The Caraquet

The Caraquet was a British mail Iron steamship, approximately 200 feet long, sailing for the Royal Steam Packet Company in London.

Built in 1894, she sank on June 25th 1923 in fog on a rough sea after a miscalculation brought the ship to wreck on our northern barrier reef approximately 16 km to the north-west of Fort St. Catherine.

The Caraquet was extensively salvaged by Herbie Smith at the time of her sinking and then again after World War II, removing the larger portions of the non ferrous metal components of the ship; copper brass and bronze including coils conductors and propellers. 

Today the wreckage is spread out over a wide area covering almost 2 acres in 35 to 40 feet of water.   The most distinctive portions of the wreckage are her engine, four prominent boilers, (the large tin can shaped units in which steam pressure was built up to drive the engine), two large deck winches and her massive anchor, all of which are lying on top of the flattened collapsed hull and deck plates of the ship.

This wreck is a very well known dive site that is celebrated for its extensive wreckage in shallow clear water. The wreck has been heavily salvaged for her brass and bronze and continues to be battered by Bermuda’s annual winter storms. There remains little of value that could be easily removed.

The wreck was never lost and was always known as a fishing site.

This wreck is part of the Bermuda Shipwreck Certificate Program instituted by the Department of Tourism (see attached). It is also buoyed under the Bermuda Dive Sites program established by the Marine Environmental Committee of the Bermuda National Trust in association with the Ministry of the Environment and is a protected site with a 300m no fishing limitation.

The Caraquet appeared in the Bermuda Sun Unprotected Historic Wrecks List submitted by the Receiver of Wreck in October 1977.