Many of the artifacts recovered on this very successful day were donated to local museums, used to decorate area dive shops or are incorporated into slide shows, TV shows and magazine articles, all aimed at increasing the public's interest in diving and shipwrecks. Today, the Diego lies upside down and relatively intact in 110 feet of water, 13.5 miles out of Fire Island Inlet. One of the nicest aspects of this wreck is that it can be enjoyed at various depths. Divers can reach her hull in approximately 65 feet of water while her stern ammo room is in 90 feet and her stern wash out reaches a maximum depth of 116 feet of water. Besides supporting a huge array of fish life, she is one of Long Island's scuba diving hot spots.
Divers can find artifacts such as bullets, portholes, cage lamps, china and brass valves.
The portholes found on this wreck are unique. What makes these portholes desirable to sport divers is the fact that the backing plates are almost impossible to unbolt while underwater. This means that while many divers have swing plates or storm covers, very few have a complete set and even fewer have a set with matching serial numbers. Two years ago, Steve Bielenda and I were diving on the Diego. I swam inside a gun turret where I caught a five pound lobster.