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In 1969 a group of promoters bought the World War II surplus troop ship SS Jalisco, renamed her USS Abalonia, and sailed to the Cortes bank, intending to sink her in shallow water to form a tax-free island nation and shellfish processing plant. But during that sinking rough seas broke a mooring line and pushed her into deeper water. Another company planned to build a platform on the Cortes bank and form a nation called Taluga, but the US government declared that the Cortes bank, as part of the continental shelf, was US territory. The wreck of the Abalonia today lies in three pieces under about 40 feet (12 m) of water and is another dive spot.
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