Corolla , North Carolina ( CNN ) -- Ray Midgett hunts the Corolla beaches on the Outer Banks of North Carolina almost every day . `` Beachcombing , or metal detecting , or relic hunting is in my blood , '' said Midgett , a retired government worker who hits the sand between October and April . `` There are so many shipwrecks up here , it 's just beautiful . '' Midgett drives his pickup truck right onto the beach using the access road near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse . With a metal detector and shovel in tow , he 's uncovered everything from antique coins to wedding rings . Yet his biggest discovery came in December when he located the remains of a historic shipwreck . The wreckage , hidden under the sand for centuries , became fully exposed after a winter of brutal Nor'easters , making it the oldest shipwreck found off the coast of North Carolina . But historians had to act fast to recover the ship , according to Meghan Agresto , site manager of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse . `` This winter , it just got smacked . After awhile the ocean was going to take it back , '' Agresto said . `` The fact that we got it off the beach makes us excited because we got to save it . '' Midgett and other beachcombers had discovered a number of relics near the shipwreck 's beach grave site , including coins believed to be from the reign of Louis XIII in France and Charles I in England , lead bale seals used for identification , and spoons dating to the mid-1600s . Midgett said he feels a personal connection to the discovery . `` This shipwreck is a part of me , and some of the other hunters , too , that have been hunting around it for years , '' Midgett said . `` I 'm just so glad that they decided to save it . '' The rough currents and shallow sand bars off North Carolina 's Outer Banks have destroyed thousands of ships in what is sometimes called the `` Graveyard of the Atlantic . '' However , it is rare to find the remains of a shipwreck -- particularly a wooden vessel -- intact . Throughout winter , the Corolla beach shipwreck would repeatedly get uncovered and covered again . The waves would also move it along the coastline , causing damage . `` I 'm glad we got to it when we did . ... It may have covered back up and survived another summer , '' Midgett said . `` But next winter it would have been the same thing over and it eventually would have gone to pieces . '' Midgett , who used to work as a government auditor , wanted to make sure his discovery was salvaged , so he personally lobbied North Carolina state Sen. Marc Basnight . After numerous phone calls and e-mails appealing to Basnight , a beach lover himself , he was successful . In April , volunteers from the Wildlife Resources Commission , Underwater Archaeology Branch , the Corolla Fire Department and area residents helped free the wreck from the sand and tow it near the lighthouse . Archaeologists originally thought the wreck could be the HMS Swift , a British Navy ship from the late 18th century that originally ran around in the southern Chesapeake Bay off Virginia 's coast . The HMS Swift drifted to the Outer Banks , where it was looted once it hit shore , then disabled by the looters so it would n't resurface . After further examination of the ship 's 12-ton skeleton -- complete with wooden peg fasteners -- archaeologists determined that it was not the HMS Swift , but most likely a merchant 's ship dating to the mid- to late-1600s . That makes it the oldest shipwreck found along the state 's coast . `` History is the one thing we have that has a reasonable amount of certainty attached to it , '' said Joseph Schwarzer , director of North Carolina Maritime Museums . `` It tells us where we 've been , it tells us what 's happening , and it 's a directional sign for where you need to go next . '' Before the Corolla Beach discovery , the oldest shipwreck found along the state 's coast was Queen Anne 's Revenge , the presumed flagship of Blackbeard the pirate said to have run aground in 1718 , according to the North Carolina Maritime Museums . The remains of the Corolla Beach wreck and some of its artifacts will be moved to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on Hatteras Island , North Carolina . Midgett and the other beachcombers are entitled to keep the coins and other artifacts found near the ship they discovered . `` It 's very exciting to find something from this time period , '' said Richard Lawrence , director of the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch for the Department of Cultural Resources . `` And amazingly we found it in this beach environment . It appears this wreck has been sitting here for 350 years almost undisturbed until this winter . '' Lawrence said the discovery would never have happened without Midgett . `` Ray Midgett was probably more responsible than anybody to get this wreck off the beach , '' Lawrence said . `` He created enough of a stir to get various organizations involved . `` Thankfully , Ray and his colleagues collected various artifacts that would have otherwise not survived . ''
# ##ford finds wreck while on his regular beachcombing route . He and other beachcombers had found numerous coins and other items from the wreck . Winter storms damaged the wreck , but historians hoped it would be re - covered . Midgett convinces a state senator to get wreck removed so it could be studied and preserved .