Unknown Wreck 6-6-6 Dive Report

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SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
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Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
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Paulwall, in his infinite wisdom(or dumb luck!), discovered a wreck while snorkeling in Fort Morgan earlier this week. He told me about it today after he was giving me the lowdown on his other dives from today. It immediately peaked my interest and I headed his way after work.

The wreck is in 16' of water and sits ~100 yards off the beach. There is about 3' of relief that looks to be composed mostly of pipes/outriggers(?) covered in nets. There is a shaft that ends in at a hub with spokes offshooting from it(possibly a paddlewheel?) as well as another shaft that runs to a propeller which is partially exposed. I started the dive with 1500 and made it last 43min before swimming back on the surface. I took 4 flounder off the wreck and saw a monster out there that was too skidish to let anyone near.

I need to get back one of these days to see if I can find it again and hopefully get some pics/video. I'm going to try to get some more info on this wreck to figure out what it is/was... Till then, I'm calling it Paul's Surfside Paddlewheeler :D
 
Mat,
There were reports of a paddle wheeler running aground after attempting to run a blockade of the port of mobile by union forces. Some thought the wreck was buried in sand. This would be a good starting point for research. I'll Google some data on the wreck.
Howard
 
USS Glasgow, Acting Master N. Mayo Dyer, forced blockade running steamer Ivanhoe to run aground near Fort Morgan at Mobile Bay . Because the steamer was protected by the fort's guns, Rear Admiral Farragut attempted at first to destroy her by long-range fire from USS Metacomet and Monongahela. When this proved unsuccessful, Farragut authorized his Flag Lieutenant, J. Crittenden Watson, to lead a boat expedition to burn Ivanhoe. Under the cover of darkness and the ready guns on board USS Metacomet and Kennebec , Watson led four boats directly to the grounded steamer and fired her in two places shortly after midnight 6 July. Farragut wrote: "The admiral commanding has much pleasure in announcing to the fleet, what was anxiously looked for last night by hundreds, the destruction of the blockade runner ashore under the rebel batteries by an expedition of boats. . . . the entire conduct of the expedition was marked by a promptness and energy which shows what may be expected of such officers and men on similar occasions.

http://www.adp.fsu.edu/ivanhoe.html or http://www.numa.net/expeditions/survey_of_civil_war_ships.html

If it is not the Ivanhoe then the ship could be any of the others mentioned in the latter survey.

Howard
 
I may be wrong on this but a couple of months ago on Dolphin Island across the bay from Fort Morgan work was halted on the Katrina rebuild on a beach house do to workers unearthing an old wreck buried under the structure. It was then oked by the owners for a study to be done on the old wreck which is believed to be the Ivanhoe but so far as I know no identification has been made.

I also am looking forward to seeing the pictures of this find. And when they feel the time is right a nice copy of the map to it.

August 5, 1864 The Gaines, a Confederate side-wheel gunboat is beached on Mobile Point, and burns within 500 yards of Fort Morgan. The main topmast protruded 10 ft. above the water at sinking, with the stern settling in 12 ft. The Gaines was 863 tons, and armed with five 2-pound guns.
 
IlikeItwetPls:
Pictures...we want pictures.

Saturday... it must wait till saturday. :wink: ...but I'll try to throw in video as well.

philmottrek99and02:
Mat,
There were reports of a paddle wheeler running aground after attempting to run a blockade of the port of mobile by union forces. Some thought the wreck was buried in sand. This would be a good starting point for research. I'll Google some data on the wreck.
Howard

I looked through NUMA's website quite a bit yesterday. It looks as though the only gunboat that may be gulfside is the CSS Gaines. There surely is more wreckage than what lies above the sand, but I dunno if there is 200'+ of boat here. There is definately a propeller on the wreck in question, atleast onsite. There is also a shaft with spokes coming out, that looks to me like what I would think a paddlewheel may look like after being broken up and battered under the surface for so long. There is definately wooded remains as well as metal. Its possible the prop could be part of another boat that sunk after snagging this wreckage I suppose... Its also possible that what I think could be a paddlewheel, simply isn't(more probable).

The West Beach paddlewheeler(confirmed paddlewheeler dived by many when its not burried in sand - Down Under used to run snorkel trips to her) is supposed to be uncovered now. I've also got new leads on its location. I need to find and dive this site and maybe it will give me some idea as to what a paddlewheeler looks like beat-down and 100+ years old while UW.

I will also be bringing video to my LDS owner, to see if he can help identify what it is... Off the top of his head, after calling him on the phone last night, he wasn't aware of anything in the location we dived. I will bring him GPS coordinates to check against his charts when I get a chance though...

CSSGaines.jpg


Would be cool though.

tom wicker:
I may be wrong on this but a couple of months ago on Dolphin Island across the bay from Fort Morgan work was halted on the Katrina rebuild on a beach house do to workers unearthing an old wreck buried under the structure. It was then oked by the owners for a study to be done on the old wreck which is believed to be the Ivanhoe but so far as I know no identification has been made.

I also am looking forward to seeing the pictures of this find. And when they feel the time is right a nice copy of the map to it.

I read the newspaper article on that wreck as well. I can't remember what boat they thought it might belong to, but the piece of wreckage was trucked to a resteraunt for permanant display.

As for location of the wreck, I want to figure out more about what we dove before I show too many people... No offense.
 

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