Shipwrecked in Palm Beach Issue

Over 40 Spanish Galleons are said to be scattered accross the shallow reefs of Palm Beach. Large storms blew these ships from the Bahamas to here...the crews saw their destruction in the shallow reef about two hundred yards off the beach, and anchors were dropped in a desparate attempt to avoid the hull crushing which would come should they reach the shallows.

This was the wreck of the Mercedes. It was blown shoreward onto the Island of Palm Beach, by hurricaine force winds, in the same fashion the old wooden sailing ship met their demise. The old wooden ships were generally far less fortunate in their fate than was the Mercedes. The shallow reef would become a burial ground, occaisioanlly opening up for adventurers, after sand is dislodged by new storms. Snorkelers today can still find pieces of silver and artifacts along the shallow reef line which extends for over 20 miles.
The fury of these storms would rip the anchor from the ship, or it would drag helplessly untill the reef met the underside of the ships with a sound that would signal the deaths of hundreds of men. {If you want to know more about diving on the Spanish Galleons, click here.} While most of these deaths took place over 200 years ago, in the foundering of wooden sailing ships...the the tempest, the hurricaine and the squall continue to defeat even the largest and most sea worthy of our ships today!

There's something different about diving on shipwrecks. If you travel around the world, there are a few wrecks in particular, that can change diving for you...they seem to evoke an imaginative process, one which has you pondering the last moments of the struggling ship, imagining the 30 foot waves, the heroic efforts, and the last plunge to the bottom.

When you get certified, you learn the academics, the logic, the skills, and you learn to block out the magic and the heart pounding fear caused by unseen terrors and monsters of the deep. And far to often, when this happens, we lose this majic, and the sense of wonder and adventure we once had as children. So for this issue, we'd like to ask you to think back to when the underwater world first became exciting for you. There's a good chance you'll remember being at a TV set or movie as a child, and watching some "action hero" penetrate the dark shape of a sunken wreck. As the lone adventurere dodged 12 foot moray eels, evaded a huge, man-eating octopus, and of course bravely warded off the advance of marauding sharks, his spirit of adventure captivated us. Watching this man, we new that we too would someday search for high adventure. We new that the ocean world was calling us, and its unseen treasures and fantastic shapes and life forms were waitng for us to make contact.
And there are some dive sites that can help reawaken this sleeping adventurer, which still lives inside us. To help you find this "sleeper", we will start with a real shipwreck---a huge freighter which was caught in a hurricaine over 20 years ago, and destroyed. So powerful was this storm, the ship first lost the ability to control its frantic rush to the Palm Beach Inlet, the only haven from this great storm, and with less than a mile more to go before protection, the ship was blown right up against the shallow shoreline reef on Singer Island. The crew huddled in terror all night long, with 20 foot breakers pummeling the great ship, and making any attempt at abandoning, obvious suicide. When morning came, the ship had managed to remain intact, and the Coast Guard was able to rescue the desparate crew. The great ship, known as the Amaryllis, would rest there in front of the Rutledge Inn, for the next six moths, untill finally being dragged into deeper water where it now lies.
Today the Amaryllis is one of Florida's most spectacular shipwrecks, not just because of its past, but because of the tremendous life that can be found on it.
Close to a marine estuary, it has a food chain surrounding it unlike anything else most divers will ever see. The Amaryllis has been down so long, it has litterally become a lush, living reef, and its shallow 60 foot depth allows even new divers to enjoy the adventure and the great beauty.

Go to Part-Two