This is one of the ships carrying illegal immigrants from China that was boarded and seized in 1999. The government sold it (and the others) to the Alberni Artificial Reef Society who sunk it near the China Creek Marina campground. This ship is around 150 feet long. One of the other ships was sunk nearby, but it slid down the slope to well beyond decent diving depths. After missing it on my last trip, I finally found it. I came back to China Creek in early August,2005. This time I tried swimming to the right (when looking out from shore). I entered at around campsite #44 and swam out over some shallow mussel and eel grass beds. Visibility was a bit less than 10 feet and the water was warm and nearly fresh. Deeper down, the bottom changed to a muddy slope with logs lying around. I stopped descending at a depth of 80 feet and started to swim to the right. Visibility was now around 30 feet and it was icy cold. After swimming for almost 10 minutes the ship popped up in front of me. The propeller was 80 feet deep and I swam up to the top of the stern which was the shallowest part of the wreck at 60 feet. The deck sloped steeply down to the bridge (wheelhouse/pilot house). I swam around this superstructure and descended to the winch near the bow. I was 110 feet deep and I swam a bit further to the bow and peeked over the edge, but couldn't see bottom. There are lots of cargo hatches and openings on the ship, but I didn't go in (I didn't have a decent light). Except for the rust, the wreck seems very clean. There's hardly any life on it. There were a few plumose anemones on the superstructure and in the bridge, but not many other invertebrates. There were some copper and quillback rockfish, kelp greenlings, perch and decorated warbonnets scattered around, but again, not many. There were quite a few juvenile wolf eels swimming around on the slope below the wreck. The wreck seemed to be mostly intact except for one side of the bridge which seemed to be falling in.
