The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
The last of it's Tribe, the USCG Cutter Mohawk, Tribal Class (Class A) is the very last warship still floating that served in the North Atlantic out of Greenland during WWII. In late June, through the efforts of Joe Weatherby and Reefmakers, it will become Florida's newest artificial reef some 22 miles off of Sanibel Island in Lee County in 90 feet of water. Until recently, it has served as a museum ship at Key West but the ravages of war and weather have made keeping her afloat incredibly expensive according to her curator Captain Bill Verge. It's time for her to sink while we can decide where she's going down!
Earlier this week I got a private tour of the Mohawk from Captain Verge and I was accompanied by Joe Weatherby and the stars of Scuba Natian, Mitch and Mike. I got to see the condition she's in and had a rather long talk with Captain Verge about several significant events in the ship's history. She had 14 fights with u-boats during WWII and though has even had torpedoes go right under her and miss only to hit ships on the other side. The Mohawk was designed as an ice cutter. You can see 5/8" steel sheets that was welded to her hull to accomplish this. According to Captain Verge, this really gave her an edge in lasting this long. Unfortunately, you can feel soft spots in her deck as you walk on it. That's amazing just in itself. At almost 3" thick, it was estimated that it would cost $900,000.00 to replace just that.
Joe has his work cut out for him on this. His firm, Reefmakers, has been tasked with making this ship go down just as smoothly as did the Vandenberg. I was able to hear the behind the scenes planning about who will be doing what and to what extent. Sinking the boat is pretty easy. Joe even has a preliminary of all the holes to be cut and where the cutting charges should be placed. The real art is making everyone happy in the process. There is a veritable political minefield he has to navigate through in order to do this and Joe is the man for hour in that respect. On top of this, Joe is committed to making the vets who served on her decks feel as honored as the ones from the Vandy. After all, this is their ship. Sinking it will allow it's name and legacy to live on as divers post about their experiences.
So watch this thread in the coming weeks as Reefmakers, with Joe Weatherby gets closer to sinking the Mohawk. I'll be keeping a running blog of everything that I can divulge. That way, everyone can see what happens behind the scenes. This will be FUN.