Today was a very fun day. We went out to one of the coolest dive sites that we saw on our trip. We went to a ship wreck that was overtaken by coral. The wreck ship was called the Rhone. The shop was built in 1865 and was declared unsinkable. It was one of the first ships to be declared unsinkable. It was also one of the first ships to have a propeller. The ships primary use was to carry goods but in order to make more money the ship had carried passengers. The ship was docked near dead chest island when it had hit a storm. It was linked up to another ship. Both captains knew a storm was coming because of the barometer was rising, meaning pressure was rising. They didn’t think it was going to be a big storm because hurricane season was going to end in a few days. Well the storm continued to increase and the captains unlinked their ships and the other ship headed for Tortola. It crashed but had no fatalities. The Rhone on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. The captain thought it was suitable to wait the storm out rather than seeking shelter because he had such faith in his strong ship. The storm continued to get worse so the captain decided to make for shelter but the anchor was caught. They had to cut the anchor in order to move. This meant they couldn’t head for Tortola because there was no other way to secure the vessel. So the captain, still trusting in his ship decided to head out into open ocean. Unfortunately the wind and current was too strong and they ended up crashing up against the rocks on salt island. The ship had a steam explosion breaking it into two pieces. Only one passenger survived due to his room bring located very close to the boiler room. It was an Italian gentleman and to thus day it is tradition to rub three times clockwise on the porthole to his room. All of the crew members survived because they were all stationed outside so they could float to shore on debris. The captain unfortunately was washed up by a wave and was never seen again. The storm was a hurricane and it was the largest hurricane ever recorded in the BVI till this day. The ship sank within minutes on October 29th 1867. It was declared a marine park in 1980 and is a very popular tourist site today. After the Rhone we all headed for lunch on cooper island and then headed back to Virgin Gorda. We all got ready for mass. After mass we headed to the beach for dinner and night snorkeling. We saw an octopus, a squid, and some bioluminescent phytoplankton. The glow when there’s movement in the water. Today was the last day for diving but it was one of my favorite days.
