The Carroll A. Deering
A five-masted schooner ran aground off Cape Hatteras with its sails set and its crew of eleven gone.
What was reported
On 31 January 1921, the commercial schooner Carroll A. Deering was spotted aground on Diamond Shoals, a dangerous stretch off North Carolina. When boarders reached her days later, the crew's belongings, the navigation equipment and the lifeboats were gone. Food appeared to have been prepared in the galley.
A few days earlier, the keeper of the Cape Lookout lightship had seen a crewman on her deck who called out that the ship had lost her anchors. Several other ships vanished in the area around the same time, and a US government inquiry looked at piracy, mutiny and rum-runners.
Explanations offered
The inquiry reached no firm conclusion. Mutiny is often suggested, since there was tension between the captain and the first mate, as is a storm or hurricane that drove the crew to the lifeboats. A message in a bottle blaming pirates was later found to be a hoax.
- When
- 31 January 1921
- Where
- Diamond Shoals, Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA
- Witnesses
- Coast Guard crews and a lightship keeper
- Status
- Never solved
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.