Charlie Brown Artificial Reef

History:
The Charles L .Brown was built back in the 50’s when workmanship was still a priority and the ships lines are a testament to those days. This is not just another tug boat or cargo ship, with teak decks, brass rails, and a hand riveted hull it is truly a thing of beauty.

During its life afloat, it was involved in laying many of the sub sea fiber optic phone cables around the world. In many cases the Charles L. Brown created the only means of direct communications with the outside world. It has been seen on a postage stamp for the Maldives for it’s involvement in the establishment of there connection to the rest of the world.

Scuttling of the C/S Charles L. Brown

By Glenn Faires of Golden Rock Divers

Imagine making a dive on one of the Caribbean’s largest ship wrecks, in clear blue water with colorful tropical fish and a 40m or 120ft long swim through. The Charlie Brown Artificial Reef is at just the right depth to have your choice of a shallow dive, deep dive, multi-level, and light or technical pen etration. Charlie Brown, the newest attraction to one of the hottest diving destinations in the region, St. Eustatius (Statia). This is a dive you have to add to your must do list.

Acquiring the ship

When I first heard about the ship, it was in an e-mail that had gone out to most of the dive shops in the Caribbean in May 2002. To be honest I was not that interested, with all the wonderful diving that we already have on Statia and with such limited resources I was doubtful that such a small island as Statia could compl ete such a large project. Fortunately, the government and some of the other parties interested saw this as great opportunity. A committee of interested parties was formed with representatives from all the dive shops, Island Government, Marine Park, and Tourism Foundation. Before I knew it we had a delegation on their way to Curacao to make the final negotiations for the ship. I believe the ships owners had a great deal of respect for the vessel and were looking for a good home for her. With the compl ete support of the private sector and the government, the ship owners could see that Statia was the place they were looking for. The ship was purchased for a token $1 dollar, and Statia had its ship August 2002.

Coming to Statia

Yes, we had our ship in good running condition on the dock in Curacao and while we all waited with great anticipation for its arrival we m et our first obstacle, how to g et it from there to here. While we all have some experience with boating, the idea of bringing a dead ship back to life over 600 miles away was daunting, not to mention sailing it here if we could g et her operational. This process was very difficult due to our non-existent budg et and distance from the ship. Every possible avenue was pursued in an effort to g et the vessel here as economically as possible. Finally, the committee made the decision to sail the ship to Statia. Without the relentless efforts of the Harbor Master we would have lost the ship before ever g etting started. He able to bring the ship back to life for one last journey, and with a voluntary crew she was on here way to Statia in April of 2003.

Cleaning

Upon her arrival to the island, there was a great deal of excitement about the ship and for what this could mean to the community. The vessel was compl ete with everything from linens to computers, kitchen equipment and three large electrical generators. As we could all see very quickly there were quite a lot of valuables to be removed from the vessel, and the next logical question was how and who. You see, the ship was on anchor 400 m eters offshore in moderate to rough sea conditions. The committee agreed that after certain governmental branches had the things they could use, the remaining articles were to be donated to local charities throughout the community. It was often difficult to d etermine who would receive what items and the committee tried to be fair to everyone involved. Some of the larger items where sold to help cover the cost of the project, and it was hoped that the generators and the 80 tons of oil on board would be of assistance in this. All the committee members pursued different avenues in trying to g et these items sold and removed from the vessel. In the end, it was not financially feasible to remove the generators, and the oil removal was to become one of the largest hurtles of all. Still, cleaning continued with the fire department and police removing the larger items, this left us with an overwhelming amount of rubbish to remove and only with the help of the Marine Park volunteers was this even possible.

