Menu
close
Hilma Hooker is one of Bonaire’s most popular dive sites and the island’s best-known wreck. Built in 1951 in the Netherlands, the freighter was originally named MV Midsland and began her
service with a shipping company that operated out of Rotterdam. She changed her name and ownership multiple times throughout the
1960s and 1970s before sinking off the coast of the Dominican Republic in July 1975. She was raised and resold that same year, before ultimately assuming the name Hilma Hooker under Columbian ownership. In 1984, she experienced problems with her rudder as she passed the island of Bonaire. She was sailing without official papers and authorities discovered a large quantity of marijuana on board when they searched her. She was impounded, but with no owner of record, the old ship languished in the harbor until fears of her seaworthiness led her to be towed outside of the harbor and to her current location. She sank mere days after she was towed, and now sits on her starboard side in the sand channel at the base of the main reef slope.
