The Vamar
I hope everybody had a safe weekend. I know there probably not much spearfishing or fishing for that matter because of the heavy rain on Saturday and the very strong winds on Sunday. My new scuba class doesn’t begin until May 6th and 7th. The open water dives won’t occur until May 20th and 21st. So I’m going to carry on with the “Florida Panhandle Ship Wreck Trail.” These are some great historical wrecks that are unique to northwest Florida.
I’m going to tell you about a shipwreck that I personally have never dived before; it’s called the “Vamar.” So let’s get started.
The Vamar was built in 1919-1920 as a gun boat for the royal navy and named the HMS Kilmarnock. From 1920-1923 as the S.S. Kilmarnock. Then in 1926 it was registered Canadian. In 1928 it was sold to a private firm and renamed the Chelsea. Here is an interesting historical fact that in 1930 it was acquired by Rear-Admiral Richard Byrd for his journey to Antarctica where he renamed the ship Eleanor Bolling to honor his mother, Eleanor Bolling Byrd. Due to the rough seas the crew named her Evermore Rolling.
In 1933 the Vamar shipping company bought her and renamed her Vamar; then in 1941 the ship was sold to Bolivar-Atlantic Navigation Company, registered in Panama.
On March 21, 1942 after leaving Port St. Joe carrying a load of lumber to Cuba, Vamar ran aground, capsized and sank in 25 feet of water off of Mexico Beach. There where rumors that the ship was sabotaged, but after an investigation that was never proven to be the case.
I got my information about the Vamar from Wikipedia.
I personally have never heard of the Vamar until I started looking in detail on the Panhandle Wreck Trail Website. There are quite a few historical wrecks that you can dive in the Panhandle area.
I need to remind boaters that have fishermen onboard that if you are fishing on any of these historical classified wrecks and a dive boat comes with divers that you have to pull your anchor and move, this is a state law.
Here is some information you might want to know if you choose to dive the Vamar:
She was sunken March 21, 1942; she sits at a depth of 25 feet.
She is 170 feet long; her beam is 30 feet wide.
Her coordinates are 29 degrees 53.941’ north and 085 degrees 27.806’ west.
She seems like an interesting dive but I would imagine being in such shallow water that the visibility would be questionable during most of the dive season.
During the drier part of the summer I bet the visibility would probably be pretty good.
If you go to the Panhandle ship wreck site it has video of the wreck being dived.
Until next week keep making bubbles.
Russell Miller NAUI #59999
IANTD side mount OW #224715