The Spirit of Norfolk, taken out of service in the summer of 2022 after a fire broke out on board, will now have a second life. And people can now catch a glimpse of the ship, more than 100 feet underwater.
The Spirit of Norfolk saw decades full of cruising, creating memories for those who climbed aboard. After the fire, it sat vacant, until Tim Mullane of Coleen Marine Inc. purchased it and It was transformed into an artificial reef off the coast of Florida.
Coleen Marine Inc., a company that tows, salvages, and works to create artificial reefs from old ships, sought to give the Spirit of Norfolk new life.
"The number one artificial reef maker that no one's heard of," said Mullane.
Mullane calls his work the equivalent of a funeral home director.
The Spirit of Norfolk was declared a $5 million total loss following the fire, adding that the cleaning process was "no joke" to prepare it for sinking.
"The Spirit of Norfolk was a mess, it was bad. It had installations hanging out of the overhead, hanging out the walls. It was a post-fire mess, from top to bottom," said Mullane.
Once the ship was presented through a sale involving the U.S. military, it fell into the hands of Destin-Fort Walton Beach in Florida. Their Natural Resources Chief, Alex Fogg, said it was sunk in late June to create an artificial reef.
It joins a fleet of roughly 15 large vessels on the floor of the Gulf. The material is perfect, Fogg said, to create a thriving ecosystem.
"It allows organisms to attach to it, so your sponges, your barnacles, and other organisms. That provides additional habitat for smaller critters, then bigger critters, then bigger and bigger, so you end up with a fully functioning ecosystem after a couple of years," said Fogg.
The Spirit of Norfolk serves a dual purpose: a brand new habitat to form ecosystems, but it is also an underwater museum.
Fogg said each ship chosen has a story worth visiting.
Some divers, including Chris Howard, who had taken a dive to the Spirit of Norfolk with the help of the Shark Quest Dive Shop, said it was neat to see the ship underwater.
"Also, it attracts a lot of people to the destination to go diving. So it became a tourist attraction as well. Kind of win-win for everything involved, from the environment to the people," said Fogg.
For Mullane," he said, "The Spirit of Norfolk was important to the millions who cruised on it, and he's proud to give it a new home, underwater.
"The paintings and everything that's historical are a little more important. Instead of just chopping it up into little pieces, it can go into a second life like this," said Mullane.
Fogg said anyone visiting who wants to see the Spirit of Norfolk can do so. There are several dive companies in Florida that will take you there.
He said they are close to acquiring SS United States as well, which also has ties to Newport News.
Fogg said each ship they sank could support an ecosystem for more than 200 years.
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