O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel (Who had no doubt some noble creature in her) Dashed all to pieces! O, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished! ~ William Shakespeare ~
November 26th…….. 1933 - Robert Goulet was born in Mass.
........................ 1938 – Tina Turner was born in Brownsville, Texas
.........................1964 – Thanksgiving morning…….. The cruise ship Shalom, traveling in a dense fog, broadsided the parcel tanker Stolt Dagli, cutting her in half. The passengers on the Shalom barely noticed the collision but the captain of the Stolt looked on in horror as the aft portion of his tanker sank in seconds in 130 feet of water taking with her 18 men and one woman, most of whom were sleeping in their bunks.
The Stolt Dagli was an 583 foot packet tanker carrying a cargo of vegetable oil, coconut oil, fats, propylene tetramer (solvent), methanol (wood alcohol), and heptane (petroleum derivative) to Newark, NJ. The Shalom was a passenger cruise ship carrying 1050 passengers for a holiday cruise in the Caribbean.
The fog was unbelievably thick and the Shalom was having trouble with static on its radar. Word is they let the bow lookout go below for coffee and he returned to the deck in time to watch the bow of the Shalom cut through the Stolt, about ¾ of the way down her hull, sending the crews quarters and engine room and almost half her crew to the oceans floor.
With mayday coordinates over 15 miles off, it took a tremendous effort for this amazing rescue to take place. Thanks to water tight compartments, the Shalom stayed afloat as did the bow section of the Stolt. Had the impact taken place farther forward where the industrial solvents were stored both ships may have gone up in flames with even more devastation than had already happened.
Mayday positioning given by the Shalom was off by almost 20 miles and in the fog the Coast Guard had a difficult time locating the two ships. While waiting the crew from the Shalom heard cries in the water and launched a motor craft that pulled 5 surviving Stolt crewmembers from the frigid seas.
First to arrive on the scene was the Santa Paula, a Grace Line cruise ship which positioned itself so as to provide a wind break protection for the Stolt's bow section. When the coast guard arrived they proceeded to rescue 11 crew from the Stolt’s bow and pull an additional 14 crew members from the sea using helicopters and horse collar rigging and se
veral Coast Guard cutters. Their rescue efforts were highly praised by the Captian. 13 bodies were recovered from the ocean’s surface and brought to Point Pleasant Hospital to be identified. One additional body, that of the only woman, was located by recreational divers in the submerged hull section and recovered almost 30 days after the sinking.
Both captains claimed the other to be at fault but an investigation never took place as both ships were foreign registered and the collision in international waters.
The bow portion of the Stolt was towed across the Atlantic to the Baltic where it was grafted onto the aft part of another tanker, the C.T. Gogstad, which had lost its bow. The match was so good that it was within 12-in of aft to bow sections in width and not even noticeable. This ship was named the Stolt Lady and continued to move liquid freight from port to port for years to come.
Which Captain made which call to do what…. Why and how does not matter. A loss of life took place and 140 feet of a once proud ship lies on the ocean floor.
And today…..I was diving it.
Why is 6:30am so early…..I don’t know. I was meeting Benny at the dock and diving the Stolt from the Old Salty. I have never had the pleasure of diving off the Old Salty and while I cursed their berth at the veeeeeeeeeery end of the dock, as I lugged my gear, I was pleasantly greeted by the days crew and helped on board. They are a great group. There were 8 divers and the morning was shaping itself into a beautiful day.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Eugene and Patty as 2 of my dive mates and the thought of home baked cookies filled my head. But alas it was not to be but the snack basket was still top notch as usual. I love diving with Patty.
This is my first dive after getting my drysuit back from Pinnacle and I was going to be very disappointed if I was wet. This was also to be my maiden dive on the Stolt, another thing on my diving bucket list I would be able to finally cross off.
Captain Nick arrived and we headed out with blue skies and flat seas, arriving on sight relaxed and happy and divers suited up and began hitting the water with giant strides from the stern of the boat. They said I was like a ballerina stepping off and into the water…… maybe I found my calling ……. Nahhh.
A 140 foot section of the Stolts stern is lying on its port side on the ocean floor. While the oceans waters and currents are having its way with the wreckage and it is slowly deteriorating, it still rises up from the sand to about 65 feet providing a multi level and entertaining dive.
We are tied in to the top of the wreckage and the water is warming nicely. 54F at the top of the superstructure and 50F at the sand. The water is hazy but more blue than green and viz a respectable 20 feet by my calculations. As we move about we follow the hull as it slopes down and it is covered in a blanket of soft white corals, colorful sponges and waving hydroids and aneomes. Large mussels are everywhere tucked in among the flora and fauna and there are starfish of varying sizes scattered about. Swimming above all this are hordes of cunners interspersed with small black fish, the occasional sea bass and a small Pollack or two.
I think I am in love.
There are star fish here bigger than me!!!! True story ……I swear it…… their arms so long they have fingers!!!! And the cunners…. I think they're part piranha… they bit me!
We swam along looking in all the holes and dropping down in one every now and then as fish, not large enough to take home, swarmed all around us. I poked and prodded and pushed and grabbed ….. flicked and smacked ……. bounced off of and ran into all kinds of swimmy friends.
Life is good.
I began to pull mussels off the wreck and these mussels were strong….. no match unfortunately for my compass so I smashed them open with my knife handle and let my new friends snack. I looked like the pied piper as I finned along with fish in tow and nibbling from the open mussels shells… and then… things got ugly.
I think they called aaaalllllll their friends…. Or maybe they have a fishy internet and twittered them….. doesn’t matter how but soon we truly were surrounded. The fish were so thick Benny began grabbing them with his hand and debated sticking them in his pocket but decided against it.
Then it happened. They started biting more than open mussel shells and finally one bit my lip and I was not happy. I dropped the remaining mussels and chased that little bast**d down and smacked him. The resulting cut on my lip not bloody enough to draw sharks but noticeable enough to make me tell the story several times already. Too soon our time was up and we headed to the surface for a rest, drinks and Patty’s snacks.
Let me just say…. …I was not dry…. nor happy….. and leave it at that….
For the second dive I wanted to hit the sand and look around so I teamed up with another diver who had “misplaced” his spear on dive #1 and our mission was to recover it. We headed down the line and over the side of the wreck towards the ocean’s floor . The starfish were enormous here looking like giant stepping stones lying on the sand. The propeller lies buried here and a debris field surrounding the wreck keeps scallopers from dragging the area.
We swam the length of the wreckage looking up and down but did not see the errant piece of gear and headed on up. As we headed up the line we were greeted by the sight of the missing spear, recovered by another diver…. mission complete….. day a success…but not quite over.
Once back on board the crew pulled the anchor as we broke down our gear and just as we finished up we were greeted by Alex delivering lunch. He made the best hot roast beef sandwiches.
Tired from diving and full from lunch, the cabin was crowded with bodies stretched out napping away the trip back. With a bag of mussels bouncing in the prop wash we headed home. The true sign of a successful day on the water.
I have a cut on my lip and little fish teeth imprints in my hand…..but I got in last licks..… I met up with old friends and made some new….. crossed another dive off my list…….My thanks to the Old Salty for a great day on the water.