North Carolina ’s coast has been calledThe Graveyard of the Atlanticthanks to a serial publication of sandbar and currents that have sunk watercrafts over the centuries . latterly , an important wreck — believed to be a 150 - year - old blockade runner steamer clam from the Civil War — was discover off the coast of Oak Island , a petite roadblock island in Brunswick County .
harmonise to ABC News , researchers and archaeologists get wind the wreck during a “ routine sonar assessment ” of the island ’s lie with shipwrecks . The 226 - foot - farsighted , atomic number 26 - hull vas is remarkably intact , and it ’s also the first mid-19th - centuryship witness in the region in ten . Experts say these quality make it a rare — and valuable — find .
Blockade runners were speedy boats that carried military provision and other goods to the Confederate Army during the Civil War . The port of Wilmington served as a terminus for these boats from 1861 to 1865 . However , Union troops eventually closed the port and charm Fort Fisher .
The region is pullulate with Civil War shipwreck . cadaver of 27 encirclement runner , Confederate ironclad , and Union ships have been unwrap over the years . “ It ’s the individual best assemblage of Civil War shipwreck anywhere in the world , ” Ray Morris , North Carolina ’s deputy state archeologist , secern the Associated Press .
Recently , archaeologists contain a close feeling at the ship , Public Radio East reports . They are " almost certain " that it is theAgnes E. Fry , a confederate encirclement moon curser that slide down near the mouth of the Cape Fear River in 1865 . expert had believed that the recessed craft was either theFryor one of two other encirclement runner , theSpunkieand theGeorgianna McCaw , which had also turn turtle in the region .
According to records , the ship ’s paddlewheel beam of light was salvaged in 1888 , and its two engines were take away . It was also slightly flatten in 1909 when the Army Corps of Engineers wire - hale the wreck to deepen the communication channel , Public Radio East says . However , the wiliness is still in good shape , and since it sank before Fort Fisher was catch , it still has all of its original cargo . expert are excited to see what sort of artifact the ship maintain and contrive to canvas it for months to arrive .
[ Planck’s constant / tABC News ]
