On May 17, the hopes and dreams of so many who worked for so long were shattered as she sank prematurely, turning upside down.  Scroll down and enjoy this page.  When you get to the bottom, you will find an index linking you to each day's update.  We will add new pages daily as we receive updates.

It is our intent, and sincere hope, that the publicity surrounding the premature sinking will give her even more publicity, and bring even more divers to Key Largo, to enjoy this marvelous reef, the result of many years of hard work by dedicated volunteers.  CLICK HERE to learn how you can help! 

From the Official Tourism Council Website for the Florida Keys
May 14, 2002

KEY LARGO, Florida Keys -- A retired U.S. Navy ship, slated to become the largest ship in the world ever purposely sunk to become an artificial reef, according to wreck diving experts, arrived off Key Largo, its final resting place, Tuesday morning. 

Project organizers for the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce Artificial Reef Committee hope to sink the Spiegel Grove, a  510-foot Landing Ship Dock decommissioned in 1989, Friday afternoon in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The undertaking has taken almost eight years since inception. 

"I can't believe the ship is finally here," said project director Rob Bleser. "We're all excited, but anxious because all the years are now culminating in four days of frenetic activity that need to be accomplished to get this ship on the bottom." 

A 500-yard safety zone has been established by the U.S. Coast  Guard around the vessel through the scuttling exercise. Entry into the zone by pleasure boaters or other craft not pre-cleared and officially associated with the sinking is prohibited, according to Coast Guard officials. 

Once the vessel is sunk, a 24-hour moratorium on diving the wreck is to be established, according to sanctuary officials. The temporary ban is required so project officials can examine the wreck and issue an all-clear for sport divers. 

It will require most of Tuesday to accurately position the ship at a  predetermined location six miles off Key Largo, said Bleser. Four  anchors are to be deployed to assist the vessel in maintaining  location, in 130 feet of water, through the scuttling. 

After the ship is anchored, volunteer workers will board the vessel and begin cutting four-foot by four-foot openings. About 43 more are to be cut during the next two days. 

Workers will also begin the process of flooding the ship by pumping water into the vessel. Some 12,000 tons of water are required before the ship can settle low enough for several small  explosive charges to be detonated to puncture four, eight-inch-in-diameter holes in the sides of the vessel. 

 The use of charges have been approved by marine sanctuary  officials and the ship is projected to submerge within an hour of firing. 

The Spiegel Grove is so large its eight-story superstructure will lie only 40 feet below the surface in 130 feet of water. 

"Experienced scuba divers will be able to explore many interior sections of the ship, but the top deck will be shallow enough so snorkelers and people aboard glass bottom boats will be able to see it," Bleser said.

Once submerged, the ship's sides will be enveloped by algae to promote the development of sponges, corals and other invertebrates that will make it an inviting home for fish. 

Key Largo Chamber of Commerce officials expect the ship annually to attract 50,000 to 70,000 divers who will spend $14 million in the Keys. 

The Monroe County Commission has approved the Keys tourism council's request to pay about half of the cost that is expected to exceed $1.1 million for cleaning, towing and sinking. The rest will come from the sale of dive medallions 

Named for President Rutherford B. Hayes' estate in Fremont, Ohio,  the Spiegel Grove was launched in 1955 and decommissioned in 1989. 

For more information on the Spiegel Grove go to www.fla-keys.com. 

PHOTOS: [TOP] The Spiegel Grove, a 510-foot landing ship dock decommissioned in 1989, after service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, sits anchored Wednesday, May 15, 2002, near Key Largo, Fla. [BOTTOM]  plaque identifying the Spiegel Grove, a 510-foot Landing Ship Dock decommissioned in 1989 sits in the ships well deck while anchored Wednesday, May 15, 2002 near Key Largo, Fla.

The Spiegel Grove is towed down the Elizabeth River, Wednesday May 8, on her way to Key Largo.

The Spiegel Grove passes downtown Norfolk on her way to Key Largo.

Length:  510 Feet
Height: 84 Feet
Tonnage: 6,880
Site: N 25° 04' 
       W 80° 18' 65"
       (6 miles off Key Largo)
Commissioned: 1955
Decommissioned: 1989
Ship Type: Landing Ship Dock
Source: www.fla-keys.com

Fri May 17, 8:33 AM ET 
By Jane Sutton 

KEY LARGO, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida islanders will send a U.S. Navy "ghost" ship to the Atlantic seabed off Key Largo on Friday, making the 6,880-ton hulk of rusting gray metal the largest vessel ever deliberately sunk to create an artificial reef. 

If all goes as planned, the 510-foot transport ship Spiegel Grove will soon become a nursery for the fishes and a playground for snorkelers and scuba divers. 

The sinking committee plans to set off four small explosive charges in its engine rooms on Friday, blowing holes in the bottom of the ship and allowing it to flood and sink in 130 feet of water off Key Largo. 

Dive shop owners, the local Chamber of Commerce and the tourism development agency for Monroe County, which encompasses the Florida Keys island chain, spent eight years raising money, winning permits and persuading regulators to let them sink the decommissioned ship in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Though the area is littered with ships sunk by mishap or scuttled on purpose to foster reef development, the Spiegel Groves' size sets it apart. 

