The Mercedes Wreck got famous because it ran aground an exclusive mansion.

Name Dive Site:	Mercedes Wreck or Jacob Rusch
Depth:	42-98ft (13-30m)
Accessibility:	Boat, Live-aboard
Specifications:

Just offshore Fort Lauderdale offers you a shipwreck named Mercedes Wreck or Mercedes Wreck I. She was a 198-foot long freighter originally built in Germany, 1951 under the name of Jacob Rusch. She became one of the best known wrecks of the east coast of Florida in November 1984, a Venezuelan ship at that time. At Valentines Day she lost her anchorage and ran aground the exclusive mansion of Molly Wilmot's. Even before all crew members could enter shore and understood what just had happened they got seized by Florida State police officers. A few months later she was removed, stripped and cleaned by Broward County to prepare her as an artificial reef dive site. They acquired the ship just before other artificial reef programs did and sank her with 350 pounds of TNT on March 30, 1985. Many tourists, locals and fully packed dive boats followed the event and saw the wreck vanishing into the deep after some heavy explosions and smoke. The days afterwards were very crowded with salvagers opening holds and taking anything of value. When they disappeared the wreck was quiet again and life and coral could start making the wreck its home.

Nowadays she lies fully upright with her keel in one hundred feet of water, its deck at sixty feet and the shallowest part, the top of the tower can be reached at 45 feet deep. Hurricane Andrew broke her in two amidships leaving it with twisted metal scrapings and open holds. The wreck has several openings which are safe to enter but stay out of the engine compartment as it is considered unsafe by trained divers. Currents can be strong and there have been sightings of whale sharks as the wreck must be on their migration path. Railings have been covered in fan corals en encrusted with other types of hard coral. Its hull is filled with baitfish and several reef fish swim around the wreck not veen paying attention to divers surrounding them.

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