Advance II

Fast Facts:

• Average Depth:  60 ft. / 18 m
• Max Depth: 80 ft. / 24 m

Features:

• Wreck Site
• Mooring Buoys
• Artificial Reef

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The Advance II was laid down in July 1943 as a Patrol Craft Escort (PCE-845). She was commissioned in March 1944 and in April sailed from Miami, Florida to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. The ship escorted coastal convoys from Port-of-Spain to Brazilian ports. PCE-845 was then used for training operations in the Florida Keys before departing Key West for the Pacific in January 1945.

PCE-842 conducted escort missions and antisubmarine patrols in the Philippines for several months. The ship then patrolled Leyte Gulf until V-J Day in August, 1945. The Patrol Craft then escorted the Hugh W. Hadley, which had been damaged by kamikaze, to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and spent the next two years working air-sea rescue and weather patrols with Service Squadron 7.

The ship then returned to the mainland and served as a training ship, first out of New Orleans and then, on the Great Lakes. During this time PCE-845 was renamed the Worland. After being decommissioned in 1964 the ship was acquired by the Cape Fear Technical Institute of Wilmington, NC. The CFTI renamed the ship R/V Advance II in honor of the Confederate blockade runner Advance of the Civil War. Advance II was sold in 1980 and then donated to the North Carolina Department of Fisheries. She was deployed in 1994 off Kitty Hawk in artificial reef section AR-145.

The Advance II lies about eight nautical miles out from the Oregon Inlet sea buoy. The 185-foot ship lies on a sandy bottom at 80 feet. The bridge rises to within 35-40 feet of the surface. This dive spot is a popular training and certification dive with Nags Head dive operators.