Divers beginning to explore Navy ship after scuttle

KEY LARGO, Fla. -- Even before its massive hull settled on the ocean floor, the Spiegel Grove earned plenty of notoriety. Many in the Florida Keys called it the ship that refused to sink.

But as divers begin exploring the scuttled Navy ship, organizers say the drama of an upside-down sinking, a minor oil dribble and a $1.35 million price tag appears worth the trouble.

"For anybody who wants to dive or snorkel in the Florida Keys, the first thing they're going to ask is, 'Can I dive the Spiegel Grove?'" says Jim Lupino, vice chairman of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce.

In May, the 510-foot ship partially sank upside-down about six miles off Key Largo, hours before workers tried to scuttle it to create an artificial reef. With television cameras rolling, the sinking sent 40 workers onboard rushing for safety and left the ship's bow sticking out of the water for three weeks.

A salvage team shifted the ship on its side and put it firmly on the ocean bottom on June 10, completing an eight-year project first hatched over beers at a local saloon.

Several days later, ocean officials noticed an oil sheen above the ship, again temporarily delaying the opening of the new reef as a diver's attraction. The tiny oil leak that caused the sheen was finally stopped, and the artificial reef opened for business.

"During those weeks everyone was talking about it. It was on CNN all the time," says Karen Tiedemann, president of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce. "We couldn't have bought that publicity."

Divers christened the reef by breaking a bottle of champagne on the sunken bow.

The ship, named after the Ohio estate of President Rutherford B. Hayes, is the largest ever intentionally jettisoned as an artificial reef.

Organizers say its massive size and fumbled sinking will attract divers throughout the world. Before the premature scuttling, tourist officials expected 50,000 divers a year. They now expect more.

"It is so unusual to have something this big placed on the bottom," says Doc Schweinler, president of Ocean Divers of Key Largo. The second-largest artificial reef in the Keys is the 327-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Bibb and Duane, sunk in 1987 off Key Largo.

Dive shops say their phones have been ringing steadily for weeks. In Key Largo, the Fish House Restaurant has already named a concoction of rum and blue curacao after the vessel.

Schweinler says in six months the artificial reef should be teeming with schools of baitfish, grouper, snappers and sea turtles, some already beginning to show up. Soft coral is now beginning to form on the metal hull of the ship, which sits on its right side in 130 feet of water.

Diving instructors call it a multilevel dive, allowing beginners to explore the hull and parts of the decks at depths of 45 feet to 60 feet. More experienced divers can tackle the ship's hull and inner decks.

Local diving aficionados say the ship can almost be compared to a large museum.