Caraquet 1864 - Bermuda Shipwrecks from Conservation Services on Vimeo.

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.

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

This film is part of the Bermuda Shipwrecks Series filmed by Adam Geiger of Sea Light Pictures through a partnership between the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute and the Bermuda Government's Department of Conservation Services.
Divers featured in the videos are Mr Teddy Tucker OBE or Philippe Max Rouja PhD (Custodian of Historic Wrecks).
Planning and diving support also provided by Greg Stone of the New England Aquarium .