Pedernales Wreck

A Lake Maracaibo crude tanker torpedoed by a German submarine on the morning of 16 February 1942, in the same Operation Neuland strike that targeted the Aruba refinery. The bow and stern survived intact, were severed and welded together, towed to the United States, and put back to service as a smaller vessel; only the bombed midsection was abandoned where she ran aground off Palm Beach in 7 to 10 m of water. Twisted plate, exposed boiler housings, and pipe runs sit on a sand and rubble bottom. French grunts, sergeant majors, great barracuda, stoplight parrotfish, and the occasional green moray colonise the steel. Shallow depth and a short boat ride from Palm Beach hotels make it one of the most accessible WWII wreck dives in the Caribbean.