Search for the Wreck of the Carthaginian

July 26, 2011

I had heard stories about the general whereabouts of the wreck of the old Carthaginian, a 2 masted brig that was used as a floating museum in Lahaina. Certain dive companies run trips to the wreck but the inner explorer in me wanted to go find this on my own. So with Heidi's help, we loaded all of our dive gear, strapped down our 2 person kayak, and drove towards the west coast of Maui with high hopes of finding this sunken tall ship.
When we arrive at our planned launching spot we found ourselves surrounded by eager surfers...and larger than expected waves. We studied the launching area for a while, rocky beach only a few feet exposed, waves crashing on the beach and surfable waves crashing farther out sending white water in, and no clear channel to paddle out. Up and down the coast it was the same story, so not to be deterred, we packed our dive gear into the kayak, put on our wetsuits, and prepared to launch, hopefully in between sets of the bigger waves. It was a little sketchy at first with the heavily loaded kayak, but after getting lined up and punching through a 3 foot wave we made it out into calmer water...on our way!
The water became bluer and bluer the farther we paddled offshore. Pretty soon we were working up a sweat paddling in our wetsuits but closing in on our hopeful dive spot. I had a pretty good idea where the wreck might be but it turns out that luck was on our side. The water was so clear that as we neared the spot we could see the shadow outline of the wreck from ontop of the water. I was surprised, since the wreck sits on the ocean floor in almost 100ft of water! There was a submerged mooring ball that the dive companies must use so we attached our kayak and jumped in. Ready to have the wreck dive all to ourselves.

There is just something about wreck dives that transports you to an eerie other world. Having spent so much time working on a tall ship it was very cool to see things on the wreck that took me back to that time in my life. The Carthaginian was sunk in Dec. 2005 and the ocean has definitely taken its toll on the ship. The masts fell over only a few weeks ago.

Wreck dives tend to attract not only adventurous SCUBA divers but also a wide range of unusual marine life. One of the fish that Heidi and I had been searching for unsuccessfully was rumored to take up residency on the Carthaginian. The frogfish is one of the most well camouflaging fish in the world. Take a look at these pictures and think how easy it would be to swim right past this fish. Heidi found this frogfish on the starboard side near the bow and excitedly banged her noisemaker to get my attention. I was so excited. Even when I was taking pictures it was hard to see where the frogfish began and where it ended. Look closely for the eye with its many radial lines and for the huge downturned mouth that it uses to suck in its prey with one of the fastest reflexes of any known animal.

During our dive we had visitors...which doesn't happen to often on a dive. Especially not like this! The Atlantis submarine which runs trips out of Lahaina motored by the wreck checking it and us out. Happy, dry tourists inside flashed their cameras and Heidi and I waved swam by. It was wild to see such a clean and functioning boat right next to a dilapidated wreck, side by side on the bottom of the ocean.

As we neared our decompression time limit we slowly ascended, flying above the wreck taking it all in. We followed our mooring line back up towards our kayak. Along the way to stopped to check out a couple of small nudibranch on the line and to our delight another frog fish! This one was all black, a juvenile, or a slightly different species called a Sargassum Frog Fish. It looks like a tiny sea monster although it probably though Heidi was a sea monster in the next picture!