Graveyard of the Atlantic
- Graveyard of the Atlantic
Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname given to the treacherous waters in the Atlantic Ocean along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Virginia coastline south of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry. In this area of the ocean, the cold waters of the Labrador Current, which originates around the Baffin Sea between Greenland and northeast coast of Canada, collide with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream flowing from Caribbean Sea.
The hazards of severe weather, strong currents, and navigational challenges, particularly in the Diamond Shoals area off Cape Hatteras, combined to cause the loss of thousands of ships and an unknown number of human lives. More than 2,000 ships have sunk in these waters since people began keeping records in 1526.
Among the better known shipwrecks was the USS "Monitor", a participant in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War. The "Monitor" foundered and sank on December 31, 1862 off Cape Hatteras. Survivors of a much earlier shipwreck created the lost town of Wash Woods, Virginia using lumber which washed ashore. However, the extreme weather eventually claimed the town as well.
The title "Graveyard of the Atlantic" is also applied to the ever-shifting sandy shoals around Sable Island, which lies off of central Nova Scotia, which have claimed many hundreds of ships over the centuries [ [http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22graveyard+of+the+atlantic%22+sable+island&btnG=Google+Search Google Search] ] and by the waters off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts [ [http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/andreadoria/capewrecks22.htm Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod's reputation as a graveyard of the Atlantic endures (August 22, 1999) ] ] .
See also
* Graveyard of the Pacific
* Dunbar Davis
References
External links
* [http://www.graveyardoftheatlantic.com/ Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum website]
* [http://www.nps.gov/caha/graveyard.htm National Park Service, Graveyard of the Atlantic webpage]
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