USS Kittiwake Shipwreck

The USS Kittiwake is one of the best-known wreck dives in the Caribbean. Its located at Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman. It is a popular site among scuba divers as well as snorkelers and divers.

USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) was a United States Navy Chanticleer-class submarine rescue vessel in commission from 1946 to 1994. The 251-foot, 2,200-ton ship was launched on July 10, 1945, and was decommissioned September 30, 1994. During its 49 years of service the ship was deployed throughout the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The Kittiwake also set a world record for the deepest submarine-rescue exercise, taking an officer and four others to a depth of 705 feet on September 13, 1959.

Kittiwake was decommissioned on 30 September 1994 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the same day. Her title was transferred in November 2008 for an undisclosed amount to the government of the Cayman Islands for the purpose of using Kittiwake to form a new artificial reef. Originally intended to be sunk in June 2009, she was finally sunk off Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman, on 5 January 2011.