USS Mindanao
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About this site
USS Mindanao is a wreck about 11 miles out of Ponce Inlet, Florida. The ship is 446 feet (136 m) long and rests in 80 feet (24 m) of water, with her main deck 60 feet (18 m) below the surface and lying roughly north to south.
She was converted from the Liberty ship Elbert Hubbard while under construction at Baltimore, Maryland, and commissioned in November 1943. An explosion on the nearby ammunition ship USS Mount Hood damaged her badly, and 180 of her crew were killed or injured. She stayed in mothballs until she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1962.
The superstructure was removed before she was sunk. Winter storms in 1995 damaged the wreck, and the bow is now separated from the hull. Schools of baitfish, tomato grunts and mangrove snapper are often in her open holds, and small clumps of ivory bush coral, encrusting sponges and tunicates grow on the steel hull.
Marine life here
Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.
Loggerhead Sea TurtleCaretta carettaReported here · unconfirmed
Sand Tiger SharkCarcharias taurusReported here · unconfirmed
Northern Star CoralAstrangia poculataReported here · unconfirmed
SnapperSnapperReported here · unconfirmed
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