Post by tekmac on Jul 12, 2005 8:59:32 GMT -5
Associated Press
KEY LARGO, Fla. - In the wake of Hurricane Dennis, a miscue with the largest intentionally sunk ship in the world was found Monday to have been put right.
The former USS Spiegel Grove, now serving as artificial reef on the bottom in 130 feet of water off Key Largo, flipped upright as the core of the storm passed well over 200 miles to the west.
It's a position project organizers wanted since the retired 510-foot Landing Ship Dock prematurely sank and rolled over May 17, 2002, leaving its upside-down bow protruding from the water.
Three weeks later, a salvage team managed to fully sink the vessel, but on its right side instead of its keel. Three years later, the Spiegel Grove is the most popular artificial wreck in the Florida Keys, home at least 166 different fish species, said Lad Akins of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation.
"I'm flabbergasted," Rob Bleser, volunteer project director, said Monday afternoon after a dive on the newly oriented Spiegel Grove. "Nature took its course and put it where it belongs."
"This will mean a whole new dive for those that have dove it before," Bleser said. Its highest point is now 60 feet down.
Words of delight about the Spiegel Grove moved quickly through the Florida Keys' sport dive industry, but at least one federal official was not happy.
"It's bad news from my perspective as a resource manager that it moved," said Billy Causey, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent. "We have to figure out why."
Matt Strahan, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service Office in Key West, said waves at the wreck were as high as 20 feet Friday afternoon, when Dennis was southeast of Cuba.
"Waves that high in close proximity to the reef can produce unusually strong currents with tremendous force," Strahan said.
The Spiegel Grove reef is about six miles off Key Largo. Bleser says there have been about 75,000 sport dives on the wreck since it opened.
The ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, was retired by the Navy in 1989.
Causey said sanctuary officials will temporarily close the wrecksite to sport divers to analyze its stability and replace lost mooring buoys.
KEY LARGO, Fla. - In the wake of Hurricane Dennis, a miscue with the largest intentionally sunk ship in the world was found Monday to have been put right.
The former USS Spiegel Grove, now serving as artificial reef on the bottom in 130 feet of water off Key Largo, flipped upright as the core of the storm passed well over 200 miles to the west.
It's a position project organizers wanted since the retired 510-foot Landing Ship Dock prematurely sank and rolled over May 17, 2002, leaving its upside-down bow protruding from the water.
Three weeks later, a salvage team managed to fully sink the vessel, but on its right side instead of its keel. Three years later, the Spiegel Grove is the most popular artificial wreck in the Florida Keys, home at least 166 different fish species, said Lad Akins of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation.
"I'm flabbergasted," Rob Bleser, volunteer project director, said Monday afternoon after a dive on the newly oriented Spiegel Grove. "Nature took its course and put it where it belongs."
"This will mean a whole new dive for those that have dove it before," Bleser said. Its highest point is now 60 feet down.
Words of delight about the Spiegel Grove moved quickly through the Florida Keys' sport dive industry, but at least one federal official was not happy.
"It's bad news from my perspective as a resource manager that it moved," said Billy Causey, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent. "We have to figure out why."
Matt Strahan, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service Office in Key West, said waves at the wreck were as high as 20 feet Friday afternoon, when Dennis was southeast of Cuba.
"Waves that high in close proximity to the reef can produce unusually strong currents with tremendous force," Strahan said.
The Spiegel Grove reef is about six miles off Key Largo. Bleser says there have been about 75,000 sport dives on the wreck since it opened.
The ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, was retired by the Navy in 1989.
Causey said sanctuary officials will temporarily close the wrecksite to sport divers to analyze its stability and replace lost mooring buoys.
