Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname for the treacherous waters and area of numerous shipwrecks off the

Outer Banks The Outer Banks (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, United States, which are due to the coast's shifting sands and inlets. To a lesser degree, this nickname has also been applied to

Sable Island Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island i ...

off of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada, as well as the waters off

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States.

Outer Banks

Along the Outer Banks, navigational challenges posed by the

Diamond Shoals The Diamond Shoals are an infamous, always-shifting cluster of shallow, underwater sandbars that extend out from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States. Hidden beneath the waves and constantly changing in both form and depth, the shoals are ...

area off

Cape Hatteras Cape Hatteras is a cape located at a pronounced bend in Hatteras Island, one of the barrier islands of North Carolina. Long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and maritime forests create a unique environment where wind and waves shape ...

, caused the loss of thousands of ships and an unknown number of human lives. More than 5,000 ships have sunk in these waters since record-keeping began in 1526. The

Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is a maritime museum that focuses on the maritime history and shipwrecks of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The museum is located in Hatteras Village, the southernmost community on Hatteras Island, North ...

, located in Hatteras Village, focuses on the history of this area and features many artifacts recovered from area shipwrecks. Among the better known shipwrecks were the , a participant in the famous

Battle of Hampton Roads The Battle of Hampton Roads, also referred to as the Battle of the ''Monitor'' and ''Virginia'' (rebuilt and renamed from the USS ''Merrimack'') or the Battle of Ironclads, was a naval battle during the American Civil War. It was fought over t ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, and the ''Patriot'' which carried

Theodosia Burr Alston Theodosia Burr Alston (June 21, 1783 – January 2 or 3, 1813) was an American socialite and the daughter of the third U.S. Vice President, Aaron Burr, and Theodosia Bartow Prevost. Her husband, Joseph Alston, was governor of South Carolina du ...

, Aaron Burr's daughter. The ''Monitor'' foundered and sank on December 31, 1862, off

, while the ''Patriot'' presumably sank off the coast in January 1813. The first recorded shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina was in 1526 off the mouth of Cape Fear River. The large numbers of explorers who came to the area in subsequent years had to travel through the rough waters to get to the coast of North Carolina. In June 1718,

Edward Teach Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about ...

—better known as

Blackbeard Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English Piracy, pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's Thirteen Colonies, North American colon ...

the pirate—ran his flagship, the ''

Queen Anne's Revenge ''Queen Anne's Revenge'' was an early-18th-century ship, most famously used as a flagship by Edward Teach, better known by his nickname Blackbeard. Although the date and place of the ship's construction are uncertain, it was originally believed ...

'', aground near present-day Beaufort Inlet, NC. Thirty-two years later, in August 1750, at least three Spanish merchantmen ran aground off North Carolina during a hurricane: the ''

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

'' sank near Cape Lookout, while the ''Nuestra Señora de Soledad'' went ashore on near present-day Core Banks, and the ''Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe'' went ashore near present-day

Ocracoke Island Ocracoke
, from the North Carolina Collection website at the

. Survivors of a much earlier shipwreck created the lost town of

Wash Woods, Virginia Wash Woods was an unincorporated town on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the former Princess Anne County (now the independent City of Virginia Beach), in the southeastern corner of Virginia. It has been abandoned since the 1930s, except for th ...

using lumber that washed ashore. However, the extreme weather eventually claimed the town as well. The Graveyard extends along the whole of the North Carolina coast, northward past Chicamacomico,

Bodie Island Bodie Island ( ) is a long, narrow barrier peninsula that forms the northernmost portion of the Outer Banks. The land that is most commonly referred to as Bodie Island was at one time a true island, but in 1811 Roanoke Inlet, which had separated i ...

, and

Nags Head Nag's Head or Nags Head may refer to: ;In London * Nag's Head, London, a locality in Holloway ** Nag's Head Market, a street market * Nag's Head, Covent Garden, a pub ;Elsewhere in the United Kingdom * Nag's Head Island, Abingdon-on-Thames * ...

Sandbridge Beach Sandbridge, in the U.S. state of Virginia, is a coastal community of Virginia Beach, located along the coastline on the Currituck Banks Peninsula at the northern end of the Outer Banks. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east, the Back Bay of the Cu ...

