Mesic, a rural community about 10 miles east of Bayboro. Royal Jr. and Timothy, whose friends knew them as "Bobo" and "Timbo," both graduated from Pamlico County High School in the 1980s. Their uncle graduated from Pamlico Central School in 1969.

Timothy and Tarzon both moved to New Jersey after school.

Red-and-white models of the Lady Mary sat atop the polished black coffins of the Smith brothers.  A red anchor stood near a portrait of their uncle.

The Smiths were remembered as men who desired to be close to God, who loved their family fiercely, and who loved to fish almost as much.

"I've had so many messages on my phone from Bobo that I wish now I had saved," said Genard Sawyer, one of his classmates. "He'd call and say, ‘The waters are rough right now, but it's all going to be all right. I'll be coming home soon.' I could not imagine that he would be coming home like this."

Aside from Tarzon Smith, the other men still lost at sea are William Torres and Frank Reyes of New Jersey and Frankie Credle, who is also from Mesic.  Details of Credle's funeral service have not yet been announced.

Parts of Monday's service were filled music and celebration - moments of joy for lives well spent, though cut short.

But the crowd was briefly silent when Carnell Barrow, a minister and a classmate of Tarzon Smith, read from the 103rdPsalm.

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress," she said. "He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven."