Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== VESSEL NAME: Argo OTHER NAME(s): - OFFICIAL NO: 164617 DATE OF LOSS: 20 October 1937 CAUSE OF LOSS: Storm LOCATION: Lake Erie, 12 mi. northeast of Sandusky, off Pelee Is. RIG TYPE: Tanker-barge HULL TYPE: Steel BUILDER: at Baltimore, MD - 1911 OWNER(S): Independent Lighterage Co., N.Y.C. W. J. Townsend, Bayonne, N.J. MASTER: - TONNAGE: 421 gt DIMENSIONS: 120 x 34 x 12 CASUALTIES: 0 Bound Sault Ste. Marie for New York in tow of the tug SYOSSET when a gale overtook the pair. Her deck was only about 30 inches above the water when heavy seas knocked her over on her side before she sunk. The only two crewmen aboard climbed to the side and waited to be rescued. Her cargo consisted of 4,762 barrels, one half benzol and one half crude oil. The following year penalties were assessed against her owners as she was transporting over 100,000 barrels of oil across the lakes when she was only certified for coast service and also charged that she violated the load line limit. In 2010 a risk assessment report issued by NOAA ranked the ARGO as the most dangerous environmental threat posed by a shipwreck in the Great Lakes should her hull fail and release her cargo into the waters of Lake Erie. At that time the exact location of the ARGO was unknown. Her wreckage was discovered in August, 2013, during a sonar exploration conducted by Cleveland Underwater Explorers while searching for another shipwreck. In December, 2015, the ARGO's toxic cargo was pumped out of her eight tanks and transferred to a disposal facility at a cost of nearly $5.3 million. ======================================================================== Sources: Sandusky Register, 26 October 2015 NOAA - Screening Level Risk Assessment Package, March, 2013 Merchant Vessel List - 1935, 1938 (losses) Ludington Daily News, 10 February 1938 Swayze, David D. "SHIPWRECK!" - 1992 Port Clinton News Herald, 23 December 2015