Подводный остров Шелл-Кастл в Северной Каролине был некогда процветающим торговым центром

A submerged island in the Outer Banks was the topic a recent lecture at Museum of the Albemarle. Shell Castle Island, once located in the Pamlico Sound, has been submerged for decades. “It used to be a 25-acre island that is submerged,” said Ann Mitchell Whisnant. “The Shell Castle Lighthouse burned in 1818.” Whisnant, a professor at Duke University, has dedicated years conducting research for the U.S. National Park Service. She was discussing the island during a History for Lunch session at Museum of the Albemarle on Aug. 5. “Shell Castle Island is a lost commercial metropolis that once dominated trade through Ocracoke Inlet on the North Carolina coast,” said Whisnant, referring to the island’s significance to North Carolina’s shipping trade in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Commercial vessels once traveled Ocracoke Inlet en route to Washington, Bath, New Bern and other North Carolina ports. Over several years, wind, waves and hurricanes took their toll on the tiny island and shifted shipping channels. “A massive hurricane in 1846 opened Hatteras and Oregon inlets, permanently diverting global trade away from Ocracoke,” Whisnant said. Between 1800 -1810 Shell Castle Island was home to an interracial community of 40-45 white, Black, free and enslaved people. According to a museum post at Facebook, “The island was a bustling site of homes and wharves from the 1780s to the 1810s. It served as a transfer point for cargo shipping in and out of coastal North Carolina through Ocracoke Inlet.”