Windjammer Wreck in Dry Tortugas

Windjammer Wreck

The Windjammer is the nickname of an iron-hulled ship-rigged sailing vessel known as the Avanti. The Avanti sank on January 22, 1907 as it was transporting lumber from Pensacola to Montevideo, Uruguay. There is no historical documentation on the sinking and details as to what happened are unknown.The ship is 261 feet long by 39 feet wide with three masts, two decks, and a cement ballast. The Avanti is in excellent condition because of iron's resistance to corrosion. There are two main wreckage fields. The bow section is oriented east-west, and the stern section is aligned north-south. The Avanti, located within Dry Tortugas National Park, rests at a depth of 22 ft. some 1,100 yards southwest of Loggerhead Key.

Please help protect the site of the Avanti Shipwreck, and all the park’s maritime heritage resources, so that they may be enjoyed by future generations. When diving, remember to control your buoyancy, since shipwreck structures can be as fragile as the marine life they support. Disturbance and removal of artifacts is prohibited. It’s best to leave these pieces of history where they are, for other divers to enjoy and for historians to document.

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