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The
NewsRoom
Release #: 3112
Date: July 26, 2004
Mystery Barge in Alaska’s Cook Inlet
A local dredging company brought up more
than they expected recently when they unearthed portions of a towing
chain and bits of rebar and concrete from a mystery barge sunk in the
Port of Anchorage. The company is dredging part of the port as part
of an expansion project. The wreck, located about 1600 feet from the
dock, is buried under five feet of silt. No one was aware that the
wreck was there so they called the Minerals Management Service, the
federal agency responsible for identifying shipwrecks.
The Alaska Shipwreck Database maintained by MMS,
lists only one wreck, the barge “North Cape” which sank in Cook Inlet
near Anchorage on November 1, 1966. MMS is exploring that and other
theories as to the identity of the mystery vessel and is working with
local officials in the identification of the wreck. Since it is in
the way of a planned port expansion, the owners will be responsible
for removing it if title can be determined.
MMS regulates the exploration and development of
oil and gas resources on the federal outer continental shelf. The
MMS’s Alaska Region maintains an extensive shipwreck database.
The MMS shipwreck
database provides the most comprehensive compilation of Alaska
shipwrecks available. The database lists shipwrecks that have
occurred in Alaska from earliest Russian times (1741) to the present
compiled from an extensive literature search. The
electronic database is available on the Internet.
Wrecks are added to the database if the owner
reports or if there is some other record such as a newspaper story.
The information found in the database includes the date of the wreck,
vessel name, cause of wreck, the general location of wreck, and
sources of other pertinent information including links to other
shipwreck sites. The database is the culmination of a lifelong
interest in shipwrecks by MMS socioeconomic specialist Michael
Burwell.
MMS is also undertaking a comprehensive shipwreck
study in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. A team of world-renowned
scientists will venture into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico on
an
18-day research mission to investigate the long-term effect of
manmade structures on the deep sea, and conversely, the effect of the
environment on those structures. The multidisciplinary group,
overseen by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service
(MMS), will depart Port Fourchon, Louisiana on July 29 aboard the NOAA
contracted research and exploration vessel HOS Dominator.
Additional information is available on the web.
The Minerals Management Service is the federal
agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the
nation’s oil, natural gas, and other mineral resources on the Outer
Continental Shelf in Federal offshore waters. The agency also
collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral revenues from Federal
and American Indian lands. MMS disbursed more than $8 billion
in FY 2003 and more than $135 billion since the agency was created in
1982. Nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and
Water Conservation Fund annually for the acquisition and development
of state and Federal park and recreation lands.
Relevant Web Sites
MMS Main Website
Media Contacts
Robin Cacy
(907) 271-6070
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for
America
U.S. Department of the Interior |