Diving a tragedy in FL...

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!

I will dive on the wreck of the SS Princess Sophia near Juneau this August. All hands and passengers were lost when it sunk off Vanderbilt reef on October 25th, 1918 along with my late wife's great great grandfather. I expect to be awed and humbled.
 
There are artificial reefs and shipwrecks. I can see why the OP would much rather dive a real shipwreck than a sanitized artificial reef.
 
a wreck is a part of history and a time capsule of the lives of the people that sailed her, especially on her last day. While I think highly of artificial reefs, they are primarily a substrait for marine organisms and possibly for people that enjoy some components of history, but a sanitized version of it. Which would rather dive, the Oriskany or one of the wrecks of Truk lagoon?

I enjoy hiking across beautiful fields, but the effect of walking across the fields of Gettysburg is considerably different...

I will assume the OP was thinking of the more reflective aspects of diving a wreck that reflects the life of those who sailed her and not the morbid curiosity of celebrity cemetery.
 
I don't think "cool" is how he described it. Regardless, I disagree - I've yet to meet someone who thought diving with dead people is cool. I have, however, met many people who feel humbled, honored, and appreciative of life after diving such wrecks - myself included. I think artificial reefs are "cool", though!

You are correct he did not say cool, he said "better".
 
Depends who won as well.

Truk is probably the premier wreck diving location in the world. Diving the Arizona would lead to all sorts of trouble.

I believe that all the Japanese war dead have been repatriated from Truk. The Arizona is an actual tomb. I know that some human remains have been found on U865 off of Rhode Island, but I am not sure if they are still there or if they too have been sent home. The Andrea Doria is condidered the Everest of wreck diving, but has no bodies, yet plenty of artifacts and tons of history.
 
I can see how a true wreck could be more interesting, but I can also appreciate the stories that a ship like the Oriskany has even though it didn't go down in a fight. Either way to me a ship that served in a war is an ominous dive regardless if it is an artificial reef or a true wreck.
 
The Empress of Ireland in Quebec is apparently a very well preserved graveyard at it's depth and cold temp. The victims are apparently still very intact and "looking" out the portholes and I would find that very disturbing.

It's a good thing you don't seem to believe in ghosts, because some people say the Arabia in Tobermory is haunted. I've never seen anything strange on the Arabia, but that's what some people say. The Wexford in Ontario also had lost souls, and like any of these particularly sad stories where life has been lost, it can be a very humbling and sombre experience. Reading up on the wrecks before diving them is very interesting and adds to the understanding of what everyone went through.
 
Ok,

Ships like the Oriskany or Duane or Eagle are cool, but there seems to be something about a shipwreck where people died that would be ... I hesitate to say "better" but ... more meaningful than diving a wreck that was sunk on purpose.

I live in Gainesville FL and plan to dive the blackthorn soon (23 coast guard men died) ... What are some other wrecks that were tragic wrecks and not sunk on purpose?

Here is a tragic story of a Sinking I wrote up about 15 years ago.....


"The Wreck of the HydroAtlantic

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD]As I first heard it, the year was 1975. A terrifying wind blew a Northeasterly swath of horizontal rain and mountainous waves.
A lone ship limped from one monstrous swell to the next, its frightened crew praying for help, but knowing full well none could arrive in time.
Like a drowning man trying desparately to stay afloat, the great ship struggled again and again, but began to tire.
Less than three miles from shore, surely the safe harbor of the Boca Inlet could be reached.
But with one last angry surge, the once proud HydroAtlantic was plunged beneath the surface by the near infinite power and will of the ocean itself.
The captain and crew, prepared for the inevitable, rode the ship down to its comfortable resting spot 185 feet below the surface.
Landing smoothly, completely intact and upright, the great ship and her crew had a few final moments together of surreal calm, these giving way to a peaceful co-existance with nature and eternity.


Actually, the year was 1987, the seas were 4-6, and the once proud ship was being towed to a salvage yard where uncaring men would soon rape,
pillage and rip apart every last vestige of grace and dignity the great ship had ever known..
The crew on the tow boat, incompetent or perhaps "preoccupied", somehow managed to miss the telltale signs of the huge ship filling with water.
Suddenly, a surprised tow crew stared incomprehensibly as the great ship escaped their greedy world, and fled to the safe haven of great depth and perpetual tranquility.

Somehow there's a romance and a passion in most divers for the unknown mysteries surrounding a shipwreck. It begins as an awe inspiring sight,
and we want explanations, although sometimes marvel and fantasy work well 'till we know better.
As the years passed, the ship gave birth to a rich underwater community, far surpassing the near shore reefs in complexity and profusion of marine life.
Massive columns of baitfish thrived from its decks to the surface, from the distance looking almost like an "enormous, fish filled upside-down tornado".
Big jacks and grouper and barracuda would blast through this column like freight trains, and eddies would form in the great column until the temporary assaults would subside."


Anyway, it is an awesome Wreck you can get on with one of the Boynton Beach Boats....Splashdown Divers is one of these that gives great precision drops on it.
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 

Back
Top Bottom