Museum idea: Step aboard, ride out virtual storm

HATTERAS, N.C. 

The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum stands on the tip of an island off whose shores savage storms regularly sunk merchant ships, battleships, sailing ships, cruise ships and even a few pirate ships.

So why not have an exhibit that puts a museum visitor inside a rocking vessel buffeted by frenzied seas? Let one hear - with the magic of technology, of course - the ghastly creaking of the hull and the screeching wind as the boat rides the storm. Maybe have some sea spray?

That's one idea tossed around at a public meeting with exhibit designers last week at the museum.

"If you could put people in a shipwreck," said Danny Couch, a Buxton resident and member of the museum's board, "it could just be a little motion. You could have a lot of fun with an exhibit like that."

But as the long-awaited exhibition design is about to be launched, executive director Joseph Schwarzer said the museum will be far more than interactive displays. It will also educate, memorialize, preserve and advance the 400-year maritime history of the Outer Banks. And that's where stories from islanders come in.

"I want it to be able to engage people," he said, "but I don't want it to be a spoon-fed Disney experience."

Wars, colonization and piracy happened at the front doors of Outer Bankers, Schwarzer said, and fishing, boat-building, ship salvage and lifesaving were mainstays in the islanders' isolated lives.

"There is nowhere you can talk about acts of heroism where that played out as it did on Hatteras Island," said Ernie Foster, captain of the Albatross Fleet in Hatteras.

Chris Tebbutt, senior project manager for Boston-based design firm Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, said after the meeting that it will probably take about six months to develop a conceptual design for the exhibition.

"There's huge potential, because I think this museum has the goods," he said. "There's so many stories to tell. It's going to make our job easy."

The complete design process will take up to a year and a half, depending on when the documentation of the collection is complete, said David Francis, senior associate with PBC+L Architecture of Raleigh.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a partner with the state, has provided about $400,000 in grants for the exhibit design. Funds for the $2.5 million to $3 million estimated for its fabrication still have to be raised.

Schwarzer said there are about 2,000 artifacts in storage at the museum. The facility also expects to receive portions of the Huron, Monitor and National Park Service collections.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com