peter bassill · operator
$ cat diving/sites/double-wreck

Double Wreck.

An archaeological site holding the remains of two 18th-century trading ships, a short boat ride from the harbour. Little is left of the vessels beyond a scatter of coral- and sponge-encrusted ballast stones and two large anchors, set among sand patches and seagrass. It is a compact, beginner-level dive known for macro life and stingrays.

Where · St Eustatius National Marine Park, off Oranjestad Type · wreck Depth · to 18 m Logged · 35 dives, 22 Oct 2003 – 15 Sep 2004
$ man double-wreck
01 / The dive

What's down there.

POINTS OF INTEREST
  • Two large historic anchors
  • Coral-encrusted ballast stones
  • Sand patches and seagrass beds
  • Cracks and small coral formations
MARINE LIFE
  • Southern stingrays
  • Green turtles
  • Lobsters
  • Blennies living in an old anchor
  • Cleaner shrimp
  • Seahorses
  • Frogfish
  • Flying gurnards
DEPTH & CONDITIONS

About 18 m (60 ft) maximum per Scubaqua and Golden Rock Dive Center.

Open Water level; about a two-minute boat ride from the harbour. Small site suited to slow, close exploration.

$ git log --reverse double-wreck
02 / History

How it got there.

The remains of two merchant (trading) ships that sank in the 18th century. Golden Rock Dive Center dates them to the late 1700s; Scubaqua describes them as having sunk nearly 300 years ago. Only ballast stones and two anchors remain; the wooden hulls have gone.

$ grep double-wreck diving/log | wc -l
03 / Logged here

35 dives.

From the reconstructed log — the dates follow the pattern I dived, so read them as representative rather than exact.

2004 27

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