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Dive Report: Forest's Freighter 
Date: Saturday and Sunday August 11th and 12th, 2001
Boat: Delphine
Captain: Bob Rhea and Ryan Rhea
By: Mike Rodriguez
The usual gang of divers drove down to Islamorada in the central Florida Keys
Saturday morning to dive an unknown wreck we called Forest's Freighter after the guy
who provided us the GPS numbers. The wreck sits in 225 feet of water about 6 miles
offshore Islamorada. Nothing is known about the wreck other than it's been down for
a long time. It's a freighter about 200 feet long with a narrow
beam. The team began arriving at Bud N Mary's marina around noon and we
were loaded and on our way shortly after that. The ride out to the site took about 30 minutes. It was a sunny day
and very warm with air temperatures near 90F. The water surface temperature was
87F. The ocean was teaming with boats as divers from all around the state
headed out to catch lobsters now that the season had started.
When we reached the site, the team began gearing up while the captain checked the
current. During the several minutes it took everyone to get ready, we barely drifted off
the wreck; there was no current. The team piled onto the platform at the back of the
boat and the captain called the drop. Everyone splashed in and headed down.
At about 100 feet,the temperature dropped to about 75F. We continued down. Around
150 feet I thought my mask was fogging up, so I leaked a little water in to slosh
around. It didn't help, and I realized the visibility was dropping. The water took on a
milky quality. As my depth approached 200 feet, I spread out my arms and legs and
began inflating my wings so I wouldn't crash into the ship or the sand in
the low visibility. By 210 feet I could see the sand.
I hovered just above the sand and looked around for the rest of the team; everyone
was there. The visibility was only about 15 feet and we couldn't see the wreck. We
knew it had to be nearby, but in the terrible visibility, there was no way to know which
way. I was turning slowly looking for any hint of the wreck when I noticed
numerous small jacks swimming toward and away from us passing each other like ants in a line.
The other divers also saw this and we instinctively followed the line of jacks south and
found the wreck about 30 feet away.
We were at the bow which points roughly west. Everyone swam up to the deck where
the visibility improved slightly. A head count confirmed everyone was there, so we
spread out to explore the wreck.
I dropped below the deck level just off the starboard side and saw that the ship's
anchor was still pulled tight against the hawsehole. There was an abundance of growth
all over the ship attesting to its age; it's been down a very long time. I swam back up to
the deck and swam aft passing assorted structures including the bridge. Much
of the deck has corroded away leaving only support beams across the
ship's width. At the
stern I dropped to the sand and saw that the ship was a twin-screw design. The
starboard screw is missing and the port screw was missing two blades. The rudder
is also missing.
I swam back up to the deck and moved forward slowly exploring numerous openings.
As I made my way back to the bow I heard the thumping of a jewfish. I couldn't see it
and figured it must be thumping at one of the other divers nearby.
I passed one of the guys who was measuring the ship with a tape-measure. He'd use
the measurements later to research and hopefully identify the ship. I took advantage of
the tape running along the port gunnel to measure the visibility. I hovered over the
tape and made note of number, then I looked forward as far as the visibility allowed, and
swam there. I checked the tape and a quick subtraction told me the visibility was 18 feet
exactly. It was even less down in the sand below me.
I swam forward to the bow and remembering that the starboard anchor was still in
place, I swam to the port side and saw that there was an anchor pulled in tight against
the hull on that side too. I met one of my buddies back on the starboard side where
just forward of the anchor I saw a strange sponge-like thing growing on the hull. It
was distorted and looked like melting plastic. I signaled my buddy who shot some video of
the weird sponge, then we both slowly drifted back up to the deck.
Our time was running out; the team regrouped at the bow as planned.
A head count confirmed everyone was there and we drifted up off the wreck into the warm, clear
water. The visibility improved to nearly 100 feet during deco and the water warmed up
to a sultry 87F by the shallow stops. I unzipped my wetsuit and fanned water in to
keep cool. During deco a lone hammerhead shark swam by in the distance and
a rainshower passed by making for an interesting display on the surface;
deco was otherwise uneventful.
When everyone was back on the boat, we headed for a nearby reef to look for
lobsters. We had some limited success, but didn't catch as many as we'd like to have
caught.
After dinner at Islamorada Fish Company we went to bed and met back at the boat
early the next morning for our second dive on Forest's Freighter. Conditions were
much the same as the day before, but the visibility had improved slightly. The drop was
right on target and we landed directly amidships.
Once we confirmed everyone was there, we spread out over the ship. I swam aft.
Now that I knew the layout of the wreck, I explored it more thoroughly. I swam aft
and dropped below the deck beams to what appeared to be the engine room. An
assortment of machinery lies there heavily overgrown and hard to identify. Farther aft I
ran into one of the other divers extricating himself from a room in a small cloud
of fine silt.
I swam back up above the deck beams and saw several medium-sized groupers and
small hogfish swimming along. Numerous arrow crabs inhabit the nooks and crannies
of the ship and lots of scamp and various tropicals also make the wreck their home.
I continued aft and noticed that the ship is heavily draped with commercial fishing nets
and a fair amount of monofilament line. At the stern I dropped below the port gunnel
and swam forward to meet up with the rest of the team. I counted several portholes on
the ship and laying free in the sand. At the bow, I saw that one of the guys
had found an oval plate with an elaborate blue pattern. Since this ship lies in a sanctuary, we were
unable to recover any artifacts, but we were able to read "Shenango China",
"Cleveland, Ohio", and "Made for Geo Bowman & Company" on the back of the plate
before leaving it on the wreck. This information plus the precise measurements taken
the previous day may help us identify the wreck eventually.
The group reluctantly rose above the wreck into warm, clear water and began
decompression. Around the 80 foot stop, a hammerhead showed up like yesterday.
A few minutes later, a second, then a third were circling us. During most of our deco they
stayed with us coming to within a few feet a couple of times. I was getting a
little worried and anxious to finish deco. Fortunately the sharks didn't bother us much other
than the couple of times they got close enough for me to see inside their gills.
The gang finally boarded the boat relieved to be out of the water. After feeling like
lunch during deco, the gang headed to a nearby reef too look for lunch (lobsters). We
spent a while poking around the reef with some success, then headed back to clean
our catch and gear.
When we were packed up and ready to go, we said goodbye to the great folks at Bud
N Mary's and started up the string of keys to Alabama Jack's on Card Sound Road
near the northern end of the Florida Keys. Alabama Jack's is an odd combination of
seaside honky-tonk, biker bar, and geriatric country line dancing bar. It's the kind of
lace you could only find in the Florida Keys. Its loud live music and greasy
food are the perfect way to end a day of diving. We hung out there for a while enjoying the
ambiance and talking about the great weekend of diving and the upcoming dives in Ft.
Pierce on the WD Anderson and another "unknown" wreck. When reality finally hit us,
we headed for home dreading the start of another string of non-diving weekdays and
looking forward to next weekend.
Copyright
© 2001 Mike Rodriguez. All rights reserved. |