The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum occupies a purpose-built building near the Hatteras ferry docks. Admission is free. The collection focuses on the maritime history of the Outer Banks, from 16th-century Spanish vessels through to 20th-century shipwrecks — well over 5,000 vessels have been lost in these waters, more than anywhere else on the East Coast.
Displays include salvage equipment, navigational instruments, figureheads, coins, and artefacts from specific wrecks. There are exhibits on the Diamond Shoals themselves, on piracy (Edward Teach — Blackbeard — operated along this coast), on the Life-Saving Service, and on the German submarine campaign that devastated Allied shipping in 1942. The museum also functions as a repository for materials recovered by sport divers from the area's many dive sites.