The Carroll A. Deering was a five
masted schooner built in 1919. In midwinter 1921, she was found aground on Diamond
Shoals off the North Carolina coast near the Hatteras light. There was no
storm and no distress calls were received. When rescuers made it aboard
the ship, there was no one to be found except for a gray cat. The bunks
were all made and the food was left on the plates and stove as if everyone was
coming right back. The Captain's Log and sextant were missing.
The ship had been sighted by the
Cape Lookout
Lightship in
North Carolina,
when the vessel hailed the
lightship. The
lightship's keeper reported that a thin man with reddish hair
and a foreign accent told him the vessel had lost its anchors.
The keeper took note of this, but his radio was out, so he was
unable to report it. He noticed that the crew seemed to be
"milling around" on the fore deck of the ship, an area where
they were usually not allowed. The next time the Carroll
A. Deering was seen, she was abandoned on the shoals.
An investigation was launched
into what happened to the Deering after she was spotted at the Cape Lookout
Light. A message in a bottle was found at Buxton Beach, NC and read:
DEERING CAPTURED BY OIL BURNING BOAT SOMETHING LIKE CHASER. TAKING OFF EVERYTHING HANDCUFFING CREW. CREW HIDING ALL OVER SHIP NO CHANCE TO MAKE ESCAPE. FINDER PLEASE NOTIFY HEADQUARTERS DEERING.
The mystery was never solved, though
there are many theories: piracy, Russian/Communist Piracy, Rum
Runners or Mutiny. And there are those who believe that the Carroll A. Deering could even be a victim of the Bermuda Triangle.
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