UNC CSI To Host ‘Mathews Men’ Author Book Signing

Posted By Matt Artz on May 10, 2016

The UNC Coastal Studies Institute (UNC CSI), in conjunction with Duck’s Cottage Books, is hosting a lecture and book signing as part of its “Science on the Sound” lecture series. This series, held monthly, highlights research on coastal topics and issues in northeast North Carolina.

This month, the series will feature William Geroux, author of a recently published book entitled, The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U Boats. The program will explore the connection between the captains of Mathews County Virginia and the shipwrecks of the Battle of the Atlantic that took place off the North Carolina Coast during WWII.

The program will be held at 6pm on Thursday, May 19 at the UNC Coastal Studies Institute located at 850 NC 345 in Wanchese, NC.

The presentation is free and the public is welcomed and encouraged to attend.

A book signing will take place after the program.

During the first half of 1942, Hitler’s U-boats led a campaign to cut off supplies to the European front by attacking merchant vessels off the eastern seaboard of the United States. During this time, German U-boats sank hundreds of merchant vessels, with almost 100 lost off the North Carolina coast alone.

This battlefield and its shipwrecks have been the focus of an ongoing archaeological expedition led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and partners from the UNC Coastal Studies Institute, East Carolina University and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Since 2008, a team of archaeologists and scientific divers have conducted an annual underwater field expedition on the remains of vessels from the Battle of the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast.

The project cataloged the sites, and began the process of identifying impacts from both environmental and cultural factors. In addition, the data gained from the project serves as a baseline for future monitoring and scientific research.

An exhibit of mini-documentaries, three-dimensional models, photography and videography from the expedition will be shown prior to the lecture and during the book signing.