The USS Ohio Shipwreck New York and New Jersey's (Wreck Valley)

The USS Ohio Shipwreck New York and New Jersey's (Wreck Valley)

Historical and current New York and New Jersey Shipwreck Information and images for scuba divers and fisherman.

Capt. Dan Berg's Wreck Valley Collection

U.S.S. OHIO

DIRECTIONS: (Greenport, Suffolk County)
Take the Long Island Expressway to Exit 73 East, Old Country Road. Take this all the way into the town of Greenport. Old Country Road will have changed into Route 25. Turn right onto 4th Street, and then left onto Clark Street. Take this to the end and park.

CONDITIONS:
The U.S.S. Ohio was built in 1817, and was launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard on May 20,1820. She was 208 feet long, had a 53foot beam and was classified as a 74-gun ship. The Ohio sat in moth balls for eighteen years and was not commissioned until October 11, 1838. The Ohio became Commodore Isaac Hull's flagship. She patrolled the Mediterranean for two years. In 1847, when the war with Mexico broke out the Ohio landed marines in Vera Cruz. After the war ended, the Ohio sailed to the west coast and provided protection to the newly acquired California territory. On September 27,1883, after 63 years of faithful duty the Ohio was sold to Israel L. Snow of Rockland, Maine. Later, the Ohio was sold for scrap, which is how she ended up in Greenport. In April of 1884, after being almost completely stripped, the Ohio broke from her mooring during a storm and stranded at Fanning Point. The Ohio was then burned to the water line in order to reduce the wreckage from protruding through the ocean's surface.

It

was not until1973, that local divers re-discovered the Ohio's remains. The divers who found the site belonged to a branch of the British Sub Aqua Club. They wanted to keep the site secret and off limits to other divers as they planned to raise her artifacts and donate them to a marine museum. Shortly after locating the wreck it was learned that Mobil Oil Company of Greenport was planning to install groups of pilings, called dolphins, for their oil barges. These dolphins (poles) were to be installed directly through the wreck site. The Sub Aqua Club protested and in doing so gave away the wreck's general location.

Captain Steve Bielenda started his own search for the wreck. After finding the Ohio's remains and returning to shore, Bielenda was confronted by local police. The police and Village Board wanted to keep the site off limits to all but Sub Aqua divers. Bielenda latter contested in court and won the right for recreational sport divers to dive the Ohio by showing that the wreck site was outside of Greenport municipal boundaries and therefore not under the jurisdiction of the board.

Today, the remains of the Ohio are mostly broken and buried. The small amount of wood that remains above the sand is full of wormholes and almost soft to the touch.

Finding the remains of the U.S.S. Ohio can be a little tricky. From Clark Street, walk along the water's edge around the bend. There will be the remains of an old iron bulkhead. Look on the water side of this bulkhead for a pipe and some short poles. They are located directly in front of the gate in the chain link fence. Use this as a starting point. I usually swim straight out from this point until I reach a depth of 20 to 25 feet, and then I swim west, staying in this depth range until I find the wreck. If that doesn't work, I have drawn a triangulation map of the shoreline view from directly above the Ohio. Unfortunately, the old factory, part of my original bearings, has been torn down and replaced by condominiums. Once underwater, identifying the wreck site is most easily done by finding the remaining submerged dolphins, which were imbedded through the wreck by Mobil Oil Company. Divers can still find brass spikes from the wreck, but they are getting fewer and further between.

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