This Just In ...

The Vandenberg

The 523-foot-long Vandenberg is situated about seven miles south of Key West. The bottom of the ship's hull rests on sand in depths that average 150 feet. But the ship is so massive that the superstructure begins about 45 feet below the surface.

It took just a minute and 54 seconds to sink the Vandenberg after demolition experts triggered a series of explosives that lined both sides of the ship's bilge area below the waterline.

"It was a pretty cool experience," said Joe Weatherby, who organized Artificial Reefs of the Keys in 1996 and chose the Vandenberg from about 400 decommissioned military ships rusting away in "Ghost Fleets" across the country. "We waited for it a real long time.

"We think this is really going to be a home run for both our environment and our economy down here," he said. "This is good business and at the same time we're taking (recreational dive and angling) pressure off our natural coral reefs."

Weatherby said it should not take long for the Vandenberg to attract fish.

"The marine life grows on the wreck and the little fish come and the big fish eat the little fish and just like that," he said.

The ship is now the second largest vessel in the world ever purposely sunk to become an artificial reef. The sinking also complete the Florida Keys Shipwreck Trail, a series of intentionally sunk vessels that begins off Key Largo with a former Navy landing ship dock, the Spiegel Grove, and ends with the Vandenberg.

The ship first saw duty as a U.S. Army troop transport named the General Harry Taylor. It became the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg in 1963 and tracked the U.S. space program's launches off Cape Canaveral. It also served in the Pacific monitoring U.S. defense missile test launches and eavesdropped on Russian missile launches during the Cold War.

The Vandenberg was formally retired in 1983 and was transferred to the James River Naval Reserve Fleet.

The Diving: The wreck is fun and it protects the environment

"I've dove a lot of ships," said Tom Kanczuzewski of South Bend, Ind., after surfacing Saturday, May 30, the first day the ship was open for public diving. "This is the ship of all ships. I'd love to come back in a year and see all the fishes."

"We have calls coming in from as far as Germany and Norway from people planning to come just to dive this wreck," said Bob Holston, owner of Dive Key West and president of the Keys Association of Dive Operators. "We have more prebookings for the summer now than we've had in 38 years of being in business."

Keys Commissioner Mario Di Gennaro, who experienced 125-foot visibility on the wreck, agreed. "It's going to protect our reef (by taking sport diving pressure off natural coral reefs) and put heads in beds and increase our tourism, which is our main industry down here," he said. "That's the goal of this whole project, to protect our environment and also to benefit our economy."

Dive instructor Megan Collins thinks the Vandenberg's mammoth size should be appealing to scuba divers of different skill sets. "It's the possibilities for people of all levels without having to jeopardize their safety," she said. "There's so much to look at on the superstructure of the Vandenberg that no matter your temptation, you don't have to go inside."

Project initiator Joe Weatherby, who 13 years ago chose the Vandenberg from 400 ships rusting away in mothball fleets across the country, was ecstatic after his dive. "I think it's exactly what we planned it to be," said Weatherby, after assisting Di Gennaro, who smacked a champagne bottle against a ship stanchion 70 feet below to celebrate the project's completion. "It's the world's best wreck dive."

For more information visit Fla-Keys.com