The following article was taken from the San Diego Union Tribune July 1989

Retired Coast Guard cutter goes to the bottom -- finally

by Frank Green
Staff Writer

Like any good captain, Al Bruton wanted to go down with his ship.

But it wasn't cooperating with him.

He punched holes in its hull with an ax, and had a tugboat attempt to pull it over on its side, yet the Ruby E -- a 165-foot-long former Coast Guard cutter -- remained stubbornly afloat off the Mission Bay Channel.

Never mind that the ship's ride to the bottom of the sea finally came five hours after Bruton , president of the San Diego Council of Divers, had assured about 60 diving enthusiasts gathered in their boats to view the sinking that it would take but 20 minutes to put Ruby E 85 feet down under.

"Maybe it should have been named Molly Brown, after the Unsinkable Molly Brown," grumbled one observer in a motorboat, who was battling both seasickness and a headache due to the long vigil.

It all had to do with a 2-year-old joint program of the state Department of Fish and Game and the divers council to establish a vast artificial reef about one mile northwest of Mission Bay Channel.

Dubbed "wreck alley," the area's depths already are home to two fishing boats and a kelp cutter.

"We call them 'fish aggregating devices,' or FADs, because the reefs serve as fish hatcheries and give fish a place to hang out," said John Grant, a marine biologist with the Fish and Game Department, who was on hand to watch the sinking.

The reefs also attract thousands of divers and organized diving tours to examine the decommissioned boats.

Built in 1936, the Ruby E -- which could hit a top speed of 38 knots in its heyday -- was known as the Cayne when it patrolled for the Coast Guard off the California coastline.

It was decommissioned 19 1964 and sold by the government to a Northern California fishery, which used the ship to haul supplies to Alaska and Central America.

San Diego Tug and Barge, an industrial boating company in National City, bought the ship for salvage a few months ago, stripped it, then sold it for $1 to the state.

"We're pleased to be able to contribute to this very valuable ecological program," said Jim McArthur, general manager of the company.

The Ruby E was towed by the company Monday night to the site of its final resting-place.

At 10a.m. yesterday, Bruton and a small crew of divers unplugged four strategically placed holes in the front and back compartments. With the ship's two enormous diesel engines still in place, Bruton figured it would take 20 minutes, at most, for the ship to hit bottom.

By 1 p.m., he'd changed his tune.

"It was a turkey shoot and we lost," said the tanned, stockilly built ex-lifeguard, who stood on the starboard deck ready to don his diving gear to ride the ship underwater.

By that point, Bruton had hacked holes with an ax in the rusted hull, and had watched while a tugboat -- with its cables attached to the porthole of the ship's captain's quarters -- tried in vain to pull the ship on its side.

"We can't get enough water in the front compartments," Bruton said.

Two marine pumps were brought aboard an hour later, and the Ruby slowly began to lose its buoyancy as it took on more seawater

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