Preparation

While cleaning was taking place on the upper decks there was still all of the oil to deal with down below. After much discussion and research, the only feasible option was to request that Statia Oil Terminals remove all oils from the vessel. The committee negotiated with Statia Terminals and they agreed to take on this task and requested that all oils be consolidated in one tank for extraction. Now it was my time to g et dirty, I spent the next few weeks in the belly of the ship looking for oil and g etting it moved to the right place. (This was an endeavor I hope never to take on again.) After a considerable effort and the help of a few capable men, we got the job done mid July 2003. It was a rewarding feeling to know that the oil was off and that now nothing could stop us from sinking the vessel. You see if we had not gotten the oil off before peak hurricane season we may have had to send the ship away, likely never to r etune. With cleaning going well and 90% or more of the oil out of the ship our attention turned to the final hurdle, scuttling the vessel. While this may sound easy at first it became quite concerning when we looked at other similar projects that had gone badly and we knew we could not bear to lose the vessel after all this work. After contacting several salvage companies and g etting estimates as high as $250,000 to do this job. The Charles Brown committee realized we would have to find another way. It was at this time that a good friend of mine John Nueschwander the editor of the Dutch Diving Magazine Duiken introduced me to Smit International one of the foremost salvage companies in the world based in the Rotterdam. I began communicating with Mr. Kees Van Essen one of the companies’ senior salvage masters and with some negotiating, I was able to convince him to supervise the scuttling for the cost of expenses of his visit. While I was expecting a consultant to advise us, on day one it was clear that that was not how Mr. Van Essen works. He showed up in his coveralls and work boots and went below to g et started. We began filling the ship tank by tank using the fire pumps, was I glad we hadn’t removed the generators or we would have had no way of doing this. In a few days we had the ship full of water and things were starting to g et a little dodgy on board, fortunately the cleaning process was near compl etion and we had only a small amount of fuel oil for the pumps left on board. On Thursday while filling the last cable tank there was a pipe burst in the generator room, with no way to repair it and the pumps losing ground it became clear that the generator room would flood. I contacted the terminal to request that they remove the final amount of fuel oil we had on board while we could still pump it out to them. Later that night we closed the watertight doors to the generator room knowing that tomorrow it would be flooded. The following morning we found the Charles Brown still afloat; however, she was listing heavily to one side and taking on water through the portholes. We spent the bulk of the day trying to stabilize her but to no avail. In the late afternoon we were faced with the concern of leaving her out there taking on water and possibly rolling over, which was our greatest fear. I contacted the committee for a conference call on the radio where the situation was discussed and the decision made to proceed with the scuttling while there was day light to do so. Later there would be much discussion about this decision as the committee had scheduled the scuttling in two more days. Nevertheless, as Mr. Van Essen said “this is a process and once you start, it makes its own schedule”. Without further discussion we opened the sea chests allowing water to flood in, this was the pivotal moment for Charles Brown as she would now be heading for the bottom 4:00 pm July 25 th 2003. In a final gesture, we connected the ships large air tanks to her air horns that cried out non-stop until they fell beneath the waves 5:42 pm. This was a very emotional time for all who had worked so hard and long on the ship. The impromptu party that took place after was like no other in history with dive shop owner’s, government officials and a host of volunteers embracing each other in celebratory jubilation of the overwhelming task we had just compl eted. It is possible that the best thing to come from this experience was the comradeship that developed b etween us all, and the knowledge that we can accomplish a great deal when working tog ether.

Present Day

The artificial reef now known as Charlie Brown, at over 100m or 350ft is among the top ten largest wrecks in the Caribbean and one of the most intact. The wreck now lays in 31m or 98ft, which makes it perfect for beginner divers who will be amazed by the size and interesting structure of the vessel. For the more experienced divers, Charlie Brown offers a truly special opportunity with wide-open hallways over 40m or 130ft long and pen etration dives to the cable tanks and main galley or forward to the cable reel room. The fact that C/S Charles L. Brown was not compl etely salvaged before sinking adds to the experience with all sorts of equipment, brass fixtures, and portholes around every corner. In the first couple of weeks, we noticed an almost daily increase in marine life on the wreck. First on the scene were the sea turtles, lobsters, and a friendly octopus. It has now become home to a large school of Horse-eye Jacks, Sail-fin Blennies, and it is common to find Black-jacks in the vessel due to the ample lighting provided by the portholes. One of the more unexpected phenomena was the growth of algae on all the white panted areas of the boat, which caused an explosion of nudibranchs, a shell-less snail that feeds on the algae. While coral growth has started, it will take some time before it is a visible part of the experience in approximately 8 to 10 years from now. Some visitors may ask if it is too soon to visit the wreck, however after diving there, the first question most guests have is when they can do it again!

The C/S Charles L. Brown had a long career afloat spanning more than 50 years and the artificial reef Charlie Brown will most likely have an even longer one with divers visiting it for many years to come. While I still believe that Statia diving can stand on it’s own in the world dive mark et, there is no doubt Charlie Brown is a drawing card. As we have already seen, it will lure divers to the island where they will see for themselves all that Statia has to offer. Special thanks to all the people how contributed their time and effort to this project. This was an experience that will stay with us all of forever.