Chesapeake

Chesapeake was the largest oyster dredge boat built on the Chesapeake Bay.
Type:
shipwreck, clam dredge, USA
Built:
1936, Johnson Marine Railway, Crittenden VA USA
Specs:
( 93 x 25 ft ) 113 gross tons
Sunk:
early 1980s, burned, no casualties
Depth:
She could pull four dredges at once and carry as much as 5,000 bushels of oysters.

Chesapeake was built very heavily with 6x9” oak frames and 3” thick Georgia yellow pine planking. Chesapeake worked on the Chesapeake Bay until 1979 when she was sold to a company in Cape May New Jersey to work the mackerel fishery.

The shallow round bottom and low straight bow must have been uncomfortable on the open ocean.

Photographs courtesy of Richard Miles

Photos from USCG helicopter (crew was already rescued by another boat)
The wheelhouse is gone, smoke pouring from the crew cabin in the bow.

location probable
234599
IMO 7100407


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no snorkel

Here is an item that is useful in the tropics, but much less so around here. This is because the water here is not nearly as crystal clear as in the tropics, and the depths are often greater. Therefore it is unlikely you will be able to see anything interesting below from the surface.

On a boat dive, a snorkel is totally useless - leave it home. Chances are, the captain and crew will tell you to take it off anyway. The same is generally true for inlet diving where the entry is steep. A snorkel is just one extra thing to get tangled up, and you will probably have enough of that already. A snorkel might be useful in a surface swim from the beach out to a close-in dive site, if it is a good one with purge valve or a dry valve to keep the water out entirely. Even then, you are better off doing a backstroke out to the site, with your head out of the water so you can navigate by landmarks, or an underwater swim if the currents are favorable.

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