Selena
06-06-2010, 06:32 PM
This is really cool. (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/05/oldest.shipwreck/index.html?hpt=C1) Good for him!
edit - sorry - I received a phone call and was distracted & didn't finish...
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Corolla, North Carolina (CNN) -- Ray Midgett hunts the Corolla beaches on the Outer Banks of North Carolina almost every day.
"Beachcombing, or metal detecting, or relic hunting is in my blood," said Midgett, a retired government worker who hits the sand between October and April.
"There are so many shipwrecks up here, it's just beautiful."
Midgett drives his pickup truck right onto the beach using the access road near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. With a metal detector and shovel in tow, he's uncovered everything from antique coins to wedding rings.
Yet his biggest discovery came in December when he located the remains of a historical shipwreck.
The wreckage, hidden under the sand for centuries, became fully exposed after a winter of brutal Nor'easters, making it the oldest shipwreck found off the coast of North Carolina.
But historians had to act fast to recover the ship, according to Meghan Agresto, site manager of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.
"This winter, it just got smacked. After awhile the ocean was going to take it back," Agresto said. "The fact that we got it off the beach makes us excited because we got to save it."
edit - sorry - I received a phone call and was distracted & didn't finish...
***********
Corolla, North Carolina (CNN) -- Ray Midgett hunts the Corolla beaches on the Outer Banks of North Carolina almost every day.
"Beachcombing, or metal detecting, or relic hunting is in my blood," said Midgett, a retired government worker who hits the sand between October and April.
"There are so many shipwrecks up here, it's just beautiful."
Midgett drives his pickup truck right onto the beach using the access road near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. With a metal detector and shovel in tow, he's uncovered everything from antique coins to wedding rings.
Yet his biggest discovery came in December when he located the remains of a historical shipwreck.
The wreckage, hidden under the sand for centuries, became fully exposed after a winter of brutal Nor'easters, making it the oldest shipwreck found off the coast of North Carolina.
But historians had to act fast to recover the ship, according to Meghan Agresto, site manager of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.
"This winter, it just got smacked. After awhile the ocean was going to take it back," Agresto said. "The fact that we got it off the beach makes us excited because we got to save it."