Ric Hajovsky
Description
This book contains detailed info on well over 100 of Cozumel’s shipwrecks. Forty of them date between 1518 and 1900. Another fifty dates to the 1900s.
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Also included are the true backstories (not just dive guide gossip) of the Mexican Navy vessels purposely sunk here, the Maya Princess up by Passion Island, the barge Acali at Hotel Presidente, the graffiti-covered Lady Arisha in front of the museum, and the detailed history of the Hotel La Ceiba’s airplane.
Plus, there are the true histories of newer boats lost by drug runners, boats lost to modern-day pirates, sunken planes, sunken helicopters, and the replica cement cannons and anchors that fool most people who see them here. Inside are over 200 images of the cannons, anchors, jewels, coins, and even a fake piece-of-eight that were found on the reefs and beaches of Cozumel.
This is not a book comprised of a list of sites compiled by someone reporting secondhand; I have been diving on many of these wrecks when I was working with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and I made detailed maps and site plans of some of the wrecksites at that time. I have included those maps and site plans in this book. As a bonus, I include the real story of the Matanceros, my experience on the sixteenth-century Bahia Mujeres wreck, and the story behind the wreck of the Ultra Freeze. Even if you don’t plan on diving on any of these wrecks, the history behind them is well worth reading.
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