The East Coast of the United States is home to more than twenty thousand shipwrecks. Astonishingly, there are nearly two thousand wrecks beneath the waters of Delaware Bay, alone. While many of these wrecks are now little more than scattered heaps of time-eroded debris, others are fascinating testaments to the past. Let’s take a closer look!
Gypsum Prince
The Gypsum Prince, a freighter built in England in 1927, sank in a collision with the 5,090 ton Voco on Sunday, May 3rd, 1942 at the end of the Henlopen Breakwater. Although she was fairly intact when she sunk, she was blown up later in 1942, as her protruding metal parts posed a hazard to navigation.
Six crew members lost their lives when Gypsum Prince went down, however twenty survivors were rescued. Today, the massive wreck of twisted metal lies on the sand in 70 feet of water, at the same place she sunk. Before the explosion, she was 362 feet long and 52 feet wide. Now, her parts and pieces make a wonderful home for lobsters and fish.
Diving the wreck of the Gypsum Prince can be treacherous, thanks to the strong currents in the area. Local charters recommend divers take advantage of the opportunity for adventure at slack tide.
USS Jacob Jones
The wreck of the USS Jacob Jones makes for interesting diving, although she was reduced to rubble by a German Submarine on the morning of February 28, 1942. After having attacked a suspected Axis submarine on February 22nd, Jacob Jones was assigned to patrol the waters around Cape May, NJ, and the Delaware Capes.
The 314 foot long, 31 foot wide Jacob Jones carried a complement of 113 officers and enlisted men, some of whom managed to make it to life rafts after the U-boat fired its’ spread of torpedoes at the destroyer. Most of those men were killed in a secondary blast that occurred as Jacob Jones’ load of depth charges exploded after she had begun to sink.
Today, some unexploded ordinance lies on the ocean floor, and several pieces of Jacob Jones, including reduction gear and boilers, along with the remnants of the hull’s ribs. If you are hoping to see an intact military vessel on this dive, you will be disappointed – but if you are interested in history and would like to see what the inner workings of a steam-powered Navy destroyer looks like, this is a compelling wreck, indeed.
USS Nina
The USS Nina was lost at sea during a gale storm the morning of February 6th, 1910. She had 31 men on board, none of whom were ever found.
Nina now lies in eighty feet of water just a short distance outside the mouth of Delaware Bay. Before she was discovered in 1977, her disappearance was a mystery – some believed that she had accidentally headed into the Bermuda Triangle, although she was scheduled to be enroute from Norfolk, Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts.
Diving the 137 foot USS Nina is a unique experience. The iron-hulled, steam powered US Navy tug was built in Pennsylvania, in 1864 – before the end of the Civil War. She was commissioned in September 1865, and served tirelessly as a Naval yard tug, torpedo boat, and submarine tender during her forty-five years of service to the United States. Visibility is generally good, and many personal effects belonging to the crew can still be recovered by digging in the sand near the bow, where the men once slept.
It is common to find lobsters in the wreck, which is slowly disintegrating.