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Sunk too soon
Workers have to abandon a Navy ship that goes down before it can be scuttled to create an artificial reef.
©Associated Press
May 18, 2002
KEY LARGO -- A 510-foot Navy ship that was supposed to be scuttled with explosives to create a giant artificial reef unexpectedly sank Friday, sending workers scrambling to abandon ship and spoiling the party for everyone but perhaps the fish.
The 46-year-old Spiegel Grove started going down as workers made last-minute preparations for blowing holes in the ship and sending it to its underwater grave, where it was envisioned as a divers' paradise.
A tugboat had to carry the workers to safety.
"For a while, there was some tears and concern about where our divers were," said Pam Baker, an employee of Ocean Divers in Key Largo. A head count confirmed everyone was all right.
The ship ended up upside down in about 130 feet of water, its bow sticking up out of the sea 6 miles off the Florida Keys.
Engineers on the $1-million project were trying to figure out what to do next.
One idea was to use tugboats to attach cables and try to roll the ship so that it would lie flat on the bottom of the sea.
It was not immediately known what went wrong, said Andy Newman, spokesman for the project. Work crews had been pumping the ship with water for a few days to make it sit low in the water to make the sinking easier.
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