The Graveyard of the Atlantic — it’s a familiar epithet used to describe the mercurial shoreline of our beloved Outer Banks. Hundreds of years worth of wreckage lay to rest along our coast, amounting to more than 1,000 ships sunk off the coast of Cape Hatteras alone.
So what makes the OBX coastline so difficult to navigate?
3 Major Factors:
- The Diamond Shoals are an always-shifting series of shallow, underwater sandbars extending eight miles out from Cape Hatteras. The shoals caught many wooden sailing ships off their guard while following coastal trade routes.
- Strong ocean currents — two collide near Cape Hatteras, the cold water Labrador current and the warm Gulf stream converge just offshore. In order to take advantage of these currents, ships came dangerously close to shore.
- Regional storms — while the Diamond Shoals and currents may not have posed any problems on the calmest of days, the all-too-familiar hurricanes and nor’easters often proved to be the final straw, blowing vessels into shore and pounding them into submission.
Want to learn more about the shipwrecks?
Shipwrecks caused by environmental conditions, combined with other shipwrecks attributed to piracy, the American Civil War, and German U-boat assaults make for an interesting underwater adventure.
You can see many of the wrecks up-close-and-personal on a diving excursion with groups like Dive Hatteras. If you prefer to learn more from the safety of the shore, visit the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras for a complete history of local wreckage.