The Houston Chronicle September 25, 2009
Possible WWII vessel that's buried is leaking oil
By Peggy O'Hare
A possible World War II-era ship found buried in the ocean floor six miles off the East Texas-Louisiana shoreline is leaking oil, and authorities expect to spend several weeks removing all fuel from the vessel.
The U.S. Coast Guard's Port Arthur personnel recently discovered what appeared to be a minor oil sheen about six miles off Texas Point, in the Sabine Pass area. The oil was initially thought to have spilled from a pipeline, but that theory was ruled out.
A sonar scan showed the hull of a sunken ship. Further investigation revealed the submerged vessel is consistent in size and shape with a 417-foot-long, 56-foot-wide World War II Liberty ship. The vessel, found in 36 feet of water, is buried in the ocean floor, with only five feet of the ship's hull protruding from the ground with no identifiable markers visible.
The ship has already been documented on marine maps as a charted wreck, said Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Kimberly Kaiser of the Coast Guard's Port Arthur station, indicating the vessel's sunken remains have been discovered before.
Coordinates provided by the Coast Guard and searches of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Coast Survey's records, which document shipwrecks, confirm the sunken vessel is a Liberty ship, formerly known as the SS William Beaumont, which sank in 1971.
The ship's keel was laid down May 31, 1943, then officially launched on June 23, 1943, and delivered July 4, 1943, according to the Web site www.Shipbuilding History.com.
Like many Liberty ships, the vessel continued to operate long after World War II ended. The exact circumstances that caused it to capsize on Aug. 16, 1971, were not immediately known, but the Web site said the ship was “scrapped.”
The vessel remains upside-down with the bow facing toward the southeast, according to Office of Coast Survey records.
The Coast Guard, with the help of a private company, Resolve Marine, determined the ship to be the probable source of the oil leak and estimated that 16,000 gallons of oil remain aboard the submerged vessel's fuel tanks.
Workers secured a 2-inch fracture in the ship's fuel tanks Wednesday, Kaiser said. The crews then tapped into the tanks holding the oil Thursday and began pumping the fluid into a response vessel for further disposal. The removal effort is expected to take several weeks.
Kaiser said she did not know if the Coast Guard will eventually bring the sunken Liberty ship up to the surface, noting such a recovery effort would be “extensive.”
“Our primary concern at this time is … to eliminate any potential threat of an oil spill,” she said Friday.
Officials with Resolve Marine, who are assisting in the cleanup, would not comment, referring all questions to the Coast Guard.
More than 2,700 Liberty ships were built during World War II and carried war supplies through the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
A merchant seaman's job on a Liberty ship was considered a dangerous task since the vessels, heavily laden with cargo, were slow moving, the Web site said.
The vessels were nicknamed “Kaiser's Coffins” since many merchant mariners perished at sea.
The Navy began equipping vessels with weapons and armed guards in 1942, GlobalSecurity.org states.
© Copyright 2009, The Houston Chronicle
