Hatteras Island is full of history and mystery. Since today is Halloween, we thought it would be fun to share some of the island’s local folklore and spooky tales.
Ghost Cat of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse attracts visitors from all over the world. While visiting the lighthouse, folks have reported seeing a large black and white cat roaming the grounds and inside the lighthouse.
What most visitors do not realize is that they are being greeted by a ghost cat. The cat moves close to people and may even rub up against them, but when someone tries to pick it up, the cat simply vanishes. Believed to have once been owned by one of the light keeper’s, the cat has lived at the lighthouse for decades and continues to greet its many visitors.
Think back to your visits to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Have you spotted the black and white cat while visiting the lighthouse?
The Grey Man of Hatteras
Hurricanes are a fact of life on the Carolina Coast. With Cape Hatteras jutting out into the open ocean, it is bound to come into contact with a storm or two. Technologies of today are able to warn the projected storm path with wind speed, flood heights and other details of an oncoming storm.
What if there was someone to warn us of the oncoming storm? Folks have reported that right before a storm is to hit, a shadowy grey figure of a man has been seen roaming the beaches of Cape Hatteras. He appears with the first winds of the storms whenever the hurricane is to be a real threat to the island. He never speaks, or at least no one has gotten close enough to hear him speak. If anyone approaches, he fades away into the salt air.
So who is this? Folks believe he is the ghost of a local sailor who was lost at sea during a hurricane who comes back to warn his fellow islanders of the incoming storm.
Blackbeard’s Ghost
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, terrorized the seas aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge in the early 1700s. Blackbeard spent his time pillaging and plundering vulnerable ships and wreaking havoc on those who came into contact with the dreaded pirate.
Blackbeard’s reign of terror came to an end on November 22, 1718 off the Coast of Ocracoke Island. Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sent a ship commanded by John Maynard to track and kill Blackbeard. While anchored up in Teach’s Hole just off of Ocracoke, Maynard was able to surprise Blackbeard and his men. Their meeting resulted in an epic battle with the pirate crew either killed or captured and the dreaded pirate Blackbeard was finally killed.
To insure the pirate was really dead, Maynard cut of Blackbeard’s head and hung it from the bowsprit of his ship and threw his body overboard. Legend has it, as the body hit the water, the hanging head of Blackbeard shouted, “Come on Edward” and his headless body swam around the boat three times before plunging into the deep.
To this day, Blackbeard’s ghost still haunts Teach’s Hole in search of his missing head. It’s been reported that his glowing headless ghost floats just underneath the surface, swimming around Teach’s hole …searching.
On windy nights, folks have reported a strange light, known as “Teach’s light”, coming from the Pamlico Sound and the voice of Blackbeard can be heard roaring “Where is my head?”