07-12-2005, 12:31 PM
Hurricane Dennis turns sunken ship right side up
BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@herald.com
The Keys' largest and most famous unnatural wonder -- the sunken wreck of the Spiegel Grove -- enhanced its quirky reputation Monday when divers discovered that Hurricane Dennis had turned it right side up.
Divers from Ocean Divers in Key Largo visited the artificial reef, located six miles off Key Largo in 130 feet of water near Dixie Shoals, and found that mooring buoys marking the ship's location were missing. When they dived down, they found the buoys under water and the 510-foot, 6,880-ton ship sitting upright.
''It looks like it did in the shipyard. It's sitting perfectly upright as flat and smooth as you can imagine -- like a pool table,'' said Rob Bleser, project manager in the 2002 sinking of the Spiegel Grove. ``It's fascinating.''
Cheva Heck, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, in whose waters the ship lies, confirmed its new attitude.
The Spiegel Grove turned turtle and landed upside down with its bow sticking above the surface when a team of mostly volunteers tried to deploy it as an artificial reef in May 2002. Resolve Marine Group was hired to try to set it upright but only managed to flip it onto its starboard side after three weeks of effort. The total project cost for procurement and deployment: $1.6 million. Keys dive operators and tourism boosters briefly discussed spending some extra money to right it but abandoned the idea.
Then along came Dennis.
Bleser said he believes a combination of man-made mechanics and the ocean's forces flipped the ship.
During early attempts to right the upside down Spiegel Grove, Bleser said, an anchor cable was run underneath the ship and attached to one of the propeller shafts to enable tugboats to rotate it. But the tugboats' tow lines broke, leaving the ship on its side.
The cable remained taut over the past three years, and gradually sand was scoured down to create a trough beneath the wreck, giving it wiggle room but holding it in place. Dennis' rock-and-roll motion finished the job, he said. ''It's fully intact. There's nothing wrong with it. It didn't move,'' Bleser said.
Sanctuary officials want to make sure before they allow anyone else to dive on it. ''The sanctuary is considering closing the site until we can do an assessment and stability analysis and check out how safe the ship is. We are concerned from a safety perspective,'' Heck said.
Herald Staff Writer Jennifer Babson contributed to this report.
BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@herald.com
The Keys' largest and most famous unnatural wonder -- the sunken wreck of the Spiegel Grove -- enhanced its quirky reputation Monday when divers discovered that Hurricane Dennis had turned it right side up.
Divers from Ocean Divers in Key Largo visited the artificial reef, located six miles off Key Largo in 130 feet of water near Dixie Shoals, and found that mooring buoys marking the ship's location were missing. When they dived down, they found the buoys under water and the 510-foot, 6,880-ton ship sitting upright.
''It looks like it did in the shipyard. It's sitting perfectly upright as flat and smooth as you can imagine -- like a pool table,'' said Rob Bleser, project manager in the 2002 sinking of the Spiegel Grove. ``It's fascinating.''
Cheva Heck, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, in whose waters the ship lies, confirmed its new attitude.
The Spiegel Grove turned turtle and landed upside down with its bow sticking above the surface when a team of mostly volunteers tried to deploy it as an artificial reef in May 2002. Resolve Marine Group was hired to try to set it upright but only managed to flip it onto its starboard side after three weeks of effort. The total project cost for procurement and deployment: $1.6 million. Keys dive operators and tourism boosters briefly discussed spending some extra money to right it but abandoned the idea.
Then along came Dennis.
Bleser said he believes a combination of man-made mechanics and the ocean's forces flipped the ship.
During early attempts to right the upside down Spiegel Grove, Bleser said, an anchor cable was run underneath the ship and attached to one of the propeller shafts to enable tugboats to rotate it. But the tugboats' tow lines broke, leaving the ship on its side.
The cable remained taut over the past three years, and gradually sand was scoured down to create a trough beneath the wreck, giving it wiggle room but holding it in place. Dennis' rock-and-roll motion finished the job, he said. ''It's fully intact. There's nothing wrong with it. It didn't move,'' Bleser said.
Sanctuary officials want to make sure before they allow anyone else to dive on it. ''The sanctuary is considering closing the site until we can do an assessment and stability analysis and check out how safe the ship is. We are concerned from a safety perspective,'' Heck said.
Herald Staff Writer Jennifer Babson contributed to this report.