This historic site lies between the Marriott and the water treatment plant. Weather permitting, it's possible to access from shore, but bring your booties to make it through the rocky entry in front of the jogging track at Koredo, a quarter mile from the parking lot at Parassasa Beach. Look for the marker buoy, fixed at a 20 foot depth.

During the War, the US and Dutch navies worked closely together to protect important supply convoys from German submarines. One of these American navy vessels, the USS Erie PG-50 was leading a convoy, TAG-20 and was joined by the Dutch navy vessel Van Kinsbergen on November 12, 1942.

Late in the afternoon they were engaged by the German submarine U-163, which fired off a half dozen torpedoes. One of these found its mark, striking the USS Erie in her stern and causing ordinance stored aboard to explode. Seven US sailors were killed in the resulting conflagration.

Rather than see his ship sink, the captain ran the USS Erie onto the reef, where a reconnaissance plane slid from deck into the sea. The ship was stranded for several days before being towed to the harbor, where it stayed for ten years. On 9th December 1952 (and not without a fight), the hulk of the ERIE was sent to her final resting place.  The wreck sank in 300 fathoms of water on a bearing of 211 degrees and a distance of 4,600 yards from the harbor entrance.

Because the material is light, the wreckage has spread over a significant area. However, parts of the plane wreckage are still easy to find. The pontoons and other larger pieces can be found spread beneath the edge of the drop off at about 80 feet. The smaller pieces are difficult to identify, and there may still be live ammunition so it"s best not to touch anything! The reef itself is not remarkable, but it's worthwhile to check out the plane wreckage and recall that the violence of World War II reached even this remote paradise.

At the time, the salvage vessel (pictured in the Curaçao newspaper clipping) was the USS OPPORTUNE (ARS-41)!

The US Navy salvaged the hulk of the USS ERIE from the inner harbor in Willemstad. Part of the reason the US Navy agreed to raise the hulk was in providing a salvage training operation. Other Atlantic Fleet vessels were involved: the USS ESCAPE (ARS-6), USS RECOVERY (ARS-43), and one of the Fleet's seagoing barges, the YFND-17. When the hulk was moved from the inner harbor, two commercial tugs, plus a tug from the Dutch Naval Base helped move the wreck.

For more information on the USS Erie visit: www.usseriepg50.org/