Argo Merchant oil spill
The Argo Merchant oil spill occurred on December 15, 1976, when the oil tanker Argo Merchant grounded off the coast of Rhode Island, spilling approximately 7.7 million gallons of heavy fuel oil into the ocean. The vessel, which had a history of accidents, was en route from Venezuela to Salem, Massachusetts, carrying its cargo in thirty tanks. On the night before the grounding, the ship experienced a malfunction with its gyrocompass, leading the crew to misjudge their position. The grounding occurred in shallow waters, outside normal shipping lanes, and efforts to float or tow the vessel were unsuccessful. Within days, the ship began to break apart, resulting in a significant oil slick extending 160 kilometers. Fortunately, prevailing northwesterly winds helped limit the oil's impact on the New England shoreline, sparing many vital fishing and shellfish areas from extensive damage. While immediate effects on marine life were relatively limited, the long-term environmental consequences of the spill remain undocumented. The incident highlights ongoing concerns about maritime safety and environmental protection in areas prone to shipping traffic.
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Argo Merchant oil spill
THE EVENT: Grounding of the tanker Argo Merchant off the coast of Rhode Island, resulting in the spilling of heavy fuel oil into the sea
DATE: December 15, 1976
A northwesterly wind helped to prevent extensive environmental damage to the New England shoreline when the Argo Merchant grounded.
The Argo Merchant was built as the Arcturus in Hamburg, Germany, in 1953 and renamed the Permina Samudia III in 1968. It was then renamed the Vari in 1970 and finally the Argo Merchant in 1973. Regardless of the name or the owners, the ship had a long history of accidents. The Argo Merchant was not an extremely large vessel. It was 195 meters (641 feet) in length and 25.6 meters (84 feet) wide and had a draft of 10.7 meters (35 feet). It was owned by the Thebes Shipping Company of Greece, was chartered to Texaco, and carried a crew of Greek officers and Filipino crewmen under the Liberian flag.
The vessel departed Puerto la Cruz in Venezuela bound for Salem, Massachusetts, with a cargo of 7.6 million gallons of heavy fuel oil in its thirty cargo tanks. The Argo Merchant’s problems began the evening before the grounding, as the onboard gyrocompass had broken, and the officers were unable to determine the ship’s position.
At 6:00 a.m. on December 15, 1976, the Argo Merchant grounded on the southern end of Fish Rap Shoal in 5.5 meters (18 feet) of water. The ship was 48 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Nantucket lightship station, 24 kilometers (15 miles) outside the normal shipping lanes, and 39 kilometers (24 miles) off its charted track line. When the crew of the Argo Merchant called the US Coast Guard to report the grounding, they had no idea of their position; the position they gave turned out to be 48 kilometers (30 miles) from where the tanker was located.
The Coast Guard, however, responded quickly and soon located the grounded vessel. Attempts were made to float the ship and to tow it, but neither method worked. The sea continued to batter the grounded ship, which began to bend and twist on the reef until oil started leaking from the cargo tanks. Within one week, the Argo Merchant had broken in half and was leaking large amounts of oil. As in the case of the 1967 Torrey Canyon in the English Channel, attempts were made to ignite the oil, but no attempt was made to destroy the oil remaining in the ship’s tanks.
Within ten days of the grounding, the oil slick from the Argo Merchant extended 160 kilometers (100 miles). Although the weather was rainy and windy, which made oil transfer and operations difficult, the wind blew predominantly from the northwest, and this drove the oil offshore, so that very little oil came ashore in the rich fishing and shellfish areas along the coast of New England. The northwesterly wind did drive the slick across Georges Bank, which is one of the richest fishing areas in the Atlantic Ocean, but the short-term effects of the windblown oil were marginal, and only a limited number of birds and marine mammals were killed. The long-term effects of the oil spill in the water column and the oil’s impact on bottom-dwelling creatures have not been documented.
Bibliography
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Fingas, Merv. The Basics of Oil Spill Cleanup. 2d ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2001.
"Flashback in Maritime History--Loss of Tanker Argo Merchant, 15 December 1976." MaritimeCyprus, 16 Dec. 2022, maritimecyprus.com/2022/12/16/flashback-in-maritime-history-loss-of-tanker-argo-merchant-15-december-1976-6/. Accessed 12 July 2024.
Wang, Zhendi, and Scott A. Stout. Oil Spill Environmental Forensics: Fingerprinting and Source Identification. Burlington, Mass.: Academic Press, 2007.