COORDINATES: 27042.5, 39741.0

A 251' long freighter, the bottom of this wreck lies at 90' with her remains rising to within 45' of the surface. She was torpedoed on 11 March 1942 by the U-158. The wreck has been wire-dragged to prevent the wreckage from obstructing navigation, and during WW II the Navy and the Coast Guard depth-charged the wreck as a precaution because U-boats would often hide near sunken wrecks to prevent detection by surface ships. Consequently, not much remains of the original ships structure. A portion of the bow is intact and rises to nearly 70'. Her two bow anchors may still be seen hanging on the port and starboard sides of the bow. A large windlass can be seen on the deck at a depth of 80'. The anchor chain locker lies at the second level below the bow deck. The Caribsea's triple expansion engine and two large boilers provide the greatest relief on the wreckage, rising to within 70' of the surface.

Originally named Lake Flattery, the Caribsea was a Great Lakes freighter built in 1919 at Duluth, Minnesota, for Stockard Steamship Company of New York. At 2,609 tons (1,610 net tons), the 251' long vessel carried freight along the East Coast from Caribbean ports to New York and Philadelphia. At the beginning of March 1942, the Caribsea departed Santiago, Cuba, bound for Norfolk, Virginia. Early in the morning March 11, she was running at a slow speed 12 miles east of Cape Lookout to comply with U.S. Navy orders for all vessels passing Cape Hatteras. The U-158, under the command of Captain Erich Rostin, spotted the small freighter. According to German naval reports Rostin mistook her for a Coast Guard cutter. The U-158 fired two torpedoes from her bow tubes at the Caribsea and both struck the freighter's starboard side simultaneously. One struck the #2 hold just forward of amidships a the other struck amidships. The small ship sank within 3 minutes, and there was no time to launch all lifeboats. Twenty-one members of the crew perished in the attack, and seven survivors leaped overboard and clung to whatever was floating nearby. The survivors were picked up by the Norlindo and put aboard a Coast Guard cutter off Cape Henry, Virginia.