C-53 Felipe Xicotencatl

The 56-metre Admirable-class minesweeper USS Scuffle (AM-298), launched in 1943 and transferred to the Mexican Navy in 1962 as the General Felipe Xicoténcatl, was scuttled upright on a sand bottom off Chankanaab on Cozumel's leeward coast in 1999 — the island's only wreck dive. The hull rests in about 24 m with the deck and superstructure reaching up to roughly 10 m. Doorways and hatches were cut open before sinking, so divers with wreck training can pass through the wheelhouse, engine room and companionways while others circle the rails outside. Hurricane Wilma shifted and cracked the structure in 2005. Sponges and corals now coat the railings, and splendid toadfish (endemic to Cozumel), green morays, great barracuda, nurse sharks and schooling grunts shelter in and around the hull.