Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 11 May 2017

‘Perfect Storm’ ship sunk, becomes part of artificial reef

CAPE MAY, N.J. (AP) — The ing the removal of inte-
ship made famous in the rior paneling and insulation
book and subsequent film as well as emptying and
“The Perfect Storm” has cleaning the vessel of all
been intentionally sunk off fuel and fluids.
the New Jersey and Dela- The ship turned on its side as
ware coasts so it can be- it slowly went down in the
come part of an artificial calm water, then turned
reef. straight up as the bulk of
The sinking of the Tama- the vessel went under wa-
roa, a 205-foot (62-meter) ter. It then disappeared
Coast Guard vessel, took from view as a person on
place Wednesday morn- board a neighboring vessel
ing. The sinking initially was thanked the Tamaroa for its
scheduled to occur sev- long service.
eral months ago, but was A tugboat had started
repeatedly delayed by hauling the Tamaroa from
rough seas and other re- a Norfolk, Virginia, shipyard
lated issues. on Monday afternoon and
The vessel was sent down it slowly made its way up
about 33 nautical miles (61 the Eastern Seaboard on
kilometers) off the coast of Tuesday without any issues.
Cape May, New Jersey. The Tamaroa was first com-
It was deployed in water missioned by the U.S. Navy
more than 120 feet (36.5 in 1934 under the name
meters) deep after patches Zuni and saw action dur-
were removed from holes ing World War II when it
that were pre-cut into its helped tow damaged
hull, according to the New vessels across the war-torn
Jersey Department of Envi- Pacific Ocean. It was trans-
ronmental Protection. ferred to the Coast Guard
The pre-cut holes were part and renamed in 1946, then
of the extensive work that continued to serve until it
had to be done before the eventually was decommis-
ship could be sunk, includ- sioned in 1994.q

In this May 30, 2000, file photo, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. William Moeller of Northford, Conn., poses for
a photo in front of the USS Tamaroa.
Associated Press