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FALL 2011
china dolls, slates, bullets, toys, medicine vials and even glass
photographic plates.
Technically speaking
For those with the advanced training to do it, there are
a number of wrecks that offer additional challenges. The
freighter
Tamaulipas
, the whaling factory ship
Lancing
and
the paddlewheeler
Idaho
all rest well beyond recreational limits
at 160 feet. The 450-foot
USS Yancey
was sunk as an artificial
reef. Her top decks reside within recreational limits, but the
bottom goes to 165 feet deep. The 160-foot-deep
Manuela
is
a particularly exciting dive; the ship is spread out over a large
debris field in three main sections. It has given up a number of
artifacts over the years and always reveals fascinating marine
life, including mantas, goliath groupers and an array of sharks.
Other wrecks call for caution but are wonderful sites for the
properly trained diver. At 240 feet deep, the
E.M. Clark
is a 500-
foot tanker resting on its starboard side. It’s a popular site for the
technical diving community and great training for some of the
more arduous expeditions to the
Andrea Doria
or
USS Monitor.
Of course, the USS Monitor is the most famous of them
all. The Union “cheesebox on a raft” saved President Lincoln’s
blockade policy when it fought the Confederate ironclad CSS
Virginia to a draw at Hampton Roads near Fort Monroe, Va. In
December 1862, she was under tow off Cape Hatteras when she
foundered in a fierce storm and sank in 235 feet of water. Lost
for more than 100 years, the Monitor was discovered in 1973 and
serves as America’s first National Marine Sanctuary. The deep
and fickle water of the Monitor Marine Sanctuary makes it an
extremely dangerous environment for the unprepared or unwary
diver, yet the Monitor’s legacy positions it as one of the world’s
most prestigious quests for technical divers.
This, and more, is the empire of shipwrecks that beckons
thousands of scuba divers to North Carolina’s shores every year.
Some come to experience the mystique of these underwater
museums, some for the thrill and challenge of open-ocean diving
with denizens of the deep, and still others for the color and
beauty of the enchanting reefs created by the ships themselves.
But no matter the individual motivation, it’s there for the sport
and technical diver alike, a vast realm of adventure.
AD
*The identity of shipwrecks has been known to change as
additional exploration brings new facts to light. Though the
true identities of some of the wrecks mentioned in this article
are currently in question, the wrecks are identified with the
name by which they are most well-known.
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