Sailing Ships (1/5) ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

Sailing Ships (1/5)

A packet ship of the early 1800s. Of note is the way the sails on the mainmast are set backward, against the sails on the fore- and mizzen- masts. Known as "backing", this was how a square-rigged ship "put on the brakes" to slow or stop without actually furling the sails.

Wind power has been used by mankind for millennia. Almost every human culture has constructed sailing vessels of some kind, from crude log or reed rafts to the highly developed wind-jammers of the early twentieth century. Many of these vessels were the most complex and technologically advanced machines of their time - equivalent to our jet airliners.

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Ajace

Type:: shipwreck, sailing ship, Italy
Specs:: 566 tons
Sunk:: March 4, 1881; ran aground in storm - 1 survivor
Depth:: 25 ft

Also known as the Italian Wreck, the Ajace was sunk at 4:00 AM on March 4, 1881. At the time, she was carrying a small cargo of scrap railroad iron and 2,040 empty petroleum barrels. While bound for New York from Belgium, the Ajace was caught in one of the worst storms of the year and ran aground off Rockaway beach. Many sources report that Captain F. Morice, seeing that all hope was lost, opened his private supply of brandy and shared it with his crew. Soon after, the crew became badly beaten from the pounding of the waves and drunk from the brandy.

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American

Type:: artificial reef, schooner
Built:: Lundenburg, Nova Scotia, as Roy M
Specs:: ( 125 x 18 ft )
Sponsor:: Cold Springs Dock
Sunk:: Monday June 3, 1985 - Atlantic City Artificial Reef
GPS:: 39°13.855' -74°12.332'
Depth:: 120 ft

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Antioch

Type:: shipwreck, sailing ship, USA
Built:: 1876
Specs:: ( 180 ft ) 986 tons, 10 crew
Sunk:: Friday March 27, 1914
ran aground - no casualties
Depth:: 20 ft

Probably sanded-in by beach restoration work

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Ayrshire

Type:: shipwreck, sailing ship, England
Sunk:: Saturday, January 12, 1850
grounded in storm - 1 casualty

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Azua

Type:: shipwreck, 4 masted schooner, USA
Built:: 1918, New York NY USA
Specs:: ( 171 x 34 ft ) 664 gross tons, 8 crew
Sunk:: Wednesday May 14, 1930
collision with liner City of Atlanta - no casualties
Depth:: 130 ft

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Balaena

Type:: sailing ship
Name:: Balaena is an old term for whale, derived from Latin. The name was found inscribed on the ship's bell.
Depth:: 170 ft

shipwreck, wooden hull full of coal

A wood sailing ship in the Mud Hole at a depth of 170 feet. She was a collier or ore carrier. She is still largely intact, coal in what's left of her holds. Divers tell tales of finding lots of deadeyes, but I haven't seen or heard of one coming from this wreck in many years. Her bell was found to identify her name, but not much else has been discovered about her history. A dive for the very experienced diver. Limited visibility, deep and dark. For those with the technical dive skill, it is a very nice dive.

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Burnside

Type:: shipwreck, schooner
Specs:: 855 tons
Sunk:: Sunday April 20, 1913

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Charles Dunlap

Type:: shipwreck, schooner, USA
Built:: 1904, Millbridge ME USA
Specs:: ( 225 x 42 ft ) 1498 gross tons
Sunk:: July 22, 1919; ran aground in fog
Depth:: 25 ft

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Chauncey Jerome

Type:: shipwreck, sailing ship, USA
Built:: 1852, East Haddam CT, USA
Name:: Chauncey Jerome was an early 19th new England century clock maker
Specs:: ( 178 x 37 ft ) 1154 tons
Sunk:: Thursday Jan 12, 1854
ran aground
Depth:: 20 ft

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China Wreck

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. 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.

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Sailing Ships

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Underwater Photography In General

Photography is all about light. Good lighting is the single most important factor in getting good pictures. After that, technique, experience, and artistic composition are second, and fancy expensive equipment is a distant third.

Unlike photo equipment, light is generally free, during the day anyway. For good results, you usually want to collect as much of it as possible for every picture. This is the job of your camera's lens. The lens is the most important part of a camera, and it is ironic how manufacturers of SLR systems with interchangeable lenses generally sell kits with fancy expensive bodies ( lots of buttons, etc ) and cheap lenses. Even more ironic, much low-end photography is done with disposable cameras that have no lens at all! Whether you use a point-and-shoot, a digital, or an SLR, make sure your camera has a good lens on it. Secondarily, shutter speed also affects your light-collecting ability. Better cameras have controllable shutters, while point-and-shoots are usually fixed at around 1/100 second.

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