APL-31 (1/2) ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

APL-31 (1/2)

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Type:: shipwreck, barge, barracks craft - personnel housing
Built:: September 30, 1944; Everett, WA. USA
Specs:: ( 261 x 49 ft ) 2,580 tons
Sponsor:: The Meyer Family
Dedication:: Jack Meyer
Sunk:: Monday July 23, 2001 - Sea Girt Artificial Reef
GPS:: 40°06.600' -73°41.500'
Depth:: 125 ft

The keel of this US Navy barge was laid in 1944 by the Everett Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Everett, WA. She was built without engines for a total of $1,842,000 as a mobile hospital during WWII. After the war, she was converted for use as a forward submarine support facility, with a machine shop and accommodations for civilian contractors and off-duty submarine crews. Nicknamed "Happy Acres", APL-31 was stationed in Rota Spain and Kings Bay GA through the late seventies. She was donated to the reef program through the NJ State Agency for Surplus Property from the Philadelphia Naval Business Center (NAVINACTFLT).

At Rota Spain, providing berthing and work space for drydock barge *USS Oak Ridge*, 1970s. The drydock serviced submarines mainly.

The APL-31 is lying on its starboard side and deteriorating quickly. The highest point of the wreck is at a depth of 80 feet. Since she has rolled over on her side the many loose items in her compartments and rooms have shifted and fallen or are hanging precariously making penetration very dangerous. The steel rivets which hold the many corrugated aluminum sheets are breaking off and causing the sheets to 'flap' in the current, and banging into the steel support beams and occasionally making loud booms underwater, un-nerving if you didn't know what was causing them.