Cape May Dive Sites (3/9)

Cape May

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Type:
shipwreck, schooner ???
Depth:
30 ft

The "China Junk Wreck" by Townsend inlet rises up to 15 ft. What you can see is a couple of boilers and a debris field. To dive it you must hit the tide just right. On a good day, you can see 15-20 ft. A good tog spearfishing site.


Type:
shipwreck, sailing ship
Specs:
( 140 ft ? )
Depth:
45 ft

The "China Wreck" is the partial remains of an unidentified late 19th-century wooden sailing ship, with a cargo of china plates and cups, and miscellaneous articles. This site is believed to be the wreck of the D.H. Bills, a 167'-long wooden-hulled barkentine that sank with a cargo of British-made earthenware during a storm in March 1880.

The wreck must be dived at slack tide, and even then conditions at the mouth of Delaware Bay tend to be muddy. The plates themselves date from about 1875, and are fairly ordinary and of little value except to divers who prize such artifacts; and despite years of plunder, there are still more to be found.


Shipwreck City of Athens
Type:
shipwreck, liner, USA
Built:
1911, Camden NJ USA, as Somerset
Specs:
( 309 x 46 ft ) 3648 gross tons, 135 passengers & crew
Sunk:
Wednesday May 1, 1918
collision with French Navy cruiser La Gloire - 67 casualties
Depth:
110 ft

Shipwreck City of Georgetown
Type:
shipwreck, schooner, USA
Built:
1902, Bath Me USA
Specs:
( 168 x 36 ft ) 599 gross tons, 8+ passengers & crew
Sunk:
Sunday June 2, 1918
collision with liner Prinz Oskar ( 1090 tons) - no casualties
Depth:
110 ft

Type:
shipwreck, dredge
Sunk:
Saturday January 8, 1927

The Clermont was at one time the world's largest dredge. She was sunk in a storm while under tow on January 8, 1927. Today she sits upright on a sandy bottom, partially intact, rising 15' off the bottom. Some of the dredge pipes are visible in the sand off the starboard side of the wreck. Divers have recovered several interesting objects from the wreck such as deck prisms and bricks from the boiler stamped "Weideimer".



Deepwater Artificial Reef

23.6 Nautical Miles off Ocean City
Depth: 90-125 ft [download]


Delaware #9 Artificial Reef

Depth: 50-60 ft


Delaware #10 Artificial Reef

Depth: 55-65 ft


Delaware #11 Artificial Reef

Depth: 70-90 ft


Cape May Dive Sites

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Mud Hole

With rare exceptions, scuba diving is a bottom-fixated activity. In the region covered in this website, one may encounter many different bottom types, from rocky pinnacles around Block Island to white sands off Cape May to mud and oyster beds in any estuary. This variation is far greater and more interesting than is found in the tropics. Here is some explanation of what bottom compositions are found where and why:

Printed from njscuba.net