New Jersey Scuba Diving

San Jose

Shipwreck San Jose

Type:: shipwreck, freighter, USA ( United Fruit Company, now Chiquita )
Built:: 1904, Ireland
Specs:: ( 330 x 44 ft ) 3358 gross tons, 35 crew
Sunk:: Saturday January 17, 1942
collision with C2-class freighter Santa Elisa - later torpedoed by U-123 - no casualties
Depth:: 100 ft

The San Jose was dynamited in the 1950s. Today she sits in 100 ft of water on a mud bottom. Her wreckage is spread over a wide area, with the main portion of the hull on its port side, pretty much intact. She can be penetrated and divers can enter long corridors with adjoining rooms. The bottom of silty mud can be disturbed very easily, dropping the normally poor visibility to zero.

Editor's Note 2018: This sounds like a very old description. I would expect the wreck has collapsed into a flattened junk pile by now.

Shipwreck San Jose

Shipwreck San Jose — The San Jose was a passenger freighter, with a small number of cabins for paying passengers, although no grand facilities as might be expected on a liner.

Shipwreck San Jose — Sailing Timetable - 1912

Shipwreck San Jose — Sailing Timetable - 1916

Santa Elisa — The Santa Elisa sinking after being torpedoed by Italian motorboats in the Meditteranean. ( At least the water is warm. ) Santa Elisa was the same class as Algol

U-123 — Type IXb U-boat U-123, decommissioned and scuttled in port August 1944. Later raised and put in service by France until 1959.

brochures courtesy of Maritime Timetable Images - www.timetableimages.com

Cape May Dive Sites, Dive Sites, Freighters, New Jersey Dive Sites, World War II,

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Osprey

Osprey

Ospreys, or "Fish Eagles", Pandion haliaetus, are fairly common along shorelines, marshes, and larger inland waterways. They dive for fish, catching them with their talons - which is quite a sight to see. At the last moment in its headlong plunge, the bird pivots to strike the water feet-first.

At 22", wingspan 54", Ospreys are smaller than eagles, but larger than hawks, and form their own family. Once threatened by DDT, which thins the shells of their eggs and makes them susceptible to breakage, Ospreys have made a great comeback and may be seen around almost any salt marsh. They nest in trees, or on special platforms that are erected for them. Several nesting pairs of Bald Eagles also live in the region.

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