8 Shipwrecks That Could Sink the Environment

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Shipwreck one

Name of the Vessel: Jacob Luckenbach

When: July, 1953

Where: Less than 20 miles beyond the Golden Gate Bridge

Threat: Leaked 300,000 gallons or more.

Reason for Shipwreck: Collision with another vessel, the Hawaiian Pilot

Aftermath: Resulted in the deaths of more than 50,000 birds between 1990 and 2003.

Shipwreck two

Name of the Vessel: Gulfstate

When: April 1943

Where: Florida Keys

Threat: 3.5 million gallons of bunker oil still in tact within the vessel.

Reason for Shipwreck: Torpedoed by a German U-boat

Aftermath: Threat to Florida’s coral reefs and sea life.

Shipwreck three

The USS Arizona Memorial sits directly over the sunken battleship.

Name of the Vessel: USS Arizona

When: Dec. 7, 1941

Where: Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor

Threat: An estimated 500,000 gallons remain inside

Reason for Shipwreck: Bombed and sank in a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Aftermath: The oil is visible on the water’s surface at the USS Arizona Memorial on the Hawaiian island of Oahu

Shipwreck four

Name of the Vessel: Argo

When: October 1937

Where: Lake Erie north east of Sandusky, Ohio

Threat: Laden with over 200,000 gallons of crude oil and benzol

Reason for Shipwreck: Violent storm

Aftermath: Oily sheen on the water, a strong smell of solvent in the area and discoloration on the water’s surface.

Shipwreck five 

The Joseph M. Cudahy was a 430-foot-long tanker built in 1921.

Name of the Vessel: Joseph M. Cudahy

When: May 1942

Where: In the Gulf of Mexico about 125 miles west of Naples, Florida.

Threat: Contains more than 300,000 gallons of oil

Reason for Shipwreck: Torpedoed by a German U-boat

Aftermath: Surface oil slicks there for years, which often get worse after storms.

Shipwreck six

Name of the Vessel: W.E. Hutton

When: March 1942

Where: Off the coast of North Carolina

Threat: Contains 2.7 million gallons of heating oil

Reason for Shipwreck: Torpedoed by a German U-boat

Aftermath: Black globs rising to the ocean surface and an oily sheen several miles offshore of Cape Lookout.

Shipwreck seven

Name of the Vessel: Coimbra

When: January 1942

Where: Off the coast of Long Island

Threat: Carried more than three million gallons of lubricating oil

Reason for Shipwreck: Torpedoed by a German U-boat

Aftermath: Several mysterious oil spills and incidents of tar balls washing ashore on Long Island beaches over the years.

Shipwreck eight

The Edmund Fitzgerald was built in 1958 and was 729 feet long.

Name of the Vessel: Edmund Fitzgerald

When: 1975

Where: Lake Superior

Threat: Still consists of 50,000 gallons of the highly destructive heavy-grade fuel oil

Reason for Shipwreck: Storm

Aftermath: Classified as a medium pollution risk

Source: Mother Nature Network