Going this way on one dive, I looked over to find a large conger eel swimming beside my head. The next bulkhead is just a vertical skeleton separating engine room from fuel tanks. I like this part of the wreck for its eerie atmosphere, with a solid deck overhead and light entering only through the bulkheads at either end. Powerful dive lights illuminate a pair of colourful ladders in the middle of the tanks. The aft holds are more intact and hence sheltered from the current.
Life is less prolific.
Exit is easily in reach through the large open cargo hatches, but the remaining decking is tight girderwork, with gaps too small for a diver to fit through. The girders above are home to clumps of dead men's fingers and the occasional sprig of red kelp. By this point it is usually time to head back for the bows, unless you want to build up some heavy decompression. Torpedoed in 1917 A torpedo from UC-17 hit the Maine on the port side just in front of the bridge on the morning of 23 March 1917, writes Kendall McDonald. At the time she was 13 miles south of Devon's Berry Head, bound for Philadelphia.