Hilma Hooker

The Hooker's story is one of the odder ones in Caribbean diving. Built in the Netherlands in 1951 and renamed many times over a workaday career, she limped into Bonaire in 1984 with engine trouble and suspicious paperwork. When authorities searched a false bulkhead they found roughly 11,000 kilograms of marijuana, and the ship sat impounded at the town pier while nobody stepped forward to claim her. Leaking and unmaintained, she was moved to a mooring over the sand channel between two reefs, and on 12 September 1984 she quietly rolled over and went down. Whether her final flooding had a little local help has been debated on the island ever since; officially she simply sank at anchor, conveniently between two dive sites. She now lies on her starboard side on sand at about 30 meters, her twin masts reaching toward the reef slope, and has become one of the easiest big-wreck dives anywhere — reachable from shore, marked by buoys, and dived thousands of times a year.

How she sank: Sank at anchor on 12 September 1984 while impounded during a drug-smuggling case.

Condition: Intact and recognizable bow to stern, with masts, props and superstructure in place; steel is thinning after four decades

Penetration: Limited. Openings in the holds and superstructure allow short pass-throughs, but the interior silts quickly and overhead training is expected for anything beyond the doorways. Entering any overhead environment requires specific training — a wreck certification at minimum, technical wreck training for full penetration.

Recommended certification: Advanced Open Water

Current: Mild · Visibility: 20–30 m

Marine life: Tarpon shelter in the shaded hull by day, garden eels carpet the surrounding sand, barracuda hold midwater, and the mooring blocks host morays and porcupinefish.

Hazards: Depth comes quickly for a shore dive; no-decompression time at the hull is short, and the swim back over sand tempts divers to linger too deep

Lies within the Bonaire National Marine Park; the park nature fee and no-touch rules apply