China Arrow

The China Arrow was an American tanker torpedoed by a German U-boat in early 1942 during the height of the U-boat campaign along the U.S. East Coast, and she went down off the Virginia coast in the waters of the Atlantic. The wreck lies well offshore in the open Atlantic beyond the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, in the deeper water typical of that stretch of coast rather than close to shore. Wrecks of this era in the area are generally reached by dedicated offshore charter and tend to sit broken up on a sand bottom after decades of exposure. Because of the depth and distance from shore, dives on tanker wrecks like this one in this part of the Atlantic are usually considered suited to experienced divers.

Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.

• Common Bottlenose DolphinTursiops truncatusReported here · unconfirmed
• Dusky Smooth-houndMustelus canisReported here · unconfirmed
• Clearnose SkateRostroraja eglanteriaReported here · unconfirmed
• Little SkateLeucoraja erinaceusReported here · unconfirmed