Esso Gettysburg HAER No. CA-354 Page 7 coastal service into the early 1970s, with frequent calls at such refinery ports as Baytown, Texas; Baton Rouge;Char-leston; Baltimore; New York and Long Island Sound; New Haven; and Boston. The ship also made occasional calls at South American and Caribbean island ports. Records indicating the ship’s use through the 1970s and into the early 1980s have not been found, but nothing substantially different from the ship’s previous service is likely. 17 The ship’s otherwise unremarkable career was marred by three known accidents. It collided with the Moore-McCor-mack freighter Robin Hood off North Point while entering Baltimore Harbor on May 14, 1964. Both ships sustained minor damage, but, coincidentally, the Esso Gettysburg was bound for Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for repairs already. On July 8, 1970, the ship ran aground off Block Island while bound for New Haven, Connecticut, spilling 1,000 gal- lons (24 barrels) of oil into the Atlantic Ocean. 18 The ship ran ground again six months later, this time spilling significantly more oil into Long Island Sound. While en-tering New Haven Harbor in heavy fog and light snow before dawn on January 23, 1971, the ship strayed out of the channel and struck a rock ledge, suffering buckled plates and a long crack in the bottom shell plating amidships. The pilot reversed the engines and backed off the ledge, but, according to a Coast guard spokesman quoted in the New York Times, “the ship ‘instantly began leaking oil’ and ‘leaked oil all the way up to the Wyatt Terminal’ as she pro-ceeded up the harbor, a distance of three miles.” The ship reportedly spilled 385,000 gallons (9,167 barrels) of home-heating oil into Long Island Sound, out of a car-go from Baton Rouge of 8.4 million gallons (200,000 barrels). No one aboard was injured, although a cameraman and pilot covering the accident were taken to the hospital for exposure after their helicopter crashed into the sound. The accident was blamed on buoys moved out of position by recent ice in the harbor. 19 Most of the oil dissipated or evaporated before it could be cleaned up. Little of it reached shore because of icy coastal conditions, and short-term harm to wildlife was reported as limited. 20 (The New York Times noted, however, that “The harbor here [at New Haven] has little or no wildlife, except for sea gulls. Its waters have been described as polluted, and a number of beaches in this area have been closed in recent summers because of pollution dangers.”21) The Esso Gettysburg’s remaining cargo was offloaded at New Haven, and the --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Shipping columns in the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times were surveyed from early 1957 to late 1971. See also “Large petroleum cargo arrives,” Baltimore Sun, Oct. 3, 1958, 39. 18 “2 ships collide off north point,” Baltimore Sun, May 14, 1964, 38; “385,000 gallons of oil spill into sound,” New York Times, Jan. 24, 1971, 1. 19 The ship grounded in the approach to New Haven Harbor “on a rock ledge between the Luddington Rock and East Breakwater, one mile southwest of Lighthouse Point.” “385,000 gallons of oil spill into sound,” 1; Nelson Bryant, “Chatting replaces shooting on bluebill hunt on icy Long Island Sound,” New York Times, Feb. 4, 1971, 44. 20 “Tanker hits rocks, spills heating oil,” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 24, 1971, 7; Joseph B. Treaster, “12-mile slick held back from sound shore by ice,” New York Times, Jan. 25, 1971, 16; idem, “Damage is slight from oil in sound,” New York Times, Jan. 26, 1971, 37; “Fish are unharmed by sound oil spill,” New York Times, Jan. 27, 1971, 44; Bryant, “Chatting Replaces Shooting on Bluebill Hunt,” 44. 21 “385,000 gallons of oil spill into sound,” 1.

Page  8