Friday, April 29, 2011

Snorkeling the Antilla Shipwrek

Just a short distance from where we
 anchored near Malmok Reef, was
the shipwreck of the German
freighter Antilla. The 400 foot long vessel sits in about 50 or 60 feet of water. But, visibility today was not the greatest. The water was a little choppy and every once and a while it would cloud up for a few minutes. Still, this was my first time exploring a shipwreck and I was not going to let poor visibility dampen my spirit! I wish I could have gotten closer, but try as I might, I couldn't submerge more than 10 feet underwater, I think I need weights to counteract my buoyancy.
Some pretty fish and corals attached to the hull of the ship.
More fish! 
The Antilla was built in 1939 in Germany and quickly put into service with the German navy supplying U-boats in the Caribbean. On May 10, 1940, the Dutch Navy gave a 24 hour warning to Captain Schmidt that they were going to board and take control of the Antilla. The following day, May 11, Captain Schmidt gave orders to scuttle the ship, rather than have it fall into enemy hands. Moments before the boilers exploded, he and his crew of 46 left the ship in lifeboats and were captured by the Dutch and were imprisoned for the remainder of the war.
Like I said, the visibility wasn't the best, but you can get a pretty good idea. I was told over the last decade the ship has started to deteriorate.

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