Robert Edmister

The Robert Edmister was a 95-foot (29-meter) United States Coast Guard cutter built in Maryland in 1953. Originally designated as CG-95304, in 1964, the U.S. Coast Guard began naming their Cape class patrol boats that were under 100 feet (30 meters) in length. Consequently, CG-95304 was renamed Cape Gull. The Cape class cutters featured steel-hulled ships with aluminum superstructures. Among the three sub-classes, class A ships like Cape Gull were specifically designed for anti-submarine warfare. However, in the late 1980s, the Cape class cutters were phased out, replaced by new 110-foot (34-meter) Island class ships. This transition prompted the Coast Guard to decommission many of the earlier cutter designs. Cape Gull was eventually sold at auction to Fort Lauderdale businessman Fedele (Dale) Scutti. He chose to rename her Robert Edmister in honor of a friend, associate, and environmentalist who had passed away. Tragically, on December 11, 1989, the Robert Edmister met its demise when five eight-pound charges were detonated by Broward County’s Bomb and Arson Unit. The wreck of the Robert Edmister now rests upright in 70 feet of water (21.5 meters), approximately 2,000 feet (610 meters) due south of the Jay Scutti wreck—an adjacent artificial reef also facilitated by Dale Scutti in memory of his son. To the south of the Robert Edmister lies the badly broken-up wreck of the Wendy Rossheim, originally a 118-foot (36-meter) motor yacht. The Wendy Rossheim, initially named the Natoya, was constructed at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, in 1947. Privately owned by Detroit businessman Harold Ducharme, she sailed extensively around the Great Lakes, operating from her berth in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, until the mid-1960s. After being sold, she resurfaced in Florida. Rumor has it that she spent some time as a United States Navy patrol boat. In the 1980s, she even sailed the Mediterranean under the name Jacqueline 8 before returning to Florida with a new identity: Our House I!!. Tragically, the Wendy Rossheim met a similar fate. She was purchased and intentionally sunk as an artificial reef, renamed Wendy Rossheim after a Fort Lauderdale resident and ocean enthusiast who died suddenly from an infection at the age of 21. On the day after Christmas in 1991, the Wendy Rossheim sank right next to the Robert Edmister, disappearing beneath the surface in less than a minute. To the northeast lies the Paul Sherman, a 56-foot (17-meter) shrimper that had been converted into a salvage boat by a treasure hunter. It is more formally known as the Salvager III.