Stories from a lifetime under the sea.
On a midwinter day , with the wind howling and temperatures frigid enough to block the sweat on their tegument , twenty - yr - older Jim Jenney and his friend went out to sea on a patched - together inflatable life history raft . They ’d found the 32 - man boat put away behind the US Navy base in Newport , Rhode Island and fit it with a makeshift transom and mounted an outboard motor . The chemical group jostle out from the northern wind ofJamestown , where Jenney was behave and resurrect , and into Narragansett Bay . They were on the hunt for the 188 - foot tugboatMount Hope , which struck a school and quickly sank during a 1968 tempest .
“ With the top on , [ the pile ] looked like a float collapsible shelter , ” Jenney recall . “ I ’m surprised nobody called the Coast Guard and say they see survivor of a shipwreck or something . ”
Jenney never reckon back — only down , at the thousand of shipwreck that litter the ocean floor .
Photo courtesy of Chris Mongeau
The men eventually find the wreck , and the inflatable watercraft became their transportation of alternative to a sort of other watery graveyards . With this raft , the group hunted for theLightburne , a steamship that run aground beyond the towering bluffs near Block Island during tempest and heavy fog in 1939 . “ We had a rattling day diving , ” says Jenney . “ Then we come back and earn we had to lug all this stuff and nonsense ( tanks and equipment ) back up a 300 - foot cliff . ”
Jenney could tell vivid stories about his scuba diving event adventures for minute , and no wonder : he ’s spent most of a lifetime under the sea . He take his start in the sport at long time eight , when his diver father belt down a respirator in his Logos ’s mouth and led him into the water system . Jenney never looked back — only down , at the thousands of wrecks that litter the ocean floor off the coast of Rhode Island .
As an adult , Jenney double up his passion for the oceanic abyss into a career in professional wreck diving . He has made and guided 100 of dives around Jamestown and its rock - strew , scenic babe , Newport , Watch Hill , Narragansett , and Block Island . In the process , he ’s become the foremost authority onRhode Island shipwrecks .
Jim Jenney’s happy place is underwater.|Photo courtesy of Jim Jenney
The severe peach of the New England slide has prove a fertile muse , convey Jenney brass - to - aspect with the skeletons of eighteenth - 100 fishing schooner and privateers , become - of - the - twentieth - century steamer , two - masted yawls , and other ghost that list , rusted and hole - ridden , along the ocean floor .
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The story behind this island is like a real Wes Anderson plot.
Before the land passed legislating awarding itself ownership of any items lost to the silt and breakers for 50 class or more , Jenney salvaged a assortment of items . Some of his favorites admit a collection of 400 nineteenth - 100 feeding bottle , found in dissimilar spots around the coast , include off the one-time ferry landing on the east side of Jamestown .
He ’s specially gallant of having raised cannon from theMinerva . The Spanish brig struck Breton Reef in 1810 , off the coast of Newport , in an area where wreck are displume to opus by brutal ocean current . “ That one was pretty special , ” Jenney says . “ We spent a lot of time trying to work under the radar , because people cognise we were calculate and would have take after . ”
All the apparitional , watery enigma Jenney collect over the year are passably rare — so much so that the underwater diver used his firsthand knowledge to save nine books about wrecks and diving event , includingIn Search of Shipwrecks . And he ’s helped compile a wreck database for theBeavertail Lighthouse Museumin Jamestown .
These look like shipwreck cliffs.|Photo courtesy of Chris Mongeau
The historic pharos composite , place on the pointer - shaped southern backsheesh of Conanicut Island , include the red - roofed custodian ’s and assistant keeper ’s houses , plus a striking , late-1800s hearty granite tower with a cast - iron top . It replaced the original 1749 light tugboat , which was damaged in the disastrous hurricane of 1938 . In addition to its fourth - purchase order Fresnel lens ( that ’s naval - speak for the enormous light that formerly sit down at the top of the lighthouse ) , the Beavertail Museum presents artifact , video , touch - concealment educational displays , and a mixed bag of descriptive signage on wreck around the state , many of which were based on Jenney ’s original research .
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Lighthouses, lobster rolls, and more ocean-sprayed cliffs than you can shake your peg leg at.
The museum also has an display devoted to the 1938 violent storm . Dubbed the “ Long Island Express , ” the hurricane come on without warning and whipped itself into a fury of 60 - mile - per - hour winds that immerse beach and coastal communities in tidal wave 30 feet high . Boats were set adrift . dwelling house and businesses were smash into toothpicks . Hundreds of people were lost .
“ Every wreck has a different report . ”
In the West Passage , a notoriously difficult and low-toned - profile billet to plunge in Narragansett Bay , the hurricane charge the top circumstances of the cast - iron Whale Rock Lighthouse from its fundament and sweep it , and its lightkeeper , out to sea . The lower base break in on itself concisely after . Today , a crumbling foundation atop a excrescence - backed sway bears witness to the calamity .
The wind and currents move in paired directions in this area , create what sailors and plunger call a confused sea . This unreliable stretch has claimed C of vessel , including the other 1800s schoonerProvidence Journaland an nameless circa-2000 barge , both of which turn turtle and sank in the bay .
These and other sick - fated ship have been enchant in Jenney’sextensive database of 3,400 wrecks , discover at the museum and online — the most comprehensive listing of maritime events in Rhode Island water from the Colonial era to today .
“ To this twenty-four hours I can not say there is any place I would rather be than subaquatic . ”
The Beavertail Lighthouse tried to save ships—and now documents all the ones it didn’t.|Shobeir Ansari/Moment/Getty Images
Some seven decades into his shipwreck - dive life history , Jenney is still motivated to uncover the history behind the haunting majesty of a sunken ship . “ Every wreck has a dissimilar level . That ’s what stimulate me hooked on maritime history , 24/7 , 365 Clarence Day a yr . It ’s been my life history ’s work . ”
Of his hometown , Jenney says , “ The best place for scuba near Jamestown , particularly if you ’re interested in wrecks , is around Beavertail . ” Because contest with fishermen here can be problematic , he also recommends heading toward Newton Rock , about a quarter mile off the coast of Jamestown . Beyond that , Jenney name the field around nearby Block Island , which has better visibility , as his dearie for Rhode Island diving .
After seven decennary spent in and around the sea , Jenney still has n’t catch his filling . “ To this day I can not say there is any place I would rather be than subaquatic , ” he says . “ Scuba diving event in Rhode Island is one of the greatest pleasance anyone could experience . ”
The coves around Jamestown have a siren-like temptation to them.|Photo by Chris Mongeau for Thrillist
