The waters off Cape Hatteras have claimed mariners and their ships since they first visited the coast of North Carolina in the sixteenth century. From the time that Sir Walter Raleigh's flagship, Tiger, ran aground on the hidden shoals of the Carolina Outer Banks in 1585, there have been over one thousand documented sinkings and strandings along this treacherous coastline. The sunken ships from these four centuries of maritime history make the Outer Banks the greatest location for wreck diving outside of Truk or Scappa Flow. 

Many of the wrecks that lie off Hatteras were stranded on the hard sand of Diamond Shoals; others met their end from German torpedoes during WW II. The storms that beat against the shore in the winter and late fall drove many a sailing ship into the dangerous shallow waters of the cape, and then pounded them mercilessly. Now many of them lie in the warm Gulf Stream waters that average 78-85 degrees in the summer months and that boast incomparable visibility. Once you've dived these wrecks you'll never stop coming back.