The Buccaneer sinks!

[Dean810]

Hope you didn't miss the two heads onboard!

 

[dab]

What was the process you had to go through to get this accomplished?

 

[DCBC]

At one point, it sank a boat in the Gulf of Mexico that it believed was carrying illegal hooch and caused an international incident, since the boat was Canadian and was in international waters.

How embarrassing... Woops LOL

 

[Dean810]

What was the process you had to go through to get this accomplished?

Somebody bought the boat at auction, then donated it to a foundation that was set up for the project. The boat had to be thoroughly cleaned, which was a big job since not only was there a fair amount of trash on it, but it also had several hundred gallons of diesel fuel and oil that had to be disposed of. Flaking paint had to be chipped away. The primary cleanup crew consisted of members of the Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago, of which I am a member. We needed to get approval from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in order to sink her, and they relied on input from other agencies and organizations in making their decision. What helped us was that the people responsible for the project had been involved in other sinkings in the past and had a good track record. In fact, the approval process actually went smoothly, but it just takes forever.

Putting myself out on a limb here, I think the single biggest expense may have been the tow. It apparently got a little hairy whether enough money would be there. There was fund raising over the years and we did receive support from the Tim Early Foundation. I'm sure they are still taking donations now, but the bottom line is that it happened. You will love this dive. See Nick's video link on another post in this forum.

 

[dab]

Thanks for the info. Do you have any idea of the cost of everything to get it sunk?