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Argo

41.64° N, 82.49° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1937

  • Storm
  • Lives lost: None recorded

41.64° N, 82.49° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Argo.[2]

The tank barge Argo sank in a 1937 storm off the Lake Erie islands with about 200,000 gallons of crude oil and benzol aboard. Lost for 78 years and rated a top pollution risk, she was found in 2015 and her leaking cargo was pumped out in a three-month cleanup.

The story

The Argo was built in 1911 at Baltimore by the Spedden Shipbuilding Company as a steel-hulled covered lighter. After the First World War, as demand for fuel grew, she was converted into a tank barge, and by the 1930s she was moving petroleum around New York Harbor.[2,1] She was 120 feet long and 34 feet wide, certified only for rivers, sounds and sheltered coastal bays. Wikipedia notes that her operation on the open Great Lakes was not legal.[1]

In the autumn of 1937 the tug Syosset towed the Argo up the Erie Canal and through the lakes to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where she loaded about 200,000 gallons of crude oil and benzol, a petroleum distillate, at the Algoma Steel plant.[2,1] Fully loaded she had only about two and a half feet of freeboard. Heading home, the tow waited out a storm near Amherstburg and then pushed into Lake Erie on October 19. As the weather worsened off Pelee Island, waves swept over the barge and she began to sink on October 20. Her two crew members clung to the stern and were pulled aboard the tug.[1]

For decades her position was uncertain, and in 2013 she was assessed as the Great Lakes wreck most likely to cause an environmental disaster.[1] In 2015 the Cleveland Underwater Explorers found her inside U.S. waters, several miles from where she had been reported lost, in about 45 feet of water.[1,3] Divers then saw a substance leaking from the hull that ate into their masks and suits, and the Coast Guard confirmed a benzene-rich leak from a rivet hole.[1]

A three-month operation by the U.S. Coast Guard with Canadian authorities, NOAA and a salvage contractor tapped the eight cargo tanks and pumped out about 50,000 gallons of contaminated water before work ended in December 2015.[1]

Lives lost: Both crew members aboard were rescued by the tug.

Questions people ask

Was anyone killed when the Argo sank?

No. The barge's two crew members were rescued by the tug Syosset, which was towing her.

Why was the Argo wreck a pollution worry?

She went down in 1937 with about 200,000 gallons of crude oil and benzol. After she was found in 2015, divers saw a benzene-rich leak, and a three-month cleanup removed about 50,000 gallons of contaminated water from her tanks.

Learn more

Museums and groups are linked for further reading; they are not connected with this site.

Look, don't take

Look, don't take. Shipwrecks and everything on them are protected by law; removing or disturbing anything can be a crime.

  • United States: under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (43 U.S.C. § 2105) the U.S. claims title to abandoned shipwrecks embedded in a state's submerged lands, or resting on them and eligible for the National Register, and transfers that title to the state.[4][5][6]
  • Ohio: R.C. 1506.32 requires a permit from the Director of Natural Resources, approved by the Ohio History Connection, to recover, alter, salvage or destroy abandoned property on, in or near a submerged watercraft or aircraft in Lake Erie.[7]

How Lake Erie wrecks are protected

Diving Lake Erie wrecks is dangerous: cold water, poor visibility, depth, entanglement and boat traffic. Nothing here is dive guidance or a dive position. Dive only with proper training, a qualified operator and current information from the groups that maintain moorings.

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Sources

  1. Argo (barge), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  2. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Argo, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  3. Welcome to Cleveland Underwater Explorers, Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE). Accessed .
  4. 43 U.S. Code 2105 - Rights of access (Abandoned Shipwreck Act: title to abandoned shipwrecks), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  5. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  6. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  7. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .
  8. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .

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