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Dive Report: Cities Service Empire
Date: Sunday morning, August 19, 2001
Boat: Reel Time
Captain: Tony
By: Mike Rodriguez
The 'usual suspects' had a great time diving the Cities Service Empire the day before
and we planned another dive there this morning followed by an afternoon dive on an
"unknown" we'd eventually nickname the Fuggedaboudit Wreck.
The Cities Service Empire was a 465 foot long tanker built in 1918 and named after its
owner, the Cities Service Oil Company. In 1942, U-128 sent two torpedoes at the
CSE and sent to the bottom of the ocean. It now rests upright in 240 feet of water
about 30 miles east of Cape Canaveral.
We started loading the boat before the sun was even up and we were on our way
around 7am. Like the day before, it was sunny and warm with nearly flat seas. We
made excellent time and were at the site of the CSE by mid-morning. Unlike the day
before, the current was running strong to the north at about 2.5 knots. We opted to
take our floatline down by hand rather than try to grapple the wreck. The
team of six got ready and the captain brought us into position. He called out, and we dropped into
the water. Unfortunately, the bottom current was very light and the surface current was
pulling our line along in the wrong direction. We saw a few jacks swim out, indicating
we were close to the wreck, but with no positive visual signs, we opted to abort and
try a second drop.
We decided that, since there was no bottom current, we'd jug the wreck and do a free
descent on this drop. We got ready and jumped in. It took less than a minute for the
group to hit the wreck. We did a head-count and confirmed everyone was there, then
we spread out to explore.
I passed one of my buddies who seems to love hanging out around the bridge area,
then I swam aft to the deck gun on the stern of the ship. I dropped below the stern to
look at the mangled rudder in the sand, then up to the deck and into the engine room
as two of my other buddies scootered by above me.
I rose to the deck, then swam forward to the bridge area. My buddy, who's in love
with the bridge, was still there poking around. I hovered over him assisting with my
light as he rummaged about.
Eventually, he joined up with one of the other divers and they left the wreck together. I
swam back to area just forward of the engine where one of the torpedoes hit the
starboard side of the ship. This area looks like something took a giant bite out of the
ship. The entire port side of the ship is missing along a ~75 foot length. This
massive damage must have sunk the ship within seconds, and as I hovered over the wreckage,
I tried to imagine that fateful day.
Eventually, my time on this piece of history ran out and I had to return from my
imagination to reality. I turned back toward the bow where the team had agreed to
meet at the end of our dive, and started swimming. Everyone except the two who'd
left early converged at the bow and confirming the head count, we drifted off the
wreck and began decompression.
When everyone was back on the boat, we secured everything and started out for the
"unknown" wreck for our afternoon dive. So far, it was a wonderful start to our second
day of diving off Cape Canaveral and everyone was having a blast!
Copyright
© 2001 Mike Rodriguez. All rights reserved. |