Thunderbolt
Mine Planter · United States · Lost 1986 · The Florida Keys
A World War II Army mine planter, later a lightning-research vessel, sunk intact as a Florida Keys dive reef.
The Vessel and Her Loss
Launched in 1942 as the Army mine planter Major General Wallace F. Randolph, the vessel tended coastal minefields before being placed in Naval Reserve without commission. Florida Power and Light Company later used her, renamed Thunderbolt, to research the electrical energy of lightning strikes. The company donated the ship to the Florida Keys Artificial Reef Association, which sank her intact on March 6, 1986. She rests upright near Marathon as a popular wreck dive.
Vessel
- 1942
- Marietta Manufacturing Company
- Point Pleasant, West Virginia
- Steel
- 189 ft
- Not established
- Not established
- Diesel-electric, single screw
- U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps; later Florida Power and Light Company
Loss
- March 6, 1986
- Intentional sinking
- Atlantic Ocean, about four miles south of Marathon and Key Colony Beach, Florida
- Atlantic Ocean
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 75-120
- Intact and upright on a sand bottom
- Upright
- Not established
- Within Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
Position
- 24.66° N 80.97° W
- Reported, unconfirmed
- Marathon, Florida
Dive-resource listings (DiveSpots, corroborated by divers citing Ned DeLoach's Under Water Florida guide) give this GPS position for the Thunderbolt artificial reef south of Marathon.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)
Exact coordinates and beam or tonnage figures are not established in the sources reviewed.
NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Shipwreck Trail
Build history, name changes, sinking date, and hull description.
Wikipedia (Major General Wallace F. Randolph (ship))
Naval Register classification history.
DiveSpots.com Thunderbolt listing
wreck position
