Important North Carolina Shipwrecks 



Note: Descending on a deepwater 

 wreck, such as the Monitor, can be 

 dangerous. Divers interested in 

 exploring North Carolina's 

 shipwrecks should first consult 

 qualified diving professionals. 



• USS Huron 



Sunk in 1877, the USS Huron is 

 North Carolina's only Historic 

 Shipwreck Preserve. More than 

 100 people died when the ship 

 sank in a storm. The vessel, which 

 lies 250 yards from the beach, 

 draws divers and snorkelers to 

 Nags Head during the summer. 

 Some parts of the ship have 

 eroded, but the lower hull and 

 portions of the bow remain intact. 

 The ship's huge propeller and 

 rudder remain, as well as boilers 

 and cannonball storage racks. The 

 shifting sands of North Carolina's 

 shoals continually cover and 

 uncover different parts of the ship. 



• The Ironclad Monitor 



After a brief career in combat, the 

 Civil War blockade runner sank in an 

 1862 tempest. In 1973, the Monitor 

 was finally located near Cape Hatteras 

 by a team of scientists from the 

 National Science Foundation, the 

 National Geographic Society, Duke 

 University, the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology and the University of 

 Delaware. Sophisticated electronic 

 technology was needed to locate and 

 identify the ship, which rested 230 

 feet below the ocean's surface. Divers 

 need permits to visit the state- 

 managed site. Most of the artifacts 

 recovered from the Monitor were 

 moved to the Mariners' Museum in 

 Newport News, Va. 



• USS Atlas 



In 1942, the USS Atlas met a fiery fate 

 after being sunk by a German 

 submarine near Cape Lookout. The 

 tanker carried a crew of 34 men, most 



of whom escaped to Morehead 

 City in lifeboats after the attack. 

 Two were lost in the flames that 

 erupted around the oil-fired 

 steamship. Today the wreck 

 remains largely intact, with the 

 hull and bulkheads still standing. 



Remains of both U.S. and 

 German vessels scatter the ocean 

 floor off North Carolina's coast, 

 reminders of the submarine 

 warfare that marked World War I 

 and World War II. By the time the 

 United States declared war on 

 Germany on April 6, 1917, a 

 German merchant submarine had 

 already proven its trans-Atlantic 

 capability. In World War II, 

 during the first six months of 

 1942, German U-boats perused 

 the coast freely until the United 

 States developed effective anti- 

 submarine defenses. 



points out in his book, about 90 

 vessels were sunk off the Carolina 

 coast during the war — not including 

 an undetermined number of German 

 submarines. 



"Of these, better than two-thirds 

 were sunk by Nazi raiders, the 

 remainder going down as the result of 

 striking mines, stranding or founder- 

 ing at sea," he writes. 



In 1970, Stick and the National 

 Geographic Society studied North 

 Carolina's waters and pinpointed 

 many of the wrecks. But most state 

 bottomlands remain unsurveyed for 

 submerged archaeological sites, 

 according to the N.C. Division of 

 Archives and History. 



So far, the archaeological unit has 

 documented about 700 vessels, 

 ranging from prehistoric dugout 

 canoes to Civil War era steamboats to 

 20th century ships. 



The USS Huron underwater 

 preserve opened in 1991. When a 

 storm ravaged the Huron on Nov. 24, 

 1877, more than 100 people lost their 

 lives. The ship was en route from New 

 York to Key West, Fla., when it was 

 caught in the squalls of a North 

 Carolina coastal storm. Although the 

 ship's captain was a seasoned naviga- 

 tor, he failed to obey a popular sailing 

 maxim of the day: Never set sail on a 

 Friday. Many people at the time 

 thought this oversight led to the ship's 

 demise, Stick writes. Resting just 250 

 yards from the beach, the wreck now 

 draws curious divers and swimmers to 

 Nags Head. 



Recreational divers have often 

 been the first to recognize the histori- 

 cal value of shipwrecks and organize 

 efforts to protect them. 



Gordon Watts, a maritime 

 historian at East Carolina University, 



compares tourism's effects on 

 shipwrecks to those on national parks 

 such as Yellowstone. "You have a 

 tremendous natural area and if the 

 public's going to appreciate it, they're 

 going to have an impact on it. That's 

 the same thing that happens with 

 shipwrecks," Watts says. 



Despite support from most divers 

 for bringing wrecks under public 

 management, some owners of charter 

 dive operations have resisted the idea 

 of publicly managing some of their 

 most profitable spots. "But most 

 people who run their own businesses 

 realize it's in their best interest to 

 preserve those shipwrecks," Watts 

 says. 



Divers should be required to 

 learn about laws regarding underwater 

 cultural sites when they are certified, 

 Watts believes. "I think it's part of 

 being a responsible diver," he says. □ 



COASTWATCH 1 5 



