New Jersey Scuba Diving

Type:

artificial reef, fireboat

Built:

1960, Jakobson Shipyard, Oyster Bay, NY

Specs:

( 86 x 20 ft ) 93 tons

Sunk:

Saturday June 22, 2024 - Delaware #11 Artificial Reef

GPS:

38°40.457' -74°42.961'

The Mayor J. Harold Grady - named for Baltimore’s sitting mayor when commissioned in 1960 - was one of three Baltimore fireboats built that year by Jakobson Shipyard in Oyster Bay, L.I. and was among the most modern and well-equipped fireboats of her time, with a pumping capacity of 6,000 gallons of water per minute and top speed of 15 mph. She would later distinguish herself during Baltimore’s inner harbor fire of 1968, when flames at a lumberyard at Pier 5 spread to other businesses and even threatened the U.S.S Constellation. Grady stayed in service until 2007. DNREC bought her using federal Sport Fish Restoration funds, and she was hauled out to the reef site and sunk by Norfolk VA-based marine contractor Coleen Marine.