SCUBA Legends: Diving Myths and Phantoms of Florida
We've all heard the stories, sometimes on boats returning from a wreck dive, sometimes in smokey waterfront bars. They are the stuff of dreams, of the "big one" lying just offshore surely only hours from discovery. These are some of the myths and legends of underwater Florida. In some of these stories there is a grain of truth, in others the mists of time conceal the answers....
The great rolling submarine of the Gulf: This is one of the finest, and most unlikely. I get questions on this fairly regularly. The story goes that in the Gulf of Mexico a German U-boat, her pressure hull still sealed, ballasted with extremely valuable but poisonous mercury, moves at the mercy of the tides. She has been seen by many, usually by a "friend of a friend who is a captain" as she breaks the surface like a broaching whale, only to sink back down before she can be located with certainty. She remains elusive, a phantom of war....
This story, while compelling, is filled with more holes than a depth-charged u-boat. Research through both American and German u-boat experts shows no sub unaccounted for in this area. This same research also puts to bed the theory of u-boats being ballasted with mercury. It simply wasn't done.
The Fort Lauderdale submarine: She lies just outside the third reef, in about 90 feet of water. The merciless sands continually shift to cover and uncover her remains, allowing for only a brief occasional glimpse. Once she allowed a photograph which was published in a dive magazine. Unfortunately the photo was so poorly focused that it could have been anything, including the sail of a submarine....
Again, Research through both American and German u-boat experts shows no sub unaccounted for in this area.
The Key Largo submarine: In this case we have no adventurous tales, only consistent rumors of a u-boat sunk of Key Largo.
Once again, no sub unaccounted for in this area. Interestingly enough, the wreck of the Vitric, a freighter barge which carried tanks of syrup, shows an intriguingly rounded profile on a depth sounder in some circumstances. This may be the birthplace of these rumors. Perhaps years ago she was dived on air. A narcosis addled brain could possibly see a submarine in her deck tanks....
The Key Largo tanker: She was lost in war yet somehow missed by history. Rumors of a tanker wreck seaward of Key Largo have persisted over the years. Once I was given loran numbers to this gallant warrior.
On a summer day in the early 90s we set out, 2 divers and a boat handler in a small private boat, in search of history and glory. Reaching the spot we set a jug yet the bottom showed as flat and featureless, 200 feet below. For hours we searched, running pattern after pattern when finally the depth sounder exploded with activity! We could see shoals of fish and what appeared to be the structure of a "2 headed" vessel, surely a T-2 tanker! We set the hook quickly and prepared to dive, anticipation gnawing at our brains.
Swimming downward into the blue, the first tingles of narcosis appearing as we swam through millions of baitfish and jacks. Finally reaching the bottom. Flat sand. We had missed. I took a compass heading in my best guess direction and we began swimming. Soon she loomed out of the mists, a small sailboat.
She lies at 200 fsw on a flat featureless sand plain. Her hull is empty yet her mast reaches toward the surface. She has clearly rested here long. Since the area is so devoid of structure, this wreck has attracted fish in unbelievable numbers, numbers great enough to give the effect, on a small cheap depth sounder, of a large wreck, perhaps a tanker....
Searching for the lost, yet found: Their names haunt the aspiring wreck hunter, Oxford, Moonstone, Dixie, Moffett, Ice Fog, and the list goes on. Vessels listed as casualties on various lists such as Lloyds List. Found through research in dusty archives and yellowed newspapers crumbling with age. They were lost so surely they remain, forgotten in time, rich prizes which may easily be found. These are wrecks which I have been invited to help search for during my career. Luckily I have not yet been fooled as so many others have....
Each of the vessels listed above and countless more, were indeed lost but were also later recovered. Many researchers stop researching too quickly and thus are expeditions born which are doomed from the start, searching for that which is no longer there.....
The Motorcycle Wreck: In this case we reach the pinnacle of wreck diving legends, one that may actually exist. The story goes, with some variations, that she is a freighter with a cargo of motorcycles bound for a distant shore, usually a shore torn by war. Somehow she met her fate somewhere between Key Largo and Marathon. Today she lies waiting, variously reported at 150 and 300 foot depth and everywhere in between.
During research for my last book I interviewed an old treasure hunter. This man had dived Keys waters for decades and had seen many strange sights. Among the strangest, he reported, was the ship filled with motorcycles. He gave the location as "seaward of French Reef, in 150 foot". Many days, many weeks, many months, I searched the waters off French but found nothing. Perhaps she still awaits, perhaps, like so many others, she lives only in the minds of those who seek her.
WW
