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'Spiegel Grove' marks 10 years down off Key Largo
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Posted - Saturday, May 05, 2012 11:00 AM EDT
By ANDY NEWMAN
The 'Spiegel Grove' turns turtle on May 17, 2002 -- sinking prematurely and ending up on its side. Three years later, Hurricane Dennis did what man couldn't -- got the ship to sit right side up.
It was a story that could have been scripted for a major motion picture, but no writer could have conceived the plot of the sinking of the Spiegel Grove.
The 510-foot former U.S. Navy ship, among the notable wreck sites stretching from Key Largo to Key West for advanced- and wreck-certified divers, has welcomed trained divers off Key Largo since June 2002. That's when the Key Largo community rallied to sink the retired ship as the backbone of a new reef ecosystem six miles offshore.
The story of its journey to the bottom at a depth of 130 feet is as intriguing as its present-day coral growths.
Designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, the Spiegel Grove was in operation from 1956 until its decommissioning in 1989. Among other highlights, it helped enforce America's Cold War strategy of containment, rushing troops and equipment to support friendly governments.
In June 2001, after more than a decade in the U.S. Navy's mothball fleet in Virginia's James River, the Spiegel Grove was towed to undergo an elaborate cleaning process. Eleven months later it was moved to Key Largo.
Six hours before its intended scuttling in May 17, 2002, the massive vessel prematurely sank and unexpectedly rolled over, leaving its upside-down bow protruding above the surface of the water.
Three weeks later, on June 10, a salvage team managed to sink the vessel fully and it came to rest on its starboard side. The enormous ship immediately attracted reef fish and marine growth. It officially opened to divers June 26, luring scores of dive enthusiasts to the new artificial reef's cliff-like hull sprawled across the sandy bottom.
Three years later, the story took another unexpected twist.
July 9, 2005, brought what many call Hurricane Dennis' gift to sport diving. The storm skirted the Keys, but when it was east of Cuba it generated powerful currents that migrated up the Florida Straits -- and turned the Spiegel Grove upright. Nature had accomplished what man intended.
Enveloped by delicate corals and invertebrates, the Spiegel Grove's top deck is about 60 feet below the surface of the ocean. The ship is so wide that on many days, the view of the superstructure fades into a green-blue abyss.
On the clearest days, the sandy bottom is visible at a depth of about 130 feet from the surface. Mooring buoys provide convenient, coral-friendly boat tie-offs.
For wreck divers who intend to enter the upper deck areas of the Spiegel Grove, knowledge and proof of certifications regarding diving in overhead environments is required.
The Spiegel Grove is the world's third-largest vessel intentionally sunk to make an artificial reef -- behind the USS Oriskany off Pensacola and Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg off Key West -- and is positioned about six miles off Key Largo.