DEATH OF the TANKER STOLT DAGALI
Sea Classics, Nov 2004 by Bonner, Kit

In seconds, 19 mariners were dead and half the ship was gone

RADAR, MODERN TECHNOLOGY & LOOKOUTS ARE STILL NO MATCH FOR FOG

In one of continuing mysteries of the sea, ships still ram one another, run aground or strike known navigational hazards. This phenomenon continues unabated despite huge leaps in technology which have included radar, computerized warning signals to bridge personnel of possible danger, fathometers, sonar and advance notice of seaborne traffic in almost all shipping lanes. Of course, these modern marvels are backed up by lookouts and professional mariners who know or should know the way of the sea. Yet, in spite of what should be near perfect safety at sea, the same hazards plague mariners since man first went to sea. It almost is like the wreck between two cars in a deserted parking lot - it is as if they are magnetized to one another. This was so at sea off the New Jersey coast on 26 November 1964 just after 2 a.m. The A/S Ocean Company-owned tanker Stolt Dagali was steaming through a dense fog when the ZIM Israel Line ocean liner SS Shalom sliced off the 140-ft aft section of the 583-ft nine-year-old tanker.

The collision took place just forward of the aft superstructure of the tanker, and the powerful Shalom cut the stern off like a hot knife through butter. The sheer weight of the engines of the tanker pulled the ship apart, and the aft superstructure disappeared within seconds. It settled to a depth of 130-ft down on the sandy bottom of the continental shelf. The forward 2/3rds of the tanker drifted ahead with its captain and watch Standers staring through the white fog in awe. It took just moments for them to realize that 18 fellow crewmen and a stewardess had gone to their deaths as stern of the ship plunged downward. Death was not likely prolonged as the aft 1/3rd of the ship was the site of much of the crew's sleeping quarters, and it just disappeared. There was not even a cry for help, just the magnified sound of a thousand automobiles wrecking on a freeway in the middle of the night. For those that witnessed the tragedy, the sound would never be forgotten, nor the sight of the floating but heavily listing 2/3rds of the tanker as light dawned and the fog dissipated.

Fog has always been known as the "Mariner's Curse," but no more so than on Thanksgiving Day 1964 just 18 miles off Manasquan Inlet, New Jersey. The area of the collision has been infamous and continues to be for shipping disasters - it is known as the Wreck Valley.

SS SHALOM AND PARCEL TANKER M/V STOLT DAGALI

The SS Shalom was built in France by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique Shipyard in St. Nazaire in the early 1960s, and the 25,320 gross tonnage luxury liner was delivered to the ZIM Israel Navigation Company on 1 February 1964. The new ship, which had a capacity of 1050 passengers, hoisted the Israeli flag on 5 March of the same year. The 629-ft-long Shalom was the crowning centerpiece of ZIM Israel's passenger ship division, and eventually became the flagship of the Israel' Merchant Navy. This particular division of ZIM was then a very limited four vessel mixture of second-hand vessels and recently built (i.e. 10,000-ton SS Zion) liners. The Shalom was to take the company into a whole new market and established it alongside the renowned passenger shipping lines of the world (Cunard, Moore-McCormack, and Matson Lines).

By the early 1960s, ZIM Israel had come a long way from its immediate post-World War Two days when it operated the SS Exodus bringing illegal aliens into Palestine through and around the British Naval blockade.

Even the Exodus was old, having been built in 1928 as an 1800-ton Chesapeake Bay cruise ship that sailed under the name SS President Warfield. Its service during WWII was that of a barracks ship and simply known as the IX-169. In 1947, the boarded-up ship (to withstand unprotected seas) found its way to the eastern Mediterranean and served the Israeli cause until after the establishment of the State of Israel.

The Exodus illustrated the dire straits that Israel found itself in - thousands of immigrants and no ships to bring them from embarkation points all over Europe. A separate shipping and passenger line dedicated to Israel was needed and thus the ZIM Israel Navigation Company was founded and based in Haifa in 1947. It began with a small ship and within a few years carried over 100,000 emigrants to the new land. Today it is still the ZIM Israel Navigation Company and operates 80 vessels, of which the vast majority are container or cargo ships. There are 27 ships owned outright and 53 chartered for work that has made the line a world class contender.

Unfortunately, one of its container ships was in the news on 21 February 2004. The 14,000-ton ZIM Mexico III ran over and crushed the 178-ft supply boat Lee III in the outer area of the Mississippi River, and five seamen aboard the smaller craft perished (Sea Classics V27/N6). The report by the US Coast Guard and NTSB has yet to be published as to fault finding.

The passenger line aspect of ZIM was short-lived. It lasted from 1947 through 1969 when its last vessel was sold off. Passenger travel had become unprofitable as so many lines had come to discover and ZIM was one among many that shifted to other aspects of shipping.

The SS Shalom was built during a time when passenger travel was on the wane, but still was considered to be profitable during the cruising seasons. The huge white liner was less than a year old when it collided with and cut in half the Norwegian parcel tanker (vessel capable of carrying a variety of liquids) Stolt Dagali.

