Iristo

History

The Iristo was built in 1918 at Lorain, Ohio, as the Great Lakes-type freighter Lake Jessup, and passed through several names (including War Briar and Ekstrand) before a Norwegian company bought her in 1935 and renamed her Iristo.

In March 1937 she was heading for Bermuda from Newfoundland with a mixed cargo that included barrels of gasoline, a fire engine and a steam roller for the island. Her master, Captain Christian Stephensen, had no local charts. Approaching the northern reefs he saw the Spanish liner Cristobal Colon - wrecked the previous October and still standing upright on the reef - took her for a ship working through a channel, and altered course to follow. The Iristo ran onto a submerged reef near North Rock. A tug pulled her clear and started towing her in, but she was leaking badly and sank on 16 March 1937 about a mile east of North East Breaker.

A Marine Board of Inquiry found Stephensen negligent for sailing without local charts or knowledge of the reefs. The common local spelling 'Aristo' is thought to come from a New York Times misprint.

Diving the wreck today

A classic, fairly intact wreck that suits Open Water divers with some experience. She sits mostly upright in 50-55 ft with the bow rising to within about 18 ft of the surface and the stern standing well off the bottom. Look for the engine, boilers, propeller shaft and two big anchors, and the remains of the fire engine - wheel parts and even tyres can still be made out under decades of coral. Chub, horse-eye jacks and the odd octopus live on the wreck, and winter visibility can exceed 150 ft.