Date (Sort Of) Set to Sink Key West Ship

Project organizers say they have set the date [actually a range of dates] to scuttle a retired missile-tracking ship that will be converted into an artificial reef off Key West. Key West City Manager Jim Scholl says the sinking of the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg will be between May 26 and June 1.

The Vandenberg arrived in Key West on April 22. The ship is to be scuttled about seven miles south of Key West in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

On the surface, it sounds like a simple plan.

Each of 42 charges totaling 179 pounds of explosive material will create 3 million pounds of pressure per square inch, tearing 42 holes in the hull of the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg below the water line.

That’s the science, but bringing the old ship down will require as much art as engineering savvy. Getting the ship and the 6 million pounds of iron and concrete ballast inside it to settle properly on the sandy floor — seven miles southeast of Key West and half a mile from the nearest reef — required years of model-making, planning and input from explosive experts, engineers and scientists, said project founder Joe Weatherby.

Permits from 18 different agencies define the location, surveyed during more than 130 dives, according to Sheri Lohr of Artificial Reefs of the Keys.

Anyone who wants to get close to the 522-foot Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg when it sinks will be disappointed.

The Navy, Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and Key West Police Department will be out in force to ensure that no boaters breach a one-mile-radius perimeter around the vessel as it goes down.

Authorities, led by the FWC, will encircle the ship with their boats during the sinking, spokesman Bobby Dube said.

The boundary will be enforced when the Vandenberg arrives at its final resting place, between Sand Key and Western Sambo, south of the Hawks Channel Marker 32. Encroaching boaters will be given a warning, Dube said. Those who repeatedly cross the line could be detained and arrested, he added.