3 minute read
Illuminating the Treacherous Diamond Shoals
By Noah Janis, Educator
The dangerous waters along the Outer Banks have claimed more than 2,000 ships, earning the popular nickname “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” At Cape Hatteras, north and southbound ocean currents collide and form the dreaded Diamond Shoals, a series of shifting, submerged sandbars that stretch miles into the Atlantic. When it comes to marking those shoals, the iconic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse comes to mind. But over the past two centuries, many lesser-known lights and gadgets have also warned mariners of the treacherous seas.
The original Hatteras lighthouse, lit in 1803, proved woefully inadequate. Consequently, in 1824, one of the country’s first lightships was stationed 14 miles offshore along the outer shoals. These vessels were effectively floating lighthouses, anchored securely near dangerous areas, with beacons affixed atop their masts. By the nature of their assignment, lightships faced turbulent seas and fierce storms, but the first Diamond Shoals lightship had more than its share of misfortune. It broke loose from its moorings three times in as many years, the last time ending up beached on Ocracoke Island. After this unfortunate ending, it would be another 70 years before another lightship arrived at the shoals.
In the meantime, there were numerous attempts to mark the area with warning devices—buoys being the most popular. None proved successful, including a whistling buoy that saw its whistle stolen. An unmanned bell boat lasted four months in 1852 before breaking its anchorage and disappearing in a storm. Later in the 19th century, Congress appropriated up to $500,000 to build a lighthouse on the shoals. Engineers designed a massive, watertight caisson to sink into the sandbars, atop which they could affix a light. Workers lowered the device into the water in 1891, but undercurrents quickly washed sand away from its base and the caisson tilted precariously. Then a strong storm damaged the structure beyond repair.
After abandoning a subsequent plan to construct a skeleton tower lighthouse, Congress finally agreed to fund another lightship, Diamond Shoals Lightship No. 69 (LV-69), that reached its lonely offshore station in 1897. The 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane beached this vessel, much like its predecessor, but it was refloated and again took up its post. Over the years, LV-69 alternated its station with two other lightships, LV-71 and LV-72, which were sometimes accidentally rammed by passing boats. Then on August 6, 1918, LV-71 witnessed an Imperial German submarine, U-140, attack a nearby freighter. It immediately dispatched a radio warning to nearby vessels, which U-140 intercepted. The Germans allowed the lightship crew to abandon ship, and sunk LV-71 with its deck gun.
Successive Diamond Shoals lightships continued at their isolated post until 1966, when a Texas-tower lighthouse—reminiscent of an oil rig—was built atop the shoals. It was deactivated in 2001 and is now privately owned.
