Bodie Island Lighthouse
The other day I read that pieces of timber have been washing ashore recently at Cape Lookout. The staff at Cape Lookout National Seashore think it is the sea relinquishing remains of an old shipwreck. But which shipwreck? There have been thousands of shipwrecks along the North Carolina coast! One of the earliest of record is Royal Exchange, which sank on September 7, 1775 at Cape Lookout. One of the most recent shipwrecks is the Steamer Mont Dirfys, which went down at Cape Fear on December 26, 1936.
The most treacherous part of our coastline is along the upper North Carolina coast. The Graveyard of the Atlantic is a region of the ocean just offshore of North Carolina’s Outer Banks where some 3,000 shipwrecks are scattered from Kitty Hawk to Ocracoke. These ships range from colonial merchant ships to German U-boats. What makes this area so treacherous is that the cold, northern Labrador Current and the warm, southern Gulf Current collide, creating really rough waters, wind, and thick fog. The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, on Hatteras Island, focuses on the history of this area and features many artifacts recovered from area shipwrecks. More about it can be found on http://www.graveyardoftheatlantic.com.
Two other museums worth visiting that also detail our maritime history include the NC Maritime Museum at Beaufort and the NC Maritime Museum at Southport. http://ncmaritimemuseums.com/
These dangerous waters are the reason so many lighthouses were built in North Carolina. Several still stand today and are popular tourist attractions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lighthouses_in_North_Carolina
One of the biggest and most preserved lifesaving stations along the North Carolina coast is Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station. This site contains two lifesaving stations, a museum, and five outbuildings. It is also on Hatteras Island, near the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. http://www.chicamacomico.net/
The NC coast is divided into (3) areas: Upper Banks or Outer Banks, Lower Banks or Crystal Coast, and Cape Fear Coast. For general tourism information for this area, check out www.visitnc.com, www.outerbanks.org, www.crystalcoast.org, and www.capefear-nc.com. For more about the NC Coast, you may want to read Coastal North Carolina: Its Enchanting Islands, Towns & Communities. 
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