SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK JVNB1972 The 102-year­ old Hatteras THE PROGRAM OF THE INSTITUTE Li ght. The Seamen's Church Institute of New York, an agency of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York, is a unique It's hard to deny that there are many organization devoted to the well-being and special interests reasons for the grisly "graveyard" so­ of active merchant seamen. briquet attached to Cape Hatteras - More than 753,000 such seamen of all nationalities, races what with well over 600 hulks of wreck­ and creeds come into the Port of New York every year. To ed ships resting on the beach or bottom many of them the Institute is their shore center in port and of the area. remains their polestar while they transit the distant oceans But it seems that its days as an ac- of the earth. tive ship cemetery have ceased. For First established in 1834 as a floating chapel in New York since 1942-43, the peak years of the harbor, the Institute offers a wide range of recreational and Atlantic prowlings of Nazi U-boats, educational services for the mariner, including counseling there have been only two major mari­ and the help of five chaplains in emergency situations. time disasters in the area, and neither Each year 2,300 ships with 96,600 men aboard put in at of these was really close to Hatteras Port Newark, where time ashore is extremely limited. itself. Here in the very middle of huge, sprawl­ One mishap occurred when the tank- ing Port Newark pulsing with activity of er Texaco Oklahoma broke up in heavy container-shipping, SCI has provided an seas 130 miles off the coast, and the oasis known as the Mariners Internation­ other when the tug Marjorie McAllis­ al Center which offers seamen a recrea­ ter went down in a violent storm 17 tional center especially constructed and miles off Cape Lookout_ land south of Delaware) to detour designed, operated in a special way for The reason for the relative absence north/ south coastal traffic. But it's not the very special needs of the men. An out­ of groundings and sinkings in recent only its position that is a navigational standing feature is a soccer field (lighted years lies in more efficient navigational problem. There's the shoal water. Dan­ at night) for games between ship teams. Port Newark, N.J. aids. The Hatteras area hasn't gerous shoals lurk off both Cape Look­ Although 55 % of the overall Institute budget is met by changed ; it still means trouble for out and Cape Hatteras. But those off income from seamen and the public, the cost of the special navigators. Modern technology has Hatteras are the ones with the real services comes from endowment and contributions. Contri­ simply made shipping safer. But it isn't killer reputation. butions are tax deductible. an easy job. Diamond Shoals they're called, but A look at the area tells why. Cape these diamonds are hardly anybody's Hatteras is the easternmost land point best friend. This area is devilishly de­ on a chain of barrier islands called the ceptive, a constantly shifting, sandy Outer and Lower Banks. These, in com­ shoal stretching some 25 miles out to LOOKOUT The Rev. J ohn M. Mulligan, D.O. D i )'cct 01" bination, form the North Carolina sea and in some places no deeper than Vol. 63 No. 5 June 1972 Harold G. P etersen coast, the Outer Banks making up the three feet. It is so deadly that the navi­ Copyright 1972 Editor northern chain which runs south from gational charts for the area simply Publis hed monthl y with exce ption of July·August and Virginia, pokes out into the Atlantic don't show any depth because of "the Febru ary-Ma rch wh en bi-monthl y, Contributions to the SEA ME N'S CH UR CH Se amen's Church In stitute of New York of $5 .00 or more (thirty miles east of the mainland) as changeable nature of the area" and INSTITUTE OF NE W YOR K include a year's subsc ripti on to The Lookout. Single sub· state - "Navigation is extremely haz­ 15 State Street, New Yo rk, N.Y. 10004 script io ns are $2.00 annuall y. Single copie s 50¢. Addi · the Cape, hooks back to the southwest Telephone: 269-271 0 tional postage for Canada , latin Ame ric a, Spai n, $1.00 ; and ends up as Cape Lookout, about ardous to all types of craft." T he Right Reverend oth er foreign, $3.00 . Second class postage paid at New And as if course changes and shoal Horace \V . B. Donegan, D.O., D.C.L. York , N. Y. two-thirds of the way down North Honorary Prcsidell t water aren't