Texas ClippeR
Dive The Texas Clipper
The Texas Clipper is a 473 feet long artificial reef that was sank in 2007. The location of The Clipper is 17 miles off the coast of South Padre Island in approximately 136 feet of water. The wreck lies on her port side and comes up to 70 feet below the surface. Divers will usually spend their dive in the 80 to 90 foot range when diving the Clipper. Book a dive on the Clipper
ThE Ship with 3 Names
The Texas Clipper was built as a WWII troop transport and attack ship. Named the USS Queens back then, she was active in the Pacific theater and was the first attack troop transport to arrive to Iwo Jima.
After the war, The Queens was retrofitted as a luxury liner and recommissioned as the SS Excambion. The Excambion was one of the “four aces” of the American Export Lines fleet. Passengers and cargo were transported in style between New York City and various ports throughout the Mediterranean.
In 1965, as commercial aviation became the preferred way to travel across the Atlantic, the Excambion was retired. Facing dismantling, she was rescued by Texas A&M University-Galveston and became a maritime training vessel until 1996. Now in her final resting place at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, The Texas Clipper is home to thousands of fish, soft corrals and other reef organisms.
Learn more at Texas Parks and Wildlife and the TPWD Artificial Reef Program
