Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1897-06-11
GRAv EYARD OF SHIPS.
STORMY TERROPS OF HAT
TERAS DESCRIBED.
For Two Hundred Years and
More Mariners Have Feared
It-Hard to Put Danger
Signal There.
Cape Hatteras, n. c., Cor. Raltl-
more Sun.

of North Carolina best known to
the world. All mariners these
two hundred years and more
have known of its dangers. It is
the graveyard Of ships and it
keeps the secret OF the grave. I.
T. Smith, who for nineteen years
has been the keeper of the light
house, says that in the diamond
Shoals, which are the dreaded
taeturc of the cape, a ship once
caught is literally swallowed up.
The largest tramp steamers dis
appear III tWenty>four hours.
The secrets of Hatteras are
many, but some are known. The
shoals are the "inner and"outer
diamond" and between these is
a slought or "lead,' i'll which
the water is 80 feet deep. But Ill
bad weather the water actually
"breaks" in this depth. The
water is always made additionally
heavy by the sand, and this is
made plain by the fact that when
a wave breaks over a boat it al
ways leaves a large deposit. of
sand.
1t is ten miles from the light
house to the outer diamond, and
from the latter the Gulf stream
is only eighteen miles away. 1t
is the nearest point to the stream
on the Atlantic coast. 1t is very
often cloudy and stormy here,
when at places quite near there
is sunshine.
The attempt to place a caisson
on the o..ter diamond was a fall
ure, and it seems that the trial
was not a fair trial. The CaissOn
was towed down, but there were
not enough cement to fill it, nor
were the other sections ready
to bolt OH and thus get it we'll
above high water and weighted
with cement. The caisson was
tipped over and disappeared. No
trace of it remains. The "exper,
imental structure as tits terms
ed, shared the same fate. The
first storm inclined it, and theu
over it went.
Now the problem is whether
the proposed lightship will stand
the terrible lashing of the seas.
It is the opinion of the Hatteras
people that the lightship will
have to be placed i'll the lead
where the steamers go, where
the water is 80 feet in depth.
They consider it very doubtful
whether it will stay there. The
failure of the skeleton
beacon or experimental structure,
seems to show that lightship
is the only resource.
The sand is not quicksand,
but it is all the while in motion
Hence the quick burial of ships.
There is little or no wreckage on
the beach save the remains of the
ship Altoona. The point of the
cape is now closing" The bea-
con light Or "bug," as it is term
ed, was built high on the beach
1t is now in the surf at ordinary
tides. The shoals do not reach
out nearly SO far as those at Cape
Lookout, the next cape to the
southwark.
One Of the light~keepers says
that within the sound" is a
cape which is duplicate of
Hatteras, with the double shoals
known as the diamonds.
There is a remarkable change
i'll the appearance of the beach
at Hatteras. The beach above
is practically treeless and very
low, so low that the sea beaches
it at many points. Below Hatter>
as there are heavy woods, large
sand hills, and the beach Become
two miles broad. 1t is quite a
different world and all III the
space, one may say, of a few
wards. The woods continue
twelve miles, all the distance to
Hatteras inlet.
The lighthouse, built in 1870,