07/02/2026
The Graveyard of the Atlantic has claimed hundreds of ships. Only one of them came back without her crew.
January 31, 1921. The Carroll A. Deering, a five masted schooner, runs hard aground on Diamond Shoals off North Carolina. Her captain, 66 year old Willis Wormell, had only taken command weeks earlier. His first mate resented him from the start, and in a Barbados bar, witnesses heard him swear he'd "get the captain" before they made it home.
When the Coast Guard boarded her, there was no captain and no crew. Eleven men were simply gone. The sails were still set and food sat ready in the galley, like someone had stepped away mid task and never came back. The steering gear was smashed, the log and navigation equipment were missing, and the lifeboats were nowhere to be found.
The government investigated for more than a year. Mutiny, piracy, rum runners, even espionage were all considered, and none of it held up. Adding to the mystery, the Deering's route home from Rio de Janeiro passed through the edge of what we now call the Bermuda Triangle, the same waters tied to the disappearance of the USS Cyclops and dozens of other ships.
Somewhere out past Diamond Shoals, 34°18'27"N, 76°24'18"W, something is still standing at the wheel.
