It now lies in some brush a short distance from his home in Cape Ray.
The torpedo was first hauled ashore by two men in the 1950s off of Rocky Barachois. One of the men had expertise in explosives and decided to detonate the device by dynamiting it out in the ocean, in case it was still active. The explosion caused it to sink back into the water. Through word of mouth, Mr. LeRiche was able to rediscover the shell in the 1970s.
However, the torpedo is not his most prized discovery. A 600-pound canon that he hoisted from the ocean near Fox Roost is a memento from his past that he is still searching for today.
After obtaining the large remnant of colonial warfare, he set out to the mainland for work and left the artifact on his father’s lawn. His father sold it to a passerby because it was in his way.
Mr. LeRiche is not bitter about losing the item because it is the adventure of diving that he loves.
An aspect of diving along the southwest coast that captivates him is the vast number of wrecks that sleep undisturbed along the sea-bed.
“You really never know what you’re going to find,” he said.
His advice for anyone interested in taking up diving as a hobby is to invest in an underwater camera because of the sheer beauty one can see while exploring.
