Mary Celestia

The Mary Celestia ran Union blockades into Confederate ports until September 1864, when Bermuda's south-shore reef ended her career within sight of land; one man, the ship's cook, was lost. What remains reads like a cutaway diagram of a paddle steamer: both iron paddle wheels, one upright and iconic, plus boilers, anchor, and bow frames on clean sand at sixteen meters. In 2011 archaeologists opened a sealed bow compartment and recovered intact perfume bottles and wine, a find that made international news. She is compact, historic, and photogenic, an essential Bermuda dive.

اللحظة التي جئت من أجلها: Standing paddle wheel, Civil War blockade-running history, tidy single-dive layout

التضاريس: Flat sand off the south shore

المخاطر: South-shore swell can produce surge over the low-lying wreckage.

الحفاظ على البيئة البحرية: Protected historic wreck under Bermuda law; nothing may be disturbed or removed.