THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994                    TAG: 9406220462 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B1    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940622                                 LENGTH: ATLANTIC OCEAN, EIGHT MILES EAST OF OREGON INLET 

MARINES DEEP-SIX OLD BOAT TO LURE FISH

The Advance II, a rusty 185-foot World War II Navy patrol boat, began to sink.

{REST} Marines cheered. Their mission was complete.

``She's going straight down - just like we want her to,'' said Gunnery Sgt. A.L. McClain, whose nine-member ordnance-disposal squad detonated 80 pounds of plastic explosives beneath the Advance II's weather-worn decks Tuesday. ``She rocked a bit. Her stern hit bottom. Then, she sat up straight and sank into the sand.''

Over the past four centuries, hundreds of vessels have perished off the Outer Banks in what is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Most were victims of storms, pirates or wars.

Five dozen ships - including the one that went down Tuesday - have been purposefully deep-sixed as part of the state's artificial reef creation program.

``We have 38 sites along North Carolina's seaboard that have been designated as artificial reef areas since the mid-1980s,'' said Steve Murphey, artificial reef coordinator for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries in Morehead City. ``There are three sites off Dare County now. The ship which went down today will be part of the fourth. It's one of the furthest north sites we have.''

The idea, Murphey said, is to create a fake fish habitat.

Ocean floors off Carolina are mostly barren, with almost nowhere for fish to hide. By dropping ships, tires, railroad cars, pipe and other large objects offshore, fisheries experts hope to attract plants, bait fish, then larger fin fish that anglers easily will be able to find.

Grouper, black sea bass, trigger fish and even dolphin are among the species Murphey said will school around the ship.

The area where the Advance II was sunk already has a 115-foot landing craft, about a dozen box cars and pieces of the Washington Baum Bridge buried beneath the sea.

``About 130 people served on that ship during wartime,'' said Murphey, whose agency spent $30,000 to sink the ship. ``Now, it will be home to thousands of fish.''

Before the 78-ton patrol boat could become a metal marine reef, cleaning crews stripped it of both engines, drained the diesel fuel and washed out the oil. Environmental inspectors removed floatable objects and pronounced the boat safe for sinking. A Norfolk tug towed it from Wilmington. State Fisheries officials marked its grave with plastic buoys. Then, the Marines took over.

Carrying plastic explosives in canvas backpacks and wearing combat boots, the Marines boarded the vessel from small state boats at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday and dropped anchor about eight miles east of Oregon Inlet.

They set 80 explosive devices - about as big as king-sized candy bars - in the ship's bow and stern. They cut 4-by-2-foot holes in each end for the water to pour through. They strung a detonating cord across the deck, set a time fuse, and pulled the metal pin about an hour after they first climbed aboard.

``We've got 10 minutes to get out of here,'' McClain called as his crew scrambled off the two-story high deck onto the three waiting 25-foot boats below. ``Once this thing starts, there's nothing you can do to stop it.''

With the Marines safely aboard smaller vessels, captains quickly motored about a half-mile away. Ten minutes and 30 seconds later, the sea shook. Red smoke shot from the stern - showing the bomb squad that their device had detonated. Green smoke billowed from the bow. Both ends had ignited.

Six minutes later, the ship was a shadow in 65-foot deep water.

``Most of the material was donated for this program, which really saved us a lot of money,'' Murphey said. ``The Marines donated their time and explosives, Ampro fisheries of Weems, Va., donated the boat. Our primary expense was the tow.''

After the ship had sunk, Murphey and the Marines cruised over it. They removed the metal chair, yellow rope and other debris which had blown from the bow and were floating on small ground swells. A light sheen of oil sat on the sea's surface.

But Murphey insisted that the ship will not adversely affect the environment.

``By next year, all the paint will be gone from this ship and fish will be swimming through the cabins,'' he said. ``We'll try to dive to it later and see how it's working.''

{KEYWORDS} ARTIFICIAL REEF PATROL BOAT

by CNB