‘Underwater robot’ standing off Outer Banks is not what it seems, park rangers say
A monstrosity that resembles a giant robot is standing in the ocean off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and the National Park Service is offering an explanation for tourists who might be confused.
It has two arms and a bucket-like head, and appears to be stuck chest deep, about 100 yards off Cape Hatteras National Seashore, photos show.
“A submarine periscope? Rise of underwater robots? Top hat for a whale?” the park asked in a July 21 Facebook post.
“If you have driven past Pea Island Wildlife Refuge, you may have seen this sticking out of the water.”
Despite its robotic appearance, the device is an artifact related to the notorious “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
The “graveyard” is a treacherous part of the ocean where hundreds of ships have vanished off North Carolina. However, in this case, part of one ship has managed to stay above water for 161 years.
“It is the boiler and smokestack of the steamer Oriental,” the park explains.
“In 1861, she was built to be a merchant ship but was instead rented by the US Army to operate as a troop transport. On May 16th, 1862 she ran aground on the shoals near Bodie Island.”
All aboard escaped, but the ship and its cargo “were lost to the storm.” The Oriental split into two pieces, which sit in about 20 feet of water, Wrecksite.eu reports.
The lost cargo was “government stores” and a portion “was thrown overboard in an effort to get the ship afloat,” the site says.
In 2008, a suspected piece of the Oriental broke free and washed ashore: “a large riveted metal tank,” Carolinaouterbanks.com says. It’s not clear what happened to the piece of wreckage.
The park’s Facebook post has gotten more than 1,300 reactions and comments, including some who likened the boiler to The Iron Giant and the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 9:58 AM with the headline "‘Underwater robot’ standing off Outer Banks is not what it seems, park rangers say."