Hard aground: the story of the Argo Merchant oil spill
On December 15, 1976, the Argo Merchant, an aging Liberian tanker, went aground on a sandy shoal southeast of Nantucket Island with 7.6 million gallons of industrial heating oil aboard. So begins the story of the largest coastal oil spill in the U.S. history. This book focuses on the effort to save the crew and cargo of the Argo Merchant from the fifty-knot winds and towering seas of a North Atlantic gale. At the center of the story is the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team. Specially trained to fight oil spills, the team was lowered by helicopter to the pitching deck of the dead vessel. After six tense days, they had to admit defeat. The Argo Merchant could not be refloated, and the violent seas prevented off-loading the oil onto another vessel. Under the pounding of the waves, the Argo Merchant had begun to break up. This men-against-the-sea tale and documentary show how vulnerable the nation's coastline is to oil spills. In this case, the entire cargo drifted out to sea, but next time we may not be so lucky. Every day, the United States imports the equivalent of more than forty Argo Merchants full of oil, much of it in outdated, marginally operated ships like the Argo Merchant itself.
- OSTI ID:
- 6457760
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
HEATING OILS
OIL SPILLS
WATER POLLUTION
TANKER SHIPS
ATLANTIC OCEAN
COASTAL REGIONS
COASTAL WATERS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FAILURES
INDUSTRY
PERSONNEL
PETROLEUM
SAFETY
USA
WATER CURRENTS
WIND
CURRENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL OILS
FUELS
NORTH AMERICA
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLLUTION
SEAS
SHIPS
SURFACE WATERS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
294002 - Energy Planning & Policy- Petroleum