World's Largest Artificial Reef 33 Miles from Destin

AT THE USS ORISKANY -- Boys became men on this aircraft carrier. Men died on it. Forty-four of them were taken when a fire raced through the ship on Oct. 26, 1966. Some of the Oriskany’s pilots didn’t come home either, having gone down during missions that originated on its flight deck. Other pilots were shot down and taken prisoner of war, including U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Some who served on the Oriskany are still listed as MIA. Some men went overboard, never to be found again.

Today, more than 50 years after it set sail, the “Mighty O,” as it was affectionately known, has gone down too. This week, the Oriskany became the world’s largest artificial reef, having slipped beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico at 10:58 a.m. on Wednesday, May 17, 2006, in 212 feet of water, some 33 miles southwest of Destin.

“Oh my God.” “Unbelievable.” “This is a perfect sinking.” “Wow. Wow.” Those were some of the reactions aboard the Destiny, a boat chartered out of Destin’s harbor on which Capt. Cliff Atwell carried about 30 men, women and children, all of them associated in some way with Resolve Marine Group out of Fort Lauderdale and with ESCO Marine out of Brownsville, Texas. Employees of those companies were responsible for preparing the carrier for scuttling by removing virtually everything that could someday contaminate the water.

On board the Destiny, the passengers watched patiently as 10 a.m., the designated moment at which explosives on the Oriskany would be detonated. They watched... and waited. Then almost as if by surprise, at 10:22, a single loud boom carried across the Gulf -- and smoke began pouring from the Oriskany. The emotions on the Destiny seemed to range from awe to respect. For several minutes, smoke continued to pour from the ship. Slowly, it began to sink. Five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.

“She’s going down really nice,” said Joe Farrell, president of Resolve Marine Group. A Coast Guard jet and a Navy helicopter circled overhead. Boats from the Coast Guard, including one from the Destin station, from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation and from the Alabama Marine Police patrolled the area, keeping private boats at least 1 mile from the Oriskany.

At 10:48 a.m., another Resolve employee said, “She’s listing. She’s listing to port. Not good.” A moment later, “C’mon baby, don’t do that.” The ship’s huge flight deck was visible to everyone watching from the east. The hope was that the ship would land upright. At about 10:56, the port side stern dropped beneath the surface of the Gulf. The old warship began sinking rapidly. Two minutes later, only the bow was jutting into the sky. Within seconds, it too was gone. Cheering and applause broke out on the Destiny. A voice on Marine Channel 16 stated, “The Oriskany is on the bottom. The Oriskany is at its resting place. The ‘O’ is gone.” Another voice on the radio: “Happy hour.” Capt. Farhat Iman, the chief operating officer at Resolve Marine, said, “That was history made right there.” A few minutes later, voices on Channel 16 said a few pieces of debris from the Oriskany were floating on the surface. No sheen was visible, various voices said -- which was interpreted by the Resolve Marine crew as good news, meaning oils and other contaminants had not come to the surface and apparently had been removed in good fashion. Capt. Atwell said later that someone on Channel 16 said rats were seen swimming in the water over the scuttled ship.

For a minute or two, the Gulf water roiled over the site where the Oriskany would spend the rest of its days. Most of the boaters who had congregated to witness history turned on their engines and headed home.

Some 62 years ago, on May 1, 1944, the keel of the Essex-class aircraft carrier was laid in the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard. On Sept. 25, 1950, the Oriskany was commissioned there and, in keeping with her heritage, was sent out “to oppose the enemy with vigor, as a true patriot, for the defense of (her) country,” according to the USS Oriskany Web site. She served with honor in the Korean War, the Vietnam War and in the Mediterranean.

In 2003, the Navy decided to use Oriskany to construct an artificial reef, and she was moved from Beaumont to Corpus Christi, Texas, for final preparation before her journey to Naval Air Station Pensacola. She left the port on Monday, bound for her final resting place. The Navy had developed an engineered sink plan to place the 32,000-ton ship upright on the Gulf floor in a north-south orientation at an existing artificial reef site, as requested by the state of Florida. On Thursday, Navy divers confirmed the Oriskany was sitting upright in the north-south orientation. The flight deck was 150 feet deep.

“The Navy and Florida team performed flawlessly to execute today’s sinking. The Navy is thrilled that ex-Oriskany will continue to serve the United States as a tourist and diving attraction off the coast of Florida,” Glen Clark, deputy program manager of the Navy’s Inactive Ships Program Office, said in a news release. “This is a fitting new beginning for this illustrious ship, and we are proud of the information she has provided us for the reefing of future Navy ships as artificial reefs.”

The Navy had worked with the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Escambia County Marine Resources Division and the local Pensacola area community since 2003 and conducted several scientific studies that demonstrated that the Oriskany would create an environmentally safe reef.

The Oriskany was the first ship to be environmentally prepared using the EPA’s “Best Management Practices for Preparing Vessels for Use as Artificial Reefs” and is also the first ship to receive a risk-based polychlorinated biphenyl disposal approval from the EPA based on the agency’s findings that the reefing would not pose an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.

A few days before the scuttling, a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team placed explosives and detonation equipment on 22 sea chest pipes and valves inside the ship, which were armed Wednesday morning. As the ship landed on the Gulf floor, its ownership transferred to the state of Florida.

Later this year, the Navy intends to offer additional ships for artificial reefs.

Published on Friday, May 26, 2006