The Carroll A. Deering cargo ship was on a typical trip out at sea when things went south. With an unhappy crew, a drunken first mate, and a new Captain at the wheel, the ship was rife with tension. When the ship wrecked in the Bermuda triangle, investigators couldn't believe what was found onboard...
Carroll A. Deering
The year was 1920 when the Carroll A. Deering ship set sail for the open seas. The boat was leaving from Puerto Rico to pick up a cargo of coal from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. With Captain William H. Merritt at the helm, it was sure to be a normal and routine trip, but the fate of the ship was not so safe…
Merritt's Merit
William H. Merritt wasn’t just a sea captain, he was also a war veteran. He had served in World War I and had even received a medal for his bravery. The hero had saved his entire crew when his ship, the five-masted schooner ship Dorothy B. Barrett was struck by the enemy. It was sunk by a German submarine, but Merrit had managed to save his whole team, including his son and first mate, Sewall Merritt.
However, troubled continued to brew…
Rio Ride
After the war, Merritt turned to cargo shipping. On one routine journey to Rio, the captain fell seriously ill. He couldn’t walk and could barely breathe. He was deemed unfit to serve the ship and was replaced by Willis B. Wormell, a retired shipman. Though things seemed to go okay for a while, it wasn’t long until the crew started to complain...
An Unhappy Crew
The crew hated the new captain, and he hated them right back. On the Deering, he replaced Merritt’s son as the first mate with a new member, Charles B. McLellan. Over drinks, the Deering captain complained about his incompetent crew members. He did like one of the men though…
Old Friends
The ship engineer was an old friend of both of the men, and they spoke highly of him during their meeting. However, first mate, McLellan, really got on Wormell’s nerves. He was constantly slacking off, goofing around, and generally making a mockery of the profession. There was one night that really sent him over the edge…
Drunken Sailor
During a stop in Barbados, McLellan got drunk outside of the ship. He wandered around town complaining to other seafarers about Wormell, who prevented McLellan from disciplining the crew. He blamed the ship’s many problems on Wormell’s eyesight and poor navigation skills. He even said, “I’ll get the captain before we get to Norfolk, I will!”. And perhaps that's just what he did...
Bailed Out
That night, McLellan got arrested for public intoxication. Wormell came down to the docks and paid the bail for his first mate’s release. He apologized and was forgiven, but their relationship was forever changed. When they needed to be together the most, that’s when things went from bad to worse…
Cape to Coast
On January 31, 1921, the Deering ship was headed for the Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. The ship was seen by a lookout from the Coast Guard station, who noticed the ship was crashed ashore on the outer edge of the dangerous Diamond Shoals. A recovery team went to the ship, but no one was found on board, including the Captain...
Graveyard of the Atlantic
Cape Hatteras was not an unknown spot. In fact, it was so common for ships to get caught in the Diamond Shoals that the area was often referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Many ships had been strewn there over the years, but none had such a tragic fate or unsolvable mystery like this one…
Empty Inside
When rescuers went to board the ship, they were shocked by what they found, or rather, what they didn’t find. The steering equipment was destroyed, the wheel in pieces, the binnacle box stove on, and the ship’s rudder was disengaged. The most surprising part was the lack of things inside. Though a whole crew had been living on the ship, the place was almost totally empty…
Unanswered Questions
The crew’s personal items were missing. The ship log was nowhere to be found. The navigation system was completely torn from the scene. The two lifeboats were also gone, maybe the members still lost at sea somewhere? Or did they even make it out in time? According to the recovery team, the food was left out, like they were surprised by a sudden occurrence...
Search and Rescue Hazard
The Coast Guard ship, the Manning, tried to salvage some of the boat wreckage, but nothing could be saved. It was declared a hazard to search and rescue team members and looters alike and was destroyed using explosives on March 4th. Now, the beaches could be used again. Most pieces of the ship's destruction were collected, but some of them drifted farther from the scene...
Ocracoke Island
Some of the ship parts managed to float to Ocracoke Island and drifted onto the shores. Other bits and pieces of the ship found their way onto shores of Hatteras Island. Using these shards of a shipwreck, local residents built houses. What was seen as a great way to add to a living space would have some terrible consequences...
