SS Atlantic Empress was a Greek oil tanker that in 1979 collided with the oil tanker Aegean Captain in the Caribbean, and eventually sank, having created the fifth largest oil spill on record and the largest ship-based spill having spilled 287,000 metric tonnes of crude oil into the Caribbean Sea. It was built at the Odense Staalskibsværft shipyard in Odense, Denmark, and launched on 16 February 1974.
The Japanese raiders in the Indian Ocean were those vessels used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second World War to pursue its war on Allied commerce in that theatre. Possessing a powerful fleet of warships, prior to the start of World War II, the IJN had strategically planned to fight a war of fleet actions, and as a consequence delegated few resources to raiding merchant vessels. Nevertheless, in 1940, two passenger-cargo vessels – Aikoku Maru and Hōkoku Maru – of the Osaka Shipping Line were requisitioned for conversion to armed merchant cruisers (AMC)s, in anticipation of the likely thrust southward by the Japanese. These vessels were subsequently used as merchant raiders attacking Allied commercial shipping along vital sea lanes of communication between Australia and the Middle East. Using their comprehensive armament and speed to their advantage, the raiders experienced a brief period of success. Japanese raiding in the Indian Ocean largely ceased by the end of 1942 after an action with a Dutch vessel, the Ondina and a Royal Indian Navy corvette, HMIS Bengal in which the Hōkoku Maru was sunk.
John J. Harvey is a fireboat formerly of the New York City Fire Department in New York City, famed for returning to service following the September 11, 2001 attacks. She is among the most powerful fireboats ever built, capable of pumping up to 18,000 gallons of water a minute.
R.P. Resor was a tanker ship built in 1936 by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Kearny, New Jersey for the Standard Oil Company. She was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-578 on 28 February 1942 and later sank.
Vorwärts was a wolfpack of German U-boats that operated from 25 August to 26 September 1942, in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. They attacked several convoys, principally Convoy ON 127, sailing from Liverpool to New York, and sank fifteen ships for a total of 79,331 gross register tons (GRT), and damaged nine (81,141 GRT).
Fire Fighter is a fireboat which served the New York City Fire Department from 1938 through 2010, serving with Marine Companies 1, 8 and 9 during her career. The most powerful diesel-electric fireboat in terms of pumping capacity when built in 1938, Fire Fighter fought more than 50 major fires during her career, including fires aboard the SS Normandie in 1942 and the SS El Estero in 1943, the 1973 collision of the Esso Brussels and SS Sea Witch, and the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts (liferafts) are also used. In the military, a lifeboat may double as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors usually carry inflatable liferafts, though a few prefer small proactive lifeboats that are harder to sink and can be sailed to safety.
W. L. Steed was a steam tanker built in 1917–1918 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company, with intention of transporting oil and petroleum products between Mexican and Gulf ports and the Northeast of the United States. The ship was briefly requisitioned by the US Government during World War I but returned to commercial service in early 1919. The ship was named after William L. Steed, superintendent of the Mexican Petroleum Company of California.
SS Volturno was an ocean liner that caught fire and was eventually scuttled in the North Atlantic in October 1913. She was a Royal Line ship under charter to the Uranium Line at the time of the fire. After the ship issued SOS signals, eleven ships came to her aid and, in heavy seas and gale winds, rescued 521 passengers and crewmen. In total 135 people, most of them women and children in lifeboats launched unsuccessfully prior to the arrival of the rescue ships, died in the incident.
MV British Prudence was a tanker built by Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd. of Sunderland in 1939 and operated by the British Tanker Company. A U-boat sank her in 1942 off the coast of Newfoundland. She was a victim of the Second Happy Time: the Kriegsmarine's Operation Drumbeat to sink Allied merchant shipping in the Western Atlantic
Sylvan Arrow was a steam tanker built in 1917–1918 by New York Shipbuilding Co. of Camden for Standard Oil Company, with intention of transporting oil and petroleum products between United States and ports in the Far East. The ship was briefly requisitioned by the US Government during World War I but returned to commercial service in early 1919.
Sea Witch was a MARAD Type C5-S-73b container ship built at the Bath Iron Works shipyard for American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines. She operated in the Atlantic trades for five years. So engaged on the evening of June 1, 1973, the vessel was involved in a disastrous collision with the oil tanker Esso Brussels in lower New York Harbor and was damaged so badly that she was removed from active service.
German submarine U-65 was a Type IXB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. Over the course of six war patrols between 9 April 1940 and 28 April 1941, she sank twelve ships and damaged three others for a total loss of 88,664 gross register tons (GRT).
MV C.O. Stillman was an oil tanker that was built by a German shipyard in 1928 for a Canadian-based shipping company. A Panamanian subsidiary of Esso bought her at the end of 1936 and she was sunk by the German submarine U-68 in the Caribbean on June 4, 1942 about 41 nautical miles (76 km) southwest of Isla de Mona, Puerto Rico.
SS Pennsylvania Sun was a United States tanker that was damaged by U-571, 125 miles (201 km) West of Key West, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, while traveling from Port Arthur, Texas, to Belfast, United Kingdom. She was repaired and went back in service in 1943, she was eventually scrapped in 1963.
SS Hobbs Victory was a cargo Victory ship built for World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. Hobbs Victory, was launched on January 9, 1945 by Permanente Metals Corporation, Richmond, California and completed on January 9, 1945. She was built in just 87 days. She was operated by the Sudden & Christenson for the United States Maritime Commission.
The Fire Department of New York operated a fireboat named William J. Gaynor from 1914 to 1961.
In June 1966, the British oil tanker MV Alva Cape caught fire twice in New York Harbor, first in a collision with tanker SS Texaco Massachusetts, and next while unloading cargo, and was subsequently scuttled offshore. Thirty-three people were killed in the collision, the resulting spill of its cargo of naphtha and major fire that ensued. Four more were killed about two weeks later while the emptied tanks were being inerted with carbon dioxide in a misguided attempt to make the damaged vessel safe for transport.
Byron D. Benson was a steam tanker built in 1920–1921 by Oscar Daniels Shipbuilding Co. of Tampa for Tide Water Oil Co., a subsidiary of Standard Oil, with intention of operating between New York and oil-producing ports of the southern United States and Mexico. The ship was named after Byron D. Benson, founder of Tide Water Pipe Co.
R. W. Gallagher was a steam turbine-powered tanker built in 1938 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey with intention of operating between the oil-producing ports of the southern United States and Mexico and the Northeast. The tanker spent her entire career in coastwise trade and was torpedoed and sunk on one of regular journeys in July 1942 by German submarine U-67.
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