Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

For Divers: sunken warships of the new century – size matters The Biggies: Coast Guard cutter, Spar , sunk near Morehead City, North Carolina. 180ft long. 2004 HTMS Khram rocket landing ship, (Formerly the USS LSM 469,) 203 ft 2003 at Pattaya, Thailand   HTMS KUT - photo from Dive Neptune HTMS Kut landing ship (formerly named "USS EXNO" (LSM 333) 203ft sunk off the coast of Thailand at Pattaya 2006. HMNZS Wellington , New Zealand frigate. 340 ft. Sunk near the city of Wellington 2005 HMCS Nipigon , 366 ft Canadian destroyer sunk in the St Lawrence River near Rimouski 2003. HMS Scylla . British Frigate 371 ft sunk in 2004 Cornwall, UK Australian Guided Missile Destroyer City of Brisbane . 440 ft. Sunk for divers 2005 off the coast of Queensland USS Vandenberg, US Air Force missile tracker 524-ft sunk off the Florida Keys 2009 (pictured below in Key West just before she was sank - photo from Key West Tourism Assocation). Destroyer USS Arthur W Radford to be sunk n...

. . Six Dive Wreck Shorts from the January issue of Diver Magazine cutline: the liveaboard diveboat the Spree watches as the Texas Clipper is scuttled off Padre Island to create an artifical reef and a new dive site. By Stephen Weir Deeper is not always better in Florida Dive chat boards around the world have been deep in discussion lately talking/typing about how a scuttled aircraft carrier has moved deeper into the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently this summer’s Hurricane Gustav not only battered the Gulf’s north coast, it actually shifted the Oriskany, the world’s largest artificial reef. In May 2006 when the aircraft carrier was towed out into the Gulf near Pensacola, Florida, and sunk, the flight deck of the Oriskany was 135 ft (45 m) below the surface. After Hurricane Gustav rumbled through the area, the sunken ship slipped 10 ft (3.3 m) deeper into the Gulf. While it is not unusual for sunken ships to shift and settle on the bottom of the ocean, what has attracted the attention of...