The Smoke II was sunk on the Sea Girt Artificial Reef off Sea Girt, New Jersey on August 8, 2008 and is dedicated to the memory of Ed Bogaert, a great friend and incredible person. The site will be known as the Ed Bogaert Memorial Reef. Ed woud be proud of the site. The Smoke II has some incredible history and it seems to me to embody the soul of the New York City Fire Department. These brave men and women risk their lives everyday and often it is a thankless job. Thank God that it is personally fulfilling or we wouldn’t have anyone to do this kind of work. The Smoke II is unpretentios but gave a lot of years to the New York City Fire Department. I had the pleasure to meet one of the Batallion Chiefs on Friday and he certainly made a great representation for the NYFD. My friend, Duane Clause, is a fireman and a Captain for Tow BoatUS, Budget Towing. He picked up the Smoke II in New York City and towed her to Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey where she was readied for sinking as an artificial reef. He told me of the great people who served on the Smoke II and came to see her off. Their was a lot of emotion and I certainly understand it.
I hope that all of you who served on the Smoke II and all of you who are members of the NYFD understand that the Smoke II will live on as a new home for marine plants and animals. It will become a city in itself at the ocean bottom. Before long, marine organisms will grown on all of its surfaces. Higher animal forms will move in to feed on the lower members of the food chain and the Smoke II will be an oasis in an underwater desert. The bottom terrrain off the coast of New Jersey is flat and sandy, much like a desert. The rockpiles, shipwrecks and artirficial reefs off our coast become oasises for marine inhabitants. It will benefit SCUBA divers and fishermen for years and years. The Smoke II has gone on to continue serving the people. This is not the end for the Smoke II, it is only a new beginning.
Trudy Stetter is another great friend of mine and Ed Bogeart’s life partner. Ed would be really proud of you, Trudy. You did great!!!!
Okay, now for today’s visit to the Ed Bogeart Memorial Reef. My dive buddy, Beth Dalzell, her husband, Wes, and my incredible wife, Veronica (Ronnie) and I went to the site around 10:00 this morning and we grappled in. If you are a wreck diver on a private vessel, you can understand how difficult this can be sometimes. My wife is the best at hooking things. She did an incredible job today. We caught near the stern on the starboard side and it was unbelieveable. I thought that we would have a tough job because there aren’t a lot of things to hook into on this ship.
The Smoke II settled in 71′ of water and ended up completely upright. She couldn’t have settled better if someone could have swam down and directed her to her resting place. The visibility was great. I probably would be exaggerating at 15′ but I was going to give it my best at taking photos. I used a Nikon D200 in a Subal housing with twin Ikelite DS-125 strobes on half power. I shot at an ISO of 200, a lens opening of f8, a shutter speed that varied between 1/4 of a second and 1/10th of a second. I tried to cover as many angles as I could and Beth was nice enough to model for me whenever I asked. The bottom around the Smoke II is sandy and although I only saw a few sea robins, I saw some of my favorites, Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, floating by as I photographed. The bottom temperature was 57° F.
That’s about all that I have. I shot more than 200 photos (I guess that I have already told you how much I love digital photography) and I have posted them in the Stock Photo Gallery section of my web site under Artificial Reefs – New Jersey, Ed Bogaert Memorial Reef.Â
© 2008, Herb Segars. All rights reserved.
