Seashell Hunters Make Bombshell Discovery On North Carolina Beach

PLEASURE ISLAND, NC — It could have ended badly for a North Carolina couple mining the beach for seashells and shark teeth, but instead the state will get a Civil War-era artifact that authorities said was remarkably intact after a century and a half in the salty waters. Their discovery not only could be called a “bombshell” or “explosive” find, it literally was.

Patti and Kerry Belanger were combing the Kure Beach shoreline for pretty seashells Sunday, something they do every morning on their mile-long walk. They were headed toward Fort Fisher, the site of one of the Civil War's most decisive battles, when they saw something peculiar sticking out of about 6 inches water.

What the heck was it? They peered into the water to take a closer look. Kerry thought it was a rock, but Patti wasn’t so sure, according to an account of the couple’s unusual find by news station WWAY.

Kerry started digging. As sand flew, the object revealed itself.

“It literally looked like a big bullet,” he told the news outlet.

He threw the heavy, foot-high object over his shoulder and the couple trudged home, talking along the way about whether their curiosity might literally blow up in their faces.

Once home — and intact — Patti posted a photo of their discovery on Facebook, sharing it on a Kure Beach community page. Many people wrote that it looked like an artillery shell. Be careful, others warned the couple, the thing could still be live.

That got the Belangers' attention. They decided it was time to notify authorities to learn more out the origin of the treasure they’d secured in a plastic bag on their front porch. As Patti pulled the bag away, the New Hanover County sheriff’s deputy who responded to the call “backed off,” she told WWAY. “He took one look at it and immediately the unmarked cars started showing up.”

Boom!

The bomb squad determined it was a real bomb, alright — a 30-pound Union Army Parrott Round, one of the most common munitions used during the Civil War. It was still live, full of black powder and could have exploded at any time.

Just having it put the Belangers on the wrong side of the law, Lt. Jerry Brewer of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office told WWAY.

“It’s actually illegal for them to possess it,” Brewer said. “Any artillery round that hadn’t been disposed of and cleaned out properly is against the law to possess.”

The bomb squad carted the ordnance away to defuse it — a task that can be either simple or dangerously difficult. In this instance, authorities had to take it apart.

Missiles, mines and bombs frequently show up on North Carolina’s beaches, The News & Observer reported. In some cases, beaches are evacuated, as happened a couple of years ago when an unexploded Navy ordnance was found on a newly discovered island off the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The Belangers, newcomers to Pleasure Island, can’t believe their luck in finding the artifact.

“Some people who are the Civil War buffs have probably been looking for this all their lives; we’ve been here three weeks and it literally just washed up at our feet,” Patti told WWAY. “So we feel pretty cool about this whole thing.”

Fort Fisher was the Confederacy’s last coastal stronghold when the Union captured it in January 1865. It had prevented Union blockade vessels from entering and departing Wilmington, the South’s last open seaport on the Atlantic coast, and cutting the supply line to inland Confederate soldiers. After Fort Fisher fell, the Union was able to attack Wilmington and put an end to Confederate trade, according to the American Battlefield Trust.

Col. William Lamb, the commanding officer at Fort Fisher, recounted that the Union’s floating fortresses “rained shells down on Fort Fisher, causing the very earth to tremble.” Lamb recalled the Union’s “relentless bombardment” on Fort Fisher began on the night of Jan. 12, 1865, and continued over the following two days.

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered less than three months later.

The Belangers are reassembling the pieces, using the instructions that were provided for them. They are donating the Civil War ordnance to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Underwater Archaeology Branch, Patti posted on Facebook.

Because it was found on Pleasure Island, the couple hope the ordnance can be displayed at the Fort Fisher historic site. It will be displayed under their name.