recreation agent based on Roanoke 

 Island. 



In a Sea Grant publication, Wreck 

 Diving in North Carolina, Regan 

 briefly describes the popular wrecks ac- 

 cessible to the average diver. Some 

 wrecks should not be approached, he 

 says, because they lie in strong 

 currents or waters over 110 feet deep — 

 the limit for sport diving. 



Regan says new wrecks are being 

 discovered almost every year by com- 

 mercial fishermen and divers. Fisher- 

 men locate them when their nets get 

 caught in the wreckage or their catch is 

 especially abundant over a particular 

 area. On the other hand, divers will of- 

 ten use old charts and military records 

 to pinpoint areas where a vessel may 

 have gone down and then search the 

 bottom for the remains. Whatever the 

 method, "every now and then someone 

 stumbles across a new one," Regan 

 says. 



But once a wreck is discovered, it is 

 not always easy to find on the return 

 trip. An experienced boat captain 

 whose vessel is equipped with a Loran 

 system for navigation and a sonic 

 depth recorder is needed to find most 

 wrecks. 



"Finding a wreck 20 to 30 miles 

 offshore is sometimes like looking for a 

 needle in a haystack," says Ron 

 Thrower. "It's nice to look at a chart 

 and say that's where the wreck is, but 

 there aren't any signs when you get 

 there." 



Several controversies have arisen 

 about diving the wrecks off the North 

 Carolina coast. One centers on whether 

 divers should remove artifacts like 

 brass portholes and gauges from the 

 sunken vessels. 



Artifacts 



Some divers maintain that souvenir 

 hunters and salvaging companies have 

 destroyed the beauty of the wrecks and 

 are hastening their deterioration. 



"After a while it begins to show," 

 Thrower says. "Especially when people 

 take dynamite and blow holes in the 

 wreck. The ocean will eventually 

 destroy any wreck, but people are help- 

 ing speed up the process and every- 

 body is losing." 



Other divers say the wrecks should 

 be salvaged before they deteriorate and 

 collapse and the portholes and naviga- 

 tion gauges are lost permanently. 



But any wreck, within the three-mile 



state limit is state property once it has 

 remained unclaimed more than 10 

 years. It is illegal to remove artifacts 

 from these vessels without a contract 

 or permit. 



The only exception to this law is a 

 blockade runner, The Modern Greece. 

 A $1 permit from the Underwater 

 Archeology Branch at Fort Fisher 

 allows divers to retrieve unattached ar- 

 tifacts from around this wreck. But 

 even then the state may claim any item 

 a diver finds if it is of historical value. 



"When divers first started diving the 

 wrecks many of them were going out 

 there just to rip off the vessels," says 

 Leslie Bright, an archaeologist at Fort 

 Fisher. "But now they're beginning to 

 understand the historical significance 

 of what we have there." 



The U-325 



Another controversial topic in North 

 Carolina wreck diving is the U-352, a 

 German submarine that lies in 115 feet 

 of water about 26 miles south of the 

 Beaufort Inlet. One armed torpedo 

 protrudes from the sub's firing tube 

 and four others are visible in storage 

 racks. 



Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker 

 drew national attention to the sub last 

 year when he made a dive on the wreck 

 and said it presented a "very real 

 danger" to divers and fishermen. 

 Weicker asked the U.S. Navy to in- 

 vestigate. 



After the Navy reached an agree- 



ment with the West German govern- 

 ment over the remains of the U-boat 

 crew, the Germans gave the Navy per- 

 mission to explore and destroy the 

 wreck if necessary. The Navy found 

 the ordnance dangerous and is pres- 

 ently deciding whether the sub should 

 be destroyed or whether an attempt 

 should be made to remove the tor- 

 pedoes. 



Many N.C. divers maintain the 

 Navy and Senator Weicker are ex- 

 aggerating the wreck's danger and feel 

 that destruction of it is unnecessary. 



"That particular wreck is so deep 

 you only have about 15 minutes of bot- 

 tom time. I would say if you took 100 

 divers that had dived on the sub that 

 you might find one of them that could 

 tell you where that torpedo was," says 

 Eastep. "Yes, there is a chance some 

 diver might go down there and set that 

 torpedo off. But there is also the 

 possibility when you are walking down 

 the street you'll get hit by a car." 



Meanwhile, the U-352 has become 

 one of the most frequently visited 

 wrecks in the coastal graveyard. 



The German sub is not the only 

 wreck known to have carried ordnance, 

 so divers should exert caution when 

 diving on any wreck off the coast. 



While wreck diving in North 

 Carolina has aroused some con- 

 troversy, the wrecks are still the most 

 popular spots to dive because of the 

 valuable history and biology lessons 

 they offer to those willing to visit their 

 graves. 



A ferocious-looking barracuda grins for the camera 



