Topsail Beach is located in Pender County. The word Topsail is pronounced tops-sul, emphasis on the first syllable, and the last syllable rhyming with gull. Local lore has it that during the heyday of the pirates, the marauders hid their ships behind the island in the channel waiting to ambush merchant ships. Merchants eventually realized what was happening there and started looking for the tops of the pirate ships' sails (or top sails).