New Jersey Scuba Diving

Type:

shipwreck, freighter, Brazil

Built:

1930, Germany, as Roland

Specs:

( 468 x 58 ft ) 6872 gross tons, 67 crew

Sunk:

Wednesday June 10, 1945 ( well after cessation of hostilities )
collision with freighter General Fleischer - 1 casualty

Depth:

170 ft, starts at 110 ft

The Oil Wreck, or Ayuroaca as she was named, was German-built by the Akt Ges Wessner company in Bremen, 1912, as the Roland. Her length was 468 feet with a 58-foot beam and displacing 10,500 tons. On June 6, 1945, while under Brazilian ownership she collided in a dense fog with the Norwegian ship General Fleischer. The General Fleischer received a tear above her water line but to the Ayuruoca the collision was fatal. She sank within a half-hour taking only one of her crew with her.

Today the Oil Wreck is located in an area of the New York Bight called the Mud Hole. This is an area scoured by the continual flow of the Hudson River and an accumulation of sediment from the river accounts for the name. This area tends to be a bit deeper than surrounding waters due to the effects of the river and the visibility tends to suffer for the same reason. The Ayuruoca is in 170 feet of water, sitting upright. Her masts are still standing and reach to within 80 feet or so of the surface. Her decks are covered with war materials, namely military vehicles. You can see codfish among the trucks on her decks.