Hey all. Its been a long time since I’ve posted on this board, nice to see its still alive and kicking. About my question…
I’ve got two coworkers who used to live in Cocoa Beach Florida and according to them there is a very large ship or shipwreck off the coast that can be seen from the beach. However, no one knows what this boat used to be.
This boat becomes even more mysterious when I find out that you can’t drive a boat out to it or swim out there because the coast guard will stop you, as both coworkers attest to. Even weirder is the fact that when I try to use Global Explorer satilite pictues to zoom in on that area of the ocean to see this boat, it won’t zoom in very close. However if I move over to the beach, I can zoom much closer than I can over this area.
I’ve called Cocoa Beach police department and asked them what this boat was. They claim it is a cruising casino. However this boat in question never moves, thus making the casino theory a littley shakey. Also all “Sun Cruise Casino” websites (the operators of this cruise according to the PD) says they’re on the gulf side of Florida, not the Atlantic side where Cocoa beach is.
I’ve also called the Coast Guard station that suppossedly patrols these waters and they either say another station patrols these waters or they don’t know what I’m talking about.
So my goal, my request of the teeming millions is this: What is this boat and can I have a picture please.
eh… Sun Cruz Casino is on the Atlantic side. I’ve been on the one out of Ponce Inlet. As to this mystery ship, I used to surf the waters of Cocoa Beach as a teenager andI never saw it.
Global Explorer would be wasting effort to provide closeups of “empty” sections, land or sea. I see the terraserver site is down now, possibly for security reasons. Can you give a more specific loacation for this item? Distance from shore, straight out from a given landmark?
DAYUIZ I also have spent much time at Cocoa Beach, fishing, swimming etc., and I have never seen anything like that nor has any of my friends brought it to my attention. Although you have piqued my interest and I will see if I can gather any information.
Maybe they got it mixed up with Vero Beach? There’s a wreck there that is visible from shore. It’s about 70 miles south of Cocoa Beach. The east coast of Florida has many many shipwrecks, this is a good page to check out.
Just how long ago did these folks live in Cocoa Beach?
Here is a photo of a British steamer torpedoed 3 miles off Cocoa Beach in 1943! It is quite possible that it lasted into the 1950s or 1960s until someone got up some cash to scrap it. Until that time, it would make sense that the Coast Guard would have kept people off of it (although there is a runabout tied up to it in the photo).
If you’re really interested in discovering what is (or is not) there, go to the Federal Building and order a navigational chart of the waters off of Cocoa Beach. If the things is still there, they have to indicate its position to keep ships from running into it. (Of course, it it has been towed away, you’ll have spent a fair chunk of change to find nothing.)
You might also contact the Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge museum, where they have a map of all the (known) U-boat sinkings on the Florida coast.
It is also mentioned in reports of the sinking of the Laertes, that its funnel could still be seen above the water. However, the Laertes sank almost 15 miles off the coast and the funnel would not have been visible from the beach at that distance.
tomndebb you have answered my question. In the first link you posted, the British boat on the bottom of the page is the one I was looking for.
My coworker is initially got me interested in this says the last time he saw it was the mid 70’s. So I don’t know what the status of it is now or even if its still there.
Thanks again guys, you have come to my rescue yet again.