Palm Beach & Jupiter · United States · Wreck · Drift
Mizpah Corridor
A 1926 patrol yacht scuttled here in 1968, dived on the current
Area photo: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Three wrecks laid out along roughly 520 m of sand off Palm Beach and dived as a single drift: the 55 m patrol yacht USS Mizpah, the 49 m patrol craft PC-1174 and the 135 m cargo ship Amaryllis. The current carries you from one hull to the next at about 26 m, which is why the site is run as a corridor rather than as three separate wreck dives.
Also known as The Corridors.
Where it is and how deep
26.7881° N, 80.0161° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
This is a drift, not a circuit of one wreck. The group goes in together and drops onto the first hull at about 26 m, then the current does the moving: the three wrecks are strung out over roughly 520 m of sand and you cover them in sequence, with a stretch of open bottom between each one. Getting the entry right matters, because if you miss the first hull the flow will not let you swim back to it.
The Mizpah is the wreck the site is named for, a 55 m patrol yacht scuttled here in April 1968 with her hatches left open; she is described as lying in 27 to 34 m, deeper than the sand the rest of the run crosses. The corridor also takes in PC-1174, a 49 m patrol craft, and the Amaryllis, at 135 m the longest hull here, sunk in 26 m of water in August 1968 to make an artificial reef.
The wrecks are worked in one direction only and the depths change along the run, which is part of why operators use the corridor for advanced, deep and wreck specialty training rather than as a first wreck dive. Send a marker up at the end of the drift and surface where the current leaves you; the boat follows the group down the corridor rather than waiting on a mooring.
The wreck
- Vessel
- USS Mizpah (PY-29)
- Type
- Patrol yacht, built as the pleasure yacht Savarona
- Length
- 55.2 m (181 ft)
- Built
- 1926
- Sunk
- 1968
- Cause
- Scuttled off Palm Beach in April 1968 to prevent beach erosion
- Lies
- In sand in 27 to 34 m with her hatches left open, one of three wrecks on a 520 m drift
Mizpah was built in 1926 by Newport News Shipbuilding as the pleasure yacht Savarona, renamed Allegro in 1929 and then Mizpah under Zenith Radio founder Eugene F. McDonald, who ran her as a floating laboratory on the Great Lakes. The US Navy acquired her in March 1942 and commissioned her as USS Mizpah (PY-29) that October; she escorted convoys along the East Coast until 1944, worked as a navigation school ship, and was decommissioned in January 1946. She was scuttled off Palm Beach on 9 April 1968 to prevent beach erosion. The Amaryllis, launched in 1945 as Cromwell Park, ran aground off Singer Island during Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and was towed out and sunk as a reef in August 1968.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Palm Beach & Jupiter: Lemon sharks aggregate Jan–Mar and goliath grouper spawn Aug–Sep; the Gulf Stream keeps visibility high year-round.
Know before you go
- The corridor runs at about 26 m with the Mizpah reported as deep as 34 m, and the drift is one-way. Plan gas and no-decompression time around the deepest hull before you drop.
- The Mizpah was scuttled with her hatches left open, which makes penetration easy to start and hard to judge. Treat the interior as an overhead and stay outside unless you are wreck-trained.
Dive videos
Mizpah Corridor West Palm Beach County, Florida Scuba Diving 4K goliath grouper @OlegKaplun · Oleg Kaplun on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Mizpah Corridor?+
The drift runs at about 26 m and the Mizpah herself is reported as lying in 27 to 34 m. It is an advanced, deep dive, run one-way on the current with a live boat.
Which wrecks are in the Mizpah Corridor?+
Three: the 55 m patrol yacht USS Mizpah, the 49 m patrol craft PC-1174 and the 135 m cargo ship Amaryllis, strung along roughly 520 m of sand and dived in a single drift.
Sources
- USS Mizpah — Wikipedia
- Amaryllis (ship) — Wikipedia
- Palm Beach Wreck Dive Sites — Pura Vida Divers
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