8046
Gross Tons
468
feet Length, 63 feet Beam, 32feet Deep
Owner:
Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. New York, NY (Mobil Oil Corp.)
Builder: New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey
Depth 90 feet
The month of March, 1942, had been difficult for the men of the Merchant Marine off the coast of North Carolina. There had been an almost endless parade of vessels being torpedoed, shelled, or sunk by mines. The Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (later Mobil Oil) Tanker, Dixie Arrow, became a victim of this terrible month when Kapitanleutant Flachsenberg, skipper of the German Submarine U-71, sent a volley of torpedoes her way.
The tanker was struck on the starboard
side at 0858 on the morning of March 26, 1942 by three torpedoes within one minute. The first hit just below the amidships
deckhouse destroying it, and the next two hit slightly abaft this point,
breaking the ship in two. The oil that spurted from the ship was
immediately set aflame sending billowing clouds of smoke thousands of feet into
the sky and enveloping the forepart of the ship in flames. All of the
licensed Deck Officers were lost in the initial explosion and flames. Two of the
four lifeboats were destroyed by the blast and flames another lifeboat was lost
during the attempt to launch it. Of the 33 man crew, only 22 survived by
using the remaining lifeboat and a raft, several of the men who had been trapped
on the bow section by the raging fire had to jump into the sea and swim for
their lives.
The Able Seaman on duty in the wheelhouse, Oscar Chappell, was awarded the Distinguished Merchant Marine Medal for standing by his post and bringing the ship into the wind, which kept the flames from the men trapped on the bow. By doing this, he turned the flames toward himself in the wheelhouse, thereby giving up his own life to save his fellow crewmen.
Diving the Dixie Arrow
Today, the Dixie Arrow rests in 90 feet of
water 15 miles south of the Hatteras Inlet. She sits upright on her keel
and even though the torpedo attack broke her in two, both sections lay together
and the wreck is contiguous bow to stern. The most prominent features of
the wreck are the bow and stern areas, with the amidships being a jumble of
beams and steel plates. The bow rises reasonably intact from the forward bulkhead of the number one tank to the bow stem which stands some 30 feet proud
of the sand.
The Dixie Arrow has been under the sea for 68 years and the salt water, along with countless storms, has taken their toll on the structure of the ship. When I first dived the tanker over 25 years ago, the bow was very intact with most all of the structural beams of the deck intact and all the hull plates solid. Today, the top decks have collapsed into the interior of the bow and all of the structural beams that supported the decks and connected the two hull sides have fallen. Even the pillars that support all this structure have fallen in the last few years. This has allowed the uppermost sections of the hull shell to fall away into the sand on either side of the ship. These hull plates contain a row of about a dozen or so portholes that over the years many divers have worked to retrieve - mostly without success. The bow section has continued to deteriorate and in the past several years a section of the forward most port side has peeled away and a large split is starting at the very stem. The forepeak decks have collapsed almost down to the keel. The shell (hull plating) is also beginning to show corrosion holes between the frames, webs and stringers. All of this foretells of the eventual demise of this once proud tanker. Nothing can stop the deterioration of the salt water, Hurricanes and winter storms.
Even with all of this deterioration over the last 68 years, the bow section of the Dixie Arrow is still impressive to see and looks like a shipwreck should. She still stands high from the sand, provides a lot of relief and a very large protected area inside what does remain of the hull. Swimming inside the bow is sometimes like being in a huge aquarium as there are often hundreds of fish swarming about inside the relative safety of the interior. If there is a strong current running this is an excellent place to spend your dive as you are protected from the current and surrounded by all of the fish as well.
The
stern section is every bit as interesting as the bow with the triple expansion
steam engine dominating the view here. The engine is sitting upright and
towers over the three boilers that are just forward of the engine. On
both sides of the engine are the scattered remains of the machinery spaces;
pipes, valves and fittings of all size and description. The aft deck house
lays many feet off the starboard side of the stern section and is upside down
mostly buried in the sand. The majority of the hull shell plating has
fallen away with the last few plates still attached to the ship and they clearly
define the hull which still rises 10 feet from the sand in most sections. All of this rubble
provides excellent habitat for an incredible number of sea creatures. I
have spent many dives perched on top of this giant engine watching them cruise
past - everything from the smallest tropical fish and shrimp to sharks, rays and
turtles pay a visit to the Arrow. She is know as a shipwreck that has a
large variety of sea life and usually in great number as well.
Due to her
location and the hard sand bottom surrounding the site, the
visibility is
usually good to excellent and the current most often light. However, when the Gulf Stream is pushing in close the current can be up to one
knot or more on the surface, but with the great relief offered by this wreck it
remains dive able even under conditions of higher current. Being only 15
miles from the inlet we are usually able to make the trip in all but the
worst of sea conditions. Because of these factors and especially the
abundant sea life, the Dixie Arrow
is often one of the most requested dives we do and even after having visited her
many times, she rarely disappoints us.
More
information on her demise and the diving conditions can be found at Paul
Hudy's web page about the wreck as well as in Gary
Gentile's book Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Hatteras Inlet South.
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Dive Hatteras LLC Last modified: January 13, 2011
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