Show Sea Tragedies Recalled as Autumn Storms Uncover Rotting Wreckage of Ships on North Carolina Coast Coas British and I IMen Spanish Men en of oar War Clippers i ers I Among Grim Relics By BILL SHARP Once more Caribbean storms have lifted the curtain on hundreds of tragedies which were played out on the lonely beaches of the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the past three centuries centuries but but as usual it is isa isa isa a fleeting show Sand swept away by tides of the September hurricane already is drifting back with mild southwest winds and before long most of the exposed wrecks will be hidden again Silent tribute to the craftsmanship of the tile time old-time shipwrights and the sturdiness of their materials is the preservation of the timbers and planking of these orphans of the storm against generations of grinding grinding grind grind- ing tag sand and pounding wave When iron men went down to the sea In ill ships with hearts of oak it was not the ships that failed in the face of the elements clements Some of the derelicts now on view all the way from Nags Nag's Head to Ocracoke Inlet are familiar and recall recall recall re re- call many an anecdote But some are beyond the ken of the oldest coastguardsmen or their records The Carroll Carroll Deering One of the most interesting is the ghost ship Carroll Deering out of Bath Maine She was found on Diamond Diamond Diamond Dia Dia- mond Shoals in 1921 undamaged with sails set with uneaten food on the table and on the stove but with only a cat to greet the coast guard crew which boarded her The Deering passed Diamond lightship the day before but that was the last seen of any of her crew and the cat kept her own counsel Later she drifted onto Ocracoke Is Island Island Island Is- Is land sanded up and was lost to sight and almost to memory until the hurricane hurricane hurricane hur hur- scoured out her hull The George W. W Wells first six- six masted schooner ever built buitt and then the largest wood vessel afloat is also exposed She came ashore In a 1913 gale at Ocracoke Up at Nags Nag's Head were uncovered again the tired ribs of the quaint warship believed by many to be a of Elizabethan days She was first revealed by a storm in 1939 and her primitive construction and fittings aroused much speculation There is some justification for the romantic identification for shipwrecks shipwrecks shipwrecks ship ship- wrecks antedated colonization of these shores The chroniclers of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke Island colony 1587 found the aborigines using crude iron tools which were believed fashioned from spikes taken taken taken tak tak- en from a shipwreck There is record record record rec rec- ord of a Spanish shipwreck at Hatteras Hatteras Hatteras Hat- Hat teras in 1558 and some of its crew were rescued by the Indians Also on exhibition again is the remnant of ot the Ariosto British tramp a victim of an 1899 storm I I S t i X f 1 v f fe 4 4 7 SS f r r r. r o I IThe The burned out hull of an old schooner the Kohler of Baltimore stands bleakly on a sand bar near Hatteras N. N C. C It was uncovered by bythe bythe bythe the fury furr of a hurricane Drifting sands are piling over it again and it will soon disappear from sight he started for home While White changIng changing changing chang chang- ing trains in New York he was run rundown rundown rundown down by a taxicab and killed Worst Navy Wreck Off the beach at Nags Nag's Head is visible visible visible vis vis- vis- vis ible in a calm sea the bell tank and boiler of the Huron a warship warship warship war war- ship wrecked November 24 24 1877 with a loss of lives the lives the worst disaster in U. U S. S S naval history up to that time The crew members were buried on the beach and relatives came for many years after to search in the shifting sands for them Jeff Hayman of Roanoke Roanoke Roanoke Ro Ro- Ro- Ro Island is believed to be the only person still alive who saw the ghastly affair and affair and ghastly It was for subsequent investigation disclosed disclosed disclosed dis dis- dis- dis closed that some of those aboard were drunk that fateful night when sobriety might have saved both ship and crew Jeff today has the silver sugar bowl from the Huron captains captain's table Such maritime violence has produced produced produced pro pro- a lot of ot maritime heroism From Oregon Inlet to Ocracoke Inlet Inlet Inlet In In- let are some 27 holders of Congressional Congressional Congressional Medals of Honor possibly the largest group of heroes per capita capitain in these United States Six of them came as a sequel to the events of August 16 1918 when the SS Mirlo a British tanker was torpedoed and Capt John Allen llen Midgett and five members of the coast guard station braved a sea of blazing oil to rescue 42 members of the crew Strangely enough the SS City of Atlanta in 1942 was destroyed in the same way and about the same spot but the boys were unable to get through the fire On the same day and within an hour helpless watchers on the SY L' L LA s I A mystery among among the wrecks on the North Carolina coast is this portion portion portion por por- tion of 01 some wooden vessel Oldest records fail fait to name her and it is possible she foundered many generations ago The first clue to her plight came carrie one cold foggy December night when coastguardsman Mathew Guthrie on beach patrol stumbled over the body of a dying sailor who gasped out the news that a vessel was breaking up a few