Posted on Fri, May. 24, 2002 

CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT

Key Largo's heroic efforts to salvage the U.S.S. Spiegel Grove, the world's biggest and most expensive artificial reef, is weighted down by a troubling and largely overlooked fact: Much of the estimated $1.2 million that it will cost to scuttle the vessel isn't really its money alone to spend. The money belongs to the taxpayers and, to some extent, the tourists who visit the Keys.

As all of South Florida knows by now, the Navy landing-dock ship sank halfway and rolled over a few hours before she was supposed to go down last week. If she settles on the bottom in her current position, the vessel will be unusable as an artificial reef for sport diving and thus incapable of bringing an estimated $14 million a year in new business to the area.

So project leaders at the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce launched an ambitious plan to float the vessel and re-sink her. The operation will reportedly cost a minimum of $250,000, but some think that the bill could come to as much as half a million dollars.

Who's paying for it? Some of the money is being donated by private groups, such as the Ocean Reef Club and the Friends of the National Marine Sanctuary. But it's not enough to settle the whole bill. About $250,000 has already come from loans backed by area dive shops in anticipation of selling special medallions that will be required to dive one of Key Largo's artificial reefs. If they have to borrow even more money it will represent a huge gamble that could backfire if the salvage operation flops.

SINKING THE SHIP 

Maybe the most troubling part of this story is that some of the money collected through Monroe County's 4 percent bed tax -- money that comes out of your pocket every time you spend a night in a Keys hotel -- will be used to cover the Spiegel Grove's costs. The Tourist Development Council, which distributes a portion of the bed-tax proceeds, has allocated about $500,000 for the project.

Not that it's automatically an inappropriate use of these funds; it might be a good investment. But neither the visitors who paid the bed tax nor the electorate of Monroe County have been adequately represented in the decision to pay for this ship to be put down. The TDC is regarded by some in the Keys as a Byzantine and immutable bureaucracy that resists any pressure to reform -- it fought efforts to allocate more money to much-needed capital projects, for instance -- and it's gambling with other people's money in financing the Spiegel Grove project.

What if the salvage operation fails? What will they tell the divers holding worthless medallions? What about Monroe County voters? And disappointed visitors?

OPERATION MIGHT FAIL 

It is time to prepare for the possibility that the forces of nature and fate will keep the Spiegel Grove in her current position, and that she'll settle on the bottom as a hunk of useless metal. That would be a massive disappointment to the tenacious volunteers who have given their time and enthusiasm to the project. It would be a huge loss to the local diving community. And it's all but unthinkable to the planners who have spent the better part of the eight years trying to secure the necessary permits to move the ship.

If the Spiegel Grove fails in her final mission, she could take more than the dreams of the Key Largo dive community to the bottom with her. She also could expose a system of funding tourism-related projects that is often incomprehensible, where few distinctions are made between special interests and the public interest and where there is little if any accountability to voters and visitors. (Just try to explain the TDC's labyrinthine decision-making process, involving multiple committees made up of appointees, to an outsider, and you get the idea.)

No one wants the planned salvage operation to fail. It would be one of the worst things to happen to Key Largo's tourist businesses in recent memory. But it might not be such a bad thing for Keys residents if it forces a second look at the community's dysfunctional relationship with the TDC.

Christopher Elliott is a travel writer based in Key Largo. 

chris@elliott.org 

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KEY LARGO, Florida Keys -- Efforts to reorient and fully sink a retired Navy ship off Key Largo were temporarily suspended late Thursday, as strong winds kicked up seas in excess of seven feet making salvage operations untenable for divers. 

The 510-foot Spiegel Grove sank upside-down Friday, May, 17, hours before crews had planned to scuttle it to create an artificial reef. The ship is in about 130 feet of water, its bow projecting above the sea, six miles off Key Largo. 

The 100-foot-long salvage vessel Lana Rose arrived on scene at the Spiegel Grove Wednesday. Onboard are approximately 35, 10-ton-lift inflatable air bags, three high volume diesel-powered air compressors, underwater cutting and welding equipment and a half-dozen hard-helmet diving rigs. 

Work commenced Thursday morning with initial efforts focused on testing ballast tanks for air injection and hole cutting along the port side of the superstructure to attach air bags. 

