The M/V Twin Capes, a ferry christened 43 years ago on the Delaware Bay and retired after thousands of runs between Cape Henlopen, and Cape May, NJ, was sunk Friday to become part of Delaware ’s artificial reef system.
Twin Capes will enhance fish habitat and offer opportunities for deep-sea diving, went down at 11:55 a.m. on the Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Artificial Reef – a reef so named because it lies equidistant from Lewes, Cape May, and Ocean City, Md.
The Twin Capes’ sinking was carried out by Norfolk-based marine contractor Coleen Marine, which bought the ferry from the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) last year.
Twin Capes joined the Del-Jersey-Land reef’s submerged fleet that includes the ex-destroyer USS Arthur W. Radford, which went down in 2011 as the longest ship reefed on the East Coast, and the Zuni/Tamaroa, the one-time harbor tug and Battle of Iwo Jima survivor turned US Coast Guard cutter that plied Atlantic waters for almost 50 years.
The 2,100-ton ferry was one of the original three vessels of the DRBA’s 1970s fleet.
During the 1990s the Twin Capes was retrofitted with a new superstructure and four new decks, multiple lounges, a new pilot house, and “shark-fin” smokestacks.
The features lend to the creation of enhanced fish habitat, while for dive trips, Twin Capes’ 70-foot vertical profile will attract tunas, sharks, and seasonally even barracudas.
Cost-cutting efforts and fuel efficiency issues led to the River and Bay Authority to sell the vessel. When a buyer that could reuse the ferry could not be found, the vessel was sold for salvage and reef duty.
