The sinking of Florida’s first submarine artificial reef is a step closer to becoming a reality off the Palm Beach County coast with the agreement in principle by South Carolina’s Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum to contribute funds to the relocation of the Clamagore, a WWII-era sub it can no longer afford to keep open as a tourist attraction.

Veteran artificial reefer Joe Weatherby of Artificial Reefs International-USS Clamagore, which proposes to sink the sub, says there also are plans to establish a land-based Clamagore museum in Palm Beach County to complement the historic reef. Weatherby expects the next steps will be a formal agreement with Patriots Point and the state of South Carolina, followed by discussions with the U.S. Navy to identify considerations for its required historical-review process. Transfer from South Carolina to Florida is expected to be by barge; no dates have yet been established for that. Weatherby expects that historic artifacts removed in cleaning and preparing the 320-foot Balao-class sub, built in 1945, will go to the Historic Naval Ships Association member museums (HNSA.org) and to veterans groups.

Salt Life, a sponsor of the project, expects to have Clamagore merchandise like T-shirts available by this summer, which it will sell to spur a crowd-funding effort to help raise $1 million of the estimated $4 million needed. Weatherby already has pledges of around $2.5 million, including $1 million promised last spring by Palm Beach County.

Clamagore is no stranger to the Sunshine State: The boat, nicknamed “the Gray Ghost of the Florida Coast,” was based in Key West for 20 years, Weatherby says. During WWII, Palm Beach County was home to a sub listening station at the Jupiter lighthouse — in just the first seven months of 1942, German subs sank more than 35 ships off Florida, some of them accessible to divers today.