USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) was launched on July 10, 1945 at Savannah, Georgia. After her commissioning in July 1946, she served as a submarine rescue ship. Underwater sea trials and maneuvers took the Kittiwake up and down the US East Coast and throughout the Caribbean. The divers rested easier knowing that the divers on the Kittiwake above would rescue them should trouble arise.
The name Kittiwake comes from the gulls that live along the North American coast and look very similar to common gulls. Initially based in Balboa, Kittiwake spent many years in the Caribbean.
Divers from the Kittiwake recovered practice torpedoes during sea trials. The ship sometimes ran runs as a practice target for the submarines she served. When the battleship Missouri ran aground on tidal banks off the Virginia coast in 1950, divers from the Kittiwake arrived with salvage teams to free her.
In 1960, the Kittiwake was on hand as the George Washington submarine successfully launched the first two Polaris ballistic missiles ever launched from under the sea.
In 1961, Kittiwake sailed for the Mediterranean for several months of service before returning to her home port in Virginia. Over the course of her service, she made more voyages across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and Europe.
Cuban refugees off the coast of Key West, Florida thanked Kittiwake for bringing them safely to shore while off duty in 1963.
The kittiwake did many interesting things during its years of service. At one point, he towed a submarine from the US to Scotland. The official reason given was for a group of scientists to study tilefish. Undercover under the sea, that mission covered the switching of boxes used to monitor the activity of Soviet submarines whose location had been compromised by a spy. During the mission, a Russian spy ship appeared trying to disguise itself as a fishing boat. An attack submarine backed by a fast American frigate soon appeared. The Russian spy ship quickly left the area.
While returning to the Mediterranean in 1966, Kittiwake helped locate and rescue the German submarine Hai (S-171) which sank in a gale.
The failed search for the USS Scorpion in 1968 landed the Kittiwake in the Atlantic Ocean. The Scorpion was the second US nuclear submarine lost at sea. Although the wreck has since been found, there remains controversy as to whether she sank due to an attack by a Soviet submarine or internal problems.
April 1984 found the Kittiwake docked in Norfolk, Virginia for maintenance and repair. Attempting to exit the dock, Kittiwake attempted to move forward and ended up in reverse. The more she tried to advance, the faster she fell back. Movement ceased upon colliding with the attack submarine USS Bergall, moored behind her. It turned out that the main engine drive had been wired incorrectly, causing the screw to turn backwards.
In 1986, the Kittiwake salvaged an F-15 in about 300 feet of water and recovered the black box from the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
In 1994, the Kittiwake was decommissioned. She sat in the decommissioned ship graveyard for a while until the Cayman Islands took an interest. After years of negotiations, the Cayman Islands were able to purchase the Kittiwake, the first US military ship sold to another nation. A planned 2009 sinkhole went awry due to environmental concerns regarding the possibility of banned chemicals in the sealant in some joints. It took until January 2011 before the ship was finally towed for sinking on a 7-mile beach and given new life as an artificial reef. The Kittiwake sank vertically and came to rest on a sandy seabed. After spending so much time following submarines around the Caribbean, it seems fitting that Kittiwake found her final resting place submerged there.
The ship did not have long to settle before Hurricane Rina passed within 100 miles of the Cayman Islands. Strong waves from the hurricane’s winds pushed the kittiwake about 60 feet further offshore than the original location of its sinking. An anchor chain broke and the ship is now at all three starboard anchors, listing slightly to the side less than 10 feet deeper in the water than in the original position.
The ship pushed enough sand into the underwater slide to create a sandbar that now holds the hull more firmly in place. The ship is still in shallow enough water for a clear view of divers overhead and easy access for divers. It is now low enough that divers can no longer stand on the deck with their heads above the water as they did at the original location.
Fish moved in shortly after the original sinking, finding good places to hide and call home within the ship’s structure. Seaweed covers the once white ship. As the years go by, more marine life will adhere to the hull until over time it becomes a new reef, changing the view from the sunken ship to a multitude of marine life.
A variety of operators on Grand Cayman take divers and snorkelers to Kittiwake. They know the rules regarding mandatory fees and time limits, so guests on package tours need not worry. Cruise lines like Carnival also offer snorkeling trips to Kittiwake among their Grand Cayman shore excursions.