New Jersey Scuba Diving

Type:

shipwreck, steamer, yacht, USA

Built:

1906, Morris Heights NY USA as Galeata

Specs:

( 140 x 18 ft ) 157 tons, 9 crew

Sunk:

Sunday April 29, 1923
grounded on Fisher's Island - 1 casualty

Built in 1906 as Galatea by Charles L Seabury in New York, and initially taken to the Great Lakes. Renamed Ungava and then Onward, acquired by the Navy in 1917 as USS Onward (SP 311). Onward was armed with two six-pounder guns, and patrolled the entrance of Chesapeake Bay between Cape Henry and Cape Charles. Onward was transferred to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 18 April 1919 as USC&GS Onward. Returned to the Navy in 1920, and sold in 1921 to Roland Theodore Symonette, renamed Thelma Phoebe after his wife, and flagged in the Bahamas.

Thelma Phoebe was engaged in light freight and passenger business. She lost her rudder in a storm and was driven on the rocks. The cook panicked and drowned trying to swim to shore. As the vessel broke up, cases of whiskey began to wash up - in reality she was a rum-runner. The captain claimed to be bound for Halifax, Canada, and got off the hook. Fisher's Island is pretty far off course for a run between the Bahamas and Canada. 850 cases of salvaged whiskey were returned to Nassau.