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

May 17, 2002, 1:32 PM EDT

KEY LARGO -- A retired Navy ship set to be scuttled with explosives to create an artificial reef sank unexpectedly ahead of schedule Friday, forcing workers to abandon ship and landing at an odd angle still sticking out of the water.

The 46-year-old Spiegel Grove started going down Friday morning as workers were making last-minute preparations for sending it to its underwater grave later in the day, officials said. A tugboat carried them 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, which had sent volunteers out to work on the project. A head count confirmed everyone was all right.

Welder Grace Sjoblom was on the ship when warnings went out that it was sinking. Several welders had to leave expensive equipment behind, she said.

``It was scary. You don't know how fast it's going to go down,'' Sjoblom said.

The 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. The site is six miles off the Florida Keys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

By 10:30 a.m., the ship had sunk and ``turned turtle,'' ending up upside down on the sea bottom, said George Garrett, director of marine resources for Monroe County.

But the 510-foot ship's superstructure was also on the bottom, causing the bow to angle up out of the water, which is about 160 feet deep. It wasn't immediately known what went wrong, said Andy Newman, spokesman for the $1 million project.

``Right now they (project engineers) are regrouping to decide what to do,'' he said. One idea was for tugboats to attach cables and try to roll the ship so it would sink on its side.

``Getting it on its side will at least help save the project as a dive,'' he said.

Added Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Anastasia Burns: ``We don't know what we're going to do next.''

Marine biologists have said the ship is the largest ever intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef.

Such reefs attract underwater wildlife and are popular with scuba divers, who already are a $33 million per year industry here.

``We have groups booked from Europe coming next weekend, and well into the Christmas season,'' said Spencer Slate, owner of the Atlantis Dive Center.

Getting the aging vessel moved to the Florida Keys had been a ``red-tape nightmare,'' Slate said Thursday, while standing in what was once the ship's mess room.

The Spiegel Grove _ named for the Ohio home of President Rutherford B. Hayes _ was decommissioned in 1989 and sat in a Navy shipyard in Virginia for almost eight years.

Slate and the local chamber of commerce first tried to buy the ship in 1994. Marine biologists said turning the ship into an artificial reef would aid the region's endangered, natural coral reefs.

But the Environmental Protection Agency said the paint, wiring and other mechanics on the ship contained fire-retardant chemicals that were hazardous to the ocean.

In all, the project of cleaning, moving and sinking the ship cost $1 million, with money coming from Monroe County, a tourism development group and the sale of commemorative dive medallions and pins.

Photo: Okie Thompson looks at a diagram of compartments that should have been flooded on the Spiegel Grove. (AP photo)

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. The retired Navy ship, set to be scuttled with explosives to create an artificial reef, sank unexpectedly ahead of schedule Friday May 17 2002, forcing workers to abandon ship and landing at an odd angle still sticking out of the water. 

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, May 17, 2002. The ship sank ahead of schedule, forcing workers to abandon ship. It landed at an unexpected angle, sticking out of the water.

The ship sits low in the water as it begins to sink.