Dios Cafe

A laid-back cafe on Long Beach Island with good food and, according to regulars, one very consistent customer who doesn't appear on any reservation list. The building has been a local gathering spot for generations.

Long Beach Island has been called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," with over 4,000 recorded shipwrecks off the New Jersey coast. This treacherous stretch of water claimed countless vessels from the 1700s onward, their valuable cargoes scattered across the ocean floor. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, salvage divers in heavy copper helmets and rubberized canvas suits descended into these waters, searching for treasure among the wrecks.

One such diver never returned from the depths. As documented in Lynda Lee Macken's book "Haunted Long Beach Island," a deep-sea diver died over a hundred years ago while hunting for treasure from one of the many shipwrecks in these waters. His body was never recovered, lost somewhere in the murky depths off the barrier island. The most tantalizing target for treasure hunters was the Betsey, a British ship that sank during a nor'easter in 1778 while carrying an estimated $1.5 million in silver coins. Despite numerous attempts over the centuries, strong tides and shifting sands have prevented full recovery of her cargo.

The diver's ghost now haunts this cozy cafe on Long Beach Island, still wearing his decaying diving gear -- the corroded copper helmet, the weighted boots, the rotting canvas suit. Staff and patrons have reported seeing the spectral figure lingering among the tables, a tragic remnant of the island's dangerous maritime past. Ghost tour operators who include the cafe on their routes describe him as "forever searching for the treasures he died trying to find."

The ghost is most commonly spotted after dark, which has earned the cafe its reputation among local ghost tours: "Come for the coffee but leave before dark." Some visitors report feeling a sudden chill or sensing something watching them from the corners of the establishment. The diver seems drawn to return to the world of the living, perhaps hoping to finally claim the riches that cost him his life.

Long Beach Island's waters claimed many lives throughout history. The Powhatan disaster of 1854 killed over 250 German immigrants when the ship struck Barnegat Shoals. The 1916 shark attacks began in nearby Beach Haven when Charles Vansant became the first recorded fatal shark attack victim on the East Coast. With that much tragedy woven into the island's history, it's little wonder that spirits linger here. The diver's ghost serves as a haunting reminder of the dangers faced by those who worked the waters around Long Beach Island -- and the treasures that still lie unclaimed beneath the waves.