Show Sea Tragedies Recalled as Autumn Storms Uncover Rotting Wreckage of Ships on North Carolina Coast f British and Spanish Men of War Clippers Among Grim Relics i By BILL SHARP 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 alread 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 time old shipwrights and the sturdiness of their materials is isi ise i e the preservation of or orthe the timbers and planking of these orphans of the storm against generations of grind grind- grinding grinding grinding ing sand and pounding wave When iron men went down to the sea in ships with hearts of oak it was not the ships that failed in the face of the elements Some of the derelicts now on view all the way from Nags Nag's Head to Ocracoke Inlet are familiar and re- re recall recall recall call many an anecdote But some are beyond the ken of the oldest coastguardsmen or their records The Carroll Deering dhe of the most interesting is the ghost ship Carroll Deering out of Bath Maine She Sh was found on Dia Dia- Diamond Diamond Diamond mond Shoals in jn 1921 undamaged with sails set with uneaten food foo 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 Is- Is Island I 1 land sanded up and was lost to sight and almost to memory until the hur hur- hurricane hurricane hurricane scoured out her hull The George W Wells first six six- masted schooner ever built 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 ship ship- shipwrecks shipwrecks shipwrecks wrecks antedated colonization of these shores The chroniclers of Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke Island colony 1587 found the aborigines aborigines' using crude iron tools which were believed fashioned from spikes tak tak- taken taken taken en from a shipwreck There is rec rec- record record record ord of a Spanish shipwreck at Hat- Hat Hatteras Hatteras Hatteras teras in 1558 and some of its crew were rescued by the Indians Also on exhibition again is the remnant of the Ariosto British tramp a victim of an 1899 storm A mystery among the wrecks s on tion of some wooden vessel possible she foundered many The first clue to her plight came 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 arid surfboats could not be launched Twenty-one Twenty men lost their lives and lie buried atop a lone lone- lonely lonely 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 I March 2 1942 and is visible 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 of eight survived saved by the Lyle gun and breeches buoy and after the captain had arranged for the auction sale of salvage GHOST SHIP sniP This is all that is left l rt of the Car Car- Carroll Carroll Carroll roll A. A Deering out of Bath Maine A storm drove her upon Diamond Shoals January 29 1921 When coastguardsmen co boarded her they found fO Dd her undamaged The sails were set food was vas on the table and andon andon andon on the stove but no one was aboard Only a disconsolate cat roamed the decks No trace was ever found of any of 01 her crew although every ef effort fort was wa made Since she could not be floated again the coast guard blew her up N. N nn r I e t 3 5 s SS r i N. N yAel iCey v d s V T s l CAF r C S f jr jrr r n 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 I Ithe the fury of a hurricane Drifting sands are piling over it again and ft It will soon disappear from sight he started for home While chang chang- changing changing changing 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 vis vis- visible ible in a calm sea the bell tank and boiler of the Huron a war war- warship warship warship ship wrecked November 24 1877 with a loss of lives the lives the worst disaster in U. U 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 Ro Ro- Roanoke Roanoke Ro- Ro Roanoke Island is believed to be the only person still alive who saw the ghastly affair and affair and ghastly it was for subsequent investigation dis dis- disclosed disclosed dis- dis disclosed 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 pro pro- produced produced produced a lot of maritime heroism From Oregon Inlet to Ocracoke In In- Inlet Inlet 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 55 Mirlo a British tanker was torpedoed and Capt John Allen 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 55 City of Atlanta in 1942 was destroyed in the same way and about the same spot but the boys were unable to get through h the fire On the same day and within an hour helpless watchers on the Banks saw a German submarine p r r y u 2 F i S J Y the North Carolina coast is this por pore records fail to name her and it is lions ago sink two other vessels and damage still another The Atlanta's bones now rest by those of the Mirlo t One of the most dramatic events of sub warfare was on August 8 19 8 when Diamond Lightship guarding the easternmost tip of Dia Dia- Diamond Diamond Diamond mond Shoals was sunk by submarine submarine submarine rine gunfire Capt W. W L L. Barnett and his crew roared over the boiling shoals 12 miles to the thc beach Bar Bar- Barnett Barnett Barnett nett now retired lives at Buxton The lightship added her skeleton to t 0 that fabulous Graveyard of the At At- Atlantic lantic Diamond Shoals where lie so s o many metal hulks that compasses of o f passing ships are pulled off north by b bas y as much as 8 degrees Modern l Flying Dutchman The peculiar configuration of the th e North Carolina coast with the sandy capes jutting out causes mariners mariners' anxious preoccupation reoccupation with this s area Most dangerous are Diamond Diamon d Shoals an extension of Cape Hat Hat- Hatteras Hatteras teras 12 miles into the Atlantic a an n area ot of constantly shifting quick sands It is a maxim of sailors that once on the Diamond Shoals no vessel ves ves- vessel vessel 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 10 trace of the vessel could be found Thirteen days later the schooner was sighted by the Dutch tanker in the North At At- lantic A general order was released to run down the modern modem Flying Dutchman but though she was re re- reported reported reported 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 iron iron- ironclad ironclad ironclad clad Monitor Following her en en- engagement engagement engagement with the Confederate Merrimac Mer- Mer Merrimac Merrimac in Hampton Roads March 9 1862 the damaged Monitor was sent south in tow of the Rhode Island A gale sprang up and the little sank on the shoals with a loss of 16 49 oth oth- others others others ers were rescued by the Rhode Is Is- Is land Hatteras is a control point in set set- setting setting setting ting courses for coastwise and West Indian shipping because the short short- shortest shortest shortest est route lies near the Cape Northbound North North- Northbound Northbound 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 current sweeping down from the arctic Thus ships pass as close to the Cape as they can and sudden storms there are arc a hazard Alexander Hamilton recommend recommend- recommended 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 a new light feet high was built highest brick light in the world and served until l 1936 when the encroaching sea led the government to erect still another light further inland at Buxton Diamond Lightship also was anchored an an- anchored anchored at the tip lip 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 oid spiral- spiral striped brick tower as a day warning warn warn- warning warning ing Diamond Lightship the new Buxton Budon Light and the modern radio I 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 I Bankers practiced shipwrecking and I looting However some homes are partly fashioned from the timber of old ships and many a house con con- contains contains contains 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 concern concern- concerning concerning concerning ing a preacher for whom Starr Star r Methodist church there is named During the severe winter of 1813 1813 so the story goes the goes the citizens of o f 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 re re- resorted resorted re- re resorted sorted to prayer If it is predestined predestined tined there be a wreck on the At At- Atlantic Atlantic A Alantic lantic coast he pleaded please pleas e let it be Thy will that it happen hopes n herel here In a few days a laden flour ship wrecked on Core Banks an and d famine was wad prevented y r. r F lM |