MV Willaurie
Mailboat / Freighter · Bahamas · Lost 1988 · The Bahamas
A Dutch-built Bahamian mailboat whose accident-prone final years ended in a deliberate 1988 scuttling off New Providence, now a favorite Nassau wreck dive.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in the Netherlands in 1966 as Willmary, the vessel later worked British coastal trades before being renamed Willaurie and sent to the Bahamas around 1980 to serve as an inter-island mailboat linking Nassau with Rum Cay, San Salvador and Cat Island. Plagued by mechanical trouble and low freeboard unsuited to open-ocean runs, she partially sank at Potter's Cay before being raised, patched by dive operator Stuart Cove, and towed toward a new mooring. When she began taking on water again near Clifton Pier, Cove instead had her sunk as a dive attraction off Goulding Cay on 26 December 1988.
Vessel
- 1966
- IMO 6622317
- Not established
- Hoogezand, Netherlands
- Steel
- 138 ft
- 25 ft
- 199
- Single MAK diesel engine, single screw
- Antler Limited (London); W. B. Hart (Nassau); Bahamas mailboat service
Loss
- December 26, 1988
- Intentional sinking
- Southwest of New Providence, near Goulding Cay
- Straits of Florida approach, New Providence
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Stuart Cove
The Wreck Today
- 45-55
- Broken and scattered on a sand bottom; cargo hold cage structure heavily colonized by coral
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Goulding Cay, New Providence
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (70/100)
Some published accounts give her build year or route details somewhat differently; the outline above reflects the most consistent record.
Eric Wiberg maritime history research
Build date, ownership chain, loss narrative, IMO number.
Final sinking sequence at Clifton Pier and Stuart Cove's patching effort.
