Photographing the Shipwrecked Ocean Pursuit on the Outer Banks

 In March 2020, before the world seemed to pause, I had the chance to photograph one of the most unique scenes I’ve ever witnessed along the North Carolina coast—a shipwrecked boat known as the Ocean Pursuit.

Ocean Pursuit at sunrise

Starting at Bodie Island Lighthouse

Our morning began in the quiet darkness before dawn. The air was cool, the kind of crisp early spring chill that lingers along the Outer Banks in March. We stopped first at Bodie Island Lighthouse, its black-and-white stripes standing tall against the dim sky. Even though the lighthouse wasn’t our main destination, it felt like the perfect starting point for the morning—a reminder of the Outer Banks’ deep history with seafaring and shipwrecks.

The Hike to the Wreck

From there, we hiked down the beach, headlamps guiding our way through the sand. The ocean was restless, its waves breaking against the shore with that constant, steady rhythm that makes the Outer Banks both beautiful and unpredictable. Ahead of us, as the horizon began to lighten, the outline of the Ocean Pursuit slowly came into view.

The fishing trawler had run aground earlier that month and now sat stranded in the sand, a surreal silhouette against the pale pre-dawn sky. The sight was haunting and powerful—the massive vessel tilted, weather-beaten, and already becoming part of the wild, shifting landscape.

Photographing at First Light

I set up my tripod in the cool sand and began shooting long exposures while the sky transitioned from navy blue to warm tones of orange and pink. Photographing the Ocean Pursuit before sunrise gave it an almost ghostly presence, a relic caught between sea and sky.

As the sun crested the horizon, golden light spilled across the beach and the trawler. Shadows deepened, textures sharpened, and the Ocean Pursuit revealed every detail—the rust, the chipped paint, and the sheer size of the hull that seemed so out of place on a barrier island shoreline.

It was one of those mornings where the scene kept changing with every minute, every color shift in the sky, and I couldn’t stop shooting.

A Bit of History

The Ocean Pursuit was a commercial fishing trawler that ran aground near Oregon Inlet in early March 2020. After mechanical issues, the crew abandoned ship, leaving the massive steel vessel stuck in the shifting sands of the Outer Banks. Over the months that followed, storms and tides battered the trawler, and it slowly sank deeper into the beach until eventually disappearing altogether.

Shipwrecks aren’t uncommon here—the Outer Banks has long been called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”—but seeing a modern steel trawler stranded onshore was both unusual and unforgettable.

A Moment in Time

Just a few days later, Dare County closed its borders due to Covid-19. Looking back, it feels like this photo outing was a final chapter before a season of stillness began. That shipwreck—already an unexpected and fleeting subject—became even more symbolic.

When I finally made it back in November of that year, the Ocean Pursuit had changed dramatically. The sea and shifting sands had taken their toll—the trawler had sunk deeper, its hull now partially buried and disappearing into the beach. It was a striking reminder of how quickly nature reclaims what doesn’t belong, and how fleeting these photographic opportunities really are.

First view of Ocean Pursuit at night

Final Thoughts

Photographing the Ocean Pursuit reminded me why I chase these kinds of adventures. The Outer Banks is sometimes called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” and standing beside that stranded trawler as the sun rose, I felt the weight of that history.

Moments like these—fleeting, unexpected, and tied to both natural and human events—are what make photography such a powerful way to remember where we’ve been.

This image is available on my Etsy shop