Cape Hatteras ("South Atlantic Cemetery") is one of the most dangerous shipping destinations along the coastline of America's east coast. The islands, called by the locals the Outer Bank, or the dunes of Virginia Dare, are constantly changing their shape and size, which makes it very difficult to pass the straits even in good weather.
During the frequent storms, swells, fogs here, thanks to the current "southern haze" and "soaring of the Gulf Stream", navigation here becomes truly fraught with mortal risk. Forecasters determined that even during a "normal" 8-point storm, the wave height on the local shoals reaches 13 meters!
The average speed of the Gulf Stream near the cape is about 70 km / day, in the 2-meter shallow Diamond (12 miles from the cape) this powerful current collides with the North Atlantic Current, which leads to an amazing phenomenon observed only here: waves during a storm throw out with a strong roar sand, shells and sea foam with fountains to a height of 30 meters. Few managed to see this sight and get out of there alive.
One of the most famous victims of the cape is the American motor ship "Mormackite" (6 thousand registered tons), which sank in this place on October 7, 1954. Another notorious incident occurred with the Diamond Shoals lighthouse, which was torn from its dead anchors several times during storms until it was finally thrown over the dunes into Pamlico Bay.
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Later, in 1942, this lighthouse was shot from cannons by a surfaced German submarine. During the war, the crews of fascist submarines felt very at ease on the sandbanks: submariners sunbathed, swam and even organized sports events literally under the Americans' noses, and then boarded boats and terrorized the Allied ships.
From January 1942 to 1945, the Germans managed to sink 31 tankers, 42 transports, 2 passenger ships and many small ships in this area, while losing only 3 submarines (all three in April - June 1942). For a time, the Germans managed to make a terrible cape an ally: what interfered with the ships, fettered their maneuvers, the submariners were only beneficial. But they were also terrified of shallow depths.
From time to time, the constantly moving coastal sands of Cape Hatteras reveal their victims - the skeletons of English naves, French Polacres, American clippers and schooners, and German four-masted barges that died here centuries ago are born.
Here everywhere the masts and yards of sailing ships stick out of the sand, you can see the rusty, salt-eaten boards and pipes of steamers, shipwrecked destroyers and submarines.
Now the Cape Hatteras area is considered one of the best places for outdoor activities. A powerful rescue service carefully monitors all passing ships and is ready to immediately come to the rescue in any weather.
Thousands of people come here every year to dig in the sand dunes, hoping to find the remains of ancient ships, Spanish doubloons or pirate treasures. Hundreds of divers are carefully exploring the shallows in search of the vanished Golden Armada. Many come here to visit the Wright Brothers Museum. After all, it was here on December 17, 1903 that a person first took to the air. It was not by chance that Orville Wright chose the Hatteras sandbanks as the site for his experiment. Strong winds constantly blowing from the ocean helped the world's first plane to get off the ground.
Sometimes Cape Hatteras reveals its secrets. Either the skeleton of a brig that sank a couple of hundred years ago will emerge from the sand, then suddenly a rusted hull of a submarine will be found in the dunes. But a month or two passes, and all these evidences of numerous tragedies are again swept away by the merciless sand …