Ship to Be Sunk, Reborn as Reef

For three decades, it was a proud member of the Royal Canadian Navy, stalking Soviet submarines, patrolling the high seas and showing the Maple Leaf flag in ports of call around the world.

It even survived a brush with that behemoth of the deep, the American aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.

Now the destroyer Yukon is being prepared for what might strike some old salts as an inglorious end, to be sunk off San Diego to create a haven for marine life and a playground for divers. The target date is Nov. 13, pending approval by the California Coastal Commission.

The 366-foot, 2,890-ton vessel will become the largest warship to be sunk off the U.S. West Coast in a program of the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia.

Far from mourning, organizers are arranging a festive farewell for the old ship, complete with fireworks and real-time Internet coverage. There is talk of a local microbrewery putting out a commemorative brew--to be called Yukon, naturally.

There is precedence for the hoopla. Similar sinkings off Canada have seen hundreds of pleasure craft following the sinkers and sinkee out to sea to bear watery witness.

Project booster Glenn Johnson, a home remodeler from San Diego, has written a jaunty, banjo strumming ballad, “Sink the Yukon.”

“She proudly sailed for 30 years

To defend what’s right and free.

But now she awaits a grander fate

To be sunk into the sea.

To be part of history

San Diego’s going to sink the Yukon.”

The project is the brainchild of the San Diego Oceans Foundation, which is particularly eager to boost recreational possibilities for divers. The foundation paid $245,000 for the ship, for towing it from Vancouver and for insurance.

Project Yukon Chairman Dick Long, a veteran diver and founder of Diving Unlimited International, which makes dry suits for undersea adventures, thinks divers will flock to the wreck. After a similar Canadian ship, the Saskatchewan, was sunk off Vancouver, the area saw 15,000 dives a year.

“One of the favorite places for divers to sit is in the captain’s bathtub and take pictures, or on the toilet in the ‘Thinker’ position,” Long said of the Saskatchewan. The Yukon “is going to be a very jolly experience.”

The destroyer will be about 34 feet below the surface after it is sunk in 114 feet of water 1.8 miles off the Mission Beach section of San Diego in an area known as Wreck Alley. A kelp cutter, a Coast Guard cutter, a barge and a sport fishing boat are already on the sandy bottom in the vicinity.

Sinking the Yukon so that it will come to rest upright is no easy matter. Canadian demolition experts have been hired for the task.

Holes will be cut in the hull below the water line and explosive charges will be inserted. The sequence of firing, if all goes according to plan, will cause the ship to sink bow-first and be submerged within three minutes. Once on the bottom, the ship will belong to the city of San Diego.

“If you don’t do it just right, the ship will lie over on one side and be much less interesting to divers,” said Barry Newcomb, director of Project Yukon for the San Diego Oceans Foundation.

At the same time, he said, “safety is paramount. There should be no place on the ship where divers can’t see daylight or an entry or exit point.”

Preparing the Yukon for sinking is expensive, costing several hundred thousand dollars. Project directors had hoped to interest Hollywood in filming rights, but so far have had no luck. “Baywatch” nibbled at the idea of incorporating the sinking into an episode but backed off.

The Yukon arrived in San Diego Bay in early May, accompanied by a rainbow spray of water from local fireboats. Now the ship is at the 24th Street Terminal in National City, south of San Diego, as volunteers strip it of wiring and fixtures, punch numerous holes in the hull and interior walls so that divers have escape routes, and cleanse the hulk so the ship meets environmental standards.

Artificial reefs have been around for decades, particularly off Florida and Texas, with everything from old tires to planes to Army tanks to a Boeing 737 being used. Divers are particularly intrigued by sunken vessels because the hulks quickly fill up with all manner of fish and other marine life in a million nooks and crannies.

Some environmentalists question whether such artificial venues just attract fish that would otherwise be swimming somewhere else. There seems to be some agreement, however, that more fish result if the hulk is perforated with as many holes as possible to provide “nests” for spawning, which is being done on the Yukon.

Built by Burrard Dry Dock Co. of North Vancouver, the Yukon was commissioned in May 1963 and made its first port call in San Diego two months later. The ship’s motto was “Only the Fit Shall Survive.”

Before being put into mothballs in 1993--a process the Canadians call being “paid off”--the Yukon had sailed nearly 800,000 miles and visited 30 ports.

The Yukon escorted Queen Elizabeth to Quebec, trained with the U.S. Navy on numerous occasions and sailed routinely in the Pacific and Atlantic.

During one training exercise off Washington state in 1983, the Yukon came a bit too close to the Kitty Hawk, nearly ending up on the bottom of the Pacific a decade and a half early.