Outer Banks flotsam reveals grim fate of slave ship

“Some beach debris is gruesome….In the 1970s a local physician found a piece of shipwreck timber on a North Carolina Outer Banks beach. The piece of cypress wood had two clumps of rust on it separated by a few inches. Close examination of the rust revealed fragments of a fibula and tibia in each. The explanation: The wood fragment was part of a slave ship that sank with its human  cargo shackled to ship timbers, unable to escape.”

— From “The World’s Beaches: A Global Guide to the Science of the Shoreline” by Orrin H. Pilkey, William J. Neal, James Andrew Graham Cooper and Joseph T. Kelley (2011)

 

Sand ‘compatible’ in eye of beholder (or stakeholder)?

“In North Carolina, which has laws requiring ‘compatible’ sand for artificial beaches, there have been artificial beaches that are rocky (Oak Island), shelly (Emerald Isle), full of construction debris (Holden Beach) and muddy (Atlantic Beach)….

“In all cases… government failed to halt the emplacement of poor-quality sand. In the rush to save beachfront property, it seems anything goes.”

— From “The World’s Beaches: A Global Guide to the Science of the Shoreline” by Orrin H. Pilkey, William J. Neal, James Andrew Graham Cooper and Joseph T. Kelley (2011)