Mystery Man
According to some reports, a tall, thin, ginger man was seen the night before standing at the helm of the ship, shouting into a megaphone. He had a foreign accent, too, and was screaming at the nearby ship that they had lost their anchors. He couldn't be identified due to the fog at the time, but the crew could be seen milling about on the deck, almost unaffected by the storm…
All Hands on Deck
The government needed to investigate the disappearance of the crew. It was researched by the departments of Commerce, Justice, Treasury, Navy, and State. Even the then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, had a hand in the disappearance studies. Why did ships keep crashing in this area? The answer wasn’t what they expected…
Hurricane Heyday
For most of the lost and crashed shipwrecks, it was a force of nature that had taken them. It turns out that the shoals were on the border of a heavy hurricane site and were, therefore, sailing in unsafe waters. Only two of the area shipwrecks were ever proven to happen outside of this hurricane vicinity: Hewitt and Deering...
Crew Uprising
Since the storm was deemed not a hurricane, the disappearance is now considered to be the result of a mutiny of the crew against the unpopular Captain Wormell. The researchers even theorized that it might have been led by the drunken but powerful first mate, McLellan. Either way, the investigation closed in 1922 without an official declaration of finding…
Message In a Bottle
There have been many possible rumors surrounding the dramatic shipwreck. For instance, one fisherman claimed to have found a message in a bottle from a member of the crew. The note read: “Deering captured by oil-burning boat, something like chaser. Taking off everything, handcuffing crew. Crew hiding all over the ship, no chance to escape. Finder please notify headquarters, Deering.” But what on earth did it mean...?
Making Sense
Captain Wormell’s widow identified the handwriting as belonging to the engineer of the ship, their old family friend. The bottle was manufactured in Brazil, so it made sense that this might actually be from the Deering. However, some people thought the idea of writing in the face of chaos was a little far fetched. Additionally, he asked the finder to notify the company, not the police. Strange...
All Lies
After some prodding by investigators, the fishermen admitted that he was the one who wrote the note. He had hoped that he would be able to use the fame from the finding to earn a job at the Cape Hatteras Light Station. The letter had been forged and poorly thought out, so the theory fell flat. Others had explanations of their own…
Weather Worries
The US Weather Bureau advocated for the story of powerful hurricanes that caused the wreckage and disappearance. At the time, a series of dangerous storms were ravaging the east coast, and it’s likely that the boats got caught in a windy path that took them out completely. However, these claims are often ignored, as Deering was not near the storms and was far too intact...
Aye Matey!
Another common explanation is the popularity of pirates. The Captain of the Marine Shipping Board, Captain O.W. Parker, said he was almost positive of the piracy involvement. He said, “Piracy without a doubt still exists as it has since the days of the Phoenicians.” Despite his belief, there was no evidence to prove his idea…
Soviet Involvement
There are some beliefs that the Soviet Union played a part in the disappearance. After some papers were found in the headquarters of a Russian Communism group in New York City, the police raiders discovered that the Soviet Union had planned on stealing and wrecking several ships on the East Coast. Though they linked these papers to several wrecks, there was no proof tying them to Deering…
Rum Runner Raids
Rumrunners were also a long-held theory at the time. A group of liquor smugglers from the Bahamas could have jumped on board using a rum-runner vessel. The Deering probably held about a million dollars of liquor on board, but since it was a traditional cargo ship, it likely wouldn’t have been a target for theft. There is one conspiracy that is largely thought to be the truth…
Unsettled Waters
It is believed that a crew uprising is a reason for the empty ship. Wormell was known for hating his crew, especially his first mate. The crew must have been upset with the change in leadership of the boat, and there was a mutiny. Though it was never explicitly proven, this seems to be the most logical conclusion…
A Ghost Ship?
There have also been conspiracies of paranormal activity that caused the ship to sink. Since there are so many shipwrecks in the area, it’s largely believed to be haunted. The place where the ship sunk is close to the popular haunting spot known as the Bermuda Triangle, which might explain the mysterious loss to the sea...
Lost Forever
Today, the ship is completely gone. The only remains are the ship’s bell and capstan, both of which can be seen by tourists at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras. The Museum opened in 2002 as a response to visitors asking to see the site of the famous shipwreck…
Soldier at Sea
Disappearing at sea is not a new concern. In 1921, an American soldier was aboard a passenger boat from New York City to Havana. He was last seen on November 26, 1921, but his body never made it to Havana. He was never heard from again, though it’s often believed he jumped (or fell) overboard...
The Mary Celeste
In 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs was lost at sea with his wife Sarah, his daughter Sophia, and his entire crew on board. They were sailing on the Mary Celeste when they went missing adrift the choppy oceans of the east Azores. It’s regarded as one of the most haunting mysteries in ocean farers history…
A New Life
In 1938, Ettore Majorana, an Italian physicist, was lost in the Tyrrhenian Sea. He was on a boat trip to Naples from Palermo when his ship mysteriously disappeared. Maybe not so mysterious actually, as there is some evidence that the scientist vanished voluntarily and escaped to a new life in South America.