The Spiegel Grove now lies on its superstructure in 145' of water.

AP Wire ~~A Navy ship set to be scuttled with explosives Friday (May 17th 2002) sank hours before the scheduled time, turning upside down in the process.

The 510-foot Spiegel Grove settled *bow-first on the sandy bottom in 160' feet of water, leaving its upside-down rear end sticking out of the water between the Florida Keys reef and the Gulf Stream, about six miles off Key Largo.

The ship's eight-story superstructure was also on the bottom, causing the stern to angle up out of the water.

The vessel started going down Friday morning as workers who were preparing it for its underwater grave were still aboard, officials said. They were ordered to abandon ship and a tugboat carried them to safety.

The crews had been pumping the ship with water for a few days to make it sit low in the water so the actual sinking process would be easier, but it got away from them.

By midmorning the stern of the ship was under. By 10:30 a.m., it had sunk and ''turned turtle,'' said George Garrett, director of marine resources for Monroe County.

It was wasn't immediately known how the ship's position, and the explosive charges still aboard, would effect its intended use as a recreational diving attraction in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The Spiegel Grove is the largest ship ever to be intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef, Garrett said. Many larger ships have become artificial reefs on the bottoms of the world's oceans, but were sunk by accident or storms, or during wartime.

Scuba drivers were expected to flock to the sunken ship and increase an annual $33-million diving industry here by as much as 20 percent, officials said.

The 46-year-old ship is named for the Ohio home of President Rutherford B. Hayes. It was decommissioned in 1989 and sat in a Navy shipyard in Virginia for almost eight years. The Navy used the ship to haul tanks, artillery and Marines during various Cold War missions from 1955 to 1989, including the 1983 Grenada invasion. The ship could hold as many as 350 sailors and 300 marines.

In 1994, the ship caught the attention of Key Largo tourism officials and diving enthusiasts, who wanted to sink it off the Keys to create an artificial reef.

The ship had to pass various state and federal environmental inspections before the town could get permission to sink the Spiegel Grove. The ship had to be thoroughly cleaned of all toxic chemicals. Hatch doors had to be welded shut. Galley decks were swept clear of debris to prevent any escaping items from polluting the ocean.

An industrial demolition company flushed the ship's fuel tanks and removed 400,000 feet of cables to comply with regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

By pumping water into the ship's stern, bow and sides equally, the engineers tried to lower the Spiegel Grove evenly.

''It's a lot like trying to lower a glass into a tank of water,'' Ray Salopek, a retired Navy captain helping to sink the ship, said Thursday. "If the glass has a little water in it, it make is easier to drop it straight down.''

Without the right balance, he had said, the Spiegel Grove might not sink evenly.

*The AP Article is incorrect ~ The Spiegel Grove was sitting bow out, upside down in 145 feet of water.  It was resting on its super structure.  It sank stern first. 

JUNE 10, 2002 UPDATE: The Spiegel Grove was lifted and re-sunk on its starboard side. No further plans are being made to re-position the vessel.

.JULY 11, 2005 UPDATE: The spiegel Grove is now upright.SiSince her sinking in 2002, the Spiegel Grove had been lying on her starboard side. Due to the waves/currents/surge from Hurricane Dennis, the Spiegel Grove now sits upright .