The Brunette was a 274 ton screw propeller freighter, built in 1867 by Pusey & Jones Yards, Wilmington, Delaware. On February 1, 1870, the Brunette was enroute from New York to Philadelphia with a assorted cargo. At 10:00 PM she collided with the Santiago de Cuba. Eleven crew members survived the collision, but sadly, two souls were lost. She lies in a relatively shallow depth of 76 feet a few miles off the New Jersey coast.
When this wreck was discovered by Captain George Hoffman a few years back, divers found crates of brown and white marble door knobs, pocket knives and bottles. All that is left of her now is her propeller shaft, her steam engine and boilers. She was unofficially named the "Door Knob Wreck", until she was positively identified. She rests a close 200 feet away from the Cadet in 70 feet of water. There is an outstanding write up with photos of the brunette, and a great video by Capt. Dan Crowell, on NJScuba.net's website.
On July 25, 2007, I was able to dive this wreck with a group of divers on the Blue Fathoms dive boat out of Clarks Marina in Point Pleasant, NJ. This was to be a single tank night dive, and we left the marina at 6:15, fifteen minutes earlier than planned. The weather was perfect. All that was missing was my camera.
My usual dive buddy was not able to make this trip. I buddied up with Jeffrey McCool, an active-duty career U.S. Army vet who's seen more action than anyone his age should ever have seen during his two tours of Iraq and one of Afghanistan. Now he is "lucky" enough to be stationed at Ft. Dix training the reservists who are about to be sent over, while his wife and kid are relaxing in upstate NY by Lake Ontario. I think I'll need to pay him a visit for some lake diving!
Anyway, after a quick run out to the wreck site and a speedy tie-in, Jeff and I were the first team in. On the way down, I noticed it was dark. Not night-time dark, but murky dark. Viz. on the bottom was about ten feet. I met Jeff on the bottom by the anchor, and before I knew it, he bagged his very first lobster. This was only his second NJ wreck dive, and he caught a lobster before I could even get myself untangled from my wreck reel line that was wrapped around my fins. Congratulation! This 2-pounder was only about 20 feet from the anchor chain underneath a hull plate. I gave him my bag and in this lobster went. I ran the reel to the bow of the wreck, looking for a "mate" for the lobster in the bag, but had absolutely no luck. There were lots of black sea bass and a few fluke. I took a jab at one doormat sized fluke (flounder?), but didn't hit it well and off it went. I also jabbed a few black sea bass, but none made it into the bag. We went back towards the anchor line and it was time for Jeff to go. He was diving a single 120 while I was diving double 98's with 36% nitrox, giving me a 75 minute bottom time if needed. I met up with another buddy team and we followed the shaft to the stern and the 6' propeller. There on the bottom was another doormat sized fluke (flounder?), but I had no bag. Jeff had his lobster in the bag and I didn't want to carry it, so I had him take it up with him....big mistake. This fish must have known that I had no bag. I gently prodded him along just to see him swim....bye bye tasty treat.....there is always a next time!
After seeing the remaining divers lingering around the anchor line, I figured it was time to go up. I had another 15 minutes remaining at this depth before going into deco, but decided not to be the one to make everyone wait. I finished with a 59 minute runtime, a max. depth of 76', and comfortable 56 degrees on the bottom.
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