On the morning of May 9, 1868 the fishing boat Santa Monique emerged from the grey mists of the Atlantic and sighted her home port of Tomancha, a small fishing village between the cities of Bilbao and Gijon on the north coast of Spain. She was a day overdue. The rough seas of the Bay of Biscay had torn away part of her keel and the crew manned the pumps constantly to keep her afloat.

But her nets had remained intact and she had a passable catch of plaice and whiting. More important, she had caught something which was to make the ship and crew a legend along the north Spanish coast and spark off a controversy which exists to this day. For in the hold, securely tied inside a fishing net, was claimed to lie a creature which until then had only been found in legends and fables. Yet in the coming weeks at least 1,000 people testified that what Captain Tomas Cinoda had brought ashore from the Santa Monique was a living breathing merman…

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The town was destroyed almost 28 years ago.

Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have announced the discovery of an intact “ghost ship” in 2,000 feet of water nearly 20 miles off the coast of Oʻahu.

Sitting upright, its solitary mast still standing and the ship’s wheel still in place, the hulk of the former cable ship Dickenson, later the USS Kailua, was found on the seabed last year on a maritime heritage submersible mission. On the mission were the Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory’s (HURL's) Terry Kerby, and Drs. James Delgado and Hans Van Tilburg of the maritime heritage program in NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

“It is always a thrill when you are closing in on a large sonar target with the Pisces submersible and you don’t know what big piece of history is going to come looming out of the dark,” said Kerby, HURL submersible pilot. “One of our first views of the USS Kailua was the classic helms wheel on the fantail. The ship was surprisingly intact for a vessel that was sunk with a torpedo. The upper deck structures from the bow to the stern were well-preserved and showed no sign of torpedo damage.”

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What Is Solo Diving?

Solo diving refers to self-reliant scuba diving without a buddy. Solo diving was once considered a form of technical scuba diving, but is slowly becoming an acceptable practice for responsible and experienced recreational divers.

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