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Dive Report: Araby Maid II
Date: Friday evening and Saturday morning September 7 and 8, 2001
Boat: Gulf Business and Nauti Gal
Captain: Jeff Hunter
By: Mike Rodriguez
The Araby Maid II was a three-masted schooner built in 1868 to replace the original
Araby Maid which had sunk a few years earlier. Unfortunately, the second Araby
Maid also sunk in a collision in 1903 with the SS Denver. The Araby Maid II now
rests in approximately 220 feet of water north of the Dry Tortugas and Marquesas
Islands off Florida.
The Araby Maid II is the second dive of the "Tortugas Tour" which the Association of
Underwater Explorers (AUE) gang do every few months. This was the fourth tour and
the first time we took two boats to accommodate several divers new to the tour. The
eight of us dove the Rhein earlier in the day and we were planning a night dive on the
Araby Maid followed by a second dive early the next morning.
After everyone had dinner and relaxed for a while to let it get dark, we geared up and
jumped in at twilight. My HID light conked out half way down the line. Rather than end
the dive, I decided to clip off the light head and switch to one of my backups. The trip
down was outstanding; the water had a beautiful blue color in the fading daylight.
When I reached the bottom, I found the anchor in the sand near the stern on the port
side; it had snagged an old crab pot. Since we would be on-site overnight, I decided to
secure the anchor to the wreck rather than rely on the old rope it had snagged.
With help from my buddy, I carried the hook onto the deck and wrapped it securely around
one of the ship's exposed deck beams. Once that was done, I dropped below the
deck and swam forward to explore.
The Araby Maid II had a steel hull, but it had many wooden components. The deck,
apparently made of wood, has long since rotted away leaving the supporting deck
beams and the area below them exposed. The masts were apparently made of both
wood and steel.
As I swam around, my buddies' bright lights overwhelmed my backup light, so I just
followed them around content to use the incidental light from them rather than my
backup. As I swam aft, I passed one of the other guys working on a very nice find: a
porthole with glass intact. He managed to free it just as I passed him.
When I reached the bow, I dropped to the sand to admire the huge V-shaped gash in
the port side of bow where the collision occurred; it went from the deck almost to the
keel. The ship must have sunk very quickly with such a large hole letting water in. One
of my buddies swam by, video camera in hand filming the entire bow. I watched for
a few minutes, then as my time ran out, I started back toward the stern swimming under
the deck beams.
Amidships, I found a crab entangled in fishing line near one of the masts. I stopped
briefly and got out my snips to free the hapless creature which would certainly have
died there if I didn't help. A few quick snips while avoiding the claws did the trick. I
watched for a few minutes as the lucky crab scurried away, then I continued my
swim back to the line.
I double-checked to make sure the anchor was secure, then started up for deco, a
shower, and a warm bed followed by an early morning breakfast and a second drop
into the water for another dive on the Araby Maid II.
When I reached the bottom, my buddy and I unwrapped the anchor which I'd secured
the night before and prepped it for an easy release at the end of the dive. With the
anchor ready, I took off over the sand to look for anything that might have spilled out
there when the ship sank. There are several abandoned crab pots near the wreck;
they're overgrown with soft coral and look like they've been down a long time.
I swam forward off the port side of the wreck looking for artifacts but
I found none. Near the bow, there's a big chunk of debris and another abandoned crab pot off the
port side. I swam out to it for a quick look around, then I followed one of my buddies
around as he shot video.
I casually meandered back toward the stern when I noticed one of the guys excitedly
signaling me with his light. I rushed toward him and saw what the commotion was
about. He was pointing his light at a distinctly bell-shaped object in the sediment under
the deck beams. Thinking he'd found the ship's bell, we both went to work on it. Its
shape was very reminiscent of a bell and even had a flared area near the base.
Unfortunately, the object turned out to be the bottom of one of the masts that had
broken off. A little disappointed, we both gave up and headed back to the line. I
checked to make sure the anchor would come free easily when the boat motored
forward, then started up for decompression.
After this wonderful dive, the gang boarded the boats for lunch while the crew pulled
up the anchor and took us to the next dive on the AUE Tortugas Tour, the wreck of
the German submarine U-2513.
Copyright
© 2001 Mike Rodriguez. All rights reserved. |