Bad Bob's Big Boat ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

Bad Bob's Big Boat

Well, it's that time of year again, time to renew the web hosting. And for those of you that don't know, that has become a lot more expensive than it used to be. Fifty dollars a year is now several hundred. Not to mention the price of domain names has gone up ten-fold.

And I just found out that the nice folks at PayPal disabled all my Support buttons, and I never got a notice (although that may be my fault.) In any case, it is all working again now, so if you would like to make a small donation to help defray these costs, it would be greatly appreciated.

Type:: artificial reef, trawler, USA
Built:: 1947 Bath Maine USA
Specs:: ( 144x27 ft ) 393 tons
Sunk:: Wednesday April 17, 2002 - Moriches Artificial Reef
Depth:
GPS:: 40°43.402' -72°46.659

This trawler had a long and interesting career. She was built in 1947 as the MFV Fortis by Bath Iron Works in Maine and was one of five sisters that went to France to replace vessels lost in the war. The boat fished from Boulogne Sur Mer, France, from 1948 to 1966.

Later it was purchased by an American company and returned to Portland, Maine as the MFV Philip J. During this time she had three fishing owners. Eventually, she was renamed Newport and served as a floating restaurant. Finally renamed Bad Bob's Big Boat and sunk as part of the Moriches artificial reef on April 17, 2002. ( The New York reef program lists it as Bob's Big Boat or just The Boat, but that is not the whole name. )