Dive Report (7/31/05): Crane Barge, Narragansett Bay, RI

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

RIOceanographer

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
1,689
Reaction score
6
Location
South Kingstown, RI
# of dives
500 - 999
The NOAA lab I work at happens to be right on Narragansett Bay in RI (same place as the URI Bay Campus and Graduate School of Oceanography). December 23, 2004 I was sitting in my office, when I got a phone call from a grad student I know across the street at URI, "Chris, you won't believe what I just saw out my window!"

A tug towing a crane barge had been steaming south in pretty foul weather down the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. They got into trouble and the barge started taking on water so the made a u-turn and tried to run back up the bay, but they didn't make it to safety. Just off of Ft. Getty outside of Dutch Harbor in Jamestown, the barge started going down and the tug was forced to cut it loose less than a minute before the barge tipped over and sank.

Today we went out and dove this now 7 month old wreck. The wreck is sitting in about 50 ft of water, laying its side with the deck and the barge's flat bottom forming shear walls at a 90 degree angle to the seafloor. The starboard side is sitting at about 20-25 ft deep. The port side is at 55 ft deep. Because of the way it is sitting, sort of like a coin on its edge, it makes for a really neat wreck. The crane is still attached to the barge and the boom extends probably 50 feet out before you come to the end which is driven into sand. Even though the wreck is only 7 months old it is already heavily encrusted. There is also a small fishing net on the wreck already. There were some very large tautog hanging around wreck.

This dive should definitely be done at slack tide as there can be a pretty strong current when the tide is running. The visibility was about 8-10ft but it was overcast and it was extremely dark at depth (definitely needed the dive lights). Water temps were about 66 degrees F. By the end of the dive the current was definitely picking up on us.

Finding the wreck is quite easy. The Coast Guard has placed a red can (WR6) just west of the wreck (this buoy is too new to be on the charts yet). The wreck is probably about 60 ft inside of WR6 towards Ft. Getty. If you have sounder the vertical relief is 30 ft straight up off the bottom so it it is a really clear sonar target when you go over it. It is too far out to be a shore dive, but close enough that you could easily do it from any small boat or a kayak. At the time we dove it, there was also a small white buoy tied to the wreck that says "Crane Barge" on it.
 
Hey glad you found it. How was the arch dive did you guys find the arches ? Hope things went well.
 
ScubaSarus:
Hey glad you found it. How was the arch dive did you guys find the arches ? Hope things went well.

We skipped the arches on due to fog off Newport.
 
I see. I hope you guys didn't have to do the fog watch in the passage. I'de hate to see a huge tanker arise out of the fog.

Any plans of a launch at Narrangansett pier and a dive off the Hazard Ave site. That would be fun.

Chris
 
yeah....had to skip the Arches as the clouds looked rather dark to the east. Not only that, but we were all getting hungry and had to go back to chow down on chips and dip.

Great dive on the barge/crane...thanks for introducing that to us, Chris!

Would entertain launching from Narragansett, but don't know the condition of the ramp and also whether their would be trailer parking. Any thoughts?

Grab Shell
 
Grab Shell Dude:
yeah....had to skip the Arches as the clouds looked rather dark to the east. Not only that, but we were all getting hungry and had to go back to chow down on chips and dip.

Great dive on the barge/crane...thanks for introducing that to us, Chris!

Would entertain launching from Narragansett, but don't know the condition of the ramp and also whether their would be trailer parking. Any thoughts?

Grab Shell

The Narragansett Boat ramp is pretty nice (much nicer than the one we just used at Ft. Getty). There is limited boat trailer parking on Pier 5 itself (2 or 3 spots), and there is also lots of roadside parking along the seawall (no time limit). As long as you don't show up too late in the morning you will have no trouble parking. On weekdays and off-season, parking is usually not a problem any time of day.
 
Hello there Asga el Esqueleto (Grab a Shell).

What no watermelon or cookies this time. Yea I didn't notice a lot of trailer parking. But was able to easily park off the road. Saw a few spots even as crowded as the place was. I wonder if you could park at the dive shop and someone ferry you back or some other place like stop and shop etc. I am sure there has to be a secret place to put the trailor.

ScubaSarus
 
ScubaSarus:
I wonder if you could park at the dive shop and someone ferry you back or some other place like stop and shop etc.

Shouldn't be necessary, except right in the middle of the day on a weekend parking there is normally a non-issue.
 
....sounds real good! but jeez....I'll miss the $20 hot shower at Getty!! I'll just have to go back to pouring a $1.29 gallon of Poland Springs over my head!! Let's plan on launching from there perhaps on Sunday 8/14.
I'm itchin' to get to the abyss this weekend....flow rate is way down to 2100, and water temp up in Walpole, NH is swinging around 70....with 77 a max. I'll be wearing my 5 mil. Not sure who's going yet....gonna firm things up mid-week....u guys are interested, right? Sat or Sun...what's best for you?
Crush
 
Hey if I can get an airfill after the U-Boat I'm a go. They are forecasting brief storms so maybe we wont get out to the U-boat. I'de love to do the abyss.
 

Back
Top Bottom