Rocus Wreck Anegada SCUBA
The Rocus Wreck Anegada is 380 steel feet long, or it was at one time before it was a wreck! The Rocus Wreck was a Greek freighter that was on its way from Trinidad to Baltimore with a load of cattle bones that would be turned into fertilizer.
I prefer my idealized version, though, which is that the cow bones were going to the factory to be made into glue or buttons!
The year was 1929. As the Rocus Ship was attempting to get off the reef, another storm came, and it became impossible.
Diving the Rocus Wreck Anegada
This wreck can only be dived when it is FLAT calm out. It goes from the boilers, which are in only a few feet of water, down to about 40 feet. The wreck lies on its starboard side, with the stern being in 40 feet of water. It is much easier to SCUBA dive this location if you come at it from Virgin Gorda rather than Anegada.
Getting to it FROM Anegada takes hours longer as it is on the very bottom of Horseshoe Reef, which is closer to Virgin Gorda than Anegada.
Until 1979, the bow of the Rocus Wreck projected 12 feet out of the water and was used as a navigational marker. Hurricane Frederick took away that marker in 1979. It is best to anchor away from the wreck and then drive your tender to the site, keeping someone on top in the dinghy for support.
We have a chart mark inside Horseshoe Reef that we would anchor the large boat on and then take the tender to the wreck. However, once we became familiar with the dive site area and in perfect conditions, we could anchor the bigger yacht just before the wreck and fall directly on it from the aft deck!
There is a path through the reef to the outside, which you can see quite nicely.
Features of the Rocus Wreck
The Rocus wreck is mostly broken up, but you can still make out the boilers, which are very shallow. You can also see anchors, winches, and chains
You will see millions of cow bones scattered around, which are pretty eery.
At 40 feet, you can get a good view of the rounded stern, deck railings, davits, and superstructure. The Rocus is not a deep dive; most of it is in between 15 and 35 feet. Once dropping over the reef edge, the wreck lies on; you will find excellent fish life and 60′ of water.
The propeller was removed by divers back in the early ’70s.
Fishlife around the Rocus Wreck
The Rocus Wreck does not have the fish life some other wrecks do. However, it does have many large barracuda, ocean triggerfish, nurse sharks, and durgeon. The surrounding reef also has a lot of Elkhorn coral in various states of health.
You will be amazed at how many cow bones are around the wreck! Because of current water patterns, many of the bones have been found upon the West Side of Anegada, giving rise to the trendy Cow Wreck Beach bar that you can visit.
How do I book my SCUBA diving Yacht Charter?
SCUBA diving yacht charters are something that H2O Luxury Yachts can find you the very best boats!
Two of our principals ran Sail and SCUBA charters in the Caribbean for over 400 weeks of charter vacations. Let’s NOT do the math on how many years that is, LOL. We are SCUBA Instructors with both PADI and NAUI. The number of dives we have done is in the many thousands. Horseshoe Reef on Anegada holds some of our most cherished memories regarding SCUBA diving. We can talk about SCUBA diving and places to go all day long!
Scuba Diving On Board
