Theme for June 14-20:....and this is the Wreck Room

[justleesa]

This week share a wreck with us. Personally I love diving wrecks, learning their history, seeing the ghosts of the past in my minds eye as I glide along.
Post your favorite Wreck (not a creature on a wreck, just the wreck please) and add a bit of it's history if you can.

One that I find fun is the Sea Tiger.

This is the story, slightly dramatized.

On a sunny day around noon the Sea Tiger, a refrigerator freighter, pulled into Aloha Tower Harbor. The harbor inspector was about to go to lunch but thought he should check out the Sea Tigers load before he goes. Imagine his surprise when he opened the hold and 100's of eyes were looking back at him. The load of the day was illegal Chinese immigrants. The city of Honolulu became the new proud owner of the Sea Tiger and determined that the ship should be auctioned off.

A business man bought the Sea Tiger and thought that he could make a fortune by shipping rice from island to island. But I guess it didn't work out as the ship returned to the hands of Honolulu and it was auctioned off again.

This time a company bought it and choose to sink the Sea Tiger as a tourist attraction for their submarine tours, hoping that scuba divers would also find their way there and give the tourists a bit more to see. All measures were taken. The ship was cleaned, possible dangers were removed and various doors and entry ways were sealed with bars. So in 1998 the Sea Tiger was sunk off of Waikiki in a depth of about 120' (max). Sorry to say that the submarine company was not as successful as the wreck was as an attraction and they went bankrupt.

 

[edneeves]

There's nothing like some B&W's to capture the moodyness of a wreck, quality pic's.

Ed.

 

[Dee]

Ooh...I love the fourth one! The composition is great. The way the forground is in color and blurred and the scene out of the porthole is scrisp and in blues...very cool!

B&W is alwats dramatic for wrecks.

 

[Dee]

The Mr. Bud is the newest wreck in Roatan. The history is taken from CoCo View's website....

The boat was on the dry dock in French Harbor last summer and the owner was stripping it down. They removed the rudders, shafts, engine / transmission, steering, controls and all of the electronics. Seth called Bill at that point and told him the guy was looking for someone to buy the hull, Bill bought it and we towed it to CCV sometime in mid August and parked it off Hawks Bill Cay. We started to work on the clean up and removed all wood, wiring, insulation and cut large access holes in the wheel house, deck and both sides to make it safe for divers.This clean up took about 3 weeks to complete. Now was just a matter of waiting on the paperwork and permits to be approved. we finally got the approval in late December. We had to keep a small electric sump pump with an automatic float in it since it leaked small amounts of water and didn't want it to sink. This worked fine for weeks until someone unplugged the extension cord one day and the next think you know it's sitting on the bottom and half of the boat full of water. It remained like this for the next three or four months until we got the approval to sink it. Seth Arch volunteered to help us get it pumped out. We took our barge over to the dry dock and loaded his generator and four three and four inch pumps up to do the job. On Wednesday morning, 1-21-04, we started pumping. After about four hours we started to gain on it but still a slow process so at lunch Seth went to get one more pump. After we got it going it only took about two more hours to float it. The five pumps were putting out 1300 gallons per minute.
The next morning even with the sump pump running all night it had about a foot of water in it. The tide was falling and her keel was resting on the bottom. EZ Diver I and the Huntress pulled it off in a few minutes. EZ I towed it to French Cay Bank. We got the bow anchor in place around 1:10 pm then set one off each corner of the stern to hold it in position. Seas were running about a foot to foot and a half. With it in position we had a small gasoline pump in the little white boat so started pumping water back into it and also had two sea cocks open. While it was filling we removed all of the plywood patches covering the access holes along the side and deck. Now it was only a matter of time until we pumped enough water into her for the access holes to meet the water line. The stern went down first and it was only about a minute or two till MR Bud was gone. The bow disappeared below the surface at 2:58 PM.
There were three or four boats in the area along with a couple of tube boats that watched as it sank then did a dive and snorkel on it.
CCV dive operation did an excellent job from the start back in July till she sank yesterday. Tim Blanton also helped in the video coverage from the beginning. And a special thanks to Seth Arch and his men that pumped her out.
1. The boat is located at French Cay Bank dive site
2. Bow resting in 60 fsw, stern 42 fsw, top of wheel house 38 fsw
3. Sitting pretty much upright, slight list to port side about 15 degree
4. The boat is an old lobster boat that was converted to a conch boat. It was registered in Jamaica and is 95 feet long
5. The only problem with the sinking was having to float it first as described above
6. CCV dive operation did the entire project. Seth Arch and his crew helped get it off the bottom at Hawks Bill cay and Tim Blanton provided the video coverage.
7. Mr. Bud sank at 2:58 pm on January 22, 2004
8. Purpose of the sinking was to create another artificial reef and dive site for Roatan

 

[louisianadiver]

Here's one. I thought the trumpetfish eye to eye with the diver was a nice touch. -Clay

 

[justleesa]

Love the colors Clay! What wreck is it?

 

[justleesa]

Dee! It looks so clean and new...Over the years you are going to have to take the same angle photos to document time. Very cool

 

[DesertEagle]

Dee, I like the B&W at the top. Lots of good tones.

I haven't been on too many wrecks. My favorite is what remains of the Jolanda at Ras Mohammed. A few years ago the wreck slipped off the reef into the deep. The toilet bowls still remain.

 

[Dee]

Dee! It looks so clean and new...Over the years you are going to have to take the same angle photos to document time. Very cool

Yeah...that's the plan! It had just been sunk about a month before we got there.

 

[Dee]

The Prince Albert is an old freighter that sits in The Front Yard at CoCo View. We see it several times a day on shore dives. I'm not sure about the history other than it's an old freighter that's been there for years, I want to say it's been there since sometime in the 80's. I'll try to dig up some info on it. Edit: RoatanMan posted the history of the Prince Albert and the DC-3 plane--->HERE

Here's some B&W views of it from this last trip...

Just behind the PA is the remains of an old plane, don't know what it's history is.....