From the beaches of North Carolina to the reefs of Bermuda, powerful storms are uncovering long-lost wrecks – and you don't need to be a pro diver to discover them.
As hurricane season ramps up along the US East Coast and through the Atlantic, residents brace themselves for flooded streets and battered coastlines. But for divers, snorkellers and even everyday beachgoers, storm surges can reveal something extraordinary: centuries-old shipwrecks, long-buried maritime treasures and other items that could reshape our understanding of history.
In the Carolinas and Bermuda – among the world's most shipwreck-dense coastlines – hurricanes are exposing long-lost hulls, artefacts and cargo. Marine archaeologists are racing to catalogue and protect these discoveries, but increasingly, ordinary travellers are among the first on the scene.
North Carolina's coast, long known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic", is littered with more than 1,000 known shipwrecks, from Civil War blockade runners to German U-boats. Meanwhile, Bermuda sits atop a coral platform that has claimed more than 300 ships since the 1500s, making the infamous "Bermuda Triangle" one of the densest shipwreck zones in the world.
"It's shipwreck island" and it always has been, says Philippe Rouja, Bermuda's government-appointed Custodian of Wrecks . He explains that since the island has no Indigenous population or natural resources, every ship that came to the island "was like its own little mini-Walmart", bringing everything it would need. For centuries, Bermudans salvaged those wrecks loaded with invaluable materials. Now, Rouja is charged with protecting more than 40 open-to-the public shipwrecks, as well as mapping, cataloging and studying hundreds more. During hurricanes, storm surges, waves and winds can move entire wrecks, revealing the treasures within. "Any shipwreck that you think you know, you want to go look at it again after a hurricane," he says, " it's a mixture of anticipation and a bit of worry."
Rouja works with local dive shops to monitor sites and report new finds, meaning certified divers visiting during hurricane season – roughly June to November – may be the first to glimpse artefacts not seen for centuries.
He says that anything from an old shoe or a can of anchovies could help his team identify a shipwreck. Recently, he recalls, "We had some accountant who liked to go lobster diving who just bumped into a shipwreck on the inner reef." It turned out to be the Justice, a ship sunk in 1950.
However, discoveries don't always require a tank. In North Carolina, many recent discoveries have been found buried under beach dunes. Wrecks either crashed there centuries ago and were buried by shifting sand or have washed up after storms.
"Folks will absolutely be walking their dog down the beach and see a ship frame sticking out of the dune after storms," says Stephen Atkinson, a shipwreck and archeology expert with North Carolina's Underwater Archaeology department .
That was the case with the Corolla Wreck, discovered in the northern Outer Banks by a local who noticed exposed pieces of a hull after a huge wind event. Gold coins found nearby date to the early 1600, suggesting that it could be state's oldest known shipwreck. Before that, the record was held by the infamous Queen Anne's Revenge, captained by Blackbeard himself, sunk in 1718 and discovered in 1996.
Beachcombers are asked to document and report their findings to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources . Their names stay attached to the finds and they can be as involved as they want in the ensuing research and historical process. "We had a man named Scott Smith who reported a wreck," says Atkinson. "So, I wrote in my database, 'the Scott Smith wreck'."
He receives reports at least weekly from people who think they've found something – and he is always open to more. "I love when people send me photos," he says, noting that public reports, even if minor, help track the impacts of wrecks over time. "They're extremely beneficial to us."
Bermuda: Rouja recommends contacting EcoDive Bermuda for what he calls "bespoke diving" (dive trips to less-touristed sites). Visit in autumn when Bermuda's hurricane and slow seasons overlap and dive shops will have more flexibility for specialised dives.
North Carolina: The Outer Banks see the most impact from storms and thus the most discoveries. Snap photos with geotagging on and send them to the state's archaeology department. Visit the North Carolina Maritime Museums , or Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum to learn more.
South Carolina : Charleston Fossil Adventures runs ethical fossil-hunting tours guided by paleontologists, going only to areas where fossil hunting and collecting is legal. Focus your search on thick gravel patches along the shoreline.
He describes beachcombing after storms as "one of the bigger tourist draws" around areas like the Outer Banks, and that's not by accident. The state has a "Citizen Archaeologist" program me for reporting any finds, wrecks or otherwise, and will soon join Florida's Shipwreck Tagging National Archaeological Program in which beachgoers can scan a QR code on timber and other pieces of wreck to help track their movements after weather events.
In South Carolina, treasure hunters look forward to storms too. The state loses an average of 6-8ft of shoreline per year, and storms speed up that process – leading to casual beachcombers stumbling across rare finds. "Storms can strip away sand to reveal long-hidden fossils," says Katie Lyons of Charleston Fossil Adventures , a South Carolina company that runs fossil beachcombing tours.
After a recent hurricane, the team at Charleston Fossil Adventures found a monk seal arm bone dating to the Ice Age – now in a local museum – and they often find dozens of fossils in a single day after big storms . The excitement of the hunt leads to plenty of opening-day bookings around the season's start in mid-March, driven by anxious collectors. "A lot of the diehard collectors are eager to get out to the secluded sites to see what the storm has washed up," Lyons says.
She recommends searching in piles of shells and rocks on the beach. "Since the ocean is sorting material by size, you're going to find more in patches of thicker gravel than you will on flat, barren stretches of sand."
Bermuda's most famous underwater treasure hunter is the late Teddy Tucker, who discovered the emerald-crusted Tucker Cross on a 16th-Century Spanish wreck in 1950. It was famously stolen around 1975, moments before it was supposed to be shown to Queen Elizabeth, and has been lost ever since.
"That brought treasure hunting to a new generation," says Rouja. As divers learned that provenance increased a find's value, many became hobbyist researchers and historians, ushering in the era of marine archaeology. "It's more fun for people to be part of the public story of finding something than to just go home and have it sit on their shelf," he adds.
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Divers can maximise their chances by avoiding popular sites. Rouja suggests exploring a few hundred metres from wreck rather than immediately outside it. The majority of Bermuda's wrecks lie above 80ft and Rouja estimates there are "many, many more" waiting to be found across the rest of the islands' "largely unexplored" reefs.
As storms intensify due to climate change, experts expect more wrecks will surface – and there will be more opportunities for travellers to play a role in rewriting maritime history. New tech like drones and underwater mapping programmes are making discoveries more accessible. And past high-profile finds, like five bottles of wine from the 1864 Marie Celeste wreck, continue to fuel public fascination with underwater treasure hunting.
Rouja's white whale is the 100lb bronze rooster that served as the masthead of the Cristobal Colon, lost by Tucker in an early salvage expedition. Keep your eyes peeled," he says. "If someone found that, that would be so cool."
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