Media Availability: Coast Guard invites media to honor crew of Munger T. Ball, a sunken WWII vessel

U.S. Coast Guard sent this bulletin at 07/09/2021 04:46 PM EDT

united states coast guard 

Media Availability  

U.S. Coast Guard 7th District Southeast
Contact: Katharine.E.Brodie@uscg.mil
7th District online newsroom

Coast Guard invites media to honor crew of Munger T. Ball, a sunken WWII vessel

Editor's Note: Media interested in covering the offshore operations and memorial should email
Katharine.E.Brodie@uscg.mil by 5 p.m., Saturday, July 10.

KEY WEST, Fla. — Coast Guard Sector Key West crews are inviting media to ride out to the Munger T. Ball WWII vessel site to honor the crew and observe operations Monday as teams work to mitigate the pollution site.

  • Who: U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West and Resolve Marine Group
  • What: A Coast Guard 45-foot response boatcrew will take the media 70 miles offshore to the site where members from Sector Key West will honor the crew who lost their lives 80 years ago and observe pollution mitigation operations of the Munger T. Ball, a sunken WWII tanker ship.
  • Where: U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West
                 100 Trumbo Rd, Key West, FL 33040
  • When: 8 a.m., Monday, July 12, 2021

The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Maritime Administration, and Resolve Marine Group members began assessing the wreck site of the believed tanker Joseph M. Cudahy, a Merchant Marine ship, transporting oil from Texas to the east coast to supply Allied ships during World War II. The ship was torpedoed and sank along with its crew in May 1942.

Over the years product aboard the ship began to seep causing oil sheens in the vicinity of the wreck site. NOAA prioritized the Cudahy to be a significant environmental threat through the Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats program. During the assessment, it was discovered the tanker Munger T. Ball had been misidentified as the Cudahy, for nearly 80 years. This discovery is significant as the response team at the wreck site meticulously mitigates the pollution threat from Munger T. Ball, careful not to disturb the final resting place of its crew.

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-USCG-