As to the future of this beautiful passenger liner, it lasted a mere three years in ZIM Israel service before being sold to the German Atlantic Fleet as the SS Hanseatic, then to the Homes Lines as the SS Doric and a succession of ever smaller shipping lines. By 1998, it had been named the Royal Odyssey, Regent Sun, Sun Venture, Sun, Sun II, SS Canyon Ranch at Sea and, finally, the SS Han. It sank under tow off St Francis Cape from the Bahamas on 26 July 2001. It was on its way to the ship breakers when it mysteriously went down. Like so many of the 1950s and 1960s passenger liners, it ended up moving from one under-funded cruise line to another, and finally had to be sold or auctioned off for scrap rights.

The parcel tanker Stolt Dagali was built in Denmark at the Burmeister and Wain Shipyard for the A/S Ocean Company and registered in Oslo, Norway. The 19,150-ton vessel was specially built to carry a number of different liquids. One tank could carry vegetable oil, another coconut oil and a third peanut oil or any other liquid. The Stolt Dagali was a successful ship and on its last cruise, was sailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Newark, New Jersey, with a load of various oils and fats. The tanker carried a crew of 44, of which 19 were asleep in the aft part of the vessel which housed the engines and crews quarters. The tanker's captain and other watch-standers were in the central pilot house located in the center of the ship.

At approximately 0200 on 26 November 1964, both vessels entered an extremely dense fog bank which reduced visibility to zero. The Shalom was outbound from New York to the Caribbean and its 25,000-ship steam turbines were driving the liner along slowly now as the fog seemed to get worse. At about this time, the radar detected a vessel some 1.6-miles distant, but the lookout on the bridge had earlier been allowed to get a cup of coffee and had not returned. All that was known on both bridges was that there was imminent danger and precautions were necessary. A few minutes later, the running lights of the Stolt Dagali became visible to the staff on the Shalom's bridge, and a collision was just seconds away.

COLLISION AND SUBSEQUENT RESCUE OPERATION

The collision was quick and over as quickly. Bridge personnel aboard the Shalom became aware of the tanker when they saw the red and other running lights. An attempt was made to turn the ship to starboard but, before the big ship could clear, it struck the Stolt Dagali almost at right angles 140-ft forward from the stern of the tanker. The stern section broke off and plunged to the bottom leaving the forward 443-ft to drift forward.

As to the Shalom, its bow was cut open and crumpled at the waterline some 40-ft from the stem. The Shalom lost no passengers and there were no injuries, but the ship did have put back to port for immediate repairs. It remained on scene in the fog to signal the US Coast Guard of an SOS, and that it had struck an unknown ship. This first real record of the collision was received by the Coast Guard at 2:25 am, and a few minutes later, the captain of the Stolt Dagali sent an SOS message stating that his ship had collided with an unknown ship and was sinking.

It was not for quite a time that anyone knew what had occurred and the extent of the damage. Part of the problem was that the position provided to the rescuers was off by 20 miles and there was at first a wasted search pattern. When the USCG did get within range, magnesium flares were dropped by USCG aircraft and helicopters and this merely created an eerie sense of disaster and not a complete picture of what was facing those in the water, aboard ships and aircraft above. It was not until daylight and the dissipation of the fog that the full spectrum could be determined by seven rescue ships. The USCG aircraft could really see the extent of the problem, and helped guide assistance vessels.

The crew aboard the Stolt Dagali was picked up by a Coast Guard cutter, and the following day, 19 men in a lifeboat were plucked from the sea by specially equipped USCG rescue helicopters. The casualties from this accident totaled 18 men and one woman in the stern section of the Stolt Dagali. Both ships survived. The Shalom was quickly repaired and went to sea for ZIM for another three years.

The Stolt Dagali was a different story. The vessel had be allowed back into a harbor with repair facilities, but first it had to certified as being seaworthy - at least for the tow back. The tug Cynthia Moran was finally able to get a tow line on the stricken tanker and in company with the USCG cutter Spencer (which kept other traffic at safe distance) began the trip to New York Harbor.

At first access to the harbor was denied by the Army Corps of Engineers due the extreme draft of the ship and what was potentially being dragged below the severed hull. As a compromise, the wallowing hulk was towed to Gravesend Bay to be further assessed. Finally, the ship taken to the Hoboken Yard of Bethlehem Steel and there it was made ready for a trip back to the Baltic where it would be grafted onto the aft part of another tanker, the Norwegian 19,000-ton M/V C.T. Gogstad, which had lost its bow while being stranded ashore. The match was so good that it was within 12-in of aft to bow sections in width and not even noticeable. By summer 1965, a new tanker emerged from the ship surgeons in Sweden, the Stolt Lady. Parcel tankers were worth saving due to their cargo flexibility. As to the Shalom, it was taken to the Newport News Dry-dock and Shipyard for repairs and was back in service in January 1965.

EPILOGUE

The Stolt Lady went on to a fine career as a parcel tanker and the Shalom continued on for another 36 years going from first-class to steerage-class along the way in terms of shipping lines. In the main, fault was found with the bridge personnel aboard the Shalom for not posting a proper lookout and admitting that their radar was not operating properly. As to the Stolt Dagali, there was some intrigue over the speed the tanker was making through fog. For months, officials looked for the engine room telegraph to see its setting. Finally, authenticated photographs surfaced from a diver, and the setting was at "full speed." the Stolt Dagali was also responsible for the collision. After years of legal wrangling compensation was agree upon and the families of the drowned mariners and the stewardess were paid.

Today, the aft portion of the Stolt Dagali rests just 130-ft under the Atlantic with its highest most point just 65-ft below the surface. It is one of the most popular professional and amateur dive sites in North America.

Copyright Challenge Publications Inc. Nov 2004