HISTORY:
Prior to the age of satellites, ground-based radar was the only technology available to signal the threat of incoming missiles. A series of radar stations, some of which looked like oil rigs, were constructed so that North America would be warned in the event that a missile attack had been launched against it. This grid was known as the Early Warning Radar Detection System. Texas Tower #4, owned and operated by the U.S. Air Force, comprised an integral link in this System. Located approximately 70 miles from the New York and New Jersey coastlines, the Tower went down during a storm in January, 1961, with the loss of all 27 lives. For years the crews had called the tower "Old Shaky". This tower had a pool table, as did the other two, but frequently was not usable due to the wave motion. All of the other towers in the system were in much shallower water and had shorter legs. At the time of the accident, most of the crew had been removed while workmen filled the legs with sand and concrete. The long legs had been designed to hold fresh water and fuel.

The first two towers, off of Nantucket and Boston, were driven into a rocky ocean bottom in relatively shallow water (50 and 80 foot depths). TT #4, however, was more of a challenge. It would stand in 180 feet of water, and rise nearly 70 feet above the surface. The triangular platform measured 187' per side, and the structure weighed 3,200 tons. Each leg was 300' long, 12.5' in diameter, and weighed 450 tons. TT #4 was considered an "engineering triumph" when it was floated into position in the summer of 1957, and was built to withstand winds up to 125 mph and waves up to 60' high. This design was thought sufficient to get the tower through any storm known. Tower #1 was never built.

The towers were designed and built by the Bureau of Ships in a ship yard resulting in a ship-like construction. The windows were brass with heavy glass and the bottom half swung open much as a ships port hole would only these swung outward as the window was mounted on the outside.

Today, the Tower lies in 185 feet of water, with the top coming to within 70 feet of the surface. It sits on the bottom like a giant triangle, with legs attached. This wreck is vast and is considered by most experienced northeast wreck divers as one of the most spectacular wrecks on the U.S. East coast. There's plenty of room to explore for cold water wreck divers of all levels. Blueprints of the Tower are available to help you figure out where you're going and where you've been on the wreck.

. This drawing is from Doug's log book dated 18 July 1973. It was drawn from a combination of a picture taken by a USAF crew member and Doug's memory of the dive. The one crane that traveled on deck tracks had fallen off and was not visible. This drawing shows two sets of tracks as the other towers has two cranes, but #4 had only one. The radomes were shredded and the radio towers were rubble across the deck. The window that Doug removed came from the opening on the far left. The center radome base has fallen away in John Chatterton's drawing on NJ Scuba.

From Doug's log book:

Atlantic Wreck Diver's (of Maryland) charter with Captain Galamore on the Aquanut.

18 July 1973. It was a 5 1/2 hour run out on an overcast day and not calm, but not bad. (Looking back at the pictures it looked like a good day.) Three divers were using mixed gas which I assume is Heliox. Tom brought a stack of computer printouts 6 inches thick for decompression tables. The water was great - great vis and warm on the wreck. The down line was hooked on the flight deck near the large "height finder" which is the left radome in the drawing. The "search dish" and maybe the other dish had fallen across the flight deck. Penny and I removed a left side window from the area under the large "height finder" platform. There was a large brass box above and forward of it. The upper corner had a light much like a ships running light, but some of it had been removed. Other divers said they saw a brass search light.

We should have carried the window over to the down line because the current made it impossible to tow a lift bag on the surface, although Skip Galamore said that it was the first time he's ever seen it calm out there. The picture I had which was taken from a helo showed a strong current running past the legs. Andy and Ben (Wenzel) took some pictures of us removing the window using a fish stringer for a pin punch to drive out the hinge pins. We took so long making the dive that the Captain did not have time to stop at another wreck on the way in. He had a night charter and did not tell us. The window was at about 115 fsw and the bottom at 180 fsw (so I was told).

The Dive:

Penny and I did not feel up to going as it seemed beyond our experience. We were talked into it by other club members that assured us we'd be fine. I worked with a ex-USAF instructor that had been stationed on the towers in the late 50's and early 60's. He explained many details of the tower to me including how the windows worked. It was a good thing, because the growth was so thick I could see very little. It was hard to even spot the windows at first. Penny found one that was broken and I reached in and rotated the handles. It moved, but would not open. The mussel 'beards' were thickly holding in on. A few cuts around it with my giant Scubapro knife released it and it swung out. Finally we cut enough away to expose the hinges which I was not prepared for. My fish stringer was a stainless steel rod with a cable and it worked great as a punch - I did have a hammer. We carefully saved the pins as they came out. I had just bought a lift bag a nice Nemrod and did not want to risk losing it so I took a canvas duffel bag with a plastic garbage bag in it. I sent the window up and followed it to the surface as my $85 Scubapro SOS decompression "computer" was only on the 'U'. Penny and I started the surface swim with me towing the canvas lift bag as the current was drifting us away from the boat. Finally I told Penny to go on back to the boat and I tied my home made reel to the bag and swam down until I hit the anchor line at about 45 feet. At that point I could pull my self up. Galamore was on the bow cursing and fussing, "what are you going to do now?" he yelled at me.

Penny and I were the only ones to get brass and it was my first real artifact. I didn't care how mad the captain was or if we stopped at the Resor on the way in. I had one goal: to get a window. On the boat we picked 25 mussels off of the window and took them home to eat. Kitty Kesner and Ben took turns throwing up. It was the first boat ride that I'd not been sick on. Back at the dock the grumpy and unsociable Captain Galamore came up to me as I was unloading the window and said, "nice window...they clean up real nice...you'll like it". It did clean up nice and we put a mirror in it.

When we dove the Tower it had been down 12 years and was much different than it is now 25 years later.

Read John Chatterton's story of the Texas Tower on NJ Scuba