Cortez Explorers - A PADI 5 Star IDC Center » Let’s See http://www.cortez-explorers.com/blog Thoughts from MulegĂ©... Sun, 30 May 2010 16:51:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Unknown Ship Wreck Named… (We Think) http://www.cortez-explorers.com/blog/unknown-ship-wreck-named-we-think/ http://www.cortez-explorers.com/blog/unknown-ship-wreck-named-we-think/#comments Sun, 30 May 2010 16:51:32 +0000 Mick Chapman http://www.cortez-explorers.com/blog/?p=196 I have actually being doing some research just this morning, and have only found two US Warships that had twin screws that were sold to Mexico after WWII. Both are destroyers, and indeed sister ships of the Fletcher Class. They are the DD573, the USS Harrison, and the DD574, the USS John Rodgers. Both were [...]]]> I have actually being doing some research just this morning, and have only found two US Warships that had twin screws that were sold to Mexico after WWII. Both are destroyers, and indeed sister ships of the Fletcher Class. They are the DD573, the USS Harrison, and the DD574, the USS John Rodgers. Both were built, along with the 173 others between 1941 and 1943. The Fletcher class Destroyers saw action everywhere, and sustained heavy losses in the Pacific theatre. Of the two mentioned above, the John Rodgers sadly is now laying derelict alongside some pier in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico. I would LOVE to be able to bring her here and sink her as an artificial reef, guns and all!!
The ship then that I believe this wreck to be is, or rather was, the USS Harrison. She was loaned to the Mexican Navy on May 1st 1968, and commissioned into service that same day as the BAM Cuauhtemoc (E-01). The name Cuauhtemoc was in honour of the last Aztec Emperor of Mexico. She was then used as a fast patrol vessel ranging from Endenada down to Cabo SL and up into the Sea of Cortez. She was stricken (taken off the books) of the US Navy and sold to Mexico formally on 19th August 1970. She was finally decommissioned by the Mexican Government in 1982.

I could be wrong about this wreck, but everything I have read this morning leads to her ID. The length is about correct, as is her beam. The round bridge and the more angular pilot house were destinctive features of the Fletcher class. Her twin screws match also. I need more dives on her, and to take some form of measuring device down with me, a slate, pencil and a camera, or two. Not too mention a couple of tanks and a dive computer. However, no matter her name, or her origin, her fate placed her on the bottom in divable depths, and she has become the home of so much in the way of marine life. I thank the Mexican Government for the foresight in placing her where she lies.

I do have other info on the USS Harrison should anyone be interested, but nothing on her time in Mexican hands. Maybe that’s for the future…

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