SHIP NOTES: Source: Gentile, Gary, Shipwrecks of North Carolina: From Hatteras Inlet South, Gary Gentile Productions, 1992
Name: ESSO NASHVILLE	Type: Tanker
Date Sunk: 3/21/42	Cause: Torpedoed by U-124
Size (ft.): 445 x 64 x 34	Tonnage: 7943 tons
Propulsion: Two oil-fired steam turbines	Location

DIVING NOTES:

Diving Depths: 100-120 ft.

Current: none to slight

Visibility: 50+ feet

Summer Temperature:mid to high 70s in the summer

Points of Interest: Intact, but upside down bow with both port and starboard anchors. Lots of tropical marine life.

Fish/Animal Life: There seems to be an abundance of tropical marine life on this wreck including nudibranchs, lobster, frogfish, angelfish, etc. I should also mention that I recently saw my first open ocean shark in quite a while when I was hanging after a dive on this wreck.

Description: This is the bow half of the Esso Nashville. The stern section never sank and was towed back to port and re-fitted to another ship. The bow is intact and lying upside down with a slight list to the starboard side of the wreck. This is the highest relief on the wreck, rising some 15-20 feet above the sand. The deck area is buried in the sand, but the hull is starting to break way and fall to the side. This is most evident near the anchors where there is a deep sand washout. The wreck can be penetrated at this point to deeper than 120 feet. Aft of the bow, the bow flattens out in a series of collapsed hull plates, masts and pipes. The wreck can be easily circumnavigated in one dive. The site is similar in size and character to the bow of the Naeco.

PHOTOS: Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 by Paul M. Hudy
Remains of tanker pipes and connectors
Port, bow anchor		Starboard, bow anchor
Hawse pipe on the port anchor	Nose of the bow	Schooling fish	Detail of keel
Bollards & angelfish		Remains of forward mast