Black Gold in the Deep Blue: The Search for a Lost WWII Oil Tanker

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Between 1941-1945, 87 ships were lost off North Carolina's coast; two-thirds of these were sunk by German U-boats. This record earned the area the nickname of “Torpedo Junction”. Many of these wrecks have been found; others remain lost. This poster will examine the possibility of relocating one of these missing wrecks, the oil tanker William Rockefeller. When it was sunk, Rockefeller earned the unfortunate distinction of being the largest ship lost off the North Carolina coast. It is also one of the last WWII-era wrecks whose location remains unknown. Because of its cargo of oil, it is a potential pollution hazard, so locating it is crucial in order to plan risk mitigation strategies. This poster seeks to establish promising areas in which to search for the wreck through historical research and probability modeling. If successful, this methodology may potentially be used to create search models for other lost shipwrecks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2022 SHA Poster Submissions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology