Graveyard of the Atlantic

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USS Monitor Historical Marker outside the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, Hatteras, North Carolina, June 2007

Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname given to the treacherous waters in the Atlantic Ocean along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Virginia coastline south of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry. In this area of the ocean, the cold waters of the Labrador Current, which originates around the Baffin Sea between Greenland and northeast coast of Canada, collide with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream flowing from Caribbean Sea.

Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, Hatteras, North Carolina, June 2007

The hazards of severe weather, strong currents, and navigational challenges, particularly in the Diamond Shoals area off Cape Hatteras, combined to cause the loss of thousands of ships and an unknown number of human lives. More than 2,000 ships have sunk in these waters since records began in 1526.

Among the better known shipwrecks was the USS Monitor, a participant in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War. The Monitor foundered and sank on 31 December 1862 off Cape Hatteras. Survivors of a much earlier shipwreck created the lost town of Wash Woods, Virginia using lumber which washed ashore. However, the extreme weather eventually claimed the town as well.

The title "Graveyard of the Atlantic" is also applied to the ever-shifting sandy shoals around Sable Island, which lies off the coast of central Nova Scotia, which have claimed many hundreds of ships over the centuries,[1] and by the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.[2]

The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, located in Hatteras Village, focuses on the history of this area and features many artifacts recovered from area shipwrecks.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sable Island Green Horse Society (October 2002). "Sable Island Beach: Shipwrecks". http://www.greenhorsesociety.com/Shipwrecks/Shipwrecks.htm. Retrieved on 2009-05-22. 
  2. ^ John Leaning (1999-08-22). "Cape Cod's reputation as a graveyard of the Atlantic endures". Cape Cod Times. http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/andreadoria/capewrecks22.htm. Retrieved on 2009-05-22. 

[edit] External links

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