By THOMAS W. DONOVAN

For The Beachcomber

Although no one knows precisely when it occurred, a former Navy tugboat named the “Murph” was scuttled and sank 200 feet off of Vashon Island in Quartermaster Harbor in the winter of 2007.

Approximately 40 feet below the surface, sitting upright on a sandy bottom of mud and clay, the tip of the bridge tower is visible above the surface at extremely low tides.

The boat is 101 feet long and 30 feet high, displaces 260 tons and is complete with most of its original components intact, including doors, gauges, engines and diesel and oil reservoirs.

The pure copper single four-blade propeller, six feet in diameter, is fully attached and has two blades exposed and two wedged in the sandy mud bottom. The anchor, also six feet tall, droops by a heavy chain from a barnacle encrusted deck, which, as is normal for tugboats of any age, is buttressed by large used tires as bumpers. The four-story-high structure is covered with kelp and sea grass and has become a center of life for lingcod, bait fish, shrimp and rock and Dungeness crabs in the area.

The tug was presumably abandoned, scuttled and sunk to avoid disposal costs but not before a massive fire swept through the vessel, creating a fine black ash that has changed the color of the twisted metal from navy gray to soot black.

Although not well known because it is an underwater issue and did not create a visible oil sheen, the sunken tug is now a navigational and environmental hazard and will presumably be one of the most expensive removal and salvage operations in recent Puget Sound history.

When the Murph was noticed in late 2007, the Coast Guard was called to the site and found only residual diesel and oil reserves creating minimal seepage into Puget Sound. The Coast Guard response team clamped and sealed these reservoirs and determined it did not present an immediate environmental threat.

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) determined that raising the ship for proper removal was the only suitable course of action, according to a DNR official.

DNR, however, like the rest of state government, is facing budget shortfalls and currently doesn’t have the funds to raise and remove any portion of the vessel. DNR instead commenced an international manhunt for the owner of the tug, declared the tug derelict and seized possession and title, according to a DNR official; presumably civil and possibly criminal penalties will follow once the owner is identified and located.

Little is known about the Murph before it was found in Quartermaster. A ship database states the keel was laid in January 1944 in Jacksonville, Fla., by Gibbs Gas Engine Company and that the ship was classified as a YTB-395 Navy Tugboat. Throughout most of its life, the boat was stationed in Astoria, Ore., working in the Navy’s Columbia River Group, which assists large ships crossing and entering the Columbia River bar.

After being decommissioned, the boat was bought and sold several times, and the chain of title becomes cold.

Residents of the area state that the tug was moored for several months in Quartermaster before it sank, and they presumed someone was living on the boat. Recovered sunken evidence supports this, as many pieces of cookery, food and a crudely crafted toilet were found in the lower and mid decks of the vessel.

Diving the tug is relatively simple, as the tidal exchange is minimal. Scuttled in a secluded portion off of Vashon’s southern coast, there is no direct road access to the site, and only a shallow keeled boat may reach the area. The rigging of the boat — the loose cables and ropes required for operation — are scattered and drift with the currents, acting as a potential trap for passing garbage or sea grass or a hazard for a novice diver. All of the exterior navigational lights, doors and gauges have been pilfered from the site by local divers.

But what is certainly a navigational and environmental hazard is an attraction for the local divers of the area. Local scuba Internet sites have extolled the excitement of diving one of the first larger and legitimate wrecks in the South Sound. Dive charters bring divers from around the state to dive the site, who hope to claim a souvenir from the Murph and bring it home.

In turn, the Murph sheds light on the fledgling movement known as “ships to reefs,” whereby derelict ferries or boats are properly cleaned and prepared for sinking as an attraction or ecological reef.

Such programs, which attract divers and promote marine life, have been a tremendous success in Pensacola, Fla., where an aircraft carrier — the Oriskany — was sunk, and in Vancouver, B.C., which recently sank a Boeing jet as a reef.

Both have attracted divers from around the world to dive the local waters. Tacoma and the South Sound can now do the same with minimal effort and investment. Though it was done improperly and wasn’t cleaned or prepped for sinking, the Murph could be the beginning of our own ships-to-reef program.

— Thomas W. Donovan is a local attorney and Professional Association of Dive Instructors Certified Divemaster.