St. Eustatius · Caribbean Netherlands · Wreck · Artificial reef

Charlie Brown

A 100 m cable layer with a 40 m cable corridor through her hull

A 100 m cable layer, built in Naples in 1954 as the CS Salernum and later AT&T's Charles L. Brown, scuttled off Statia in July 2003 and lying with her lowest point on a seabed at 31 m. The upper hull is shallow enough for a straightforward tour, while the cable tanks and the corridor the fibre-optic cable was fed through make her a serious penetration dive.

Also known as Charles L. Brown, CS Salernum.

Where it is and how deep

Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

17.4626° N, 62.9902° WPublished position for this site.

The dive

Two moorings, bow and stern, let the guide choose a line to suit the current. You go down it to the lowest part of the dive first, where the hull tapers at bow and stern into large overhangs at 31 m. This is the deep leg and it comes at the start: keep the profile square, watch gas against the whole 100 m of ship running away from you, and work back along the flank towards the middle of the wreck.

Most dives then move up to the Highway at 26 m, the wide open corridor where the fibre-optic cable was fed out from the cable tanks. It runs 40 m clean through the ship, open enough along its length that the swim reads as a passage rather than a squeeze. The cable tanks themselves, the main galley and the cable reel room forward are true overhead: they want a light and the training to match.

The rest of the dive is spent crossing the wreck at about 17 m, where both the no-stop maths and the marine life improve. Horse-eye jacks school over the structure, black jacks work the inside of the hull, turtles and lobster have moved in, and the algae on her old white paintwork feeds enough nudibranchs to keep a macro lens busy. Barry, the big resident barracuda the guides named, is usually somewhere over the wreck.

The wreck

Vessel: Charles L. Brown
Type: Submarine cable-laying ship
Length: 100 m (328 ft)
Built: 1954
Sunk: 2003
Cause: Deliberately scuttled as an artificial reef on 25 July 2003
Lies: In 31 m of water, with large overhangs where the hull tapers at bow and stern

She was built in Naples in 1954 as the CS Salernum and spent her working life laying submarine cable, including many of the undersea fibre-optic telephone cables laid around the world; AT&T bought her through its Transoceanic Cableship subsidiary in 1984 and renamed her Charles L. Brown. Statia acquired her for a token one dollar, and the island's dive community stripped out fittings, furniture and oil before Golden Rock Divers opened her sea chests at four in the afternoon on 25 July 2003. Turtles, lobster and an octopus had moved in within the first couple of weeks.

Marine life and season

Trevally & jacks
Barracuda
Sea turtles
Nudibranchs
Octopus & cuttlefish

Month-by-month season rating for Charlie Brown
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Prime	Prime	Prime	Prime	Good	Good	Good	Fair	Fair	Good	Good	Prime

Season follows St. Eustatius: December to April is the drier stretch; August and September carry the hurricane peak, and diving may pause in September.

Know before you go

The seabed is at 31 m. Run the deep leg first while gas and no-stop time are intact, and treat the dive as a square profile rather than a wander.
Past the Highway, the cable tanks, main galley and forward cable reel room are genuine overhead. Carry a light and stay out without wreck-penetration training.
The wreck carries moorings at both bow and stern because the current varies; ask which end you are descending on and plan the return leg from it.

Dive videos

C/S Charles L. Brown, Statia Golden Rock Divers · Golden Rock Dive Center on YouTube

C L Brown · lionfisheater on YouTube

Questions divers ask

How deep is the Charlie Brown wreck?+

The seabed is at 31 m, which is where the bow and stern overhangs sit. The Highway corridor through the cable tanks is at 26 m and the crossover on the upper hull is around 17 m, so the dive is normally planned as a square deep leg followed by shallower time on the structure.

Do you need to be an advanced diver for Charlie Brown?+

For the full dive, yes: the deepest part of the wreck is at 31 m, beyond recreational Open Water limits. The upper hull at around 17 m can be dived on an Open Water certification, and penetration to the cable tanks, galley and cable reel room needs wreck training and a light.