Resolve Marine led a coordinated multi-agency* assessment and fuel removal from the Munger T. Ball, 70 nautical miles off the coast of Key West, Florida. The vessel, originally misidentified as the Joseph M. Cudahy, was an American steam tanker, torpedoed and machine gunned by a German U-boat, and sunk on May 4, 1942, killing 30 crewmembers. The cargo tanks were believed to be a significant environmental threat: over the years, light oil sheens have been reported in the vicinity.
Over the course of 40 days, and working with marine archeologists, divers, work class ROV, filtration and heating technicians and the expertise of Resolve Marine’s naval architects, subsea cargo extraction efforts safely removed ~35,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil, taking precautions not to disturb the final resting place of crewmembers. The operation took place during the global pandemic which created additional operational and logistical challenges.
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