Barge No. 18 Wreck | shipwreck

Russia / Korjakija / Tilichiki /
 shipwreck, barge
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A 275-foot long steel-hulled tank barge built originally for the US Navy at Alameda, CA in 1957, this fuel oil barge was sold upon completion to private commercial owners and was quickly contracted by Northwest Orient Airlines to serve as the primary fuel supply vessel to their refueling stopover station on Shemya. So engaged in 1958 and under tow of the commercial Tugboat Wando, the barge parted its towline while being positioned for docking in a moderate swell and was driven aground fully loaded on what was at the time an exposed and rocky shoreline.

Unable to pull the fully loaded barge off the beach, the Wando stood by as the barge was unloaded to shoreside tanks and made several attempts to pull the grounded vessel free during the subsequent high tide cycles before abandoning the effort until the next lunar high tide. During this lull, the barge was damaged and holed by swells from a storm and all efforts to salvage the empty hulk were called off and Barge No.18 was abandoned.

Used as a source of scrap metal for various projects on the island during the subsequent years and battered by storm waves, the barge was declared off limits in the 1980's and has since been enveloped and partially buried by Shemya's shifting shoreline. Reviewed for salvage as part of an environmental remediation effort on Shemya in 2014, the barge was deemed non-essential for remediation and posing little threat to the environment and is likely to remain on the island for the forseeable future.

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Coordinates:   52°43'31"N   174°4'4"E

Comments

  • This a wreck of a fuel barge that went aground before I was there in 1963. Storms have washed it high up on the beach.
This article was last modified 11 years ago