Diosa del Mar

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Diosa del Mar
Diosa del Mar

The Diosa del Mar (Spanish: Goddess of the Sea) was a wooden schooner that sank off of the coast of Catalina Island at 2:25pm on July 30, 1990.

The two masted wooden schooner was designed by A. Cary Smith and built in 1898 by the firm of A.C. Brown and Sons of Tottenville, NY. It was originally christened Uncas after the famous chief of the Mohegan tribe. Through various owners, the name was subsequently changed to Wal Gar, Bonnie Doone, and finally Diosa del Mar. In Lloyd's Register of American Yachts it appears as Bonnie Doone until finally disappearing from the registry in 1959 under the ownership of a Dr. Irving E. Laby in Los Angeles, California.

The yacht's demise came about near the end of the 10th annual Firemen's Race off the coast of southern California. A small powerboat failed to spot the racing Diosa. The powerboat hove out of the Isthmus of Catalina, cutting in front of the doomed ship. Rather than risk injury or death to the driver and passengers on the smaller craft, Diosa's captain steered hard to starboard crashing his ship against Ship Rock. The wreckage of the schooner was a favorite of divers for many years before finally breaking up beneath the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The yacht was originally built as a staysail craft for the children of the wealthy Vanderbilt clan. As originally built she weighed 30 tons, was 66 feet 6 inches long, had a total sail area of 3,321 square feet, and a draft of 6 feet and 7 inches. The Diosa was perfectly capable of deep ocean travel. Following the installation in 1916 of a Sterling gas engine, the vessel's capabilities were quite advanced. By 1925 she sported a full keel (modified from her original keel with auxiliary centerboard) and a GM Diesel engine.

According to Lloyd's, the Diosa was burned and rebuilt in 1927. By 1951 she had been refitted with a 6 cylinder Chrysler engine and was operating out of Balboa, California.

In 1979 she won the Serena Cup as the fastest schooner in the Newport to Ensenada Race. Subsequently, she sailed from Los Angeles to Hilo where she operated as a charter until 1982. After returning to Los Angeles, she placed second place in the Newport to Ensenada race of 1983. For most of the rest of her life she operated as a charter out of Long Beach, California.

[edit] Spot Where the Diosa del Mar Sank (Ship Rock)

The salvage of the keel was done by Don and Ed Huseman. We started the salvage of the 40,000 pound keel for the scrap lead value. At first I thought it would be about 100,000 lbs but after checking out the keel and making the calulations it turned out to be about 40,000. I first found out about the boat sinking at my yacht club. One of our crew member could talk in a fake arab accent and said to the women in the yacht club bar, Scrub down your women and send them to my tent. Every body thought it was funny excep a freind of mine sitting at the end of the bar. i went over to him and asked him what was wrong. He said that his old boat the DEosa Del Mar had just sunk. At that moment I thought to my self the keel would weigh about 100,000 pounds and I could make a fast $25000 for the salvage of the keel. If God was a kind God he would have struck me down with lightning right then and there. But he is a vengfull God and let me do the salvage. It took me three tries but we got the keel up. We had a guy, Gordon Frapie , or however you spell it toe the 30 ft long by 8ft dia gas tank over to the Wreck site next to ships rock near the Istmus. After extensive preparations we floated the tank over the keel and connected the big turn buckels to the bronze bolts sticking out of the top of the keel. We did this at low tide about 12:oo We then waited for high tide to float the keel and the tank of the bottom of the ocean. It was about 12 ft deep. When the tide came in the surge was very stong and the 40,000 lb keel and tank swayed back and forth. I had a very big cresent wrench with me and I would tighten the nuts from one end of the keel to the other, but the nuts, that were connected the chain that went around the big tank, would back of and I could not tighten them enough. The only excuse that I have for not bashing the threads on the keel bolts and stopping the nuts form backing of is that I am a keel maker and prtection of the bolts is the first thing we do. Well then bronze nuts don't like to bend and the 1.25" keel studs broke of and the tank floated to the surface and we lost the keel for this time. The last time I got the keel. We used the same tank and this time we didn't use the tide. My brother Ed Huseman figured out if we flood the tank over the keel and then blow out the water the keel and tank would float up. Well you are woundering how to blow the tank. Our Salvage boat was a Shock 34 sail boat. My Brother figured out that if you hook up ten air tanks, 72 cubic ft and hook a garden hose to the tank valve you would blow the water out the bottom of the tank. Well it worked very well. It blew the water out of a 30ft x 8 ft dia tank in about 30 minutes. The keel and the tank floated up about 4 ft of the bottom. Unfortunatley there were rocks about 5 ft high. We tried to pull the tank and keel out one way but the toe boat, a 39 ft sail boat,run by Dan Cohen, was to far away for us to yell that far and so when he broke the small toe rope We could not stop him form going back to the end of the rope and tieing the ends to geather. At that point I gave up. I had been in the water for over 9 hours. But a great guy Seve Stiener was my diving partner said we can move the keel and we were able to push the tank with just flipper power. Well Daniel started towing the tank out and I said to Steve," holdon I think it is going to hit more rocks." Well it didn't and were at first went through sea weed and then the water got dark as soon as we hit deep water. We got the keel home. Don Huseman



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