flounderer
Contributor
A well known wreck off of Wilmington finally has a name, well it always has but the information has been tucked away for years. This isn't incredibly exciting news but I know a few people on this board have dove on the site a few times.
The Old Dredge wreck, as it has been know for years, is actually the Playa a dredge that sunk in 1931. An employee at Fort Fishers Underwater Archaeological Museum found old clippings from the sinking of the Playa in the Wilmington Star News from February and March of 1931. A local diver recently told me the employee from Fort Fisher had given him the papers and the diver was unaware that the dredge didn't have a name.
The Playa was an 800 ton dredge that was being towed from Wilmington to Morehead City when it sunk unexplainable on February 5 1931. The 24 crewmen aboard the dredge were rescued by the tug boat Barrenfolk. This was the first cruise of the Playa since it had underwent extensive work at dry dock which they think led to it's sinking. The owner of Playa, Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Company, considered the $46,000 dredge to be a complete loss and relinquished ownership. The Coast Guard decided to dynamite the Playa the second week in March 1931 because it was considered a hazard to navigation.
It is kinda funny but on my first dive on the Playa several years ago I thought to myself 'I'd love to find the name of this wreck'. I've found a few things on it, including an awesome bronze manufacturers plate, but could not trace anything to the identity of the wreck. As it turned out, it's been identified all along, the information was just buried in a file cabinet lost to divers and fishermen. After doing a little research I found a picture which is similar to the Playa, if not actually her. It is quite a bit different from how it looks today.
Pat
The Old Dredge wreck, as it has been know for years, is actually the Playa a dredge that sunk in 1931. An employee at Fort Fishers Underwater Archaeological Museum found old clippings from the sinking of the Playa in the Wilmington Star News from February and March of 1931. A local diver recently told me the employee from Fort Fisher had given him the papers and the diver was unaware that the dredge didn't have a name.
The Playa was an 800 ton dredge that was being towed from Wilmington to Morehead City when it sunk unexplainable on February 5 1931. The 24 crewmen aboard the dredge were rescued by the tug boat Barrenfolk. This was the first cruise of the Playa since it had underwent extensive work at dry dock which they think led to it's sinking. The owner of Playa, Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Company, considered the $46,000 dredge to be a complete loss and relinquished ownership. The Coast Guard decided to dynamite the Playa the second week in March 1931 because it was considered a hazard to navigation.
It is kinda funny but on my first dive on the Playa several years ago I thought to myself 'I'd love to find the name of this wreck'. I've found a few things on it, including an awesome bronze manufacturers plate, but could not trace anything to the identity of the wreck. As it turned out, it's been identified all along, the information was just buried in a file cabinet lost to divers and fishermen. After doing a little research I found a picture which is similar to the Playa, if not actually her. It is quite a bit different from how it looks today.
Pat
