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Bianca C
 Grand Anse, Grenada
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Max Depth: Over 150ft/46m
Entry Type: Boat
Bottom Composition: Sand
Aquatic Life: Plenty To See
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Rating: 3.50 by 6 divers
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Bianca C is a boat accessible salt water dive site, located in Grand Anse, Grenada. This dive site has an average rating of 3.50 out of 5 from 6 scuba divers. The maximum depth is over 150ft/46m.
From Wikipedia.org:
The Bianca C was a passenger ship that sank on two occasions, the first time in France before being completed, and the second time after an explosion and fire off the island of Grenada.
Built during World War II at Construction Navales La Ciotat, a shipyard on the southern coast of France, the boat was first launched in June 1944 under the name Marechal Petain. Construction had not yet been completed, so the ship was towed to Port de Bouc, near Marseille, where she was torpedoed by the Germans in August. When the hull was raised, it was renamed La Marseillaise and towed to Toulon before being returned to La Ciotat to be refitted as a cruise ship. When the remodeling was completed in July 1949, she sailed to Yokohama. In 1957, the ship was given the name Arosa Sky after being sold to Panama’s Arosa Line. She was refitted again and became the company’s flagship, but within two years Arosa Line was forced to sell the boat to Costa Line, an Italian company also known as Linea C. After that 1959 sale, the boat was renamed the Bianca C (the second Costa C ship so named) for one of the owner’s daughters, and was refurbished once again. The Bianca C’s main route ran from Italy to Venezuela, including stops in the Caribbean.
On October 22, 1961, the Bianca C was ten days out of Naples and docked off Grenada when an explosion occurred in the engine room in the early hours of the morning. One crewman died immediately, and eight others were injured. As fires broke out, approximately 700 passengers and crew scrambled to abandon the ship while Grenadian fishermen and boat owners, awakened by the noise of the explosion, near the harbor of St. George’s rushed to help. Survivors were taken to the capital, where makeshift hospitals were hastily established to provide shelter and food. Because Grenada did not have the equipment to quench such a large fire, a call for help was sent and was received by the British frigate HMS Londonderry at Puerto Rico. It took two days for the Londonderry to arrive, and by that time the Bianca C had begun to sink. The burning ship was in the main anchorage and would block the harbor if it sank there, so a Londonderry boarding party boarded the flaming boat to attach a towline. The anchor lines of the Bianca C were burned, and today the anchors are still at the mouth of the St. George’s harbor. Meanwhile, the Londonderry moved to tow the Bianca C, but the latter ship was listing to port. Thousands of Grenadians watched from the mountains as the tow progressed for six hours, but the Bianca C. had only moved three miles (5 km) when a squall started and the towline broke. The Bianca C sank quickly into 165 feet (50 m) of water, about a mile from the popular tourist beach at Grand Anse.
In the 1970s, a Trinidadian firm salvaged the Bianca C’s propellers and sold them for scrap. As the top of the ship is in only about 100 feet (30 m) of water, scuba divers can reach it and in the late 1980s and early 1990s some removed parts of the boat for souvenirs. In late 1992, the rear third of the ship was torn off and the ship began to deteriorate quickly, though at 600 feet (180 m) in length it is still the region’s largest shipwreck. A bronze statue of Christ of the Abyss was given by the Costa Line to Grenada in appreciation of the country’s hospitality, and the statue stands in the Carenage surrounding the harbor at St. George’s.
From DiveGrenada.com:
Construction began on the Bianca C in 1939 at Construction Navales, La Ciotat; the yard being situated on the French South Coast between Marseille and Toulon. The incomplete ship was launched as the "Marechal Petain "on June 1944 and then was towed to Port Bouc, where the Germans first sank her, in August, during their retreat from The South of France.
The sunken hull was subsequently renamed "La Marseillaise", raised and towed to Toulon and subsequently back to the yard at La Ciotat in 1946, where she was refitted as a cruise ship for Messageries Maritimes of Marseille. Completed in July 1949, her first maiden Voyage was Marseilles to Yokohama and her original capacity was 736 passengers, broken down to 344 1st class, 74 2nd class & 318 3rd class.
In 1957 she was sold to AROSA LINE bianca c photoInc of Panama, who renamed her "Arosa Sky " had her refitted to accommodate 202 1st class & 1030 2nd class passengers; the first voyage being Bremerhaven- New York. Within two years the Arosa Line hit financial straits and their flag ship was sold in 1959 to G.COSTA du GENOA, an italian family firm who were known as the "Linea C", Where she was renamed the "Bianca C" after a daughter. The Linea C had -her refurbished and registered an increase of tonnage from 17,321 GT to 18,427 GT. She then began the Naples- Guaira (Venezuela) run, a voyage including stops in the Caribbean; Grenada being the last such on the return leg.
On October 12th 1961 the Bianca C left Italy on her final voyage, ten days later she caught fire after an explosion in her boiler room; while anchored off the Capital of Grenada , St George’s. The flames spread rapidly throughout the rear portion of the ship, fortunately 672 of the 673 people on board were saved by the prompt action of the crew and the additional help of numerous small boats launched from St. George’s harbour, including several yachts. Unfortunately there was insufficient marine fire fighting equipment available to stem the blaze or rescue the body of the only person lost on board. However twelve badly burnt crew were taken to the local hospital for treatment, only one whom died (Rodizza Napale).
The British Frigatecruise ship " Londonderry" sailed from Purto Rico on hearing the news to lend what assistance they could, arriving on the 24th of October they found a still burning ship and succeeded in severing the anchor chain and securing a towing line, in an attempt to beach it in the shallows on the other side of Point Saline , or to at least remove it from the local shipping lanes. As they were towing it, with considerable difficulty, and watched by a large percentage of the Grenadian population, the tow rope snapped because the rudders had jammed in the extreme heat caused by the fire and shortly thereafter she sank in 167 feet of water where she sits to this day.
Her propellers where salvaged in the early seventies by a Trinidadian firm, the brass being sold on for scra-p, otherwise they left her intact sitting upright on a nearly level sand bed. When she sank it appears that there was a major shift to starboard with all the upper decks and the bridge leaning to starboard giving divers the feeling that they were diving on a leaning ship.
However drop down off the bow or the stern and it became apparent the hull itself was upright. The upper decks had compacted down onto the lower decks pushed down into the hull. The majority of this reduction being behind the bridge where the decks had sunk down some thirty feet.
Over the Christmas period of 1992, the rear third of the ship was torn off and fell to starboard, seriously increasing her rate of deterioration. Of the two top deck swimming pools one is the other side of the crack and unrecognisable as it has been twisted out of shape. The other is still visible and we normally begin our dives in the swimming pool just forward of the crack, which is always good fun. Dive Grenada offers Wreck Speciality courses which allows the diver to explore the Bianca C in all its glory and to enjoy our own ’Titanic’ of the Caribbean. For the more adventurous and advanced divers we can offer ’Technical’ penetration using Nitrox and Rebreathers in conjunction with Mad Dog Expeditions of New York.
There are tales that the Bianca C used to be much shallower and in the old days people were able to skin dive on her;[