Hawaii offers more than resorts and luaus, the islands have a rich history of shipwrecks.
A shipwreck's greatest threat remains the consequences of human activity. After a wreck, ships gradually adjust to life on the ocean floor. Hull sections and wood rots until the wreckage settles under sand, coral and silt. This natural blanket prevents the shipwreck from exposure to oxygen. The wreck, eventually, reaches stability and may remain intact for thousands of year, according to information from the National Institution of American History.
Shipwreck Beach
Walk Shipwreck Beach, about 30 minutes north of Lanai City, on the island of Lanai, and look for a ghostly ship sitting off the shore. The oil tanker, Liberty Ship, has rested on the coral along Shipwreck Beach for the past 50 years providing an ominous presence. Shipwreck Beach, also known as Kaiolohia, faces the channel of water separating Lanai from Molokai. The channel is responsible for numerous shipwrecks thanks to plenty of coral reefs, a rocky bottom and shallow depths. In 1824, the British ship Alderman Wood sunk after hitting a reef. The American ship, the London, sunk two years later with a cargo of gold and silver bullion. No one knows how much of the treasure remains on the ocean floor. The winds, harsh currents and rocky bottom prevent swimming or scuba diving. The 8 mile-stretch of Shipwreck Beach, however, offers plenty of washed up shells and other items for beachcombers.
Dunotter Castle
Find the remains of the Dunotter Castle off of Kure Atoll, a remote island at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Islands. The 120 year-old shipwreck was discovered, in 2006, 25 feet below the surface. Underwater archeologists, working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, call Dunotter Castle one of the best preserved wrecks from the 1800's due to the ship's remote location and area's heavy surf. The ship's bowsprit, capstan, ladders, windless, anchor, hawse pipe, rudder, hatch combing, and 258 feet of hull remain on the ocean bottom. The ships left from Australia for southern California with a crew of 28 men in June of 1886. A broken chronometer led the ship to the Hawaiian Islands where the Dunotter Castle hit a reef. Seven survivors from the 1886 wreck were found 1,200 miles away from the wreck, by Hawaiian natives, after 52 days at sea on a small open boat. Scuba diving at the Kure Atoll, within the National Marine Sanctuary, is prohibited.
Cleopatra's Barge
Built in 1816 for $100,000, Cleopatra's Barge was the nation's first oceangoing yacht. George Crowninshield hired shipbuilders in Salem, Massachusetts, to build the yacht, but died in 1817. Hawaiian King Kamahameha II purchased the ship, in 1820, for use as a royal yacht by bartering $80,000 worth of sandalwood. King Kamehameha renamed his yacht Ha'aheo and used the ship for many purposes including pirating. In 1824, as the yacht left Hawaii for England, the Ha'aheo wrecked in Kauai's Hanalei Bay after striking a 5 foot deep reef. Despite the king's efforts to salvage the yacht, the ship stayed put until 1844 when a piece of the hull floated to shore after a storm. Efforts to bring the yacht up in 1857 were also unsuccessful. A succession of tsunamis and storms further battered the yacht until little was left after a hurricane in 1991. The Smithsonian located and excavated the shipwreck site in 1996. Scuba diving is allowed in the area, though much of the wreck is gone.
Tags: Shipwreck Beach, Dunotter Castle, Cleopatra Barge, Hawaiian Islands, Kure Atoll