Story and photos by Lance Bark

One of the great things about living in South Florida is its proximity to so many diving attractions. Drive an hour and a half south from Fort Lauderdale and you are in Key Largo. Drive five hours north from Miami and you have great diving in the springs and caves of north-central Florida. Drive two hours to the west coast and you have great shell and fossil collecting in Naples and Fort Myers.

This time I wanted to dive off our neighbor to the south, Key Largo, the uppermost island in the Florida Keys chain. After a short jaunt on the turnpike, I arrived in Florida City, a miniaturized, southern version of Las Vegas but with a twist: dive shops instead of casinos, plus plenty of gas stations and fast food restaurants. I connected to US 1 to continue south, one lane in each direction. Now was the time to get into that Keys frame of mind: laidback, no rushing, no worries. I popped in some Jimmy Buffet to set my mind right.

Soon the scenery changed to beautiful lush mangrove swamps and endless waterways that led to who knows where? Egrets, herons and ospreys abounded and I could see them stalking their prey on the banks.

Before long I was in Key Largo, which is famous for a Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movie of the same name, and is home of the African Queen, a boat that co-starred with Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in a different film. Key Largo has many attractions for varied interests, but today I had only one goal: to dive The USS Spiegel Grove.

The weather was great, sunny and no wind. Force-E Dive Center had chartered the whole boat from Captain Slate’s Atlantis Dive Center. Today there was an added treat: a double dive on the Spiegel. We excited divers, ready to explore a virtual underwater city, broke a major sweat as we loaded the boat in the hot morning sun. There was lots of chatter about who was going where since we all had various objectives. I was in a team of three instructors and we wanted to explore the bow and superstructure on the first dive.

The sound of the engines slowing down told us we were approaching the mooring balls, which looked like oversized Ping-Pong balls floating on this glassy calm sea. The captain gave us a briefing and before I knew it I was shuffling off the stern and into the pool of blue.

I descended with the dive team right behind me; I didn’t dare slow down for fear of being run over by my eager dive buddies! We enjoyed no current, which is rare, and great visibility.

After landing on the deck of the superstructure we did an equipment check then proceeded to the wheelhouse where schools of barracuda and amberjacks greeted us. It was still hard for me to comprehend that the Spiegel Grove was sitting perfectly upright. She had lain on her starboard side for a few years, then in April 2004 Hurricane Dennis decided to put her upright.

A little background of The USS Spiegel Grove: She is the largest artificial reef on the United States’ east coast. She was built in 1954 and was named after the estate of Rutherford B. Hayes, our 19th president. She is 510 feet long and was designed to transport troops and military supplies. She had a very active career in training exercises all over the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Europe. She was decommissioned in 1989 and in 1997 the process of turning her into a dive attraction began; it was finalized in May 2002 and she now rests in 134 feet of water in Dixie Shoals off Key Largo.

The Spiegel Grove was known as a tough ship always at the ready, and she proved to be a fighter to the last: Due to uneven flooding, she rolled over and after capsizing finally lay down on her starboard side. It was hoped she would land upright but, as we would all come to find out, this way was just fine. I have made over a dozen dives on the Spiegel Grove and am always impressed with the sight of her massive propellers and rudders.

Now her decks are covered with soft corals, sponges and millions of tiny snails. As we swam about the wheelhouse, there was plenty of light due to the many openings put in before she went down; the beginner diver can get a taste of mild penetration and be perfectly safe. As we swam through the bridge, we passed over the control panels and various instruments that were still intact. Large schools of baitfish darted in and out as they played tag and hide-n-go seek.

Going down one of the main hallways, we ran into a goliath grouper taking a nap in one of the cabins. We exited a side opening to see a school of yellowtail snapper cruising by.

On the main deck we headed toward the bow to check out the huge links from the anchor chain, which was home to many arrowhead crabs and damselfish who fiercely protected their homes. I looked over the side railing and peeked at the bottom, which was at 134 feet. The white sand extended forever, disappearing into the blue fog. This wreck is so big that it will take many dives to get a feel of the layout.

Eventually my gauges told me it was time to start my slow ascent to the surface, land of gravity. We were joined by schools of blue runner fish and a lone barracuda.

Once onboard, we enjoyed a great lunch and waited for our surface interval to pass: Our second dive was to be on another location on the Spiegel Grove, which I considered dessert following the meal. (Yes mom, I waited an hour.)