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On March 11, 1942, after being informed that planes had spotted a submarine on her tail, the 528-foot-long, 70-foot-wide oil tanker
John D. Gill, on only its second voyage, put into Charleston harbor. Just after noon on the following day, after being given an “all clear,”
the Gill, carrying approximately 142,000 barrels of oil, resumed her voyage, which had originated in Atreco, Texas, bound for Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. She never made it. About 25 miles off the Cape Fear Coast, in what are known as the Frying Pan Shoals, a German submarine
— U-158 — lay in wait. On March 13, 1942, the sub took down the largest ship ever sunk off the Carolina coast.
The John D. Gill continues to rest in waters off the Cape Fear
coast, about 20 miles out and 90-100 feet below the surface.
Her superstructure is gone, blasted by the Coast Guard
because of the threat to navigation, but the ship remains
in one contiguous piece. She’s home now to a breathtaking variety
of marine life, which attracts scuba divers from all over the world.
In fact, the Gill is just one of many reasons why more than 5,000
Scuba Diving magazine readers from around the globe ranked coastal
Carolina (aka “The Graveyard of the Atlantic”) as the number one
diving site in North America (2010) for “top marine life, top health
of marine environment, top big animals, and top wreck diving.” That
same readers’ poll rated North Carolina as the second most popular
site in North America for underwater photography (British Columbia
was first).
█ Local Diver: Sue Mobley
With average visibility between 50 and 70 feet, peaking at 100 feet
in the summer (when the Gulf Stream edges closer to shore) North
Carolina’s underwater environment never ceases to amaze Landfall
resident, underwater photographer and veteran scuba diver Sue
Mobley. In the past 25 or so years, Mobley and her husband, Tom,
have logged nearly 6,000 dives between them, in a variety of inter-national
locations. While together, they continue to do two to three
international diving trips every year, Sue does more diving locally,
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