Blackthorn Wreck GPS Numbers

[Knavey]

The GPS numbers, along with the history of the USCG BLACKTHORN (and pictures of it) can be found in the book, Shipwrecks of the Sunshine State.

As mentioned, the large yellow Pinellas County Artificial Reef Program buoy is not on the BLACKTHORN, but is just off the bow of the SHERIDAN. If you swim off the bow of the SHERIDAN, you will intersect the wreck of the BLACKTHORN. The stern is broken off, but fairly intact, and the main hull is laying on its side.
There is also a barge just off the stern of the BLACKTHORN. It is possible to swim all of these wrecks on one dive. Again, all the numbers (for all three of these wrecks, and over 1,000 more) are in the aforementioned book.
Cheers,
Mike

Was just at the LDS looking for a pressure guage and decided to buy the book. That was before reading your post!

Was reading it in the waiting room at the docs office, and now I am home and will be reading it some more.

Good job on the detail in that book.

 

[flounderboy]

Maybe a little too interesting
My non diving dad keeps borrowing mine and not giving it back
And I have a signed in brandon copy

Dive Safe

mark s

 

[Knavey]

Thats a BIG bloated float they have out there. Bright yellow, can't miss it. Only drawback is the rope on it is only 2 feet long. Got some yellow paint on the bow of the boat fishing for the line. Oh well.

Here is the deal...Never found the Blackthorn! Believe it or not!

Sheridan is a very nice dive. The line drops you down to nothing...and I went on a hunch and headed south and about 20 feet out I began to see the shadow of the wreck. Its in fantastic shape, lots of coral, and 4 enormous grouper. There were huge schools of baitfish everywhere. A little disconcerting at times because when they engulfed you, you could not see ANYTHING, including your partner.

We dove that one, and then did a surface interval and decided to try to find the Blackthorn. Well, we went to the bow, started swimming west from the bow, and I ran across an anchor and line someone had slipped. So I scooped it up, and proceeded to blow around 800# looking for the Blackthorn and never found her. Went back to the Sheridan and burned the rest of the gas on her.

We then resurfaced, and our other group decided to try to find it on the depth finder. While I napped on the bow, they drove in circles and finally found something big. We anchored over it (it was about 150-200 yards) from the bouy, and they dropped down on it. We figured they must have found something, since they didn't come back up immeadiately. Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, up they pop. Incredible wreck down there. Remember the enormous grouper on the Sheridan, well they were babies compared to the ones on this wreck...except, its NOT the Blackthorn. Just a barge.

Well, sure enough, when we jumped in, you could tell it wasn't the Blackthorn. There was a grouper under the bow that was the size of VW bug. A little farther to the SW there are some old drain culvert pipes that someone had dumped, and there was a huge grouper hanging in them also.

More baitfish, lots of jacks swimming around you on your safety stops, and about 40 foot vis.

Overall, a great dive today. Can't believe we couldn't find the Blackthorn, but that just leaves it for another day.

Anyone know the name of the barge? Would like to put it on the GPS with the correct name. For now, my buddy who owns the boat has named it after himself. HA.

Anyone lose an anchor out there? Found it, found a snorkle (my buddies), and left a soft weight down there that I saw since I was already lugging around that anchor.

Highly recommend those dives.

 

[aue-mike]

Here is the deal...Never found the Blackthorn! Believe it or not!

Anyone know the name of the barge? Would like to put it on the GPS with the correct name.

You must have passed right over the BLACKTHORN, as it is in between the barge and SHERIDAN. If you swim off the bow of the SHERIDAN about 100 yards, you should hit it. You will come across debris along the way like a trail of bread crumbs.

The barge is called the "Seafood Barge" by some or "Blackthorn Barge." There is also a ledge nearby too.

 

[Knavey]

You must have passed right over the BLACKTHORN, as it is in between the barge and SHERIDAN. If you swim off the bow of the SHERIDAN about 100 yards, you should hit it. You will come across debris along the way like a trail of bread crumbs.

The barge is called the "Seafood Barge" by some or "Blackthorn Barge." There is also a ledge nearby too.

Doh...yards...feet. Only went feet. Probably turned about 2/3 of the way there. Oh well.

Ha...just means I have to go again right!??!

Sort of like the luck we had on Tbolt in the Keys a few weeks ago. All around it, but never found it. Finally got some good numbers, and spotted the buoys as soon as we got there.

 

[Chad Carney]

Here is the deal...Never found the Blackthorn! Believe it or not!
Sheridan is a very nice dive.
We dove that one, and then did a surface interval and decided to try to find the Blackthorn. Well, we went to the bow, started swimming west from the bow, proceeded to blow around 800# looking for the Blackthorn and never found her.
We then resurfaced, and our other group decided to try to find it on the depth finder. They drove in circles and finally found something big. We anchored over it (it was about 150-200 yards) from the bouy, and they dropped down on it. Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, up they pop. Incredible wreck down there....except, its NOT the Blackthorn. Just a barge. Well, sure enough, when we jumped in, you could tell it wasn't the Blackthorn. Overall, a great dive today. Can't believe we couldn't find the Blackthorn, but that just leaves it for another day. Anyone know the name of the barge? Would like to put it on the GPS with the correct name.

This thread is almost 5 years old but it gets great placement when searching for the Blackthorn on Google... and the story plays over again and again... people have trouble finding the Blackthorn... one reason is because so much published information about the wreck is wrong and incomplete.

So this post is an attempt to try and get the correct information into divers' hands... as this is the coming season of the 30th anniversary of the Blackthorn collision with the freighter Capricorn.

Mike Barnette (AUE Mike) & I had just dove the BT and Sheridan on my boat in Jan of 2004, and we crossed the approximate 100 yards from the Sheridan to the BT, but the heading is not W, it's WNW, and the "Pinellas Seafood Barge" that Knavey found is NW about another 30 yards. It's a stretch for a novice navigator to make the crossing... and getting back is much harder, because the Sheridan is an E-W alignment wreck. He might have found the Blackthorn if he had known it is a N-S wreck.

I've been handing out the dead nuts coordinates for the wrecks for decades and my illustration of the wrecks layout.
In May of 2001 the St Pete Times published my article called "Top 10 on the Gulf Bottom"...

No need to search, it's all right here in
"THE WILD WEST COAST of Florida" a FREE online book on my Florida Skin Diver website.
(Including my illustration, with coordinates on the stern and the superstructure which is just out of site off the bow.)

The St Pete Times republished a Flash version of my wrecks artcle in 2003 but it doesn't have much of the newest information found on the Wild West Coast site. Here's the link http://www.sptimes.net/2003/03/07/reefs/newreefs.swf

THE WILD WEST COAST is a work in progress, but there are already hundreds of sites near and far from Tampa Bay... including the Middle Grounds, offshore sinkholes and natural ledges... plenty of links to more articles and more exclusive illustrations.

Enjoy!

Capt Chad