Page 80 - AlertDiver_Summer2011_web

sailors. The Mary Celestia wreck site includes an anchor, boilers and crowds of marine life that have found refuge in its remains. And its mystery makes for a good discussion at the local tavern over a famed Bermudan rum swizzle.

By Plan

With so many natural shipwrecks, why would they need to sink even more wrecks on the crowded seafloor? Shipwrecks that make their way to Davy Jones’ locker usually do so in pieces, and divers who come to Bermuda for the historical wrecks still like to explore something complete. Plus, it’s nice to be able to take photos of wrecks that nondiving friends can recognize as wrecks. Bermuda’s newest artificially sunken wreck bears an iconic name in Bermudan history: Sea

Venture . But unlike the epic tale of shipwrecked sailors on the Isle of Devils that inspired Shakespeare to write The Tempest, the most recent wreck to carry the moniker Sea Venture plied its seafaring life prosaically as an island ferry. I’m sure some interesting liaisons happened aboard the 75-foot Sea Venture, or some swarthy characters used her for transportation. Her adventures may be over, but divers’ adventures have just begun. Acquired by the local dive shops in a moment of cooperation among them, they cleaned and sunk the Sea Venture in about 50 feet of water near the Eastern Blue Cut in 2007. They left a bicycle strapped to her roof just in case passing divers are in need of a little undersea cardio. The wreck has just begun to acquire a coat

of encrusting corals and resident marine life. It’s intact and easily penetrated. Engine rooms, interior cabins and the pilothouse are all accessible. Two of Bermuda’s other intact and purposely sunk shipwrecks are the most popular Bermudan wreck, the Hermes , sunk in 1985, and perhaps the island’s best-kept wreck secret, the 171-foot King George , scuttled in 1930.

The Beautiful Beast

Although they’re mostly the second-class citizens of the Bermuda dive scene, the reefs that surround the island are wonderfully lush and intriguing, despite the carnage wrought by the shipwrecks. Giant purple sea fans, hard corals and soft sea rods dominate the seascape. Snapper, wrasse, parrotfish and now lionfish are abundant reef

dwellers. My favorite cavern is Cathedral , which is usually filled with clouds of shimmery hatchetfish and often a fat, lazy grouper that likes to nap in the shadows. Although it seems exotic and far away, lots of divers from the East Coast escape to Bermuda for long weekends. It’s about 650 miles from Cape Hatteras, N.C. With 400 years worth of sunken ships and more than 300 of them accessible to recreational divers, you could vacation in Bermuda for a long time and never repeat a wreck. Few other places on the globe allow you to glide through so much maritime history firsthand. With a distinct air of sophistication, Bermuda is among the world’s most cosmopolitan dive destinations — it’s a cultivated world protected by a savage ring of ship-eating coral. AD

78 | SUMMER 2011

A zebra slug (Hypselodoris zebra) forages on tunicates living on the King George; an overwater bungalow at 9 Beaches Resort; Cahow Lake in the Crystal Caves, about 120 feet underground; the bow of the steamer Lartington rises defiantly, her letters still visible through the coral growth