Wreck of the SS Atlantus — Attraction in Lower Township

Lying just 150 feet off Sunset Beach in Cape May Point sits the Wreck of the SS Atlantus, a ship built with great intentions but owing to bad timing and an ill placed storm, ended up nothing more than a wrecked hull and a curiosity site. The Atlantus was originally intended as a troop transport for the Great War, but the war ended before construction was completed. Then, after just a handful of voyages over a year and a half, it was retired in 1920. In early 1926, it was purchased from a Virginia salvage yard, and brought to New Jersey with the intent of using it to help create a slip for a proposed ferry service, but alas, bad luck struck on June 8. During a storm, the Atlantus broke free from its mooring, causing it to run aground and because of the shallowness of the water, only partially sink. What's left of the stern for the most part is all that's visible above the water line, with only occasionally a small part of the bow exposed during low tide. Today the wreck serves as a perching post for sea birds, and a small artificial reef for marine life. It also stands as a tribute to the shipping industry of that era, and a great...

This is a place where I literally felt Heaven on Earth. We visited the Cape May, to experience the sunset at this Sunset beach. The scheduled sunset was at 5.45 PM and we arrived there around 5.15 after visiting few other places. The weather was gloomy and hence I had no hopes on what colors the sunset could possibly offer. I decided to just capture few beach sand, waves and the SS Atlantus ship pictures (the broken structure that’s on the pics) and pack my kit. The ship was grounded by a storm in the ocean, after it served in the World War I. When I almost started off, my wife asked why not wait for few more minutes and boy how the landscape changed drastically. The hue and colors kept changing with every passing minute and I frantically started clicking pictures to not miss freezing those glorious scenes. Never have I felt so humbled by all of Nature’s glory as much as I had, while the sun that we never spotted started setting down and left all of those spectators agape.

I’ll look forward to returning here...

I swam out to the ship wreck and got to climb on top and just sit there at low tide to take in the view, its further from shore than it looks but water depth and the lowest point in low tide is about 20 feet deep arount the ship, I got a ride back to shore from some kind fishermen and turns out theres occasionally bullsharks in the area when ur that far out, I was pretty lucky, but I knew the risk so before going out there I did my research, sharks tend to avoid dolphins because dolphins are one of sharks few predators and there were plenty of dolphins swimming in the area, also sharks don't do well in shallow water so low tide reduces the shark risk significantly. I guess you can say I stood on top of 100...