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SCUBA Diving
Steel City Hobbies' own Michael Rooney and Ron Grove headed to Florida for some underwater research early on June 29, 2005. Below are a few pictures of the US Navy Ship Spiegel Grove, which was sunk near Key Largo to help grow an artificial reef. When the vessel was sunk originally a few years ago, it landed on its starboard (right) side. With the recent Hurricane Dennis two weeks later, the ship was righted by the storm. That is amazing because the ship is over 510' long and 85' wide.
The USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) is named after the home and estate in Fremont, OH, of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States. (LSD-32; dp. 6,880; L. 510'; Dr. 19'; S. 21k; Cpl. 756; A. 123'; Cl. Thomaston)
Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) was laid down on 7 September 1954 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, MS.; launched on 10 November 1955; sponsored by Mrs. Webb C. Hayes; and commissioned on 8 June 1956, Capt. Saverio S. Fillipone in command.
Pictures of our dive trip:
Here is the ship back in it's hayday.
On the way down, I check my gauges. We are at 111' with 2,085 lbs of NITROX (air/oxygen)
This is actually topside, about 45' down from the surface. Remember, this is the Port side
of the ship as it is laying on it's side. Over we go to head to the deep...
A few pieces of the Spiegel Grove wreckage from when the ship was sunk.
This lays in over 140' of water.
Another angle of some of the structure that has fallen off the ship when the
vessel landed on it's side on the sinking.
Ron sporting a Steel City Hobbies T-Shirt a few fathoms down.
Ron spots a huge eel!
This is a huge eel. This was the closest I wanted to get, which was still too close!
Topside back to the boat. The surface was very rough with 10' seas. This was only about
two weeks before hurricane Dennis hits.
Back on solid ground, and back up to our home base in Palm Beach. Kiwi Steve,
the head lifeguard, helps with washing our gear to rid the salt water.
Credits:
Ocean Towers: Kiwi Steve Vlasblom
Force=>E Dive Shop; Riviera Beach/Boca Raton: Bill Black, Bill Morrow and Lindsly
Ocean Divers: Key Largo - History and dive boat on the wreck dive
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