There is actually a wealth of books on the subject of diving the New Jersey / New York area. A great deal more information, including loran numbers and/or directions, much more detailed histories and descriptions, and historical photos, can be found in these references, and I highly recommend all of them. You can find these at your local dive shop, or order all of them directly from the links on this page.
New:SCUBA Diving the Wrecks and Shores of Long Island, NY
by David Rosenthal
To order this book, visit The Wharves Project website at http://www.thewharvesproject.org
Shipwrecks of ConnecticutAll include exhaustive lists of Loran and GPS numbers
To order these books and others, visit Gary Gentile's website at http://www.ggentile.com
Wreck Valley vol. IITo order these books and others, visit Aqua Explorers website at http://www.aquaexplorers.com
New Jersey Shipwrecks:
350 years in the Graveyard of the Atlantic
Margaret Thomas Buchholz
Down the Shore Publishing, 2004
200 pages, illustrated, b&w
Shore Diving in New Jersey
Tom Gormley & Ben Gualano, 2003
200 pages, illustrated, b&w
Lost Voyages
Bradley Sheard
Aqua Quest Publications, 1998
216 pages, illustrated, color
Although these titles are out-of-print, many are still available from used book dealers. Amazon.com makes it easy to locate such items on-line.
Perils of the Port of New York
Jeannette Edwards Rattray
Dodd Mead & Co., 1973
Broken Spars -
New Jersey Coast Shipwrecks 1640-1935
Leland Wooley Downey
Brick Twsp. Historical Society, 1960
Shipwrecks of the Atlantic
Bill Davis
the Fisherman Library, 1991
248 pages, illustrated, b&w
Shipwrecks of New Jersey
Gary Gentile
Gary Gentile Productions, 1988
This book is replaced by three new ones.
Guide to Shipwreck Diving - New York & New Jersey
Henry C. Keatts
Pisces Books, 1992
186 pages, illustrated, color
Scuba Northeast vol II
Robert G. Bachand
Sea Sports Publications, 1986
Shipwrecks in New York Waters
Paul Morris & William Quinn
Parnassus Imprints, 1989
Beyond Sportdiving
Bradley Sheard
Menasha Ridge Press, 1991
WreckMaster Northeast CD-ROM
Scubamation 1993
Shipwrecks Off the New Jersey Coast
Walter & Richard Krotee
1966
This book is one of the earliest and most detailed references on New Jersey shipwrecks. As such, unfortunately, it is also the source of most of the rumors and errors in New Jersey shipwreck histories, which get repeated so long and so often that they eventually become facts. Here too. You can find it at bigger public libraries.
Shipwrecks Unforgotten:
From New Jersey to the Gulf of Florida
Norbert Freitag 1997
Shipwrecks Unforgotten:
From Maine to the Hudson River
Norbert Freitag 1998
These are mainly just loran lists.
The chart that I actually used in researching this website is:
Capt. Vic Enterprises Inc.
8 Iris Court
Milltown NJ 08850
Phone: 732-821-8810
Fax: 732-821-8192
The back of this chart has the biggest list of Loran/GPS coordinates you are going to find anywhere. This chart is designed primarily for fishermen however, so many of the listings are probably of little interest to divers. If you want one of these charts, you'll have to track it down at a marine supplies or fishing tackle store or order it from above.
On the web, a good source for charts is
www.gpscharts.com. You can also find charts at
www.waterproofcharts.com. Official government navigation charts are available from the Coast Survey division of the
NOAA. The AWOIS wreck database is also now online and searchable. Another good source for detailed charts of the artificial reefs is the
New Jersey Artificial Reef Program. Their new book contains exhaustive lists of both Loran and DGPS coordinates. More cartographic information on the New York bight area is available from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The charts in this website (and a couple of others) are as accurate as I could make them, but they are in no way navigation quality. They began as USGS survey index charts, scanned into digital form and cleaned up considerably to keep the file size down. The positions are determined from loran and/or DGPS numbers. Lorans were converted to latitude/longitude with a computer program, then converted to pixel coordinates in a spreadsheet. Finally, the points were plotted exactly in a graphics editor. If you look closely, you can find [74-00-00 W, 41-00-00 N] and other reference points.
The large-scale wreck charts in this website are based primarily on converted loran numbers, with some GPS and other references. At this scale, loran is accurate enough for my purposes, and the discrepancies between different systems are too small to matter. The individual NJ reef charts are based primarily on GPS numbers provided by the Reef Program. The discrepancy between converted loran numbers and GPS is large enough to be noticeable at the scale of the reef charts.
You can download the shareware loran conversion program "Marnav" that I used in making the charts in the website.
Here is a newer Loran conversion program, issued by the USCG. It may be more accurate than Marnav.
These two programs seem to agree pretty well with each other, but neither agrees well with the new GPS numbers that are becoming available.
Using either of the conversion programs above is unlikely to yield navigation-quality GPS numbers. The only way to get accurate GPS numbers from loran tds is to drive your boat out to the vicinity of the loran coordinates, find the wreck, and write down the GPS numbers. This process takes time and money, and naturally those captains who have taken the trouble to convert loran numbers are not quick to share them. Therefore, although vast lists of loran numbers have been published, there are very few GPS numbers publicly available.
Loran is fast becoming extinct. I think there is one manufacturer who still makes new recreational loran equipment. Used equipment is also available, but will become scarcer and more expensive over time. If you have a boat without a loran unit, then I suggest you get one while they are still available, and get to work converting numbers. All of Gary Gentile's books have exhaustive lists.
Thanks to diver John Whitehurst for supplying me with both Loran conversion programs, without which this website would not exist.
I make no claim as to the accuracy, validity, or appropriateness of any information found in this website. I will not be responsible for the consequences of any action that is based upon information found here. Scuba diving is an adventure sport, and as always, you alone are responsible for your own safety and well being.
Copyright © 1996-2008 Rich Galiano
unless otherwise noted
