Where is She Now: The retired Navy transport ship was intentionally sunk about 6 miles off Key Largo, Florida in order to create the backbone of a new coral-reef ecosystem. The Spiegel Grove is the largest ship ever sunk for this purpose. Sponges, algae and coral are slowly encasing the ship are wondrously natural and the Spiegel Grove has become home to may species of fish from tiny tropical fish to larger fish like barracuda, jacks and grouper. The Spiegel Grove lies on it side in about 130 feet of water, six miles off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Numbered mooring buoys provide easy tie off points for boaters and dive operators. The lines are shackled to the ship along its 510’ hull and divers typically descend hand over hand along the lines until they reach the ship. Divers can reach the ship at a depth of about 45’. The Spiegel Grove lies on its starboard (right) side with a slight angle towards an upright position. The side of the hull is slightly sloped and has turned yellow from the algae and other sea life which has grown on it. Because of the Spiegel Groves over all length from bow to stern (510’), on even the clearest days it’s impossible to view the hull from end to end. The deck now lies nearly vertical. Peering over the rail is like looking over the edge of an eight story building, at its widest point the Spiegel Grove measures 84’. The Spiegel Grove is so large; it’s almost like an underwater city. Even the most experienced divers will need between 6 and 12 dives to become completely oriented. The ship is so wide that on most days the view of the super structure will fade into the deep blue and on the clearest days the sandy bottom will be visible from a depth of about 130’. Many divers compare it to an underwater cliff. Lining the other side of the hull, where the ships bottom once was, is a deep layer of oyster shells. The oysters more then likely grew there during the Spiegel Groves 12 years in the Navy’s “Mothball Fleet” on Virginia’s James River. Monroe County took ownership of the Spiegel Grove in May 2001.
About a month later she was removed from the “Mothball Fleet”
to undergo an elaborate cleaning process in which all pollutants
and anything that could harm Key Largo’s fragile eco-system
was removed from the ship. |
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