New Jersey Scuba Diving

Type:

shipwreck, tugboat, US Navy

Name:

An Indian tribe of Pennsylvania and New York, later relocated to Oklahoma.

Built:

1891, Camden NJ USA, as Edgar F. Luckenbach

Specs:

( 120 x 25 ft ) 272 gross tons, 20 crew

Sunk:

Tuesday July 26, 1918
foundered in storm - 10 survivors

Depth:

90 ft

USS Cherokee was a tugboat built in 1891 by John H. Dialogue & Sons in Camden, New Jersey, as Edgar F. Luckenbach (later renamed Luckenbach No. 2). The ship was purchased by the United States Navy and delivered at New York on 12 October 1917, and commissioned on 5 December 1917. She was renamed Cherokee, the third US Navy ship of that name, after the Cherokee Native American tribe, and given the identification number 458.

Outfitted for distant service at New York and at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Cherokee cleared Newport, Rhode Island on 24 February 1918 for Washington, D.C. On 26 February, in a heavy gale, she foundered about 12 miles off Fenwick Island Light Vessel, with the loss of 30 of her crew. The tanker British Admiral rescued 12 survivors, two of whom died before the tanker reached port.

Today the Cherokee sits upright on the bottom in 90-100 ft. of water. Her hull is pretty much intact. The port bow breaks up a little bit. Her stern offers the highest relief, some 15 ft. The visibility is generally pretty good. She is on a sandy rather than muddy bottom. The boilers are still visible inside the wreck, where one is covered by an old fishing net. Artifacts can still be found - pottery and brass. The deck gun is still attached to the bow, however, it hangs over the port side. Three-inch shells can be found in the sand. She is usually a good photography and spearfishing wreck.