Dive Team: Dave Miller
Date: July 13, 2011
My 53rd dive was my first deep dive. The USCG Cutter William I. Duane was launched in 1936 and intentionally sunk as an artificial reef in November 1987. The boat is 327 feet long. In WWII it helped sink German U-Boat U-77 rescueing 22 Nazi crew from the water.
Due to a strong current we held on to the mooring line and descended. Visibility was only 40 feet so I did not even see the huge ship until I was 45 feet down the line. Was advised to stay behind the superstructure and off the stern or the current would blow you away. The mooring line came down amidship behind a stack at 80 foot depth. We eventually worked our way down to a 105 foot depth which was the main deck. We swam through many semi-darked rooms but had enough light to see many large spadefish, barracuda and a goliath grouper. Only one photo survived as the camera I was using did not work at that depth.
