We finally made it to the City of Houston this weekend and it was truly an amazing adventure. CofH, for those not in the know, was a 240-foot steamer built in 1871 to carry goods between New York and Texas. After a run of bad luck, and loaded with Christmas goods headed for Galveston, caught rough seas in a storm. A leak developed, which first extinguished the fires that powered the steam engines and then flooded the ship. On October 23, she foundered and sank, with no loss of life, in the waters off Cape Fear.
CofH is a long way out, a three hour boat ride in optimum conditions. She's not a dive for beginners, as she lays in 95 feet of water and offers little relief for navigational purposes. The picture above part of the ship's rib structure; this is most of what remains. There is a tower-like structure, extending 15 feet from the bottom, that I think is the shaft tunnel.
We dove twice on her when we visited. Visibility ran to about 40 feet and there was abundant aquatic life. Various tropical fish were in evidence, including the largest number of queen angel fish I've seen in one place so far. There were also a number of grouper around, many of which ended up in the cooler, courtesy of the spearfishers on board. We saw our first lionfish, which is an exciting experience because these guys are so beautiful and also because, well, we'd never seen one up close and personal before.
While we were swimming near the rib section pictured above, I noticed a small squarish looking piece in the sand. Knowing that artifacts are constantly being discovered as the sands shift, I zeroed in for a closer look. There I found a small piece of pottery with a blue design on it, possibly part of a china plate. It's not much, but it's the first thing I've brought back that was interesting. There were other pieces in the same vicinity and I picked up a few of those as well.
The second dive was much like the first. We managed to stay down longer than we might have because a) we were diving Nitrox, so the computer gave us more bottom time; and b) I wasn't sucking air down faster than my wife and our new friend/ dive buddy who snagged a ride with us. I credit this to the Taiji and Qigong classes and their emphasis on breathing. The current gave us a bit of a workout, but was manageable.
The nicest part was that we finally got to see this amazing wreck. We've been trying to get out there since we learned about her five months ago and we kept getting blown out or having schedule conflicts. It was worth the effort, but it always is anyway.
Recommended Reading
Farb, Roderick M., Shipwrecks: Diving the Graveyard of the Atlantic - This is the number one source for historical information on key wrecks of North Carolina. It's a little old, so info on the condition of the wrecks is best obtained from local dive operations, but you can learn a lot from this book. Also check out this site for North Carolina wreck diving info.
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