Hey Paul,
What a coincidence: I was at the shop talking to Al and filling my rebreather 02 bottles when you called. Nice to talk to you! Capt. Steve Sheerin will be the other Captain, I've been diving with him on the Sea Lion since 1974... he's a great guy. Best bet is that you'll go to one of our absolutely best digging wrecks, the SS Delaware. 74 feet to the sand, and I have never been skunked for an artifact of some sort. My first wreck dive was to her, and the lump of coal I retrieved still sits in my china cabinet as a prize. If vis is good you'll have a ball sightseeing. If vis is bad, however, things will be better! You'll find more artifacts because it'll make you keep your nose down in the sand. Swim off the starbord side of the wreck just abeam where Stevie will tie in (the propeller shaft just behind the engine). Drop down to the natural bottom and start swimming up forward VERY SLOWLY while sweeping the gravel and sand with your light. Keep the wreck on your left shoulder and you won't get lost. Keep this up for about 75 feet until the definition of the wreck starts to change and I bet even money you'll find *something* green (brass) in your light. Many of the small goodies are swept just out of the wreck in the storms and lay in her lee. I found an entire dresser drawer contents there once, no wood, but two sailors uniform suspender clips, a brass safety pin, several buttons, the face-plates for the key locks to the dresser, the key, and several coins (all on one dive!). Brass spikes are also very common. Keep looking for green things in your light beam! Once you get to where the edge of the wreck loses definition, cross back into the wreck and swim aft again... keep the edge of the wreck on your left shoulder and the boilers will pass close on your right. Keep your face DOWN in that gap, as there are usually goodies there. Then you'll swim past the engine and be right back at the anchor line where you started. Swim aft along the prop shaft, look at the prop, and then back to the anchor and you'll have a great dive. One "unknown goodie" to look for: The Delaware has been bottom-fished for Tautog (we call 'em "Blackfish") since the turn of the century and is LOADED with lead sinkers (and I mean TONS). One dive shop here got started by a guy who loaded sinkers into milk crates, lift-bagged them, melted themn into dive weights, sold them to dive shops, and earned enough money to start his own shop. But I digress.... some of the old sinkers are collectable in themselves. Don't overlook them as an artifact. I found a few from the turn of the 20th century that had leather tags to tie on to the line. Make nice paperweights. Many small bits of glas are there too, much of it fire-cracked as she burned to the waterline before sinking. The colors in the pieces are interesting so don't hesitate to collect one or two even though they don't look like much on the bottom.
Look her up on the net, there's plenty to read on her. Sadly (or gladly!) I'll be running Explorer for three weeks straight in RI last two weeks of August and first week September so will miss you there. Hit us in RI on your way back to Boston and I'll show you the U-Boat as we discussed.
You found yourself to the right spot in NJ. Glad you did! Keansburg is not a bad place... I was standing on the waters edge there last week at sunrise when a striped bass blitz happened, there were acres of 30+ pound bass chasing bunker (menhaden) up to the surface and chowing-down like they were bluefish. The rod fishermen were tossing back 30 pounders to keep 40 pounders. All a freediver like me could do was watch, as the bay water vis is only about 10 inches. Damn!
Best,
