Shipwreck revealed on Outer Banks: Could it be a ship that claimed 90 lives in 1837?
BY MARK PRICE
JANUARY 01, 2021 06:05 PM
A shipwreck has revealed itself on the Outer Banks island of Ocracoke, and there is a possibility it’s the remains of a notorious steamboat that claimed 90 lives in 1837.
Tour guide Ray Stallings of Ocracoke spotted the wreck and shared photos Dec. 30 on Facebook, showing some planks were clearly visible, while others could be detected only by rows of metal spikes in the sand.
It’s sitting a mile northeast of Ramp 67, a stretch of beach known to host the wrecks of the Steamship Home from 1837 and The Nomis from 1935, he said.
“This particular wreck is here one day and gone the next,” Stallings told McClatchy News. “On that particular day, it was exceptionally exposed. I don’t believe it has ever been positively identified. Many on the island think it is the Nomis. I prefer to believe she is the wreck of the Home.”
Both ships sank as storms raged off Ocracoke, experts say.
The Home was a “grand and marvelous” steamboat that went down in 1837, in “the worst sea disaster ever to occur on Ocracoke,” according to Ocracoke-based Village Craftsman. “Ninety persons lost their lives that Monday night, October 9, as the 550-ton wooden, side-wheel steamer broke apart in the surf.”
The schooner Nomis ran aground “a little after midnight on Aug. 16, 1935,” according to Coastal Review Online. The captain and four crewmen escaped not long before “waves smashed the schooner’s hull, the bottom fell out and the keel came drifting ashore,” the site reports.
Stallings says operating OBX Beach Shuttle Services has given him a unique perspective on the unpredictable nature of Outer Banks shipwrecks. At least 40 large shipwrecks (more than 50 tons) have been documented on Ocracoke, some dating back centuries, the Ocracoke Observer reports.
“Wrecks are constantly being exposed by the elements, only to be hidden again by shifting sands,” Stallings says. “Some are here today, gone tomorrow, some grace us with its presence for a few days or even a few weeks before being covered over and you have the rare couple that remain constantly visible.”
He expects the latest shipwreck to appear – whether it’s the Home or the Nomis – will be back under a blanket of sand before long.
Source
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article248216610.html
BY MARK PRICE
JANUARY 01, 2021 06:05 PM
Tour guide Ray Stallings of Ocracoke spotted the wreck and shared photos Dec. 30 on Facebook, showing some planks were clearly visible, while others could be detected only by rows of metal spikes in the sand.
It’s sitting a mile northeast of Ramp 67, a stretch of beach known to host the wrecks of the Steamship Home from 1837 and The Nomis from 1935, he said.
“This particular wreck is here one day and gone the next,” Stallings told McClatchy News. “On that particular day, it was exceptionally exposed. I don’t believe it has ever been positively identified. Many on the island think it is the Nomis. I prefer to believe she is the wreck of the Home.”
Both ships sank as storms raged off Ocracoke, experts say.
The Home was a “grand and marvelous” steamboat that went down in 1837, in “the worst sea disaster ever to occur on Ocracoke,” according to Ocracoke-based Village Craftsman. “Ninety persons lost their lives that Monday night, October 9, as the 550-ton wooden, side-wheel steamer broke apart in the surf.”
The schooner Nomis ran aground “a little after midnight on Aug. 16, 1935,” according to Coastal Review Online. The captain and four crewmen escaped not long before “waves smashed the schooner’s hull, the bottom fell out and the keel came drifting ashore,” the site reports.
Stallings says operating OBX Beach Shuttle Services has given him a unique perspective on the unpredictable nature of Outer Banks shipwrecks. At least 40 large shipwrecks (more than 50 tons) have been documented on Ocracoke, some dating back centuries, the Ocracoke Observer reports.
“Wrecks are constantly being exposed by the elements, only to be hidden again by shifting sands,” Stallings says. “Some are here today, gone tomorrow, some grace us with its presence for a few days or even a few weeks before being covered over and you have the rare couple that remain constantly visible.”
He expects the latest shipwreck to appear – whether it’s the Home or the Nomis – will be back under a blanket of sand before long.
Source
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article248216610.html
