RMS Rhone wreck snorkel and dive

A hurricane drove the Royal Mail steamer Rhone onto Black Rock Point, Salt Island, in October 1867. She broke in two and her boilers exploded as cold seawater reached them, and only about 25 of the roughly 145 people aboard survived. The wreck lies inside a national park, the stern in about 30 feet of water and the bow in 80.

It counts among the best wreck dives in the Caribbean, and an easy one: little of the wreckage is enclosed, and the overhangs that remain are roomy and open at both ends, so no advanced penetration training is needed. The bow is still fairly intact and makes a good swim-through, and the iron hull is coated in coral and thick with fish, lobsters, eels and octopus. In the stern look for the lucky porthole, brass with its glass intact and kept shiny by divers rubbing it, and the giant wrenches still lying below 55 feet. Scenes for the film The Deep were shot here, and hundreds of people visit the site every day.