Texaco Oklahoma
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The Texaco Oklahoma was an American tanker that broke and sank in the North Atlantic in March 1971 .
description
The ship was built under hull number 4560 at the Bethlehem Steel Corp shipyard . built in Sparrows Point in the US state of Maryland for the Petrol Shipping Corporation in New York City . The ship was one of several tankers built between 1956 and 1959. It was delivered on February 19, 1958 and put into service as Atlantis .
The ship was from a steam turbine with 15,000 hp power driven, via a gear to a propeller worked. The steam required for operation was generated in two steam boilers .
The deck superstructures were distributed over an area about a third of the length of the ship and an area in the stern area of the ship. The command bridge , the radio room and the accommodations of the deck officers were located in the front deck superstructures , in the rear deck superstructures and the like. a. the accommodations of the other crew members . The engine room was also located in the rear of the ship .
The cargo tanks were located in ten holds , which were distributed between the areas in front of the bridge house and between the superstructures. There were three cargo tanks in each room, making a total of 30 tanks available. In the area of the cargo tanks behind the bridge house, two cargo booms were installed for the hose takeover.
In October 1960, the ship was chartered out on a bareboat charter for 18 years to Texaco , a company based in Port Arthur , Texas . The ship's new name was Texaco Oklahoma . In April 1964 it was sold to the Wilton Shipping Corporation while maintaining the charter contract.
Average and sinking
 
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In March 1971 the ship was with a cargo of 220,000 barrels (around 35,000 m³) of heavy fuel oil on the voyage from Port Arthur in Texas to Boston in Massachusetts .
The ship left Port Arthur on March 22nd. There were 44 seamen on board . During the voyage in the Atlantic, the weather deteriorated and on March 26 the ship was in heavy seas. At around 3:30 a.m. on March 27, the hull of the ship broke in the area of hold 5 behind the bridge deck when the ship was about 120 nautical miles northeast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina . The front part of the ship then collided with the rear part and destroyed the lifeboat on the starboard side. Both parts of the ship initially remained buoyant. The front part of the ship was last sighted in the afternoon of March 27, 1971 by crew members rescued later on the rear part of the ship.
On the night of March 28, the rear of the ship began to sink. The crew then left the ship in the early hours of the morning. Since the lifeboat on the starboard side had been torn away by the overflowing sea, only a life raft and rafts assembled from empty barrels were available. The oil that had leaked from the destroyed tanks made the life-saving appliances slippery, making it difficult for seafarers to hold on to them. Eventually the line broke and life rafts and rafts were driven away before all crew members could leave the sinking ship. Shortly afterwards, one of the cargo tanks ripped open and the contents spilled into the sea. The sailors were washed into the sea on the life raft and rafts. Eleven sailors made it back to the life raft, while others held on to floating objects or drifted away. The aft part of the ship finally sank around 6:00 a.m.
The survivors in the life raft were accidentally discovered and rescued by the passing tanker Sasstown at around 5:00 p.m. on March 28 . As a result of the ship's report to the coast guard , a search for further survivors was initiated, in which ships and aircraft of the coast guard and the armed forces as well as six Texaco tankers took part. During March 29, two other survivors floating in the water were rescued by the tanker Texaco Nebrasca . A total of 13 sailors survived the accident, 31 were killed, 13 of them who were on the front part of the ship and 18 who were on the back of the ship.
Investigation and consequences
The heavy oil that leaked from several burst tanks formed an oil film on the sea surface. This drifted away from the coast with the wind and current.
The cause of the sinking of the Texaco Oklahoma the structural failure of the ship's hull was adopted as a result of the swell. Investigations of the hull and the cargo tanks in the months and years before the accident did not reveal any irregularities. It could not be clarified whether repairs to the ship's hull, which were carried out in previous years after the ship ran aground and collided, had contributed to the accident.
After the accident, Texaco had numerous ships in its tanker fleet checked for weaknesses in shipyards. No particular weaknesses were discovered during this process and during investigations by the responsible authorities, which examined other ships of the series, to which the Texaco Oklahoma also belonged, after the accident.
As a reaction to the accident, numerous ships from the time of the Second World War were decommissioned. In addition, various regulations relating to safety at sea have been revised and adapted.
In 1973 a sundial was erected in Port Arthur, dedicated to the 31 crew members who were killed in the accident and to all other sailors who remained at sea.
Others
Albert E. Merrikin (1909–1971) was the radio officer on board the ship. He went down with the front part of the ship. Merrikin was known as a painter of maritime motifs and for many years had contributed to the illustration of the Texaco Co. magazine "The Range Light" with drawings. In 1990 he was posthumously awarded the "Marconi Memorial Scroll of Honor" by the Veteran Wireless Operators Association. In addition, the Veteran Wireless Operators Association commemorates him and other radio operators who stayed at sea with the "The Wireless Operators Monument" at The Battery in New York City.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Bethlehem Steel Company, Sparrows Point MD , Shipbuilding History. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ A b SS Texaco Oklahoma Collection , Records 1958–1971, Jack K. Williams Library, Texas A&M University at Galveston (PDF, 211 kB). Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Structural Failure and Sinking of the SS Texaco Oklahoma off Cape Hatteras on March 27, 1971, with the Loss of 31 Lives , Marine Casualty Report, US Coast Guard, Marine Board of Investigation Report and Commandants Action, 1972 (PDF, 2.8 MB). Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ A b John T. Smith, Jr .: Oil Slick Remote Sensing , NOAA National Ocean Survey, Rockville (PDF, 931 kB). Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ A b c d Marine Accident Report: Structural Failure and Sinking of the Texaco-Oklahoma off Cape Hatteras on March 27, 1971, with the Loss of 31 Lives , Transportation Research Board, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Texas Oklahoma , Center for Tankship Excellence. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Texaco Oklahoma a tragedy at sea remembered , The Record Live, February 17, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Casey Conley: Maritime Casualty News, March 2018 , Professional Marine, March 22, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Texaco - The Early 70's , Much Have I Traveled, September 19, 2012. Accessed July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Texaco-Oklahoma , Shipwreckology, March 27, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Breakup and sinking of Texaco Oklahoma - March 27, 1971 , Freaque Waves, December 24, 2013. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Jonatan Toledo Arriagada: Texaco Oklahoma (1971) , Análisis de desastres marítimos con vertidos contaminantes periodo entre 1955 y 1990, Trabajo fin de grado, Universidad de La Laguna, September 2016, pp. 59–60 (PDF, 6.9 MB) . Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Seamen's Memorial Equatorial Sundial, Port Arthur TX , Waymarking.com. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Port Arthur , North American Sundial Society. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Albert Edward Merrikin , Find A Grave Memorial. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ↑ Those Where The Days… , Commemorative Issue, Texaco Oil Trading & Transport, November 2001 (PDF, 63 MB). Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Awards 1990 to 1995 , Veteran Wireless Operators Association. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ In Memoriam - The Wireless Operators Monument, Battery Park, New York City , Veteran Wireless Operators Association, Eighty-Fourth Annual Banquet, 2009 (PDF, 1.9 MB). Retrieved July 24, 2018.