We loved our little Passport America (½ price) campground. We had shade and a nice spacious site. The park was decorated with interesting objects. Best of all, there were Purple Martin houses. The martins are voracious insect eaters and keep the mosquitoes down. They are colonial nesters in the Eastern United States and they are very dependent on human-provided housing.
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Unknown, but beautiful, shrub across from our site.
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Carole makes bread in her Zojirushi whenever we're not near a good bakery. It's enough for two meals.
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Graveyard of the Atlantic
"The Shifting shoals of sand, strong currents, and storms raging across the Atlantic sank many ships off the Outer Banks. Sailing ships were particularly vulnerable to the sandy shallows and heavy weather. Then, during both World Wars, German submarines added to the grim toll, sinking Allied merchant shipping and naval vessels."
Why is it called "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" ??
Cape Hatteras…
Dangerous for sailing ships because:
◆It's shoals extend eight miles out to sea.
◆Swift and variable currents, caused by wind and eddies from the Gulf stream, rip over the shoals.
◆In Winter, northerly gales are common.
◆The low, narrow coast offers no shelter.
◆To use the lighthouse as a landmark for the quickest route north or south.
Despite the best efforts of man there were still shipwrecks--hundreds of them--and each had its own story. The winter storms, Diamond Shoals, German U-Boats during World War II, and numerous other factors have all helped bury ships in the "Graveyard of the Atlantic."
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Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. The 19,000 sq. ft. building is derived from ship's curves and principles of naval architecture.
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Remember the British Graveyard on Ocracoke? In the museum was a picture of the ship. There was also a British Graveyard on Hatteras Island.
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H.M.S. BEDFORSHIRE: On loan to U.S. Navy as antisubmarine escort, March 1942. Sunk by U-558 off Cape Lookout, North Carolina on 11 May 1942. No survivors from crew of 54.
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1854 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Fresnel Lens
Manufactured by Henry-Lepaute & Co., Paris, France
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A popular pastime among sailors was to make a "knot board".
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The Huron left Hampton Roads, Virginia, on Friday, November 23, 1877. She was headed for Havana, Cuba to survey the surrounding coast. On her first night out to sea, the ship encountered a heavy storm blowing from the Southeast. The storm combined with a small error in the ship's compass to cause the Huron to run aground at this site, at 1:30 A.M., November 24, 1877.
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There are many of these old wrecks on and near the beach that are covered and uncovered by the shifting sands. Linda used to dive on some of them.
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TEXACO QUILT REPLICA: Created and sewn by volunteer and longtime Hatteras Island Quilter, Bunny Doolittle, spring, 2010. Materials donated by Volunteer Elaine Ernst. Lift this quilt to see the "Distress Signal Flag" backing.
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Detail from above photo.
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Detail from above photo.
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Ocracoke "Cracker Pattern" quilt.
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More than 2,000 shipwrecks lie off North Carolina's Outer Banks.
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There are many streets on the Outer Banks named for nearby shipwrecks.
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There was a large collection of SCUBA gear. It interested Linda more than it did Carole because she used to dive on the wrecks off the North Carolina coast. Ask to see her mementoes sometime.
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Interesting that the Underground Railway would go through such a narrow, remote string of islands.
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Island Life
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Fishing poles in a rack on the front bumper of a truck; a common sight in the area. Carole marveled that the police didn't seem to object.
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We first saw this decal on a truck on the ferry. Curious about the background, we Googled it. As the popularity of ORV's has grown so has the presence of people, dogs and vehicles on the beaches.
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Here is a summary of the viewpoints. You know which side we are on - the side of the wildlife, of course.
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A storm was brewing.
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That night, we had one of the worst windstorms we've ever experienced. We were parked broadside to the wind, and neither of us was going out in the deluge to unhook so we could move, so we endured. In the morning, we were sad to see that our wonderful neighbors, the Martins, had lost their house.
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The "Martin's'" house. The good news is that it was so early in the season that there were no eggs or babies lost.
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