Island of Spies - True Stories!
The Graveyard of the Atlantic
Hatteras Island overlooks the Graveyard of the Atlantic – treacherous currents and shifting sandbars that have gobbled up hundreds of ships and swallowed up thousands of souls.
When ships washed ashore unclaimed, islanders auctioned off the goods inside. (Stick's mother bought books for her library, including a set of encyclopedias minus volume K.) When people found shipwrecked goods scattered across the sand, it was often finders keepers.
Lifesaving Stations/Coast Guard Stations
Lifesaving Stations dotted the shore, staffed by brave men who risked their lives to snatch shipwrecked strangers from the sea. This is the staff of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station, the first African American-staffed station in the US, around 1896.
In 1915 the Service became part of the US Coast Guard, but the men did the same heroic job. Women served in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve during World War II and were allowed into the Coast Guard in 1973.
Want to see what a lifesaving station was really like? This museum is fantastic!
One Bus, Zero Roads
Kids ask where my inspiration comes from. Well, my inspiration for the bus in Island of Spies was a bus run first by a father and then by his three young sons. The boys inherited the bus when their father died. The youngest attached blocks of wood to his shoe soles so he could reach the pedals!
The Manteo-Hatteras Bus ran up and down the island in one day, even taking the small ferry at one point. Passengers hopped off and pushed when the bus got stuck, just like the bus in Island of Spies.
Spy Stories, Gizmos and Lingo
Island of Spies is... well, about an island full of spies. The spy stories are based on real spy information, plus stories I've heard from islanders and people along the coast.
The gizmos and lingo in Island of Spies are factual. To learn more about spies in World War II (or any other era), check out the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.
U-Boats
U-boat stands for Unterseaboots – under the sea boats, like those in Island of Spies. Hitler's huge fleet of U-boats terrorized the shipping lanes along the NC coast and the men who served in them were heroes in Germany during World War II.
Karl's U-boat is fiction based on real U-boats that prowled North Carolina's waters in 1942, sinking ship after ship.
Hitler's Germany launched 1250 U-boats during World War II. Today, only five remain.
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago features the only one in the US, and you can visit.
There are others at Kiel, Germany; Bremerhaven, Germany; and Liverpool, England.
The U-85
The U-85, sits on the ocean floor just north of Hatteras Island today, visited by sharks and divers.
A young German sailor named Erich Degenkold went down with the U-85 in April, 1942. His journal inspired Karl's journal in Island of Spies.
Many aspects of life on the Outer Banks have changed but the dance between ocean, sand, wind and nature remain the same. You'll still find...
A wild island pony, like Neb's.
The plants Stick catalogued for her mother, like this yaupon.
Fish like the ones Rain's mother pulled in.
Seashells.
Mammals.
And birds.
In nature, in our history, and in the pages of Island of Spies, the Dime Novel Kids' world lives forever.
© 2022 Sheila Turnage, Inc
Divers also explore ships U-boats sank like this one - the HMT Bedfordshire, which rests in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
Learn more about island nature and adventure opportunities.
Shore Rescue. Aycock Brown Papers, the Outer Banks History Center.
National Park Service Collection, the Outer Banks History Center.
Photo by Hemmer, David Stick Papers, the Outer Banks History Center.
Official Coast Guard Photo, David Stick Papers, the Outer Banks History Center.