SS V. A. Fogg
V.A. Fogg was a jumboized T2 tanker vessel built in Alabama, beginning January 1944, and launched as SS Four Lakes. It was renamed V.A. Fogg in 1971.
History
On February 1, 1972, the ship, commanded by captain John Edward Christy, Sr., sailed from Freeport, Texas to a point 50 miles off shore to clean its cargo tanks of remaining benzene residue, and then sail for Galveston to offload a cargo of xylene. The ship exploded during the cleaning operation, sending a column of smoke over 10,000 feet in height. A search found the ship lying in 100 feet of water in two sections. Examination revealed that the cargo section was almost totally destroyed by explosion, and the engine order telegraph still registered full ahead. There were no survivors from the crew aboard the ship. However, the chief radio officer, William A. Shaw, had left the ship for an emergency medical procedure only a few hours before the ship exploded.
The Coast Guard investigation revealed a lack of proper training by the crew in venting and cleaning benzene, which can explode if residual fumes come in contact with an electrical charge; such a charge may have come from a "red devil" blower, a device used to ventilate spaces. Witnesses had seen red devil blowers lowered into the holds by the crew in the past, and one was recovered from the wreckage, in the hold and rigged to be used.
Within a year of her sinking, the Fogg was subject to the writings of Bermuda Triangle authors, some contending that no bodies were recovered except that of the captain, who was found sitting in his cabin still holding a coffee cup. The explanations were easily refuted by official United States Coast Guard records and photographs, as well as the recovery of several bodies. Most Triangle investigators agreed with the official line, with John Wallace Spencer (author of Limbo of the Lost) being the only major investigator to claim the incident had any "paranormal" connections.[citation needed]
Currently, the wreckage of V.A. Fogg shares space with a number of sunken Liberty ships and barges in what has since been called the Freeport Liberty Ship Reef Site, an underwater park catering to scuba enthusiasts and fisherman.
External links
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- Type T2-SE-A1 tankers
- Ships built in Alabama
- 1943 ships
- World War II tankers of the United States
- Bermuda Triangle
- Maritime incidents in 1972
- Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico
