EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA \u2014 From a German U-boat resting beneath the Atlantic to the wild horses of the Rachel Carson Reserve, Eastern North Carolina\u2019s waterfront holds generations of history both above and below the water.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s edition of Beyond the Headlines explores that history, including the role North Carolina\u2019s coast played during World War II, the discovery of the German submarine U-352 and the wildlife and habitats protected at the Rachel Carson Reserve.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
World War II reaches North Carolina’s coast<\/p>\n
World War II came close to home along the North Carolina coast as German U-boats targeted Allied shipping.<\/p>\n
Ethan Simmons, dive safety officer at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, said many people do not realize how close the submarines operated to shore.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of folks don’t realize exactly how close to our shores the German U-boats were,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI mean, they were literally right here off the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simmons said the submarines targeted Allied ships carrying supplies to Europe.<\/p>\n
Coastal communities eventually began blacking out lights at night to prevent ships from being silhouetted against the shoreline and becoming easier targets.<\/p>\n
One of the German submarines operating off North Carolina was U-352. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Icarus sank the submarine in 1942.<\/p>\n
The wreck would remain undiscovered for decades.<\/p>\n
Finding U-352<\/p>\n
Robert Purifoy, owner and operator of Olympus Dive Center in Morehead City, said his father was part of the search for U-352.<\/p>\n
Purifoy said his father\u2019s mentor, Claude Hall, traveled to the National Archives in Washington and found naval records containing coordinates from the sinking.<\/p>\n
The problem was the technology available when those coordinates were recorded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the U-boat sank in 1942, it was sunk by the Coast Guard,\u201d Purifoy said. \u201cIt’s just the GPS didn’t exist then.\u201d<\/p>\n
The search lasted about 10 years. Purifoy said advances in navigation technology eventually allowed the searchers to translate the old coordinates more accurately.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey went the same place they’d always looked and looked and looked and looked,\u201d Purifoy said. \u201cAnd that day they put a buoy out and made one pass and turned around and came back and ran over a wreck, and it was the 352.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wreck was discovered in 1975.<\/p>\n
Today, divers can visit U-352 off the North Carolina coast, but people do not have to venture into the Atlantic to get a glimpse of the submarine.<\/p>\n
Bringing a shipwreck inside the aquarium<\/p>\n
A three-quarter-scale replica of U-352 sits inside the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores’ 306,000-gallon Living Shipwreck habitat.<\/p>\n
Simmons said shipwrecks were chosen as a central theme because of their importance to marine life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe focused on shipwrecks because shipwrecks make great habitat for marine life,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cIn fact, we refer to them as an artificial reef.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natural seawater pumped from Bogue Sound is filtered and used in the Living Shipwreck habitat.<\/p>\n
The exhibit features marine life found off North Carolina, including sand tiger, sandbar and nurse sharks, along with spadefish, barracuda and other species.<\/p>\n
Aquarium divers also enter the exhibit several times during an average day. Some dives include public presentations using full-face masks equipped with an underwater communication system, allowing divers to speak with educators and visitors outside the tank.<\/p>\n
For Simmons, diving has been a longtime passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite thing about scuba diving is just the peace and tranquility that you get underwater,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Purifoy also grew up around diving. His family has operated dive charters from its Morehead City location since around 1980.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started working when I was 10 years old here, and I mowed the grass here before the building was built,\u201d Purifoy said. \u201cIt’s what I’ve always done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exploring the Rachel Carson Reserve<\/p>\n
North Carolina’s waterfront history is not limited to what lies beneath the ocean.<\/p>\n
Across the water from Beaufort, the Rachel Carson Reserve encompasses 3,215 acres between the mouths of the Newport and North rivers.<\/p>\n
The reserve supports more than 200 species of birds and a variety of other wildlife, including its well-known wild horse herd.<\/p>\n
Paula Gilligan, the reserve’s wild horse manager, said the herd was established in the late 1940s by Dr. Luther Fulcher, who brought horses from Core Banks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rachel Carson Reserve horses are related to the other horses along the North Carolina coast, specifically the Shackleford Banks herd,\u201d Gilligan said.<\/p>\n
The herd is monitored, but Gilligan said management is designed to remain as hands-off as possible.<\/p>\n
The reserve also provides important coastal habitat supporting commercially harvested seafood, including blue crabs, shrimp and finfish.<\/p>\n
The reserve is open to the public for activities including kayaking, hiking and enjoying the beach while its habitats remain protected.<\/p>\n
The goal, according to reserve staff, is for visitors to understand the importance of North Carolina’s coastal environment and help protect it for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA \u2014 From a German U-boat resting beneath the Atlantic to the wild horses of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-878350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}