New Jersey Scuba Diving

Rockaway Belle (US Army T-1)

At Point Pleasant, 1981

Rockaway Belle is listed as Army tug-transport T-1, built by Simms Brothers, Dorchester MA, 1942. 'T-boats' were 65-foot, 45 ton diesel-powered, passenger-cargo boats that doubled as harbor tugs. 170 of them were constructed during WWII, and many more afterwards. From 1940 through 1951 all T-Boats were built of wood, thereafter steel. Rockaway Belle was T-1 of the T-1 class, sold as surplus in 1947.

Rockaway Belle sank some time after 1977, there is a record of her active then.

Sister T-47, wood hull

The photo above is a sister. It looks like a natural fishing boat. T-1s probably needed very little to convert them to side-trawlers, already having a sturdy-looking hull, tugboat engine and cargo boom. I can find no details or date for the sinking, but there might still be something down there, and the first person who gets to it is going to find a giant lobster.

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Light, Air & Water

Human Vision Underwater

When light travels from a less-dense medium like air to a more-dense medium like water, the rays are refracted or bent towards the normal or perpendicular of the surface between the two mediums. In crude terms, light going from air to water will tend to be straightened, while light going from water to air will tend to be ... um ... crookeded. Confused yet? Take a look at the figure below.

refraction
( Tautogolabrus adspesus )

In this figure, you can see the light rays traveling from an object in the water to your eyes, neglecting the effect of the flat glass lens of your mask. The blue lines trace the actual path of the light rays through the water and into the air, or conversely, through the air into the water - the direction really doesn't matter. As you can see, the rays are bent toward the perpendicular of the surface on the water side, and away from it on the air side.

More: Light, Air & Water ...

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