scuba divers: Spiegel Grove uprighted by Hurricaine Dennis

[riddler 0]

Those of you that dive might be interested in this story. I was just at the Spiegel Grove a few months ago scouting it out for my dive shop, and I was scheduled to take a group of divers there in a few weeks.

http://www.divenewswire.com/NewsITems.aspx?newsID=7453

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Spiegel Grove Wreck Now Upright after Hurricane Dennis Passes by Keys Last Week



After Three Years, Spiegel Grove is Finally Upright, Courtesy of Hurricane Dennis


KEY LARGO, Florida Keys -- What man could not achieve, nature apparently has for the largest intentionally sunk ship in the world.

The Spiegel Grove is now in an upright position, apparently courtesy of Hurricane Dennis, whose core stayed at least 100 miles west of the Keys island chain.

It's a position project organizers have dreamed of since the retired 510-foot Navy Landing Ship Dock prematurely sunk and rolled over May 17, 2002, leaving the ship's upside-down bow protruding above the water.

Three weeks later, a salvage team managed to fully sink the vessel on its starboard side.

For more than three years, the Spiegel Grove has been the most popular artificial wreck in the Florida Keys and home to more than 160 different species, according to Lad Akins, executive director of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation.

"I'm flabbergasted," said Rob Bleser, the volunteer project director, Monday afternoon after he surfaced following a dive on the newly oriented Spiegel Grove. "Nature took its course and put it where it belongs."

Bleser said the ship is still facing in an easterly direction and has not changed location.

"This will mean a whole new dive for those that have dove it before," Bleser said. "It's orientation is now less confusing for new divers and it's a big deeper dive now.

According to Matt Strahan, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service Office in Key West, the waves above the Spiegel Grove wrecksite could have been has high as 20 feet Friday afternoon.

"While we don't have the equipment in the Keys to accurately measure wave height, when Dennis was southeast of Cuba it would have produced very high waves that computer models project could have reached Key Largo," said Strahan. "Waves that high in close proximity to the reef can produce unusually strong currents with tremendous force."

The Spiegel Grove is positioned in 130 feet of water, about six miles off Key Largo. The ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, was retired by the Navy in 1989.

Bleser says there have been about 75,000 sport dives on the wreck since it opened to divers.

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials say they will temporarily close the wrecksite to divers to analyze stability and replace lost mooring buoys.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[kelpdiver 2]

now if only San Diego could get a hurricane and upright the Yukon.

Can't anyone successful sink one of these ships? Yukon's sister, the Chadierre, is also on its side in British Columbia.

[Stacy 0]

Wow!!! THat's kinda awesome!

[riddler 0]

LOL! The whole story with the Grove is a funny one. It's the largest artificial reef in the world. It was supposed to be sunk upright at this big ceremony they had planned, but hours before the ceremony, there was a misfire in only one of the explosives, and the ship listed, then rolled over and sank upside down.

The story gets better because the ship sank in such a way as to leave the bow protruding above the surface of the water. This, of course, created a hazard for other ships, so the government had to hire an outside company for a few million dollars to pull the ship onto it's side, so that at least it was below the surface. That was back in 2002.

Now, only a few years later, Dennis pushed it back upright! But it does look like it's going to be shut down for a while so they can make sure it's safe to dive again. Good thing I'm not actually leading the dive trip to the keys anymore - they'll have to make do with some of the more shallow wrecks.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Buried 0]

wow that's 'nifty'

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[davedlg 0]

wow. That's amazing. I saw it the day before they sank it and I've been diving down to the wreck a few times. I can't wait to see it upright! It's a huge ship...I'm really surprised it changed position.

[happythoughts 0]

I was down there in November of last year. The towers and structures on the deck are awesome. It is weird to have 100 ft of visibility and yet the deck goes beyond your vision.

I am going back to Key Largo next week (weather permitting).

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[Hipwrddude 0]

I served on the Spiegel Grove back in '83 when I was in the service. Interesting story. Thanks.

You're always the starter in your own life!

[timber 3]

That sounds great !! I'll have to dive that soon. I just started diving a couple of months back. I hope they don't have as much trouble sinking the aircraft carrier Oriskany off Pensacola next year. If they do we get lots of hurricanes to to right it.


Diver up /Diver down Timber