All around the world there are legends of ships rising from their watery graves to haunt those who are still living; some come in the form of a flaming phantom, others look how they did when they sank. Most of these are meant to be symbolic, serving as a reminder that not all justices have yet to be served. Not all ships need to rise from the ocean, and neither are they phantom images. Some ghost ships come to claim this title simply because they were abandoned on the open water. Whenever a floating, vacant vessel is found, one predominant question quickly arises, what happened to the crew?
Roughly 580 nautical miles west of Bermuda lay a graveyard of a thousand shipwrecks. At least, it is believed to be a thousand; a total accumulation of the effects of storms, wars, ever-changing geological features, and human error. Beyond the grave bed lies a flat, thin chain of barrier islands called the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The largest of the islands being: Hatteras and Ocracoke. Bodie Island is also one of the larger portions of the chain, and sits to the north of Hatteras; due to the changing coastal landscape, Bodie Island is now a peninsula. Cape Hatteras is located in a bend on Hatteras Island; near which, two major Atlantic currents meet: the cold Labrador Current that flows south and the warm Florida Current, from the Gulf Stream, that flows north. Such a mix of two polar currents causes turbulent waters and a large expanse of shifting, shallow sandbars called shoals.
The Carroll A. Deering was found stuck on the Outer Shoal at 6:30a.m. on January 31st, 1921 by C.P. Brady of the Cape Hatteras Coast Guard. Rough waters made it impossible to reach the ship until February 4th, when a wrecker aptly named Rescue, along with a cutter named Manning, arrived at the Deering at approximately 9:30 in the morning. The captain of the Rescue, Captain James Carlson, went aboard the ship and verified that it was indeed the Carroll A. Deering, a five-masted schooner on a scheduled return from Barbados to Hampton Roads, Virginia.
According to accounts from those who boarded the ship, she was devoid of crew. Food had been laid out, as if in preparation of a meal. Among the missing items from the ship were her anchors, the navigational equipment, some papers, all personal belongings of those on board, and the lifeboats.
The last documentation of the ship’s crew was on January 29th, when she passed the Cape Lookout Lightship. A crewman aboard the Lightship found the Deering’s appearance to be unusual. One the crewman aboard the passing ship stated the ship had lost both of its anchors, when the ship was found a few days afterwards, the anchors were missing. What truly sparked the curiosity of the documenter on board the Lightship was that the crewman on the ship did not present himself as an officer nor did he look the part.
If true, this would mean that the veteran shipmaster and navigator, Captain Willis T. Wormell was not the man with whom the crewman aboard the Lightship would have spoken to about the anchors. Wormell was filling in for the first captain of the ship, Captain William M. Merritt, part owner of the ship, who had taken ill during the journey and had disembarked; the first mate, S.E. Merritt, Merritt’s son, chose to remain with his father. At some point, while harbor hopping before embarking on the voyage home, it is rumored that Captain Wormell spoke with a friend and fellow captain, stating that he distrusted the Scandinavian crew of nine aboard the ship. It was mentioned in passing that the ship’s engineer, Herbert Bates, could be trusted. What fate could have befallen either the captain or the engineer between the ship’s departure for home on January 9th and the meeting on the 29th?
The Deering was seen again on January 30th near the Diamond Shoals Lightship by the SS Lake Elon. This point was marked as occurring at approximately 5:45 p.m. Once again, something strange caught the eyes of those passing the ship; because of the Deering’s unusual route. Bearing in mind that the waters in this area are quite treacherous and that a ship’s crew must always be on guard for changes in the sandbars and of the currents and weather conditions around the island chain; there would have been a specific route that the ship should have been taking during its journey.
In July of 1921, Agent Thompson of the FBI came to the Outer Banks region to investigate any and all possible leads as to what happened to the ship’s officers and crew. Among the various theories as to why the ship was abandoned were: pirates, rum-runners, and a mutiny. Due to the rough weather conditions when the ship was found, it is believed that a mutiny is quite unlikely. A knowledgeable sailor would have risked using the lifeboats in such settings. To note, the rough seas were not due to a hurricane sweeping through the area, which also crosses out the idea that the men would have been swept overboard by the strong storm.
Despite an FBI investigation, no legitimate evidence ever came to light. There was a bottle that was found by a local resident named Christopher Columbus Gray, with a handwritten note claiming pirates; it was viewed as a hoax by the federal government. This was in contradiction to the handwriting experts who claimed that the handwriting on the letter matched that of the ship’s engineer.
Oddly, the Carroll A. Deering was not the only ship to meet a mysterious fate during this time period. The S.S. Hewitt, a freighter, disappeared around January 25, 1921. This second ship was steering along a similar route as the Deering, having left Texas on January 20th headed towards Portland, Maine; the Deering had been built in Bath, Maine. The last known communication with the Hewitt was on January 25th, and it was a standard check-in call. The Hewitt has never been found.
In March of 1921, the Deering made its final voyage, being towed further out onto the water before being dynamited. The investigation into the disappearance of the Deering’s crew officially closed in 1922, with no explanation as to what happened or any indication as to the whereabouts of the crew. Nearly a century later, the mystery remains unsolved.
Noa, M. (2010, March 8). The Carroll A. Deering Schooner. Retrieved January 1, 2015, from https://www.historicmysteries.com/the-mystery-of-the-carroll-a-deering-schooner/
The Ghost Ship of the Outer Banks. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from https://www.nps.gov/caha/learn/historyculture/theghostship.htm
The Mysterious Ship Disappearances. (2007, January 1). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from https://maritime-connector.com/the-mysterious-ship-disappearances/