enough for mariners to COVER: Grizzled face of the man "print­ Carolina. The Lower Banks. make up J ohn C. Winslow ed in" on the ocean-scoured timbers of the rest of the chain, terminating as contend with, there are ocean currents P resident the wrecked Laura A. Barnes on the as well- specifically the Gulf Stream, Cape Hatteras beach is said to resemble Cape Fear almost at the South Caro­ the vessel's former captain. lina border. that great salt river that flows out from This whole island chain juts out in­ between the Florida Keys and Cuba to the Atlantic far enough (Hatteras and on up the coastline of the United is the easternmost of any American States. by H. R. Berridge 3 o e day in 1880 a ship bound for the Uni;ed States was approximately 400 miles out from Glasgow when some of IJfSE~TS the crew noticed sever~ l l~rge butter­ flies flying round the nggmg. When these alighted on the deck, RT four of the butterflies were captured d from the description the men gave, ~~e insects were later identified as Sr;R specimens of the common black and orange-red Milkweed or Monarch but- by Cecil Kent terfly. ginia t o Tilbury. They flew inland on This is a North American species arrival at Tilbury, but entomologists that migrates in fl ights of thousands are now certain this powerful insect from Canada and the USA in autumn also deliberately migrates from North southwards to Mexico, returning to America to new areas, perhaps during Photo taken on the day the Diamond Shoals Light Platform was formally commissioned. a population explosion. In this way it Lightship is making a ceremonial circle of the new station before it formally retires. their North American habitats the fol­ lowing Spring. Occasionally they ar­ has spread across the Pacific to the As it gets near the Outer Banks, it although the present building dates rive in Britain, the first known occa- Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, Aus­ gets very near land; in some places to back only 102 years. It raises its black tralia and Indonesia and across the At­ within ten miles. And since the velocity and white spirals 208 feet high to a lantic to the Azores and the Canary of the stream is about two-and-one-half light that can be seen 22 miles out t o Islands. knots, it's no wonder some unwary ves­ sea. Although our knowledge of bird mi­ sels taking advantage of its northerly Other Outer Banks lighthouses are gration across the sea is considerable, flow used to end up in trouble on the the Currituck Beach Light, 163 feet that of insects has remained much of banks. high; the Bodie Island Light, 163 feet ; a mystery. In recent years, however, a And finally, there's the weather. The the Ocracoke Light, 75 feet and the lot has been learned, partly through Hatteras area is renowned for its Cape Lookout Light, 169 feet high. ships' crew members following ento­ gales: September 1944 - wind velocity Beams from these lights have ranges mology as a hobby or being interested 110 m.p.h., all instruments get whisked of from 14 to 19 miles. enough to record what they see on rec­ away; March 1962 - wind and waves Lighthouses on shore, however, can sion being in 1876, and since then two ord cards and forward these to societies carve out a 500 foot-wide inlet north do only part of the job in as treacher­ hundred have been r ecorded, chiefly in or individuals carrying out investiga­ of Buxton village, literally slicing Hat­ ous an area as Hatteras. When hazards autumn months. The puzzle is how do tions into insect migration. teras Island in two; 1967 - a water­ like Diamond Shoals extend out to sea they get there safely from the North The crews of Britain's Trinity House spout collides with the Diamond Shoals as far as they do, something else is American mainland ? lightships and lighthouse men have al­ Light Platform, carrying away all an­ needed. It is likely that during their migra­ so provided a large amount of informa­ tennas and smashing most of the win­ For a long time the answer was the tory movement southward along the tion on insect movements. For example, dows. lightship; lightship service off Hatter­ eastern coast of the USA some of the ten lightships on the east and south But in the face of all that Hatteras as started in 1854. But as in almost huge flight are carried out to sea by coast alone recorded 400 cases of insect can dish out, it is the obstinate per­ everything, a better way has been westerly wind cur rents and being flights.