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Divers locate WWII tanker sunk by Japanese
November 29, 1996
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. ESTMONTEREY, California (CNN) -- Just off the California coast, near the southern end of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, an environmental time bomb is ticking off the years.
It is the rotting steel hull of a tanker sunk in the early days of World War II with an estimated three and a half million gallons of oil in its storage tanks.
The Montebello was carrying 75,346 barrels (3.1 million gallons, 11,8 million liters) of crude oil when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine on December 23, 1941 -- just 16 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor -- and could still be carrying several million gallons of oil, marine sanctuary spokesman John Robinson said.
Three weeks ago a marine archaeologist in a research mini-sub found the tanker 900 feet down, about 6 miles off shore.
"She's now sitting, the aft eight-tenths of her, now sitting on the bottom keel like she was in dock," said Marine Archaeologist Jack Hunter.
Two days before Christmas, 1941, the tanker Montebello left Port San Luis, about 170 miles (272 km) south of San Francisco, with a load of oil. A Japanese submarine was waiting just off shore.
"The tanker began to try to outrun the sub, but it could only do about 11 knots and didn't make it," explained John Robinson of the National Marine Sanctuary. "About 20 minutes later, a torpedo hit it in the bow."
The attack made headlines on Christmas eve, 1941, but was mostly forgotten over the years.
Fishermen knew the spot because the wreck snagged lines and nets.
This year, Hunter persuaded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fund a dive.
"When she struck a combination of the damage done by the torpedo and the impact, she recoiled backwards, leaving the bow buried in the ocean sediment," Hunter said.
The tanker crew survived but the ship was one of several victims of a pack of Japanese subs that invaded American and Canadian coastal waters after Pearl Harbor.
"The Japanese sub continued on to attack more ships, including a tanker, off Monterey, which was viewed by people on cypress point," Robinson said.
The subs inflicted damage offshore and panic inland.
"Los Angeles just went full, total panic on a night in February, 1942," said Naval Historian Robert Stinnett. "The entire city was blacked out. They were firing at imaginary Japanese planes. This was the kind of panic that was caused all throughout the West Coast and even San Francisco."
The wreck has become an artificial reef rich with sea life but vulnerable to the aging tanker's cargo.
Because of the very deep water around the wreck, it would be very difficult and costly to try to salvage the ship or remove the oil, said Terry Jackson, manager of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
"We will have to evaluate the condition of the ship, the threat of a spill and what our options are," Jackson said.
The threat of a spill depends partly on what type of petroleum product the tanker was carrying. Due to the cold temperature of the sea at that depth, heavy crude oil would become very dense and flow slowly, if at all, from any hull breach.
A lighter crude, or refined product, would surface much more quickly and pose a greater threat, officials said.
Correspondent Don Knapp and Reuters contributed to this report.
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