hundred yards offshore A Lyle gun shot could not reach her and surfboats could not be launched Twenty-one Twenty men lost their lives and lie buried atop a lonely lonely lonely lone lone- ly Ocracoke dune Six more swam and floated ashore alive Ironic was the sequel to the death of the masted four-masted schooner Anna R. R of New York loaded with dyewood which came ashore March 2 2 1942 and is visible off off- shore She ran into a gale and put putout putout putout out anchors but dragged onto the shoals Capt Bennett D. D Coleman of Springfield Mass and his crew crew of eight survived saved by the Lyle gun and breeches buoy and after the captain had arranged for the auction sale of salvage Banks saw a German submarine 1 sink two other vessels and damage i still another The Atlanta's bones now rest by those of the Mirlo I One of the most dramatic events I of sub warfare was on August 8 I 1918 when Diamond Lightship guarding the easternmost tip of Diamond Diamond Diamond Dia Dia- mond Shoals was sunk by submarine submarine submarine rine gunfire Capt W. W L L. L Barnett and his crew roared over the boiling shoals 12 miles to the tile beach Barnett Barnett Barnett Bar Bar- nett now retired lives at Buxton The lightship added her skeleton to that fabulous Graveyard of the Atlantic Atlantic Atlantic At At- lantic Diamond Shoals where lie so many metal hulks that compasses of passing ships are arc pulled off of north by byas byas byas as much as 8 degrees Modern Flying FI ing Dutchman The peculiar configuration of the North Carolina coast with the sandy capes jutting out causes mariners' mariners anxious preoccupation with this area Most dangerous are Diamond Shoals an extension of Cape Hat Hat- teras terns 12 miles mites into the Atlantic an anarea anarea anarea area of constantly shifting quick sands It is a maxim of sailors that once on the Diamond Shoals no vessel vessel vessel ves ves- sel ever comes off The Maurice R. R Thurlow proved an exception however when she ran aground in a 1927 storm The coast coastguard coastguard coastguard guard removed her crew but when a cutter came down to try to pull her off no trace of the vessel could be found Thirteen days later the schooner was sighted by the Dutch tanker In the North At At- I lantic A general order was released to run down the modern modem Fly Flying ng Dutchman but though she was reported reported reported re re- re- re ported from time to time the sea wanderer was never overtaken and no one knows what became of her In the shoals lies another famous ship the ship the pioneering Federal ironclad ironclad ironclad iron iron- clad Monitor l Following her engagement engagement engagement en en- with the Confederate Merrimac Merrimac Merrimac Mer- Mer in Hampton Roads March 9 1862 the damaged Monitor was sent south in hi tow of the Rhode Island A gale sprang up and the little sank on the shoals with a loss of 16 49 others others others oth oth- ers were rescued by the Rhode Is Is- Is land Hatteras is a control point in setting setting setting set set- ting courses for coastwise and West Indian shipping because the shortest shortest shortest short short- est route lies near the Cape Cape- Northbound Northbound Northbound North- North bound shipping finds a favorable current by staying in the Gulf Stream which brushes the tip of the Shoals while southbound traffic goes between the Stream and the coast where there is a southerly I current sweeping down from the arctic Thus ships pass as close to the Cape as they can Alexander Hamilton recommended recommend recommend- ed a lighthouse at Hatteras in 1794 and it was completed in 1798 but was too low to provide an adequate signal In 1870 a new light feet feet high was built highest brick light in the world and served until 1936 when the encroaching sea led the government to erect still another light further inland at Buxton Diamond Lightship also was anchored anchored anchored an an- at the tip of the Shoals and anda a navy radio direction station was set up at the Cape Inasmuch as the new lighthouse is not visible to ocean ships by day the cape now has four navigation aids for the mariner the mariner the old spiral- spiral striped brick tower as a day warning warning warning warn warn- ing Diamond Lightship the new Buxton Light and the modern radio finding station No While it is probably true that for many years shipwrecks were the principal importation of the Banks there appears no evidence to support the charge that long ago the Bankers practiced shipwrecking and looting However some homes are partly fashioned from the timber of ot old ships and many a house contains contains contains con con- articles salvaged from doomed ships or bought at the In this connection Is recalled the most popular legend of the village of Straits in Carteret county concerning concerning concerning concern concern- ing a preacher for whom Starr Methodist church there Is named During the severe winter of 1813 1813 so the story goes the goes the citizens of Straits were starving after a crop- crop killing drouth the previous summer Frozen sounds prevented fishing and the Napoleonic wars and a British blockade made commerce Impossible Parson Starr thus resorted resorted resorted re re- re- re sorted to prayer If U it is predestined predestined predestined tined there be a wreck on the Atlantic Atlantic Atlantic At At- lantic coast he pleaded please let it be Thy will that it happen here In a few days a laden flour-laden ship wrecked on Core Banks and famine was prevented |