"It's two and a half times as large as anything else that's been put down here," said Dave Score, manager for the part of the sanctuary where the ship will lie. 

Built in 1956 and named for President Rutherford B. Hayes' Ohio estate, the Spiegel Grove saw active duty off Lebanon, in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean during the Cold War. 

It sat for a decade at a Navy shipyard on the James River in Virginia, one of 97 decommissioned "ghost ships" mothballed there until someone figures out what to do with them. 

Letting them sink on their own would be an environmental and navigational hazard. Maintaining them enough so they don't sink costs $20,000 a year per ship. And federal taxpayers would have to shell out $1.6 million per ship to send them to be cut up at scrap yards. 

So giving the ship to Florida, which passed title to Monroe County, is "a hell of a deal for all parties concerned," said Michael Bagley, superintendent for the Virginia ghost fleet. 

Within six months, the Spiegel Grove should be coated with barnacles, sea urchins and soft algae that draws nibbling fish, which in turn draw larger ocean predators. More slowly, it will build up coral polyps that form the region's colorful reefs. 

"I think you would look at 10 years before you would see this as a big coral habitat," said George Garrett, Monroe County's director of marine resources. 

TOURIST DRAW 

Project sponsors see the Spiegel Grove as an amusement for local residents and a draw for visitors in the tourism-dependent Keys. Some 3.1 million people visit the islands annually and 60 percent of them swim, snorkel, dive, fish or participate in some water sport, Score said. 

"Pretty much everybody in the keys, their livelihood is intricately linked to the marine environment here," he said. 

Islanders raised more than $1 million in local donations and tourism tax pledges for the project. Most of it went to hire contractors who spent 28,000 hours scrubbing and stripping the ship to prevent ocean contamination from fuel residue and now-banned chemicals in the lighting fixtures and wiring. 

Under the watch of environmental regulators, they had to remove hundreds of thousands of feet of cable and sand off paint chips that could float into the sea. 

Engineers plotted how to orient the ship to best protect it from hurricane surges that could dislodge it or break it apart. Then the Coast Guard had to certify it seaworthy to ensure it didn't sink accidentally during the five days it took to tow it from Virginia to Florida earlier this month. 

With the anchor chains rusted into coils on the deck, it took a pair of tugboats a whole day to yank them free, letting the ship drop the four anchors, some weighing over 11 tons. 

Volunteers cut large holes in the hull and the bulkheads with acetylene torches so divers will be able to swim through the sunken ship. 

If the vessel sinks upright, the upper decks will be 40 feet below the sea surface, giving snorkelers a glimpse of its upper decks, cranes and giant guns. 

Sponsors hope the Spiegel Grove will draw divers away from some other nearby reefs that have become too popular for their own good, endangering the coral with their sheer numbers. 

Photos: [TOP] John Gorthy cuts a hole for divers to pass through, in one of the bulk heads of the Spiegel Grove as it sits anchored Wednesday, May 15, 2002, near Key Largo, Fla. [CENTER] Capt. James Van Fleet tapes edges of fiberglass insulation aboard the Spiegel Grove. [BOTTOM] Workers gather near a makeshift command center aboard the Spiegel Grove. 

A tugboat backs up to the Spiegel Grove, a retired Navy ship that was sunk as an artificial reef off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Friday. The ship sank ahead of schedule, forcing workers to abandon ship. It landed at an unexpected angle, sticking out of the water.
 

May 14: History, photos, & Key Largo arrival 
May 17: Breaking news & photos of the sinking
May 18: More stories & sinking sequence photos
May 19: Early plans to right her are forming
May 20: Underwater photos & interactive graphic
May 21: Exclusive eyewitness story
May 22: Crew heads south to begin work
May 23: The Lana Rose is on the scene
May 24: Efforts delayed due to weather
May 25: Project Chairman resigns, then talks
May 26: Spiegel Grove is not the first...
May 27: Salvor reveals righting plans
May 31:  Rolling date set.  Graphics & map
June 1:   Volunteers help salvor
June 2:   Work nearing completion
June 4:  A Friday flip?
June 5:  Use your mouse to right the ship!
June 6:  Sinking moved to Monday
June 7:  Attaching the lift bags
June 8:  Weather changes plans
June 9:  Tugboats arrive for final preparation
June 10: She's on the roll...and goes down
June 11:  Salvors are done...she's on her 
               starboard side...and she is 
               WORLD FAMOUS!
Click here to learn how YOU can help!

Look for an in-depth article about the Spiegel Grove, coming soon to your website!

It is our intent, and sincere hope, that the publicity surrounding the premature sinking will give her even more publicity, and bring even more divers to Key Largo, to enjoy this marvelous reef, the result of many years of hard work by dedicated volunteers.

Much of the information here is copyrighted by other news agencies, as noted.  This information is presented for the convenience of the members of South Florida Divers, by their newsletter editor, in order to bring all of the news to one central location.  DO NOT use these images or stories for newsletters, web pages, or any other publications.  Thank you.