Wreck Diving in North Carolina

The Crystal Coast of North Carolina is one of the most popular beach destinations along the Eastern Seaboard. Every summer, throngs of vacation-goers flock there for the surf, sun and a handful of outdoor activities like fishing or sea kayaking. However, among scuba divers the waters off North Carolina enjoy a special reputation as being the wreck-littered Graveyard of the North Atlantic. This is the place where there are arguably more dive-friendly ship wrecks than anywhere else in North America, including Florida.

Wreck diving is popular among scuba divers for a number of reasons. Some enjoy the spooky allure of a sunken, decayed ship, while others exalt in the challenges of penetrating a wreck. Wrecks are also a magnet for all kinds of sea life. With the wreck-heavy Graveyard of the Atlantic offering so many wrecks worth seeing, North Carolina becomes a natural vacation destination for scuba divers.

Examples of some of North Carolina's great wrecks include:

USS Spar
This ship is a former Coast Guard cutter that was deliberately sunk as part of an artificial reef program. As is often the case with artifical reef sinkings, great care was taken to ensure the vessel settled on the sea floor on its keep, creating a visually stunning, dive-friendly wreck. This 180 foot long, 37 foot wide ship rests in 30 m of water, making it an Advanced Open Water dive. There are some places where even untrained, recreational divers can safely penetrate the wreck's interior, and a number of sand tiger sharks live there. Although these big fish grow to be an impressive 13 feet long, they are one of the shark species that is harmless to man.

Resting 500 feet from the Spar is another wreck, that of the tank Aeolus. These two ships are frequently combined into a two or three-dive day trip.

U-352
Warships always make popular wreck dives, especially U-Boats. This Type VII-C submarine was attacked by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1942. Damage made the ship untenable, so the crew scuttled the U-352 in order to deny the Coast Guard her capture. She went down on a sandy bottom and remains nearly intact, resting in 30 m of water. Despite the sand, the visibility is usually good to high, ranging between 15 and 30 m, depending on the weather.

The Papoose
Another war wreck, the Papoose is a freighter that was torpedoed in March 1942 by the Germans. The wreck itself is not that impressive, since it sits on the bottom in an upside down position. However, it is a magnet for sand tiger sharks, with as many as 20 being around the wreck on a good day. Also, visibility is usually very high around the ship. Sitting in 30 to 35m of water, the wreck is once again only suitable for Advanced Open Water divers.

Sources: olympusdiving.com/Diving/Shipwrecks/Wrecks/tabid/111/Default.aspx?PageContentID=109; nc-wreckdiving.com/WRECKS/U352/U352.HTML; crystalcoastnc.org/activities/bysea/scubadiving/