What lies underneath New Jersey waters? Diver Dan unpacks shipwreck history

NEW JERSEY (PIX11) – When “Diver Dan” Lieb was a young boy, he noticed small, raisin to egg yolk-sized tar balls on the shore of Asbury Park.

He didn’t know it then, but he was looking at evidence of a long history of shipwrecks just off the New Jersey shore.

“They were remnants of oil spills from World War II shipwrecks,” Lieb told PIX11 News during a recent interview.

Aside from history buffs or divers, most locals don’t know the New Jersey coast “has one of the highest concentrations of shipwrecks in the world,” Lieb said.

But sometimes there are signs, especially after a major storm like after the great nor’easter of 1992 or Superstorm Sandy, which brought pieces of wood and ship material to shore.

This week, the 50-year veteran diver will wade through 200-300 years of New Jersey shipwreck history — a “Poupouri of shipwreck incidences” — during lectures at the Long Beach Island and East Brunswick libraries.

“You usually don’t hear people giving a presentation about car wrecks, you don’t really get a lot of people giving presentations on airplane crashes through history,” Lieb said. “More often, people will be attracted to shipwrecks because there’s a certain amount of drama that occurs with them.”

Take, for example, the Morro Castle shipwreck of 1934, “New Jersey’s iconic shipwreck.” On Sept. 8, 1934, a boat on its way back from Havana to New York City caught fire on the coastline of the New Jersey shore during a hurricane-like storm, killing over 100 people as many others were rescued.

It’s a wreck many people don’t know about, but a great sign of the time. Between 1850 and around 1930, the area was home to many shipwrecks due to multiple trade routes converging on a small stretch of sea, Lieb said.

Lieb has identified 14 shipwrecks. Many people ask him about what valuable items he’s found or whether he has dramatic stories of shark encounters (he has at least one). But for Lieb, shipwrecks are a way to understand history and people.

“A vessel is just a box; if it fills with water, it sinks. It’s the people on it when it is sinking that makes history that makes the story, and that’s the story that I tell,” Lieb said.

The discovery process for every wreck is different, though the method is the same. Some wrecks can take just months or weeks to crack, while others remain a mystery for decades.

“There’s nothing like the feeling that you think you know what boat this is, you think you know what shipwreck this is, and then you find that piece of evidence that secures it and says yes, you were right, you figured it out,” Lieb said.

One of Lieb’s favorite shipwrecks to dive is the Mohawk , a boat that sunk in 1935 in about 75 feet of water. It was a replacement vessel for the burned Morro Castle ship, but it proved just as unlucky and now sits completely flattened off Mantoloking. It took years to really get to know the wreck, he said.

But there’s still much to discover in New Jersey waters.

“We have a tremendous amount of shipwreck and maritime history right here in our backyard. You do not have to go to the South Pacific or even the Caribbean, or even Florida to dive shipwrecks. They are right here,” Lieb said. “It can be a playground out here.”

Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter from Los Angeles who has covered New York City since 2023. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here .

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