Me thoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks,A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon,Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,All scattered in the bottom of the sea. – William Shakespeare
The forecast was ominous and it was freezing when I arrived at the dock. But the skies were clear and the wind had died down. We hurried to load everything on board the Blue Fathoms.
It was decided not to tempt fate and stay close to home, so we were headed out to the Mohawk….a wreck I have been on before.
I know I already told you about her but here are a few more facts. The “first” Mohawk was a Clyde Liner that burned and sank in the Delaware Bay on New Years Day in 1925. Her replacement, “this” Mohawk was built in 1926 and in 1929 in heavy fog it collided with the steamship Jefferson and had to run aground in Seabright where the passengers were lowered into lifeboats and rescued by the Coast Guard.
They repaired her and since they were short a vessel after loosing the Morro Castle (seeing a trend here?) they put her back into service from New York to Havana, Cuba.
It left New York for Havana on January 25, 1935, as did the freighter, Talisman, which was headed to Bahia, Brazil.
The two ships collided and while the Talisman was able to limp back to port, the Mohawk sunk fast. The air was so cold that the lifeboats were frozen to their rigging and had to be cut loose with axes and hand knives crushing crew members and sliding on the deck dumping passengers into the freezing ocean water. The ship sank and rolled over with life boats still frozen in place. 35 people were found dead and 10 more remained missing despite the fact that the Algonquin was on site picking up survivors within 45 minutes. The Captain went down with the ship.
At the tribunal it was decided the Mohawk was at fault for the collision but the Talisman was at fault for not trying to rescue the survivors, they never even lowered their lifeboats to pull people from the water.
Within 24 hours, President Franklin Roosevelt urged for Safety at Sea Regulations, a bill for marine safety, targeting building materials and loading standards.
Since the ship could not be salvaged and was blocking the shipping channels it was blown up and wire dragged….I love the fact that during WWII the wreckage was mistaken for a German U-Boat by a blimp and blown up one last time.
We geared up and threw ourselves into water that was warmer than the air at 63F. The water was flat, calm and clear clouding slightly as we descended onto the pointy end of the wreck. We set about looking around. The bow is the most recognizable portion of the ship and we swam all around it. Looking about in the mangle wreckage we noted a huge blackfish hiding and made note to tell Al, the clubs new Vice President and big fish spearer.
There was a big ocean pout hiding under one of the hull plates and I tried to thump him with my flashlight but missed, later we came across a really large conger eel in his hole and as I went to extend my arm, Mark gave me the “oh no…don’t do that” sign..twice. So I didn’t poke him. We saw another smaller eel and more pout along with several types of starfish and myriads of baitfish, blackfish, sea bass, stripers and tog in various sizes.
Our time was up and we headed up the line. Al had speared himself a fish, although not as large as the one on his last dive….and lobster came up also. Some hot soup and dive banter ensued until it was time to go in again.
I made a less than graceful entry with my gear coming loose but righted myself and down we went again, this time running the reel out in another direction. More ocean pout and eels in the hidey holes and several really large crabs, but no lobsters appeared. At one point we looked down and there was an enormous white, pout, eel looking fish lying quietly on the bottom. He looked to be in some sort of distress and we let him be.
Farther along Mark reached down and pulled up a tile, one of the octagonal marble tiles that the wreck is known for. Sweet. We turned and headed back to the tie in and poked around the debris there. Apparently one pound sinkers grow in patches on the bottom of the ocean and I was busy harvesting a half dozen of or so for whatever reason, when I see Mark locked in a life or death battle with something in a large pipe. He came up empty handed but he was not giving up. As he waited for another chance I looked down and saw another set of keeper claws and made a grab for them myself. I came away with one antennae and Mark had not faired any better. Our computers were telling us our time was up and we headed for the surface.
While we came up empty handed, (except for the tile, an antenna, sinkers and a shell) Walter, Al and Rick had faired much better with fish and lobster disbursed among them.
63F water temps, 2 foot seas and 15 foot of viz…. another great day of diving.