Identification of the "Cape Hatteras Mystery Wreck"

Summary

Roughly a mile-and-a-half from Diamond Shoals Light Tower off North Carolina's Outer Banks lie the broken remains of an unidentified ship resting on the sand at a depth of 150 feet.  For two years, members of the Battle of the Atlantic Research and Expedition Group have researched this vessel, both in the archives and in the water.  Is it, as theorized, the wreck of the Panamanian tanker Olympic, possibly sunk in early 1942 by U-66 during the opening phase of Operation Drumbeat, the German U-boat offensive on the US East Coast?  Or is this wreck the re-flagged Dutch tanker SS Merak, which was sunk in 1918 by the German submarine U-140 in the little-known World War I U-boat offensive on the US East Coast?  A third possibility is that these are the remains of a steamship that simply wrecked near the Diamond Shoals in peacetime.  This paper will outline the results of the Group’s investigation of the Mystery Wreck.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Community Archaeology: New Partnerships and Projects between Federal, Academic and Non-Profit Organizations   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 552