The wreck of the Spiegel Grove was righted by Hurricane Dennis!

[kespernorth]

To the considerable amazement and excitement of the diving community, a 512-foot amphibious assault ship that had been lying on its side on the sea floor off Key Largo was nudged upright, so that it lies on its keel as was originally intended. The USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) was intended to be an artificial reef and diver's playground when it was sunk in 2002, but it went down too quickly and ended up on its side. Now it's sitting on the bottom properly, with its superstructure pointing at the surface.

This is particularly exciting to me, as Allyson and I made our first deep dive (to 140 feet) on the wreck of the Spiegel Grove. We got to stand on the sea floor and look up at the enormous vessel towering above us, seeing the boxy projections of its upper decks from a vertical rather than horizontal standpoint.

Now we can go back and see the ship in its new configuration, as it was originally intended!

(Can you imagine what must have gone through the heads of the first people to dive on it after the hurricane and discover this? The awe, the excitement, the pride of being the first people to see this miracle... Wow. I envy them.)

Comments

[mariennebombay.livejournal.com]

I'm jealous. Was that dive part of the advanced open water certification or the first deep dive after the certification? Also, how is Nitrogen Narcosis? I've nver experienced it (only have my open water cert.)

[kespernorth.livejournal.com]

That was our certification dive.

It was interesting -- I kind of went "WOW!!!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE! I'M HAVING A FANTASTIC TIME!! WOW! GODDAMN THAT'S A BIG SHIP! -- Uh. Okay. Hold on a second. This is cool, but it shouldn't be THAT cool. Must be a bit of narcosis, there. Chill out." Once I recognized it for what it was, I was fine -- you just have to be self aware enough to know what's going on.

[mariennebombay.livejournal.com]

Yea I got my open water cert. about 13-14 years ago. I've been wanting to get the advanced one but wanted to put some dives under my belt beforehand and diving is not the cheapest of hobbies/activities when starting out. One of these days I will though.

[foobiwan.livejournal.com]

on my first dive my dive buddy kept pretending to eat spaghetti while we sat at the bottom.

i found this impossibly hillarious

[roxann-ireland.livejournal.com]

I heard that The Authorities were pleased but also rather disturbed by this development, since the hurricane shouldn't have been able to shift it. If a somewhat wussified (compared to last year's hurricanes, at any rate) hurricane like Dennis can push the ship over, what would a cat-4/5 do? I imagine some Florida beachfront homeowner stepping out to their yard to survey the damage and saying, "Ooooooohhhhhhh, shit...."

[kespernorth.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Imagine having a 7000-ton vessel blow along the ocean floor like a tumbleweed. Impressive, but scary. If it hit, say, one of the area's many protected coral reefs, there could be troubel. If it got blown up into shallower water, more trouble...

[archmage.livejournal.com]

Very cool. A little scary, but cool.