West End, Cayman Brac, Ilhas Cayman

MV Captain Keith Tibbetts

The MV Captain Keith Tibbetts is the signature wreck dive of Cayman Brac and one of the most unusual artificial reefs in the world — a 100-metre Soviet-built Brigadyr-class anti-submarine frigate (Patrol Vessel 356) that served in the Cuban Navy before being purchased by the Cayman Islands government and scuttled off Cayman Brac's western tip on 17 September 1996. Renamed in honour of a beloved local statesman, she is the only Soviet-bloc warship accessible to recreational divers in the Western hemisphere. The wreck sits on a sandy slope with the bow at roughly 24 metres and the stern in shallower water around 18 metres. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 broke the ship in two, with the bow now leaning to port at a dramatic angle. Divers can explore the deck-mounted twin 76mm gun turrets fore and aft, the bridge superstructure, depth-charge launchers and fire-control radars. The wreck is heavily encrusted with sponges, corals, gorgonians and hydroids, and now supports schools of yellowtail snapper, sergeant majors, blue tangs, hawksbill turtles, green moray eels, southern stingrays, queen angelfish, midnight parrotfish, and Caribbean reef squid.