 Argo Merchant, aground southeast of Nantucket seen with a silvery oil slick coming from her center holds.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner | Thebes Shipping Inc. |
| Port of registry |  Liberia, Monrovia |
| Builder | |
| Yard number | 886 |
| Launched | 5 September 1953 |
| Maiden voyage | 1953 |
| In service | 1953 |
| Out of service | December 15, 1976 |
| Identification | IMO number: 5022522 |
| Fate | Foundered/sunk at 41°01′59″N 69°27′00″W / 41.033°N 69.45°W |
| Notes | [1][2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Tanker |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 195.5 m (641 ft) |
| Beam | 25.7 m (84 ft) |
| Draught | 10.6 m (35 ft) |
| Speed | 16 knots |
| Notes | [1][2] |
MV Argo Merchant was a Liberian-flagged oil tanker built by Howaldtswerke in Hamburg, Germany, in 1953, most noted for running aground and subsequently 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.[1]
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.[3]
- ^ a b c "Argo Merchant". Casualty Database. Center for Tankship Excellence. 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
- ^ a b Argo Merchant at Shipspotting.com
- ^ Pile, Stephen (1979). Book of Heroic Failures. London: Futura. ISBN 0-7088-1908-7.