USS Radford on her way to becoming an artificial reef

Just last August, the USS Arthur W. Radford, a Fletcher-class destroyer which served in the Gulf War, was sunk as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape May, NJ. The 563-foot destroyer was the longest vessel ever sunk as an artificial reef on the Atlantic coast.

Recently local divers were shocked to find that Hurricane Irene apparently broke the sunken ship in two and carried the larger section over 200 feet from its original location.  Some are speculating that the hurricane damage may make the ship more interesting to sport divers.  Thanks to Dave Shirlaw of the Marine History List for pointing out the story.  And thanks to Reno Pankau Verstaendig for pointing out that I initially had the wrong destroyer!

Irene ripped USS Radford, sunk for a reef off Cape May