Randy,

The workhorse oil tankers of World War II, the T-2 and T-3, had a deadweight 
of 16,000 and 18,000 tons respectively.  At 6.6 bbl./ton (from an API 
source) x 42 gal./bbl. x 17000 tons = 4.7 million gal. per tanker 
approximate average.  (That's 7.2 lb./gal which seems about right for 
little-refined oil.)  As to how many tankers were sunk in the proximity of 
Virginia Beach during the first six months of 1942 your guess is probably 
better than mine, but to equal the Exxon Valdez disaster of 11 million gal. 
= 2.3 tankers.  (The Exxon Valdez 'only' lost roughly 20% of its total 
cargo.)

Whoops, just found this one from a Google:

http://www.usmm.org/eastgulf.html#anchor473040

http://www.usmm.org/shipsunkdamaged.html

Now, determine or make an assumption as to how many of these east-coast 
tanker sinkings occurred in the proximity of Virginia Beach and you have a 
rough comparison with the Exxon Valdez loss.  Maybe another assumption 
should be made as to whether all tankers lost their complete load of oil 
when sunk, and how much washed ashore, as I read that hundreds of sunken 
tankers from WWII still lay on the ocean floors, *with tanks still intact* 
and subject to leakeage during movement from storms -- a major 65 to 70 
year-old cleanup problem:

http://ww2chat.com/showthread.php?1209-Oil-tankers-sunk-Pacific-ww2

And maybe the tanker tonnage rating first above is for long or metric tons, 
I didn't check.  I also read later that the T-2 was the major tanker used by 
far during WWII at 16,400 tons net rating (when full.)

As to how and when the Virginia beaches were cleaned, following is a list of 
possible book sources that I didn't read:  (Local newspapers are likely 
better sources.)

http://books.google.com/books?q=tanker+oil+spills+during+%22world+War+II%22+Virginia+Beach&btnG=Search+Books

Hope this helps a little, and let's hope that a 'fix' is soon found for the 
Gulf's 'continuing' oilwell-discharge problem of yet unknown proportion.

Neil McDonald

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Smith at dhova" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 8:27 AM
Subject: [VA-HIST] Oil spills on Virginia Shore during WWII


I certainly do not want to minimize the disaster in the gulf, with all the 
oil washing ashore.  But I would like to get a better understanding of just 
how much it is.  e.g. the other night, I understood the announcer to say it 
was much less than the Exon Valdez.

But more to the Virginia point,  I recall as a little tyke living at 
Virginia Beach during WWII, and having a tremendous amount of oil wash 
ashore from tankers sunk offshore by German U-Boats.  It was thick and 
coated everything.  Seagulls and other marine birds really took a hit.  Is 
there any tabulation of how much oil was in tankers sunk just off the VA and 
NC shore between Jan and June 1942?  How much reached shores? And how it was 
cleaned up?

Randy Cabell

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