ESSO BONAIRE Jupiter

The 147 foot tanker Esso Bonaire was built in 1926 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The Esso Bonaire was seized after U.S. Customs found 55,000 pounds of marijuana on board. The vessel was purchased with money from the Economic Council of Palm Beach County and was sunk off Jupiter Inlet as a fish haven. Two attempts were made to sink the tanker. The first on July 22, 1989, was canceled due to rough weather. The next day, the weather was better, but the stubborn vessel still took nine hours to go down.

According to diver Anne Harrington the Esso Bonaire sits straight up on her keel in 85 feet of water, four miles east northeast of Jupiter inlet. This wreck has a good coating of gorgonias plus loads of tropical and bait fish.

Photo: The 147 foot tanker Esso Bonaire was sunk as a reef on July 23,1989. Photos courtesy Palm Beach County.

Basic shipwreck information and images for this section of this site was taken with permission from the book Florida Shipwrecks by Daniel Berg. You are invited to submit your shipwreck related articles, images and information. As long as the text, photographs, sketches etc are of professional quality we will showcase them. Full credit will be provide and a same page link to your web site can be arranged.