Naufrágio Alice

The steamship Alice, owned by the Empresa de Navegação Gram-Pará, headquartered in Pará, left the port of Paraíba heading south in August 1899, carrying salt loaded in Mossoró and cotton shipped in Paraíba, bound for Rio de Janeiro. Shortly after departing she began taking on water and, unable to pump it out, sank about 3.5 miles off Bessa beach with her bow pointing toward land. When there was no longer any hope of saving the ship, the captain and crew took to the boats and reached the port of Cabedelo safely around midday on the 20th. The real cause of the sinking is little known. On August 18, the firm Ribeiro Irmão & C.a had insured 818 sacks of cotton aboard the Alice, and the policyholders were reimbursed by the 28th.

The ship is said to have been launched in 1866 under the name Mariana, but the propeller with bolted-on blades found in the wreckage only began to be manufactured from 1890 onward, which contradicts this identification. It is the wreck closest to Bessa beach and, since 2018, has been part of the Naufrágio Queimado Environmental Protection Area (APA), covering about 422 km², together with the Queimado and the Alvarenga.

On the dive you can see the boilers, two large cylinders with pistons and the propeller, among other features. The listing bow holds two admiralty-type anchors, a large winch, four davits and mooring bollards. Schools of fish, corals and algae have settled on the wreck, and on dives it is common to see rays, sea turtles and a variety of reef fish.