Damned if that didn’t sound like some Irish/West Country hybrid. I wonder if they drink “zider”…
That’s often noted. According to a couple of sites I looked at about North Carolina history, most English colonists avoided the Outer Banks, as they are sandy and not great for agriculture. However, Ocracoke Island has a very good harbor, and attracted sailors, fishers, and pirates – among them, Edward Teach, Blackbeard, whose ship Queen Anne’s Revenge is sunk just off the coast of the island. It’s a reasonable assumption that a good number of those sea-oriented folk came from the West Country, Devon, and Cornwall – Blackbeard himself was from Bristol. That would explain the similarity to West Country English accents.
It wouldn’t have gotten much dilution, either. The Bankers have always been in contact with the mainland, but nevertheless isolated by the distance. Only in modern times have ferries and a causeway made passage to the islands easy. And the old Banker names – Midgett, Burrus, Garrish, Wahab – are still easy to find among the modern islanders.