10-year search ended when ship was exposed in 2009
COROLLA, NC (WAVY) - It is the oldest shipwreck ever found on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and many experts think it may be the oldest ever found on the entire Atlantic Coast. "Frankly it engulfs me sometimes," treasurer hunter Ray Midgett told WAVY News 10, "particularly this ship." Midgett and his friend Roger Harris started piecing together the remnants of the Corolla ghost ship nearly a decade ago. "I've been messing with this shipwreck now for about ten years," said Midgett, "never having any idea that I'd ever really get to see it. The Outer Banks are often referred to as "The Graveyard of the Atlantic," and the shipwreck found in Corolla is something, quite literally, risen from the dead. The 17-century ship is believed to have sank off the North Carolina coast about 400 years ago.
Shipewrecked Treasure
"You know there's something there," Midgett recalled. "We didn't know how big it was but we knew there was a piece of shipwreck there and then two winters ago the old lady showed herself." It was December, 2009, when storms exposed a large portion of the hull, along with some of the bow apron, in full view on the beach. "When it came up it was beautiful," said Midgett, who knew he had found the ship he'd been seeking. "The musket balls, the coins that we found, some of the personal items that we had been digging on the beach, we knew they were coming off that ship's bottom" What was perhaps the most valuable piece of treasure was found encrusted in one of the ship's timbers by Harris. "It just took a hammer to break it off," remembered Harris, "and when we broke it off these things fell out of it. "It's a Louis the XIII French coin and Louis the XIII was in reign in France between 1610 and 1643." "I don't know that they're worth a lot of money," continued Harris. "Historical value maybe, but as far as a monetary value, to me they're priceless. I wouldn't get rid of anything I've got." For the director of the North Carolina Maritime Museums, the wreck, which was moved to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on Hatteras Island last April, is a treasure in itself. 
"This is probably the oldest shipwreck yet discovered on the East Coast," said Joseph Schwarzer, Director, North Carolina Maritime Museums. "We know for a fact that it's the oldest shipwreck for North Carolina." There was little use of metal fasteners in the construction of the ship's hull. The people who built it relied mostly on wooden pegs or trunnels. "This is a very ancient technique of shipbuilding," said Schwarzer. "I mean we have trunnels going back thousands of years." Archeological conservators are now racing the clock to preserve the wreck from further decay. It has had extensive water-logging over its long history underwater and yet it's now partially dry," said Eric Nordgren, Archeological Conservator, "so it's that in-between state which makes it a little bit more challenging.