Lost 1968 - Sunken floating dry dock (with the yacht Ramona scuttled at the site)
Little has been published about this site, so some details are uncertain. If you can add to its story, please email info@shipwrecks.bm.
For about a century the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island relied on floating dry docks to lift warships out of the water. The first, the famous iron dock 'Bermuda', arrived in 1869 and was replaced in 1902 by a larger dock (later AFD 1); several wartime and post-war Admiralty floating docks followed, including AFD 48, which worked at the North Basin from 1946 and was sunk to the west of Dockyard in August 1972. The old 'Bermuda' dock itself was towed to Spanish Point in 1908 to be broken up and its remains still lie in Stovell Bay.
Divers know a sunken dry dock lying in about 60 ft of water just off Dockyard, an area where unwanted equipment has been dumped for centuries. The hull of the Canadian schooner-yacht Ramona, wrecked on the northern reefs on 2 December 1967 with the loss of several crew, was salvaged, stripped and later sunk at a site off the north side of Dockyard, and dive guides describe her lying at the dry dock site.
A silty, atmospheric site in about 60 ft, covered in coral and soft sponges, with assorted debris (old vehicles, scooters, bottles) dumped over the years. Visibility can be poor and currents can pick up. Penetrating the dock structure is only for properly trained and equipped wreck divers; everyone else should stay outside and with the divemaster.