Monthly Archives: October 2009

RMS Rhone was a UK Royal Mail Ship owned by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSP). She was wrecked off the coast of Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands on 29 October 1867 in a hurricane, killing 123 people. Her bow section is still relatively intact, and although the wooden decks have rotted away, she still provides an excellent swim-through for divers. Her entire iron hull is encrusted with coral and overrun by fishes (and the local barracuda named Fang), and the cracks and crevices of her wreckage provide excellent habitats for lobsters, eels, and octopi. Her wreckage was also featured in the 1977 filming of The Deep, including a scene of Jacqueline Bisset diving in a T-shirt.*

Bow

Hull ribs

Remaining linoleum flooring

Hatch featured in “The Deep” – we entered the ship through here, identical to the movie scene . . .

and exited here, where the hull was breached.

Portholes

Wrass

Propeller

Local residents of Salt Island found 8 bodies on shore after the wreck and created a small graveyard there:

*Courtesy Wikipedia

Savannah Bay

Mahoe Bay

Snorkeling Savannah Bay, Mahoe Bay, and Katitche Point

Stingray

Tarpon

There was a school of a few dozen circling the area

Bye, tarpon . . .

Barracuda

Sea cucumber (Timmy)

Brain coral

I dunno . . .

Lots o’ blue fish

Puffer fish

More barracuda

More stingrays

The mine was constructed in 1837 and its first shaft was sunk in 1838. In two separate periods over the next 24 years, 36 Cornish miners extracted copper ore from this site with the aid of some 140 British Virgin Islands workmen.

The ore was sent by road to Spanish Town (the largest settlement and harbor on Virgin Gorda) along coppermine road (originally built by the miners), and then by ship to Wales. On the return trip the ships would carry provisions, wood for construction, wages for the workers, and coal with which to power the copper mine’s steam engine.

The mine was abandoned in 1862 and was never reopened.

(History courtesy Wikipedia)

St. Thomas Bay

Little Dix Bay from the water

Evening at the Mine Shaft

Overlooking Copper Mine Bay

I dunno – some flowers on a tree?

Cacti near the Baths

The north side of Katiche Point

Heading north to Leverick Bay

Leverick Bay, on the north side of the island:

Hanging out on Tortolla on the way back: