The Ghost Ship of 1921: What Happened to the Crew of the Carroll A. Deering ? The Stranding on Diamond Shoals On the crisp morning of January 31, 1921, a lookout stationed at the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in North Carolina spotted something strange through his binoculars . Hard aground on the treacherous, ship-swallowing sandbars known as Diamond Shoals was a towering, five-masted commercial schooner . All of its sails were still fully set, flapping wildly in the winter gale. Due to brutal sea conditions, rescue crews were unable to reach the stranded ship for four full days. When coast guardsmen finally managed to board the vessel on February 4, they expected to find a stranded crew desperately awaiting rescue. Instead, they stepped onto a ghost ship . A Chilling Scene Below Deck The ship was identified as the Carroll A. Deering , a massive American schooner returning to Virginia after delivering a cargo of coal to Rio de Janeiro. As searchers explored the abandoned vessel, the de...