, and southward in curving arcs to the points at Cape Lookout and Cape Fear. This spot is known as Cape Point, which is the stretch of beach that divides Hatteras Island's north- and south-facing beaches. It is a very famous spot on the east coast, despite its fragile location. Cape Hatteras has been a deadly trap for sailors that have entered over the centuries. The stretch of shore is home to more than 600 shipwrecks off the shifting sandbars of the Hatteras Islands.(2008). Graveyard of the Atlantic. http://www.ncbeaches.com/Features/History/GraveyardOfTheAtlantic The sandbars shift due to rough waves and unpredictable currents. Another danger was the Outer Banks "wreckers." Some residents of the Outer Banks, known as wreckers, made part of their living by scavenging wrecked ships—or by luring ships to their destruction. Horses with a lantern tied to their neck would be walked along the beach. The lanterns' up and down motion would appear to other ships to represent clear water and a ship ahead. The unsuspecting captain would then drive his ship ashore following the false light. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, German

U-boats U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare rol ...

would sit offshore and prey on passing freighters and tankers silhouetted against the lights onshore. Hundreds of ships along the North Carolina coast were torpedoed by submarines in this fashion in what became known as

Torpedo Alley The Torpedo Alley, or Torpedo Junction, off North Carolina, is one of the graveyards of the Atlantic Ocean, named for the high number of attacks on Allied shipping by German U-boats in World War II. Almost 400 ships were sunk, mostly during t ...

. In the twenty-first century, ships still have trouble in the area including the ''Bounty'' which sank off Cape Hatteras in 2012 due to Hurricane Sandy and a 72-foot fishing boat called the ''Ocean Pursuit'' which ran aground on

in 2020.

Sable Island

The title "Graveyard of the Atlantic" is also applied to

, a narrow crescent of sand that lies 300 km southeast of

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

. There have been over 350 recorded shipwrecks since the HMS ''Delight'' in 1583. People believe that the island was first discovered in the 1520s by the European explorer

João Álvares Fagundes João Álvares Fagundes (born c. 1460, Kingdom of Portugal – died 1522, Kingdom of Portugal) was an explorer and ship owner from Viana do Castelo in Northern Portugal. He organized several expeditions to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia around 1520 ...

, who named it Fagundes, but the name was changed by the French at the end of the 16th century to île de Sable, which means Sand Island. The island is little more than a 40 km long sandbar, although it does have a number of fresh water ponds.Keddy, V (2008). Mysteries of Canada. http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Nova_Scotia/sable_island.htm It is only 1.5 km wide at its widest; the highest point on the island is approx 30 metres tall. Rev.

Andrew Le Mercier Andrew Le Mercier (1692-1764) was French-born Protestant Huguenot leader in Boston in the 18th century and author. Le Mercier was born in Normandy, France in 1692, completing clerical studies in Geneva at the then Collège Calvin, Geneva Academy in ...

was a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

who tried to colonize the island in 1738. There are approximately 400–550

feral horses A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these ...

that are believed to be the descendants of survivors of those that were introduced by Le Mercier. These horses feed off the wild grass, plants and fresh water sources throughout the island. Sable Island is home to the largest

grey seal The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Latin Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed sea pig". It is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or " ...

colony in the world. There are also many types of birds, including the

Ipswich sparrow The Savannah sparrow (''Passerculus sandwichensis'') is a small New World sparrow. It was the only member of the genus '' Passerculus'' and is typically the only widely accepted member. Comparison of mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 and 3 seque ...

, who breeds only on Sable Island. In 2013, Sable Island was designated a National Park Reserve In the age of sail, the danger of Sable Island was due to the shifting sand bars that surround it, and the thick fog in the area due to the close proximity of the cold

Labrador Current The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Sco ...

and warm

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Current, North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida a ...

current. Ships were often pushed onto its shores during storms, resulting in a life-saving station being established there in 1801. In 1872, the Canadian Government added two lighthouses one on each end of island, which helped reduce the number of wrecks. The last shipwreck was the Merrimac, which occurred in 1999. With the many advances in modern navigation, the two

lighthouses A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark ...

have been decommissioned. Due to the strange (and mostly uninhabited) location of Sable Island,

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...

made it an outpost for radio communication experimentation. In 1901, Marconi thought this Atlantic island would be a good location for a wireless station for transatlantic communication.

References

External links

{{Spoken Wikipedia, En-graveyardoftheatlantic.ogg, date=2005-12-10
Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum website

WWII German UBoats

Wreck Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

National Register of Historic Places
National Park Service
Scientists Show Relics From Ship Fit For Pirate, Possibly Blackbeard
Chicago Tribune Geography of North Carolina Geography of Virginia Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Outer Banks Ship graveyards

Outer Banks

Sable Island

See also

References

External links