Owner Thebes Shipping Inc. Yard number 886 Identification IMO number 5022522 Length 196 m Beam 26 m | Port of registry Liberia, Monrovia Out of service December 15, 1976 Launched 1953 Draft 11 m | |
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Name Argo Merchant (1973)
VARI (1970)
Permina Samudra III (1968)
Arcturus (1953) Builder Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft | ||
MV Argo Merchant was a Liberian-flagged oil tanker built by Howaldtswerke in Hamburg, Germany in 1953, most noted for running aground and subsequent sinking southeast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, causing one of the largest marine oil spills in history. Throughout the vessel's troubled past, she was involved in more than a dozen major shipping incidents including two other groundings; once in Indonesia while named Permina Samudra III, and again in Sicily while named Vari; and a collision in Japan.
Because of her checkered career and sinking, Argo Merchant was featured in the "worst ship" category in the 1979 publication, The Book of Heroic Failures.
1976 shipwreck
In December 1976, Argo Merchant loaded with 7,700,000 US gallons (29,000,000 l) of No. 6 fuel oil at Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, sailing for Boston under Captain Georgios Papadopoulos. It was later established that the ship carried two unqualified crew as helmsmen, a broken gyrocompass, inadequate charts, and an inaccurate radio direction finder. At six p.m. on 15 December in high winds and 3 m (9.8 ft) seas, the tanker ran aground on Middle Rip Shoal about 29 nautical miles (54 km; 33 mi) southeast of Nantucket and more than 24 nmi (44 km; 28 mi) off her intended course. The thirty-eight members of the crew were evacuated, but the shallow waters and weather conditions made it impossible to offload the oil or salvage the ship. On 21 December 1976, Argo Merchant broke apart and emptied its entire cargo of fuel oil, enough to heat 18,000 homes for a year. Fortunately, northwesterly winds blew the 60 by 100 nmi (110 by 190 km; 69 by 115 mi) oil slick offshore, and coastal fisheries and beaches were spared the worst.
The Argo Merchant's distress call (international code "XXX" on 500 kHz international calling and distress radio frequency) was responded to by USCG Communication Station (COMMSTA) Portsmouth (NMN).