Papoose Wreck

Great dive! The Papoose is lying almost upside down with only the tip of her port deck sticking up from the sand. Not only is the wreck massive and amazing, but barracuda, sand tiger sharks, and reef sharks are constantly in the area. SS Papoose was a oil tanker built in 1921 by the Southwestern Shipbuilding in San Pedro, California as SS Silvanus. As Silvanus, the ship was under Dutch ownership in 1926 when it collided with the tanker Thomas H. Wheeler in the Mississippi River, resulting in the death of 26 seamen. The Silvanus was declared a total loss and rebuilt in Beaumont, Texas. It started operating as the Papoose for the Petroleum Navigation Company in Houston, Texas in March 1927. In March 1942, it was attacked by German U-boat U-124 off the coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina. NOTE: The shipwreck described here is actually W. E. HUTTON. SIDCO research divers proved this by archival research in early 1998 using research materials provide to us by Paul Branch, Historian, Fort Macon State Park. The original war diaries from U-124 (Mohr)state that her bridge crew watched the tanker they had just torpedoed, which had identified herself as HUTTON on 600 meter band distress freq, sink in "30-40 meters". A second tanker that was originally called "hutton" lies in 72 feet of water. In 2013, SIDCO divers located the third mast on this wreck, proving it is not "hutton", but in fact, S. S. ARIO. The only way to get to the Papoose is a 3 hour boat ride from Morehead City.