Show eit sea tragedies recalled as autumn storms uncover R rotting otti ng wreckage of ships on north Farn lina rw british and nd spanish men of war clippers ablong mong grim relics by BILL SHARP once more caribbean storms have lifted the cur curtain tain on hundreds of tragedies which were played out on the lonely beaches of the outer banks of north north carolina in the past three artree centuries but as usual it is a fleeting show sand swept away by tides ggs of the september hurricane already is drifting back with mild southwest winds and before long most of the ex posed exposed wrecks will be 0 hidden again silent tribute to the craftsmanship of the old time shipwrights ship wrights and the sturdiness of their materials is the preservation of the timbers and planking clanking of these orphans of the storm a against gain L generations of grinding 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 head to Ocra ocracoke coke inlet are familiar and recall many an anecdote but some are beyond the ken of the olde oldest s t coastguardsmen or their records the carroll deering one of the most interesting is the ghost ship carroll peering deering out of bath maine she was found on diamond shoals in 1921 undamaged with sails set with uneaten food on the he table and on the stove but with onlia 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 Ocra coke island sanded up and was lost to sight and almost to memory until the hurricane scoured out her hull the george W wells first six masted schooner ever built and then the largest wood vessel afloat is also exposed she came ashore in a 1913 gale at ocracoke Ocra coke i up at nags head were uncovered agam again the tired ribs of the quaint i warship believed by many to be a Crump ster 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 1 antedated colonization of these shores the chroniclers of sir 4 walter raleight Ra leighs roanoke island 1 11 colony 1587 found f the aborigines II using crude iron tools which were obelie believed ved fashioned from spikes tak ij en from a shipwreck there is rec lord of a spanish shipwreck at hat ftc ras in 1558 1553 and some of its crew fecere were rescued by the indians r t T also on exhibition again is the remnant of the ariosto british tramp a victim of an 1899 storm I 1 e first clue to her plight came one 0 o 10 D december december night when arasman ards man mathew guthrie each c patrol the body stumbled over mt t I 1 fh of a dying S sailor who gasped teak news that a vessel was shore hor up y a few hundred dred yards tach ach S A lyle sun gun shot could not her launched and surfboats surf fb boats oats could no not t elf U T wenty nty one men lost ves and lie bu buried ried atop a lone i 8 dun dune e six jaa da floats more swam abed d ashore ig iron ave alive e was the sequel to the death faur d schooner anna R ritter athaly of new york loaded dyewood ach 2 which came ashore ats r e she cu 1942 and is visible off 5 t anch anchor 0 ran into a gale ale and put ors k but r dragged onto the B ingfield ia bennett ennett D Cole mari eight SU mass ass and his crew W y ra and d ahre revived J saved by the lyle I 1 atas CaPt ptas breeches t hes buoy and after had ayue due arranged for the suction auction sale of salvage 7 77 at z 4 FF V A aap it Y ra RNE 7 T RI j 11 40 1 V ff stands the burned out hull bull of an old schooner the kohler of baltimore bleakly on a sand bar near hatteras N C it the was uncovered by fury of a hurricane soon disappear from sight drifting sands are piling over it again and it will he started for home while changing trains in new york he was run down by a taxicab and killed worst navy wreck off the beach at nags head is visible in a calm sea the bell tank and boiler of the huron a warship wrecked november 24 1877 with a loss of lives the worst disaster in U 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 caan jeff hayman of roanoke island is believed to be the only person still alive who saw the ghastly affair and ghastly it was for subsequent investigation disclosed that some of those aboard were drunk that fateful night when sobriety might have saved both ship and crew caan jeff today has the silver sugar bowl from the huron captains table such maritime violence has produced a lot of maritime heroism from oregon inlet to ocracoke Ocra coke inlet are some 27 holders of congressional medals of honor possibly the largest group of heroes per capita 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 alien 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 banks saw a german submarine ann 02 e X aa 4 A coast is this por carolina mystery north among the wrecks on the of fail to name her and it is J some wooden vessel oldest records fe isible she he foundered many generations ago sink two other vessels and damage still 3 nother another the At lantas bones now rest by those of the mirlo I 1 one of the most dra dramatic matic events of sub warfare was on august 8 1918 when diamond lightship guarding the easternmost tip of diamond shoals was sunk by b y s submarine u b m a gunfire ca capt pt W L ba barnett m e tt and an roared over the boiling boil ing his crew shoals 12 miles mil es to the beach barnett now I 1 retired et ired lives at buxton the lightship added adde I 1 her skeleton to graveyard of the atlantic that fabulous diamond shoals where lie so metal hulks bulks that compasses compass es of many off north by passing ships are pulled as much muc h as 8 degrees 1 1 flying dutchman modern of the configuration the peculiar peculia ir the sandy carolina carolin coast with north out causes mariners marinero ma capes jutting with this anxious preoccupation diamond most dang dan dangerous gerou berou are area extension 0 of f cape hatteras shoals an an atlantic the 12 miles into area ot of constantly shifting quick sands it is a maxim of sailors that once on the diamond shoals no vessel ever comes off the maurice R thurlow proved an exception however when she ran aground in a 1927 storm the coast 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 atlantic A general order was released to run down the modern modem flying dutchman but though she was reported 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 pioneering federal ironclad monitor following her engagement ga with the confederate merrimac in hampton roads march 9 1862 the damaged monitor was sent south in tow of the side wheeler rhode island A gale sprang up and the little sank on the shoals with a loss of 16 49 others were rescued by the rhode island hatteras is a control point in setting courses for coastwise and west indian shipping because the shortest route lies near the cape northbound shipping finds a favorable current by staying in the guu gulf stream which brushes the tip of the shoals while southbound ti traffic affa affi g goes 0 e 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 a hazard alexander hamilton recommended 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 high was built highest brick light in the world and served until 1936 when th the e encroaching sea led the government to erect still another light further inland at buxton diamond lightship also was anchored at the tip of the shoals and a navy radio direction station was set up at the cape inasmuch as the new steel girder lighthouse is not visible to ocean ships by day the cape now has f four our navigation aids for the mariner the old spiral striped brick tower as a day warning diamond lightship the new B buxton light and the modern radio finding station no Ship wreckers 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 ship wrecking and looting however some homes are partly fashioned from the timber 0 of f old ships and many a house contains articles salvaged from doomed ships or bought at the in this connection is recalled the most popular legend of the vill village a ge of straits in carteret county concerning a preacher for whom starr metho methodist dist church there is named during the seve severe re winter of 1813 so the story goes the citizens ot of straits were starving after a crop killing drouth the previous ious summer frozen sounds prevented anted fishing and the napoleonic wars and a british blockade blocked e made commerce impossible 11 parson arson starr thus resorted to prayer it if it is predestined there be a wreck on the at lantic alantic coast he pleaded dal please ease let it be thy will that it happen herel here in a fe few av days a flour laden ship wre wrecked ked on core banks and famine was prevented |