Spiegel Grove 10th Anniversary Dive

I was asked by Andy Newman, Newman PR, to join a media dive commemorating the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the 510-foot Spiegel Grove shipwreck. Having been intimately involved with the acquisition and sinking of the ship as a dive attraction off Key Largo, of course I was happy to participate. A raging current that day and heavy overcast made the photography a bit more challenging, but all went well. Here is a bit of a visual chronology of what has become Key Largo's most famous dive attraction:

The photos above show when she was being prepared to sink, and then when the sinking went terribly wrong. She held an airpocket in the bow and actually turned turtle and sinking. It took a lot of work and another $250,000 (on top of the $1.25 million already spent) to get her finally sunk, resting on her starboard side in 130-feet of water off Key Largo.

Finally, the passing waves from Hurricane Dennis set the Spiegel Grove upright, and she has been an incredibly popular dive attraction ever since. They now speculate the wreck has brought $35 million to local economy in the 10-years on the bottom. As you can see from the images from the 10th anniversary, she has become colorfully sponge encrusted and a great environemnt for wide-angle photography. These are all shot with Canon 1DMKIV, 8-15mm zoom, Seacam housing.