But winds and sea increased Thursday afternoon, according to Joe Farrell, president of Fort Lauderdale-based Resolve Towing and Salvage. Farrell said a decision was made to delay dive operations at least through Saturday, when the weather service predicted improving conditions. 

Farrell said while the dive crew was transported to shore, he plans for the Lana Rose and a minimal crew complement to remain on scene to monitor the status of the Spiegel Grove. 

Cost to the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, whose board of directors approved the contract with Resolve, is estimated to add another $250,000 to the $1 million already expended. 

"We know we have a very valuable resource and the fact that the Spiegel Grove will be the best artificial reef in the world," said Stephen Frink, a project organizer and a board member of the Key Largo Chamber. "We're going to invest what we have to, to make this ship right." Frink added. 

Frink said several local groups, including the Ocean Reef Community Association on North Key Largo, have pledged additional financial support. He said the chamber is also counting on additional revenue from the sale of Spiegel Grove commemorative medallions. 

Because the ship is anchored on the sandy bottom and was stripped of all contaminants, it poses no environmental threat to the ocean or nearby natural coral reefs, according to Lt. Commander Dave Score, Upper Keys region manager for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary 

Wreck diving experts 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. 

The Spiegel Grove - named for the Ohio home of President Rutherford B. Hayes - was decommissioned in 1989. It was an almost eight-year project for the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce Artificial Reef Committe to acquire, cleanse and tow the ship to Key Largo. 

http://fla-keys.com/news/903.htm

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While a marine salvager is planning how to lift and turn the prematurely sunk Spiegel Grove, county officials are scrambling to figure out how to help pay for quarter-of-a-million dollar job.

That is on top of what has already been spent over the course of nearly eight years – $1.1 million.

Coming to the financial rescue of the project is the Ocean Reef Community Association, offering $100,000 to help right the ship.  Friends of the Sanctuary have offered financial support but no hard numbers yet. And the county’s Tourist Development Council will most likely be tapped as well. 

Last weekend, the county contracted with Joe Farrell, president of Resolve Towing and Salvage of Fort Lauderdale, after last Friday’s premature sinking of the ship. The plan had been to blow holes in the bottom of the ship with explosives. Between the explosives and the water flooding the ship, it was to go down evenly, resting upright on the bottom with its upper deck some 40 feet beneath the water’s surface. 

Artificial Reef Committee backers predicted the perfect dive that would attract thousands of divers and bring in millions of dollars to the local economy. But that’s not what happened. And rather than focusing on what went wrong, officials from the county and the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce want to concentrate on fixing the situation. 

During a press conference early this week, Farrell said he could not make any promises.  He said the ship was slightly askew on the bottom, but it appeared to be in pretty good shape. 

His initial thinking was to lift the ship up in the water using air pumped into the vessel, airbags and hydraulic jacks.  Then, depending on the ship’s condition, either right it or roll the vessel on its side by using a couple of tugboats. 

Farrell said he doubted he would have done things differently in sinking the ship. “I think something else went on inside the ship,” he said.

Two local bankers – Ed Lett from TIB and Bette Brown from First State Bank – attended the press conference and said they were players as was Community Bank. 

Farrell was pleased by the community support. “I thought the budget was the biggest constraint from going all the way” to righting the ship, he said. “But I feel more confident now.”

Over the weekend, a crew of divers recovered some of the welding equipment and cylinders that went down with the ship. 

Andy Newman of Newman and Associates, the public relations firm handling the communications for the project, said he’s heard of several touching incidents this week. “One welder was using a torch given to him by his grandfather – he got it back,” Newman said.

A box of T-shirts went down with the ship that were to be given to the volunteer workers after the sinking.
They have been recovered and a Key Largo woman was washing, ironing and folding them so they could still be given out.

And finally, some Navy crew members had made a bronze plaque that was feared lost.  According to Newman, someone did mount the plaque on the bridge. 

“Divers secured the bolts so nobody could steal it,” he said. “They left it in the position that it was originally attached – currently upside down. “But it will be fine when the ship is righted.” 

Newman said he didn’t expect that work to right the ship would begin until next week. 

Ann Henson covers state and Monroe County government, environment, Key Largo and is the editor of the Reporter’s website. She can be reached at 852-3216 or by e-mail at amhenson@keysreporter.com

Photo: The bow of the Spiegel Grove looms 50 feet above the ocean’s surface. (Photo: Stephen Frink)

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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!